29 replies to this topic

[Just C]

Hi,

just wondering if anyone here as any experience with getting your site linked via about.com?
It seems to be a good way to get your site seen by your particular target audience... but if it is, why aren't more folks doing it?

Cheers,
Charmaine

[Jill]

Your Google AdWords are ads at About.com.

[Randy]

Good question Charmaine.

In addition to what Jill said --and more importantly IMO-- is that if you have a very, very good site and make it known to the About.com editor of the sector it best fits, they are very likely write an article about your site and include real links all over the place.

I have several sites that have About.com incoming lnks. Those links are of course valuable for their link popularity. But more importantly they bring me traffic from real people who are looking for exactly what I offer. Judging by the ROI of that traffic, they're 80% sold before they ever hit my site(s) because of the article.

The caveat there being that the site has to be really, really worthy before you ever ask. About editors are very picky and rightly so.

Bottom line...

On my subscription sites I almost never give anyone a freebie strictly for marketing purposes. Unless they're an About.com editor. Those folks get Lifetime subscriptions, without having to ask, instead of something for a month or two just to check out the site.

[Brian Turner]

I have a religion resource site linked to from about.com. There was no payment involved, just hard work building a quality content-driven site.

[magellan]

I managed to get a commercial site listed on About.com before. There was an article and links to sites in the widget industry. I just e-mailed the editor and the site was listed in the next update. It didn't drive much traffic and didn't contribute to PR, but it was nice to have.

[leadegroot]

Magellan:

It didn't drive much traffic and didn't contribute to PR

I don't follow - why didn't a link from about.com contribute to PR?
I thought they passed on PR?

[magellan]

Sorry, that may be incorrect. The About.com link may have passed PR but didn't show in Google backlinks.

[leadegroot]

The About.com link may have passed PR but didn't show in Google backlinks.

Ah, that makes more sense
Google backlinks are so unreliable

[qwerty]

I have two sites that are linked to from about.com, one at my request, and one requested by the about.com editor (they use a bunch of our pictures).

Neither one shows up on a google backlink check, but of course that doesn't mean that they don't pass PR. However, there is the fact that the link opens the site in a frame under the about banner. So technically, they're not linking to my site. They're linking to

beauty.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=beauty&zu=http%3A%2F%2F[mysite.com]

[Jill]

Yep that seems to be their new way of linking, which isn't a link at all.

My sister recently had an article published on About.com and they did that to hers. I told her she should see if she can get them to actually link to her site, but somehow I doubt they will.

I think it's kinda sleazy when you give them a great article that they want to use and then they go and frame your site like that. I've never really liked About.com all the way back since when they were the Miningco.com. They used to do sleazy framed things way back then too.

[MarketPro]

hey guys,

Thought I'd jump in here with my .02 and experience of being with about for the last 7 years (does that date me? )

If we link from your website within the "directory" links yes it will frame your website, however you can ask that the frame be turned off. Some editors will, some editors won't.

If you submit a guest article, the article pubished on About and the editor will link directly to your site.

While it may not show up in backlinks it does attribute to your PR and can often get your website spider rather quickly since Google tends to spider particular about sites approximately every 48 hours.

Hope that helps and Jill I'm sad to hear you say that you think About's approach is sleazy. About must generate revenue like any online adventure to pay their staff and editors. I'd much rather them frame a site and diminsh the popup ads than create a bad experience for my users by using pops.

[SearchRank]

Yeah, someone posted here a while back looking for SEO articles to place on About so I responded and all they do is frame in your site. I thought, "Okay, thanks a lot (sarcastically)." So there is no PR benefit and I don't think I've ever got a referral from them. Therefore I don't worry too much 'about' About!

[MarketPro]

David

I linked into your articles I never posted them directly on About as Guest Articles. The marketing site at About has a PR of 7, I'm sure the PR helped you but I can pull your articles if you'd like. Just let me know.

About is a great place to be listed for exposure, however if you only wish to be listed to increase your rankings then it is probably the wrong reason to ask for a listing.

The goal of an About Editor is to provide our users the best resource on the topic they are interested in. If we feel a website is a substantial resource and will provide our users with the information that they are looking for, we list it. I listed your articles because I felt they were a good resource. I list this forum because I feel it is a good resource.

I suppose you could liken it to my postings here, I don't post here in order to increase rankings. I post here when I see that it is something I can be of assistance with.

[qwerty]

It would be nice if the links counted as links. It would be nice if they just linked to my sites without the frame. But I'm not complaining, really (do we have a brown nose smiley?)

The fact is, about.com gets my client's name out there on pages that are far more popular than her own site. Occasionally, they send us some traffic (I'd say about two visits a week on average). It didn't cost me anything, so I'm fine with it.

[SearchRank]

I listed your articles because I felt they were a good resource.

Thank you for the compliment. I just think the method of 'framing' in one's site may be a bit of a selfish way to do things. I know the reason people do this is to "keep them" at their site but I think having the site open in a new window would be a much better option. This is what I do. That way, the person gets the site in a new window and "if they want" to come back to mine, it is still there in its original window.

Now I am not a PR or backlinks fanatic but for a guy that tries to get links the 'right' way, avoiding the link farm way of doing things, everything helps. I feel privileged to have my articles published anywhere, especially a site as prominent as About. But when I saw that they were only 'framed' in, the value of it diminished in my mind.

Possibly you guys should "rethink" they way you link to resources because many people that provide those resources like the benefit of getting a 'direct' link back to their site, myself included.