Do you know how to build back links to the blog, e-commerce store, or site you’ve started? Link building may be one of the most sought skills for any site owner. After all, links help your site become found by search engines, build traffic, and increase your site’s readership. At LinkBuildingWiki.com you will find a vast resource focused on the art of link building. The wiki makes it easy to find resources related to link building.

What is the Link Building Wiki?

The LinkBuildingWiki.com compiles links to authoritative articles, blog posts, forum posts, and their sites for users to find information quickly.  The  site is completely free to use. If you’re new to link building or SEO, then this wiki should be your first stop on the journey.

Unlike other wikis, the Link Building Wiki is not open for everyone to edit. Those who would like to participate in building content can apply for the privilege. I understand why they have it closed. Imagine the amount of spam a link building wiki would receive — now you understand too.

The site lists link building resources including SEO blogs, forums and active posts in those forums, link building articles, and link building tools. The resources are first rate and should help anyone become acquainted with tips, tricks, and lessons related to link building.

Throughout the site, you may notice recommendations for certain material from two of the creators, Rob and Jarrod. They make it easy for you to spot their favorite material. The recommendations guide you towards quality information on link building.

The Hands off Approach

For those who simply want someone with the know-how to build links to your site, you can hire the experts behind the Link Building Wiki. From their link building services page offers everyone the information needed to hire their staff for link building work.

Conclusion

The wiki introduced me to quite a few sites on link building and SEO I hadn’t heard of before this review. If you’re looking to build back links to your site, increase your search engine rankings, or just gain SEO knowledge, then the Link Building Wiki should be part of your arsenal.

Hi there,

I see you came to my site looking for “web 2.0 skills”. I’m not entirely sure why you found my page, but I’m glad you did. I’m afraid you didn’t stick around to learn any skills, but maybe that’s already a sign you have web 2.0 skills. It says here you bounced from the first page you visited? How did I lose you so quick?

I guess you came to my site expecting big buttons to push, tons of videos instructing you on the neo-art of converting social activity into dollars, and titillating internet memes. I’m sorry to have disappointed. I can tell you my site will give you tips on writing, marketing, and various blogging tools.

I could have inspired you to begin writing a blog of your own, if you didn’t already own one. You might even have been able to quit your day job. I’m not a money making blog, but your writing skills would have improved. Trust me. You would have wanted to take this route.

If you did own a blog, then I could have helped you write powerful messages to your readers.

I know Web 2.0 skills are hard to come by, just like computer hacking skills.I’m wondering where you went. Were there other Web 2.0 skill sites to visit? I’m checking now.  I see now that I come up on the first page of Google for Web 2.0 Skills (not anymore). It’s not a huge surprise. I’ve got skills like that.

If you’re here looking for web 2.0 skills, sign up for my RSS feed so you don’t miss my skill building seminar.

I sat down to think about this question, “Where will social media sites be in five or ten years?” Following are my ramblings. I’m not an expert on social media or social networks, but thought I could tackle the question. I’d love to hear from you as well.

Will it take twenty years to really see a difference in social media sites? Do huge leaps in technology take place overnight? Ten years ago, Fark, Digg, and most other sites were mere twinkles in their developers’ eyes. Ten years from today we may see one large social networking site and other social media sites all combined. It will probably come down to who buys out who.

Then I read what Charlene Li said in her Future of Social Networks post.

There are four components of what I’m calling this idea of “ubiquitous social networks”: 1) Profiles; 2) Relationships; 3) Activities; and 4) Business models…But in the context of ubiquitous social networks, they will develop into the following: 1) Universal identities; 2) A single social graph; 3) Social context for activities; and 4) Social influence defining marketing value.

Sites like friendfeed, ping.fm, and socialthing.com really intrigue me. These are social media sites that revolve around other social media sites. It could be the future of the beast. They may continue to roll-up other social media sites, becoming the destination themselves. In the future these sites will have so many sites for you to connect, you’ll not want to leave their convenience. Again, it’s really a matter of which company buys out the others.

Charlene’s four components would be active in one large network, giving companies like big telephone companies a way to engage customers, knowing far more about their end-user from profiles through the MegaSpace than they ever did before. Cable companies could use the profiles to create user specific programming guides, directing commercials to individuals. It will likely mark the end of privacy.

So where do all the voting, profile, community, content driven sites lead us? A lot depends on the future of the internet. Will it remain open? Will the next generation build better, faster communication channels?

Take Note of Real World Businesses

To what extent we communicate and interact depends largely on how far into the future you want to go. Ten years from now, blogs will be a school project, an English final, a marketing challenge, and on everyone’s mobile phones. RSS feeds will come directly to mobile phones. It’s almost there now.

Ten years is a long time. In that time, it’s likely Facebook and Myspace will become the Walmarts of the online world. They’ll provide everything we need at no cost. These companies will only be challenged by those that begin to question the formula of the sites. How could they do it better?

And How Could Social Media Be Improved?

Social media sites have this malleability to them that other sites cannot capture. A twitter user can connect and communicate rapidly with hundreds of individuals, while a static site can only present information in one fashion. Sites like Digg move in one direction one week (Batman) and completely reverse content emphasis the next (Obama).

At this point, online publishers generate millions of pages of content a day, likely in an hour. Users churn out blog posts, videos, reviews, podcasts, and submit it to Digg, SU, or Del.icio.us. The web opens up its jaws and seemingly keeps opening wider for all this content to come rushing through. At times, it clamps down on a particularly fascinating piece and everyone gets a taste of it. It becomes popular and within time has been viewed by millions, even tens of millions, of users. The real challenge will be to streamline new content to users in the most efficient way possible.

Many of the popular sites today handle this quite well. Digg has user generated submissions with voting up or down. Twitter has conversations and content flying everywhere. But what could a site do to capture content, categorize it in a new way, and/or present it to the user in a different fashion than has already been accomplished? Can a social media network link together, simplify, and aggregate content to the end user without losing touch without sacrificing the good?

Social Media Networks Will Be One Giant Network (or Two)

It’s safe to say someone will get bought out. Myspace, Facebook, Friendster, Hi5 — one of them will faceplant into the lap of a rival. It’s going to happen. Then like two twisters merging they will lay waste to the remaining networks, until eventually the future will have become a single network with many cogs.

So the future will likely be one large network shared among many different media platforms. Our profile will regulate what food our refrigerator orders from the online grocery store, what movies get downloaded to our entertainment room’s computer, and where the nearest coffee shop with our brand of beans can be found. It will be a world marked by invididuality and pushing the boundaries of privacy. It wont’ be Orwellian, if we remain vigilant.

This weekly wrap-up post asks one crucial question for all you micro-bloggers — Is there a wrong way to use Twitter, Plurk, Pownce, and all the others? Can you actually alienate yourself from the masses? I have no hard and fast evidence. I know on Twitter there’s a collective of individuals I’m following who “would appreciate you going easy on the spam”. But there are others who quite frequently post links to their own blogs with the intro “Some spam:”.

Micro-blogging works great to network, find answers, build an online brand, and to keep in touch with many people at once. It doesn’t seem to work well when you don’t take the time to introduce yourself to those who follow you, or at least try to interact.

I must admit, I’m often times overwhelmed by Twitter. I’m following many of the top bloggers in the industry, from Mashable to Robert Scoble. These guys are all famous in their own right and quite successful. At times, I feel like what I have to contribute would be inane, so I shut up. Other times I try too hard.  I am who I am though, and my followers understand that. It’s not like they want to me to have all the answers, to be constantly funny, or anything. Most of them don’t even know me. Why not just be myself?

So the wrong way to use Twitter and other Micro-blogging services seems to be when we try to hard and overwhelm our followers. If I just be myself and try to interact with individuals, then 99% of the time I’ll experience a positive result. If I stay in the shadows and let the tweets fly by, then I’m only going to be a small pixelated square on someone’s friends list.

How Not To Start Micro-blogging

There is one other way to start out wrong. It’s poor form to simply start following a thousand people. I’ve seen at least two Twitter users add me this weekend who have less than ten followers, but they’re following over 500 people. That’s crazy! Stop it!

Twitter does have a follow limit of 2,000. Can you imagine 2,000 people in a room? I wouldn’t want to be holding a mic telling those 2,000 people about a great offer on dog food. Stay away from spam. Be yourself.

Other’s Explosions

This week I’ve read a lot of great articles on the web. It’s hard to keep track of everything, but I did want to push some link love to a few of my favorites.

Jamie at Blog2Life.net introduced a stat tracking service called Crazy Egg. The stats track clicks on your site and can show you how traffic responds to certain areas of your blog. I’m going to give the service a try to see where you’re all clicking. I’m watching!

It’s Write Now discussed how to create your own Wordpress template, which can be highly valuable to many bloggers out there. A good series with clear instructions.

Write to Done wrote a post entitled Why You Must Blow Your Trumpet. A great article on how we need to take credit and push our own limits of ourselves.

That’s all for this week. I’ll be writing new Micro-blogging Olympics over the next few days. Stay tuned as I go for gold!

Today is the first day of The AdSpace Contest and I’m excited to announce that I am one of 10 co-hosts.

The idea is simple and easy: Get as many entries as you can (very easy to do) over the next 30 days. The more entries you get, the better chance you have of winning! At the end of the 30 days, we’ll announce the winner.

The prize?

A 125×125 pixel ad spot (above the fold) on at least TEN DIFFERENT BLOGS that will run for one month. That’s at least a $100 value!

Who else is co-hosting?

• Geek Mom Mashup
• Vrtualme
• Jamaipanese
• Best of Stupid
• AxioBlog
• The Big Bald Blog
• Jason Boom
• Unconventional Marketing Blog
• Offended Blogger
• GorillaSushi

How do you enter to win?

1 Entry - Subscribe to any one of the blogs above via email.

10 Entries - Write a post about the contest (must include links to all 10 hosts OR use our suggested text)

25 Entries - Offer up an ad spot on your own blog for one month as part of the prize package (links will be listed above)

Simply put, you could subscribe to all 10 blogs, write a post and offer up your own ad spot for a grand total of 45 entries! Be sure to tell us in the comments below when and how you’ve entered to ensure that your entries get counted.

Good Luck!