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| My Link Building
Philosophy and Overview of my
Link Building Campaign Services I'm Eric Ward, creator of the web content publicity services NetPOST (1994), and URLwire (1995). If you're so inclined, you can read my full bio. I'm a content publicist, though most people call what I do link building or link building campaigns. Link building is a vague term that really doesn't do justice to the process. Ever since Google brilliantly showed the role links can play in ranking, other engines followed, and the linking gold rush began. Everyone wants more links. But link chasers miss the most fundamental truth about links, which is that the most valuable links will be earned due to deserving content. What I call etiologic linking, links based on merit. My expertise is in the planning, strategy, and execution of site announcement and linking campaigns for high-merit content. Specifically, I make sure your web content is known and linked to in the right way. I created and executed the very first linking campaign for Amazon.com Books, back when nobody had any idea what it would become. I've worked with hundreds of sites since then. I currently write for Link Week at SearchEngineland.com, and speak at conferences. I've written web marketing columns for Ad Age BtoB Magazine, ClickZ, MarketingProfs, Web Marketing Today, and print magazine Search Marketing Standard. I've watched the link building industry explode and implode with detached curiosity. I was building links long before Google existed, but thanks to Google's purchase of DejaNews, you can see evidence of my work as far back as 1995. My goal is to help the content and the online audience it was intended for learn about one another. It's that simple. The methods I use to do this are where link building becomes an art. I identify and contact online venues that in my estimation would be inclined to care about the new content enough to write about it and/or link to it. An online venue could be anything from a blog to an e-newsletter to a topical web guide to a directory, links page or even an RSS feed or discussion list or wikipedia entry. For any new content, there are venues, nooks, and crannies in the online world that will care about it. The key is to understand who and where they are, be respectful of the owner of each venue, interact in an appropriate way for each venue, and never, repeat NEVER, automate this process. I have an experienced and practiced understanding of how Web sites and their intended audiences find each other. Quality rather than quantity is the only way I operate. I focus on one-way link building campaigns, and rarely engage in reciprocal linking campaigns because they are, in most cases, a waste of time. If your site is appropriate for one, I'll tell you how to do it. I take on limited clients, and you don't see my banners slapped all over the Internet in search of business, because I have plenty. Rather than attracting everyone to me, I prefer to attract people to my clients and their sites. I will candidly tell you right up front that there are no silver bullets for Web site promotion. Every site has different needs. Let me state for the record that while everyone claims to be a Web site promoter, I started the whole mess back in 1994, when I was the very first person to create a service that provided publicity building for Web sites. My service was the first of its kind on the net, before Yahoo even had a category for it, and my clients and references among the most respected and well known in the industry. My approach to linking is etiologic, and based on merit. I don't have some mysterious "team of experts" or account executives I'll hand your account over to. There is me. Since I come from the marketing and advertising industry (Time, Inc., Whittle Communications), and have been online since dial-up, I bring an unusual blend of skills to my clients. I am online every week, year-round, doing campaigns and studying linking relationships. It's the only way to truly know this medium. Awards and media coverage...
Over the years my company and services have been written about and recommended in many online, print, and broadcast publications and outlets, such as Inc. Magazine, THE WALL STREEET JOURNAL ONLINE, Internet World magazine, WDFM, CNet Radio, ZDNet and others. I am one of the 25 people profiled in the recently published book Online Marketing Heroes, from Wiley and Sons. See more here. If you would like to talk by phone, I sometimes answer this line (865) 637-2438 (EST), but don't be discouraged when you get my voice-mail. You are likely to get a quicker response via my contact form, so that route may be preferred. Thank you for taking the time to read this. |
. |  “Eric
follows the right link building approach. He's interested in links that
are given based on merit, and those are the links that stand the test of
time”
—Matt Cutts, Google . 
“Those who want the job done right by the best in the business flock
to Eric Ward and count themselves lucky that the maestro isn't booked into
the next millennium”
— Jim Sterne, Inc. magazine
Client
comments about my
“Eric, you earned your $1,000 fee during our initial 30 minute phone conversation. Your insight and guidance on how and why to obtain the specific target IBLs you do is extraordinary. Thanks for getting me on the right track “Eric Ward offered incredibly effective advice and services that were instrumental in making our site the leader in our niche. He is the most effective link-builder on the planet. I'd recommend him strongly to anyone who has an important story to tell online “We followed the strategy you created for our site and we were skeptical, but the bottom line for me is we now rank first at all the engines for our most important search terms, and the ranking has not decreased over the course of several engine updates. Your link building strategy and services are the only things we have done, so it's pretty obvious you know what the hell you are doing. My one complaint? Answer your phone more often “I cannot put a price on the information and advice Eric provides. He made me realize that all the information that we need to perform a successful linking campaign that would generate great rankings. It's all about looking in the right places and recognizing how to spot high value links. Thanks again Eric you have really opened my eyes. “Having
all this information at once, presented personally by one of the
leading experts in the world, with the ability for me to ask questions
and get immediate answers, was very gratifying, and a great value. I highly
recommend Eric Wards service
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