I'm Eric Ward, creator of the services NetPOST, and URLwire.  If you're so inclined, you can read my personal bio. I've written under the nicknames LinkMensch, LinkMoses, and BrainCloud.

I like to think of myself as a content publicist, rather than a link builder.  Link building is the term-du-jour.  Ever since Google started counting links, people have been crazy over links.  I was crazy about 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 buildng 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 that venue, interact in an appropriate way (i.e. no spamming, no bulk announcements, no joining a list just to dump a post), and being willing to do everything by hand, personalized, one-at-a-time). 

My expertise is in the planning, strategy, and execution of site announcement and linking campaigns for content based web sites.  Specifically, I make sure your web content is known and linked to.  I created and executed the initial linking campaign for Amazon.com Books, and have been at it since 1994.  I wrote the Link Building column at ClickZ, and Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman have me do the Link Building sessions at their Search Engine Strategies conferences.

In late nineties I was named one of the web's 100 most influential people by Websight magazine (the print pub that died the next year).  They named me to their list because I do what I do in a way nobody else does.  I don't automate, I don't sub-contract.  I spend my life online and my clients gain by using my services and expertise. I have an experienced and practiced understanding of how Web sites and their intended audiences find each other through key links, site reviews, online postings, and site announcements.

My method involves a combination of carefully researched and selected site announcements, postings, submissions, link requests, and site introductions. These activities are aimed at the right online venues and contacts that will help your site.   Quality rather than quantity is the only way I operate.  I focus on one-way link building campaigns, and have since the day I began. I rarely engage in reciprocal linking campaigns because they are, in many cases, a waste of time.  If your site is appropriate for one, I'll tell you.

My services are not what brings traffic to your Web site. You must be producing content that someone wants to see, or no amount effort on my part will help. The ultimate success of your site depends on the value and usefulness of the content  you deliver. The surfer sees through hype (and link bait) in a minute. It's about content, not hype. Your site either has it or it doesn't. — From InteractivePR News interview

By now you've likely noticed that I'm obsessive about what I do and how I do it.  I am constantly seeking and evaluating the best of MANY DIFFERENT possible submission venues. And while I do include search engines and directories, these are only a small part of a legitimate awareness-building campaign, and sadly, search engines and directories are all that most folks submit to.  This is such a shame, because the majority of the best opportunities for awareness come from sources that *aren't* search engines.

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, even after the dot.com crash, solely via word-of-mouth and referrals. 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.  This is the fundamental failure of any type of auto-submitting services. 

Let me state for the record that while everyone claims to be a Web site promoter, I in fact 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 is different, focused, and comprehensive. I don't have some mysterious "team of experts", or account executives I'll hand your account over to. There is me, my knowledge, my experience, my hunger to maintain my reputation as the best in the business, and most importantly my contacts.  Since I come from the marketing and advertising industry (Time, Inc., Whittle Communications), and have been online forever, I bring an unusual blend of skills to my clients. I am online at least 40 hours every week, year-round, doing campaigns and evaluating resources. It's the only way to truly know this medium. 

Awards and media coverage...
I was honored to receive the 1995 Tenagra Award for Internet Marketing Excellence, along with current and past winners like Yahoo, Netscape, FedEx and a handful of others. No other firm in the Internet awareness business has won it, and I'm sort of proud that my small biz is now mentioned with the big boys from Netscape and Yahoo. I also served as the Technical Editor for Macmillan Publishing's Strategic Internet Marketing, by Tom Vassos.

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. See more here.

If you would like to talk by phone, feel free to call (865) 637-2438 (EST) , and leave some times when I can reach you. Please don't be discouraged if you get my voice-mail. I will contact you back ASAP. You are likely to get a quicker response via email, so that route may be preferred. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Eric Ward 

Land mail to: 
EricWard.com
1015 Kenesaw Avenue
Knoxville, Tennessee 37919