百度程序员徐海洋故事|林子超博客

《中国程序员英雄传》主要讲述国内最顶级的程序员成长成功的真实故事。

本篇的为给各位介绍的是百度徐海洋，原百度网页搜索首席架构师，后于微软亚洲研究院从事神经网络与人工智能研发。本次访谈篇幅较长，社区会分几部分分批登载。

2017年3月16日，初春的上地。有一段时间没来，还是感觉很亲切，路边有许多的花已经开了，垂柳也绽放出了新芽，西二旗地区涌动着暖暖春意。

今天要访谈的人物是原百度网页搜索引擎技术负责人名叫徐海洋，我和他约在硅谷亮城——他的新办公室。

此次访谈是经过原创业家杂志的易涛先生介绍，他说徐海洋是人工智能大牛，目前BAT有关搜索引擎和人工智能很多人都是他的『徒弟』。我怀着敬佩的心情在百度上百度了这个百度人，但并没有给我特别多的信息。

在21CTO社区，也有一部分来自于百度，早年的技术管理者与我也有相识，这次见徐之前也是心里打着鼓，会不会是一个假的CTO？

带着有一点怀疑的心理，来到他的办公室——位于上地的硅谷亮城。徐海洋的办公室还在装修，但里面已经有几位同事和妹子在公办。

迎到我眼前是是一位为人和善，颇有亲和力的眼镜男，这便是徐海洋。

彼此自我介绍了一番，便开始了程序员与程序员的对话。

成长历程

徐海洋，生于1978年，一个湖北省武汉市的农村家庭。现在是一位幸福的父亲。

2001年，徐海洋研究生毕业。

让人好奇的，按正常的进度，2001年该是本科毕业，而徐却研空生毕业，难道我遇到了传说中的神童，少年班的学霸。

原来在徐海洋的老家，父母很早就送他上学，五岁就开始上小一，跟着比自己大两三岁的孩子一起读书。

这样好处不言而喻，年纪不大就读完了硕士，不好的地方就是与比自己年龄大3岁的同学一起，心智，成熟度的不一致，简单讲就是这些『大孩子』不带他玩。

这样实际上让他的社交能力有所减弱，让他变得有一点点孤僻，性格变得内向。他是这样回想总结，也许是这种情况，也许海洋本身性格就是这个样子的。

从农村家庭长大的孩子，加上70年代末还是物资贫乏的年代，每家的孩子基本都是散养状态，有一部分外部环境会影响人的性格，好处是可以自我学习，没人管。

从此角度看，徐海洋在那个年代能够本硕连读，肯定是当之无愧的学霸。

2001年，徐海洋从中科院研究生院走出来，踌躇满志开始寻找工作机会。

那个时候，大部分人还是喜欢进IBM,微软或者人民银行，国泰证券等外企或国企，私企和互联网企业意味着虚浮，不稳定，苦逼。

徐海洋在一开始就决定加入一家互联网公司，比如新浪等门户网站，后来选择了还在北大资源宾馆办公的搜索引擎公司，也就是百度。

此时的百度总共四十余人，技术团队十几个人，聚集着像刘建国，雷鸣，周利民这样的业界顶级技术专家。

百度创立于2000年，创始人李彦宏从美国拿着一笔天使轮资金回到北京，一落地就开始着手本地搜索引擎研发。他把当时在国内做最好的搜索引擎技术团队——北大天网搜索引擎的几位专家全部聚在一起，成为其技术团队的第一批员工。

2001年，百度的搜索业务刚有所起步。徐海洋的加入，也给百度的技术DNA又加入了新鲜血液。

我问他为什么能进百度？海洋说他喜欢互联网，喜欢技术，进百度也有一部分的运气成分在里面。

初入百度的徐海洋，与刘姥姥进大观园一般，新鲜刺激。徐海洋并不是计算机专业，来到工作场合，发现身边都是大牛，还是有些压力的。

徐海洋从一个工程师做起，到2004年，不到三年时间跃升为百度搜索部门的首席架构师。

百度有一个规则，工程师的决策权在研发层面有绝对的权利，无论是产品需求还是初级工程师的方案，都要经过徐海洋这一层别的评审放行，方可进行实施。

百度搜索架构

百度有一个Slogan：简单可依赖。它的技术架构也是如此。

徐海洋所在网页搜索部门，在2002年左右，最初只有4个人，直到2005年百度在NASDAQ上市，也只有不到20人的规模。

网页搜索所使用的服务器集群也只有600多台，支撑着每天几亿的搜索请求。

这和百度的搜索架构有很大关系，所有的技术用最精简的方式开发。

如分布式文件系统只使用Linux的文件系统EXT FS，其余的组件，百度蜘蛛，索引分词等全部自己开发。

搜索引擎的核心，拿徐海洋的话说，也就二十几万行代码。并且还有一部分重复的工作，这一部分工作绝大多数是他自己独立开发完的。

如果让他再开发一套爬虫系统，他能再倒着写一遍，代码还能再精简几万。

这如同我们能把道德经一样倒背如流是一样的道理。

一个人十五年来，不跟风不动摇，只做一件事儿，那就是搜索引擎。

这个人就是徐海洋。

今天的访谈将近2小时。明天我们继续整理登载徐海洋关于百度网页搜索架构，程序员自我管理，思维认知升级，团队管理成以及产品理解等内容。

What are chatbots and why the heck do you need them?|林子超博客

What are chatbots and why the heck do you need them?

Devin Coldewey, a writer for NBC News, states:

“Chatbots have existed for a good while — at least since ELIZA, an early bot that attempted to psychoanalyze people, was created in the ’60s. But the last few years have seen an explosion of applications that make people interact with bots as though they’re talking to another person.”

True, chatbots are normally used to answer simple questions, including basic product information or company contact info. In some cases though, chatbot conversations might merged or combined with actual humans so that the answers generated become more complex and useful to the end user.

Here is the kicker though – thanks to AI, a chatbot can actually get smarter the more it is used. It can learn from previous conversations and interactions so that it continues to become even more effective.

Here’s a few simple ways to implement chatbots into your business:

1. A salesman built right into your website

If you own a small business that has a web presence, you are most likely short on time. You’re easily busy tending to other tasks that are higher on your priority list than simply waiting on a potential customer to write in or even send you a direct message.  Sure you can hire a customer service rep or even a service, but that costs precious dollars that you are trying to save.

Chatbots however, are relatively inexpensive to set up and run and are online and ready to answer your customer’s questions 24/7. This means while your pretty little head is fast asleep in your big comfy bed, your chatbot is hard at work answering all those questions.

2.  Wider demographic

Because chatbots never need to break for coffee, call out sick, or only work a strict 8 hour shift – they are available around the clock.  They are basically able to reach a virtually limitless audience (timezone wise). They can reach a new customer base for your brand that was once untouchable.  

3.  Increased engagement

Engagement is pretty much life to any marketing plan. If you can get your audience engaged with your brand, they will most likely be more likely to buy from you in the future.

Actions normally define engagement, such as clicking on a video, leaving a comment, or even sharing an article.  With chatbots though, this is starting to evolve into much more. A chatbot can actually converse with your potential customers in a way that not only answers their questions regarding your products, but also builds brand loyalty.

There are many more ways to increase your marketing efforts using a chatbot. What are some of the ways you are using them in your business or would like to use them? We would love to hear all about them in the comments below.

How to Make Money with AdWords (Without Experience!) ？|林子超博客

The online money game is real. 34% of Fortune 500 companies maintain an active blog. Why? Because there’s money in it.

But setting words down and publishing them isn’t what makes money online. The 81% of bloggers who don’t even make $100 a year from their blog is a testament to that.

If you look at the top five highest earning blogs out there, they’re getting their money through advertising revenue.

The top online ad service in the world is Google Adwords. And it pays handsomely for each customer that clicks on their ads.

So how do you take advantage of that pay? It might seem you’d need years of experience in online advertising or something, right?

Read on and I’ll show you how to make money with AdWords.

1. How to Make Money with AdWords Affiliate Marketing- Without a Website

You don’t have the time to set up an affiliate marketing website and maintain content (you should definitely find time to do this eventually. You’ll make more money). That’s ok. AdWords is your friend.

The principle behind using AdWords for affiliate marketing is rooted in basic economics. As long as each click or even several clicks result in more income than loss, you’ve made a profit.

Even if your transactions are small but many, you will quickly build revenue.

You do have to be careful what affiliate you choose. It depends on the affiliate’s rules and how much of a commission they award.

If you choose the right niche, you’ll be making ten times the money you put in. But affiliate marketing with only an AdWords account will have to be an investment.

You will have to learn how to craft excellent ads. And this will take some practice.

An AdWords ad consists of three parts. A headline and two descriptions.

That’s it. You have three lines to get someone to click. You also have three lines to get people who want to buy what you’re selling to click. This is how to make money on AdWords.

It takes precision.

The Headline

Here is where you attract your reader’s attention. The headline must be both catchy and accurate.

You will also need to learn how to research keywords. CPL Marketing SEO services are a company that can help you figure out which keywords you should target if you’re unsure of what to do.

AdWords places your ads according to keywords. And each headline should contain the keyword.

The First Description

Here you tell people about the benefits of the product or service. It’s where you give readers a sense of value about the product.

The Second Description

This is where you present your call to action. A call to action is a direct, active command. “Click here for more!” or “Subscribe to our channel!” are both basic versions of a call to action.

The Dangers of This Method

Traditional methods of affiliate marketing will always be safer than any shortcut. Doing the work of building a website and filling it with useful content will always pay off ten times better.

And an actual affiliate website doesn’t come with the same risks as a PPC AdWords campaign alone (Don’t get me wrong, PPC for your affiliate blog or website is an excellent tool).

But Google doesn’t like spam. And it’s easier to screw up your affiliate marketing efforts when merely using AdWords to spread your affiliate links. Shortcuts like this one are methods Google might flag as spam.

Your affiliate might not take too kindly to the fact you’ve flagged their site as spam in the eyes of Google. So check with your affiliate before trying this method. You want to be 100% sure you won’t lose that business relationship.

2. Become a YouTube Star

YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world next to Google. Of course, they’re both owned by the same company, Alphabet, Inc. But YouTube is a heavyweight champion in its own category.

And if you have any personality at all and you want to know how to make money with AdWords, check out YouTube.

It’s simple…sorta. First, you must learn to make quality videos. You don’t need top of the line equipment, but you can’t just whip out your iPhone and start filming either.

Then you’ve gotta find a niche. If you’ve already joined an affiliate, then your niche is secure. But if not, find an unsaturated niche with high yield commissions.

Then start creating. Video ideas run the gambit. People like Matthew Santoro create weekly informational lists. Others create review videos.

It’s entirely up to you what you choose to do. But you want to find a format that attracts viewers and subscribers.

Once you have a small following it’s time to use AdWords. YouTube’s AdWords is slightly different than Google’s AdWords.

Create a YouTube Ad

As YouTube is primarily a video site, most of their advertising is video based. This means you will need to create video ads.

Video ads are also PPC or pay-per-click…sorta. There are two actions that result in you paying for an ad: a click or at least 30 seconds of viewing.

If you watch any YouTube, you’ll notice the “Skip Ad” button. You can opt to have this in your ads. If your ad is short enough, you don’t have to bother with this.

But if viewers don’t click the “Skip Ad” button for a period of 30 seconds, YouTube assumes they’ve watched 30 seconds of your ad and they charge you.

YouTube ads feature a link in the bottom left-hand corner. This is where you want people to click. You can include affiliate links here or even better link to your own content where the affiliate links live.

Conclusion: Make All The Money

AdWords reaches millions of people each day. So, it’s no wonder you were wondering how to make money with AdWords.

Of course, shunting traffic to your own affiliate site or YouTube channel is the best way to make money with AdWords. Any shortcuts come fraught with danger.

Do you know how to make money with AdWords? What are your favorite methods? Let me know in the comments below.

5 Psychological Concepts That Can Improve Your Content Marketing|林子超博客

Though you may not have thought about it in such specific terms, content marketing is all about psychology. You need to understand who your target audience is, discover what topics and angles will appeal to them most, and then provide it to them. You also need to offer some degree of persuasion, as most content campaigns are built on achieving higher conversion rates through calls-to-action in content alone.

To some extent, you can rely on demographic research and logical reasoning to form the foundation of your campaign, but if you want to give it an extra kick, consider delving into the realm of psychology for more persuasive and appealing tactics.

Psychology for Content Marketing.

These psychological concepts describe how the human mind works in various capacities, and can all be used to direct or strengthen your content marketing campaign:

1. The Information Gap. The information gap theory of curiosity is intuitive and simple; when there’s a gap between what we currently know and what we want to know, we become curious. Our brains light up, causing a kind of “mental itch” that only provides relief when we have the answer. How can you use this to your advantage in content marketing?

First, it means withholding information so you can create a desire for that information before providing it. Asking a question on social media that your article answers, for example, instills this mental itch in your followers, and makes them not only more driven to check out your content, but more satisfied once they do. Something like, “Do you know what’s really in your morning coffee?” creates this discrepancy, much more so than a plainly stated title like, “How coffee Is made.”

2. Informational Social Influence. Informational social influence, sometimes referred to as social proof, is a series of tendencies we tend to follow in response to seeing how others behave. As social creatures, we tend to follow crowd mentalities and mimic the behaviors of others. In content marketing, this means demonstrating some measure of “social proof” can instantly improve the value of your work. This is why highly popular posts and publishers tend to get popular at even faster rates—and why it’s a good idea to include testimonials, comment sections, and other onsite features that show how other users engage with you on a regular basis.

3. The Rule of Reciprocity. You’ve probably experienced the rule of reciprocity in your own life, and its premise is fairly simple. When you’re given something valuable for free (whether that’s tangible or intangible), you feel compelled to reciprocate in some relatively equal way. For example, if a friend treats you to a movie, you may be more inclined to drive them to the airport—even if they make the ask a few weeks later.

In content marketing, your strategy should be to provide your readers with highly valuable information for free—such as a downloadable whitepaper or eBook—and then follow up with them at some point in the future with a more significant request, such as an opportunity for a conversion.

4. The Verbatim Effect. The verbatim effect states that the “gist” of a sentence is far easier to remember than its wording—something you’ve undoubtedly experienced at some point. People tend to categorize information based on meaning, rather than how that meaning is presented.

For content marketers, this means you can focus less on ensuring the precise organization and wording of your content, and more on how your content makes users feel. Instead of nitpicking the details of your articles, conduct subjective surveys that gauge how well your readers retain your information, and how they feel after reading your piece. Then, use that information to make better, more subjectively appealing work.

5. The Paradox of Choice. In a recent TED Talk, Barry Schwartz discussed the “paradox of choice,” which is less intuitive than the other principles on this list. Most of us assume that having more choices is always better, but the reality is that having fewer choices actually leads to more decisiveness and more satisfaction with outcomes.

How can you apply this to your content campaign? Start by offering better, yet fewer articles for consumption. It’s better to have 10 strong pieces of content than 100 average ones. Then, when you plant your calls to action, make sure they’re clear—don’t give your users too many choices, or you’ll scare them away (or worse, leave them doubting their decisions after they’ve made them). Keep things minimalistic and clear.

The Importance of Practical Data

All these concepts are well-researched and somewhat well-defined, but that doesn’t mean you can rely on your instinct alone to put them into action. You’ll still need to measure the effectiveness of your tactics before you can count them a success.

For example, if you start producing new posts that offer higher degrees of social proof, measure their conversion rates and other success metrics against posts that have come before it. Only through this scientific method will you be able to root out the strategies that work best.

11 Tricks & Tools To Boost Website Traffic|林子超博客

Growing website traffic is a constant struggle for online marketers and SEO specialists. In most cases, smart and consistent work over months or even years is necessary to win your website a lucrative place on the internet. Only a few companies hit a home run soon after being born, and those companies that do are usually backed by experienced online marketers and SEO specialists.

While there is a lot of online literature available to point website marketers in the right direction, few of them point out that a list of tactics and tools are necessary to generate website traffic. This post is a summary of the most popular and successful techniques used to drive website traffic.

1. Facebook Re-marketing

Over the last 1.5 years, the number of advertisers on Facebook has doubled, making the social media platform one of the fastest growing advertising platforms. Social media marketers and B2B marketers in particular may have been sceptical about the business impact of Facebook a few years ago, but their doubts have been dispelled since then. Features of the Facebook marketing platform like re-marketing have proven useful to both B2B and B2C customers.

With Facebook re-marketing, you can target customers who have visited your site and boost your returning traffic. The process can be set-up simply by installing a tracking pixel on your website and customizing your target audience correspondingly on Facebook’s ad platform.

2. Email Lists

Everyone says build email lists, but how do you do it? And if you do build some, will they actually pay off? Marketers are painfully aware of how many emails don’t get past their recipients’ spam filters, but yet the continue to use email marketing as a primary strategy. Why?

Emails are one of the smartest ways to reach mobile users. If you are targeting the right people with the right content, you can get them with email notifications on their mobile phones. The key is to build hyper-specific email lists that consist only of your target groups. This means that your landing pages matter, because they are essentially the hubs where you build and nurture your email subscribers. With a landing page optimization tool like Unbounce, you can create visually appealing landing pages, A/B test them and collect data for future endeavours. Since the tool also integrates with MailChimp and HubSpot, you can cross-reference data to get the most accurate picture of your page’s performance.

3. Guest Blogging

Building anything from scratch online is an uphill climb, which is why you should focus on finding growth hacks that can accelerate your progress. For instance, when trying to build an audience for your blog, you could access an existing niche audience by guest posting on a well-known industry blog.

Guest blogging on any website won’t do. Ideally, you should begin by defining your target demographic and assessing which blogs have access to a large segment of them. Audience intelligence tools like Audience Insights on social platforms and Google Analytics can help paint a picture of your target demographics. Alexa has a great Chrome extension that you can use to get audience insights of potential guest posting websites, to verify if their audience is your target audience.

4. Social Media Automation

It’s funny how the term “social media automation” doesn’t sit well with many marketers, because the process only talks about automating time-consuming tasks to free up more time for real engagement. There are several blog promotion tasks that you can automate to maximize social media traffic to your website.

Once your post is published, you have to promote it extensively to reach a large part of your audience. Paid promotion isn’t the answer, unless you can pay to promote every blog post. Instead, you could set-up an elaborate promotion process for better distribution and reach. With auto-posting on social media management tools like CoSchedule, this task becomes easy.

5. On-page SEO

Search for something uber-specific on Google, like “Facebook marketing statistics”, and you’ll see that some websites on the first page of results rank low on Alexa and Domain Authority. This means that you stand a real chance at beating blogs that have built traffic and authority over time.

Google favors content that genuinely caters to an audience. That leaves you a lot of room to optimize your page for search. Titles and headlines matter. I’ve noticed that when you place exact keywords in subheads, your posts are pulled up by search. It’s also important to consider posts ranking for the keyword you are targeting as competition, and to try and outdo them, which is referred to as the “Skyscraper technique”. Several marketers, including myself have experienced the results of this technique.

6. Long-tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords may be considered unpopular, because their search volumes are generally low, but they can earn you a serious amount of traffic. According to a Statista study, successful on-page SEO requires 50% of focus on getting long-tail keywords right.

These keywords are usually four words or longer. Remember that the longer a keyword is, the easier you will find it to rank on top SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). Long-tail keywords are typically conversational, something that your target groups might use when they’re looking for specific answers that regular keywords don’t cover. If you are uncertain about how you can find long-tail keywords, use a keyword suggestion tool like UberSuggest. It’s a great alternative to the keyword ideas on Google’s Keyword Planner.

7. Subreddits

The most relevant Subreddits can help you drive insane amounts of traffic to your website. But Redditors play by different rules. You can’t waltz in and publish your link, you will get blacklisted. You have to be a part of the community in real-life to earn the privilege of using it for marketing. Believe me when I say Redditors know when you are marketing. The only thing unknown is whether they are okay with you doing it or not.

Conversation-making values like listening and respecting other participants will take you a long way on Reddit. Each Subreddit has rules, ensure that you know them before trying to participate.

8. Linkedin Groups

LinkedIn groups can be yet another serious source of traffic, provided you use them right. While these groups are less severe than Subreddits, it’s important to maintain the same respect and consideration when using them for marketing purposes.

Stay active on groups and interact personally with other members and the content they share. Don’t spam groups by posting too often, and share only to the relevant groups. Build a credible LinkedIn

profile with achievements, testimonials and recommendations. You could simplify the process of promoting blog posts to LinkedIn groups by using a social media share plug-in like SumoMe. This particular plug-in sits on your blog and lets you choose LinkedIn groups to share to with the check of a button.

9. Infographic Distribution

While most companies know that infographics have website traffic driving potential, few of them consider the marketing that’s necessary to generate that traffic. Infographics can be created easily using pre-made templates on tools today, but that process doesn’t end there.

You have to create the right landing page, optimized, so your website visitors are engaged. Once you have, it’s time to promote your page. There are directories dedicated to storing infographics, where you can register yours. You can also share infographics on SlideShare and your regular online promotion channels.

10. Slideshare

SlideShare can be used to increase website traffic, grow your social media following and email subscriptions, rank better on Google and build brand awareness. The idea is to make the most of the slide format and distribute the SlideShare piece on other social platforms.

Begin by creating a clear and linear structure for your presentation. The idea should be conveyable in few words and strong visuals, so it can flow through your presentation. Try and create brilliant visuals, and share your final product on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn groups as well. Graphic design tool Canva has a wide selection of background templates that you can use to create your slides.

11. Interviews

When you work with others, your marketing capacity expands. The A-listers, pro-bloggers or upcoming bloggers you interview can also contribute to the marketing process and increase your reach and impact.

Interviews generate tons of traffic, when conducted on a regular basis. To enable that flow of traffic, you need to build and nurture within your industry. Be nice to people and make sure you create a unique online persona that leaves an impact.

Why Nobody Is Buying Your SEO Packages ？|林子超博客

Even if some people (ahem, certain Google employees I know) might not see value in SEO there is plenty of evidence that negates their viewpoint. And if you sell SEO packages, you believe in your product.

Certainly believing in your product will help you sell SEO. But what if nobody else believes in your product? What are you doing wrong? How can you fix the situation?

Today I’m going to run through common problems SEOs experience when selling packages. Let’s scroll onward and see.

1. Stop Selling SEO Packages

I’ve blocked my cable company’s number. Why? They called me once and I answered.

Big mistake. I ended up in a short argument about my current streaming habits. The rep gave me no relevant information and ripped on Netflix and Amazon. I promptly hung up.

What’s the lesson here? Young salesmen don’t get that they aren’t supposed to sell the product. They’re supposed to educate the lead.

The cable rep gave me zero confidence in the value of their product. All I heard was buy our product and the other guys suck.

Cable packages are fairly easy to understand and most of the time the value is apparent. But search marketing is an ever-shifting target.

How to Educate

The value in SEO packages and services may not always be apparent to someone who can’t keep up with Google’s changes.

Let’s take content creation for example. If your SEO firm branched out into SEO content creation, you might have to contend with clients stuck in the past.

They may not get the value of consistent quality content girded with SEO best practices. But you can educate your leads and clients on what changes in Google’s methods led to this product.

You can also highlight what happens when a marketer or business ignores your product’s validity. Your negative experiences are just as valuable as your positive experiences.

Go To The People

The funny thing about SEO, although it’s a global game (world wide web much?), as an SEO Agencyyou will still have the most impact at a local level.

Are you hitting up local business meetups and local events? If not, you’re losing out on a face-to-face chance to educate businesses about your product.

2. And Stand On Your Own Shoulders

While there is some quote out there about standing on the shoulders of giants, your clients don’t care about giants. They care about your own success.

Two things display your success: your reputation and the data.

You can only control your reputation to a certain extent. But giving clients and businesses opportunities to rave about your products will certainly bolster your reputation.

Maximize your reputation with existing customers. Create avenues for written reviews. Invite clients to star in video testimonials. And ask certain customers to be “a reference” for potential customers.

The data doesn’t lie. The proof is in the pudding. But in this era of emotion-based advertising, it’s easy to forget that people, especially business owners, want to see proof something works.

Keep a careful record of client success. Ask clients if you could include their success in a case study.

Do this for each of your SEO packages.

3. The Price is Right?

How you price your SEO packages depends largely on your client base, the competition, the market, etc. SEO packages vary so widely it’s difficult to pin down a true best practice for pricing.

But a quick look at common SEO pricing models reveals some threads we can follow.

The Size Match Method

This method will probably deter most clients except perhaps large firms and major corporations. Other industries such as 3D architectural modeling use this model often and find success. But their clients are typically large-scale producers or big businesses.

But if you can get a business to reveal turnovers and profits, you can figure out a price that would make your services valuable and competitive. And you can scale the price according to the efforts you or your firm will make.

The biggest downside? No set pricing models. Clients like to see a price. It’s tough to be competitive if you don’t have a price for comparison.

And some will see this as unethical. To them, you’re selling “one product” even if that product might take more work with a larger client.

So, unless your clients are in the big leagues, don’t bother with this method. Too many things could go wrong.

The Whole Package

Dividing your services into “packages” is an appealing option. It’s simple. You have a Bronze (cheapest) Silver (Expensive) Gold (it’s only 50 cents more!) package.

I recently saw this coined “McDonalds Marketing.” And it’s a valid way to sell just about any service, not just SEO.

I mean, check out your Starbuck’s Menu when you go there today. Same marketing strategy.

The McDonald’s Marketing model is probably the easiest way to sell SEO. But it doesn’t always mean long client lifespan.

The psychology of it is linked to quick services and less to lasting relationships. But it does work to sell SEO packages. So, I can’t really knock it.

Hourly SEO

If you’re a solo practitioner, this is probably the method you’ll use. You simply invoice at a fixed hourly rate no matter what services you’re providing.

It’s super simple for the buyer.

But the question you need to ask yourself is how much are you outsourcing? Can you give an accurate hourly tally of the quality you’re providing? This will be hard to factor into an hourly rate.

In the end, you might not actually be getting paid for the value you bring to the table. So, before you use this pricing model, be sure to research what you might be missing.

As you can see, no method is without some downside. That’s merely the nature of economics. But if you can make your packages and prices attractive while not leaving profit on the table, you will increase your sales exponentially.

Conclusion: Why Aren’t You Selling Your SEO Packages?

A billion factors go into selling SEO. But the most successful firms realize it all begins with you.

Are you struggling to sell SEO packages? What are you trying? Let me know in the comments below.

7 Sources For Cultivating Inbound Links|林子超博客

Inbound links – references and hyperlinks to your content from other sites – are critical for any media site. They expose your content to a broader audience, potentially improve your organic search rankings and help to establish your brand as an authority on a topic or an industry.

But link-building has evolved from the “if you link to me, I’ll link to you” mutual back-scratching of the early blogosphere.  Social media has changed syndication strategies, with Twitter, Facebook and other social-sharing services giving scale to inbound links.

One aspect, however, remains fairly simple: to get link love, you usually have to give some link love. Part of aggressively promoting your brand means linking to content from other trusted sources – even if those sources are your competitors or your advertisers. Here are seven groups who hold the potential to drive more inbound links to your site – if you can offer something valuable to them in return.

1. Staff writers and editors

Your content creators should be encouraged – strongly – to link to their articles and other assets on your site from their personal blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc. Doing so not only helps drive traffic back to the site, it helps the individuals establish and promote their “personal” brands.

2. Bloggers

Find the experts and authorities who cover your space and add them to your site’s blogroll. Read their blogs, comment on their posts, and include a link back to your site. They’re likely to reciprocate – because they get the same traffic lift in return.

3. Freelancers

If you use freelance writers, encourage them to link back to their articles (and others of interest) from their personal blogs or social sites. As with your staff writers, doing so will help them promote their own skills in addition to sending traffic back to you.

4. Competitors

Ellie Mirman explains the importance of linking to competitors. You may not like it, but the nature of content consumption has changed. It’s no longer an either/or choice between your publication and your rivals’ – the Web has made it easy for your audience to aggregate multiple sources of content. You may as well make it even easier – and show them that you have their interests at heart.

5. Vendors/advertisers

This is another contentious source for outbound and inbound links. If you’re writing about a new product, service or business, should you link back to the company’s website? The answer is yes. Don’t look at it as free advertising – look at it as a service for a reader who wants more information. This should not be confused with paid placement or advertorial – this is providing links in editorial where a company or business is mentioned.

6. Professional associations

Industry trade groups, enthusiast clubs, and any other association formed around your niche are great sources for sharing content and links. These groups are usually hungry for good content relevant to their members. Consider offering them repackaged content or an occasional guest post in exchange for link-backs.

7. Your “fans”

This is probably the most valuable source of links. Readers that have chosen to follow your publication on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites can quickly spread the word on an interesting article, blog post or video. By cultivating a larger group of fans outside of your core digital and print properties, you can begin to rely on them to spread the word and drive more traffic back to your website.

Of course, once you get all the new visitors that come to your site through these inbound links, it’s up to you to inform/ entertain them to keep them coming back. That’s a topic for another post.