Reviewing thinkBIGsites.com
BY Editweapon @ September 30, 2009
I am in the process of figuring out if thinkBIGsites.com organic search engine optimization program is worth $2K or $3K a month.
Maybe you are too.
I figure the best way to do this is to evaluate the work they did for one of their reference clients, Frank Key, who sells a colloidal silver product. (This is good because it’s the same industry as my company, Jigsaw Health, working to optimize for magnesium supplements.)
(Images from The Secret To Internet Marketing That Actually Works pdf download.)
So…How Do You Check Inbound Links?
Links to your website with your keywords in the “anchor text” is what Google ranking is mostly based on. Everyone gets that, right? Ok good.
I needed to figure out how to check Frank’s inbound links. Here’s what I did:
Step 1) Googled “How to check inbound links”
Step 2) Got totally lost for like 2 hours.
Thus, Step 2 will be the subject of a future post called “How Do you Check Inbound Links?” because this was not nearly as easy as I wanted it to be would have imagined.
I couldn’t find a single service that reported inbound links grouped by unique domain. They all just showed every page that linked to the target domain.
They were showing me millions of pine needles. I wanted to see the trees.
Of the tools I tested out, Backlinkwatch seemed the best. (Found from this list of 10 Backlink Checking Tools.) It found 1133 links. Wow…sounds awesome!
Of course, what is confusing is that Yahoo!’s site explorer tool only showed 15 inbound links, and Google shows “about 29.” WTF? Don’t you just love data discrepancy?!?! Grrr…
Next Step: Reference Check
The sales rep at ThinkBIGsites I talked with this afternoon is going to let me talk to some reference clients. I’ll share what I learn from them in a future post or an update to this post. More to come…
What’s A Boy To Do?
Get high with a little help from my friends. (Pun intended…like Gaylord Focker, I pass on grass. Always.)
Chase Granberry — of Authority Labs website tracker fame — recommended I check out SEOmoz, MajesticSEO, and SlingshotSEO. I’ll take a look and report back.
Any other comments, please post them. “I want to get high, so-o-o-o-o high.” 
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[...] and yet I’m still providing value in the content. (For example, see my work-in-progress review of thinkBIGsites from yesterday, or 5 Steps To SEO Domination from [...]
What was the verdict? Did you chooses them?
Actually, I started with SlingshotSEO on two keywords. But ThinkBigSites ran a promo at the end of December that was too good not to pass up, so I went with them as well for five keywords. Currently comparing the progress of both. And the jury is still out. I’ll report when I’ve got something concrete.
I’d be interested in hearing about your experience with ThinkBigSites. I have a client that is really unhappy with some of their tactics.
Any updates on ThinkBig? I ran across a business piece featuring them on one of the cable news channels (Inside Business). Interesting players.
Dee, I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that TV piece you saw was paid-for-production and pay-for-play. I’ve been approached to do those before from companies in Florida that charge about $5,000. It looks nice, but it’s not “real” journalism. Just an infomercial basically.
That said, I did elect to start using ThinkBIG. Thus far, the jury is still out on results. But they have been pleasant to work with. I’ll update in a few months.
thinkbigsites is a bunch of ripoffs. They take the money, but do nothing in return. a huge waste of time and money, and a massive hassle to get any of them on the phone.
Matt – and any others – I am considering working with ThinkbigSites and would appreciate knowing the nature of your disagreement/frustration with them and whether you’ve been able to reach any resolution to the problem?
Mike, for what it’s worth, so far I’m pretty happy with ThinkBIG. I’ve been reviewing their work and I’m not jumping up and down ecstatic, but it’s ok, and affordable. Will keep everyone apprised of my progress.
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