1. Building A Successful Business
Using The Internet
Session 7
Build Free Traffic
[Instructor Note. Each session follows the VAG. Use your own judgment in adding review topics.]
Welcome back to Building a Successful Business Using the Internet!
This is Session 7 -- Build Free Traffic
Handout – Link Building Checklist

2. Warm Up Activity – SBI Forums
Skim F.A.Q and Stickies for Day 7 – Building Traffic
Qualities of good posts? - Skim the posts from SBIers
Any observations about posts that get noticed and commented on?
Name one or two titles that intrigued you to click – what were some reasons?
[Instructor’s note: Allow 5 – 10 minutes for this warm up activity. ] Use the discussion on today’s warm up activity to discuss student’s ideas on what makes for a “good post” and which posts draw interest from forum member.
Some qualities of good quality posts:
Unique header which gives a preview of the challenge or problem – “Hi I need help” vs. “Which Domain Makes You Want to Click”
Through explanation of problem or challenge
Courteous and respective tone
Relatively free of excessive grammar or spelling errors

3. Goals Of Session 7 Learn the steps to getting free traffic:
Adding Content 2.0 invitations
Commenting & Ratings
Working the Search Engines
Avoiding low-yield tweaking
Building a few quality incoming links
Seeding word-of-mouth buzz
Meet Day 7 Learning Objectives:
What to understand
What to accomplish
[Instructor Note. Make sure students have their Login Reminder Sheet and Business Building Checklist in front of them. Use the slide bullets as talking points. Review Day 6 Business Building Checklist from last class to see if there are any additional questions that have arisen and check to see they’ve completed the steps.]

4. Registered your domain?
Congrats!
Tell us about it!
Your website address
What word(s) contains your VPP
What word(s) contains your
seed word(s)
Did you Name Park another site?
[Instructor’s note: This slide is optional. If all students have registered on domain name, please remove this slide. This is a placeholder slide to prompt discussion from students who have successful registered a domain. Applause is encouraged!]

5. Domain Registered! SBI! Is Ready for You Email
Link to your domain name.
Log into SBI! Link in
Site Central access
Lots of other info…
[Instructor note: Check in with students to make sure everyone who has registered a domain has received access to Site Central]

6. Site Central Tour
[Instructor’s note - go to a Live Demo if possible and have students follow along. Point out that Brainstorm It! Is now a component of Site Central. Give an overview of each section but keep this at a high level as you’ll be going in detail in subsequent slides.]

7. Two Ways To Get Free Traffic
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG.]

8. Traffic From Advertising And Stores
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG.]

9. The On-Page Criteria – Analyze It!
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG. Show a live demo if possible.]

10. The Off-Page Criteria
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG.]

11. On-Page/Off-Page Interaction
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG.]

12. Steps To Getting Traffic
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG.]
The steps to getting traffic are:
Adding Content 2.0 invitations to some pages
Working the free major Search Engines
Avoiding the low-yield tweaking exercise
Building quality incoming links
Creating a buzz about your site

13. 1. Adding Content 2.0 Invitations
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG.]

14. 2. Working The Search Engines
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG. Demonstrate the six steps online with examples.]
Working the Search Engines involves these six steps:
Building KFCPs (You do this continually)
Submitting pages to the Search Engines (SBI! does this automatically)
Checking on SE spider visits (SBI! does this automatically)
Checking on SE indexing (SBI! does this automatically)
Evaluating individual page performance (You use SBI! tools)
Tracking overall site performance (You use SBI! tools)
Submitting pages to the Search Engines (SBI! does this automatically after you manually started the process by submitting your sitemap and verifying ownership)  

15. 3. Avoiding Low-Yield Tweaking
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG. Demonstrate live if possible.]
What about tweaking?
 No tricks. Keep it real and add value.
Be realistic, don't expect #1 for all pages.
Make pages better for humans not mathematically correct for SEs.
Search Engines want happy searchers.
The key to top ranking lies off-page, not on-page.

16. Class Exercise Add a T2 page and/or Add a T3 page and/or
Create a C2 invitation and add it to one of your T2 pages.
[Instructor Note. Use the slide bullets as talking points. Students will not have time to do all the exercises. They should do one at least.]

17. 4. Building Quality Incoming Links
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG. Demonstrate live if possible.]
Incoming links are one indicator of legitimate human approval. Key items are:
Establish credibility.
Secure inbound links.
Start after pages.
The major to-do items are:
Get listed in key directories.
Complete a few value exchanges.
Add some high-quality OUT-pointing links.
See the free "Make Your Links Work" e-book.

18. Linking Strategies: Link to and get links from quality, relevant sites
Establish your site in social media (FB, Twitter, Pinterest)
Focus less on PR and more on intent
Do not pay for links
Do not exchange links with spammy sites, submit to automated directories or do a link exchange merely for SEO purposes
Link out to helpful, relevant resources that add value

19. Build Links Naturally with Value Exchange
[Instructor’s notes: Follow the VAG. Remind students to register with Value Exchange after 30 pages (access it from the TrafficCenter in Site Central). ]
Important: Stress that link building should be done in a way that is natural not manipulative. Manipulative link-building is focused only on quantity, not quality links that are an authentic fit for your site concept. Ask students if they have questions about this. Use your own site as a example and go to your Alexa “reputation” page to show how link building should be done. Let students know there is another tool called Monitor It! which is to be used as well.
You do not need to mention Google Penguin (begun in April 2012) but simply stress the right way to build links: Be natural. Don't be in "link-building" mode, jumping at every opportunity. Don't worry about "follow" or "no follow." Participate where you like and let the chips fall naturally. If you are just starting out, the fundamental concepts outlined in DAY 7 of the Action Guide remain well-stated. Focus on creating pages of the highest quality content possible. Then start with a small number of the highest quality links possible. Gradually, start reaching out socially, and monitor your niche. Take the time necessary to understand who the quality players are in your niche, and who to stay away from. Let your links fall where they may after that, based on the quality of your content, particular conversation that you want to get involved with, and social involvement.

20. Value Exchange HQ Tour Value Exchange is SBI!’s
Link Building Tool – register
after 30 pages
Speeds up the process
VE like content writing is a long term goal
Use the LPI score and Link Building checklist to track your progress for VE and beyond
Use in conjunction with other types of links - expert author sites, web directory listing, etc.
Let’s see how it works…
[Instructor’s notes: This is an optional slide. After discussing the slide content, show students a live demo of the Value Exchange to explain how it works and show some examples of requests for link exchanges. Add your own tips and experience with link building.]
Important points to cover:
Explain the LPI score
Show the process of how to examine a link request – i.e., view the website, selection criteria (is the site complementary or too competitive) and select “Yes” or “No” to send a request
Links shown are a combination of SBI and non-SBI websites
Explain about the typical process of an correspondence for a link exchange.
Link placement – embedding links in the middle of content is the best approach

21. Class Exercise – Link Analysis
Get with a partner and go to one or more of the following three sites:
Analyze a few of their outgoing links– where have they put outgoing links on their site? What kinds of links are these? VE? Affiliate? Other?
Then, analyze their incoming links (go to Alexa to do this)
How many links total?
Where are some other links going? (Forum posts, blog comments)
SHARE YOUR RESULTS WITH THE CLASS
[Instructor note: This is an optional activity. Allow 10 minutes for this activity. The goal is help students understand how links work in the context of successful SBI websites and identify the different types of incoming links. Allow five minutes for the students to analyze a site in pairs and five minutes to discuss their findings together as a class.]

22. Monitor It!
[Instructor Notes: Explain to students that Monitor It! allows you to monitor what's happening in their niche on the Web.]
Use only after pages
Use Monitor It! to find forums, blogs, tweets, and news. Reply to them (adding value), building links. Do not add a link every time, just occasionally. And when you do, make it a deep link to a money page.
For ideas on how to use Monitor It! visit here:
You may wish to do a live demo for students…
How Monitor It! Works
Enter your Site Concept Keyword into the text box below.
Click on the Monitor It! button.
SBI! delivers the RSS feeds for a variety of services, each providing "a different slice" of your niche (from the immediate and short-term Twitter to news sources, even videos).
Note: Google Discussions requires you to create "alerts." The process is different.
Click on the question marks below for information on what type of content this RSS feed service provides. Help for Google Discussions will also tell you how to get this service's feed.

23. Make Your Links WORK! E-Book
Available from the Download Center
68 pages
Includes Links Building Checklist
The 80/20 Rule
Google Page Rank (PR)
Begin exchanging links when you have pages of content
[Instructor’ notes: This is an optional slide. At a minimum, remind students to review this e-book.]

24. Your Link-Building Checklist
Fewer than 25 pages
Use Socialize It!, including Pay It Forward.
Add C2. It's a proven content-builder and a link-generator, as people link to their own submissions.
Add your most important pages to popular social bookmarking sites -- StumbleUpon, etc.
Be sure to keep checking off each step as you build more pages
[Instructor’s notes: Remind students that just as they have a Business Building Checklist for Day 1 – 10 of the AG, they have a document called “Your Link-Building Checklist” to help them keep on track with link building. This excerpt from the checklist is for the first 25 pages – they can find the entire checklist by visiting the Day 7 Action Guide.
Important: Re-emphasize that while link building is an ongoing activity, it is very important to do this naturally, and not try to link build in a way that is manipulative (i.e., adding off-topic or poor quality links).
Bottom line? “Keep it real” applies to link building too.

25. 5. Seeding Word-Of-Mouth Buzz
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG. Demonstrate live if possible.]
A few overall buzz-building tips:
Don't bother with useless "Recommend a Friend" buttons.
Deliver excellent customer-focused content.
Avoid average content. It impresses very few.
Overdeliver on your content.
Some buzz-building specifics:
Write articles.
Buy ad space in newsletters if the fit is right.
Participate in Wikis.
Post in forums and groups.
Get referrals/testimonials from others.
Consider social bookmarking, but keep it real.
Use a signature file in s.
What makes the buzz work better:
The nichier your site, the better.
Have content pages.
Offer high value content.
Use the SBI! traffic-building forum.

26. More Word of Mouth Buzz Ideas
Buy ad space in newsletters
Participate in Wikis
Post in forums and groups
Get referrals/testimonials from others.
Consider social bookmarking, but keep it real.
Use a signature file in s once you have enough content
Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest
[Instructor Note. Use the slide elements as talking points, following the presentation in the VAG. Demonstrate live if possible.]

27. Class Exercise Add a T2 page and/or Add a T3 page and/or
Identify two quality sites you can link to and/or
Identify two topics you can write articles on.
[Instructor Note. Use the slide bullets as talking points. Students will not have time to do all the exercises. They should do one at least.]

28. Your Business-Building Homework
Study Day 8 of the Action Guide.
Continue work on your homepage
Continue to create more TIER 2 and 3 keyword focused content pages.
Read Make Your Links Work eBook
Any Questions? Warren
[Instructor Note. Go over the homework points, emphasizing that it is business-building homework, not school homework. Remind students to use the Business Building Checklist to keep themselves on track.]