Thank you to the wonderful turnout to our Pubcon happy hour, one of the biggest things I returned with was the awesome feedback from each party that I spoke with.  Everyone had the common issues they wanted addressed and I just wanted to briefly run down the obvious issues for the others who were not there:

1. “Link Not Found” spider issues.  We are fully aware of this issue and it’s as much of a pain for us as it is for you.  We have a new spider option that should cut down on many issues and we are working to get it up and running.
2. “Usability” issues.  When our site was initially put together, our offering was simple and to the point.  As we have grown, our menu options have gone completely backwards making it very difficult to navigate and we already have a replacement which will go with number 3.
3. “Website Design” upgrade!  Yes, we understand our site can greatly use a facelift.  Again, initially our site was put together to make pages load as fast as possible.  Our system is database intensive and we would rather lower image quality and have faster page loads than vice versa.  But we’re bringing on a dedicated individual for this project and future projects.

We greatly appreciate your patience through our growing pains and can assure you the LinkWorth upgrade soon to come in the next year will be full of great new products, new sleek design and a very easy layout targeted towards usability.

One of the sessions we participated in at the Vegas Pubcon was the session on “purchasing links”. I missed the SES conference in San Jose, but Matt did make it and sat in the session on link buying. One of Matt’s first comments regarding the Pubcon session was how the first speaker gave the exact same speech that was given by another person in San Jose. I’m guessing most participants of these sessions are reps sent to learn for their respective companies and most will not attend all of the conferences, however, there are many people that try to make several of these conferences, so I would imagine there is a decent percentage that hear the session presentations numerous times. With that being said, should unique content and a variety be a good idea to “spruce” things up for those who have been lucky enough to participate in many conference sessions? This was the lineup:

Andy Hagans, Strategist, ReviewMe
John Lessnau, Founder, LinkAdage
Thomas Bindl, SEO Consultant, ThomasBindl.com

1. As mentioned above, the first speaker, Andy Hagans, who represented his new venture “ReviewMe“, showed an identical slideshow and presentation which Patrick Gavin gave at the San Jose SES for his company Text Link Ads. Of course, these two guys work, or have worked with each other, so maybe there is a passing of the buck or some such, but frequent audience members would prefer to learn new info each time and the imitation is like seeing a comedy show where the comic says the exact same jokes from last time and it loses it’s luster.

2. The next speaker was John Lessnau who founded LinkAdage. For those who are unfamiliar with LinkAdage, they were actually one of the first sites to offer a way to buy and/or sell links between webmasters. They definitely took the quick route and purchased a pre-coded auction software program and tweaked it to their liking, but they basically auctioned the sale of text links. They’ve offered other forms of text advertising to keep up, but I believe the auction angle does well for them.

Now when Lessnau began his presentation, I noticed an image on the projection that caught my eye, the Survivorman splash screen. I turned Matt on to watching Survivorman so we both love the show. So we were eagerly interested in hearing what Lessnau had to say since it’s our favorite show. As time goes on, the presentation became more and more familiar and I instantly pulled up my Moto Q phone and logged on to our LinkWorth Blog. I did a quick search for Survivorman and much to my surprise; this presentation was somewhat identical to something I wrote back in March of 2006.

I handed the phone to Matt so he could read what I had written to get a 3rd party opinion, then also had another person read it to get one more opinion and the topic became whether it was plagiarism or coincidence. I was told that “Plagiarism is the best form of flattery.“, but also would like to know if this guy that I have never met before thinks exactly like I do. I must admit that listening to his speech, he gives speeches almost identical to how I would; long pauses, stuttering, over use of the word “uh” and so on. I’m horrible at giving speeches and I commend those who do, but Mr. Lessnau fell on my side of the fence when it came to his speech. I definitely am not here to bag on his speech abilities because I am horrible, but I am very interested with similarities between his presentation and my blog post back in March over the exact same thing.

The guys over at SEO Roundtable are very good at blogging the sessions and I found this session on their site. So I will reference the page and then paste the bit of info on this part of the session so those who missed the Pubcon could get some insight.

John Lessnau from LinkAdage (sp?). He says there is no such thing as a free link. You can pay, trade, get one for a favor, or get links to great content or tools that cost a lot of money to develop. He started by relating the TV show “Survivorman,” saying that some webmasters need to be able to get a lot of links with few resources. So “What would Survivorman do to get links?” One thing that a new webmaster has is time. At least there is time to spend on researching competition, and to gain knowledge from seminars like this and by talking to other people.

He look at about 300K .net and .com domains and looked at how many were various PageRanks. He threw out the 210K that had 0 PR. Found almost no PR 9’s, only 18 PR 8’s (.027% of all sites. The majority of page had 1, 2, or 3 (23.5%, 27.4%, and 25.8%, respectively. Interesting. Link buying tips: buy keywords for your site embedded in existing text within indexed sites. Do not worry about PR 0, as long as it’s indexed. Buy only permanent or year long links. Do not spend over $5/month on average per link…sounds cheap, but there are plenty like that available. Goes into an example of how to find keywords that might be relevant, and finding obscure websites that come up with the keywords. Approach the sites probably not making any money and buy links from them. Showed some cool examples of results of this type of research…finding some nice niche sites.

Beware of links that may fit into any of the following classifications: on home pages of very high PR sites. In long lists at the bottom or sides of pages. Links under “sponsored links” text. Links that are “run of site” (aka “site-wide links”). On sites designed to sell links. On an artificial networks of sites. He ends like Andy and says to keep your links natural.

So I think there was a definite certain spin put on his presentation, however, is it plagiarism, imitation or just plain coincidence here? I definitely commend him on saying Survivorman is his favorite show! In case other Survivorman fans read this, Les Stroud is currently filming the first location for season 2 . . . FINALLY! ! !

First let us thank everyone that showed up to the Viva Las Vegas Lounge!  Although the live Sirius radio broadcast with guests like Lukas Rossi from Rockstar Supernova and the drummer from Guns-n-Roses, Steven Adler did get up a few feet away from us and go speak with them, no one could be out done by the comedian Jim Breuer.  We weren’t sure if Jim was a guest or if he’s part of the show, but he stayed the entire time and pretty much gave every one of us a headache for screaming into the mic continuously.  You could never even hear what the others were saying because he spoke over them, but then you couldn’t understand Jim because he screamed so loud it distorted the sound.  Absolute thumbs down to that station and their performance.  It could have been better, but oh well. 

On to the real matter at hand, our LinkWorth happy hour.  Matt and I both agreed Friday on the plane ride home that it was the absolute best part of the entire trip.  Pubcon was “ok”, but other than hearing the engines prove points or show us new releases we haven’t yet read on their blog already, it’s a bit a waste of our time and money to go sit in these seminars.  So this go ’round, Matt and I wanted to step outside of the norm and plan a gathering for our customers and other associates outside the actual convention.  This led to putting a small happy hour together at the Hard Rock Cafe where Matt and I were staying.  A way to get up and close to each and everyone that shows up listening to any and all feedback over a few drinks and see where things go.

All I can say is, “SUCCESS!”  From the initial first arrival “Dazzlin Donna” all the way down to the “American Muscle” crew, we were able to speak, face to face, with some of our long time advertisers and partners who have been with us since we initially launched.  The theme was “what is your account id?” in hopes of becoming the lowest account id in attendance.  I believe M_Reider at account 24 was the lowest (other than my account 1 😀 ), however, I didn’t hear of one that was over 100.  It was definitely very special to us in putting faces to names and creating a more personal working relationship with all of you.

Initially, we were worried people would have a hard time finding us because some tables that were supposed to be roped off, wound up not being so at the last minute and we couldn’t do much with it.  We did notice that most visitors found us quickly.  If you looked for us and did not find our table, we deeply apologize and next time will be much more organized! 

Once the drinking began, a shot here or there and then inhibitions started being dropped like our money in the local slot machines.  As our drinks kept coming and a few visitors moved on to bed or “other things”, our group dwindled down to Steve and his crew along with Matt and I.  One of the guys “Dave” had a few martini’s dry on the rocks and had a great idea to possibly put our LinkWorth Logo on the outside of his left shoulder.  Matt, being one that rarely backs down from a bet, says, “If you will do that, no only will LinkWorth pay for your tattoo, but I’ll get one with you!”

After some careful consideration and thought about the idea, I closed our tab at the bar and called up a nice big limo to take us all down to Vince Neil’s ink parlor.  The two gave things one last consideration and didn’t even think twice about it.  Next thing you see is both guys headed back.  Unforutnately, Dave’s room was not on the outside window for us to watch, but Matt’s was.  We had a camera with video making her way to the back to catch Dave. 

So the final outcome was the simple logo on our business cards.  Matt placed his on the underneath of his left bicep (OUCH!) and it actually looks like a very cool and trendy tattoo.  Dave threw a little fit at first for the size and wanted it TWICE AS BIG! !  On the outside of his shoulder/arm, so his is a little larger.

After the fact someone brought it up to go over to the Hart & Huntington ink parlor and try to be on their reality show, but at that point in the night, we wanted to make sure it went through before changing of minds and get it done.  The TV aspect would have been interesting enough to qualify for the show, but I’m just as happy with the memory and the pictures and videos we have.

The pictures and videos of Dave (our client) getting our LinkWorth Logo tattooed will be up very soon.  Hang tight, they’re well worth it.  I think we all deemed it the most exciting time of the entire conference that night.  GREAT stuff.  Thank you Matt & Dave!  Expect the video’s and Pics this next week.

LinkWorth will be making our first visit to the annual Vegas WebmasterWorld Pubcon Conference November 14-17.  We have had several clients ask if we would be in attendance and show interest in meeting with us, therefore, we are considering putting a LinkWorth Sponsored Happy Hour Wednesday evening at an undisclosed location.

Our options are still being determined and we will post the location and exact time as soon as it is nailed down.  Participants can be existing clients, as well as potential clients.  We would even like to meet some of our market peers if the time and location fit your schedules.

So check back and we will have the LinkWorth Happy Hour exact location and time posted for those interested in a few drinks on the house.

As many probably already know, we officially launched our new product “LinkWords“. The product is built on the in-text pay per click technology where keywords are mined out of the content and matched with advertiser ads. With a simple mouseover, a tooltip window will appear showing the advertisers advertisement. This is probably one of the best methods in gaining targeted traffic one can use and we are excited in being able to offer our own version.

For Partners, it’s 100% free to signup and very easy to setup on your website, or websites. Every click charges the advertiser and partners earn 70% of the charge. We urge all partners to give it a shot and give us your feedback. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain, like money! 🙂

For Advertisers, targeted traffic is what we all want and LinkWords is the product to provide this. The ads shows on keywords within content people are reading. The ads are not appearing on the side, top, bottom or any other often overlooked section of a page, the ads are planted right in the middle of the content everyone is reading. Only pay for the click and yes we have fraud protective measures setup to ensure ads are not fraudulently clicked.

There are a couple of other companies offering their own version of LinkWords; however, they do not cater to everyone. Unless your website meets their extensive traffic requirements, no participation for you! LinkWorth is all about catering to the average customer “and” large customers. If your website has only THREE people visit it on average per month, how can someone say those three visitors are not important? They could be multi-billionaires looking to invest a ton of money in your company. So LinkWords is open to all of our customers and anyone that wants to be a LinkWorth customer.

Read more about LinkWords . . .

For those interested in our LinkWords launch, the initial October 4th date was unable to happen. We do apologize for the missed target date, but we are working out a few kinks and bugs before making it available to everyone.

Currently we are looking to launch LinkWords on Wednesday, October 11, pending the completion of a few upgrades.

All beta partner participants can leave their code as is and the transition from beta to live will not require any changes.

All beta advertisers will be required to add funds into their account for further publication of ads. Any fake funds added during beta will be zeroed out before the actual launch.

For the near future of LinkWorth, look for several new products, a much needed Control Center upgrade and very detailed Help Files being created. Stay tuned and we will make further announcements as they come available.

As some of you may have noticed, our file inclusion feeds were displaying an error today. Not all file inclusions were displaying this error, but all it takes is a few to be an issue. The reason for these issues is due to a system upgrade we performed which surprised us with a few incompatibilities.

Our programmers are working quickly to update these problem area’s and should have everything back to normal very shortly. We do apologize for this unplanned update and assure you it will be fixed quickly.

If you have any questions or concerns, our help desk is running fine at http://help.linkworth.com.

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Update: Everything is worked out and running smoothly. If there is anything still wrong on your end, please submit a support ticket.

With the recently launched payment arm of Google, known as “Google Checkout“, online merchants are finally getting much better options to process credit cards on their websites. Processing credit cards through the internet is such an important step for any online merchant, it is important to attach your business with a reliable and trustworthy credit card merchant. Credit card merchants will handle Visa & MasterCard, with AMEX and Discover running their own show. Then third party credit card merchants are more of a middle man between you and the actual card merchant. Now let me shed a little light that might help in getting your credit card processing setup right the first time.

3rd Party Merchant Companies – Pro’s & Con’s

• Very easy and quick to get setup and process for customers
• Large companies (Paypal * Google Checkout) make it easy to buy/sell at low prices.
• Monthly volumes can fluctuate, but are easier to go higher
• payments usually occur on weekly, bi-weekly or monthly schedules
• first glimpse of fear, processor will place hold on all funds and cease payouts
• usually require a reserve or rolling reserve, usually a percentage of each payout
• provides their own custom built software to easily function transactions
  
  

Direct Merchant – Credit Card Processing – Pro’s & Con’s

• Signup process can be lengthy and require quite a bit of upfront details that play into the approval/denial stage.
• Monthly volumes must start low or will fall into high risk, with financials of past history to qualify
• payments will occur on a daily basis less their fees
• any remote thought of fraud or chargeback’s and your account is frozen with no money being deposited but it will still allow processing to go through and charge you for the transactions. Getting account in good standing can take anywhere from 1 week to 3 months, along with money being returned. Usually, if your account is closed, cut your loses and find a new processor.
• rolling reserves and/or set reserve required for higher risk accounts.
• Gateway provides software to get instant approvals, but software from your site to talk to the gateway is your responsibility
• This method is a great way to go if you can find a reliable merchant and you sell a product or service that everyone loves 100% of the time.

Direct Bank Credit Card Processing

• Fairly lengthy application, with large monthly volumes more accepted. Especially if you are an existing bank customer.
• Batch payments occur daily
• Holdback and/or reserves typically are not necessary
• Risk department is proactive in working with client to resolve issues
• Provides gateway of your choice and software of your choice.
• This is the best way to go.

Oddly enough, it crossed my head to signup for Google Checkout just to see if they would process for our service, since they seem to have turned their backs on the text linking industry

For those who have used our support section recently, you should have noticed things look a bit different. Due to the software we use being outdated; we felt it was time to upgrade to the latest, greatest version. The new version is a major update which led to several changes with how LinkWorth and the software interact. If you were used to a certain way our support worked before, we apologize as it might be a little different.

There are a couple of areas we’re still working on, but the functionality of our support system should have no issues. We do request that if anyone runs into an issue, please email support.

One of the advantages to LinkWorth, from an advertisers point of view, is they are able to see the websites before they actually spend money to advertise on it. Most other services within our market restrict the actual web address for several reasons, until it’s paid for. As a partner, this option isn’t always the most preferred method. I choose not to get into specifics, but there are pro’s and cons for either way.

We’re proud to announce that we know give the partner a choice in this matter. If being anonymous is your cup of tea, you can now be anonymous to window shoppers. When listing a new site or editing an existing site, there is a new option available that allows the partner to hide their web address until an advertiser actully buys a text ad. Once the request is approved by the partner, then the advertiser will see the website address in their approved listings.

Obviously, we recommend the listings not be hidden to increase sales, but if it’s important to the publisher, the option is now as easy as turning it on. One thing to note, this is a per site setting. If 10 sites exist, all 10 would need to be edited to turn this feature on. All statistical information will remain available to potential advertisers.