Link Trains are making a Comeback
A couple of months ago, I started the Technorati Faves Link Train and watched it take off around the world faster than I would have ever imagined. I cracked the Technorati Top 100 in less than a week and now currently reside in the No. 19 spot behind one of the blogs that got me into this whole thing – JohnChow.com.

At the beginning of the current iPhone Giveaway Contest, I started to notice a few blips of people trying to start the train again, but then I thought to myself “there’s no way it’s going to start again!” But I was wrong, almost 3 weeks since then and the train is chugging along nicely as it did in the tail end of it’s hey day – about 5-10 backlinks a day! A combination of the revival of the link train and the iPhone Contest has finally got me past the 3k mark on Technorati to 2900. Of course, all these numbers don’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things, but I’m a stats whore, so shoot me!

Of course, there have been a number of articles written about the evilness, genius or sheer luck of this link train. Enough so that I originally wanted to distance myself from link trains as a whole because I was starting to become one with the term “Link Train!” and I wanted to become more than that when I started blogging. As more and more people started creating unique link trains and added me onto them, I became more and more content that I was never going to escape it. I felt very much like Dennis Weaver in the Spielberg classic thriller “Duel” where Dennis Weaver’s character is trying to escape this killer 18 wheeler that’s trying to kill him and his car! Okay, maybe it’s not to that extreme, but I know I’m never going to escape, so hopefully you’re smart enough to see the correlation!
With that being said, David Wilkinson of Techzi.net asked me to join in his new Geek Train where he has given nicknames to pretty much all the bloggers I currently read! I love my nickname in particular since I’m called “The Legendary” for reasons unbeknownst to me, but I’ll take it! So, since I got an awesome nickname plus the fact that I’m sponsoring this link train, I thought I’d embrace my link train association with the Geek Train:
———- START COPYING HERE ———-
Geek Train – All aboard!
1 – Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and linkback to the blog(s) that put you on the list in the paragraph. You MUST do this. No-one plans on getting slapped for duplicate content any time soon, do they?
2 – Next, copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your own blog. If you’d like a different keyword for your blog then change it, when you do your post, and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword, provided the train keeps on spreading.
3 – Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.
4 – Add at least three new favourite blogs of yours to keep the train going, e-mail the blog owners (or comment on one of their posts) and insist that they post.
My Adds:
(The Cash) Cash for Comments
(The Showoff) Jon Lee
(The PC Fan) Samanathon
The Originals:
(The overclocker) Shawn Knight
(The incredible) Chris Hooley
(The rhetorical) Michael Kwan
(The talented) Leo Chiang
(The root of all evil) John Chow
(The crazy) John Cow
(The business dude) Josh Mullineaux
(The brilliant) Shoemoney
(The absurdly loud) Ed Lau
(The mastermind) Jon Waraas
(The yaketty) Stephen Fung
(The wickedly cool) Everton Blair
(The uber blogger) Ms Danielle
(The enterprising) Matt Coddington
(The career minded) Jane May
(The legendary) Gary Lee
(The nifty) Dosh Dosh
(The ambitious) Jeff Kee
(The $256 man) Tyler Cruz
(The kick-ass) Nate Whitehill
(The original) 13-Year Old Blogger.
(The money-making) Affiliate Marketing guide.
(The crafty two at) TechRave
(The AdSense ‘dude’) Michael Cheney
This link train is the brainchild of David Wilkinson, hyper, money-making kid, and kick-ass blog designer Nate Whitehill.
———- END COPYING HERE ———-
What do you think of Link Trains? What do you think of me and Link Trains? What do you think is next after Link Trains?
Derrich 12.20 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
Sounds fun! I got the best boost from the ViralTags train. I get at least one new link each day. I like this one…with the nicknames.
Jon Lee 12.50 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
The Showoff haha I love it!
Gary Lee 12.52 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
honestly . . i think if you join all the trains out there, you’re bound to crack Technorati 100k without having to do anything else!
Gary Lee 12.53 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
for sure man . . . the creator of the showoff plugin!!!
Jack 2.41 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
Link Trains are old school! I didn’t even know people still created them, haven’t been included in one for months!
Gary Lee 4.24 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
haha . man . . i can’t believe no one’s said anything about my photoshopped “Duel” poster . . . . you guys must be way too young to remember that movie!
Hannes Johnson 5.22 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
I remember Duel (vaguely). Nice photoshop job
[isn't it your eyes in the mirror?]
Hannes Johnson 5.25 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
I like link trains – they’ve brought me plenty of links and traffic
Gary Lee 5.55 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
haha . . THANK YOU HANNES . . . someone finally noticed . . sharp eye I say . . sharp eye indeed!
Jorge 6.33 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
Link train away! Never done this hah. Thanks Mr. Lee for your wacky experiments!
Melody 7.02 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
So link trains are making a comeback! Good to know I got into the whole thing at the right time, thought I was way too late! Then again, mine’s a simple personal blog, not a high-funda techie one like this
PS: Had faved you @ your earlier post. Waiting to be added still!
ms danielle 8.02 pm on 25.07.2007 Permalink
i am the uber blogger? LOL now that’s funny
Nuovi Business 1.08 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Esperimento Link Train…
Thanks to Mr. Lee I will try this train to increase the traffic and the link back to my blog.If you want to join this feel free just follow the below instruction and you will be set.
Versione Italiana
Grazie a Mr Lee provero’ questo esperimento per…
Jeff Kee 1.28 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink
“The Ambitious” for me eh?
I LIKE IT SO MUCH. PERFECT.
Kanute 6.05 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Well comebacks are not always successful, I’m tempted but I don’t really like all the names in the list. They all talk of “making money”. Maybe I’ll try to generate one myself.
Jorge 6.55 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink
First time train linker. It’s fun but geeky at the same time, but then again blogging is kinda geeky. If I could only get my fiancee to do it.. sigh. Thanks for the train instructions sir!
jerkybeef 7.05 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink
I can say that i’ve had some success but the only thing is that the people you fave never return the favor, or the list owners never update their list so it kind of beats the purpose.
I think DoshDosh and Samanathon were the only ones that reciprocated the Technorati love and faved me back so i have yet to really see the benefit of joining a link list.
Enkay Blog 9.41 am on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Its a bummer that I didnt make the list!
Hannes Johnson 4.22 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Yup, that’s me; Mr. Attention-To-Detail
CASH for COMMENTS 6.35 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
@ derrich – Hey Derrich. I added you to my Jet Train as Well.
http://www.cashforcomments.com/contest-jet-train
@ Gary – Hey check out my lastest sneaky invention on the Jet train. You might laugh.. but its going to be nuts. Don’t worry you are on this list as well.
ChaLicious 7.30 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Nice, think gonna try this on my web…
ChaLicious 7.30 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Nice, think gonna try this on my web… ASAP…
Enkay Blog 8.17 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Hey Hannes,
Ive got a link chain going on at my blog if you want to check it out. You get added to the list for posting it on your blog!
Enkay Blog 8.18 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
ofcourse you are! who else? ::looks around::
Enkay Blog 8.21 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Just a follow up. I was wondering, how can you get added to a list like this?
Saman Sadeghi 8.24 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
Nice! Thanks for adding me to another link train!
Saman Sadeghi 8.25 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
For sure – I wouldn’t be rated as high as I am if it weren’t for Gary!
You could always just put it on your blog and add you site!
CASH for COMMENTS 10.21 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
hey. I’ve seeing you around a lot. I’ll stop by your page more often Saman.
melo villareal 10.44 pm on 26.07.2007 Permalink
please add me in your list… thanks
Gary Lee 1.06 am on 27.07.2007 Permalink
dude . . saman’s the man . . . you should totally visit his site!
Gary Lee 1.07 am on 27.07.2007 Permalink
it’s all about the network . . my original train included people i met who were starting off blogging or ones that were helping me
Chris 3.54 pm on 27.07.2007 Permalink
Gary,
Good meme post. There is actually a bigger pagerank meme going on at the moment. I am in the list and have had a huge traffic boost from it.
Feel free to hop onboard the link train
http://deanhunt.com/say-no-to-pagerank-yes-to-life/
CASH for COMMENTS 9.28 pm on 27.07.2007 Permalink
Hey I just added you to my technorati favorites. Can you please add me and if you want to increase your Technorati Fave Count check out my FaveMe UP Trainstation.
http://www.cashforcomments.com/faveme-up/
Allsux 2.33 pm on 28.07.2007 Permalink
Added you to my train – please add me back! Thanks! See: top post at http://allsux.com
Twice the Train, Twice the Fun! | jon lee dot see eh 8.46 pm on 28.07.2007 Permalink
[...] second train is called the Geek Train — what an attractive name! In this train, you give your fellow bloggers a geeky nickname (I [...]
Saman Sadeghi 7.46 am on 31.07.2007 Permalink
Nice of you to say – I always share the link love, just my way of saying “Thank You!”
Saman Sadeghi 7.48 am on 31.07.2007 Permalink
You could say I get around more then Paris Hilton….
cooliojones 1.03 pm on 03.08.2007 Permalink
Cash for Comments, I’ve seen you around a lot, you stop by my blog yet? And let me get s seat on your train too!
cooliojones 1.05 pm on 03.08.2007 Permalink
That’s how a lot of mine have started off too Gary. And if you notice, a lot of the top bloggers are friends with each other because they remember their humble beginnings. I think we can start a new crop of millionaires just in this bunch if we all stick together.
Etienne Teo 2.38 am on 16.08.2007 Permalink
I have joined the link train too…its cool to have a viral train at times.
MDB 12.38 am on 31.08.2007 Permalink
I’m at the station but the train has left…. aargh!!
Leo 7.36 pm on 28.11.2007 Permalink
Oooh, this was was dug up out of the archives