What is in a back link? And are they for you?.

The Tweet Twins are not just actively advising you on social Social Media. We have a unique role of being able to advise you on how to keep you safe in your Social Media activities online.

One of the major aspects of I heard at a recent speaking engagement was how many people are scared of being ripped off, scammed, infected and yet on the other hand they are told to have all these online relationships with people they will probably never meet in a life time, linking, putting all there info online, link here, clich there, family photos uploaded, making videos, tweeting their ideas.

Did you know by studying your tweets I could figure out the best time to breakin to your house and rob you … now thats a scary thought, but few people advising in Social Media rarely tell you the dark side and how to protect yourself.

In this article I want to share how you could very easy be dupped in to advertising a porn, irrelevant or defamatory web site thinking you were raising your SEO (search engine optimisation) ratings. I have included a number of actual screens shots, which is typical of about 10 such emails I receive each day. It is the technique I want to share with you how you can be duped. Now the technique itself is not bad as it is a common and popular way of requesting back links.

First here is the actual screen shot of the email I received unaltered this morning. You can see that an email from a Paige Collins and is requesting an exchange of web site linking. Now that is perfectly ok, and as I said before that in itself is a good SEO strategy.

Don’t you love the disclaimer: The sender does not understand that sending out unsolicited emails like this is spam, irrespective of the request or the content. I suggest you simply delete or block the email address. DO NOT REPLY as this simply tells the sender they have sent to a valid email address.

So Paige explains that she has two web sites with a Page rank of 1 and 2 respectively and is offering to place a web site link to http://www.iceav.co.nz In return she asks that I place a link on my site to bikinigirlstop.com Now this is a models web suit, talking about the latest gossip, bikini photos and also displays a large side bar advert for Adult Friend Finder.

An adult grade dating, swingers web site with the url of (I have interrupted the URL so that this very article does not give the site a back link – see you have to think ahead of these guys) http://(do not click)adultfriendfinder (dot) com/go/g951307-ppc

Now I hope I have not lost you, stay with me as this is important for you to understand.

The PPC at the end of the url above probably means “pay per click”. That is not bad, I just point it out as it is a hint to the activity and nature of the link….they get paid every time you click on the link …hey thats not bad is it…get paid simply because someone clicked on a link on the web site. Do that a million times at 1 cent per click is a tidy sum!

Now you will also see a link to the well respected Seek employment web site. (Now this is a google inserted advert).
This is a legitament advertisment but anyway do not click on it. The following is the url code behind the advert.

What would happen if you did click…welll nothing sinister – the web site owner would be paid some money, Seek would pay Google and you end up with employment information …every one is a winner.

http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?
sa=l&ai=BThBIvlwETIncC4uavQPPlIjtDquC1o0Bod2R4hONtfSeJ8DPJBABGAMgtYn7AzgAUN2awu0HYKvssYXgGKAB4dz2_gOyARZ3d3cuYmlraW5pZ2lybHN0
b3AuY29tugEKMzAweDI1MF9hc8gBA9oBHmh0dHA6Ly93d3cuYmlraW5pZ2lybHN0b3AuY29tL-
ABBIACAakCwcq0BHhOrD7AAgTIAonq0hSoAwHIAwXoA7kB6AONBOgD6AL1AwAgAMQ&num=3&sig=AGiWqtypAzYCzbXNK0It8KH2knO93b3LXA&client=ca-pub – 1872233471945210&adurl=http://www.games.seek.co.nz/trufflehunter/%3Ftracking%
3Djobs:nz:sm:sem:google_nz_content:ggl_site:isl:truffle&nm=2

So that is the web site explained.

If you click on either of these adverts on this site, the site owner will be paid a few cents or maybe more, a common strategy and perfectly ok. The Tweet Twins know many people who make 1,000’s of dollars by hosting adverts on behalf of Google for example…. did you see the small links above the site banner.

The adverts could also be linking to an affiliate link, meaning that the web site owner hosting the link could be paid $100, 50% or whatever if you purchase the product or service. So in the case of the Adult Friend Finder site the owner could be paid 50% of every fee you pay to join this site for ever until you cancel your annual membership. Now the strategy in itself is not bad and a popular way that you can use for marketing high quality reputable services. So if you see an Amazon advert for a book about “How to Fix a Ferrai” on a non Amazon web site then (this would be classified as an Amazon backlink and there are millions of these online and perfectly acceptable.)

Now the Bikinistopgirls web site could actually read Friends4life dot com (or whatever) and actually be set to a “forward link” by the owner and you end up on a porn or irrlelevant web site (even a competitors web site) that you do not want your site or name associated with. However you will not know where it will go to until you click. Now even if the destination site is perfectly ok, the host may be paid cents in return for driving traffic to the site. Again this is not bad in itself and is the very way that Google works with Google Adwords.

If you type in http://www.kevinandreassend.com you will go to my Linkedin.com profile. This is an excellent example of how you can use your domain name and link to a well respected Social Media site. Now I do not get paid for you clicking on my web site name but it helps create traffic and presents a very professional profile and a way for folk to find more about me and my interests from a professional business perspective.

Now imagine this, you accept a back link request (from your new online friend, follower, contact) to a web site and the web site url looks ok, the site is neutral content, you exchange the links and forget about it. Now the owner of the landing web site in 3, 6 months or whatever, knows by then you have forgotten about the exchange and knows you will never check it again.

Now they log into their administration account with the domain provider and sets the “forward” address for a porn or otherwise inappropriate site, even a child porn site. Now you could be years to come, unwittingly drive traffic traffic to a porn site where they are paid for the traffic and even more could be paid $$$ for anyone who joins or buys from the site.

Can you imagine the implication if you are a well respected Business Coach or Relationship Coach and visitors to your site happen to click on the innocent and maybe appropriately named back link URL.

Now the technique I have describe is one of the secret methods of creating traffic and creating passive income. The technique can be used for Black marketing or White Marketing. It is just one of the many insider knowledge bytes we have at the Tweet Twins.

So I did some further forensic research on the email address and the web site bikinistopgirls web site.

The email address url is owned by this person in Peru and you can see all their details in the picture. Now that does not necessarily mean they sent the email, or that Paige Collins is a real person as the email address could be hijacked and I suspect it is. Nevertheless the email address is owned by Daniel Silvia in Peru.

I used another Forensic tool and find that two of the routing IP addresses can not be found but one of them is registered to Peru. So I suspect that hijacked or not the email originated from Peru. Now if the Police went looking for a scammer etc, the address listed would be a good place to start.

Now, guess what I did some more checking and wolla I reckon it is one and the same.

So I would say 98% that the person who sent the email also owns the bikinistopgirls web site and could be well sitting on the beach in Peru sipping a cool drink collecting $ because you exchanged a back link driving people to a model web site with adult content advert. By the way the two sites you were offered to be linked on are nothing more than link / article farms…Of which they could also be paid for traffic…it is really a diversion. Notice they do not have any contact details.

So get this, they link you amongst hundreds of other back links on an innocent web site and in the mean time you are driving traffic to a porn site. Guess who is laughing all the way to the bank with a pretty blonde or hunk on their arm!

Remember what I have said on other occassions … “what you are” online determines what happens off line. Just imagine if you linked to in appropriate sites, non existant or now dead sites.

If you use email, social media, have a web site, or have registered on any of the Social Media sites you need to understand this. When you engage with the Tweet Twins in your Social Media experience it is these and much more that we are contemplating on your behalf. Because if used well and for your business goals, then it can help to achieve excellent results for you.

We understand the many deep and dark techniques and can watch out for you, be your adviser and let you get on with what you know best …driving your passion. We can reverse the process or adapt the process and technique work for your good and so you are respected and not black listed. If you have found this article helpful, do let us know.

And finally, just to make sure you know, back links are a good thing, just know who and what you are linking to.

Next time I will show you how you can be “groomed” and scammed out of products – be it a supply of your books, plasma LCD, even your car purchase. Be informed and then you will be able to discern good online friends and bad online friends, the type that are wolf in sheep clothing

Posted by Kevin Andreassend, co-partner The Tweet Twins, Specialists in creating dynamic healthy, and commercially successful Social Media Experiences.