Just Ask Matt - Answers

Do Link Exchanges Still Work?

QUESTION: (Gerald) I have a number of people asking me to exchange links. I have read that this is good, but can’t find anywhere how to do it. Any suggestions, or is there an article you have that would help me. Appreciate it.

Good question, Gerald, because we really don’t hear as much about link exchanges as we did in the past.  I think the big reason for it is it’s effectiveness (or lack thereof).  Search engine spiders are much smarter than they were 2 or 3 years agos.  And most will recognize a “link exchange” rather easily.

For those who don’t know what a link exchange is, it is when you approach another website (usually with similar content to yours) and ask them to place a nice, keyword-rich anchor text link back to your website.  In exchange, you will do the same for them.  Remember that an important part of SEO is backlinks (i.e., receiving links from other websites pointing back to you).  A few years ago, a lot of this “linking power” was represented by a Page Rank.  Getting high Page Rank websites to point back to you effectively will increase your own page rank.

Personally, I think Page Rank is a bit of a farce these days (at least the public one).  I do think the major search engines (like Google) have there own ranking system based on popularity, but it would not be public.  Still, getting links from “authority sites” with relevance (to your niche) is always key. 

Now getting back to the question…I think link exchanges (or “reciprocal linking”) is really not going to help or hurt you.  Any backlink (in most cases) usually will help you.  But if there is a reciprocal link, the spiders will usually recognize this and probably not give you proper popularity for it. 

Again, like everything SEO, this is speculation, but I know there has been a lot of abuse of link exchanges over the years (like link farms, paid text links, etc.) to draw a lot of attention to it.  I used to do it quite a bit.  I don’t really do it any more (unless I am quite friendly with the website and we exchange primarily for the traffic, not the SEO).  I think your efforts would be better suited to article writing/submission, press releases, even directory submissions. 

You can also consider n-way link exchanges.  For a 3-way link exchange example: Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and Site C links to Site A.  You can do this rather deeply, too.  But still, the search engine spiders are smart and may start recognizing the linking footprints.  The larger the “n”, the better off you are…but of course, this is a hell of a lot more work and requires some skillful coordination.

Personally, I have become somewhat of an a-hole about link exchange requests.  I don’t get as many as I used to, but when I do I usually ignore them. 

cheers…matt

P.S. If you want to know more about Getting Backlinks, check out SEOExciter.com.  (There are 10 free videos over there that shows you how!)

More Questions & Answers...
GOT A QUESTION?

Who is Behind Marketing Mind?

Matthew BredelMy name is Matthew Bredel and as of March, 2007, I am a full-time, work-at-home internet marketer. For close to 10 years, I worked for a defense company which was an OK job, but I was so uninspired in life and frankly, I needed some more money. That is when I first discovered internet marketing! Now I admit that I didn't start making thousands in my first couple of months (in fact, I lost my shirt!), but I finally saw the "internet light"...

Read More about Matthew Bredel
GURU STUFF
Interviews, Guest Posts & More

Exposing the FTC Regulations on Endorsements and Testimonials

Over the past month, I have felt a lot of rumblings throughout the internet due to the lasted FTC rulings on Testimonials and Endorsements. This IS going to change the way we market online, but who really understands this? Here, I sit down with expert internet law attorney Linda Goodman (from TheGoodmanLawFirm.com) to help me understand the fate of my own websites and its affect on this internet marketing world.

Read Full Post >


GEEK CORNER
HTML, PHP, MySQL
& Other Geeky Stuff

Htaccess & Other URL Redirect Methods

(Sonya) I came to this site by clicking on a “learn more” link that redirects to this page - what I want to know, although be it very basic, is how do I get a link to look like that? For example this web page url is http://www.matthewbredel.com/just-ask-matt, however I just clicked on something that said “learn more”. I want to know how I can title my links whatever I want with hidden url links in the exact same way you have!

Read Full Post >


Exposing the FTC Regulations on Endorsements and Testimonials

October 22nd, 2009 . by Matthew Bredel . Tweet This!
Share This Post...

Over the past month, I have felt a lot of rumblings throughout the internet due to the lasted FTC rulings on Testimonials and Endorsements. This IS going to change the way we market online, but who really understands this? Here, I sit down with expert internet law attorney Linda Goodman (from TheGoodmanLawFirm.com) to help me understand the fate of my own websites and its affect on this internet marketing world.

ftc2EXCLUSIVE ONE-HOUR PODCAST
(Select the arrow below to listen now!)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(Download the MP3 Here)

Is this the end of affiliate marketing and the internet as we know it?

Ever since the FTC announced their new regulations concerning endorsements and testimonials on the internet, we have seen major chaos erupting throughout the internet marketing world.

  • Can you still sell online?
  • Can you use testimonials?
  • Can you still make a profit from blogs?
  • Are review sites legal?
  • Is affiliate marketing dead?
  • Are these new FTC laws going to protect or hurt the online consumer?
  • Is this the beginning of more government regulations on the internet?

So many questions, and frankly, I personally can’t answer these…

Luckily, renowned and well-respected internet law attorney Linda Goodman from TheGoodmanLawFirm.com sat down with me for over an hour to explain what these new FTC rulings on endorsements and testimonials mean not only for my own business, but the state of internet marketing, in general.

She left no holds barred and answered everything I could dish at her…and some of it was a bit troubling!

But let me tell you:  These new FTC regulations are not the end to online business success!  You just need to be educated on what is happening, though.

This one-hour podcast will explain to you what is going on with the FTC and the internet, who it is going to affect the most, and what you can do to protect your current websites (or any new website you plan to create).

By the way, Linda Goodman WAY over-delivered in the information that she provided in this interview.  Don’t take this information for granted!  Thanks for your time, Linda, and allowing me to share this with my clients!

cheers…matt

P.S. I welcome your questions and comments about this topic and the interview below!

EXCLUSIVE ONE-HOUR PODCAST
(Select the arrow below to listen now!)

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

(Download the MP3 Here)

Don't Buy Another Money Making Product Until You Watch These FREE Videos!

First Name:
Email:

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Favorite Tools, Feature, Guru Interview, Guru Stuff, Social Marketing, Video Blog |
Tagged With:   • • • • • • •

6 Responses to “Exposing the FTC Regulations on Endorsements and Testimonials”

  1. Thanks for doing this recording. The more our government intrudes on our privacy the more irritated I become! It is too bad when a few bad apples can cause all these problems for those of us who are trying to stay on top of things and do things right.
    My personal opinion is that this is a takeover of the internet by this administration just like he did the car industry, banking, credit cards….

    Posted by: Paul-eugene Miller
    October 22nd, 2009 at 4:13 pm

  2. It is funny that you bring up politics in your comment, Paul, since I see that Senator John McCain is now stepping into the arena, too:

    http://mashable.com/2009/10/22/john-mccain-wants-to-block-fccs-net-neutrality-rules/

    I agree that the more the government starts to control the internet, the more freedom we will lose. As we discuss in the podcast, this is an industry that needs to clean itself up in order for it to move forward! cheers…matt

    Posted by: Matthew Bredel
    October 23rd, 2009 at 7:08 am

  3. When people take advantage of people through bad practices than what else can you expect but regulations. As marketers we need to be sensible and not spoil the market place we work on otherwise we will get regulated that only a few will be able afford working.

    Posted by: Gerald Jimenez
    October 26th, 2009 at 1:32 am

  4. [...] for us we are members of Tru-Guru and as a consequence we subscribed to Matthew Bredel blog site “inside the marketing mind“.  Anyway, Matt undertook an interview with a [...]

    Posted by: Affiliate Marketing Changes A Foot! | Work Online Money
    November 10th, 2009 at 2:53 am

  5. Hi Matt this is Kenneth Young and I just finished listening to your MP3 that was in the November post Exposing the FTC Regulations on Endorsements and Testimonials.

    I think that it is very unfair The Last Man Standing(The Affiliate) will be the one who is going to be holding the bag as for example lets say I am an affiliate who is promoting a program were the author of the affiliate program is overseas and we all know at this time the FTC does not have any power at bringing these crooks down so how in ….. can the affiliate find out if this program is legal or is not.

    We here so much about were we affiliates have to check these companies out well how can I do this when the FTC cannot do it. As far as checking out companies that have products for us affiliates here in Canada or the United States do you think that they will give a complete and honest history on their company. The only way that will happen is if the little guy (Us Affiliates) will hire lawyers to this and you know what this is going to cost.

    I have put off getting seriously involved in any affiliate programs and it is beginning to look like I made the safest move for me. I am sticking to writing blogs on a general nature and I am looking at some programs out there but have not made a move yet.

    In my opinion were there is so much confusion on the FTC rulings that there will be a mass of businesses leaving the internet and very few beginners taking the chance of starting an online business because of the fear of making a mistake and having the feds wrongly shut them down. Hope I am wrong on this.

    I guess I am afraid,

    Kenneth C Young

    Posted by: Kenneth Young
    February 20th, 2010 at 7:34 am

  6. Hey Kenneth,

    I thought your points were good…so much so, I wrote a post about it today:

    http://www.matthewbredel.com/1224/are-affiliates-getting-screwed.html

    cheers…matt

    Posted by: Matthew Bredel
    February 22nd, 2010 at 7:49 am

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>