The Monster loves networks. Yum!

Welcome to the definitive post on SEO Link Monster. I’ll be covering three main points of interest:

1. SEO Link Monster and link networks. What is a link network and why do I need one?
2. Does it work?
3. What are the signup bonuses I keep hearing about? What’s the best one?

OK, so let’s get started….

SEO Link Networks – What they are and why you need one

Google revolutionised search engines with a simple theory – we’ll rank sites in our index according to the authority of the other sites that link to them. This, in essence, was the “Page Rank” algorithm that made The Big G such an instant success. Of course, almost at that very instant the great idea occurred to someone “well let’s just make lots of (authority) sites that we can use to link-out at will”. The search engines, obviously, hate this idea – and they actively try to detect them. To avoid detection you need to do a number of things, but the most important is to have your sites hosted on different (Class-C) I.P addresses. For most people the cost of doing this is prohibitive. A cheaper solution is to hire someone else’s network.

That’s where SEO Link Monster comes in. They’ve created a network of blogs. As a member, you can post to these blogs – up to 14 articles per day. You’ll have access to your very own SEO link network – the very thing that Google dislikes so much because it allows people to manipulate the rankings. Sounds good! But is this one any good?

SEO Link Monster – is it any good?

OK. So that’s what link networks are. Now onto SEO Link Monster. Is it worth your while to hire it? I’ve been using it now for just over a couple of weeks. Here’s a quick run-down of some stats:

• Total number of days used for far: 16
• Total number of articles posted: 207
• Total number of articles indexed:173
• Total number of domains posted on:86
• Total number of links posted: 621
• Page Rank Distribution of domains:  PR3(8), PR2(20), PR1(23), PR0(35)
• Number of different name servers of domains: 37
• Number of different IP Addresses of domains:  20
• Number of different class C IP addresses: 20
• Number of different class B IP addresses: 6
• Total number of different reverse host masters in whois record: 1
• Total number of hosts used: 1

OK! So some interesting stats there. First off all you can see that I’ve had a decent amount of articles posted and a high percentage of them have been indexed. Over time I’m confident we’d be approaching a 100% indexing rate. We’ve had over 600 links posted, which is a nice amount. Page Rank wise there’s a decent distribution of PR, although there’s nothing above a PR3. They’ve also used a decent distribution of nameservers, which each name server hosting serveral hundred other domains. The I.P address distribution is a bit poorer, with only 20 different I.Ps making up the distribution for all 207 articles. And in total there are only 6 different class B addresses. Finally, every domain has the same reverse hostmaster record, one that is share between just over 5500 different domains and they are all hosted on the same host.

So — lots of data there, but how can we use it to judge the effectiveness of the network? Well, it seems to me that to use SEO Link Monster to just promote a single domain would be ineffective. There’s just not enough I.P diversity. I’d also be slightly worried that every domain is on the same host, and a known SEO host at that (as revealed by the hostmaster in the SOA whois record). We don’t know if Google keeps track of SEO hosts but it would certainly help them to identify link networks if they did. From looking at the stats above I’d say that SEO Link Monster would be best suited to helping you rank for lots of different long-tail terms. But if you were trying to rank for a difficult term I just don’t think you’d have enough IP diversity and domain authority (i.e Page Rank) there to kick it.

Everyone loves domains with high pagerank

SEO Link Monster – are there any good bonuses?

So, if you decide you like the sound of a nice, easy way to rank for not overly competitive terms then SEO Link Monster could be right up your street. Fire her up with a big selection of heavily spun articles and link out to all your not-that-hard-to-rank-for keywords. Sit back for a couple of months, do absolutely nothing, and wait for the rankings to decent. It could be a decent tool to add to your SEO armoury. At the very least, something you’ll want to test out for yourself. That being the case, what bonuses can you look to grab hold of should you decide to buy? Well, luckily for me someone else has compiled a reasonable list of the bonuses that have so far become available for SEO Link Monster. You can check it out here: http://seo-link-monster.co/ None of them seem particularly awe inspiring. I may be tempted to offer my own bonus, but I’m not sure if I’ll be promoting the product yet. I will update this post as I go on…

My thoughts? Leaving aside for one moment my opinion on the actual detail of the act – what about the awesomeness of people who care, eh? What about all those people who have taken time out of their lives to campaign for something? Yes, there’s definitely a lot of self interest involved (Wikipedia want the freedom to be able to link to whoever they choose, for example) but there’s also just a lot of average people just saying, “you know what I don’t like that. I’m going to start an organisation to campaign against it.” Amazing. For all we hear about the apathy of “people these days”, there’s an awful lot of anti-apathy too. I mean, just look at this site http://americancensorship.org/ and at all the logos at the bottom. Those are real organizations, that have taken blood, sweat and tears to set-up, done mainly because some people care about things. My thoughts on the SOPA blackout day ..  well done to those that care.

Hello world!

I believe that’s what they say, isn’t it? A hello thrown out there into the void, ready for anyone who might be listening. And that anyone – is you! How you found this site, I have no idea. I’ve only just started it up. But I’m sure that someone, somewhere, at some point, will indeed read it. Someone I don’t know who, for whatever reason, happens to land on this site and takes an interest in what I have to say. So, welcome stranger! Why don’t you introduce yourself in the comments while I start crafting my second post. Hopefully it’ll be ready by the time you finish….