One of the most important parts to your SEO campaign for your websites should be the building of backlinks. Finding quality backlinks has always been a tedious task, sifting through search results, finding blogs and forums and social media sites with relative content to your niche.

Recently though I have been automating the process and using the power of google to send me backlink opportunities to my inbox everyday for free. I have set up a program using Google Alerts to keep track of all of my topics on the web, and tell me when new content is available that I can backlink.

I have so far found it an excellent way to keep up to date with what people are saying about my own domain, as well as keeping track of the different market niches that I have sites in.

AN EXAMPLE
An example is that if you have a site on “yoga advice” then you would create a Google Alert for these keywords. Google will then send you an email when a new link or content related to this is published on the internet.

It’s a fantastic way to be informed about your area, BUT it is also a great way to find potential linking partners to set up backlinks with.  With Google Alerts you will easily get 10 – 30 links per day, depending on how popular your niche is.

BLOG LINKING STRATEGY

I have found that an even better way to find blogs that allow you to leave a comment is to setup a google alert specifically for blogs and set the alert to search for “yoga” “leave a comment”. This will send a list of all blogs in your niche that you can leave a comment straight to your inbox. You can set the alerts to be sent to you daily, weekly or as they happen (as google indexes the page).

There are a few considerations to take into account when commenting on blogs as a back linking strategy. The first is the search relevance of the site that you are linking to. I recommend installing the SEOQuake plug-in as it provides information on Alexa Ranking, Google Pagerank and Number of Backlinks to a site, plus heaps of other relevant information for you to decide if it is in your best interest to backlink to a site. This great SEO plug-in can be attached to your browser and will give you helpful SEO information on the link or links you’re viewing.

Use the SEOQuake plug-in in conjunction with Google to sort through the results and find the ones with the highest PR, traffic and backlinks. The more knowledge you have the easier and more effective your link building will become.

Keep in mind that finding quality backlinks is one of the most tedious jobs in being a webmaster. It can take a long time, and a good deal of patience. By using this google alerts system you are taking a lot of the legwork out the equation, which will allow you to focus on backlink creation more consistently. Persistence pays off in this area, and soon your site will get noticed and start to rank higher.

So Steve you may be thinking, what is this Spoke system you keep talking about here? SPOKE is a system that I have been developing over the last two years to give people a systematic approach to becoming an online entrepreneur. It takes the best of social media theory, internet marketing secrets and online business strategy and combines them into a mindset that can guide you towards success online.

SPOKE is an acronym with two meanings. The letters stand for Sustainable Personal Online Connected Entrepreneur.

Sustainable

Everyone wants an internet business with longevity, one that will continue to pay off long after the initial hours of developing and setting up an online marketing system. I personally can not see the point of setting up a business that will be obsolete or struggling to find customers In three months time. Online businesspeople that follow the SPOKE system will be building long term digital assets, businesses online that will continue to provide revenue for years to come. This is not just about landing pages and Adsense, SPOKE shows you how to productise your knowledge, keep customers coming back and retain customers for longer by developing a sales funnel.

Personal

In this modern world, the main thing that separates you from the next business person online is YOU, your unique personality. SPOKE is all about you building your personal brand, and allowing your unique voice to shine through and be the thing that keeps people coming back to your online assets. It is about finding an online business model that allows all of your personality to express itself, and there is a definite emphasis on having fun. By building a personal brand, you make it easier for customers to find you as you begin to roll out your Internet Marketing Empire, and also raising your profile greatly increases your chances of connecting with other SPOKES of already successful online businesspeople.

Online

SPOKE recognises the immense advantages in becoming an online entrepreneur rather then setting up a traditional “bricks and mortar” style business. With low overheads, very small barriers to entry and new tools and software being released every day, there really has been no better time to start an internet business.  The SPOKE system shows you how use these online tools to their maximum efficiency to save hours each day, market your products more effectively and gather intelligence on the competition quickly and easily.

Connected

The SPOKE system recognises the power of social media to drive targeted traffic to your online business. It is my aim with this blog and the associated tools and books that you will get to understand and develop a social media marketing strategy that is easy to set up, but most importantly easy to maintain.
SPOKE is also about connecting to other entrepreneurs and offering products and services that combine your skills, knowledge and customer base to the mutual benefit of both partiers. SPOKE is also about connecting with outsourced providers so that you a free to grow your business and plan for its future expansion.

Entrepreneur

The aim of SPOKE is the development of  an Entrepreneurial business for yourself, one that has an end goal of removing you from the day to day running of the business, and allows you to choose the hours and place where you work. By developing an entrepreneur’s mindset you will learn to see opportunities as they arise and continue on your path to online business success.

The second meaning of the SPOKE acronym is that it refers to the Spokes of a wheel.
Each business can be thought of as a HUB, and it can be connected to other SPOKE business by coming to an arrangement to provide products and services to each other.

Your SPOKE business might be to develop website templates, and you might develop a relationship with another SPOKE business that sells website hosting packages. By complimenting each others services in a mutually beneficial arrangement you automatically increase your base of potential customers and sales.

So That is SPOKE in a very broad stokes and abstract nutshell. If you are interested in more information please subscribe via RSS, or sign up for my email newsletter to get hot tasty tips served straight to your inbox.

Just wanted to let you know that I am also writing over on a blog called Rebel Zen with my good friend Seamus Anthony Ennis

The blog is about meditation, zen, tao, tarot, personal development and much more, and promises to be an interesting and thought provoking read.

We already have a number of great articles up, with much more coming in the following days and weeks.

Do yourself a favor and check it out. www.rebelzen.com

Been a bit quiet on here of late, but I assure you it is not without good reason.

I have been working on a new model of business, one that I am sure you can benefit from. It is a model that some people have been following with great success for decades, but is only coming into mainstream view now as everyone becomes super connected, has instant access to unimaginable resources of knowledge and skill for creating websites and knowledge products online become easier to learn and more widespread.

Hey, and it even has an acronym. SPOKE

The SPOKE system is going to present people with a way of developing sustainable online businesses, that provide long
lasting income (some of it passive) and creating meaningful work. It is about utilizing the skills that you currently have to start to
break the cycle of trading dollars for hours, and which skills that you should be developing to be successful in an ever changing world.
It is about  making the most of this connected, fast paced world that we live in, and using it  to support rather then overwhelm you.

A NEW VIEWPOINT

Over the last few years I have studied and worked closely with many bloggers, entrepreneurs, business managers and internet marketers. I have also lately been doing a lot of work with social media marketing and consulting, as well as studying a lot of material about social networks, the future of the internet and business, entrepreneurship and work.

While doing a review of my business plan last month a number of these pieces started to click together, and a picture began to form out of the confusing puzzle that we call our modern working life. I saw how it was possible to have meaningful work, escape the 9-5 office based - always the same drudgery and also make a decent living. It is like freelancing, contracting or even “making money online” but more then that. I will develop and share the SPOKE system with you over the next few months

REDESIGN TIME

Also I think I need to modernise this blog (once again) and develop it into a world class resource of information. Design for this site is a continual process with me, but inspiration has come in short bursts. While design isn’t everything, it is important that you quickly convey what the site is about and your level of professionalism as soon as people hit the page.

Sorry for the delay in posting on here but life has been hectic, and I have had  lot of projects on the boil. Oh yea, and I started using Twitter which has kept me busy. If you want to follow me click the link.

For those that have been reading this site for a while, you will notice that I am currently redesigning it (yet again) to give it a simpler interface. I am planning on publishing a lot more material, specifically about the advantages and massive opportunities, but also about the pitfalls and traps of using social media to promote your brand.