No matter what type of business you are running on the internet, backlinks matter. If you are developing high end web sites that generate all of your revenue, the more incoming links to your site, the more people that are finding you and the easier it is for the search engines to rank you in their results.

Gone are the days when you could buy thousands of keyword specific backlinks and rank at the top of the search results. Yes, these were glorious days… but like everyone said, Google would eventually catch on and penalize these type of methods.

Now it’s all about quality backlinks, making sure they are relevant and building them over time and not trying to flood links to your sites within a day or weeks time. After all, Google is trying to rank sites based on their quality of experience to the search user, not for us business folks!

One such way to create an effective link building model around your web site or blog is to take a look at GrowPosition.com. The goal behind Grow Position is to allow site owners the opportunity to buy and build links for their sites, while scaling them across different and effective platforms and mediums.

Grow Position currently specializes in the following link building methods.

• Temporary links – these are posted on webmasters sites. Charges for these links are renewed on a monthly basis. Monthly fees will be renewed automatically if not cancelled.
• Permanent links – are also posted on webmasters sites. There is a one-time fee for such links. Links will be posted on the websites for the duration of the websites. GrowPosition will ensure that the link will not be moved.
• Posts – these are a type of ad unit that are available for purchase on popular sites, such as WordPress or Drupal. The site owner will write your requirements to your specifications.
• Articles – this is an ad unit offered for purchase on heavily visited sites. The only difference between the purchase of posts and articles is that for articles, the site owner cannot make any changes to your requirements without your prior consent.
• Post links – this is a small ad unit. It is a written paragraph with your link attached that will be added to your chosen post on the advertiser’s site. You send the site owner your requirements and he will write the post link accordingly. Purchase for these post links are offered on popular platform sites, such as WordPress and Drupal.

Time and time again we have talked about the importance of guest posting, building out your own links and even article marketing. No matter the changes being made from Google or the type of content you are writing, it all comes down to money and time. It takes a lot of time to write and manage your link building on your own, but it is possible. However, for most people it is simply more effective to outsource the process to other companies like Grow Position, who know what they are doing and have a system in place to make sure your link building efforts are actually working for you and not against you.

How Does Grow Position Work?

The Grow Position network is built up of thousands of “quality websites” that allow users of their link building service to choose relevant sites to buy links, articles, blog posts and paid placement. The more relevant the content and niche of sites linking back to your site, the more relevant and effective the link building process will be.

There are two different types of links that can be ordered through Grow Position, temporary and permanent links. The temporary links are renewed on a monthly basis, which is something you may be familiar with if you currently order link building through other services such as Text Link Ads. The permanent link placements are on the same sites, but are only a one time fee and will keep the link active for the life of the site.

It’s not just about text link building. As mentioned earlier, Google isn’t going to rank you if you have a thousand sites linking back to your site with the same generic terms. Site owners need to spice their link building methods up with reviews, social links, different anchor text and more.

1,903 users have already chosen us. 36,964,77 pages are available for your ads. Price of our text ads start from $0.01 per month.

Link building doesn’t have to be just about getting link juice, you should be looking at how you can monetize your links for actual traffic and revenue as well. If you are to become an advertiser with GrowPosition, you have the option to order paid placement for posts, articles and in-post links. Content is king, and having your links within this content is key.

Finding Relevant Sites to Advertise On

You can sign up for an account right away with Grow Position and have full access to their back end and ad buying system. Once logged in you can select the Publisher/Advertiser options. Below you will see a screenshot of the start of the ad buying process, which is a directory of all the sites in the network, which provides specifics on if the site is listed in Yahoo/DMOZ, the site category, how many pages are indexed in Google, Alexa rank and much more.

You will also notice that there are plenty of filters on the left side of the page. When you are logged in you will see many more.

In addition to all of the detailed stats and information, you also have the option to “Add to Cart” for any sites that you would like to buy advertising/link building on. Since it’s quite a large directory, you will probably come across a lot of sites you might like to try, but not all at the same time. You can save any of the interesting sites in your “Add to Hot List” section for future viewing.

Making Money with Grow Position

As mentioned earlier, Grow Position has thousands of sites within their network and that number is growing daily. Why? Simply because new sites are created every day and looking for new ways to monetize their site.

On the flip side of being an advertiser with Grow Position, you can also be a publisher. Instead of buying links and advertising for your site, you can be selling paid placement and articles/blog posts on your site to generate a new source of revenue.

To setup your site as a publisher account, all you need to do is sign in to your account, click Publisher, then Add Site. Grow Position will only accept sites with less than 15 out going links. Once you are accepted as a network site you can then post all of your prices and link building options. Lastly you would install the Grow Position wordpress plugin, which will manage all of your account and sites link/ad placements.

As a Grow Position site partner, you would receive 85% of all sales, which is quite high compared to other link building networks. For more information on the publisher program, you can read through the Grow Position FAQ section. Payments are made through Paypal, WebMoney, EPESE and wire transfer.

Knowing How to Grow Your Position Online

As mentioned earlier, link building is not what it used to be and is now more complicated and potentially dangerous than ever before. The last thing you want to do is mess around with a low end service that promises thousands of incoming links for just a few dollars.

Grow Position has been able to create a business model that works because they can diversify their links over many different sites and through many different link building methods. Link building isn’t for everyone, and it can become a job in itself. Be sure to check out Grow Position and see if their link building model is right for your business.

No matter what, whenever something bad happens to GoDaddy, the whole world seems to know about it. After all they already host over 53 million domains, but I’m sure that number is bound to drop after the recent attack and hacking that shut their network and millions of domains across the internet down this week.

The same thing can be said the last time that GoDaddy did something stupid, which was when they boasted about how their CEO at the time went to Africa and killed a bunch of elephants. NameCheap took advantage of the situation and offered a great promotion that resulted in over 20,000 new domains and customers leaving GoDaddy and moving over to NameCheap.

This time HostGator is the one who is taking advantage of GoDaddy’s mess.

When you sign up for new hosting account you will get a insane discount from HostGator in the 99% off range!

Here’s how to take advantage of GoDaddy’s error and HostGator’s mega promotion.

The first thing you will need to do is visit HostGator, then click on any of their hosting pages and then REGISTER a new domain or TRANSFER if you are currently setup with hosting elsewhere. The next important part is to add “ZACJOHNSON25” in the coupon section.

NOTE: The “GODADDYISDOWN” coupon is now expired. Used “ZACJOHNSON25″ to get your first month of hosting for only $3.71!

Next you will just need to select your web hosting package and fill in your personal details. I recommend going with the BABY package for 6 MONTHS of hosting, as this will give you 99% off their normal price. Instead of paying $59.70, you will only have to pay 1 cent!

NOTE: The “GODADDYISDOWN” coupon is now expired. Used “ZACJOHNSON25″ to get your first month of hosting for only $3.71!

Once you sign up, send me an email through my contact form along with your order details and I will set your blog up and provide you with over $100 worth of premium wordpress themes and much more!

In the web hosting industry the competition is fierce, however when it comes to customer support and growth, HostGator is at the top of the industry. Over the years I’ve been with a ton of different web hosting companies and even ended up with my own dedicated servers in a storage center at one point. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to hosting and support offered by these companies. At the end of the day, you can shop around for the cheapest hosting cost, but in the end it really comes down to the quality of service and support you receive.

A big mistake I made in the past was was signing up for a dedicated server with a well known hosting company for a year in advance, only to find out that their email and online support was absolutely horrible. Once my year was up I quickly made the change to another host.

Now that I have everything with HostGator, I simply love their service, but I really love their online chat support system. Not only is it a cool setup, but it makes it extremely easy and fast to get problems solved. All hosting companies need to offer support through email, online chat and phone 24 hours a day. If your current host doesn’t offer all of these support methods, they are lacking.

Lets take a look at HostGator’s killer online chat support system and walk through why it’s the best around.

At the top of all HostGator pages you will see the logo header and full contact/ support information which include toll free / local phone numbers and the live chat feature. Click on the live chat button to activate the online chat support.

Once the chat window is open you can fill in your personal and site details, along with the issues you are currently having.

After you fill out your details and click “Start Chat”, you will soon be transfered over to the next available support team member. The wait time is usually around a minute, but during peak hours it can be anywhere from a 3 to 10 minute wait. Since the chat window appears in a new window you can still work on everything else while waiting to resolve your issue.

The last step in the process is leaving feedback for the support team member and how they resolved your issue. What’s even better is that you can have the full transcript sent to you by email. There is nothing worse than walking through a process with someone, then trying to remember all of the steps. Just insert your email in the “Email Transcript” area and you will have the full chat session sent to your email for future reference.

As mentioned earlier, I have all of my sites hosted with HostGator and it’s just been an excellent experience to work with them and their support team. Whether you are transferring sites, upgrading servers or just can’t figure out how to do something in cpanel or getting new software applications to work, their support team will either set it up for you or let you know what you need to do to successfully fix any issues that may arise.

If you have a more complex issue, you can always use the HostGator support ticket system which makes it easy for you to work with their advanced tech team that handles any software, hardware and transfer issues. I have HostGator handle many big transfers for me and they have always gone very smoothly.

Setup Your Blog for Free through HostGator

I get emails all the time from readers who want to start their first blog and simply don’t know where to start. For times like these I created my free blog installation service, which allows you to sign up for a hosting account with HostGator, then I will setup a blog on your site, provide you with a premium theme and add the latest wordpress plugins for you.

Let’s start this post of with one of the most important questions you can ask any web site, business or blog… do you have a logo for your business? If you do, then you are on the right track… if not, then you are missing out on a massive branding tool that could be working for you every single day of your life! I’ve written about the importance of having a killer logo many times on this blog and through a partnership with DesignCrowd, we are going to award one of our readers with a killer $400 logo package to get you and your blog on the right track!

Why You and Your Brand Need a Great Logo Design!

Before we jump into the contest promotion, we should first stress the importance of why you need to have a killer logo design. Even before reading this, I’m sure you took a glance at the designs below. I’m also sure that some of the designs stood out more than others. This is an example of the importance of logo design in itself.

In the world of online marketing you only have a second or two to leave a lasting impression. If you have a great logo design that can tell what your business does and leave an impression in the minds of your viewers, you are getting the job done. If not, then it is definitely time you looked into creating a new logo.

Just think about some of the most famous brands in the world and how their logos speak volumes and some of them don’t even have words on them. Take Apple’s logo for example… it’s become a recognized symbol through out the world for quality, excellence and technology… yet it is just an apple with a bite out of it.

What can a logo do for your business and branding? View some of the current design contests running right now for more ideas and inspiration.

Designing Your Next Logo Through Crowd Sourcing

A growing trend in the design and content creation space is to ditch the one shop design agencies that charge a lot of money and only provide you with a few draft designs to choose from. The new way to get results is through the use of crowd sourcing and creating design contests through sites like DesignCrowd.

The concept is simple… you come up with a design idea (logo, site, tshirts, flyers etc.), write up a few details about your design and company or service, then thousands of designers on the site will get to work on creating new and original designs for you to choose from. (see examples) Instead of having just one design team work on your logo, you will have a whole army of designers and hundreds of drafts to choose from.

Contest Time! Win a $400 Logo Design Package!

As mentioned earlier, we have partnered up with DesignCrowd to offer our readers the chance to walk away with a sweet $400 logo design package! It doesn’t matter if you have a logo already, looking to upgrade to a better design or completely clueless about what logo you should have for your site… you need to enter this excellent promotion!

It’s ridiculously easy to enter, all you need to do is fill out this short form on the DesignCrowd site which is an entry form for ZacJohnson.com readers only, which means you have a really great chance at winning the contest!

I think it’s safe to say that I’m a huge fan of Flippa. Since joining the site a few years back, I’ve had over $100,000 in buys and sells through the site, and even wrote a whole guide on how to “flip websites” using Flippa as your launch pad. There is no other online market place that can provide so much value and opportunity to site and business owners of all sizes.

With all of that said, I thought it would be a great idea to write a post about what it takes to go from having a simple idea, to creating a high authority web site that you could then end up selling on Flippa for five to six figures.

The Creation Phase

One of the biggest problems that most people have when trying to make money online, is not knowing where to start. You simply can’t just buy a domain, throw some content together and hope for the best. You need to plan ahead and know what you are trying to achieve before you start. Of course it helps when you already have a good understanding of how internet marketing and sites work, but it’s also about putting your ideas and thought process into action.

A few years back I came across the opportunity to secure the domain name PPC.ORG. It’s an amazing three letter domain name, and one of the best I’ve ever had. I knew I just had to have it! After waiting for the domain name to be released, go through the auction process and finally securing the domain name, it was well worth the thousands of dollars it cost to acquire it.

For non-internet marketing related people, “PPC” might not mean anything special and seem like a generic three letter domain. For anyone who does know internet marketing, it most definitely means “Pay Per Click”, which is one of the most sought after search terms when it comes to online marketing.

Now that the domain was secured, I had a niche focus in mind and it was time to start implementing my ideas and put everything into motion.

Building Your Dream Site

It’s never easy to start a site from scratch, but that is what I was going to have to do with PPC.ORG. Right when you start a site or blog, everything is slow and at times it can be very un-motivating. Your site isn’t in the search engines, no one is reading your content and you are quite far from seeing profits any time soon. But isn’t this how almost every business starts out?

The best way to avoid these problems is to just get started and know what you need to do. Create a site/blog, build a custom theme, create a logo for your brand identity and focus on your content. All of these factors play a huge part in creating the perfect foundation for your new site and business.

Working with the Right People

Building a successful authority site on your own is no easy task. When I first started PPC.ORG, I was fine with writing a few articles here and there for myself, but I quickly found that I couldn’t create quality content fast enough or grow out the site as I would like to. All of this was going on while I was still managing all of my other sites and day to day operations. It was at this time that I partnered up with a good friend of mine, John Rampton, who is also a master at pay per click and online marketing.

Together we would continue to create original content for the site, hire other writers who knew what they were talking about and also promote the heck out of the site and write about it wherever we could. From top internet marketing blogs like Forbes, PPCHero, Search Engine Watch, SEOMoz, Search Engine Journal… we made it a mission to get PPC.org linked up with great content from every where possible.

Knowing Your Business & Target Audience

We have the domain name, the content, the writing team and the love and support from the major search engines… now we just needed to keep our focus and content tight.

The site is obviously named PPC.ORG and we knew our audience and what they wanted… everything relating to ppc and internet marketing.

As the owners of the site, it was also important for us to understand and know everything there is to know about the industry. This not only made it easier to write content and know what to focus the site on, but we also understood the power of “business to business” marketing and how valuable a site like PPC.ORG could be to any seo, search or online marketing company should we decide to ever sell.

Going for the BIG Sale

Fast forward a year and several months and now PPC.org is an extremely well established site with a Page Rank 5 and also contains over 1,000 pages of original content. As much as we would like to continue to build out the site with even more content and create our own pay per click tracking software and members area, we have found ourselves extremely committed to our latest project at Blogging.org.

However, this still works out successfully for the business of PPC.ORG and it’s future owner. This post isn’t about trying to gain attention and bidders for the site, but instead to walk you through the thought and action process of how to come up with an idea for a site, go after a domain name and business model that works, implement it with a team and then eventually sell for profit.