Somewhere in San Diego is a community college.   In that college are students taking a class about eCommerce and Dreamweaver.  Some of the students are looking at this website.  One of the students sent me an email with questions. 

They are good questions, here are the answers:

Question 1 – How Many Backlinks Do You Really Have?

In a blog entry you mention that you have 12 backlinks, but according to (some source) you have way more than that.  Why the discrepancy? 

Not all backlinks are created equal.  By checking my backlinks in Yahoo with  Yahoo Site Explorer I can see that this website has a total of 295 backlinks.  It seems like a lot, but in fact most of them are useless. 

When I leave a comment on another blog a backlink is created.  When I write a comment in a forum a backlink is created.  When I enter the website URL in stats guessing website like webtraffic24.com  a backlink is created.  Of course these kind of backlinks are worthless.

These backlinks might bring a few visitors who are interested in my comments on a blog or a forum but in terms of my search engine traffic they add no value.  They are worthless is because these are backlinks that I created myself with very little effort.  And if I create them myself with little effort so does everybody else for their websites. 

Backlinks worth is directly proportional to the difficulty of getting the backlink.  Imagine it this way:

1. 2 websites start with 0 backlinks – Google views these websites as equal.
2. Because it is easy the webmaster of each website leaves a comment on a Problogger post and creates a backlink.  Now both websites have 1 backlink each.  Google still views these websites as equal because they both have the same backlink, the backlinks cancel each other out.
3. But then one of the webmasters spend a week writing a great post.  The content is so good that Oprah Winfrey links to the post.  This backlink has value because it a backlink that the other website does not have and cannot get easily.  Google will now view the website with the Oprah Winfrey backlink as the better website.

This is a simplified view but it makes the point.  For any backlink ask: how difficult is the backlink to get?  If it is easy to get then assume everybody has it also – so it cancels out and is worthless.  The valuable backlinks are those that few people have because they are difficult to get.  It is easy to write in your resume that you are a great person, but if you want your resume to stand out get a reference letter from Oprah Winfrey stating you are great person.

There are companies that offer 1000 backlinks for $9.99.  If it was really that easy this website would of been successful 2 years ago.  Why would anybody spend countless hours creating quality content for a single good backlinks if for $9.99 (you can make that flipping burgers for 1 hour) you can have 1000 backlinks.  The answer – the 1000 backlinks are worthless.

Yahoo states that this website have 295 backlinks – but 283 of them are backlinks that everybody else has.  The only good backlinks this website has are the ones I had to work for.  For example I currently have 9 backlinks from guest posts on other blogs and 3 from websites that backlink to this website because they think it is a great website.  These are the types of backlinks that matter and the only ones I care about.  That is why this website has only 12 backlinks.

Question 2 – How Do You Update All Those Webpages?

You have a lot of webpages.  It is a lot of work to do global updates on the entire website? 

By last count there are 64 webpages on this website.  Fortunately this website was created with Dreamweaver because without Dreamweaver making changes to the website would be nightmare.

With Dreamweaver I created a template page.  The template contains all the sections of the website that are identical on every page.  Every page on this website has the same layout, header, and main navigation.  So when I need to make a change to the header all I do is make the change in the template – as soon as I make the change on the template Dreamweaver makes sure the change is updated on every page.

Dreamweaver also keeps track of the internal links.  So if I rename a page, move a page, or delete a page, Dreamweaver lets me know that links will be effected and offers to make the appropriate updates to the links. 

For these two reasons alone I cannot imagine managing a large website without Dreamweaver (or any other website management software).

With a large website it is also mandatory to use CSS.  The look and feel of the entire website is managed from a single CSS file.  Simply by making a tiny change in this file I can change the appearance of the entire website.  For example, if I want to change the heading colors from green to blue then I update the ‘<h3>’ CSS value to blue.  Instantly by making that single change all the headings on the website will be blue.

CSS is a must.  Without it the website would be a total mess.  Without it, if I wanted to change the color of the heads I would need to update every page manually – not only would it take time, but I would certainly miss a couple pages.  After a few updates like this every page on the website would look different.  With CSS you ensure that every page looks the same. 

With Dreamweaver and CSS I can completely change the appearance of the website – new logo, font size, heading colors, background color, layout etc in 10 minutes.  The advantages of Dreamweaver and CSS far outweighs the drawback of having to spend the time to learn how to use them.  Time and money spent learning Dreamweaver and CSS is time and money well invested.

Question 3 – Do You Use A Programmer?

For the Problogger Comments analysis post – how did you gather all that data?

With this website I make almost enough money to buy a coffee in the morning.  Unfortunately my body requires that I provide it with more amenities then just coffee, so I have a day job.  My employer pays me for my programming abilities. 

For almost all cases, programming is not necessary to create a website.  But sometimes it comes in handy.  The Problogger analysis posts are a good example where programming skills was a good thing to have.

In the Problogger posts I went through all the commenters on Problogger and performed a statistical analysis on how commentors on Problogger improve their odds of succeeding simply by commenting.  I could of spent weeks going through all the comments cutting and pasting the commenters into a spreadsheet but that would of been insane.  Instead I wrote a little script that goes through the Problogger posts and gathered the information for me.  The script took 3 hours to write and ran for about 5 minutes.

Another example of using my programming abilities for this website is the money number on the main page.  As you might of noticed the main page has a big number that emerges when you load the page. 

Although nobody has asked me how it works, I will tell you anyway.  In Photoshop I manually created an image for every number between 0 and 9.  For every number I created 15 shades ranging from black to barely visible.  In total there are (10*15) 150 individual images.  Then I wrote a script that takes a number, for example 806.69, and combines the individual images into a single animated gif.

Without programming the number on the main screen would not exist, the traffic and revenue graphs would not exist, the Problogger posts would not exist, and my day job would be flipping burgers at McDonald’s. 

All these things are possible without programming – every couple weeks I could spend Saturday manually creating the number and the graphs.  And on Sunday I can cut the lawn with scissors. 

Fortunately you do not need to be a programmer if you need a script to perform a mundane and repetitive task for you.  There are lots of people (mostly in India) waiting to help you.  Send them your requirements and in a few days they send you a script.  I have never used them myself but I have heard good things about vworker.

Question 4 – Do Backlinks Bring Traffic?

How Much Traffic Do You Get From Your Backlinks?

As you can see from this graph this website does not get a lot of visitors from referral sites (backlinks):

At the beginning all traffic was from backlinks.  At the beginning I left comments on other blogs, visited forums and wrote articles with links back to this website – it was the only way to get traffic.  At the beginning you get no traffic from search engines, the only traffic comes from backlinks and your mother.

The problem with backlink traffic is that it is a lot of work.  Leaving comments, visiting forums and writing articles takes time.  And for the time spent you get few visitors in return.  As an example, I was monitoring Problogger very carefully and watching for a new post so that I could leave the first comment.  I thought – the first comment must get a lot of exposure and therefore lots of people will click the backlink.  Problogger has over 150,000 subscribers, finally with diligence I managed to make the first comment, I received 5 visitors.

The problem with getting traffic from easy backlinks like blog comments or forums is that there are so many of them that people  just do not care.  Problogger has a post a day and every post has at least 50 comments – with so many comments people stop caring and stop visiting the commentor’s website.  Backlinks are not a great source of traffic unless its Opera Winfrey’s website and she is urging her visitors to visit your website. 

As time went on search engine traffic surpassed backlink traffic.  Now most traffic is from search engines.  A backlink’s main function is to please the search engine and not as a source of traffic.  If Oprah mentions your website in a post then you will receive traffic from her website for a couple weeks while the post is on her front page but then the traffic will stop when the post is replaced by newer posts.  But Google will reward you for that backlink for a lot longer.  With a backlink  from Oprah your website could jump in the search results and stay up there for months.

All my guests posts are buried deep in their respective blogs.  I get almost no traffic from older  guest posts – the sun has set on them and are long forgotten.  But Google remembers.  Goggle still sees my guest posts and rewards me by showing this website in search results.

Question 5 – How Are Your Search Rankings Doing?

Blog post from Day 601 talks about the position of ‘How a Website Makes Money’.  At the time is was at 6- where is it now and why?

The keywords for this website are ‘Make Money Website’.  According to the Google keyword tool 27,100 people do search for this term every month.  It is not a lot but if I can get the top spot for this term it would mean almost 1000 visitors a day.

Everyday I check the position of ‘make money website’ in the Google search results.

I picked this term because I use it at a benchmark.  By keeping track where this term is in the search ranks I know how much Google values these keywords for this website.  When I get to the top for this term it will mean that Google considers this website to be about ‘make money website’.  The result will be that not only will I receive traffic for this term, but all the various terms meaning the same thing. 

When this websites ranks high for ‘make money website’ then it will also rank high for similar terms.  The permutations are endless.  As an example this website already ranks quite high for terms, ‘website, much, how, money’.  Here are some of the phrases that people type into their search engine to find this website:

The higher in the search ranking the term ‘make money website’ goes, the more permutations of these keywords this website will receive.  How do I know?  Because I do a lot of searches to determine my competition.  I constantly search Google for phrases that I want this website to reach the top of – and I always see the same thing.  It is always the same websites that are at the top.  They have strong keywords so they receive the all the permutations of these keywords.  The same website is at the top for ‘make money website’ and for ‘can website make money’.

When I started keeping track of ‘make money website’ this website was in position 738 (page 7 with Google advanced setting of 100 results per page).   That was around a year ago.  Currently this website is somewhere between position 30 and 40.

And what about ‘How a Website Makes Money’  – the main question this website attempts to answer.  On day 601 Google felt this website was the 6th best website to answer the question.  Today, 160 days later, Google thinks this website has the best answer:

This website will try anything to make money.

The most common approaches are already covered:

• Advertising. Create content and place ads around the content. The idea is that while people are reading the great content about how hard it is to make money online, they will glance over and see an ad stating they can make a thousand dollars overnight. They click the ad and leave this website for greener pastures – this website makes a few dollars.
• Product Sales. Create an ebook to sell to visitors. Visitors to this site are looking to make money with a website. They want to know how. So, for $49 dollars they can purchase a website starter kit, that will get them well on their way.
• Affiliate Sales: Visitors to this site either have a website or will have one in the near future. They need a web hosting service to serve their website to the internet public. So, spattered throughout this website are links to a hosting company that has agreed to pay this website when somebody purchases their services.

Everybody attempting to make money with a website is doing these things in one form or another. And that is the problem.

I am forced to ask myself: Would anybody notice if this website disappeared?

The answer is a blunt NO. If I selected all the files of this website and pressed the delete button the only watery eyes would be my own. The world will continue. A few people will gain a broken link in their favorites folder and Google will need to remove this website from its index, but ignoring these minor inconveniences nothing would change.

If this website dies, there are thousands ready and waiting to take its place. This website is just a plate at the buffet – take one from the stack and another one instantly pops up to take its place.

This website is not changing the world, it is not impacting peoples lives. True, it provides amazing intellectual insights and mental stimulus for its readers, but it does not impact them where it matters – the gut and in the heart.

To make this website matter it needs to have an impact on peoples lives. It needs to participate in the human condition. It needs to make people laugh, cry, love and hate. These feelings are the essence of existence – the meaning of live. They are what make us hug, hold hands, dance, make love and shoot each other. To make this website matter it needs to cause emotions in people.

To impact lives on a heart and gut level this website now offers a new tool that has the potential to solve problems that we as humans face each and every day. Problems that cause us worry, anxiety, pain and suffering. By providing a tool to solve these problems this website is bringing happiness to the world.

This website now enables visitors to send postcards from Prague to anybody in the world.

Sending a Postcard From Prague Solves People Problems

What heart and gut problems can you solve right now by mailing a postcard? Here are some common examples:

You Need To Show Your Wife That You Were Thinking Of Her
You and your good time buddies went to Prague for a week. It was the best bachelor party you ever had. Cheap beer and authorities turn a blind eye to prostitution. Every night was a drunken stupor falling from bar to bar, throwing money at alcohol found in beer mugs and mini-skirts. What a good time, what a riot!

On the airplane flight home you are suddenly struck by a terrible realisation. With all the excitement you forgot to send your beloved wife a postcard. You promised to send her a postcard from Prague. You bite your nails and look out the window – what are you going to do?.

You need to send a postcard. Pay this website four dollars US and address the postcard to your wife. When you arrive home, after all the obligatory hugs and kisses, sit in front of your computer and send a postcard from this website. A few days later your wife will receive a postcard from Prague with a beautiful message about how vacationing is not the same without her, you miss her, and you cannot wait to be in her arms again. As she covers you with kisses and praises you can mutter out-load at your displeasure with the mail system for taking so long to deliver a postcard you sent during your first day in Prague.

You Need To Make Your Mother Worry
Has your mother been pissing you off lately? Making you sandwiches but always ‘forgetting’ that you hate cheese – how many times do you need to tell her not to put cheese in your sandwiches? Does she constantly annoy you by hovering around picking up your clothes from the floor while you talk to your friends on the phone?

You need to send her a postcard. Pay this website four dollars US and address the postcard to your mother. A few days later your mother will receive a postcard from Prague with the following message: “Hello Mother, I know this will make you upset but I really wanted to go. Bobby has a cousin that lives in Prague and he said we could stay at his house for week. I knew you would say no, so I had to leave without telling you. Do not worry about me, I am having a great time. I will be back on Friday. Love, Timmy”

You Need To Make Your X Think You Are Out Of The Country
You just broke up with your girlfriend of five years. You found another who is taller and who whole heartily appreciates your baseball cap collection.

The problem is that conflict makes you squirm and seeing people cry makes you uncomfortable. So even though you are broken up with your x, she is not aware of it because you did not tell her. For you the best approach is to sneak around, not answer the door and let the phone ring when she calls. Your hope is that she will figure it out and leave you alone.

But she is not figuring it out – she keeps trying to contact you.

You need to send her a postcard. Pay this website four dollars US and address the postcard to your x. Use the postcard to break up with her. Tell her you moved to Prague. Tell her that you need to find yourself – its not her its you. You have moved to Prague to start a new life and figure out what the meaning of everything. All the best, good luck, it was fun while it lasted.

You Need A Friend
For reasons you cannot understand you have no friends. Nobody likes to be around you and your pleas for friendship are left unanswered. Every night is a lonely night. You try talking to the dog, but he just perks his ears up and thinks you are going to talk him for another sad stroll in the park.

You need to send yourself a postcard. Pick a picture that you think you will enjoy. Write yourself a poem about how special you are, how unique you are, how you could not imagine life without yourself. Pay this website 4 dollars US and a few days later a postcard will arrive specifically for you. Just imagine how happy that will make you.

You Need To Tell Somebody The Truth Anonymously
You go to work five days a week. Everyone of those days is spent sitting at your desk. Due to cost cutting at your company, offices are small and you are forced to share the office with another person. It is a tight fit, but you have managed to arrange the desks and chairs giving each of you a comfortable amount of personal space.

The problem is that your office-mate’s body odor is pungent enough to transgress the distance. The stench starts around 10am – that is when it first hits your nose. For the next hour you get little hits of it when he stretches or reaches for the phone. Then it gets worse. The small office acts like a greenhouse trapping the odor – by the afternoon you are surrounded by a tear jerking fog of stench. For three years you have suffered in silence, but now there is a solution.

You need to send your co-worker a postcard. Pay this website four dollars US and address the website to your stinky office-mate. Do not sign it and send it to his home address. The message will be simple: “Because you stink, others suffer. Please include deodorant as part of your morning routine.” He might suspect it was you who wrote it, but he will never be sure.

What problem can you solve today by sending a postcard from Prague?