Support-A-Thon: Submit Your #FreeBacklinks and Support Other Geeks #supportathon

Hello fellow geeks let’s TEAM UP! 

The Support-A-Thon continues.. Teamwork, teamwork!

UPDATE:  I’ll be re-sending this page via Buffer, StumbleUpon, and Triberr.  Come join us and feature your best content (try to keep it to one #backlink at a time so we can stay focused).  Just leave a comment with a detailed review and a link, then we’ll help you promote your stuff.  Remember to use hash tag #supportathon when tweeting or blogging about this wonderful collaborative effort!

Today, I want to step up the Support-A-Thon effort by inviting you all to share your shameless plugs right here on Y3B!

That’s right – submit your links here for FREE using the comments!

What’s the catch?

All we ask in return is that you hand-pick some of the links in this post to share with your friends and via your social networks.  This part is important because broadcasting shares and messages usually doesn’t work.  That includes sharing on your Facebook wall, Google stream, Twitter timeline, etc.

The purpose of this here Support-A-Thon is to engage your closest friends and supporters – those are your real influencers!

Please read on for some tips to make this work and more details about my own guest article promotion in our Support-A-Thon…

#ConversionFest 2011 Contest Update

Currently, my social score for the #ConversionFest contest is at 429.  When compared to the current leader, whose score is now locked at over 1900 points, I’d say I have quite a bit of work to do.  I’m trying to do this without spamming or using black-hat techniques to show the power of engaging people individually, leveraging your strongest touch points, and going deep!

My article and this wonderful contest has been a great way to provide social proof for what I feel is more important than amplification and establishing a wide network: mutual support and going deep, through your influencers into extended networks (referral networking, in essence).  It’s been a great opportunity to catch up with folks I honestly lost touch with and engage new work-out buddies.  This is why I say, no matter how small your audience may be, you still have the opportunity to do BIG things if you focus on the right behaviors and goals.

The next score I am gunning for is at 896.  I have a good 500 points to hit before I can make the Top 3.  Thanks to your wonderful energy and support, I’m getting there!

StumbleUpon shares and Facebook messages will be key…

As I touched upon, broadcasts fail because people are distracted and too much gets lost in the mix.  Each of us has at least ten people that will listen to whatever we have to share so why not reach them directly and simply ask for a favor and have them do the same?  That’s going DEEP!

The Natural, Non-Pushy Permission-Based Promo Method (a.k.a. Going Deep, for short):  Consider the potential of 10 people asking 10 people each and then it goes down two or three levels..  That’s a true reach of over 10,000 people!  You’re bound to make an avid fan in the process once you are introduced, trust is established, and the respect for your expertise brings them closer to you.

Why A Support-A-Thon Is For You

The goal here is to allow little-known business entities and creatives to share their online content with a wider audience.  This blog has gained great momentum and I’d like to share some of that traffic with you.  Of course, do not share your stuff here if you do not plan to support others here.  By joining our unofficial effort here, you pledge to…

• Share the benefits, urgency, and highlights of any content you promote via the Support-A-Thon effort.
• Never spam your links or the links of others.
• Personally introduce content to the most interested, hand-picked targets.
• Use StumbleUpon to Like content and share it to your network’s toolbars.
• Cross-promote via a blog, site review, LinkedIn recommendation, etc., if you wish.
• Leave quality comments on target content that will build conversations and add value to the content.
• Introduce your favorite influencers to people personally, via Twitter, Facebook, Google+, or other preferred social networks.
• Promote the Support-A-Thon by using #supportathon where appropriate and perhaps blogging about it!

In essence, share and share alike.  If you’re just here to self-promote, just go spam somewhere else.  Let’s help each other out!

A StumbleUpon Newbie Guide / Crash Course

I know StumbleUpon is somewhat of an enigma to most, yet StumbleUpon accounts for more than 50% of social media traffic and can no longer be ignored.  Here are some tips to help you get the most out of StumbleUpon:

• Configure your interests via Settings > Manage Interests making sure you include topics you are strongest in and focus most on.  The more interests you have, the easier it is to find content and stumblers that are a good match.  Of course, you could go with just a few interests to get more highly-focused content and make your purpose on StumbleUpon more clear.
• Start stumbling some content and write some reviews to strut your expertise and show people how insightful, engaging, and wonderful you are (cause you are).  Reviews pop up by default when you discover new sites but, otherwise, it’s a great way of having the right people find you.
• Download the StumbleUpon toolbar to make it easier to submit new discoveries.  Make sure you balance your own content with that of others.  The folks at StumbleUpon will punish those that self-promote and spam; besides, as a content curator, you add more fun to your StumbleUpon blog and show your credibility as a well-educated, highly-connected person.
• Expand your network by clicking the “Meet Another Stumbler” button and clicking follow.  Usually, others will follow you back.  You may want to send a message to Stumblers with lots of favorites before you enable toolbar sharing but, remember, if you don’t enable sharing chances are they won’t either.  The community is good about reciprocating your levels of engagement and openness.
• If you did not to begin with, make sure you configure preferences and connect your favorite networks.  I would not recommend keeping automatic Facebook shares on.  Instead, hand-pick the best content to share via StumbleUpon and other networks, including e-mail!
• Enhance your StumbleUpon profile using HTML to chunk your information, display badges, and add links to your top content and landing pages.  Currently, StumbleUpon is like most other hosted solutions: iFrames and Javascript are usually not supported so don’t expect to be able to monetize directly using affiliate links or special badges (sorry Klout fans).
• Offer to cross-promote content with your most engaging, well-connected Stumblers.  Stumblers love this because it shows, again, that it’s not all about you.  It’s really easy, too.  Simply click the StumbleUpon-wrapped link (looks something like this – http://www.stumbleupon.com/to/1FIDJE/unbounce.com/seo/the-adaptive-seo-approach/t:4e510af0b9c2e;src:all) and Like It.  Once the content is in your faves/blog, you can rollover it to get the “Share” option and then send it to StumbleUpon toolbars in your network.  Make sure you have your fellows return the love.  Just ask nicely and they’ll usually be all for it!
• Test drive the StumbleUpon Explore Box to have access to tons of content that matches your provided keywords and interests.
• Share these tips with other Stumblers, newbies and long-time Stumblers alike are often not aware of the full potential of StumbleUpon.

Hopefully those tips will help you get the most out of StumbleUpon.  There’s a good reason that StumbleUpon outperforms Faceobook for many folks that know how to work it.  I know it’s been a more significant traffic source than Facebook, but that’s partly my fault too. *wink*

Link Building And Sharing Guidelines

When creating links outside of StumbleUpon (i.e. in blog comments, HTML-enabled profiles/bios, and discussion boards), it’s important to make them natural.  What is a natural link?  I’m glad you asked!

• A link that leads to something relevant to the referring content.
• A link with anchor text that describes the target content accurately and honestly.
• A link given proper context so it does not seem like unsolicited spam or mere self-promotion (and people know what they’re clicking).
• A link that adds value to the online conversation at hand.
• A link that provides an action or connection that has been pre-approved.

Essentially, just like you are considerate and try to add value with your comments on other sites, you want to do the same with links.  If your links do not add value to content, have not been pre-approved, and break a site’s guidelines, chances are it is spam.

On the matter of pre-approval, most sites that enable links in comments, signatures, profiles, and other areas assume you know that it is meant to be used sparingly.  To avoid seeming like a leech, try to link to others and back to your top referrers more than you link to yourself.  Sure, this takes longer than other, more questionable link-building methods, but it ensures your links are not taken down.

So, now that you know the expectations for the Support-A-Thon FREE Link Exchange I hope that you will share some fun content with us.  Just remember to provide a description, whether it’s short or long, about what we are clicking to, why it’s important to you, and what we may like about it.  Looking forward to discover more great content out there!

You’re all AWESOME!! *super-duper thumbs up* 

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