It’s always interesting to see what experts say about link building. I guess everyone has their own take on that. In December 2007, I shared some insights from gurus on link value factors.

Just a couple of weeks ago, I read Sugarrae’s interview: 11 Experts on Link Development speak out. It’s a really interesting read and covers the insights on link building resources and tips of the following whizz kids in the SEO world.

1. Jim Boykin of We Build Pages and Internet Marketing Ninjas
2. Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz
3. Justilien Gaspard, Link Columnist for Search Engine Watch
4. Michael Gray of the Graywolf’s SEO Blog
5. Rae Hoffman, CEO of Sugarrae & MFE Interactive
6. Andy Hagan who is living the dream at the Tropical SEO Blog
7. Todd Malicoat from Stuntdubl
8. Debra Mastaler of Alliance Link and the The Link Spiel
9. Roger Montti, founder and owner of Martinibuster.com
10. Aaron Wall of SEO Book and Clientside SEM
11. Eric Ward from URLwire

I like Rae’s idea to get each person to chip in a link building question, which is then in turn is answered by everyone. Nice idea!

As I am planning on having a series of interviews coming up, I may “borrow” this format!

written by Feli \\ tags: Link building, link building strategy

Thanks for everyone’s comments about my recent post about my internet privacy & security issues with my landlady here in Barcelona!  In my last email to Elena I asked her how she wanted to share 1 router with 3 flats (!) whereby she told me a hole would be drilled and a cable from downstairs would be plugged into our router up here. After a few days of silence, she finally got back to me with this:

• 5th Email: Landlady to Feli (me):

Sorry to reply you late, but the truth is that I am very busy with no time to sit in front of the computer! [I see!]

Yes, you are right, exactly like that a Lan cable will be pushed through a hole from downstairs to connect with your router.  It will not happen that the plug will come out, we have it like that in many places and it works well, nobody will knock on your door.  The only thing that may happen is that they phone me and I phone you to make a rerouting.  It is not the entire building, it will be three flats. You will have the rooter and the phone that as you know.
The other option for you is that we take out the rooter from your flat and the phone too, leaving you the connection, but I think that is more convenient for you to have it.
When we will have free the entire building, then we will do a connection always for three flats but with the rooters at the staircase, but in this moment the more convenient thing is to do it like that.
I apologize for any trouble that it make cause you to make the connection but it will be something that not will take long.
I am going to be away from Barcelona during next week and we can organize a day good for everybody, the afternoon to do it.  i do not think it will take you longer than one hour, probably less.
Best regards,
Elena

Aha! Interesting… she does this all the time?

Anyway, I am pretty sure that no-one will move in downstairs for another few months and by then we’ll have hopefully found another place where we can have our own router. What a luxury that would be!

Enjoy your weekend!

written by Feli \\ tags: internet, internet privacy, internet security

I am expanding my online marketing service offering, since I´m becoming quite a social media fiend these days.
These new services will receive soon their own pages but I shall give you a sneak preview…

1. Online Reputation Management for companies and individuals
2. Social Media strategies

I would normally file the latter under SEO, but since everyone´s talking about social media and buzz marketing, demand increases in these areas alone and I am receiving a fair amount of enquiries for those type of services.
You can view the full list of my online marketing services here.
Please don´t  hesitate to contact me for further information!

written by Feli \\ tags: online marketing services, reputation management, Social Media

I never think about internet security and privacy that much to be honest. But an email conversation with my landlady changed my view on this matter completely.  The situation is just too funny, outrageous and a little bit scary, so I need to share it with you all!

Since my partner and I arrived in Barcelona we have been having quite an interesting time with our landlady. Over the past few months we’ve been living above a building site. The work was meant to be completed in January and we’re already half way through March and I can’t see the works being completed any time soon.

Hence I got in touch with our landlady to enquire about the aforementioned noise, which in turn reminded her to ask for a favour from our end.

I will just copy and past now, thinking about it makes me laugh so hard, I have tears rolling down my cheeks, whilst I am quite astounded how this can be real. I am also going to leave the names in, because the reader audience is mainly English speaking and I just need to keep them in there for effect.

Here it goes.

Internet security, we need no stinking internet privacy

Starring:

1) Landlady: Elena

2) Tenant: Feli

3) The all around handyman: Mr. Salas

4) Internet technician: Carlos Grau

• 1st Email - Landlady to me (Feli):

Hi Felicitas

There will be days with noise and another with less but they are working everyday to be able to finish soonest!.

I wanted to contact you because we would need to go to your flat to make a connection between your rooter and the flats below that will share the connection. Tell us please when it would be convenient to arrange it with Mr. Salas.

We will wait for your news, thanks and regards,

Elena

• 2nd Email - Me (Feli) to Landlady:

Hi Elena,

I’m not quite sure why Mr Salas would need access to our router to give the flats below internet access, surely those flats will have there own landline connections? if there were several people all sharing from the same connection this would make it very slow? or would the speed of the connection be upgraded?

Regards

Felicitas

• 3rd Email – Landlady to Feli (me):

Hi Felicitas,
I hope the noise is getting better.

Mr. Salas has to come to your flat to open a link, passing by the floor to connect the rooter with the flats below.  Then, below they will have their connections.

We would have the technician for the internet, Carlos Grau that would come together with Mr. Salas.  Sr. Salas will make a hole to connect below and Grau will pass the cable and this is it.  No more bother for you.

Regards

Elena

• 4th Email: Feli (me) to landlady:

Hi Elena,

Am I right in thinking from below that a LAN cable will be pushed through a hole from downstairs that will connect to the router sitting in our flat? this doesn’t seem right to me, what if the plug comes out? we would have people knocking on our door asking what has happened to the internet? or if like some days, it just does not work for a few hours? again, we would be responsible for the entire buildings internet? I did own a property in the UK previously so I know this is not the best way to get a whole building hooked up to the internet.

It would make more sense for each of the flats to have there own walled internet connection and own routers to allow for several computers in each flat to be hooked up.

If I have misunderstood what is getting done please clarify.

Regards

Felicitas

Well, what do you think? A little bit dodgy, isn’t it? What about privacy issues, someone savvy could hack into our computers easily. I am not very comfortable with that. Let’s see what the landlady tells us next.

written by Feli \\ tags: internet privacy, internet security, spain

I came across an interesting article on the German newspaper website “Die Welt” explaining an incredible social media success. But not the marketing kind.. the social kind.

The social networking site Facebook managed to save a French company from complete collapse.  After the suicide of the French shipyard owner Joel Gamelin in La Rochelle, his company faces a collapse and salaries were unlikely to be paid. In his suicide note the father leaves a note for his daughter Fanny Gamelin saying he’s sorry for having been unable to save the company from bankrupcy.

His daughter took the opportunity and published with the help of the family lawyer a press release on Facebook on the 23rd February 2009, pleading for people to donate 1 Euro each, in order to be able to pay for the salaries. Within days alone they managed to collect 201,000 Euros from 6,795 generous people via Paypal.  The workers of the shipyard have already been paid and the rest of the money will also be set aside for the employees. This is the first time (at least as far as I know) that a social network has been able to help a cause, whereby actually banks and the government have been replaced.

This only shows how powerful social networks can be, something which should not only be exploited for marketing purposes but the greater good.

That was a bit deep

written by Feli \\ tags: facebook, french company, gamelin shipyard, Social Media, social networks

Ok, so it looks like I am going to participate in this blogging “link exchange” mayhem, as I was tagged by Kilian Valkhof who keeps insisting on the fact that I don’t blog enough!  So my immediate task is to write seven things about myself,  some weird, some random. That’s what the rules say anyhow. Let’s see whether I can russle up some interesting facts.

Seven Things… about me

1) My full name is Felicitas Beatrice Betzl. As my mum didn’t want to pass on the name Klara, which has been passed down through generations to females on my mum’s side. My parents thought very long about my names and both, Felicitas and Beatrice mean Happiness. So I try and be happy most of the time. Well, I smile a lot anyway and am very well known for my sometimes uncontrollable giggle fits. Life can’t always be that serious.

2) My first computer experience was with my father’s Viktor VPC when I was 7 years old and was root cause for my addiction to Frogger in my early computer days. I really did like arcade games a lot, and I should probably not publicly admit to this, but I am known to play a secret game of Tetris on occasion.

3) I’ve been working in online marketing for almost 6 years now, and although I wouldn’t dare calling myself a geek, I can honestly say that my job is also my hobby. My biggest passion lies probably in SEO and social media, which probably has lead me to the fact that I twice dreamt about being a search engine spider, which was a pretty awesome dream. All hyperlinks, were tunnels lit by UV light, which was almost like being in a very futuristic nightclub, however the music in the background, as far as I can remember was the themetune of the Neverending story, which worries me slightly, even though I was a big fan of the book and movie years ago.

4) I own a black Junior bass guitar (as I have too small hands for a regular sized one), which I named Yoda. It’s now living with one of my friends Neil Raeside, a very talented musician based in Glasgow. I never really played it much, as Guitar Hero was just far easier and more fun, I guess. I have a great affinity to Yoda, as I am convinced that he is secretly German, as sometimes my English regresses to Yoda speach although I lived in Scotland for almost 11 years. Sometimes I wonder whether I will look like Yoda when I am old and wrinkly.

5) My first programming experience was during highschool in an extracurricular informatics class. We made a kangaroo walk from the lefthand bottom corner to the top righthand side and made it disappear through an exit. That was my first and last time programming in Turbo Pascal.

6) I do google myself on a regular basis for reputation management purposes and to see who links to me. So far I’ve not had any nasty surprises. Let’s not jinx it!

7) I used to do a lot of Ballroom dancing when I was a teen and I still enjoy dancing now. My favourite dance is the Tango.

Wow, that wasn’t that hard. Well, now I have to find 7 people who are going to share 7 facts about themselves.

Tagging along

First of all I am going to tag some of my Glasgow crowd (friends, people I know throughworking in this industry)

1) Elaine McVicar -  A good friend of mine and one of the few girls I know who feels as passionate about the web as I do. Go, Lainey!

2) Rob Johnson – A Glasgow based Flash developer, an old workmate of mine from Dog Digital who likes to laugh as much as I do!

3) Richie Kelly – Another online marketing geek and the master of paid search. Also a good friend and always willing to get beat at pool by me

4) Mike Briggs – Well known SEO guru, who I still haven’t had the pleasure of working with. Maybe one day?!

Now to the Barca crowd

5) David Poblador Garcia – System Admin and fellow SEO geek at my new job.

6) Diego Campo – A really nice, old workmate of mine!

And finally from the USA

7) James Omdahl – One of the most knowledgable online marketing guys I’ve ever worked with and also a great laugh!

Rules

And here’s the rules of the game:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post – some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

written by Feli \\ tags: seven things, tagging along