Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I may be one of the few here on the moz that actually use BMR. I will probably be looked down upon by the moz community but I will give you my honest opinion.

BMR requires unique content. Yes, it only requires 150 words to get a link AND you can control the anchor text, but what is twitter? Twitter is a great example of a way that you can use a service for good or evil. I try to create every BMR article like it is a real article going to be read by an actual person (though I am aware it probably won't be).

I will be the first to admit that people abuse BMR, just like they abuse twitter. Spamming isn't a tool, it is a strategy.

All that being said, BMR is expensive, time consuming and NOT an anchor in any realistic strategy. If you are thinking more than 25% (random number I pulled from thin air) of your time and/or links are going to be spent using BMR, I wouldn't bother.

The cost is another issue. I am debating whether it is really worth the money. I like using the service along side other more "white hat" techniques but it really can be expensive both in time and in money.

It would probably take you 30min to an hour to write 5 BMR posts. Sure you can control the anchor text and you could even get a high PR from the links, but you would probably be better off spending that time getting a guest post. You still control the anchor (in most cases) and you can even control the PR (BMR randomly assigns you). PLUS if you are guest posting you are getting traffic from it and people are actually seeing your stuff. 5 BMR posts would be 750 words, that could also just be one awesome post with links being built off your post while you sleep!

In summary (because I am ranting), I use it, but never at the cost of other link building strategies like guest posting or just lurking my competition and finding out how they got their links.

Stay away from UAW, AMR, Scrapebox Blasts, SeNukeX, Bookmarking Demon etc. They are ridiculously expensive, work only in super low competition keywords (which you could rank for faster using guest posting or manual article submissions) and nowadays they only work to strengthen link wheels (which is another hot topic of debate around the forums).

So, hopefully I didn't confuse you too badly, but if you have any questions about BMR the service itself let me know.

Wow! You designed the first Pinterest WP plugin? That is so cool.

I agree with everything you said, and not just because I think you are awesome for developing the plugin.

My wife runs a craft blog and gets almost 2k a month in traffic from pinterest. The traffic coming in seems to do really well in terms of purchasing things from her site.She also uses craftgawker which has been HUGE in terms of targeted traffic to her blog.

With Pinterest, you need to be mindful of the trending images and topics, just like twitter. Sit and watch what is going on there. If your company doesn't naturally fit in there, I wouldn't worry about using it. You will end up wasting time and resources trying to crack the "pinterest code".

I would look at the categories that pinterest has listed on their site and if you don't fit in, then move on. Pinterest is amazing, don't get me wrong. I wish I was ben or paul or any of them! But I wouldn't get too wrapped up in using pinterest just because everyone else will. In a way I feel sorry for pinterest. What made them great when I first started using it was how uncluttered it was with terrible stuff. Sort of like twitter in the beginning. Now that more and more people are talking about it in a marketing way, I can already tell it is heading down the twitter path.

Pinterest is great for companies who want to contribute without a huge expectation of anything in return.

This was totally unhelpful and I apologize

Hello, My tiny little company has been lucky enough to do this with a couple of other companies. We enjoy partnerships but there is a lot to watch out for on both ends. The first and most important in my opinion are the contracts. How robust are the contracts? Did one or both of the parties involved have the contracts drafted by a good lawyer or are they chicken scratch on the back of a napkin, or even worse "give you my word" contracts? A clear an defined contract is going to be a huge deal later down the road when you both realize it hasn't been going how you expected it to. The seo company will realize how much work they are performing and you will realize how slow it is all taking. The second and equally important thing to consider is does the companies link building style work with your own personal style and ethics? If they use scrapebox or some software like that, are you gonna be upset? It is important to hash out the details. If the seo company doesn't want to tell you about their tactics and you are deep into the partnership conversations then you should be weary. This is a partnership. If you aren't transparent, don't expect this to work. Third, you have to be transparent. The both of you. If you are the business, you need to show financial records, past traffic etc etc. if you are the seo company you better be willing to share your tactics. Hiding stuff is the best way to ruin any possible joint venture. If you haven't already been swamped with offers, send me a note. Would be happy to help you navigate potential oppourtunities.

Very helpful info thanks! Not to delve into the dark side of the force, but if it was possible to knock somebody off for even a few days or weeks there are some companies that could really suffer. It sounds, however, like you are talking about reason #356473 for why building "good" links are so important. (not that we needed any more) Thanks, Mike

Very interesting. This would be a very interesting post to read if someone was able to get some decent data. Only thing is, who is gonna give up rankings for some data?

This might be a really obvious question but... If building bad links (spam links) negatively impacts and even sometimes draws penalties, what is there to prevent others from building links like to my site to try and strip me of my rankings (like from my competitors)? I ran a quick link analysis and noticed a bunch of spam links pointing to my site the other day. I haven't been affected yet but it was only like two days ago that I saw those. Just curious. Is hostile seo going to be an emerging trend? If so it will be a really easy job. Just go to fiverr and buy 20 bucks worth of links...

My wife runs a craft blog and gets almost 2k a month in traffic from pinterest. The traffic coming in seems to do really well in terms of purchasing things from her site.She also uses craftgawker which has been HUGE in terms of targeted traffic to her blog.

With Pinterest, you need to be mindful of the trending images and topics, just like twitter. Sit and watch what is going on there. If your company doesn't naturally fit in there, I wouldn't worry about using it. You will end up wasting time and resources trying to crack the "pinterest code".

I would look at the categories that pinterest has listed on their site and if you don't fit in, then move on. Pinterest is amazing, don't get me wrong. I wish I was ben or paul or any of them! But I wouldn't get too wrapped up in using pinterest just because everyone else will. In a way I feel sorry for pinterest. What made them great when I first started using it was how uncluttered it was with terrible stuff. Sort of like twitter in the beginning. Now that more and more people are talking about it in a marketing way, I can already tell it is heading down the twitter path.

Pinterest is great for companies who want to contribute without a huge expectation of anything in return.

This was totally unhelpful and I apologize

I may be one of the few here on the moz that actually use BMR. I will probably be looked down upon by the moz community but I will give you my honest opinion.

BMR requires unique content. Yes, it only requires 150 words to get a link AND you can control the anchor text, but what is twitter? Twitter is a great example of a way that you can use a service for good or evil. I try to create every BMR article like it is a real article going to be read by an actual person (though I am aware it probably won't be).

I will be the first to admit that people abuse BMR, just like they abuse twitter. Spamming isn't a tool, it is a strategy.

All that being said, BMR is expensive, time consuming and NOT an anchor in any realistic strategy. If you are thinking more than 25% (random number I pulled from thin air) of your time and/or links are going to be spent using BMR, I wouldn't bother.

The cost is another issue. I am debating whether it is really worth the money. I like using the service along side other more "white hat" techniques but it really can be expensive both in time and in money.

It would probably take you 30min to an hour to write 5 BMR posts. Sure you can control the anchor text and you could even get a high PR from the links, but you would probably be better off spending that time getting a guest post. You still control the anchor (in most cases) and you can even control the PR (BMR randomly assigns you). PLUS if you are guest posting you are getting traffic from it and people are actually seeing your stuff. 5 BMR posts would be 750 words, that could also just be one awesome post with links being built off your post while you sleep!

In summary (because I am ranting), I use it, but never at the cost of other link building strategies like guest posting or just lurking my competition and finding out how they got their links.

Stay away from UAW, AMR, Scrapebox Blasts, SeNukeX, Bookmarking Demon etc. They are ridiculously expensive, work only in super low competition keywords (which you could rank for faster using guest posting or manual article submissions) and nowadays they only work to strengthen link wheels (which is another hot topic of debate around the forums).

So, hopefully I didn't confuse you too badly, but if you have any questions about BMR the service itself let me know.

Hello, My tiny little company has been lucky enough to do this with a couple of other companies. We enjoy partnerships but there is a lot to watch out for on both ends. The first and most important in my opinion are the contracts. How robust are the contracts? Did one or both of the parties involved have the contracts drafted by a good lawyer or are they chicken scratch on the back of a napkin, or even worse "give you my word" contracts? A clear an defined contract is going to be a huge deal later down the road when you both realize it hasn't been going how you expected it to. The seo company will realize how much work they are performing and you will realize how slow it is all taking. The second and equally important thing to consider is does the companies link building style work with your own personal style and ethics? If they use scrapebox or some software like that, are you gonna be upset? It is important to hash out the details. If the seo company doesn't want to tell you about their tactics and you are deep into the partnership conversations then you should be weary. This is a partnership. If you aren't transparent, don't expect this to work. Third, you have to be transparent. The both of you. If you are the business, you need to show financial records, past traffic etc etc. if you are the seo company you better be willing to share your tactics. Hiding stuff is the best way to ruin any possible joint venture. If you haven't already been swamped with offers, send me a note. Would be happy to help you navigate potential oppourtunities.

Wow! You designed the first Pinterest WP plugin? That is so cool.

I agree with everything you said, and not just because I think you are awesome for developing the plugin.