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We don’t often depart from normal marketing news coverage, but over at SEOmoz, Rand Fishkin has put together some great advice for any blogger hoping to match the 1 million backlinks they’ve built.
Although I’ve worked with Rand, it’s as an outside observer that I’ve been able to pinpoint the majority of SEOmoz’s success, and I’m glad that Rand’s covered this in his post. SEOmoz is one of the most powerful SEO communities on the web. There are few sites that have the same loyalty and numbers that SEOmoz has and it’s something they cherish and nurture with ever breath they take.
Any blogger would be wise to absorb what Rand has to say about building communities. Here’s the first of five tips he offers on the topic:
Don’t pretend to care, actually care – I think this lesson took me a few years to learn, but it’s been invaluable. While it might seem like a good idea to feign an interest in a person you meet, it’s far better to actually be interested in them. There’s a difference, and almost everyone can tell. Personally, I probe until I find something fascinating, and trust me, there’s almost always something you can connect on when it comes to people you meet during professional networking events – a school, a mutual friend, an industry event, a news item, a hobby, etc. Whatever that common ground is, find it – your reward will be a positive connection that both parties remember.
Congratulations to SEOmoz on their success! Marketing Pilgrim’s still less than two years old, so we’ve got a long way to go in increasing our backlink numbers – although I’m chuffed to bits to have 180k+ of them.
