Got More Time Then Money? Try Digital Point Forum
May 31, 2008
Got More Time Then Money: Try Digital Point Forum
I have previously written about avoiding Forums to ask questions about website marketing or anything in general. I have changed my mind when It comes to Digital Point at www.digitalpoint.com .
I now use Digital Forum daily to ask questions, to answer questions, and to pick-up some links. This is a friendly forum where it seems like people are really trying to help each other out.
This is not the case with other Forums many of them allow negative attacks to occur. I have asked questions on many other Forums and been told how stupid I was or they start arguing about who has given the correct answer. Often they argue so much that the original question goes unanswered. This is not so at Digital Point, or I have not seen it.
Like most forums it covers a wide variety of topics and it allows registered users to start discussions. There is a lot of self promotion that goes on that is not allowed on other forums. Eventually, you will be allowed to use signatures on your post which include live “Do Follow Links” to your website.
When you have posted enough you will be allowed to turn these links into very valuable anchor text links. I originally started using Digital Point merely to acquire links. However, I really like what I do and I love helping out others by offering free advice. So now, links are merely a side benefit of using the forums. I have learned a lot as well about free resources that I was not aware of.
We believe that if you want anything in life you must first give to receive. Call it the yin and yang of life if you will or what goes around comes around. Do good and you will be rewarded.
So give Digital Point a try you will be glad that you did.
Aboutus.org: Write About Them And They Spam Your Blog!
May 30, 2008
Yesterday, I wrote an article that recommended using this website. They returned the favor by spamming our blog. They offered to write SEO friendly articles, if you had a little bit of money. I find this very disgusting and offensive. We offer this service.
They most likely are using Google Alerts to inform them when anyone has mentioned them. This is a good form of reputation management. We have been discussing using alerts ourselves now that we are becoming a national player.
The sad thing for me is a better course of action would have been to thank us for the positive write-up. However, they chose to exploit our kindness. We need to apologize for not doing our homework on this site. We are listing links to other sites that have trashed these people. Please accept our apology.
I am deleting the original content and linking to this post. We will do a little more homework before recommending a website.
Got More Time Then Money: Try Aboutus.org
May 29, 2008
We have deleted this article about this website.
Please read the spam email that they sent us below.
Then please read our follow up on this website at:
http://tucsonseosolutions.com/aboutusorg-write-about-them-and-they-spam-your-blog
Website 101 - Just Say No To Website Submission Services
May 28, 2008
Just Say No to Website submission services.
Recently, when I was doing a website review the client asked me about how I handle website submissions. This caused me to pause for I moment, I looked at him and asked “Are you asking me if all of these website submission services are worth all the money that they charge, the millions that they charge, for a useless service, that you can do yourself for free.
He stated “Yes, I have read… At this point I politely interrupted him, by saying “Yes, I known, there is a lot that is written, that is just not so, or is no longer so. He noted “things do changed don’t they?”
Yes, I explained, “things are always changing.” This kind of exchange happens all too often with clients and potential clients. This is especially true for the small business owner who is the mainstay of our business.
This is why I enjoy blogging and providing training seminars. These are wonderful tools to educate the consumer and to develop trust. An educated consumer is our best friend. We want our clients to be actively involved with the marketing and management of their websites.
Our desire is to empower the client to leverage the Internet to grow there business. We provide the tools, the training, and services to conquer the SERP’s for their local target market.
It is so way cool to help someone who was struggling to make the Internet work and then turn their website into a profit center.
Here are the links you use to submit your website.
Google - http://www.google.com/addurl/
Yahoo - https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
MSN - http://search.live.com/docs/submit.aspx
Why pay when it’s free!
Niche SEO - A Success Story
May 26, 2008
In December of 2007 we were written-up in a local newspaper where we explained what a website needs to know to be successful. The president of a niche manufacturing company where I had once worked read the article and called.
He reasoned because I already knew his company, its products, and market, that we would be well suited to work on their website. What we found when we reviewed it was amazing. The website included 56 pages of which only 22 could actually be reached from the website. Of those 22 pages six of them were incoherent ramblings. That left 16 usable pages.
The website had a flash header on an industrial site that sells expensive equipment used by other manufactures. The home page included two videos and about 100 words of text. There was no SEO on the site at all. Little had changed in 8 years. They never got any email leads and were using PPC to generate traffic.
We knew that we had a very good chance of doing very well for three or four word searches for their products. When the site was re-launched, they quickly moved onto the Google’s first SERP for searches such as industrial dust equipment or industrial blasting equipment. In fact they are on Google’s first page over 15 times. Yes, traffic increased as well.
Recently, we had a meeting with this client to discuss some updates to the website. The owner informed me that the website is working. He stated “we are finally getting contacts from the website, something that we never did before.” I should note that when I got home I did a happy dance.
Finally, after eight years, a good clean design and solid SEO is producing results. So it just goes to show that a little quality SEO can go a long way for any niche manufacturer. The beauty of using long tail keyword phrases for this group is that these visitors are not casual “social media” visitors. No, just the opposite they are highly targeted visitors that need, want, and desire your products.
The real beauty for me is I have a long history with this company. They make products that are environmentally friendly and have been doing this for a long time, way back when it wasn’t popular. They are great people and their products can actually save lives. You see dust can be explosive and kills dozens every year in our nation.
You can visit the website at http://www.envirosystemsllc.com
Tucson SEO Salutes Our Military And Coast Guard Services
May 26, 2008
We are very blessed to have been born in The United States of America. We have freedoms that most on this planet can only dream about. We have these freedoms based on a strong military so we just want to say Thank You so much for your services.
We also want to thank the families who have sent their sons and daughters to war to protect us all. Thanks.
Mountain View SEO.com Announces The “$250.00 Design Our Header Contest”
May 25, 2008
Mountain View SEO.com Announces the “$250.00 Design Our Header Contest”
We are developing a website for the url, http://www.mountainviewseo.com. We will be awarding $250.00 for the best design for our websites header. The header for this new website should reflect the Silicon Valley area.
We will specifically be targeting the cities of Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and San Jose California. This will be an opportunity to showcase your graphic skills to the Center of the internet universe.
The final winner will be chosen based on a combination of factors. The final decision will include input from our staff and input from our website visitors. All entries become the sole prosperity of Tucson SEO Solutions and may be used in part or whole on other projects at our desecration.
The winner will be announced on or about October 1, 2008. The only guidelines are these.
• The work must be your own original work.
• All entries must be delivered to Tucson SEO Solutions on later than September 15th.
• You must start the process by leaving a comment on our blog expressing your interest.
Every Monday we will be emailing everyone who has expressed interest in this contest the specific details about the contest.
We believe this is a great opportunity to highlight your skills to the center of the internet universe.
A 12 Step Program For Link Buyers - Sellers Anonymous
May 21, 2008
This is my personal favorite post. This was created as a response to the uproar during over Google’s decision to move against websites that participated in the lucrative trading of links. This practice for many seems as if it were an addiction.
The SEO subculture was a buzz and people were openly discussing how hard to was to give up the easy way of buying your way to the top of search rankings. It seems often like the cry of addiction. Businesses were struggling with how to give up this patterned behavior.
So we came up this little 12 Step Program.
1. We admitted we were powerless over links that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than or ourselves, (Google) could restore us to our SEO sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Google as we understood their SEO logic.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, our links, and our hats.
5. Admitted to Google, to ourselves and to another SEO being the exact nature of our link buying and selling.
6. Were entirely ready to have Google remove all these defects of character and SEO practices.
7. Humbly asked Google to remove our Page Rank.
8. Made a list of all websites and clients we had harmed by buying and selling links and become willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to Google and our clients wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10.Continued to take link inventory and when we were wrong in our SEO practices promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, Google , and the universe, as we understood them to be, praying only for knowledge of Google’s will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of Google, we will carry this message to all SEO’ers, Black Hat and White, and to practice these linking principles in all our SEO affairs.
Does Google Give An Unfair Linking Advantage To Established Websites?
May 20, 2008
Since Google has encouraged blogs not to pass link juice, a valuable but very time consuming white hat method has been diminished. For many website marketers, making comments on blogs were our main or only tool for acquiring links.
Many blogging platforms, such as WordPress have been set as “No Follow.” This simply means that the link created by leaving a comment is only good for generating website traffic. The “No Follow” link attribute renders the link incapable of assisting in the pursuit of higher search ranking.
In the past we would begin blogging our way through Top Ranks huge SEO – SEM list at the beginning of each month. The goal was a letter a day. This left a few extra days for things like the letter “S.” Back then almost all blogs were “Do Follow” now most of them are not.
We just completed covering the entire list scouring for blogs to be included in our “DO Follow List.” I was shocked by how few blogs are actually passing link juice. Since thousands of websites depend on this method they now are scrambling to figure out how to find useable links.
This is where I believe Google gives an unfair advantage to established websites that have already accumulated a huge amount of links. New websites are playing by a different set of rules then the older sites used when they established their links in the past.
The Top Rank list is a good example of that advantage. If you worked the list in one month you might have ended up with 300 links from one list. Now you might be lucky to get 30. Thus Google is making it roughly 10 times harder to obtain links through this method.
It becomes extremely more difficult to produce enough links to overcome any website with a sizeable link advantage. The unintended consequence is that this sharply increases the cost related to any website link building program.
Another unintended consequence is that it will force many out of the ethical white hat approach to search marketing. They will conclude that you can not win by playing by the rules and will begin to find ways to manipulate the search engine.
Like many things in life, solving one problem simply creates another one somewhere else. Now, don’t get me wrong I’m a big fan of Google; we owe our businesses existence to Google. We are merely writing about our industry, and Google is the Big Dog in this neighborhood. When you write about websites and linking you inevitably will write about Google.
Link Building: Anchor Text Style
May 20, 2008
Today while searching for resources for our “Do Follow List OF Lists” my partner discovered a blogger, at http://www.affiliatewatcher.com was ranting about “Do Follow Blogs.” It has an eye-popping graphic of someone pulling out there hair, that I really liked.
Specifically, he was going off on blogs that have the “u comment i follow” logo on them. This logo was created by Randa Clay to indicate that the blog would pass link juice for any link resulting from commenting.
This person was ranting about how the blog owners should remove these logos if they are on longer relevant. When we are blogging for links we use SEO Quake which produces a line through links that are “No Follow.” So this doesn’t bother us much. There are lots of reason why this might be occurring. It could simply be the plugin is no longer working after an upgrade or hasn’t been set up correctly I’m also sure some of this is intentional.
What really got my attention was when he continues his rant about those people who don’t use their real or assumed names in the name field of the blogs comment section. This is where this story really begins. You see, link building is its most effective and powerful when it produces an anchor text with the link. The name field of blog comments creates the anchor text link.
Blogs often by default, use the name field when they when they turn your comment information into a link. So when we use “Tucson SEO” in the name field it doesn’t mean that we are spamming. It merely means that we want the link to be given a keyword attribute that is related to our website. When I use the name Boris, the search engines can not match the name with this web sites content and the link is less useful.
When the anchor text can not be aligned with the websites content, the search engines devalue the link. However, when the anchor text matches the content you now have a very valuable link. Like anything good it can be over used. This is a growing trend that you can expect to see more often.
Many people have a real sense of community in the blogosphere. They grumble every time they see a keyword or keyword phrase used in the blog comments, just as this writer was today. They believe that only your real name should be used exclusively.
They fail to realize with the advent of “No Follow” and Google’s crusade against paid links it has made acquiring links much more difficult. This shrinks the opportunities to acquire links. So we in the SEO and SEM industries must make the best possible use of the links that we are acquiring. That’s why you are seeing an increase in this practice.
Like any good Internet marketing practice it can be abused.
Do Follow List Of Lists Update 280 Blogs in 22 Catagories!
May 19, 2008
This is a follow up post. We wanted to explain how you can get on the list. All that is required is that you have a “Do Follow Blog” that you are actually maintaining on a regular basis. We do not list Blogger blogs, as they are useless to us. We reserve the right to deleted or reject any blog for any reason. The most common reason to be not listed is that the blog leaded to slow or was to hard to read.
Here is a follow up to some of the things that we have encountered along the way. The best thing is that we picked up a bunch of links for ourselves.
The arrogance of it all… The side effect of Link Bait
Our link bait, The “Do Follow List of Lists” Is slowly doing what we had intended. We’re not setting the world on fire and we didn’t make it the top of Digg. However, traffic is up and some of the blog posts are getting some traction in the SERP’s.
What we foolishly hadn’t anticipated was the strange and arrogant requests that we might receive. This one I thought was worth sharing.
“If you have something useful to say, and are an SEO, and your own website is well SEO’ed, please add a comment to (removed his link) I have the ability to do follow AND to allow link text, if your comment
is worth it”
He followed up with this:
“There should be do follow on this blog! Rather crazy promoting it if you don’t lead by example.” Don’t you just love it when someone you don’t know thinks nothing of telling you how to run your business?
He did bring up a point worth discussing. Why is our blog “No Follow” and yet, we have a large “Do Follow List? Too many, this writer included, it seems ironic. Well, now is a good a time as any to address this issue.
First we are doing it this way because we want to! Mostly, it’s straight up a business decision. This is a business website that depends on Google for roughly 35% of our traffic. Google is a profit center for our business and for our customers. We wouldn’t be in business if it were not for Google. We are attempting to walk a fine line here.
It seems like a perfect win, win, win, situation here. Google gets what it wants from us in the form of a “No Follow” blog. Visitors benefit from a valuable resource for obtaining links. The blogs on the list get some extra traffic and we pick up some relevant links when we build the lists.
Since, the blog is only about a month old, this is our first attempt at “link bait.” The ironic thing for me is that we are using links as our “link bait”
Older Internet Entrepreneurs Rule!
May 17, 2008
This post is based on a Wall Street Journal article dated 05/06/2008. The story goes onto to take a look at the true image of an Internet entrepreneur. Despite the success of a college dropout like Bill gates, this is not the true image of the Internet guru.
It is often seen that the Internet has been built around a bunch of 20 something’s college dropouts. However, the Kauffman Foundation recently altered this view. They surveyed some 600 or so entrepreneurs who started businesses over the decade from 1995 to 2005 and who has revenues that exceeded a million dollars.
There report concluded that the average age was 39 and that 24% where over 45. The report noted that only 8% didn’t earn a college degree. It also noted that almost 16 and a half years had passed between college graduation and when they started their business. This group included only around 37% had college degrees.
Well, we haven’t made our millions, but our business training began when I was 52 and this business was launched when I was 53! We haven’t got there yet, but we have a written business plan that says that we will.
Blogging For Links, Profit, And For Continuing Education
May 16, 2008
It is the opinion of Tucson SEO Solutions that the blog is the single most important marketing tool available. This business was built on the expertise gleaned from scouring the SEO/SEM blogging community.
I often tell the tale of cleaning houses during the day as a one person cleaning service. Then studying SEO and SEM and for 8 to 10 hours a day every day for four straight months. I visited thousands of websites along the way. It was so easy back then (18 months ago) when we started website marketing. Back then, blogging for links was easy, time consuming, but easy. That was before “No Follow’ ruined the legitimate white hat practice of blogging for links.
By the time our house cleaning website launched in January 2007 we had already gathered 1400 industry specific links. We combined the power of these links with our new knowledge of Page Titles, Page Descriptions, Geo-targeted SEO and fresh content into a winning combination.
That website landed on the first page of Google several times over within three days of launching! It has been there ever since. Its eco friendly house cleaning tips blog
Has been first page ranked for nearly as long.
The blog is essential for providing fresh content for the static website that the search engines crave. The blogs, when used frequently can help your website obtain and maintain high search rankings.
When you blog you can:
Still acquire links
Learn a whole lot
Share with others
Profit in many different ways
Obtain and maintain high search ranking
And maybe even have some fun!
We simply would not be here today, if it where not for blogs. It still blows me away when I visit a website marketing business website that doesn’t have a blog. We believe so much in blogs that they are standard issue on every website that we build. We also include training to use the software as an effective marketing tool. We believe a blog is useless if the website owner doesn’t know how to use it effectively.
We simply will not build a website that doesn’t include a blog. We feel that strongly about the subject. It is too powerful a tool to be missing, especially if you have a static website. The blog also provides a vehicle for your customers to interact beyond normal business channels.
Many of website visitors to a service website will be doing research for a future purchase. The blog allows you to educate this group, share your expertise, and experiences. When done properly the blog can communicate a certain level of trust.
Trust is critical when the businesses service requires coming to or entering someone’s home. Dependability, reliability, and safety are paramount to this group. Again, the blogs can easily allow you to address different segments of your customer base.
We, often refer to blogs as stages, or sounding boards. If you love what you do your blog readers will easily see this; and the bonds of trust can begin to be established.
The blog also is a great tool when used to create inbound links. That is why we are working on our own “Do Follow Blog Lists.” The list has turned out to be a great link building tool for us. When we visit SEO/SEM sites to verify their linking status, we leave a comment, pick up a link, and let the owners know that they are on our list.
It still blows me away when I visit SEO sites that haven’t implemented a blog on the own site. But then we clearly understand, that we are hear today because others blogged, we read, learned, and applied what we had learned. The rest they say is history.
The only real drawback is that they require lots of time and attention to be successful.
If you have found this blog useful, educational, or entertaining we would kindly ask you to link to us… Thanks, so very much!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
KISS My Website!
May 14, 2008
KISS My Website
I was reading an article today about website usability. When it struck me that what they were saying was the equivalent to Keep It Simple Stupid. I thought, Wow, this really sums up our approach to building websites that convert website visitors into customers.
When I encounter a website that was way too much information crammed onto a page I leave quickly wondering “what were they thinking when they built this site.” These sites often have multiple navigation menus and way too much information. This creates information overload. These websites have very high bounce rates and are not very effective.
Many websites overload you with too many options on the home page. This makes finding anything difficult. They often include flashing avatars to get your attention. They fail to understand how the eyes track when you visit a website. Eye tracking studies have shown that any movement, picture or graphic on a web page actually makes concentrating on the written content more difficult.
This is why we only use simple clean designs that do not overwhelm the visitor. That is why we focus on turning the website visitor into a customer, before we concentrate on “The look and feel” of the website.
As part of our KISS approach we use a hub and spoke system of website design. Our home page hub provides snippets of information about the other pages and provides a link to this detailed information. These links act like spokes that lead away from the hub.
We specialize in building websites for service industries. Visitors to these sites are transactional searchers. The transactional searchers are looking to complete a transaction. They are active and highly motivated to find a service provider who can fulfill there needs. They respond well to clean straight forward websites that clearly define the service and how it will benefit them. The final touch to our KISS approach is that we ask you to pick up the phone and call Now! We do this on every page.
We often remind clients that vanilla ice cream is by far the largest selling flavor of ice cream world wide. We dish up vanilla websites day in and day out. The reality is that the service website visitor is looking you to solve a problem or fulfill a need. That is why we KISS with our websites.
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities
SEO And Word Of Mouth Advertising
May 13, 2008
We attend lots and lots of business mixers here in Tucson to promote our business. At almost every event the conversation will turn to blogging and why you should provide free advice on your website. The usually refrain is “Why would you give away free advice?” Keep in mind that these are business owners that we are talking with about business.
I am still dumbfounded every time I hear that question. For, us it’s all about the golden rule in action. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or perhaps, “What goes around comes around.” Some get it when put in this context, but many don’t. These are what we would call the “what can you do for me crowd.”
They are so blinded by their own wants or needs that they can not believe there is an actual benefit to helping others for free.
They don’t understand that an educated consumer can be your best client or your best word of mouth advertisment. I talked extensively with a business coach at one of these mixers. I had me laptop and gave him a quick SEO 101. We covered simple Page Title and Page Descriptions and the need for him to geo-target for Tucson.
I meet him two months at another large mixer where he joined our table. He explained how he implements what I had told him. He stated that he was now #3 and #4 on Google for the keywords that he had targeted. He then looked around the table of seven stating to each “This guy knows what he is talking about.”
He then turns to me, and say’s now how do I get to #1 and #2? I wryly replied “for that, it’s gonna cost ya.” I stated that since I gave so freely to him that it was now his job to go tell others.
I was retelling this story later in the evening when a friend from the table pointed out that that’s exactly what he did after leaving our table. She told us “I’ve been watching him every since we left our table, and he has been telling everyone about you and how you helped him and that he even pointed me out in the crowd.
I was blown away, I only jokingly suggested that we go tell others. Apparently he was so grateful that he felt obligated to tell others about “this guy who knows what he’s talking about.” You simply can’t buy this kind of endorsement.
I Don’t and I Won’t Twitter.
May 12, 2008
I did grow up learning the readers digest version of story telling or sending an email. I don’t have or need a BFF. Since I’m in my fifties I run with the sight challenged crowd. So staring at a little screen just isn’t high on my agenda.
Learning the whole new language of texting doesn’t seem like to good use of my time. Many of these new social media tools and options can be effective for the right demographics.
This is also why I’m not likely to endorse using a blackberry. I like my email delivered to me while I sit in the comfort of my home or at the coffee shop, my office away from home. I might also add that I seldom bring my phone with me when I leave home.
I am well connected to the Internet because I am a website consultant. I have no desire to carry my work with me in the form of and electronic device. It’s highly unlikely that I will ever adapt to the Twitter and blackberry as ways of business. Since I work from home, I don’t have the luxury of going home to get away from work. So the thought of bringing work with me when I leave home seems insane.
Yes, I will miss calls and opportunities and I’m ok with that. I’m also cool when I look out my home office’s window to view the wonderful bursts of color that my garden provides.
SEO Nation Let’s Stamp Out Hunger Saturday May 10th 2008
May 10, 2008
SEO Nation Let’s Stamp Out Hunger Saturday May 10th 2008
Please remember USPS will be picking up dry food donations this Saturday. We got our brown paper grocery bag today announcing the event. After a short discussion we found ourselves scurrying through the cabinets and pantries looking for items to share with others.
Recently, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with a representative of a large local homeless services organization. Since then, I have been contemplating and brainstorming doing something for the homeless community. I was mapping out how we could perhaps do some kind of fund raiser with the internet services community to benefit the homeless. I realized something this grandiose would take a huge amount of time and it might not be practical due to our time commitments and other projects.
When the opportunity to participate in this food drive arrived in the mail today we seized upon the opportunity to do something. We talked about how fortunate we were and how it was cool to help others. While we scoured the recesses of the cabinets it occurred to me to blog about the project. Just maybe someone will see this and set out some food for strangers. How cool is that helping strangers… It was a temptation that we could not resist.
It sure does feel good helping the hungry. I remember a time when an arm injury caused me to lose my job and my home. I still remember very clearly having to turn to food banks and the goodness of strangers. So it is with great joy we have chosen to provide food for others. When you’ve been there and done that, and the “that” is hunger you don’t forget easily.
In fact, for many of us who have hungered for the satisfaction provided by food, we now hunger to be successful business entrepreneurs so that we might be able to assist many others along the paths of life.
We are real big at buying in bulk when things are on sale at the grocery stores. We always over buy something that we eventually tire of and it gets lost in the back of the cabinets. Looking for food was like a treasure hunt. There was the lasagna noodles that wouldn’t get used until winter because it’s already to hot to use the oven much in Tucson for a long while.
Then there is the “Super Bowl snack pantry” which was still loaded with Frito’s, Wheat Thins, and Lay’s chips…. Really… Still we had another closet filled with Gatorade from when a local Fry’s had all you want for .67 cents. I would stop by daily and pick up 3 or 4 cases.
We eventually ended up with a very large pile of mostly snack stuff. You’d be amazed how special and good snacks are to someone who is down and out. They are very, very grateful. So SEO nation we ask you to please give some food and help “Stamp Out Hunger.”
We finally have a blog!
May 8, 2008
We finally have a blog… Yea!
We started our SEO service a year ago. We didn’t have money to buy a designed website, but we knew you couldn’t sell SEO without having an SEO website. We tried for two months without much success.
I am a firm believer that if you need something Internet related you can most likely will find it for free. Whenever, we need something we always include the word free in the search phrase. So I entered the search query “free website.” The top sponsored ad was from Microsoft.
It took me to OfficeLive.com where I could acquire my free website, free domain name, and free web hosting. It included a basic WYSIWYG editor and limited templates but it was free. What made this so much better than most free website tools is that it allowes you to use SEO techniques on your website. You could actually name your page title, keywords, and page descriptions.
I couldn’t believe my good fortune. The only drawback was that it did not include a blog. Since we recommend a blog to all of our clients, this made things a bit awkward for us. We overcame this obstacle by creating an industry update page. There we could express our view but it was a one way conversation.
We saved the good material that was still relevant and have used it to fill in our blog. We also created a list of about 60 or so topics that we would like to discuss. We are working daily on our version of a “Do Follow List, by far our biggest undertaking. We have already put in over 30 hours on this project. We consider it our way of giving back; after all we are in business today because of what we have learned on other blogs.
So if you have a “Do Follow Blog” we would love to list your site.
Website 101 - Don’t let someone else register your domain name!
May 8, 2008
A warning to the wise about picking a domain name and having it registered! One of my websites was down for four days. The registration has expired thus causing the website to be unavailable to the public. You can not make money when people can not find your website!
The problem started a year ago when we had our web designer register our domain. He registered it in his name. When we discovered this we requested that it be placed in our name. This was done very quickly, or so it appeared on the surface. However, our designer northstewart.com never created another account for our domain.
So even thou it appeared that we owned the website in the whois.org registry directory, he still had control of the domain in his account. You can not extend the registration of a website that is not in your account. This problem took four days to resolve.
The whois directory showed a company named Enom had registered the domain. This was incorrect; it was registered by one of their resellers, namecheap.com. So when we contacted them we could only leave a message and email their support.
This was a major hassle, but they stepped to the plate to resolve the problem for us, in part anyway. They got the site registry renewed; however, the web designer still controls the account. This is not a good situation for someone when they do not possess complete control over their domain.
I tell you this story to make you aware of the risks of turning such a simple task over to someone else. At one point in my relationship with this man, I considered him a friend. Since this was my first registration of a website I trusted someone else to handle the process. I have since registered 24 domains by myself and have found it a very simple process.
So be very cautious, this is your business… Beware, wolfs can come in sheep’s clothing.
Older Internet Entrepreneurs Rule
May 7, 2008
This post is based on a Wall Street Journal article dated 05/06/2008. The story goes onto to take a look at the true image of an Internet entrepreneur. Despite the success of a college dropout like Bill gates, this is not the true image of the Internet guru.
It is often seen that the Internet has been built around a bunch of 20 something college dropouts. However, the Kauffman Foundation recently altered this view. They surveyed some 600 or so entrepreneurs who started businesses over the decade from 1995 to 2005 and who has revenues that exceeded a million dollars.
There report concluded that the average age was 39 and that 24% where over 45. The report noted that only 8% didn’t earn a college degree. It also noted that almost 16 and a half years had passed between college graduation and when they started their business. Of this group only around 37% had college degrees.
Well, he haven’t made our millions, but our business training began when I was 52 and this business was launched when I was 53! We haven’t got there yet, but we have a written business plan that says that we will.
-
Recent Posts
- Google Indexing Some Flash Files
- Ten Reasons Not Too Blog
- Busy Websites: Not So Good
- Titling Blog Posts: Fact or Fiction
- Use A Blog As A Newsletter Discussions Forum
- Turning Spam Into Gold
- Pre-Launch Website Link Building: You Need This
- Headless Website Offers A $250.00 Reward
- EMoney Marketing A Referral Worth Sharing!
- Do You Ask: Please Link To Our Blog?
- Does SEO Need Standards?
- Social Media Gone Wild
- Good-Bye My Friend: A Tribute To Tim Russert
- SEO E-Book Needs A Title
- What Is Search Engine Marketing?
- Creating Effective Page Titles For High Search Ranking and Traffic.
- Domain Names, Eli Manning And Going 19-0
- Putting Social Back Into Social Media
- An SEO Gets Shopped
- Is Social Media Worth The Effort?
-
Categories
-
Archives
-
Links
Blogroll
