Linkbait, Social Networking, and Hardcore SEO - Forum Etiquette
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Martinez's sixteenth tip speaks to the points of avoiding self-promotion and looking like a professional. He encourages his readers to "Create a forum signature that does not promote your Web site. Put it in every forum profile you have created." You don't want forum members laughing at you like you're some kind of idiot who doesn't know what forums are really for (hint: it isn't explicit self-promotion). Creating this signature will also teach you how to write concise yet compelling content. That's a skill that will serve you well in other areas, too.
Martinez doesn't let up as far as making you learn how to interact in social media without being self-promotional, however. For his tenth tip, he wants his readers to "Find 5 low-traffic blogs or forums that are consistently active and support them through comments, links, and referrals WITHOUT being self-promotional." Yes, it's another chance to be both authentic and professional online, but there's a lot more to learn from this experience.
One of the tips you'll often see when it comes to creating a web site is the idea of building a user community. User forums provide user-generated content, fresh and lovely for the search engines. But how do you build a good user community? That's what this tip is all about; if you practice it, you'll learn how it happens. Specifically, "It teaches you just how hard it is to build a good community, and maybe you'll appreciate what 'good community' really means before you act [foolish] in an SEO forum or blog and flame someone else for disagreeing with you," explains Martinez.
One hallmark of a good community is that its members provide useful resources for each other, which brings me to my favorite hardcore tip from Martinez: "Create a 1-page listing of 20 UNKNOWN Web sites you wish you had created. Post that page on your site." You should do it because you'll now have a unique resource. You may think visitors won't be interested in such a list, but you'd be wrong; as Martinez explains, "people are actually more interested in your opinion of OTHER people's Web sites than your opinion of your own Web sites."
Incidentally, the rest of Martinez's explanation for practicing this tip illustrates why you shouldn't spend too much of your time in online communities: "Because if you haven't found 20 sites you wish you had created that no one else has talked about in your regular Web communities, you need to spend less time with your buds and more time with the rest of the Web." The way to find original ideas is to go looking for them; much of the Internet may be schlock, but there are plenty of gems waiting to inspire you.
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