Over the weekend I discovered a site called LinkWheel that got my attention. They offer a service that creates "link wheels" for you, which is basically the "hub & spoke method" you may have heard about before.
The concept is that you have a money site, and everything else you create is for the purpose of linking to and boosting the ranking of this money site. The money site being where you promote and sell something, the spokes or other sites being relevant content that funnels visitors into that site...
This model can be a lot of work in regards to creating and maintaining all of the content and properties, and getting the link structure right - to and from each property. Done wrong it can ultimately penalize your money site in the major search engines, but done right I've seen some marketers have great success with it.
Howie Schwartz came to mind as I was first browsing through the site, and interestingly he was mentioned right there on the main page.
LinkWheel uses more than 60 different Web 2.0 Properties across unique IPs in addition to article directories, pinging, RSS directories, unique YouTube videos, images, etc. They say that all of their work is done manually, not outsourced overseas, and that they are the only link wheel service using 100% unique content.
You own all of the properties they create for you, with full log-in access.
I've read through every page of the site, including the 6-page PDF they offer via opt-in, and everything looks to be in good order. They have one-time plans as low as $65, and monthly development & management plans starting at $165.
This post is an advertisement for LinkWheel, and I would like to take this opportunity to open the discussion on their service and on the concept of the hub & spoke model... I'd love to hear your thoughts & questons.
Best,
About Lynn Terry
I guess we've all used this strategy. Google tells us to get sites to link to us and also says that we should not engage in link schemes.
Figure that one out!
One way to size this offer up is to work out how much a virtual assistant would charge for the same work.
I suspect it would be best to train your own VA to do this but this is a solution in a box and probably worth trying at least once.
It would cost A LOT more to outsource this to a personal assistant, methinks. Definitely worth getting a comparison quote if you prefer that route.
Link Schemes are way different than getting relevant links to our sites/pages. Many schemes are worthless in regards to creating value to the space, with the only purpose being to manipulate SERPs (ie no human value).
I say that it would be worth the fee just to gain the insights on how they do it and which sites they include in their wheel.
Agreed 😉
definitely like the concept although I've never used it. Worth a try as a varied program of backlinking
I don't know enough to even give a comment but I will be watching this thread to see what everyone else thinks.I need all the help I can get.
I'm a virtual assistant show specializes in marketing and I would charge several hundred dollars a month to develop the link wheel and maintain it. There is no way I can compete with these prices. I'm going to check them out myself.
The question I have is how effective are these? Would it not be something that the search engines could easily crack and discount the links?
Since they don't want "link schemes" or people trying to manipulate the SERPS would these still be effective? I haven't set one up yet but am going to on a page that is stable in rankings to see if it will help move it up.
I would not test it out on your primary site or money site. Test it out on a test site, like a simple affiliate promotion or something. That's what I plan to do.
They use unique content, so it's set up to be visitor friendly and funnel people into the main site. I am most interested in testing it out to see the quality of their videos & "unique content".
I would be concerned that a link wheel is far too structured for Google. They have long had the ability to detect 3-way links and these are frowned upon far more than reciprocal links because they are clearly used to "game the search engines". An linking model as structured as a link wheel is far from natural and while it may provide short term benefits I would be concerned that it is not a good long-term strategy.
As you have said Lynn, variation is very important for effective link building. I believe this also applies to the structure of your link profiles.
If you chose to use the LinkWheel, you would also want to get your own quality links from other sources - articles, forums, guest blogging, your twitter & facebook accounts, etc. You wouldn't want to use this ONLY.
If you read through the FAQ you'll see the create unique content and use logins for the properties across 5 different IPs.
To be honest, as I mentioned above, not a bad deal and something I would consider using on a "hot market promotion" that I need to rank fast and don't mind if it tanks fast too (think: Valentines Day promotion, etc). If it sticks, it'll be worth using elsewhere.
fair point about using for ranking fast.
Thanks Lynn.
what's the difference between this and outsourced seo? i've paid for seo stuff in the past, it cost me about 3 times as much and whilst interesting it didn't really generate any sales so i stopped using it
SEO is a very general term. What did they do for you specifically?
I'm wary about outsourcing "seo". Most SEO's worth their salt would earn more working on their own sites, so it's difficult to find a real SEO to hire within any kind of affordable range.
The difference, without knowing your details to compare, is that this is a specialized service of creating social properties with unique content that link back to your money site. Not just general SEO.
what they did was write and submit articles, press releases and video each month, about 20 hours worth of work each month and they gave me a monthly report with the username and login details of the various accounts that they created for me, i used the service for about 4 months but found that it didn't really generate any sales so i stopped using it, although i like the idea of outsourced social media, at least that way you can sort of measure their successf by the number of followers / fans acquired, etc i suppose it's a service i would be interested in some day
What about rankings, and number of unique visitors - did those improve? Conversion rates, or an increase in sales, is another story altogether - and has more to do with the keyword phrases, the content and the call-to-action...
yes, i certainly still have a lot to learn, what i discovered was that keywords that sell through adwords don't necessarily translate to seo, page rank and traffic did increase but without a corresponding increase in sales it just wasn't worthwhile, i'm finding that i'm getting pretty good at seo myself now, so once i get the right system in place i'll be able to outsource the various tasks involved in keeping it up and running
That being the case, I would focus on choosing the keywords that convert into buyers - and working on increasing your conversion rate with on-page factors.
yep, i'm working on it 😉
The unique content part intrigue and concerns me. Do I get to approve it before it's posted? Are they creating the videos or just finding relevant ones? Can they get George Clooney to play my part?
- Jeffery
From what I read on the site, they are unique videos created for you, and you don't approve the content upfront but you have full log-in access and choice to edit and add to it as you please.
I couldn't find an example of any of their work anywhere on the site. That bothered me. The proof is in the pudding. I want to see what type of videos they are producing. They need to show some examples of their work. That is what I need to see before whipping out my credit card. I hope someone will post their experience if they decide to give it a go.
I'm going to test it myself on one of my newer niche sites, so I'll be sure to share a personal review in the near future. 😉
I've been experimenting a bit with link wheels over the last few months. Results so far? I thought it was a waste of time. Built a couple link wheels, even spent some money outsourcing the link building into my spokes/hubs. Saw no results.
Then Google had some ranking shifts last week... BOOM! This is no lie - extra $100/day from the product I was building link wheels on.
It's worth your time if you're in it for a medium long term strategy. No quick results here, guys. Build it, work this technique for a bit, and wait patiently.
Good luck,
Reuben D. Rock
ps - Lynn, I met you almost 2 years ago! Seems crazy. But you were at a Nashville meetup that I attended. Met you, David Hooper, and some other folks. It's been a long time, and I hope business is rockin!
I remember - great to see you here, Reuben! How've you been? 😀
Rather than try this out myself, I think I'll wait for your report after you have tested this Lynn.
Looking forward to your full report at a later date. 🙂
Good idea - I'll post a follow-up with a personal review and keep you all in the loop. 😉
Hey All,
My name is Michael and I am the owner of LinkWheel.net, If any one has any questions feel free to call me 405-708-6971 (just ask for Michael), I will be happy to speak to you.
Cheers!
Thanks for stopping in, Michael - I look forward to doing business with you!
Hm - what a great idea. If you have the money to spend, then I would recommend this. I've been doing this myself and currently outsource some of the work for my clients. It's time-consuming and tedious!
But at least it makes up for it by being dreary. 🙂
Good post Lynn.
Here is another Wheel diagram for those who wish to do it manually. It can get a little complicated, however when executed correctly, it can be very powerful.
http://lemonarian.com/images/advancedlinkwheel.png
Thanks for the review Lynn. I have been setting up a campaign for myself using articles, twitter. blogs etc and it is very time consuming. Looks like this service could be a good value in moving it forward much quicker. My only problem is that their phone number has been busy all morning!
I've seen the link wheel technique mentioned in a few different places recently and while I found it interesting, I kept thinking it was heavy maintenance and somewhat confusing to work on long term. Nice to see that someone has organized a service to manage it all.
At first look I like that they are creating things manually and not blasting out automated fluff to the internet. I agree that hiring a VA to manage this for you would certainly cost more. I know I couldn't compete with their price structure, that's a lot of content creation and management going on behind the scenes.
Definitely looking forward to hearing about your results and thoughts on this service and linking style.
I'm finishing up the site now, that I'll be using this for, so it'll be a little ways out but I'll be sure to post a full review 😉
Hey Lynn,
after reading this post i am a little concerned. I think i have been creating a link Wheel without even knowing what I was doing.
Question 1:
I have been taught through the 30DC and Michelle Macphearsons Crowd mountain course to put up articles on web 2.0 sites, and then put a link in the article back to your site....so i guess essentially this is a link wheel, is this correct?
Question 2:
I just don't want to get penalized by Google....on each of the web 2.0 sites I have also used the exact same keyword phrase to link back to my main site....It's only about 7 of these sites, so hopefully that's o.k???
Question 3:
Is adding articles to article sites and creating a link to link back to your main site part of a link wheel?
Question 4:
I was also advised that we go to a site called Knowem.com which lists over 100 web 2.0 sites, then do a search to see which of these sites still have your main keyword phrase available to register. Then I was advised to put my main website link up on the profiles i have created to get more backlinks. Is this a good or bad strategy? Should i stay away from web 2.0 sites doing this?
Any advice would be great.
Cheers,
Brian
Hi Brian,
My advice has always been to use social properties... as they were intended to be used. Social Bookmarking sites, for example, should be used to bookmark useful relevant content from a variety of sources. The same way you use your browser's bookmarking feature, but as a way of sharing these with your network.
I know that a lot of people use social media sites as a big part of their marketing and/or link building strategy, but I don't often use aggressive tactics on my primary sites - or my "money sites". As I mentioned earlier in the comments here, a linkwheel is something I might test on a side project or on a "hot market/throwaway site". Does that make sense?
Marketing is about getting in front of your target audience, and engaging them in your offer.
I have never 'dugg' my own content, I don't own any squidoo lenses, Twitter & Facebook are about the only social properties I frequent... and I still enjoy great search engine traffic.
You can browse through the posts in my link building series to get an idea of my methods and how I get quality inbound links:
http://www.clicknewz.com/tag/link-building/
Hope that helps!
Thanks Lynn.. That does help. I guess I just need to be careful and stop with the web 2.0 sites as a way of getting links and marketing my site.
Just one other thing, is a link wheel just using web 2.0 sites to link back to your main money site?
Is it safe to continually write articles and post them on article sites and create links to point back to your main money site? Is this Aldo considered a link wheel?
Thanks.
I wouldn't get caught up in trendy words or definitions so much as I would concentrate on a solid marketing strategy. To answer your question, Article Marketing is not necessarily a part of a social media "linkwheel", but it's more in the intention than in the definition - if that makes sense.
Yes it's safe to write good quality content, and submit it to article directories for syndication. That's a great way for publishers to find your material and reprint it on their own sites or in their newsletters. The intent is good.
There's nothing wrong with creating a Squidoo Lens on a micro topic that adds value to the Squidoo network. Just use the sites as they were intended to be used. Anything else is "social media spamming" and just junking up the web...
I wanted to stop back by because this discuss has been great.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
#1 - the purpose of the wheel is for faster indexing. (nothing else)
#2 - you can also obtain faster indexing by not interlinking your sites. (there is no SEO benefit in a particular inter linking strategy).
#3 - another solid technique that I use personally is to deploy dozens of web 2.0 properties (with no interlinking) and then to send 1 high PR comment (for fast indexing).
Remember dropping links and having links indexed are always 2 different things. What we want is to have relevant backlinks that get indexed faster.
SEO is not hard, its just a lot of work.
Cheers,
Michael
Hi Michael, I'm new to SEO I didn't quite understand this statement "#3 – another solid technique that I use personally is to deploy dozens of web 2.0 properties (with no interlinking) and then to send 1 high PR comment (for fast indexing)."
Could you go a little further in breaking it down for the newbies?
These are great for now. Once google and the other search engines update their algorithms, all this work (if you're done it manually) and money will go to waste.
But it definitely can't hurt in the meantime.
That's true if that's all you've done, but if you have quality properties with a lot of variety to your link building - ie natural buzz - you wouldn't have much to worry about.
It's all in how it's done - there's definitely a right way and a wrong way.
My big fear with outsourcing something like this is the quality of the work. I am hapy to report that I just spoke with Michael at Linkwheel.com and he pointed me to some samples of their writing and it passed my inspection. I will most likely be trying the service, as an addition to my own.
Great, glad to hear it. I am going to try it out as well, on one of my smaller niche projects to start. I'll be sure to post a personal review once that's complete. 🙂
Hi there,.. Can you explain to me further about the role of RSS feeds in the linkwheel? Do we need to ping all of our sites everytime we update?
Linkwheel said: #1 – the purpose of the wheel is for faster indexing. (nothing else)
Does that mean I would be wasting my time to do this for my older site that is already index?
I was thinking about using it to rank better, but now I don't know...