Linkbuilding with AMA - is it enough?

08 Dec 09 8:59 pm

Hey C,

Short answer: submit to lots of article directories too

Long answer:

AMA is great, but you have to take it with a grain of salt.

You know people are stealing your articles and taking your links out, so you have to account for that. That's against the rules, but there's nothing to stop people from doing that.

If AMA says the article has been published 30 times, you cannot expect 30 articles out there linking back to you.

Also, some of the sites publishing your articles won't be indexed by Goog, so you may not get the backlink showing up there.

Despite all that, I still use AMA as PART of my link building arsenal. Even though you're getting low PR links, you're getting varying anchor text, and links from lots of different IPs. That's good enough to keep me onboard.

09 Dec 09 2:25 am

Hi Cf,
AMA should only be a PART of your overall link building strategy in my opinion.
You need to provide a link back to your niche site and yes the blogs that pick up your articles are suppose to leave the attribution link in. However maybe 10% do not, in my opinion.
You can always check this with copyscape or by entering a part of the spun articles with a few variations/spins into Google search.

Regards
Troy

09 Dec 09 3:55 am

Hey Devin - how do you outsource that? It can be mind-numbing I agree.

Do you get an author to spin them to you in a word document, and then copy and paste them into AMA? Or what is your method?

Thanks for your insight everyone.

09 Dec 09 5:52 am

Cf,

It is good to have AMA in your link building structure, but you should never depend on it as the only thing you need to get your site ranking in the SEs. Yes, there are a lot of webmasters wanting free content which you provide by posting your spinnable articles in AMA and there is no one to stop these webmasters from removing your links in the article or just simply replacing them with their own links. However, I do believe that the main reason why backlinks are not counted towards your site is because google did not index or has not indexed the article/post.

One of the good things about AMA is that your post is getting published continuously and this is the way you should do your SEO campaign maintenance. I think the blogs in its network have different C class IPs.

The way I use AMA is not really for my money site. Yes I do link to my money site in some of the articles I submit in AMA. However, what I use AMA mainly for is to build backlinks to my feeder sites/articles. Say I did the Mr K backlink strategy. I will get the URL of those articles and those URLs are the ones I will include in the articles I submit in AMA. This way, I am promoting my promotions. When those articles gain authority, the backlink to my main site will have more value.

Post as many unique articles as you can in different web2.0 properties and then promote those articles as well. Link as randomly as possible but never do reciprocal linking.



Regards,
Renato

09 Dec 09 11:28 pm

Hey Craig,

Your writer can either spin it in a Word doc: {sentence version 1~sentence version 2}

OR

You can create another user in AMA and just have them log in and take care of it within AMA.

The second is "more outsourced" so I like it better.

If you're training someone how to use AMA, you can have them learn it by studying the AMA site, or create a how-to video yourself. If you opt for the latter I recommend you use Jing (www.JingProject.com). It's free and awesome :-)

Something I try to keep in mind is that I'm the *owner* of the business, and I only have a few hours a day and a limited amount of patience. In my opinion, the more stuff I can outsource the better.

I personally run out of time very quickly, so outsourcing is a huge lever for me and lots of folks here.

Good luck!

-Devin

10 Dec 09 1:44 am

P.S. I forgot to say I also have an account with textlinkbrokers and they do alot of linking for me every month. And, I buy links on ebay and get high PR links and linkwheels from linkwheel.net. I have also registered 6-domains on a certain niche and am in the process of cross linking those pages together, getting them indexed in google with high PR bloglinks, and pointing them all to my money site. I avoid PPC like the plauge.

So, I guess I do alot of linkbuilding.....

10 Dec 09 4:16 am

Hi guys,

Ok, I’ve been doing some thinking about this. I am fortunately in a position to outsource much of this. Some of it I want to “hang onto” because it is strategic – and quite frankly I enjoy it. Some of it however I want to outsource.

Here is a high level game plan I thought through. I think I have 1 to 4 taken care of pretty good. It’s the off-page stuff I want your advice on. Getting the content created is easy enough, but have you found resources that can both create good content – and are willing to use AMA (or a tool like it) and then post articles to eZine’s?

I just want to know what my expectations should be before I go “shopping”.

My Game Plan for Website Creation and Marketing:

1. Niche research - Me
2. Keyword Research - Me
3. Content Creation – Outsourced (Elance)
4. On Page SEO – Me

5. Off Page SEO
a. Article Marketing Automation Content – Outsourced (Elance)
b. Article Marketing Automation Tool – Outsourced (Elance? Philippines?)
c. eZine Submissions
i. Spin an AMA article and submit – Me? Outsource?

For those of you who outsource #5, I am curious as to how you “go to market’ for these services – and what your criteria is when you put together the job description.

Thanks again!

I am learning a tonne in here!

10 Dec 09 7:04 pm

Hi guys,

OK, I am going to outsource components of a linking strategy. Take a look at the job description I have created. Please let me know if I am missing anything. Also, your feedback on where I should post it. So far, I was thinking:
Craigslist
Kijiji
eLance
GetaFreelancer

Here is the description cut and pasted. I apologize that it will lose all of it's formatting when I paste it. I will try to make it as legible as I can.....

JOB DESCRIPTION

I am looking for someone who can put together a strong, ongoing linking strategy for my website(s).

The strategy aims to leverage the following:

i. Spinning Articles with Article Marketing Automation (AMA)
ii. Submission to Article Directories
iii. Setting up a Web 2.0 chain of blogs, Squidoo Lenses, HubPages, etc. to take advantage of RSS Feeds.

This working relationship between you and I will be rolled out in 3 stages:
1. Set up
2. Initial Test Run
3. On-going Operations

A. Set Up

My Responsibilities – Set Up

1. Make sure the requirements are clearly communicated and well understood by you.
2. Provide you with 4 articles, associated links and tags to create the Web 2.0 chain explained in section 2 (Initial Test Run).

Your Responsibilities – Set Up

1. Using the 4 articles I will provide, set up a Web 2.0 chain using any four of the following websites which leverage RSS Feeds:
a. hubpages.com
b. squidoo.com
c. tumblr.com
d. blogger.com
e. xanga.com
f. yahoo360.com
g. zimbio.com
h. feedbite.com
i. bumpzee.com
j. any other Web 2.0 account you may be familiar with, that allows you to leverage RSS feeds for content

Each Web 2.0 page will be linked to the next, creating a chain reaction enabled by the RSS feeds. When the first page in the chain is updated, the RSS feed sends the content to the next, and the next and the next. (Example: Hubpages RSS feed points to Squidoo lens, Squidoo RSS feed points to tumblr page, tumblr RSS feed points to feedbite, and so on).

IMPORTANT: It is critical that the RSS feed displays the entire article, including all of the embedded links in the article, when it shows on the “next page” in the chain. Otherwise it renders the chain "useless".


2. Set up an account at the following Article Directories
a. eZineArticles
b. Article City
c. Article Dashboard
d. Article Alley
e. Articles Base

3. Log into the “guest author” AMA account I have created and get familiar with the workings of the application and how to create and spin articles within the AMA website (http://www.articlemarketingautomation.com/). I will provide the username and password to the successful candidate.

B. Test Run

My Responsibilities – Test Run

1. Provide you with a 2 Keywords of which two 400 word articles are to be written in AMA.
2. Provide you with the links of which each of the articles will link to.
3. Proof-read articles and publish in AMA

Your Responsibilities – Test Run

1. Create one 400 word article for each keyword in AMA
a. Embed the provided links using HTML into the text of the article. Up to 3 per article.
2. Once the article has been published, go back into AMA and “spin” the article once.
a. Post that article into each of the article directories listed above with the appropriate links and additional keyword tags (if allowed)
i. eZineArticles
ii. Article City
iii. Article Dashboard
iv. Article Alley
v. Articles Base

3. Spin the article a second time and add it to the “first Web 2.0” page you created in your Web 2.0 Chain of RSS feeds. Include embedded HTML links and keyword tags.


C. Ongoing Operations

My Responsibilities – Ongoing Operations

1. Provide you with 2 keywords per week, the associated links and related keyword tags.
2. Proof read and publish the articles in AMA

Your Responsibilities – Ongoing Operations

1. Create one 400 word article for each keyword in AMA
a. Embed the provided links using HTML into the text of the article. Up to 3 per article.
2. Once the article has been published, go back into AMA and “spin” the article once.
a. Post that article into each of the article directories listed above with the appropriate links and additional keyword tags (if allowed)
i. eZineArticles
ii. Article City
iii. Article Dashboard
iv. Article Alley
v. Articles Base

3. Spin the article a second time and add it to the “first Web 2.0” page you created in your chain of RSS feeds. Include identified links and keyword tags.

I am open to a fixed bid or hourly price.

If you are bidding hourly, please estimate the number of hours required so I understand what my up-front costs would be. Also, identify how many hours per week you would need once into “operations”.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Craig.....


There it is guys. As always, your feedback is appreciated.

Craig

04 Jan 10 10:15 pm

Help with RSS feeds ...
I have done the loop with several blog pages pulling in the RSS feed from another blog. Even though I have clearly selected "show whole article"
it only shows the title and a couple of rows of text from the article.
Does that make this strategy useless or not worthwhile if the whole article does not show on the blog that pulls in the RSS feed?
Patrick

04 Jan 10 11:58 pm

Upperone,
Welcome to Affilorama.
Are you using Firefox? and have you tried IE?

Troy

06 Jan 10 12:00 am

So, what browser are you using?

06 Jan 10 9:55 am

If you are going to outsource your squidoo lenses make sure you have the rights to them. I've had a few just take off and make me some extra cash with ad profit sharing.

Also if your using AMA don't forget to use your spun articles at Free Traffic System (link in sig). Extra back links for something your already doing never hurt.