Backlinks are like votes. And the search engines rely heavily on these votes to determine what position you show up in a web search.

We're all guilty of listening to all of the wrong "gurus" and "experts" and make classic backlinking mistakes… everything from using automated tools to using link wheels with "footprints" — even backlinking too much, too fast.

Yes it's true. Getting too many backlinks too quickly actually works against you. Let me prove it to you below…

… Here's a snapshot of my webstats. Here we see my how-to tutorial on writing a personal biography example gets me a lot of traffic – 67,232 visitors in just 90 days:

This webpage has been on my site for years. And while I currently average more than 700 visitors a day to this webpage, it wasn't always so bountiful…

… I too listened to the wrong people and made all of the backlinking mistakes one could make. It even got me banned from showing up in Google's search results for years.

So back in the Spring of 2009, I reversed engineered some sites and figured out how to make Google happy and get a steady parade of traffic to my webpages. To my surprise, I found that working too hard and too fast actually worked against me. Instead, I invest just 15 minutes a day on building links.

As a result, I'm getting this:

See how the graph continues to steadily grow in numbers month after month?

The best way to build backlinks is to "prime the pump". Go slow. I avoid automated backlinking tools – they leave "footprints" and "signals" that you're trying to game the system. Instead, I shoot for less than a dozen backlinks to get my webpage on the first page of Google – take a look:

When you look at the top, you see I have SEOQuake installed… and it shows the PR:0 (I have a PageRank of zero… yes that's a 0) and Y!:8 (yes, just 8 incoming links to my webpage). So once again the "gurus" and "experts" are all wrong – you don't need to have hundreds or even thousands of backlinks to show up tops in the search results to get 700 visitors to your site each day. In almost every case, my most visited webpages have less than a dozen inbound links.

Just 8 incoming links to my site gets Google to send me this:

See how I'm getting hundreds (even thousands) of free organic traffic referrals from Google? If I were to pay just 10 cents a click using Google AdWords' pay per click advertising program, this would set me back thousands and thousands of dollars. Instead, I get this traffic 100% FREE!

Most of the keywords are a result of showing up on the first page in Google. (And I got a bunch from Yahoo! and Bing, too.)

So what's my secret? How in the world am I able to get just 8 backlinks to my site and get 66,182 visits in just the last 90 days?

Here it is – the tactic that made the BIG difference:

One of my secrets is to post a "nofollow" link. Yep, while all of the "gurus" and "experts" tell us to avoid "nofollow" backlinks, it was this link above that made all of the difference. I know it because I track this stuff… and as soon as I posted that link (shown above), my visits more than doubled the very next week. And since then, traffic to this webpage of mine has gone up more than 11 times.

Later today I'm holding a teleseminar about this. I'm going to reveal my #1 backlinking secret location that no one is talking about…

Update: I just completed this seminar about backlinking. And this email from John Patten just arrived shortly after:

… This teleseminar is FREE when you join my Marketing Junkies Club. And dont' fret if you can't make the call… I record everything and make the replay available the very next day. To access this call, look for the 7/7/2011 teleconference replay.

This advice is sure to piss off a lot of marketers as there's a lot of profit in these additional buys. Markeing "gurus" like Dan Kennedy and Jay Abraham tout one-time offer upsells as the fast path to easy cash. And this is absolutely true. Some buyers are in "heat" and are going to gobble up anything you offer just after they've taken the plunge to buy your original offer…

… And that's the big problem here — emotion. Most people buy irrationally. They get sucked into a purchase without properly analyzing it.

There are 3 super-simple reason why buying OTO upsells is are colossal burden on you:

You're throwing money down the drain – Surprisingly, most people who buy info products let their new-found purchase sit on their computer hard drive. It's even worse for the upsell product as almost no one even opens it (because they still haven't opened their original purchase).

The quality is poor – Most infoproduct owners invest most of their time creating a great introductory product. That's because the low-cost lost leaders are meant to impress (and also help pay those hefty affiliate commission… anywhere from 50% to 100% of the purchase price). Unfortunately, these "gold nuggets" don't carry through to the upsells… usually these are thrown together at the last minute (and it shows).

You're being manipulated – Marketers are using heavy-handed psychologically shenanigans to trick you into buying something that's always available at the exact same price. Through the use of the principle of scarcity, a one-time offer IMPLIES a superior deal you'll only get access to once… nothing can be further from the truth as you can ask for the "one-time" deal in the future and almost 100% of the publishers will honor it.

Just say no to one-time upsells.

So I reversed engineered some of his article marketing techniques and was quite surprised (in a good way). Unfortunately, I don't have many good things to say about well-known gurus and experts (until now)…

… Listen in to my under 10-minute review of Jeff Herring here…

Most bloggers have all of the best intentions, but fail to bank blog money.

We all listen to the "gurus" for ideas to make money blogging, but these same gurus are just dead wrong.

The good news is there's a solid, reputable and relatively easy way to earn money blogging. I use the following 3 techniques when blogging for cash:

Sell stuff – Visitors to your site are most likely searching for solutions to their problems. Some arrive to your blog already in the buying mood. And blog postings tend to seem more credible and believable… so linking to a solution tends to generate high conversions.

I actually find a two-step selling process works best. I pitch the idea of subscribing to my free email newsletter and from time to time cordially mention products I sell. Offering solutions to fix problems with this method works quite well for me.  And my website tracking stats show significantly higher conversion rates compared to trying to make the sale directly from my blog posts.

Show corporate advertising – As the economy sinks further into depression and recession, only the strongest companies are going to survive. And these companies have a lead generation problem… knowing it's important to put their lead generation on autopilot. So these companies are willing to pay bloggers to help them redirect these blog visitors to their website.

There are all sorts of ways to accept cash for ads on your blog:

Contextual ads – Brokers like Google and Chitika offer to play middleman and share in the revenue for placing sponsor's ads on your blog.

The most common ad is a classified ad. Some place display ads. And some uses services that turn some of the words in your blog post into clickable ads.

No matter which format you agree on, you're getting paid. Every time your blog visitor clicks on these links (or ads), you split the revenue with your broker of choice. It's great because you're able to bank real money without the appearance of selling out.

Exclusive sponsorships – A more lucrative and stable stream of income comes when you strike a private arrangement with an exclusive sponsor. I know several bloggers who have year-long contracts with advertisers thrilled with displaying their ads exclusively next to blogger content.

I offer unique advertising to earn money blogging – featuring a different corporate sponsor on my blog every single day of the year. I have 365 websites I feature… companies pay me anywhere from $1 to $365 to feature their website based on the day of year. Jan. 1 is $1, the 2nd is $2, and so on, until Dec. 31, which is $365. When you add the math, that's $66,805.00 this year. It's guaranteed money and it takes me about 25 minutes a day to complete each day's blog post.

Do you see why I love to make money blogging (and you should, too)?

Sell affiliate products – Many "gurus" tell us it's easy to make money blogging by promoting other people's products. Good luck with that. I tried promoting over 200 different affiliate products since November of 1997 and not a single company has paid me on time. That's no typo… zero.

With that said, some have come close. And it's for this reason I'm extremely careful about promoting other people's products.

Yes, you can make some money with affiliate programs, but I prefer selling my own product and displaying corporate sponsors next to my blog content as my primary way to earn money blogging.

Final tip – There's no reason for you to struggle with making money with earning money blogging. If you're ready to cash in right now, you might want to grab these blog money tips, techniques and methods.

Many gurus convince us that we're just one secret away from Internet marketing success. I don't find this to be true. Instead, I find sticking to a simple plan of action is all that's needed to become successful when marketing your business over the Internet.

Just follow these free internet marketing secrets and you're just 30 days away from Internet marketing success:

Mingle with successful people
They say you earn the average income of your 5 closest friends. Are you hanging out with highly successful people? If not, it might be costing you.

Skip the gurus
One of the absolute biggest mistakes I've made over the years was to listen to the advice of self-proclaimed gurus and experts.

When I was young and naive, I'd idolize those promising the fast path to instant internet riches. I read their home study courses word for word. And I joined every mailing list.

But guess what… either I did something very wrong or they gave us most of us really bad advice because I never made it big as they promised. Not even close. (And I'm a "doer"… so I can't be blamed with the lack of effort.)

Today, I'm pretty sure they too lied to us, because there are lots of people who have ordered these programs and have yet to produce their very first affiliate commission over the 'net.

While there might be exceptions to the rule, I find that most gurus are really great at hyping us with livin' the good life, but fail miserably at delivering the "what to do" and "how to do it."

Hocus Pocus Focus
This is my #1 successful internet marketing strategy.

There really are magical qualities of staying focused. It's much more profitable than procrastinating and putting things off. When you commit to getting things done, success comes to you much faster. One of my absolute favorite books is called, "Getting Things Done" — it literally turned me from a distracted mess into a focused machine in less than 72 hours.

Just say no
Speaking of distractions, think about all of the time you waste talking on the phone, answering emails, and chit chatting. The most successful people refuse to answer their own phones… they check their email just once or twice per day, and chit chat only when all of their work is complete.

Say goodbye to unnecessary expenses
Think about all of the things you pay for on a monthly basis. See if you can eliminate them.

For example, do you really need an expensive cell phone? I got rid of mine years ago — saving me almost $40 a month (and most important, saving me from wasting time chit chatting).

Speaking of the phone, I use a cheap calling card to make most of my long distance calls… paying less than three cents per minute (instead of 25 cents a minute with the big phone companies).

When I had employees and high overhead, my monthly "nut" (fixed expenses) were over $20,000.00 a month. Today, it's $75 monthly. Instead of office space I work from home. I made the switch in 2000 and it was the best move ever. I hardly use my car (just under 5,000 miles this year), and I don't fret about the high cost of gas (because I don't drive to work anymore).

Increase your heart rate
When I'm feeling sluggish and need a quick jolt of energy, I slash my intake of caffeine and instead engage in a light exercise routine. I stretch, run in place and do bicycle kicks daily (yes, including weekends). You'd be amazed how much energy you get just after your exercise routine. Plus I'm starting to get back into my skinny jeans again.

Embrace group brainstorming
Commit yourself to find other passionate businesspeople to swap marketing ideas with.

If you're concerned about sharing your ideas with others in a mastermind group, don't fret — you're going to get a lot more in return working as a group than going about it all by yourself.

Outsource the time-consuming stuff
Sites like ScriptLance.com and eLance.com give you an almost-instant pool of people to delegate the work you hate to do — usually for much less than doing it all yourself. Most workers based in the Philippines not only speak near-perfect English, but have a great work ethic and consider $3.00 an hour a king's sum of money.

Mentor with secret successes
Unlike gurus, those who are really successful seem to hide under the radar and keep to themselves.

And sometimes, out of nowhere, these quiet successes rise to the surface and desperately want to reveal how they really became successful.

They're beyond successful. They have virtually everything you'd want to buy. But there's one thing missing… they would like to leave behind their legacy.

Unlike the gurus, these success aren't going to promise to make you rich. Instead, they just get tremendous satisfaction out of helping you make your first sale… showing you how to avoid the mistakes and helping you get to the next level of growing your business.

Watch out for the price of success
My advice is to invest the same amount of time choosing your friends as you do choosing your business plan, because success does come with a price.

Some of your friends and family will turn on you. They'll expect you to loan them money and bail them out through tough financial binds — somehow thinking they've earned the right for you to be their sugar daddy.

Your success is guaranteed to threaten their egos as you easily afford groceries while they struggle to pay for gas.

The people who treat you differently because of the size of your bank account are probably not the people who deserve your friendship.

And your "friend problems" are going to get a lot worse when you're doing well over the internet… because in the back of their mind, they're upset that you're "making all of that money for so little work."

My final tip:
There's no reason for you to struggle with finding internet marketing success. If you're ready to put your internet marketing on autopilot righ now, you might want to grab these internet marketing success tips, techniques and methods.