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With all the talk about the best ways to build backlinks, getting recognized by other bloggers, and “tips & tricks” for promoting your own blog, it’s easy to forget about one of the simplest and most effective ways of marketing yourself: being friendly.

A lot of bloggers and webmasters fall into the trap of statistics, viewing backlinks as nothing more than a number which increases their SERPs and potentially sends additional click traffic. What people seem to forget is that backlinks (more often than not) are coming from other people who saw your content and thought it was worth sharing with their own readers. Sure there are social media scrapers and bots that will account for some of your backlinks, but the majority of them are coming from other people in the industry. So how can you manipulate these other bloggers and webmasters in such a way that they’ll link back to your site? Maybe you could call another blogger in the industry lame. That will get them linking to you. Or maybe you could call someone a spammer. That’ll do it. You don’t even have to go the low road, you could take the high. You could praise and flatter another blogger so much that they give you a courtesy link. Hey, a backlink is a backlink, right?

But wait, have you ever tried just talking to them and being friendly?

Introduce Yourself & Your Blog

Most bloggers out there are a lot like you (despite their epic RSS numbers). Many of them don’t mind taking a minute or two out of their day to read an email from another blogger even if they’re just starting out. They might not always have the time to respond, but they usually don’t mind getting the mail. Just by putting your name and blog in front of other bloggers’ faces you’re exposing yourself and opening the doors for further networking later on.

You don’t have to convince these other bloggers that you’re the next Arrington, but let them know that you are aware of them and their blog, and you would like it if they stopped by yours whenever they get the chance. There’s no need for over-the-top flattery. Just a courteous introduction often does wonders. The worst they’re going to do is ignore you. People can’t really be mad about a friendly email between bloggers. Now if you turn this introduction email into a blatant, impersonal spam then you’re probably going to catch heat. Don’t do that.

Make Friends via MyBlogLog

MyBlogLog is a wonderful new social networking website made specifically for bloggers. Most bloggers who register for MyBlogLog do so because they actually want to network with others in the industry. Browse the communities, find other blogs that interest you, and add them to your list. You can also add and message contacts to get to know more people. Even just browsing around other users’ profiles will get you additional traffic.

Pay it Forward

Other people like being linked to just as much as you do. By showing that you respect other bloggers enough to link to their work you’re more likely to have the same courtesy shown to you. Keep the link chain alive by trying to link to other blogs as much as you can. Blogging is different from most conventional sites in that even in the most competitive markets blogs can grow alongside each other. Many blogs share the same readers, and it doesn’t affect their revenue. Help promote yourself and your colleagues by linking whenever you can.

People spend so much time trying to learn how to game the system, write the best linkbait, and come up with automated methods for promotion, that they tend to ignore the basic strategy of networking. Be friendly to your fellow bloggers and they’ll be friendly to you.

A question I often get asked is “how do I value a domain name?” This question is further complicated when dealing with domains that aren’t targeted specifically for one or two keywords. How do you put a value to a domain like Fantastic.com? When appraising websites at least there’s a basic template you can fall back on: monthly revenue x10-14. With domains there is no such formula. So how do you evaluate them?

It’s been a while since my last installment of Domaining 101, but just as I sat back down to continue working on the next segment (which will deal with the domaining aftermarket and valuation) I came across this amazing article up on DNJournal written by Dan Warner of Fabulous. Dan goes into great detail describing the most important factors that go into weighing domain name value: Brandability, Mindshare, Commerciality, Specificity, Realization, Immediacy, and Intent.

Consumers purchase domains for a variety of reasons. These unique motivating factors shape the value which is attributed to domains by individual buyers. It logically follows that a domain’s true value can only be attributed to a specific buyer at a particular moment in time. Following is a framework of primary factors that buyers commonly attach to each domain purchase.

This is by far the best article I’ve read on the subject of domain valuation, and it is definately worth the read for any domainer new or old: evaluation a domain’s value.

I just read over at The Blog Herald that feed subscribers reading through Google’s Reader are now all being displayed via FeedBurner. Google Readers previously just displayed as “1″.

Publishers have been asking us to report the number of users that are subscribed to their feeds in Google Reader. This is something we’ve been wanting to do for a while, but with all the products that use feeds at Google, corralling the data in one place was like herding cats. So herd we did, and as of today, our crawler reports the number of Google users subscribed to the feed. The count includes subscribers from Google Reader and the Google Personalized Homepage, and in the future may include other Google products that support feeds.

It’s amazing the change in readership numbers this update has caused. TechCrunch now has over 270k readers (up from 170-190k before the update) and Darren over at ProBlogger is pushing 20k subscribers.

As far as NBB’s readership … well I’ve officially become more evil than John Chow.

I’ve finally found a new web host that has everything I need for NBB. It’s going to be a MediaTemple dedicated server owned by a friend of mine, Nate Whitehill. The server already has a couple sites on it, but Nate tells me there’s plenty of room and bandwidth for me. Hopefully the new server will decrease overall load time and keep the site from crashing if it gets picked up by Digg.

I’ll be transferring the database and swapping the DNS tonight around 12:00 AM EST. I apologize in advance for any downtime.

Update: Server migration completed.

After running into bump after bump when trying to secure distribution deals with the major entertainment companies, it seems that Google is now grasping for any way possible to get these companies to come to an agreement with them. Just a week or two ago negotiations between Viacom and Google collapsed which resulted in more than 100,000 video clips being taken down from YouTube. With proper negotiations in the pooper, it seems Google has decided to go “mafia shakedown” on the media companies’ asses:

The media industry is clashing with YouTube over its proposal to offer anti-piracy tools only to companies that have distribution deals with the top online video-sharing service, media insiders said.

YouTube, owned by Google Inc., plans to introduce technology to help media companies identify pirated videos uploaded by users. But the tools are currently being offered as part of broader negotiations on licensing deals, they said.

Viacom is pissed. All in all I doubt this little stunt will set the negotiations back all that much. Media companies want their videos on YouTube, so they’re eventually going to come to an agreement. However, until they do I’m going to keep giggling at all the wacky misadventures they have along the way.

I was clearing out some spam at another blog of mine just now when I saw this comment:

It’s not like spam is new to me, and I’ve seen my share of ridiculous comments. But they’re usually at least somewhat on topic. I would expect seeing something along the lines of “Do you have a problem with spam? Download this shady spam blocker new with adware!” But no, it’s folding tables. To hell with spam blockers, we just need folding tables.

Darren Rowse has added another installment in his RSS readership series entitled 10 Sure-fire Ways to Get RSS Readers Visiting Your Blog. Since the actual blog (not the RSS feed) is where you’re going to have most of your monetization setup, it’s important to get your feed readers to visit it. Not only that, but you also want these guys participating and commenting as well. This post reminded me of one John did a while back called How to Get RSS Feaders to Visit Your Blog. It’s not a top 10 list, but it will do.

Google buys AdScape for $23 million which now gives them a platform for advertising in video games. They’re one step closer to advertising in your dreams.

Chris Garrett just made a new post: Are You Burning Blog Bridges? When I first read this I was a bit worried that my Top 10 Worst Internet Marketing Videos Ever may have burned some bridges (especially with Free1Up’s Response) but then I remembered that the guys in those videos just peddle get rich quick schemes and have no respect in the community anyway. Phew.

I just came across Kumiko’s Cash Quest, a new blog on making money by blogging. I’ve been seeing links to this blog popup in a few places, so I decided to check it out to find why it was gaining popularity. The design isn’t all that great, there’s some posts but not many, and there’s nothing all that groundbreakingly original. I don’t know why this is so … oh wait a minute. An attractive Asian girl is running it. Bingo.

A friend of mine, Wesley Long, has just launched a new version of his latest project: TWERQ RC3 Beta. TWERQ is a relatively new search engined, launched just a few months ago, that originally focused on tab-based searching. As the project has been progressing it has started developing more and more into something much greater than a simple search engine that allows you to search in multiple windows. They’ve continued adding functionality including RSS feed tabbed searches and a plethora of short-tags.

Their latest upgrade, RC3 Beta, is supposed to make search results display much faster as well as increasing search simplicity for the user. You can read about all of the RC3 upgrades at their website. You can also listen to a podscaster interview with Wesley Long here.

Wesley has also told me about a number of special features coming up soon, but they’re under wraps for now. This is definately going to be a site to watch.

It seems Jerry from Free1Up has gone off the deep end. He made The Top 10 Worst Internet Marketing Videos twice, and I’m not sure if he’s happy about it or angry. On one hand he says the video made him a couple hundred bucks which is great. At the same he’s acting a little crazy in his latest video which is a response to the Top 10 list.

One of the things Jerry mentions is that even Edison failed many many times before succeeding. My only response to that is 1) I’m sure Edison’s friends made fun of him until he succeeded and 2) Edison wasn’t pushing worthless get rich quick schemes. I would like to apologize, however, for calling Jerry fat. That was uncalled for. I also think some of the comments left on his YouTube page were a little harsh, but that’s how Digg users are. I hope Jerry gets a little better at handling criticism, especially if he’s going to push shady internet riches programs. I’m still not convinced he was wearing pants when he made this video though.

Below is Jerry’s video response to the Top 10 list. Enjoy.

PS. Yes, Jerry, you pronounced my name correctly. Thanks.

Minutes after I posted Is There a “Right Way to Earn”? in which I talk about the problems with making money in the porn industry, I find this article on CNN via WickedFire.

According to the article Julie Amero, a Connecticut substitute teacher, was convicted last month of exposing seventh-grade students to pornography on her classroom computer. The porn was apparantly in the form of adware pop-ups while her (and I assume the students) were surfing a “hair styles” website. The article claims she could be behind bars for “up to 40 years” but that’s just blatant sensationalism. But the reality of it is, she definately could serve some sort of jail time. Probably not much, but some. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

This adds another dimension to the whole “is there a right way to earn?” debate. This situation is unfortunate, but it does happen. Just keep that in mind when you’re considering a quick buck by distributing malware. You really could be hurting some innocent person.