Alright, so not only was last night just a great night because of the meetup, but afterward, Darren drew from 50+ business cards he received to establish winners for the prizes he set up.

Guess who won a copy of Six Figure Blogging? (Hint: I’ll give you three guesses, and the first two are for the other two winners.)

Many many thanks again, Darren - You’ve done so much for people, and it’s truly an honor to have met you. I can’t wait to get my copy and get into it. I’ll have to post some reviews for sure!

via: NYC ProBlogger Meetup Prizes

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Okay, I’m back and well enough rested to be able to write up something and share some photos from the ProBlogger and Text Link Ads meetup last night at Connolly’s in Manhattan. What a blast!

Dad and I on the train from Poughkeepsie down to the city. I’m dragging him, kicking and screaming (okay, so smiling, too) into the world of blogging!

We left the house around 12:30pm and drove down to Poughkeepsie, hopped on a train, and arrived in Manhattan around 5pm. We meandered a bit, and then found our way over to Connolly’s.

We were a little early, so we had to find our way to where they were hosting our party. Apparently they had 5 parties going on last night, one of which was a man’s 50th birthday, another was some sort of HBO party. Too cool that we were smack dab in the middle of such a neat place! They eventually put out a chalkboard to direct people where to go… it was packed in there!

As people arrived, I got to take a bunch of pics with some of the greatest people! Let me first say that Darren and his wife, “V” are absolutely the nicest people I’ve met in a long time. V and I were chatting together for a good part of the night, and she shared her feelings with me on what Darren’s doing. (Of course, I shared mine as well, and no, Stephanie, I didn’t forget to say that you think Darren’s a ROCKSTAR! )

She was floored at the sight of all these people there to see him - and I explained to her that there are 20,000+ people who are super sad that they weren’t able to be there. She’s extremely proud of him, and rightfully so! And we both have the same affinity for “Wicked” now - which is too cool! (I’m holding off on posting a pic until I get permission - these other guys are expecting it, but I’m not sure if V would expect it, so I want to ask first.)

Lara stopped chatting a locomotive into Darren’s ear to stop for a quick photo.

Darren, V, Dad, and I all got a few minutes to sit together and chat about some ideas for getting Dad deeper into blogging. It was great - because I think Dad walked away from the whole event getting a better idea of the fact that blogging truly is for just about anyone. If you have something you’re passionate about, you can have a blog. It doesn’t matter if you’re a huge conversationalist or not - you just have to be able to expand your thinking to cover all possible areas of the topic you’ve chosen, and you’re guaranteed to find something to talk about. Even if your passion is American muscle cars.

One of the first people to arrive, actually before Darren made his entrance was Aaron Brazell (technosailor and b5media). Aaron is super cool - we talked about everything from blogging for b5 to Alexa to WordPress - you name it!

And last, but certainly not least, I met Patrick Gavin from Text Link Ads. I can’t say enough good about all these people - I just loved this event so much!

(What a cutie he is! Yes girls, he’s taken. LOL)

Patrick was telling me about his move to NYC from Iowa - I can’t imagine the culture shock in terms of lifestyle and living! For those of you who don’t know, I’m a HUGE fan of TLA for both advertising for business/blogs and income for bloggers. H.U.G.E. fan, and now, I’m an even bigger fan of Patrick’s. He’s super easy to talk to, and just one of those people you’re happy to know.

All in all, I’ve got to say that the meetup was a success. Darren, Patrick, Aaron, and others were so much more accessible than you’d think, and it was great meeting and talking to every single person I did. The thing about these guys is that meeting them actually makes you proud of them. Proud to know them, and just thrilled that they’re doing the things they are, not for the benefit of yourself, but for the benefit of the industry. I love these guys!!

Here are some more pics of the crowd - click on the thumbnail to get a better peek.

And one other shot of the view down the street, just because I thought it was pretty:

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I’m so thoroughly excited! As some of you may know, I’m a huge fan of Darren Rowse and his ProBlogger site. I’ve been a loyal reader/follower/commenter/participator for quite some time now, and encourage anyone interested in blogging at all to bookmark, subscribe, what have you as fast as their clicker finger will get them there.

I’m also a huge fan of Text Link Ads, as they’ve helped me monetize my sites with truly relevant links (of my own choosing, essentially), as well as to secure links on relevant sites for my clients (That link includes a $100 in free links promotion!). I’m mad for TLA!

Next Thursday, TLA is hosting a ProBlogger Meetup in Manhattan! Free food, free drinks, and up close and personal time with Darren and the folks at TLA. The coolest thing is that Darren’s Australian, so short of mobbed conferences or huge gatherings that beckon his attendance, there’s little chance to really be able to snag his attention (he’s in high demand, you know!) in person so I’m just really thrilled for the opportunity, and grateful to both Darren and TLA beyond words!

Okay, I know I sound like a raving lunatic here - but as my friend Stephanie from Back In Skinny Jeans just said to me the other day, “Darren is a rock star!” (She noted that he’d likely laugh hysterically at that statement, but I can’t argue with her one bit!)

Alright - enough of the little girl squealing - if you’re interested in meeting up with Darren, the TLA team, and other bloggers (or even if you’re interested in meeting little ol’ me!), here’s the details. Head over to the TLA post and let them know you’re coming!

THURSDAY, March 29, 6:30pm to 9:30pm at:
Connolly’s Pub and Restaurant
121 West 45th St (between 6th and Broadway)
(212) 597-5126 phone
*please note this bar has three locations in the area so use the address above.

That said, if you think you might be able to make it, also let me know here in the comments so I can keep my eyes peeled for ya!

Note: This post contains both referral and natural links.

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Okay, going back in time here for a second, I remember when link exchanges were a huge thing. I remember that with every single site I would build, there’d be a “resources” page or some sort of hacked up, hand-coded “directory” that would be a standard inclusion in the design package. I remember when it was important to send out link exchange request emails, and never once would I use an automated program to do it, but more than 75% of my “work day” was spent searching out relevant, related sites, placing a link on a client’s resources page, and sending out an email. I’ve even written posts and pages about it on this very site, because well - it was just something that SEO’s and Internet Marketers did. *Note to self: Update your own site, Lara!*

I had a client once, when working for another SEO company, whose contract stated we’d get them 100 link exchanges. I should’ve known back then when it took me nearly a YEAR to get them all, that something was shifting in the linking strategies.

I had designed spreadsheets to track everything. The first column was the date I worked on getting the links. The second was where “our” link would be found on their site. The third was either a web page where I submitted the request, or an email address. The next were a series of “x-marks” where I’d indicate if I’d submitted the request, linked to them, and if they approved our link. It was a beautifully complicated spreadsheet.

The one thing I remember most, is being so absolutely anal about the anchor text of our link on their site. Anchor text is the word or phrase used that contains the link. I would change the required anchor text once a month or so, so that it would never appear to the search engines that we were trying to get found for just one phrase or what have you. That would’ve been considered spamming!

So here we are in 2007, and given the social nature of the web these days with blogs and social networks and so on, it’s been difficult to find out exactly what phrases people are using to link to you. Often times it’s your company or website name, but sometimes (especially given the fact that we all fell prey to link exchange pages at one point or another) it’s using your keywords. Wouldn’t it be grand to know for sure? Well, Google can help!

If you haven’t already, check out Google’s Webmaster Tools. You’ll have to submit and verify ownership of your domain (don’t worry, it’s a simple process, and Google walks you through it), and then click on the link to manage your site.

Next, click the Statistics tab, then choose Page Analysis. Here you can take a look at how Google’s robots (”Googlebot”) sees your site. It’s far different than how a regular visitor sees it! Anyway, there are two columns here, one takes a look at the top anchor text links used to link from within your site (internal links - this is very informative, and a good way to check on what you need to fix on your own site) and the text people are using to link to you from their own sites, or inbound links.

Especially if you’re running a blog, you’re going to find that some of these phrases might be considered odd for what you’re expecting. Bloggers interlink to each other constantly, and often they’ll link to a post or article of yours with their own idea of what the link should read. This holds true pretty often, so just don’t be surprised! But this tool gives you a good idea of the phrases you’re being found for, and will help you decide either what to keep working on, or that you might need to do some keyword research and get cracking on some link work.

Hat Tip: Google Tutor

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Joe’s a great guy - he really is. He’s online every day, working out ways to run a legitimate work at home business, and he’s a big (read: huge, tremendous, loyal) supporter of other home-based businesses. If you’re curious, please check out his site, Working At Home on The Internet… but first, please go wish him a Happy Birthday!

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