User-Generated Content Hopes and Fears

Let’s be honest here… we as a society is all about getting rich, and a majority of us want to be rich as quick as possible with little consequences to the means. And in today’s information-based tech frenzy, the majority of technology created and built is motivated primarily behind the acquisition of the almighty Benjamin (as Tim Curry from the movie “Clue” would say “What could be more American than that?”). I’m all about making money, but only to an extent. There are different variables that I need to assess first before I even start wondering the why’s and how’s on making money.

• Is it about my passion or passions? Am I passionate enough about it to pursue making money off of it?
• Is it worthwhile for me to pursue, creatively, physically, and economically?
• Is it something of value to myself and to others?
• Is it marketable? If so, how and why? What is the marketing value of this product to me and my audience that will generate revenue?
• Is it something of quality to create?

Obviously, quality is important to me, and I agree that I don’t like having to weed through a bunch of crap to get to the good stuff. There needs to be more accountability on users, marketers, and spectators to be able to create, produce, display, and DISCERN quality products.

Link Exchanges - One Way to Boost Your Search Engine Rankings

In my line of work as a Search Engine Specialist, I have to make sure that I work smarter in how I create better search engine rankings for my clients' websites. One technique that is pretty common amongst search engine marketers is link building, or as some would say link exchanges, reciprocal linkings, and so forth.

Basically, link exchanges are defined as the way it sounds: exchanging links with different websites. The purpose of link exchanges, reciprocal linkings, or whatever you want to call it, is to create search engine weight, relevancy, and authority for your sites. The more the search engines see your site as relevant to a user's searches, the more it gives your site weight and authority, which leads to a higher page rankings and more exposure for a user to click on your site and lead to a sale, or conversion.

The key to link exchanges is not just how many you build, but how many quality links you have. A bunch of websites linked to your site will not guarantee you a high page ranking if these links have page 2 search engine rankings. Conversely, a bunch of websites linked to your site with page ranks of AT LEAST 4 will be a good start in the right direction. A handful of page 7 ranking sites linked to your own will definitely keep you at the top.

If you are looking to exchange links to your site, look for web sites, search engines, or web directories with at least a page 4 rank or higher. Of course, the higher the better, right? Right. Ma.gnolia.com, for example, is a social networking site with a page ranking of 7. Imagine if your website is linked by ma.gnolia.com and others like it!

If you don't have tools to know how to check a site's page rankings, there are tools that can be found online to help you get started. :)