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I think the one thing that people like to forget is that everything related to SEO is done to manipulate positioning.  Everyone is buying links one way or another.  If someone is paying for SEO services they have bought a link.  If someone is in a link directory, they have bought a link.  If you have taken the time to ask a customer to give you a positive review on Google maps then you have manipulated rankings and paid for it too.  There is still an opportunity cost with everything and if time is money, you have spent money on your efforts.  Is it any better than what BMR did?  In many ways no.

You think that's costly, try doing it the old fashion way.

It's fun but it makes it tough to pay the bills in a crowded and competitive market.

Hi Randy,

I thought Google was only talking about paid services.  Have they come out with anything suggesting that a small private blogging co-op would be either blackhat or a no-no? If so, I think a lot of SEO firms will soon find themselves out of business because they don't offer much more value than link building.

Exactly. I'm in a field that really caters to many other industries including Legal, Medical, Energy, Technology, Humanitarian and Academic.  If we put tight requirements on writing quality and evaluated potential members by what they have on their own blogs then maybe we could build a quality resource.  We might even have some sort of minimum fee for members that would entirely go to offsite link building and social optimization for each of the member blogs.

Is anyone interested in building a private blogging network of semi-related sites?

We are thinking about authoring a number of articles for several newspapers around the country and hope that they will be published in both print and online editions. The purpose would be to gain a Wikipedia page about our business with established references.  Has anyone seen any positive effects by implementing this type of strategy?

I guess those who didn't receive one can relax a little!

We had a large drop this week.

Same here

I think the one thing that people like to forget is that everything related to SEO is done to manipulate positioning.  Everyone is buying links one way or another.  If someone is paying for SEO services they have bought a link.  If someone is in a link directory, they have bought a link.  If you have taken the time to ask a customer to give you a positive review on Google maps then you have manipulated rankings and paid for it too.  There is still an opportunity cost with everything and if time is money, you have spent money on your efforts.  Is it any better than what BMR did?  In many ways no.

You think that's costly, try doing it the old fashion way.

Hi Randy,

I thought Google was only talking about paid services.  Have they come out with anything suggesting that a small private blogging co-op would be either blackhat or a no-no? If so, I think a lot of SEO firms will soon find themselves out of business because they don't offer much more value than link building.

It's fun but it makes it tough to pay the bills in a crowded and competitive market.

I guess those who didn't receive one can relax a little!

If you are in a highly competitive market then you can count on it.  Google wants everyone buying Adwords.

Every site in a competitive market buys links.  If you use an SEO firm, you are buying links.  If you donate to a charity in exchange for a link, you are still buying links. If you pay to be on a directory site, you are buying a link.