One of the first things to do is determine whether you really thought it up or not. Give credit. It just makes you look humble. If you’re worried about linkjuice, set the link as nofollow. Credit is credit. Your College papers didn’t require you to put dofollow links in the works cited, did they?

Now, if you find the idea word for word elsewhere, copy and pasting it is straight out copyright infringement. This can get you in a ton of trouble, especially with your hosting service and even legally if the other party wishes to push the issue. So what do you do then?

Well, you can rewrite it and add your own ideas to it. That way, it’s your original work, but not your idea. It is plagiarism if you decide not to give credit to the articles author who you rewrote the work from, but honestly, this is something that is done so often that the only time it bites people in the butt is when they start getting larger.

So what are your options?

Well, if you want to go legit, you can do it a few ways. You can give the person credit for the original work in the text: John Soandso from SearchMySocks.com really nailed these points down in his article. Or you can just throw down the ever popular: Source: John Soandso from SearchMySocks.com at the end.

It’s all up to you. Just remember, the bigger you get, the more eyes on you.

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?But how?", you might ask. Simple. Podcasts.

Below are five of the top SEO/SEM podcasts that everyone should follow:

• The Daily Searchcast
  A 10-30 minute show hosted by Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land. This is the perfect yesterdays news summary podcast.
• The Pulse
  A much more relaxed look at the recent happenings in the SEO world. Hosted by Barry Schwartz of Search Engine roundtable and co-hosts Ben Pfeiffer and Chris Bogg.
• SEO Rockstars
  Think Mythbusters, but in SEO. This is a great listen for those days when you’ve had more than enough hot air blown up your rear. Hosted by Todd Friesen and Greg Boser.
• Strikepoint
  Might as well consider it the European version of SEO Rockstars. Yet a bit more mouthy. Hosted by Dave Naylor and Dane Mikkel DeMib Svendsen.
• GoodKarma
  If you’re looking for a longer more journalistic style of SEO/SEM podcast, check this one out first. Hosted by Greg Niland, this hour long show interviews some of the greatest men and women in the SEO/SEM field.

Got a podcast not listed here or know one you’d like to add? Drop us a line and we’ll add it to our list!

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Because not only are people always looking for wallpapers, but websites are always clamoring to get people to their wallpaper site. Each wallpaper site allows you to not only upload your branded image that may be strong enough to get you some traffic, but it also offers you a direct backlink. Very few of them are nofollow, and even less of them restrict the name or anchor text you use for that link. Your individual page won’t be high pr to start, but the website itself will at least have something worth posting your wallpaper to.

So how do you do it?

Well, it can be as simple as doing a screen shot (print screen button) and pasting it in MS Paint, then just chopping it up til it’s your logo and throwing in a matching background. You can also make completely unrelated wallpapers as well just to get the backlink, but you’ll want to aim more towards finding something that’s going to be in the category that your site is suppose to be.

Search google for your keyword + wallpaper. Then go to all those sites, judge the pr and quality of the site, then submit your wallpaper to them. This gives you a little more focus on what the site falls under keyword wise, while allowing you to have your pick of which site is actually going to be linking to you. That is of course if you care about the quality of your incoming links.

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Below are a few suggestions to get you started on writing your next Link Bait piece. Unless you’ve got great luck, I wouldn’t bank on your stories catching just because you find them interesting, so definitely give one of these ideas a whirl.

• Free Stuff
  Writing about where to find or a review on free stuff is usually going to get you some decent attention. That is of course if the free stuff is worth picking up. If your review is interesting enough, the free tool site may actually post it up on their if you send it to them, leaving you open for plenty of quotes and click-through traffic.
• New Apps
  Whether it’s an iPhone app of a desktop app, writing about them always attracts interest. Few people use or install anything without googling the name of the item, so having a review up means that if they discuss it on their site, you might just get yourself a few links about it. Be thorough when you describe it too!
• Working Together
  Partnering up with a fellow blogger to write up some great content not only makes it easier to create a killer article, but it’s now riding on both of you. That means twice as many people see it from day one. If one of the two is more successful, this can really bring the other one up to their level, at least temporarily. Maintaining that level is another task all together.
• Uncover the Truth
  Found a secret that you’re sure people would die to hear? Expose it. People love gossip. Blog writers love gossip. Gossip = Link Bait. Sometimes even if it’s not true and you post it, the links can be worth it. Just remember that lying can get you in a lot more trouble then it can help you, especially where people with money are involved.
• Lists Lists List
  What are you reading right now? A list. What’s it doing? Catching your attention. If you’ve read this far, chances are if you write about this topic you’ll consider linking here as a reference point. Lists keep things organized and even rank things. People like straight forward information, and that’s exactly what a list is.

Hopefully you’ve found this information useful. If you have anymore suggestions please let us know and feel free to link to us! Wink Wink!

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While you can continually submit the same article to multiple directories, realize that the effect you gain decreases as it becomes duplicate content in the eyes of the search engine. That being said, make sure to at least vary your anchor text and the words around it in every author box.

Below is a list of excellent article directories with their most recent page rank and alexa rating for you to submit too:

http://www.ezinearticles.com
Google PR - 6 Alexa Rank 340

http://www.articledashboard.com
Google PR - 6 Alexa Rank 36264

http://www.articlealley.com
Google PR - 5 Alexa Rank 24114

http://www.site-reference.com/
Google PR - 5 Alexa Rank 72384

http://www.articlecube.com
Google PR - 5 Alexa Rank 85791

http://www.articlesphere.com/
Google PR - 4 Alexa Rank 57126

http://articlecat.com/
Google PR - 4 Alexa Rank 96409

http://www.articlebeach.com/
Google PR - 4 Alexa Rank 231179

http://www.goarticles.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 17624

http://www.amazines.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 26887

http://www.article-buzz.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 84910

http://www.1articleworld.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 122910

http://www.articlecastle.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 172532

http://www.articleaddict.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 176914

http://www.justarticles.net
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 179040

http://www.searchnfindarticles.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 188609

http://www.articlebank.getwebin.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 193672

http://www.mycontentbuilder.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 217336

http://www.myarticlesdirectory.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 220070

http://www.ezarticles.info
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 226574

http://www.marketingarticlelibrary.com
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 305003

http://www.hostcontent.net
Google PR - 3 Alexa Rank 359000

http://www.submityourarticle.com/indexi.php
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 42956

http://www.articledepot.co.uk
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 111448

http://www.add-articles.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 119767

http://www.articleadventure.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 157256

http://www.article-emporium.ca
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 228212

http://www.articletap.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 237826

http://www.articlesmore.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 247163

http://www.articleonlinedirectory.com/
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 257179

http://www.articleoutpost.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 264188

http://www.article-database.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 313664

http://www.article-mania.com/
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 337434

http://www.articlesrfree.com/
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 349102

http://www.tss-articles.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 444812

http://www.e-zine.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 770262

http://www.best-articles-site.com
Google PR - 2 Alexa Rank 845686

http://www.articlecell.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 200922

http://www.dxarticle.com/
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 201013

http://www.articlecenter.info
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 309122

http://www.articleextreme.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 330215

http://www.submitondashboard.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 422338

http://www.articledirectorylive.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 422508

http://www.articleglory.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 487694

http://www.123articleonline.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 528922

http://www.article-dashboard.com/
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 844635

http://www.articlefire.com
Google PR - 1 Alexa Rank 1110514

http://www.acmearticles.com
Google PR - 0 Alexa Rank 158785

http://www.therealarticles.com
Google PR - 0 Alexa Rank 210861

http://www.webiar.com
Google PR - 0 Alexa Rank 253002

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A higher Page Rank does not in any way mean that you will have a better search engine results placement (SERPs). In fact, many of the sites that have the top positions for keywords gained their higher Page Rank after they had attained their desired position (which we all hope is #1).

Page Rank is in part an indiciation of how many inbound links you have to your website that are from sites that Google deems high quality (usually meaning they at least have a decent Page Rank themselves). A higher Page Rank does mean that your site will be crawled deeper and more often, because it does take time for your rank to grow.

But don’t focus on Page Rank! If you went out and sought high Page Rank, relevant links only to build up your own rank, your more likely to end up broke than you are to get the traffic you actually want to your site. Consider that before you empty your wallet on a dream some other SEO blog has sold you.

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The links tab provides you with plenty of great options to help you see what links Google can see internally and externally. There are three different options within this tab.

Pages with external links

This tool pulls up a list of every indexed page on your website and lists out all the incoming links to that page. The pages are listed in alphabetical order on the left hand side, with a number to the right that shows how many incoming links there are. Clicking on the numbers will actually allow you to see a list of all the incoming links to that particular page. Very useful for a webmaster to utilize, as it will let you know what sites are finding what pages popular, and even help you direct your attention and submissions to specific keywords on social bookmarking sites.

Pages with internal links

Using the same format as the pages with external links option, you can easily see all the pages on your site and what other pages on your site link to them. If you have a recent articles area, you’ll notice that the links to that specific page are actually rather high due to the fact that they show up on every post. This can be utilized very well in redirecting or sculpting page rank from specific pages to those you would like to get more attention. This is a great way to see if you have properly set those links as nofollow also.

Sitelinks

This tab is more up to Google’s discretion. If you’ve ever searched for a term on Google and found that it has what appears to be a mini site map below the link in the search area, that’s a Sitelink. This can be very useful for a page to acquire, but is difficult to achieve as it is based off of Google’s ability to crawl your site properly with their algorithm. The Sitelinks don’t always show for every single search that your website shows for on the SERPs, but even just having one term with a Sitelink is a great boost for your site overall.

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The diagnostics area of Google webmasters tools shows you detailed information for fixing errors or problems caused by a regular Googlebot crawl, a mobile Googlebot crawl, or content related issues.

Web Crawl Errors

This area of the diagnostic allows you to see whether you have any issues from a crawl by the Googlebot. The errors are broken down into different categories, explaining exactly what the issue is and what caused it. The categories are as follows:

• Errors for URLs in Sitemaps
• HTTP errors
• Not Found
• URLS not followed
• URLS restricted by robots.txt
• URLs timed out
• Unreachable URLs

Not all of these categories cover errors, some of them may be there because of choices you have made. As long as they fit correctly into the category you intended for them to, everything should be fine. Clicking on the specific category does reveal the information as to what the specific details of the error or situation are.

Mobile Crawl Errors

This monitors any errors related to either CHTML or WML/XHTML done by a mobile crawl. If your site is designed to work primarily on mobile browsers then this is the best place for you to look for any issues you may have.

Content Analysis

Google webmasters tools provides you with a breakdown of any duplicate, missing, or even problematic on site content, title tags, meta data, and meta descriptions. Google states that these issues won’t prevent you from appearing on the search engine results page, but by fixing them you’ll easily make your site more friendly in terms of how Google views it for specific content.

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This specific tool set offers statistical analysis, diagnostics report, and indexing management of your website through Google. You can monitor as many websites as you like by configuring them with your webmasters tools correctly.

Statistics

The statistics area of the Google webmasters tools provides you with a good deal of information. This panel will allow you to see the top search queries returned that lead to your website, the Google bot crawling statistics, indexing statistics, subscriber stats, and how Googlebot views your site.

Top Search Queries Returned

This provides you with information on the top 20 search inquiries that your site shows up for, followed by a percentage breakdown of how often it shows up in contrast to the other 19. It also shows you the top 20 clicked queries showing the same percentage breakdown. Both sides show the ranking that the term showed up for in terms of search engine results page positioning.

Googlebot Crawling Statistics

Here you can find a breakdown of the Page Rank your site has received and the distribution throughout your site over a multiple month period.

Indexing Statistics

Using this specific area of Google webmasters tools allows you to click a link and bring up the commands to find out the indexed site pages, incoming links to your site, your websites cache, information about your site, and related pages to your website.

Subscriber Statistics

Combined with FeedBurner, this panel provides you with detailed information about your RSS Feed subscribers.

What Googlebot Sees

When Googlebot goes through your website, this panel displays all the on site and external site links and keywords that show for your site.

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The following are a list of commands that can be set using the robots.txt protocol:

• Allow all robots to view all files
  • User-agent: *
    Disallow:
• Keep all robots from viewing all files
  • User-agent: *
    Disallow: /
• Keep all robots from viewing a specific directory
  • User-agent: *
    Disallow: /specific_directory/
• Keep a specific robot from viewing a specific directory
  • User-agent: Robot_Name
    Disallow: /specific_directory/
• Keep all robots from viewing a specific file
  • User-agent: *
    Disallow: /specific_directory/specific_file.html
• Keep a specific robot from viewing a specific file
  • User-agent: Robot_Name
    Disallow: /specific_directory/specific_file.html
• Set crawl-delay parameter for all robots
  • User-agent: *
    Crawl-delay: (Enter time here in seconds)
• Set crawl-delay parameter for specific robots
  • User-agent: Robot_Name
    Crawl-delay: (Enter time here in seconds)

Place any of these combinations into your robots.txt file and save them to your folder. No need to do anything else, but make sure you set one per domain/subdomain.

Utilizing the robots.txt file in a restrictive way allows you to prevent unneeded pages from being indexed. This prevents the transfer of page rank and link juice to pages such as your about us or terms of service. It can also be used to prevent forums that are private from being indexed and showing up in the search engine results for keywords relevant in the posts.

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