Been testing a bunch of links recently purchased from Text Link Ads on some sites I feel have been sandboxed by Google.  I did it to test them as they a brand new sites with not many directory submissions (or optimization in general).  I mainly was trying to see the power of a PR7 or higher link.  Now, don’t get me wrong…I know the power, but I wanted to see what effect if any, it would have on a newer site.  WOW, all I can say is it works, and it re-enforces my thoughts on the power of anchor text. 

Make sure, if you decide to use Text Link Ads, to find a link on a site without many other links so the power of the Page Rank goes mostly to your keyword link.  My hat is off to the guys at Text Link Ads for doing it right!  Keep it up!

One other thing to keep in mind is Text Link Ads has been doing what the do for quite some time.  Be very careful if you are looking into buying text links on high PR sites through Ebay or something.  There is a good change you are submitting your site to a soon to be banned site on Google!  (of course this does not mean all text links sold on Ebay are bad, so don’t get all bent out of shape ((those of you selling)) on Ebay … Just be careful and know the kind of site you are buying a link from!

Here is some additional info that might make it worth signing up today before this offer goes away!

Are you a potential new client? Receive $100.00 worth of FREE Text Link Ads by entering “new client” into the promotion code at checkout today! Sign up here Text Link Ads

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I have been waiting for something like this FOREVER. Ok, well maybe not forever, but for sometime now I have been wondering when (for us computer geeks) this was going to be an option. I love it. Here’s the deal. Vongo.com is the online version of blockbuster. You are saying … we already have Netflicks and you can rent movies from Blockbuster etc.. so whats the big deal? Well with Vongo you can download the movies right onto your computer and watch them!

You can start downloading movies for $9.99 and get a free 14 day trial with them as well. I am looking further into this and am hoping its going to be a good thing, and something this company will keep doing right. I’ll keep you all posted!

Thanks to my friend Brandon Buttars for pointing this service out to me!

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A while back I posted on a new company called Instant Media in which I was very impressed, and found a new company that has some cool up and coming (similar) technology. http://www.permissiontv.com/ Lets see what happens to these guys and this trend going around online!

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Well, Tag Cloud’s “weekend project” has become quite a popular website since it launch in 2005. I have used it in times past keeping updated with popular feeds etc. Just wanted to share with everyone that they have thier top 100 feeds listed on thier site currently: http://www.tagcloud.com/

It will be exciting to see what the future holds for them now that they are getting out of the garage…so to speak! Good Luck guys!

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It looks like Google is getting back to normal (whatever that is). Sites that were having most of their pages taking out of the index are now returning. The problem that a lot of site owners are now having is most of the pages coming back are being put into the supplemental index.

The supplemental index in Google is when you see the words “Supplemental Results” next to the URL in Green. This means that Google feels that page is very similar to another page in content. So similar that it doesn’t rank them as well. It is kind of like internal duplicate content.

The best way to see if your site is having this problem is to do a site: search like this and look at the results for each page. In this example you will see some supp results. Right now im not worried about the results for this blog because it seems as though it is Google’s problem since every post is totally unique.

However if you do it for your site and all your pages meta tags are very similar and your content is similar then I would look into testing some things. Definately if your meta data is the same change it right way and reference our post on Google Ranks Web Pages not Web Sites . Basically think of what it might be that is making Google think that it is not a unique page and then change it, test it and watch it. If it is totally unique like our posts are leave it alone spend your valuable time on something else and wait and watch.

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Microsoft designs the new IPOD Box Video (click that link to watch)

This is a great spoof designed by actual microsoft employees.  It takes the simple IPOD Box and shows the world what would happen if Microsoft were to design it.  Its so funny, and so true.  I found this while reading a review about the new MAC commercials with the two guys (I know you have seen them by now)  … its funny cause he slams MAC, saying he loves the commercials but it does not want to make him buy a MAC.  My thoughts exactly.  Enjoy the video, I sure did!

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If you currently use WordPress for your blogging software then you need to read this post.  There are many services and extentions that can make your blogging life easier.  Also, these services can potentially help you get more traffic to your blog.  I want to talk about a couple of them.

The first thing, A way to automatically ping, and update blogging directory sites that you have made a new post.  This ensures they have the latest information and post and at very least gives you the advantage of anyone blogging that does not use this feature.  Here is a list of the sites you will need to add to the admin area of your WordPress blog.  (Before I give the list lets talk about where it goes.)  Click on the options link, and then click on the writting link and you will see the place to add all these blog directories:

http://1470.net/api/ping
www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b
http://pi.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2 
http://api.moreover.com/ping
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping
www.bitacoles.net/ping.php
http://bitacoras.net/ping
http://blogdb.jp/xmlrpc
www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
www.blogoole.com/ping/
www.blogoon.net/ping/
www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
www.blogroots.com/tb_populi.blog?id=1
www.blogshares.com/rpc.php
www.blogsnow.com/ping
www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://coreblog.org/ping/
www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatt
www.mod-pubsub.org/kn_apps/blogchatter/ping.php
www.newsisfree.com/xmlrpctest.php
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://ping.cocolog-nifty.com/xmlrpc
http://ping.exblog.jp/xmlrpc
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://pingoat.com/goat/RPC2
www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de/

The second thing,  Social bookmarking plug-ins (ie: digg, del.icio.us and reddit for example)  These type of plug-ins will allow others to share articles from your blog with members of the communities they are a part of.  You can find plug on on various places either on the WordPress site itself or here http://wp-plugins.net/ and just do a search for “social bookmarking”  If you want to see what the plug in looks like, then click on this post up in the title, and go to the main place this post resides, and towards the bottom you will see all the “add to” links, and have a better understanding of the social bookmarking plug-ins.

Again, these can be great resources for traffic, and really double what you get from search engines if done correctly.  You must have information worth reading as well before others will share.  So don’t just write crap!  Make it worth-while to your readers.

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For anyone that uses Yahoo! Search Marketing/Local/sponsored etc … some changes have been made that are worth mentioning, and handing a “shout out” to Yahoo! for making them.  In all Pay Per Click programs you have money that needs to be paid upfront (obviously) or money that needs to be paid to get someone to set up your account and do the research for you; ie: titles, descriptions, headlines, keywords, research and analysis etc….  I use to think Yahoo! charged to much for their fees and minimum spend on a monthly basis.  Thus, the changes:

Right from Yahoo! Search Marketing here is the most notable changes in thier words:

We would also like to remind you of two changes that Yahoo! Search Marketing launched several months ago. First, we lowered our minimum deposit for new advertisers to $5, all of which continues to be applied to click charges. Additionally, the monthly minimum spending requirement for Yahoo! Sponsored Search accounts was eliminated. Previously, all Sponsored Search advertisers were required to spend at least $20 a month in click charges.

What this means to the small business owner?  Lets say you are experimenting and you want to hold off on the Yahoo! Ads for a month or so….well now, you do not have to keep paying the annoying minimum monthly fee.  Also if you are doing something like the Fast Track sign up from Yahoo! Search Marketing it makes it easier to pay them to do it when it does not cost as much initially!

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Just a few things on my mind right now with regards to search.  Google being the biggest thing on my mind and how screwed up lately the results have been, as well as the page number indexed.  Here is a few examples:

• three months ago I had over 1000 pages indexed on Google on my site http://www.rockymountainmattress.com and after the big daddy update dropped to like 27 pages.  Now it seems to be back up over 1200; which is much more normal.
• Rankings have improved over the last few weeks now that the indexed page number is back to normal.  For example: two weeks ago i was not found for the word “memory foam mattress” anywhere on Google.  Now on most data-centers I am either #8 on the first page or #19 on the second page.  Much better then not being found at all.
• The number of In Bound Links (IBL) have increased dramatically.  Seems on a back link trace that most of my sites seem to be showing more IBL’s some in the 100’s more..
• Data-center results seem to be coming back to normal; whereas before I would have a ranking on one data center in the top 10 and on another one, I was not even found.

The one thing that would really show me that Google was getting back to normal is when I see Matt Cutts start posting again.  Do you think its strange he has not posted for almost a month?  I do not think this is mere coincidence.  I think Google has been busy cleaning up its big daddy update and doing what they can to get thier data-centers all up to speed and talking with one another.  I don’t know all the technical jargin of what may be up, but something for sure has been going on and I am just glad to see the results and pages indexed seem to be getting back to normal!  I will keep you all posted!

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I was having a great conversation with a client today about getting residual traffic on your website, and techniques that can be used.  I would like to share a few ideas and my thoughts on how to go about this.

First of all you have to ask yourself;  “Does my site offer any reason for people to come back and visit often?”  If you have a normal ecom (shopping cart) site it may be difficult to say yes. (honestly)  Lets face it, on the site I have selling memory foam mattresses there is not many things that change about that product and its not a very exciting topic to read about.  So what can be done?  I could start a blog talking about topics related to my industry … ie: product reviews, frequently asked questions, case studies, testimonial, and I could get others to share experiences they have had with mattresses both good and bad.  That kind of feedback alone could get visitors to my site more then once and could help them make a decision to buy from me.  I have found that browsers usually take about 5-7 times coming back to the site (according to my stats) before they are willing to sign up or purchase.

Not all topics are as hard to bring people back as mattress so what else can be done?  Here is a few ideas:

• newsletters
• blogs
• articles
• picture of the day
• polls
• updated news
• stock ticker
• newsFeeds

People need to be motivated to keep coming back and these are a few ways that can be accomplished. 

An idea I had for Rocky Mountain Mattress was to create a contest called:  “who has the ugliest bed?”  and have people send in pictures, and post them on the website and then chose a winner at the end, and give them a free mattress topper or something like that.  Be creative, and figure something out for that residual traffic which could mean risidual income!

I would love to hear from anyone else other techniques that have been used, and have created residual traffic!

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