Tips and Tricks

There is a legend circulating Austin around the circumstances of Matthew McConaughey’s rise to fame, and more specifically how he was cast in his breakout role in Dazed and Confused. Rumor has it that while McConaughey was a College of Communications student at the University of Texas, he caught wind that the casting crew was hanging out at the bar of the Driskill Hotel in Austin’s infamous Sixth Street District.

He used his charm and networking skills to convince them that he was the epitome of a small town, homegrown, Texas country boy. Moments after the nation viewed him ‘loving those redheads’ and making sure freshmen were watching the leather, man, McConaughey instantly put the ‘sexy’ back into Texas.

While most of us won’t be able to beat bongo drums close to the beat of McConaughey’s success, that doesn’t mean we can’t hone our own networking skills and dominate our own industry. There are ways to bulk up the rolodex, iPhone book, facebook fanpage, twitter followers, and email contacts without assault people with business cards. Here are five networking tips will keep you connected. Read more »

Here's a great strategy for getting high-quality links: Write a testimonial for a company whose products or services you use. For example, we have several SEO testimonials from our customers. Each one contains a link to our customer.

Of course you want to make sure that they include links to their customers in the testimonial. Just search their site and find one. If they do, you're in luck! This is a great way to get a high-quality, relevant link. Read more »

For years Google has underreported the link: results which show how many inbound links a particular website has. [example: link:www.sprydev.com] This was done deliberately because Google feared (rightly so) that people would use the link data to influence their results. Read more »

If you want to build links fast, consider giving something away. It doesn't have to be huge, it just has to be interesting to your audience. Make sure the world hears about it by using press releases and community news websites like digg or del.icio.us. Read more »

Inbound links refer to other Web sites that have links to a specific page. Inbound links are always the most difficult to get because it says “This Webpage is so valuable to my readers that we had to include a link to it.” That’s a tough sell unless you have a truly excellent Web site.

Here are some tips on how to make your Web site a link magnet. Read more »

Although it may not seem like it, a sizable amount of traffic can pour in from a directory listing. Directories provide a place for small business owners and Web creators alike to make their site more visible to the public. Web surfers often use directories when they are in search of a local service or product.

Directories can be free or paid, although free directories often do not guarantee that your Web site will ever make it into their listings. A paid listing will typically guarantee placement within a set time limit (usually within 7 days). Read more »