If you’ve followed our friends at Gnoztk’s advice so far, you’d probably like to know How can I find good backlinks ? Here’s a few tips :

1. It needs to be a hard-coded link, not a redirection nor a javascript.

You need to avoid, Your shop in 5 minutes

Suggested, Your shop in 5 minutes

The directories often offer javascript or redirection links. This is an additional reason not to spend much time.

2. It needs to be a link without the “rel=nofollow” attribute.

Its purpose is to tell the search engines that the link should not be considered like a real backlink. Numerous blogs use that technique to avoid being spammed by comments which unique goal is to be backlinks. It is placed by the webmaster, therefore you must ask for it when you make your backlink request.

False backlink, Your shop in 5 minutes

Real backlink, Your shop in 5 minutes

3. It needs to be a backlink located in the content of the page. Target the top of the page. Avoid the bottom of the page.

4. Avoid asking backlinks that all points to the same page of your website (e.g. your webpage)

Increase the links towards different pages of your website, this looks more natural to search engines and it increases the chances for your site to be found.

If you’re curious to know what “medieval geekery” is, read on ! This is the interview of Anachronista.

Could you introduce yourself ?

Greetings! I’m Carrie, the girl behind “Anachronista”, which started out as a simple blog about 2.5 years ago. Initially, it was just a place to organize my thoughts and findings of medieval interest. I have been involved in medieval re-enactment for over 15 years, and blogging was a way to categorize and promote my hobbies to other people who share these interests. I soon learned that content and links to funny comics alone were not enough to keep people coming back for more, so I started adding videos and photos I had taken at events, and my readership skyrocketed. This was when I started considering affiliate marketing as a way to cash in on those readers.

What made you want to launch a “Anachronista Shop” ?

I found out about Zlio through an email newsletter that I subscribe to from Robin Good. He’s been a major influence on my blogging, and I always look very hard at sites and software that he recommends. When I saw how customizable and easy it was to create a shop, I removed the Amazon ad blocks from my site and replaced them with ZlioZones. They are, in my opinion, more attractive than most other ad block type services, and update in real time if I add items to that category.

How are you planning to promote it ?

I have a couple of ZlioZone ad blocks in the sidebar of my blog, plus a text link. If I post about a particular subject that I happen to have a category for in my Zlio shop, I will add a ZlioZone ad block to the end of that post. I have also referred to a product or two in emails or bulletin board postings to the 4000+ member group that I moderate on MySpace. Beyond that, I haven't really promoted it, but that has more to do with my lack of free time than anything else.

Do you have other shops ?

I tinkered with a few different affiliate stores in the early stages of my blogging. I created a 5 or 6 page Amazon store, but I have pretty much abandoned it on favor of Zlio. The only other one is my Art.com store, which is my only source for antique maps. But if Zlio had as huge of a map selection as Art.com (or had Art.com as one of their affiliates) I would probably use Zlio instead. I have a Zazzle shop to promote my own t-shirt designs, and I hope to open an Etsy shop in the future which will carry my own handmade items.

What did you think of the Zlio service?

Instead of being an affiliate marketer for 15 different sites, and having multiple competing ad blocks on my page, I can just select the products I want to promote regardless of the store of origin. Saves me lots of time in signing up, getting approved and designing ads from the many different websites offering affiliate marketing programs. One stop shopping for me!

What new features would you like to see added on Zlio?

An English version of the newsletter! My French is ‘tres mal’! And greater control over store appearance – while I like some of the templates, I’d like to be able to upload my own images for the backgrounds, headers and graphics. Also a graphic button for my site to use as a direct link to my shop – I know I could make this on my own, but a nice selection of ‘logo links’ would be another great promotional tool.

How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop ?

I’d like to be making a decent income off of the commissions, but if not, it’s still a fun feature of my blog. I’ll keep adding items periodically and promoting them, and if it takes off, great! If not, it cost me nothing but a few hours of my time to set it up. Five years ago, a service like this would have cost me a fortune – thank you Zlio for being free!

Here’s the next tip from our friends Gnoztik. Good luck optimizing your shop !

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Now that you know what a backlink is, you need to know that not all backlinks were created equal ! To get a good Seach Engine Optimization for your shop, you need to have quality backlinks.

The page hosting the backlink

1. Needs to be indexed by the main search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, …).

If it is not the case, the backlink is useless and will not be counted as such since it does not exist for search engines. To check it, the procedure is the same for all search engines, i.e. the URL of the sought page needs to be entered.

The following page http://www.gnoztik.com/seo-faq.htm is indexed in Google, as shown by clicking here.

On the other hand the page http://www.gnoztik.com/seo-faeq.htm (which does not exist) is not indexed by Google, as shown by clicking here.

2. It needs to have a maximum of 100 outcoming links. (20 outcoming links are recommended). It needs to be a backlink only for a maximum of 100 pages. Above that limit, the link is diluted and looses all its value for the search engines.

3. The page with the backlink and the page that is being pointed by the backlink need to have similar themes.

It is useless to have a backlink coming from a webpage discussing Chinese food in a webpage about motorbikes. However, a webpage about road safety or mechanical sports is relevant.

4. The page with the backlink needs to have a pagerank slightly greater (by 1 to 2, maximum 3) than your page, otherwise Google will probably find it suspicious.

We can draw our first conclusion from what has just been explained: the backlinks offered by directories are most of the time useless because their number of outcoming links is too high and their theme is not focused enough.

See you next week with more tips !