Random Acts of SEO Kindness
AdSense publishers (that’s us, folks!) can be a self-centered group…. let’s face it, we’re using AdSense because we want to make money. Maybe not a lot of money (as always, there’s usually a direct link between the amount of money you make doing something and the time and effort you put into the process) but money nonetheless. And that means focusing on the tiny part of the Internet that’s yours by publishing more content and getting more backlinks to that content.
Every once in a while, though, it’s good to step back and look at the wider picture. If you’ve done this for a while now, you’ve surely developed some expertise or understanding of how things work on the Web. Why not use this expertise to benefit someone else for a change, without them knowing about it?
There are all kinds of “random acts of SEO kindness” you can do that will benefit others. Here are a few suggestions:
- Bookmark someone else’s page. We all know that Social Bookmarking Is Today’s Big Thing and so we’re busy bookmarking our own sites… Well, go and bookmark your favorite charity’s site. Or your child’s school site. Or a site you just like. (Side benefit here: your bookmarking account won’t get flagged for just bookmarking your own sites…)
- Submit articles that link to other sites. Do you have access to an article submission service like Article Marketing Automation? Submit an article that benefits someone else.
- Link to other sites. It’s tempting to hoard PageRank by linking as little as you can to other sites… but PR ultimately depends on sites linking to other sites to work. Give a real link to a site you like from one of your own pages and spread the wealth.
That’s just scratching the surface, of course, I’m sure you can come up with your own ideas. How about setting up a Google custom search portal for your favorite local team or charity and making them a few bucks that way? Or teaching what you’ve learned about the Web to others?
Random acts of SEO kindness won’t make you any money, but they’ll make you feel better, and that’s a different kind of reward.
The Only AdWords Guide You’ll Need
Something a little different now… I’ve started writing a short little ebook called The Only AdWords Affiliate Marketing EBook You’ll Ever Need (PDF). Just four pages so far, but if people like it I’ll add in more information. It’s one of the free resources on my AdWords Tips and Resources page. I find that so many AdWords guides fluff themselves out with lengthy explanations about AdWords, affiliate marketing, ClickBank, etc. that I thought a bare bones “just give me the details” report might be of interest. Let me know what you think. You can distribute it for free to anyone you want as long as you don’t charge for it — see the copyright notice at the bottom of the first page for the details.
More details about AdWords can also be found in the AdSense FAQ (frequently asked questions), specifically in the answer to What is AdSense?.
How To Get AdSense FAQ Updates
Response has been good to the AdSense FAQ I’ve started. I’ll continue to post here when I add an entry to the AdSense FAQ, but if you want to be doubly sure not miss any updates, you now have two options:
- Add the AdSense FAQ RSS feed to your favorite browser/reader, or
- Subscribe to a notification list by sending a blank email to memwg@aweber.com.
Also, at the bottom of each AdSense FAQ entry there’s a link back to this blog for making comments and suggestions relating to that entry. I didn’t want to retrofit a commenting system on that site, so it seemed simplest to just let the comments flow back to this blog. I also fixed a stupid mistake: there was no link to the AdSense FAQ from any of the other pages on EricGiguere.com! You’d think that with 15 years of site building experience I’d remember to give a new section an internal link or two… 
I’m planning on having a new entry out shortly. Keep the ideas coming!