To Link or Not To Link?

by HollyStar

Posted: 13 years ago 12 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I've have just been browsing, and started getting curious, wondering who's behind the words on these posts. More like show me your credentials! Who really knows what they're talking about, vs those who just want to "belong".

But I quickly noticed a lot of you don't have signature links, and wondered why?

A. Because you don't own any of your own products?

or

B. Have your own stuff, but don't care to share?

Another question, the links that send you to an internal WSO page, instead of another site; is this because there is no actual site, and the sales page is only presented on this forum? Or because more sales are generated from the people on this forum, then regular organic (own) site traffic, so why not just go where the traffic is..?

From the sites I did visit, there are some great sites with some funny niches (quit smoking while smoking???) Seems so bizarre, but I hope it's working for you!

I also noticed some neglected sites and a few broken links..so if you do have a link in your signature, double check that everything is working, and the info is correct and updated. Looks unprofessional when I'm being sent to a blog or sales page that has a Nov 2010 date...

#credentials #link #own products

HollyStar 13 years ago

I guess I'm just left to assume!
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- oneplusone 13 years ago
  
  I'll answer your question after you've done the VO you owe me
  
  Seriously though, I think most people were asleep in the US when you posted the question.
  
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  HollyStar 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by oneplusone
  
  I'll answer your question after you've done the VO you owe me
  
  Seriously though, I think most people were asleep in the US when you posted the question.
  
  Haha - someone woke up on the funny side of the bed this morning! And I thought IM didn't sleep??
  
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  oneplusone 13 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by HollyStar
  
  Haha - someone woke up on the funny side of the bed this morning! And I thought IM didn't sleep??
  
  A lot of internet marketers do have bad habits, I'm often still awake at 4am in the morning here in the UK
  
  I think Alexa has answered most of your questions, with regards to the credentials of warriors you can quite quickly get a feel for their reputation on here, and things like their Join Date, Thanked count give a few clues.
  
  Not conclusive, but an early Join Date means they've been around a while, a large Thanked count means they've contributed a lot to the forum (a warrior is unlikely to receive thousands of Thanks posting rubbish)
  
  I don't have a signature link, because the niches I'm currently in aren't relevant to the audience here.
  
  Another reason is I don't want marketers on here to know what niches I'm in, it could possibly give me some unwanted competition.
  
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Alexa Smith

Banned 13 years ago

Originally Posted by HollyStar

Because you don't own any of your own products?

Some do; some don't.

Originally Posted by HollyStar

Have your own stuff, but don't care to share?

Some don't; some do.

Originally Posted by HollyStar

Another question, the links that send you to an internal WSO page, instead of another site; is this because there is no actual site, and the sales page is only presented on this forum?

There's supposed to be another page, I think, because WSO's are supposed to make available at a reduced price something available elsewhere at a higher price. There's a lot of "internal traffic" from people browsing here, who aren't even members. If I sold my own product (which I don't), and had a WSO version, I'd probably put a link to the WSO version in my sig-file.

Originally Posted by HollyStar

Looks unprofessional when I'm being sent to a blog or sales page that has a Nov 2010 date...

To me, that looks perfectly professional.

What looks unprofessional to me is when the site has today's date on and I know it's automated and that when I come back tomorrow, it'll have tomorrow's date on. That's just trying to fool me. And it's not a good idea to try to fool people when you're selling them something, and especially not in a way in which they can see you're trying to fool them. (The same is true - and in fact a fortiori because this example is a bad one - of many other mistakes made by "home-made-copywriters" trying to copy what other people do because they imagine it "must" work, if so many people do it, rather than actually testing it for themselves).

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HollyStar

13 years ago

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Great point - but isn't everything automated nowadays? I think that most people aware that the owner isn't going in daily to make updates, but at least to any new visitors, it will appear that the info they're reading is current.

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DireStraits

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HollyStar

Faced with the decision between lying about the creation date of a piece of content (as many people do, by dynamically inserting today's date on their sales letters), and simply not having any date on it at all, I'd choose the latter.

If a piece of content is clearly outdated, attaching a recent (or today's) date to it isn't going to do you any favours, anyway: it'll just make you look ill-informed in the mind of any visitor who is wise and knowledgable enough to determine what they're reading possibly no longer applies.

Better to not date the content at all, if you don't intend to keep it fresh and relevant, and if you're dead-set on not making that fact glaringly obvious to your visitors, I think.

At least then you're not making any false claims, or actively misleading people in any way, since what you've published was (or should've been) accurate at the time of writing. In other words, it's better to "say nothing" than to pretend and deceive.

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JohnMcCabe

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HollyStar

I hope I'm reading this wrong, but are you really saying that it is more professional to attempt to fool your readers than it is to simply tell the truth?

Actually, in many instances, having some of your content (like a sales letter) with an older date isn't a sign of inactivity. It's a sign of longevity. Unless, of course, it uses one of those phony countdown scripts, and that last copy has been available for two months. Or the 'gotta order by midnight tonight' offer has been there, with the current date, for a long time.

As for your other questions...

I don't post my own stuff here because it's not relevant to the subject of the forum. In addition, this is my online hangout. I don't sell hard here for the same reason I wouldn't go to my neighborhood pub and start hanging posters or passing out business cards.

I've been doing business online since 1996, so I've been around the block a time or two. Most of what I have online isn't under my own name anyway, so linking and showing off would just invite unwanted competition along with skewing any tests I might be running...

[ 1 ] Thanks
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HollyStar

13 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

No, I'm not saying it's more professional to fool your customers, of course not! I guess it all depends on the copy itself, and the media it's in. I've seen a lot of different tactics, and I was just wondering what is effective.

Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe

I don't post my own stuff here because it's not relevant to the subject of the forum. In addition, this is my online hangout. I don't sell hard here for the same reason I wouldn't go to my neighborhood pub and start hanging posters or passing out business cards.

I've been doing business online since 1996, so I've been around the block a time or two. Most of what I have online isn't under my own name anyway, so linking and showing off would just invite unwanted competition along with skewing any tests I might be running...

This is what I was I was curious about, thank you. I'm very new to this forum, and even though there is a lot of great information, I'm finding that there is a lot of fluff in between good posts, and I end up getting lost. So many people, and so many variables..one problem, gets 20 solutions from 50 people, some who are successful others who are not...I've got the spins!

Online since 1996, wow...so you're someone who knows what they're talking about. Thanks John, for your response.

Thanks
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JohnMcCabe

13 years ago

Originally Posted by HollyStar

I was hoping you'd say that...

Actually, for evergreen content, I like to remove the date altogether. If the info is still good, it doesn't matter when it was posted, and people do get hung up on dates sometimes.

For more ephemeral info, I'd rather have the real date so I can judge for myself whether I should pay attention or not.

Originally Posted by HollyStar

That's one of the benefits of having been around for awhile. You start getting some context and perspective on what makes sense or not. It isn't infallible by any stretch, but it does make the BS detector more sensitive.

Originally Posted by HollyStar

Online since 1996, wow...so you're someone who knows what they're talking about. Thanks John, for your response.

You are most welcome...

Thanks

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matt5409 13 years ago

i put my sig link up when i registered but need to change it for a better one really. its getting traffic from this forum but it's mostly irrelevant because its a UK site (this forum comprises mostly of people from the americas i believe).
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Andyhenry 13 years ago

It's a mixture.

I have a lot of my own products that I never promote here. My sig links go to my WSO (yes there's a site outside here too) and my sites but I change my sig links often just because I don't want to bore people with the same thing all the time.

I don't really like promoting my stuff here as I consider this a community rather than a sales marketplace so I often release things and don't mention them here.

You'll find a lot of people just promote their stuff here and don't sell anywhere else though.
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