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Winner of a SEMMY!

Wiep — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:15:36 +0000

I know it’s a little bit late, but a few days ago, the winners of the SEMMYs were announced. One of my posts was nominated in the link building category. To my big surprise, my post with 69 link building techniques managed to beat Adam Audette’s link building fundamentals and Jeff Quipp’s list of 75+ link building techniques in the finals and won the SEMMY!

A big thanks to all who voted and to everybody who contributed to the SEMMYs in any other way. Congratulations to all other winners, who probably all feel just as honored as I do.

This post, Winner of a SEMMY!, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Nominated for a SEMMY

Nominated for a SEMMY

Wiep — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 06:21:02 +0000

Just like last year, Matt McGee organized the SEMMYs, an “annual awards event honoring the great content produced across the search and online marketing industry”. A selection of 25 well-known judges have made a selection of 3 to 6 awesome posts from 2008 in 17 different categories. One of these categories happens to be a Link Building category, and my post with 69 link building strategies was selected by Aaron Wall and Tamar Weinberg (the category judges) as one of the finalists. Thanks, guys :)

I’m really honored that one of my posts is listed amongst exceptional articles, such as Rae Hoffman’s link building expert interviews and Adam Audette’s link building fundamentals (which both were in my top 3 of last year). You can vote for your favorite link building post of the year right here.

This post, Nominated for a SEMMY, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Rounding Up the Recaps

Wiep.net Redesign

Wiep — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:32:05 +0000

When I started this blog little over a year ago, I set only little expectations. No specific targets but having fun writing about SEO and link building and improving my (English) writing skills. Although my writing skills remain far from perfect (I’d give myself a “that’ll do”), they certainly have improved and I’m still having fun maintaining this blog.

Recently, when I evaluated my first year of blogging, I decided to set some additional goals. The first of these goals has been accomplished today; being able to publish dark text on a light background.
Although the current design looked pretty nice (at least to me) a year ago, the readability kept bugging me more and more over time, as a dark background is even considered to be a usability sin.

The design still isn’t completely finished yet, but considering the former readability and the little amount of time that I have on my hands right now, I decided to push it a little bit. I will keep on tweaking it though, reading tips from guys like WordPress Joost and Richard Baxter really helped a lot and they will keep providing a lot of future work.

So, what do you think? Is the new one design better than the old one?

This post, Wiep.net Redesign, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Using Spam in Your Advantage

Wiep — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 13:42:52 +0000

Most people see spam as nothing but annoying. However, like I’ve mentioned before, there are lots of things you can use spam for. You’ll receive spam no matter what you do, so why not use it in your advantage?

You’ve probably received the CNN Daily Top 10 email just as often as I did. Lots of people received this email and it raised a lot of questions and discussion. People that have questions usually use Google to find an answer to their questions. Now combine this with Patrick Altoft’s nifty strategy, a domain name like www.CNNDailyTop10.com (still available…) and I’m sure you can come up with something.

This is nothing long term, of course, but it shows that spam is not completely worthless and annoying…

This post, Using Spam in Your Advantage, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

The Don’t-Push-It Penalty

Wiep — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:40:29 +0000

When I was playing around with my (referer) statistics a bit, I noticed that something strange was going on. After a little bit of digging, I noticed some new sort of penalty or filter. It’s not a minus 950 penalty or something like that, but more like a Till-Here-And-No-Further penalty.

Earlier this year, Wiep.net received a PageRank penalty because of a few sponsored links (not sponsoring me, though) in the footer. In that post, I said that

Some have suggested to nofollow or remove the links in the footer and to do a reinclusion request, but I’ve decided not to. In stead, I’ll do exactly what I said I will do my footer; I’ll leave the links up (which is mandatory when you use the template) until I have a new design.

Apparently, Google didn’t like this. All posts that were published before this date (including the PR penalty post) show up in Google without a problem. Every post that got published after I said that I won’t live by all rules that Google sets, however, don’t. Pages still get cached and indexed, but they just don’t show up anymore. No signal in the Google Webmaster console, btw.

So, Matt, after the #6 penalty, the -950 penalty, and other penalties, is this the Silence! penalty?

This post, The Don’t-Push-It Penalty, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Writing Killer Headlines: Top 30 Viagra SPAM Email Subject Lines

Wiep — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:50:58 +0000

Are your ad pitches a bit outdated? Can’t think of a new angle to describe the product you’re selling? Then learn from the pros! Take a look at what kind of one-liners and which selling techniques are being used by marketers, who harass millions of people every single day with their commercial messages, and who even try to lure women into taking a look at their, to penis enlargement pills dedicated, websites.

This is a selection of the 30 most creative (or weird) email subject lines used by Viagra spammers (well, at least in my inbox).

Try to sell by using fear:

- A man with a small penis is not a 100% man.

- All jokes aside, yeah you do got a tiny cock!

- Will she wait or has she found a bigger dick already?

- If you can cover your penis with your thumb…

- She might stay with you if your dick gets bigger.

Try to sell by using envy or desire:

- The reflection of your size will stay forever in her eyes.

- Bigger pen!s gives you a bunch of benefits!

- The most defiant fillies will strive for riding your new big Italian stallion.

- I have girls that ring me for sex now, its amazing!

- A big penis after a small one feels like the sun after rain.

- Make an elephant out of your ant.

- Never be limp again, make your cock rock solid!

Try to sell by using confusing language

- May i ask why you’re so unhappy with your d!c’k?

- Specify How Much You Want Your p3N!ss to Grow

- Your new s’e_xual world is waiting for its leader.

Try to sell by using other techniques

- Well done; you’ve just found the best kept secret to enlarge your penis!

- Yes it gets big, yes it gets strong, yes you can do it.

- Go to the disco and let your love stick glow!

- A real man should have a real penis. Here it is!

- Bigger pen!s stimulates more nerve endings in female vagina.

And the top 10:

10. 21st century is the century for big penises.
Ok, so you’re just advising me to keep up with the modern trends?

9. Prove your manliness! Take ÜberDik and be a man!
I have to give this company some credits for that brilliantly selected brand name…

8. Have you ever heard this, “Gush! Your penis is so small!”?
Ehm… No?

7. Try it now and shock all your friends with your tool.
I guess just showing my tool is already enough to shock them…

6. Nothing can seduce women faster than a big penis.
Tried this in a night club. Didn’t work…

5. 25% discount on your penis!
Something like buy 4 extra Inches and only pay for 3?

4. Satisfy all big cock lovers with Penis Enlarge Patch.
There’s a patch for it?!? It’s like Windows Vista!

3. Be proud to change your underwear on public.
Isn’t that kind of illegal?

2. Does your Mr. Winkie need upgrading? Our offer will interest you.
Mr. Winkie 2.1 Beta. It already sounds interesting, what’s the offer?

1. Men with big penises go to heaven!
Nearly made me buy that blue crap. Nearly…

I’m pretty sure that your SPAM-filter blocks even better viagra subject lines on a daily basis, so feel free to share your favorite viagra headlines.

This post, Writing Killer Headlines: Top 30 Viagra SPAM Email Subject Lines, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Trust + keywords + link = Good ranking (or: How Matt Cutts got ranked for “Buy Cheap Viagra”)

Wiep.net: One Year of Link Building

Wiep — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 18:00:37 +0000

I can’t believe that it’s been a year since my first post. Sometimes it feels like I’ve been blogging for ages, but it’s only been a year. In this year, I’ve met some interesting folks, both online and offline (although there are a few I’d still love to meet in person -and many more-), attracted nearly 150,000 visitors (not bad for a niche blog), thousands of links and even got nominated for a SEJ blog award.

The 10 most popular Wiep.net posts of the past year (according to Google Analytics):

Prepare yourself for at least another year of (mainly) link building related posts, because I sure as hell am not finished yet :)

This post, Wiep.net: One Year of Link Building, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Wiep.net in audio: Odiogo

Counting Isn’t as Easy as 1-2-3 for IE8

Wiep — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:16:08 +0000

Apparently, the beta version of Internet Explorer 8 has difficulties counting.

Every page on social media website Sphinn has a numbered list of the ten most Sphunn upcoming news items. This feature of the internet marketing news portal looks perfectly normal if you use Firefox (or any other version of IE), but the latest Beta version sure finds it difficult to count properly.

This post, Counting Isn’t as Easy as 1-2-3 for IE8, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

Does Someone Have a Green Pen?

Wiep — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:35:24 +0000

Last week, I noticed that the PageRank of Wiep.net dropped from 4 to 2. The PR of all internal pages, such as the Link Value Factors, dropped with two points as well, so this is clearly a manual PageRank penalty. After discussing this with several folks, the only reason I can think of why this happened is the footer of my blog (this design is a free WP Theme). It’s either that, or it’s because I haven’t been blogging a lot lately and this is Matt‘s way to let me know that I should post more often :)

First of all I want to stress out that I personally couldn’t care less about this penalty and this is not an “I want my PageRank back!” scream. I wouldn’t even care if Google turned it into a PR0, a greyed out PR or even a red or purple PageRank, but I do care about the reason why. If this PageRank penalty is because of the links in the footer (it actually is my only website that’s 100% clean :P ), it’s wrong for several reasons.

1. Lots of WP templates work with ‘sponsored by’ footer and/ or blogroll links and lots of mom and pop bloggers have never heard of either paid links, Matt Cutts, or even Google. Others may think that PageRank is directly related to their rankings and will turn hysterical if they see that their PR has been lowered because of factors that they don’t know is wrong.
In stead of lowering the rankings of the advertisers, Google thinks it’s more appropriate to lower the toolbar PR of template users who -in some cases, not in my case!- don’t even know they’re doing something wrong.

2. How about ‘designed by’ links? Can your PR get lowered because of linking to your website designer as well? This is pretty much the same.

3. This actually is a penalty for linking to irrelevant websites. Besides using the WP template, I never accepted any form of payment or whatsoever, so technically, the links aren’t even paid ones.

4. Indirectly, Google’s telling people which website template they can use and which ones they can’t. It’s either breaking the template’s conditions of use (leaving the links up is mandatory), risking a lowered PageRank, or following the Rules Of Google.

Some have suggested to nofollow or remove the links in the footer and to do a reinclusion request, but I’ve decided not to. In stead, I’ll do exactly what I said I will do my footer; I’ll leave the links up (which is mandatory when you use the template) until I have a new design. Do you have designing skills that rock and some spare time? Drop me a note and you might just end up with a ‘designed by’ footer link. From a PR2 blog…

Until then, does someone have a green pen, so I can fill up the void on my toolbar?

This post, Does Someone Have a Green Pen?, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

New Link Building/ SEO Colleague Wanted

Wiep — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:03:23 +0000

Because most Americans are at the SMX right now, this must be the perfect time for me to write a post targeted at all my Dutch (and Belgian) readers. Normally I don’t geo target my blog posts, but in this case I’ll make an exception :)

One of my colleagues decided it’s time to move on and will leave Tribal Internet Marketing pretty soon. He and I work pretty close and kind of manage the whole Link Marketing department. This means that Tribal’s looking for someone with link building related experience. The vacancy is so fresh that the profile of this new function isn’t even online yet, but I can assure you that it’s a pretty interesting job.

So, if you have SEO and/ or link building related experience and if you want to work together with me and several other very inspiring people (check out the video and other vacancies as well), feel free to drop me an email ;)

This post, New Link Building/ SEO Colleague Wanted, was published on Wiep's link building blog. Visit the site to read more stuff, or to join the link building conversation.

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