A few weeks ago we spoke about how 50 cent would approach SEO, well this week we’ve decided to use Jack The Ripper as our inspiration for a guide on guest posting en masse.

Guest Blogging is an above board marketing practice and has it’s own merits outside of SEO. Aside from the links it can generate, it can also send mind share, visitors and even sales your way. It is a common practice and would be done even if search engines didn’t exist… But when you are doing guest posting en masse as a marketing agency or an SEO consultant in an aggressive market for pure SEO benefit, you may have to start thinking about “naturalizing” your efforts covering your tracks for obvious reasons.

Now before you start, we’re not suggesting you get into the mind set of a mass murderer like Jack The Ripper, we are simply guiding you on things you should consider when publishing guest posts en masse so you are keeping things really natural don’t leave a huge dirty footprint.

10 Things You Should Think About When Publishing Guest Posts En Masse

#1 Spammy Author Boxes – You’re An Easy Target

Are you constantly writing and publishing multiple guest posts for different clients by the same author? Not to mention the dodgy looking links in the author box, this looks spammy to the average everyday web surfer never mind us SEO’s and Marketers who know exactly why your doing it and not to mention the big G.

You should really consider using personas for different clients. Don’t forget anyone can find out exactly what you’ve published and for which clients just by searching in Google for ‘Your Name’ “Guest Blog”.

We prefer not to use author boxes in our Guest Posting Service, so that our ‘guest posts’ do not fall into the traditional guest post format. Our links appear within the body and flow of the article. If you can’t do this with the blog owner then try using just an author byline and just ensure you use different personas for different clients.

Takeaway: Don’t leave a large author box footprint across all your clients in many different industries. Better still, negotiate with the blog owner so that you do not have to use an author box.

#2 Don’t Write Boring Posts & Don’t Regurgitate

We know there are a lot of blogs that accept low quality posts, but by raising your quality you can get accepted on much better blogs! If your client is in a boring industry, spice it up. Use different verticals to cross reference your clients industry. See how we linked to a gardening website from a technology article here.

One sure fire give away that your leaving a messy guest post footprint is if you continually write about the exact same subject in the exact same way. For example ’5 Ways you can Market your Business Online’. Do all your other posts follow a similar suit? ’5 Ways to Market your Business on Facebook’, ’5 Ways to Market your Business on Twitter’. Do all your post follow this same style and have more or less the same content? If so then you should get your creative caps on.

Vary your subjects, expand your knowledge and start writing juicy, exciting, original content. If your stuck for content ideas try this great content idea generator from the guys over at SEO Gadget.

Takeaway: Think outside the box when it comes to content, even if your client is in a boring industry. Make all posts completely unique and add value to the web.

#3 Vary Post Content Length

When outreaching and publishing multiple guest posts across a number of websites and blogs ensure every post differs in content length. If you continually publish guest posts that are close to or around a particular number of words such as 400, then you are potentially leaving the first piece of evidence that you are trying to game search engines. Your link profile is going to be full of blog posts which are all 400 words in length. Not every subject that you are writing on demands the same word length. Some subjects are far more complex than others therefor should contain more content to get the message or point across clearly. Although in our guest posting service we advise we write a minimum of 500 words, in every post we publish we ensure our post lengths vary according to the complexity of the post we create. It could be anything from 500 to 1000, maybe more like this one.

Takeaway: Don’t write to a minimum word specification, write until the post thesis has been explored completely, even if this does mean going double over your minimum word spec.

#4 Site/Link Quality DA? PR?

This is another huge footprint people are leaving when publishing guest posts on masse. Partly due to the Penguin update which killed off sites that relied on poor quality links, many SEO’s, Agencies and Marketers now think they must strive for links from sites with minimum PR/DA metrics. They are using these metrics when prospecting and in most cases are discounting sites with less than PR2 and DA20 metrics.

I’ve even seen “first hand” SEO’s paying webmasters to remove very natural real links just because the website was below a DA10. Come on people, this is “Google-fearing” BS. A few SEO lessons from 50 cent are needed if you have done something similar in the light of the updates.

The problem this creates is if you are buying guest posts/prospecting sites which fall into a category of PR and DA then your link profile is going to look very suspect just like the one I’ve illustrated. This just isn’t natural at all. Instead, look for quality and relevance. PR & DA can be gamed. A real site is harder to game. We’d much rather post to a DA20 PR1 real, genuine blog than a DA40 PR6 guest blog farm.

Takeaway: Focus less on numbers in metrics and more about how well the website and the piece of content fit your clients site. Look at the website, does it look like a guest blog farm or a real blog?

#5 Link Out to Other Sites

Don’t just write guest posts and link out only to your client/site. Reference other important information in your guest post. I’m not saying reference competitors or anything but reference news posts, other blog posts on the same subject, other non competing websites so you literally can’t tell that the post was created for the purpose of the link.

It’s something we’ve done here at Fat Joe since the dawn of day. It makes us cringe seeing guest posts with only 1 link out as it’s really obvious the post was created for that one link!

60 Second Link Test

Apply the 60 second link test to any guest post you publish. If you can tell who the guest post has been written for within 60 seconds it’s not natural enough! Of course, if you are using author boxes it will be really easy to tell, but see point 1 of this post. Avoid author boxes if you can, instead use author bylines, and place your links within the flow of the article.

Takeaway: Link out to other sites to make your post look natural and impartial, so that even if Matt Cutts himself saw your post he wouldn’t know if it was a guest blog post or not.

#6 Location of Your Links

If you can get the links in the flow of article as apposed to in an author box or byline then that’s the best place for them. It’s not natural for a user to read a post and the reference all be at the bottom. Think of the way Wikipedia works. Important information, names, places and points of interest are all hyperlinked from within the flow of the information just like the screen shot above.

Takeaway: Try to keep your links within the flow of the article as this is the most natural and useful place to link out… within the flow of the article.

#7 Use Natural Anchor Text that Fits

I see this most days where a client want’s to rank for ‘Keyword Keyword’ therefore they ensure the anchor text is the exact keyword whether it fits into the post or not. Example ‘Keyword Area’ such as ‘Best Dentist London’. Great, so your boss, you, your client knows there’s x amount of traffic for that keyword, therefore your want to rank the site for this. But ask yourself, how will this keyword fit in to a free flowing article without sounding dumb? OK, it may be possible but more often it’s not. ‘If your looking for the best dentist London try here’. Sounds dumb right? If your trying to fit an unnatural anchor text within a natural flowing article then it’s not going to work. Unfortunately your going to have to fit that magic keyword in there which will make everything seem ok again ‘in’. ’If your looking for the best dentist in London try here’. Now that’s better.

Also be wary about using commercial anchor text, if that isn’t the nature of the article. For example if you are writing about “5 Ideas For Decorating Your Babies Bedroom” and you have an anchor text which is as commercial as ‘Buy baby wallpaper here’ it may stick out a little bit. If your article is shopper friendly and was called ‘Best Shops Online To Shop For Your Baby’ this anchor text wouldn’t seem so out of place. Apologies for the bad example, but hopefully you get the picture.

Takeaway: Use natural anchor text, even if this compromises clients specifications, they’ll thank you later.

#8 Think About Your Anchor Text Consistency

There are usually 2 types of anchor text you will see. An anchor text containing words or an anchor text containing a URL. So, if your going to write a post and hyper link a URL as apposed to a keyword, ensure the rest of your hyperlinks follow the same suit and style so that it’s not obvious your just trying to drop a natural naked domain anchor text for your clients or sites benefit.

Also, referring to point 7 again, make sure you are consistent in the style of anchor texts, whether you are being commercial or informational, it needs to appear natural, not like a ‘paid for afterthought’.

Takeaway: Keep your anchor text linking style consistent to avoid ‘sore thumb’ linking.

#9 Spice Up Your Posts Using Rich Media

Adding media to your guest posts where necessary just instantly improves the look and appeal to read the post. Don’t just use images though, spice it up a little and add videos from Youtube and Vimeo if there are some on the same subject of your guest post. Remember to credit images where due!

Takeaway: Use rich media to enhance your posts.

#10 Internal Linking

To earn some extra brownie points from the blog owner and increase your chance of it being accepted you can drop some internal links to other posts on his or her blog within your guest blog post. This also increases how natural your blog post looks. If you could do that without an author box, heck, it just looks like another blog post from the blog owner.

Takeaway: Internal linking in your guest posts has many benefits, but mainly you will increase how natural your post looks.

Joe (Davies) trying to get the double monitors working…

We know that one of our lessons in setting up a start up was not to have an office, but we do feel we’re at that stage now. With lots of demand and enquiries we needed a bit more organisation.

Fat Joe HQ

Contact us via phone or skype

We now have phone line: (01543) 496846 or for international customers please use +441543 496846. We’re usually in the office from 9 to half 5, but if we’re not there someone will be able to take a message for you.

We’re also on skype: fatjoewho

Guest Post Bulk Buyers

We have updated our guest posting service page with higher quantities as a lot of you were wanting to order guest posts in bulk direct from the site. On our highest package each guest post only costs £22.50. If you are looking to order higher quantities still, that’s fine, simply get in touch.

Fat Rank is working again…

Fat Rank is now working again after a minor blip, as our last blog post explains. Look out for more extensions coming in the future.

Problem Fixed – Chrome Extension Updated (Friday 26th April)

Our developer had been working on the problem as soon as we received reports and we can now confirm that we have tweaked, fixed and have updated the code. We have uploaded the new version of Fat Rank to the Google Chrome store (Version 0.164).

The updated version should have been pushed out automatically however if your still having problems please try the following fixes. One will definitely work.

Refresh the Website – Obvious fix we know but simply try refreshing the website your on and re-trying Fat Rank.

Shut Down your Browser and Re Open – Try shutting down Google Chrome and Re-opening or try opening a new tab in a new window. This should work.

Update the Extension Manually - In your Chrome Browser, click Settings, Tools and then Extensions. Look for the Fat Rank Extension and ensure the version is 0.164. If it isn’t click the ‘Update Extensions Now’ option in the top right of the extensions page. This should update all of your extensions including Fat Rank. Please check after the update that it displays versions 0.164.

Click to enlarge image

If none of the options above work then one final option is to re instal the extension. Simply go to settings, tools and extensions, trash the old Fat Rank and re-install by clicking here.

We just want to thank everyone that has downloaded and is currently using Fat Rank. We have received some great comments and also have some more pretty nifty Chrome Extensions in development specifically design to make SEO’s lives easier and quicker.

As always if you have any ideas or comments how we can make Fat Rank better please drop us a comment or get in touch.

Since reading it I have actually applied it to SEO. This is not some fluffy law of attraction or magnetism kinda advice. This is juicy mindset shifting stuff you should try when you’re coming up with search marketing strategies or coming across any problems in the world of SEO.

50 Cent SEO Tip 1: Intense Realism: See things For What They Really Are & See Past the SEO Bullshit

In the world of SEO it can be really easy to get caught up in Google propaganda, flash in the pan SEO tactics or the constant wave of doom or glory the blogosphere kicks out. 50 cent would recommend you keep a fair, open, and balanced mind. See things for what they really are.

If there is a new tool or strategy being talked about as the answer to all your ranking problems… and every blog and his dog are talking about it, take a step back and think about it.

If the SEO blogosphere is talking of a strategy that is now ‘Dead’, or you shouldn’t do ‘this’ or ‘that’, don’t blindly listen to them. Make your own decision based on your own facts, and what’s realistic.

The firmer your grasp on reality, the more power you will have to alter it for your purposes.

If your rankings are sky high because of a little thing you did, maybe a certain link strategy on or onsite change, don’t milk it and think it will work everytime. Take a balanced approach, and consider the possibility that it may have been by chance. By all means test, but don’t get carried away just because things are working now. You need to keep on your toes.

On the same tangent don’t get down in the dumps if you’re doing everything right but Google hasn’t started ranking you. You should be realistic about it and consider the fact that it will happen soon. Just keep plugging away!

50 Cent SEO Tip 2: Turn Shit Into Sugar: Opportunism

Sometimes working in SEO means you’re going have some shit things happen. Be it to you, or your clients, sometimes things won’t go as planned, or things out of your control mean that you can’t deliver on promises.

Every negative situation contains the possibility for something positive, an opportunity. It is how you look at it that matters.

I experienced this working in an SEO agency, having had clients come to us with penalized sites asking what to do. I saw the opportunity with some of these clients to start again, rebrand. Do something exciting. Strip down 80% of your products and services. Some of them loved the ideas and we worked to build a better business and have much better branding and marketing strategy. Out of a bleak penalization came an exciting proposition to rebrand and be better!

50 Cent SEO Tip 3: Keep Moving: Calculated Momentum

So much changes in SEO from day to day, most of it beyond our control. Google are changing things, your competitors are changing things. Bloggers are saying things. Matt Cutts is saying things. Your SEO friend is recommending you don’t do things. He saying to do other things. Links you’ve built are being removed. Links you’ve built are being strengthened. Lots going on, I’m sure you’d agree.

In the present there is constant change and so much we cannot control. If you try to micromanage it all, you lose even greater control in the long run.

Don’t try and micromanage it all. Don’t try and learn every new little trick. You won’t be able to develop SEO Momentum. You’ll lose control and won’t know where to start with stuff. You should let go, stick to your guns, be fearless. You know what the right thing to do is. Again, looking at step 1. Take a realistic approach to everything.

Don’t develop an Google fearing mindset where your paralyzed to do anything because of things bloggers say. What do you think?

50 Cent SEO Tip 4: Lead From The Front: SEO Authority

If you are managing a team, you should lead by example. Don’t be fearful, hesitant or afraid to take risks. SEO, depending on how you play it can be risky at times. Especially in aggressive markets. Your clients will also value you more for being a good leader. You know you haven’t go all the answers, but that doesn’t mean your confidence should waver.

Complaining and haranguing people to work harder has a counterproductive effect. You must adopt the opposite style: imbue your troops with the proper spirit through your actions, not words. They see you working harder than anyone, holding yourself to the highest standards, taking risks with confidence, and making tough decisions. This inspires and binds the group together.

Work hard, and your SEO team will too. Show an effort and your client will comply more. Asking or pleading them to do so is counterproductive.

50 Cent SEO Tip 5: Respect The Process: Mastery

Perhaps one of the most fitting chapters of the book, 50 talks about how the fools in life want things fast and easy. It just reminded me of flash in the pan link building services, 1 million directories and social bookmarks, that kinda thing. Rank #1 in 24 hours. Some of that blackhat stuff works, but not for long.

The fools in life want things fast and easy – money, success, attention. Boredom is their great enemy and fear. Whatever they manage to get slips through their hands as fast as it comes in. You, on the other hand, want to outlast your rivals. You are building the foundation for something that can continue to expand.

If you want to be a master you must put in the hours. It’s a slow, slow process. It’s a waiting game, but you know if you put the hours in an SEO promotion, from the finer details of the onsite optimization, to the careful planning on the inbound campaign, success will come, and you will outlast the “fools” who want it now.

50 Cent SEO Tip 6: Push Beyond your Limits: Self Belief

Have a sense of what you want to achieve as an SEO and where you want to be. This can even apply to the campaigns you are working on. What do you want to achieve with them? Know what is possible, and expect great things. With it, you can increase your confidence to achieve and work on better things.

 With a rising confidence in your abilities, you will take risks that will increase your chances of success.

Don’t be fearful and helpless when thinking of what you can achieve in SEO. For example if you want to shoot for 20,000 visitors a month on a certain client, then let that be your goal. you want #1 for ‘vanity keyword’ then go for it. Whatever your carrot is, go after it fearlessly, and have the confidence you can do it.

50 Cent SEO Tip 7: Confront Your SEO Mortality – the Sublime

I’ve taken this one a little bit out of context. In the book, 50 talks about confronting your own death, and accepting it. Because only then, it is you will have no fear of anything at all. Think about it. If you have no fear of your own death, what’s left to be scared of?

So being the SEO obsessive I am, I thought about this in SEO terms.

The scariest thing in SEO… the equivalent to ‘death’ is I suppose, a site being penalized for work you have done on it. That must be the greatest fear amongst SEO’s? Or maybe something not working at all. Especially when I worked in an agency this was my fear.

So why not accept this circumstance that, the worst scenario is your SEO doesn’t work, or even worse it has a negative effect on a website. Embrace this. immerse yourself in this scenario, almost so you can feel the wrath of the punishment…. or whatever may happen to you if the SEO you practice has a negative effect.

Now you’ve done that what’s left to fear? 

Have a fearless, confident approach to your SEO, you’ve accepted the worst, but you expect the best!

SEO Pricing Depending On Budget Or Size Of Company

This may seem unethical to price depending on the size of company or the budget they have to play with, but bear with me. If Company A has just a £100,000 turnover and you make a 10% increase in business because of your SEO efforts, that is worth an extra £10,000 to them in a year. So charging them any more than £10,000 in a year wont be worth it for them, your price range should be more around £2,000 – £3,000 which translates at around £200 a month. A real small business, local type client scenario.

If company B turns over £1,000,000 a year and you make a 10% increase because of your efforts that is worth an extra £100,000 to them. So do think charging £5,000 – £20,000 isn’t reasonable? They’re going to get a lot more value out of the same service more or less.

Now I know there’s a lot to be said about the bigger the company usually the bigger the competition and therefore more effort and resources are needed, but it’s a distorted ratio in which that occurs. The extra return is not a 1:1 on the extra effort or resources. The bigger the clients turnover the more pounds per unit of resource you can make them and I have to say the less stress they cause or give you.

There’s also a lot to be said about getting a company to reveal turnovers, profits and that kind of thing. In an in depth SEO bench marking phase, the conversion rate and visitor worth is essential to know. It won’t be hard for you to understand how much or how little value you can add.

Pros

• Make a fair healthy profit based on returns

Cons

• Hard to position yourself with no set prices
• Hard to sell until you know potential clients figures
• Unethical, selling more or less the same thing to different clients at different prices?

SEO Packages (Bronze, Silver or Gold?)

Simple to sell. Simple to deliver. SEO Packages, your bronze, silver and gold. McDonalds SEO. Extra fries, or links…. whatever. I’m not shunning this route at all, it does get a lot of stick because there is a lot of supposed “SEO packages” out there that are scams, or add very little value to unsuspecting business owners websites. It’s also controversial as every campaign should be bespoke to the client, not every client’s website is the same or in the same industry however if you do it right, and have real value to offer, you can make life easy for old school MDs or purchasers that want to price things upfront and want to know exactly what they’re getting for their money. The guys that want deliverables like packages.

More seasoned marketers who do their own SEO may want a little more promotion and know exactly what they want. If you are the type of company that can offer X amount of links, or a one off SEO audit, packages can work in this circumstance too.

I have seen SEO packages work well when they are used as a loss leader, to get a buyers foot in the door. The ‘package’ can then be customized to the clients needs afterwards to make the campaign work.

Salesmen love packages because it almost means they don’t need to know anything about SEO, they can just offer Bronze, Silver and Gold and then pass the work onto the SEO team – who also have an easy time delivering on a list of actions. It’s a good way to get your agency into a process a bit like a factory in fact and will be much easier to work out your profit margins.

Pros:

• Easy To Sell
• Easy To Deliver
• A good loss leader
• Can up sell from a package
• Can increase business automation and create a process

Cons

• Price sensitive
• Buyers market
• Generally less profit of ‘bespoke SEO’ reuiqres multiple clients
• Short Client life span

Pay On Results

This one is a hard one because every SEO knows we can’t guarantee results. But surely we can give our potential client piece of mind by offering lower down payment and then the rest gets paid upon promised results? This kind of deal may work in the ‘buyers market’ for agencies that have yet to prove themselves or are new on the block. They can take the competitive edge by offering a no brainer pay on results deal.

Organic SEO Profits Performance Model

When the agency or SEO gets paid upon an increase of organic seo profits over the agreed baseline. Example, if a company currently generates £10,000 of leads, orders or business per month and this is the baseline, anything they make over and above this from Organic SEO is arguably from your efforts therefore you agree on a percentage of whatever the profit over and above it is. This would have to be time bound obviously and only really works well in industries that sell online, or generate almost final sales leads on the website. This to me isn’t a great  model because there are lots of reasons (other than direct SEO efforts) why natural traffic may go up or down. A customer may have received amazing service and decided to write a review with a link on his really authoritative blog… the mention means search engines reward the site with a lift in rankings on their main terms, bringing in more traffic and more sales… should the SEO or agency be rewarded in this scenario?

Software like call tracking (http://www.infinity-tracking.com) could potentially help SEO’s in this model.

Keyword Based Performance Model

A bit ridiculous, but I have seen keyword models like pay X amount for a keyword position 10, X amount for keyword position 9… etc, across a multitude of keywords. Obviously this is an option in your agency and although  SEO is not about 1 keyword this model still works. Its again easy to sell. If you do want to offer this pricing model in your agency or as an SEO it might be better to offer performance based pricing on a group of keywords. i.e “When we get 20% of your keywords onto page 1 in Google then you pay us”.

Traffic Based Performance Model

I have been involved with some companies who have previously offered a model like this. It works similar to the Organic SEO Profits model above however is based purely on organic traffic generated. For example, a company currently generates on average 5,000 organic visits a month (takeaway brand keywords to make it fair). If you as the SEO or agency then get to work and by month 3 they are hitting 7,000 organic visitors a month (again minus branded keywords) then you agree with the company an amount for achieving X amount of improvement. Again, controversial as you could game and generate the wrong type or easy to target SEO traffic just to get paid! It should always be about the ROI, however this is again another way I’ve seen agencies price SEO.

Pros of Pay on Results Models

• Easy to sell
• Customer gets piece of mind
• No timely pressure

Cons of Pay on Results Models

• May not ever get rewarded for the work you do
• Hard to define SEO success

Pay Per Lead or Conversion (Lead Generation)

This is a great model in my opinion for maybe medium to smaller sized business. I have to say I don’t see this much though, especially in the UK maybe because its poor idea? You decide. Like an affiliate program, the SEO company or consultant will build a site separate from the ‘client’ and is free to promote however he or she wants to generate leads. The leads are then sold to the client of the SEO’s choice. If the client refuses the lead, there are plenty more clients to choose from in most markets who will be happy to pay for the lead. The model works well on a local level. Think local plumbers, dentists, accountants and web designers. Some of these guys don’t know how to market their business or generate leads and they generally have less faith in SEO services with very little budget so offering them hot leads where they can see the pound signs flashing then they are sure to want to pay for each lead. You could build sites for lots of industries and have deals with lots of clients without the stress of ‘Why have my rankings dropped?’.

Approved Index although not an SEO company offer this service on a huge scale but only market their own website lead funnels through SEO and PPC.

Pros

• Complete freedom to use any tactic
• Control over website
• Choose your clients
• No ties or contracts
• No headaches from picky clients with tight deadlines

Cons

• No monthly retainer
• Will only work with certain businesses

Hourly SEO

Hourly SEO is most common amongst solo freelance SEO’s or contracted SEO’s who may go in house for a while to complete a project. All work is invoiced at a fixed hourly rate, no matter what value the SEO is bringing to the table. This is an easy to understand model for the buyer, and easy to sell too for the SEO too.

It makes sense, you work X amount of hours, you get paid X amount of money. There is however, a lot of money being left on the table, depending on the job. A lot of SEO’s these days outsource their link building, or outsource certain aspects of SEO and this is hard to factor into an hourly rate.

Pros 

• Easy to understand
• Get paid for every hour you work regardless of results

Cons

• Profit left on the table
• Not getting paid for the ‘value’ just for time

So there you have it…

That’s basically just a few of the SEO pricing models out there. There are of course a lot more, I would like to hear your opinions, what works best for you and why… Please comment below!

I use this ranking tool nearly every day fatjoe.co.uk It’s simple and quick, love it @fatjoewho

— Lyndon Antcliff (@lyndoman) April 17, 2013

Download FAT RANK from the Chrome Store

Quickly check the ranking of a website you’re on

We worked with a fantastic developer who seemed to really grasp what we was trying to get at with our extension. It isn’t anything clever. In fact we’ve seen it done before… but not in the way ours works. We basically wanted a very simple way to check a ranking of the website you’re currently browsing for a particular keyword without having to look manually in Google or open some heavy piece of rank tracking software.

We’ve achieved just that with Fat Rank our simple but very Nifty Keyword Rank Checking Extension.

Excuse my mind numbingly boring Brummy accent in this Fat Rank demonstration…

So as you can see the Fat Rank SEO tool is great for quickly checking rankings on your own website, or competitors.

Features

As I have said previously this is a simple tool, not designed to be ram packed with over complicated features but designed to do one thing very well and quickly, CHECK RANKINGS. Having said that I want to outline the 2 main ways you can use this tools plus cover some FAQ’s that many people have emailed about.

Firstly the FAQ’s:

• This extension check’s search results in Google.co.uk Only (Currently).
• It will check the position down to a depth of 100. If the keyword is outside the top 100 Google.co.uk results then it will display “Not Found”.
• This extension counts a Google Place result as a position.
• The extension uses your local search settings in Chrome including your location. (Use the tool in Incognito to search un cached results, more info below).

Standard Use

As explained in our video, once you have installed the extension you can simply click on the yellow monster (Fat Joe) in the toolbar and type in a keyword you want to check the position of. It will simply return the result in the window of the website you are on.

Contextual rank Checking

This is our favorite bit. Highlighting a piece of text on a web page and right clicking, and then choosing the option “Check Ranking with Fat Rank”. This will return the ranking position in a pop out window. Pretty nifty huh?

Using the Extension in Incognito Window

If you want to find the accurate position of a keyword in Google search results taking none of your previous search history into account then you can use the tool in the ‘New Incognito Window’ option in Google Chrome. Simply click on your browser settings, click ‘tools’ then ‘extensions’ and find the Fat Rank extension. There will be an option the check to use the extension in the ‘New Incognito Window’.

We hope you like our first SEO tool of many! Let us know in the comments any features you think would be cool!

Download FAT RANK from the Chrome Store

Now, back to fulfilling our 10 day deadlines on the guest post orders

• 2012 Mistakes
• RLFRS (Real Links From Real Sites)
• Interflora BORINGHELL
• How to build links to a gardening store from a technology blog
• Build links for other people too
• Directories are good! (and where to buy them from)
• Anchor text – go easy on the ‘Click here

2012 SEO Mistakes (what we already knew but didn’t do…)

2012 was the year of those horrible penalties. Pandas and penguins, whatever. We don’t really like getting too deep into this algorithm stuff because if you’re playing on the edge of it, well you’re in a dangerous place. Think realistically. If you were Google how would you work it? Would you accept unnatural anchor text? Generated content? Blog farms?

Look admit it. Unless you were some kind of time traveller from 1996, you already knew last year that you shouldn’t be over optimising anchor text, or using public blog networks.

Don’t get me wrong, they were working, but you knew you shouldn’t have been using these highly effective tactics.

Now, as link builders knowing a lot of SEO agencies, we spoke to a fair few people that had their sites penalised.

A few of our own affiliate sites (Amazon + Adsense pay my rent) got penalised too.

The strange thing is… we knew it was going to happen sooner or later. It was obvious. Come on, hands up. We all did a  little bit of it and we knew it was wrong. If you were doing it on client sites or your own business sites, shame on you! You would have spent a lot of 2012 repairing some damage or starting again fresh on new domains… not ideal!

So maybe 2013 is the year as SEO’s we don’t keep doing unnatural hacks just because they work. We should anticipate that search engines are getting very bright and we should be putting our focus on building very natural links, that don’t depend on any algorithmic fault.

This is why we now don’t need to know about algorithms or what Google likes or dislikes. We work like Google don’t exist.

RLFRS (The Cool Unpronounceable Acronym)

Real Links From Real Sites.

If your doing the above you won’t care what a penguin refresh is.

Look I promise I’m not going to get all Matt Cutts on you (we’re a link building company for god sake) and I hate the ‘just create great content’ spiel just as much as the next guy. SO what I’m saying is you need your ‘surgical link building’ activities to produce an outcome which looks like very real links on very real sites… more on this later.

Interflora (BORINGHELL)

Yes Interflora got banned for what looks like newspaper links. Thanks Dave & Co.

They’re working hard to remove these links and probably get the ban lifted.

Google’s doing the propaganda thing again, making all the SEO’s shit their selves and scurry away into our holes to think of the next strategy.

Look, the thing is, if you’re strategy is going after links that say clearly on them ADVERTORIAL FEATURE and you’re not nofollowing the links, Google are going to take action.

The bigger you are, more risk. You’ll more likely have more competitors and more people to report you. Interflora were quite heavy on this:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22advertorial+feature%22+interflora&aq=f&oq=%22advertorial+feature%22+interflora&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

380 results. Some, granted are SEO blog reports on the ban.

Anyway enough on Interflora. Boringhell. Don’t do Paid links. (I’m pretty sure it’s 2013 and not 2007).

Not that I agree it’s up to webmasters to discount paid links, that’s Googles problem, anyway, that’s enough.

SEO agencies – Just do this for your clients: RLFRS

Real links from real sites.

What constitutes a real site?

A real site must have an agenda. Not just be there for links. General blog farms won’t cut it anymore. Sites on the web generally have a category they fall into. If as an SEO agency you use link networks or blog platforms to build links to your clients, make sure they are real or at least ‘look real’.

A site can be about web design, sport, business, news, technology, cars, fashion or it could just be a personal blog.

Links can be built from almost any category of site. The fact that it’s a real site is the most important thing.

How to build links from a technology blog to a Gardening website…

Take a gardening site that may have an opportunity to get a link from a technology site. “Can’t be done” some thematically precious SEO’s may say.

We say it can.

How about a new article on gardening technology. Look at this for an article idea: http://www.treehugger.com/economics/7-high-tech-online-gardening-tools-to-plan-the-perfect-garden.html

That story could easily be covered on a technology site and link back to an online gardening store.

You need to get a bit creative, I’ll explain our exact methods of link building and how it works later on…

Links must not be promotional or biased or about YOU

There are occasions that bloggers or writers may feel the need to write about just your company or website (or your clients). Usually this will be if they are an affiliate, or your clients site is a massive brand like McDonalds or Coke or Apple and a big announcement has been made, or maybe they have had a really bad experience and want to let the world know. The rest of the time in the natural world links are built like passing *mentions* of larger subject.

We recommend for your surgical link building that you enforce your links to be built like mentions.

SO… no advertorials, sponsored posts, or articles about YOUR COMPANY.

I would take two steps back and make links within content of a bigger subject. SO let’s go for the gardening store example again, and we had the opportunity to  have a post a guest post on a business news site.

Now, instead of writing a post which screams PAID POST, why not find some interesting news in the gardening world which could fit in well with the business news site…

After some searches on Google news I find there is a lot of recent stories which can be covered. For example:

http://www.lep.co.uk/community/worden-park-s-historic-garden-in-restoration-work-1-5444267

This could be reframed and rewritten for the news site and the source of the article can be the Gardening Store. Better still there may be a way of adding a link to the Gardening store within the content.

Build links for other websites too

Sound crazy?

Well take a look at this post: http://www.taylorswebsites.com/5-of-the-best-looking-ecommerce-websites-in-2013/

Who has commissioned this post? Who has payed for the link? Has anyone?

It’s a little hard to tell.

In fact… it’s just a normal post. With useful info, and useful links out. Wouldn’t you agree?

You see, building links for other sites within your posts validate your links more. They look like real links out and will be credited, so long as they are on real sites too.

REAL LINKS + OTHER LINKS OUT + REAL WEBSITES WITH AGENDA = CREDITED LINKS

Link out to two or three other sites.

The other links out do not have to be to competing sites to your client sites. They can be within the same industry. Again, it’s about getting creative.

Google is not that hard to humour.

Directories are still cool.

We use directories for our clients (although we don’t offer it as a service just yet). Directories are safe to use as long as you’re not blasting 10,000 using an automated program. Go for manual submissions, there are lot’s of services that provide directory submission, including Manual Link Building (http://uk.manuallinkbuilding.com/).

Directories are a great natural way to get links to your site using your website name or URL as the anchor. If you’re going for UK rankings, try and look for some nice UK directories. There’s loads!

It’s what we did before search engines existed. Submitted to directories. They were how the web was navigated before search came along.

So please use… and don’t use anchor text on your directories, just your website name or URL, not that I had to tell you that!

Anchor Text – go easy on the ‘click here’

People are now using ‘click here’ that much in there anchor text profiles that it’s becoming a bit of a footprint to find the SEO’s!

it’s kinda backfiring.

Now ‘click here’ as an anchor text is part of a natural link profile, but I’m seeing SEO’s use it for 50% of their anchors, almost so it’s robotic and artificial.

We’ll be laughing about this kinda thing in years to come but, need I say we just need to ‘naturalise’ anchors, not many should be exactly the same.

Look at this fantastic list of natural anchors (we use a lot from this list) and use to vary your natural anchors.

No Commercial Anchor Text

You’re better of not using any commercial anchor text, however varied.

Stuff like ‘Buy Gardening Sheds’ or ‘Buy Gardening Sheds Here’ or ‘Order Pond Pumps’ are probably not the wisest idea.

How Web 2.0 Fat Joe Links Work

Our web 2.0 service means you’ll get 10 or 20 mini hubs related to but NOT ABOUT your clients site.

Each hub will have another link out to a related but non competitive site.

You’ll get log ins to every hub we create so you can further add content.

We can naturalise your anchors free of charge, just send us your main terms.

This has been a firm favourite since we launched! We have now reduced the options to just a Phil or a Billy Mitchell.

Our New Service – Guest Posts

Our guest post service is brand new, along with our brand new web design (do you like?)

We write a unique 500 word piece of content related to your industry – it is not promotional or about your clients site.

Within this content we creatively give you a mention in the form of a link. We use anchor text, or naturalise it if you wish.

We also give other non competing but related sites a mention.

Posts are on real websites with real agendas.

They may not fit exactly with your sector, but the article will have a topical slant towards your industry. See the gardening and technology examples above.

Our number 1 priority is making it look REAL. If there are any hints it is not a real link, we are not doing our jobs as link builders!

Hope you like our new website!

Along with this new service is our new site. Hope you like! And hope you enjoyed this monster of a post. Well done for getting all the way to the end!

So What?

Anyway, we’ve really enjoyed working with these agencies and learnt quite a few things and hope to learn more from them along the way. Its partly due to the feedback from these SEO agencies that we’ve now re evaluated and adjusted what we do. We’ve decided to make it really simple and play on our core strengths, which is content and web 2.0 (hub) links. According to the feedback we have had we build some of the best looking web 2.0 links and because they look so nice and so natural they have stood the test of time. Check out this Web 2.0 Link we built in May 2012! Check out the Web 2.0 Packages here. As well as this, we’ve launched out new Guest Posting Service which has gone down a storm. Not the traditional style of guest posts though. Even better, find out more here.

Whats Going On? It’s Getting Desperate Out There!

Since we shut the doors we’ve had more interest than ever, tons of emails, even desperate ones from agencies who don’t know what the hell to do! It’s madness, it wasn’t a marketing ploy or anything but because of the response, we may even carry out a marketing ploy like this in the future so we can get a bonus .

We’ve noticed there are quite a few SEO agencies that are desperate out there, looking for the best, safest link building solution and furthermore looking for a UK company as apposed to shipping of shore. Well… We hear you… Thats why were back. Like we said the doors are back open and we plan to introduce some more manual link building services shortly, maybe even some UK directory services and high PR links.

Even Easier to Order

Ordering is even easier. On each link building service page you just submit your info and then you will be redirected to make payment. You can place bulk orders on this form, upload spreadsheets and even upload a logo so we can brand up your reports if you want to ship them off to your clients. Theres nothing more we hate than complicated order forms which take time, effort and brain power. You get enough headaches with SEO we want to make the link stuff as hassle free as possible!

Anyway, thats enough for now. Any questions then give us a shout.
I think we need to get our Facebook and Twitter live again. Feel free to connect, tweet, like, abuse.

1. Don’t Have a Business Plan, Just Let It Flow

The world changes every day. Don’t set a regimented set in stone plan which states ‘we’re going to be this, we’re going to be that’.

Instead, have an idea of what you might be. Think about what else you could be. See what happens. It’s so much more exciting.

I understand it’s hard to simply play jazz if you have partners or employees in your start up. But if you’re all like-minded you’ll understand the importance of being free flowing like water.

You’d be gobsmacked at the amount of times we changed and tweaked Fat Joe as a product and service. So many ideas and plans with daily changes in the early days. It can get annoying yes, but it’s quite exciting at the same time.

2. “Cheat” To Get Started. Good Enough Is Good Enough.

Here’s a secret – Fat Joe is not our first link building service! When we first started we were trading as Link Boss and in the first few weeks of launching we did not have the resource to hire staff to train to build links according to our unique methodology. So we simply resold an existing link building service at a higher price. We called it ‘Box Shifting’ at the time… It was incredibly easy and the service we were reselling was OK, but it wasn’t ours. Once we had enough profit we used it to test and train UK staff with our unique link building methodology we knew worked extremely well.

A few months later with a solid team and process, we launched Fat Joe.

Link Boss was kind of our testing ground and a way to get started. It was a shortcut. We kinda wanted to run it the bootstrap way, with little initial investments. In fact the only thing that came out of our own pocket was a £10 domain name for LinkBoss.co.uk – we recouped that in the first week.

So my advice to you – Get started, find a short cut. Cheat. Don’t wait until you’ve found that golden nugget, or perfect process… resell someone else’s established service if you have to. Once you have enough profit, invest it into your real plan.

3. Don’t Hire Employees On An Hourly Basis, Hire Freelancers On A Project Basis.

Ok I’m going to say something here that might piss a few people off but… Employees don’t work, especially in a creative industry. In a factory, shop or restaurant, yes, it works. You need measurable results, and in my working career in offices working with SEO’s, marketers, web designers and other ‘creative’ types, I’ve realised one thing. Employees do jack shit. They push that little button at the end of the week that will keep them ticking over until next week.

If you’re in a start up, it’s really important that you’re spending less on the employees wage than the profit he or she is generating… especially if you’re bootstrapping like us. This is why we pay our staff on a project basis. Every project they get assigned has a deadline, and a value, they get paid, we get paid the profit. It all works out good. The more they do the more they get paid, and the more we get paid, and at the minute they’re getting plenty of work.

All our staff are UK born and bred freelancers, but most now are exclusive to us, so it’s a safe bet to call them Fat Joe staff. We train every member of staff vigorously with test projects until it’s 100% right. We’re strict on deadlines and give generous bonuses every now and then.

So my advice to you is, if you’re bootstrapping – pay on a per project basis – the best kind of staff like it better too

4. You Don’t Need An Office

You don’t need an office. I know how cool it would be to bring your girlfriend to your new cool office with a couple of Apple Macs in there, a bean bag and a pool table… but hey, realistically, you don’t need it do you?

Keep your overheads to an absolute minimum.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of money we spend testing and training staff to get a better product, month on month. We wouldn’t be able to do this if we had an office. And the best people for the job probably don’t live near you, so why restrict yourself from getting the best staff? Why settle for mediocre?

Potentially Fat Joe will probably get an office. Sometime in the future. When we get a good enough reason to… maybe just to play pool.

5. Keep Funding To A Minimum, Only Ugly People Idiots Pay For Sex Marketing

We were very close in the initial launch to accepting office space and funding for staff, computers, website build, marketing etc.

We decided against it and thought, let’s just let it roll, see what happens. You know about what happened with Link Boss, how it was our initial ‘cheat’ to get some capital to launch the real thing? Yeah? Then we built this website using a free WordPress theme and a bit of editing. We got a cool video of Fiverr. The only thing we’ve ever forked out for out of our own pockets is the initial domain.

This is proper bootstrapping, and we recommend you do the same. You don’t want to be under pressure of investors and business loan managers when you’re trying to be ‘creative’.

We haven’t paid for any advertising; we simply get the word out. Talk to people. Network. Create Good Content and share it. (Oh god I sound like Matt Cutts now.)

6. Don’t Pay Yourself, Put The Money Back Into Your Business. Make Your Product Better.

We haven’t paid ourselves yet. We have been using the money to reinvest in staff training, form software to manage orders like Wufoo (which is brilliant) and various fiverr gigs (as we have an addiction to weird Fiverr gigs).

Eventually we may use that money to buy advertising, which goes against point 5. Only Idiots Pay For Marketing but we think that in the bootstrap stages that is true. Once you get out of that bootstrapping stage and you have profits you can spend, go for it. Why not? Scale it up. Reach as many people as possible. You have earned the right to advertise

7. Marketing Matters. Make Sure You Have The Best Marketing In Your Niche.

We know there’s a lot of link building companies out there. None as cool as us, have you noticed? This is not by accident. I mean, yeah, we’re pretty cool anyway, but we wanted to reflect it on our website. We have the best link building website by far in the industry. We had to.

Everything from the name, to the design (which is a modified free WordPress theme), to the video (only $5), to the package names, to the ordering process was designed with coolness in mind.

We created the product we wished existed when we were working in agencies and as consultants for companies, therefore we knew it would strike a chord for those in similar positions.

If you starting a start up, don’t let your marketing go sloppy. Make sure you’re the best in the industry. Or else you will fail.

Pick a great name. Talk on your website like you do in real life. Don’t use Stock Images. Be honest.

8. Elevator Test

We picked a niche we thought was so tiny we wouldn’t get many customers to warrant a successful business.

“Outsourced Link Building for UK SEOs”

Turns out, the tinier the better. We discussed ideas with Conversion Rate Experts, who are actually quite local. We took their advice on small niches.

I had actually read somewhere else about an ‘elevator test’ which basically means, if you can explain your business to a random someone in the time it takes in an elevator, then your business is too broad.

So, don’t be scared to go niche, then niche again. Go small. Micro Niche. Be the only one out there doing what your doing for a specific group of people… and reap the rewards

Our First Month Start Up Costs

• Domain name was around £6
• First Month Hosting about £4
• Free WordPress Template Customised by Ourselves

That’s it… Further investments were paid for after we started receiving orders

It might be because we’re just a little bit weird, but we actually see real value in these cheap as chips fiverr gigs. We have actually used or planning to use these ourselves for Fat Joe or other projects. Although some of these gigs are a little daft, others will help you in business and in life!

1) Have a Puppet Talk About Your Business

We have used professor puppet on our homepage. You can send him a script (like we did) or just send him the guidelines and he’ll fill in the blanks himself. Great for a bit of fun advertising your products or services.

2) Have a Psycho Advertise Your Business

We’ve just ordered this for Fat Joe, will post once we recieve Some obviously disturbed man talking about your business, product or services in a real weird way for some reason really caught my attention. It’s not that funny really, it’s just… cool, in a way.

UPDATE: Here’s the video. Don’t be scared…

Watch this video on YouTube.

3) Get Professional Caricatures Done For You & Your Team

A while back a company I worked for had these caricatures done, by this specific artist on Fiverr, and let me just say they looked wicked. No doubt we will be getting some for Fat Joe as the team grows. Definately recommended, looks ace on your About Us or Meet The Team pages.

4) Get Your Company Name On Some BOOBS

There’s nothing better than seeing your company name on a pair of breasts. Why not? If you have the right type of customers that can really see the true value in this, then yuo’ll get some good attention. Show if off on Facebook, twitter and your blog. Yes… lots of eyeballs on breasts with YOUR company name on it.

5) Get A Ukulele Jingle For Your Website

Yes… a ukulele jingle. It’s kind of got an apple advert vibe to it, would go really nice against some good imagery, click the link and play the video to see what I mean. We have looked all over Fiverr for some good jingle gigs, and we honestly haven’t found any that are as…. classy as this one. Great voice, great instrument, and could potentially, coupled with a video be a great message.

So there you have it…

5 Fiverr gigs you’re probably ordering by now. We sincerely love Fiver and think it has great use for small businesses, we know we’ve missed out some potentially great gigs like Logos, Videos and (yes… we know) Links, but the truth is, we haven’t found any we can REALLY vouch for yet, or have used properly. Once we do you know ther’ll be a follow up post. Remember, you can join in too, that’s why we have comments!