My mom flung open the door of my room, obviously upset. It was dark, and I was already in bed, but I could see her silhouette standing in my doorway. Even in my teens, I was very perceptive, and I could hear that the panic in her voice was directed at me, as if I had done something terribly wrong. Her voice trembled, and she choked back tears as she told me, “The washing machine is broken.”

Earlier in the day, I had run a load of clothes through the washing machine, and the lint separator at the end of the hose got sucked into the motor, which caused it to overheat. It was my fault. The total damage: $50.

I don’t think it was the amount that made my mom tremble and quiver – in fact, I remember being very surprised at how upset she was about the amount. Even my minimum wage job at Dunkin Donuts could cover the expense of the washing machine repair.

No, I think it was the frustration of having yet another unexpected bill that put my family over budget for the month. We lived meagerly: we hardly ever went out to dinner, I wore cheap and out of style clothing, and we were on the “reduced lunch” program at my public high school (that’s a subsidized school lunch program for poor kids).

Things weren’t always so bad until my parents divorced – somehow the separation left both of my parents almost penniless, and each blamed the other for ruining their financial situation, while in the process attempting to win me over to their respective “cause.” From then on, it was slim pickens in my family.

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This is my cleverly disguised affiliate link for Ryan Deiss’s Perpetual Traffic Formula. Click here to see the Q&A that he put on to reveal the details of how this product will change your business.

Perpetual Traffic Formula launches tomorrow, Wednesday, July 28th, at 3 PM ET. If you haven’t been following the launch (that is, the free stuff that is given away during the madness), here’s what you’ve missed:

1) Free report that explains the changes that Google has been making. (Hint: links are becoming less important, while activity is becoming MORE important.) Grab the free report here.

2) Cherry Picker Software – this will help you find “bum marketing” keywords with the click of a mouse so that you can get in front of instant traffic. (No opt-in required for this one.)

3) Google Authority Codes – these are the same codes that I use to find highly relevant .edu and .gov links, which will supercharge your link building campaigns.

As you know, I’m an affiliate for this launch, so I’m going to make a couple of bucks. That money will be used to fund a road trip, in which I hope to MEET YOU.

That’s because I’m giving away two super awesome bonuses for those who buy Perpetual Traffic Formula through my affiliate link.

Bonus #1: You’re going to get free access to my new affiliate marketing product, The Affiliate God, which will be taught in a classroom format. If you’ve followed me for any length at all, you know that affiliate marketing is my crown jewel online, and TAG has been in the works for YEARS. You’ll be blown away by the new format – I’ve considered charging as much as $197/month for this product, but those who grab PTF through my affiliate link will get it for free.

Bonus #2: Hopefully, we’ll get to meet in person. This can come in one of two ways: first, we can meet if you live in one of the cities on my road trip (to be determined). And second, if you happen to attend any of Ryan Deiss’s events this year, I will be there, and we’ll grab lunch there. Heck, maybe we’ll even tear up the town and cause a scene together.

That’s my shameless plug for Perpetual Traffic Formula, and the bonuses that I’ll be giving away in the process. This has been a tough year in terms of my personal life, and meeting you will make my year better!

I appreciate you,

Ryan

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As part of my linking strategy, which includes article writing, social profile links, and some text link ads, I recommend a heavy emphasis on authority links from .edu and .gov links.

Google sees links on .edu and .gov links as authoritative – even though they’re almost always free to get. Getting “authority links” is one of the challenges in search engine optimization, and most people resort to buying them. Truth is, all it takes is punching a few search codes into Google to find sites that allow you to put a link there.

Here are three of the ways that I get links from .gov and .edu sites (tip: they are usually the same types of links that I’d get elsewhere, they just *happen* to be really, really authoritative):

1) Social profile links

A lot of government and education websites will use social networking applications on their own websites, and they leave them open to public access. That means you can create a profile on a government or education website and link back to your stuff (using your anchor text) on the social profile. Do that a bam! you’ve got a link from a government site. Use these search codes government links that allow links.

2) Blog comments

Similar to the social profile links, education and government websites often allow their employees or their students to have blogs. When you comment on these blogs, use your keyword in the “name” field and your website as the URL, and you’ll have a comment link back to your site on a .edu or .gov link.

Some .edu and .gov blogs will require you to have an account with them first. In some cases, you can get a double-whammy here, because you can create an account with the site (and include a link on your profile) AND now post comments to all the blogs on the site. Score! See this walkthrough of how to put comments on .edu and .gov sites.

This concept also works with news reports. If an authority site releases a new report, you can often comment on it and leave a link back to your stuff. These are often “no-follow” links, but that largely does not matter.

3) Forum links

Especially in countries outside the United States, governments use forums among their employees and to facilitate discussions. These forums are often wide open because they are on public scripts, so you can walk in and start commenting on the topic. Just include a link in your signature (or a link in your forum profile – or BOTH) to get the link juice from the .gov or .edu backlink.

You’ll notice that these linking strategies aren’t much different than traditional backlinks – the difference is the authority of the sites that the links are on. Some will argue that one high authority backlinks is worth as much as hundreds of low quality backlinks.

Few people, however, dig deep enough to find these free backlinks from .edu and .gov sources, but a few search strings will bring back more than enough for you to dominate the first page of Google.

See ya on the first page!

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »