Buy cheap, buy twice. That was my old man’s advice on battered Ford Fiestas. But the same rule applies to content writers (hear me out).

Dan Horton at DaveN’s blog asks some questions about sourcing web content:

• Do you get what you pay for?
• How far should the content writers job go?
• Who outsources their content and who writes it in-house?
• How much is too much to pay?

Like any professional service, you get what you pay for with writers.

A good accountant recoups their yearly fees pronto. A talented lawyer knows when to tell a rival to stick their Cease-and-Desist-letter in their pipe and smoke it. A decent SEO recites the seven secrets of SEO success as a bedtime prayer.

Likewise, a talented writer knows how to:

• Produce provocative headlines (AKA Diggbait)
• Captivate readers (AKA sticky content)
• Create a strong call to action (AKA turn tyrekickers into buyers)

Hire a mediocre writer and you get passable, filler copy. Hire a talented writer, and you’ve the potential for highly linkable, solid gold content. The kind of web content that bloggers link to, bored office workers forward to their friends and Diggers pass idle judgement on.

What SEOs dub linkbait is really nothing more than ‘quality content’ + ‘creative marketing’.

PS. For a copywriting crash course, I recommend the Copywriting 101 tutorial at CopyBlogger.

I’m a big fan of the the What Would Seth Godin Do Wordpress plugin.

WWSGD shows new users extra information about your blog, like this:

It’s useful for prompting users to subscribe via RSS, to show a special offer or… well, I’m sure you can think of plenty of uses yourself.

Thanks to WWSGD author Richard K Miller for help working out why it went AWOL with my Wordpress theme.

Affiliates get spoilt.

It’s not all chilled Krug and Beluga caviar at Nonsense HQ. But occasionally a merchant offers a once-in-a-lifetime prize as an affiliate incentive.

Buyagift rule the school in the UK. Last Christmas, they promised to fly half a dozen of their affiliates from London to Vegas for a no-expense-spared weekend away. I was lucky enough to win a place, along with Paul, Romain, Neil, Steve and Wardy.

This year they’re upped the ante in quite spectacular style. Six affiliates will win the chance to fly a fighter plane over the Nevada desert and enter a NASCAR race (Details here).

For merchants with more modest budgets, think creatively. Lego get a special mention for sending new affiliates Lego freebies. What more could a geek affiliate want?

Buyagift’s affiliate programme is on Affiliate Window, Lego is on Linkshare UK.

Co-operative ad networks are nothing new. But find one that works for your niche, and you have a tremendous source of free, targeted and defensible traffic.

BlogRush gives the co-op ad network concept a Web 2.0 makeover. For those at the back of class, that means:

• Groovy CamelCase brand name
• Social media angle
• No obvious revenue model*

(* Hoping Google, Yahoo, eBay or Amazon pony up pronto a la MyBlogLog doesn’t count).

Playground cynicism aside, BlogRush has some unique features. Like most co-op networks, your share of ad space is based on the amount of impressions your blogs ‘donate’.

But you can choose how you want to ’spend’ your impressions, meaning a new blog can piggyback on the success of your other blogs. Publishers also get traffic bonuses for referring new bloggers, with referrals paid up to ten tiers deep.

BlogRush seems guaranteed a certain level of success thanks to early write-ups by ShoeMoney, John Chow, Andy Beal and friends.

I’m trying BlogRush out this month. If it sucks, you’ll be first to hear why. Want to try Blogrush yourself? Join BlogRush now.

Update: Apparently Blogrush expects to make money by selling additional exposure on their ad network.

Update: Blogrush sucks.

You know you’ve arrived when Google sends you wedding salutations.

Aaron Wall, the man behind SEO Book, is getting married in the Philippines. While he’s away, well-wishers at Mountain View - or their Swedish counterparts - are running a wedding Easter egg in his honour. Bizarrely, the Easter egg is showing on Google.se for ‘local handyman’ searches.

Seen any sightings yourself? Leave a comment below. Thanks to Scott at Netservice for the screenshot.

Update: Doh. Fraser at AffiliateBlog.co.uk points out the SEO Quake Firefox plugin is responsible.

Good news for PPC newbies in the UK. Yahoo Search Marketing have upped their new user offer, now promising £60 free credit on new accounts.

Yahoo’s Panama pay per click platform is still only weeks old in the UK, but addresses many of the problems with the god awful old Overture interface.

As a user, the difference with Panama is staggering and far closer to AdWords/adCenter than the old Overture. Major new features include:

• Ad copy split testing
• Geo-targeting
• Fast ad activation.
• New interface
• Improved reporting
• Improved budget control

Open a new account now or get free AdWords vouchers.

NB. To ensure full Web 2.0 compliance, this graph is pointlessly interactive (ie, click the slices).

1. Paying ‘tributes’ to Matt Cutts. Cuttlet fanboys - you are on watch.
2. Lowballing for old domains. Google’s domain trust is way out of whack.
3. Bribing DMOZ editors. Or paying their extortion demands.
4. Binge drinking. Drinkbait is the new linkbait. You heard it here last.
5. Tasteless bragging about “making bank“. I blame the Miami Vice revival and The Apprentice.
6. Tagging self in PubCon Flickr group. I cannot bring myself to name names.
7. Vanity blogging. Question: How does a successful self-publicist internet entrepreneur find time to read every blog post about himself?