I agree with Michael on confusing at first. I didn’t get what you meant between affiliate and authority. But then I grasped the picture idea of the SS Paris. But that might be because I’m a picture person. People learn all different types of ways.

Also, what is PPC? If someone suddenly comes to your blog and has no idea of what these things, these acronyms, mean, and I know a little now since I’ve been around the block a few times, how would you explain it? Or is that even important to you? Maybe not.

I know about content and personality, it’s these damn business bloggery terms I’m worried about! Thanks.

Have fun in London.

Ellen

Yes, as Michael suggests, there’s a lot of shady grey when one gets into defining terms like SEO and categorizing the techniques – but since a lot of blogs and websites tend to fall on a continuum rather than into a rigid category, and human thinking tends to be quite fuzzy anyway, sometimes it’s necessary to describe the two extremes in order to be clear about the difference.

Secondly, a good blog will attract links naturally, they will be voluntary, organic, and spread over time.

I think this pretty much says it all. When something is ‘good’ things will happen naturally….

i actually featured these in a recent post but termed them Content (expertise) and Character (personality.) the two most attractive aspects to a blog… the content provides value and the initial visit, the character is the hook that keeps folks entertained.

folks might be able to copy one of those pillars but they’ll never be able to fully remove or replicate your entire foundation.

I like this post. Of course you’re preaching to the choir here, and I agree about the strength of authority blogging. My favorite part of this post was how you let the illustration hang there until the end… I stared at it, got most of the point, then read until finally you explained the shallow clicks-hog the SS Paris. Well-played. It really helped to drive home the point.

Must go work on my pylons now.

Regards,

Kelly

I entirely agree . . . But (you saw that coming didn’t you).

In the early days I don’t think links come organically. When starting out no one knows about you and you need to let people know.

Even the SEO lot don’t want to just generate traffic – as you point out the next step is conversion. A good blog will lead to loyalty for sure, whether this will lead to automatic sales I’m not sure. I’ll leave that to others with very successful blogs to talk about.

1. Getting links other ways (article marketing and swapping links) can’t hurt.
2. (and this is more important) WHAT topic you or your site is an authority about is REAL important to weathering the storm. If you are selling business advice and stuff that saves people money you are in good niche, if you are selling something people are cutting back on it’s going to be harder to weather the storm even if you are an authority.

@bokjae – Thanks Yeah I think now more than ever it’s not just about the traffic but what and how you present, and how many of those visitors you delight and keep

@Doug – Thanks Doug, and beware I am bringing my camera In fact, it would be great to hit you up for an interview if you get time

@Michael – Ah, well perhaps I have been unfair, but I don’t regard social media as “pure SEO” so we might be differing based on definitions Perhaps I should have said “old SEO” instead? I think any strategy that incorporates blogs and social media is newer, smarter SEO

I found your post content confusing compared to its headline, because the affiliate link-building you describe is not by any stretch of the imagination “pure SEO”. The tactics you describe could be part of an SEO strategy, but only part. And there are plenty of new techniques, too, which supplement these somewhat dated ones, such as the use of content-sharing sites and social media.

And I certainly agree that an authority blog can weather just about anything that comes its way.

Doug