I just thought this picture was amazing! It made me laugh so hard. This is a client of mine who sent me this picture because everytime I am on the phone with them I hear dogs barking in the background. One day I asked them about it, and they sent me this picture. I guess I really didn’t know the half of it!

It made me laugh because the first thing that comes to mind is - If you want to run a successful internet business the first thing you need is an uncluttered office and a dog-less desk!

Enjoy -

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Ok, Firefox just froze up on me and I lost this amazing post I just did on this topic. So lets hope round 2 I am as “passionate ” about hating passions as much!

Dealing with the new internet business owners I do on a daily basis has got me thinking about the phrase that you hear most often with internet businesses, and home based business owners - “Find your passion.”

I am not trying to ruffle any feathers, but I am here to say that this phrase is a load of crap. I have even caught myself in the past using the verbage, but have not in a long time, nor will ever again! I have several reasons why, but I think the most are so obvious that it pains me to even bring them up.

1. Do not get into ANY business (let alone internet based business) if you do not know (or atleast have a little clue) what you want your business to be about.
2. Do not get into internet business (or again ANY business) if you are relying on someone else to find a niche, or passion for you!
3. Do not get into any kind of business venture without really knowing what you are undertaking when it comes to starting a business from the ground up - especially if you don’t have a clue what your business is going to be about!

Alot of times people jump the gun to quick and think that a miracle person, or a niche will fall from the sky all of a sudden. It does not work that way.

I am the best example when it comes to this. I have a site selling memory foam mattresses. When it comes to mattresses, I did not wake up one morning and say; “I am so passionate about this mattress I sleep on that I want to get into business selling them!” The only thing I really do care about mattresses is if they hurt my back when I get up in the morning or not! But here is the point of this post, I am passionate about making money. I started to sell mattresses because I found out that it was a really good market, plus I had access to a supplier that was basically giving away the mattresses to me. So the light went off! SELL MATTRESS = MAKE GOOD MONEY. That was my passion, but I never would have even thought about starting up a business without all those elements in place already.

I guess what I am trying to say here is, if you are involved in internet business and have no clue why. First ask yourself if that is a good idea in the first place, and then if you still want to be in business online start thinking about passions in a new way. Think about being passionate about making money online. Like I said I could care less about mattresses, but when it comes to them making me money… I have no bigger passion!

Think clearly about what you are doing with your business ideas and if you should really even be thinking about starting a business with no product or ideas. Once you get past that then start thinking about the money a certain product could potentially make you and start being passionate about that!

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As I was doing some work for a client (late) last night it got me thinking about some opportunites I see alot of internet business owners and even (so called) SEO professionals missing out on when it comes to deep linking.

It does not matter if the place you are going to be deep linking from is a directory, article submission site, press, (friends site etc) What matters is what you do with the names you link with, and the pages you link to on your site.

A huge area I see alot missing out on is deep linking to their html sitemap page. Talk about a perfect page to help the spiders find all the pages your website has. Most don’t want to “waste” the opportunity to anchor up a phrase etc, but taking advantage of deep linking to your html sitemap will do 10 times more then just an anchor link. I have done enough case studies on this to see it work well.

A useful tip about the html sitemap page is to not have more then 200(ish) links on it. If you find yourself with a huge site and massive links, then start to categorize your sitemap links into seperate sitemap html pages and title them accordingly. Doing this is going to make your sitemap pages more friendly and not set off any flags of spamish behavior.

I know that some webmasters use template building systems that do not allow them to upload a Google sitemap so this would be a great opportunity to do things as correct as possible to help you out as much as possible.

If you are looking for an example of a simple html sitemap, then check this SEO Blog sitemap out. Feel free to deep link to it if you so feel the need! (wink wink)

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I have really been digging on Technorati lately for all the blog promotion tools they offer, and obvious added traffic to all my blogs, and (of course) rankings that are showing up because of my using this powerful blog promotion website.  But I have narrowed down my top list list of “kick a” things that Technorati offers:

1. Technorati Browser Buttons (makes it easy to save any blog you like)
2. Buttons to show off who links to your site
3. Blog Search Box
4. Claim all your blogs on one account
5. 20 tags per blog claimed
6. Social Media Marketing Tools/Buttons/Blog Promotion widgets developed by community of Technorati users
7. Automatic Pinging
8. Technorati Favorites Plugin (pull all your favorites into your blogroll)
9. Technorati generated tag cloud on site
10. Technorati blog info (find out any info on any blog easily)

Yes, you get all this and more when you are a part of the Technorati community.  You need to get started today with Technorati, and by the way, if you have not added me yet to your favorites, let me make it easy - Save the Eplanit SEO Blog to Technorati

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I was reading another blog this morning and got a good idea for a post because it really got me thinking hard about the value of a website.

The most important question to ask before any marketing is: “Is there anything on my site worth reviewing?” If you can’t honestly answer that then you probably will not be getting good search engine rankings or sales for that matter.

You need to have a site that stands out and has unique value to it, if not with all the new websites coming online everyday will decrease your number of page views and potential earnings.

My question to everyone that reads this blog is, “What on your site is worth reviewing?” I will be happy to look over your site and provide feedback, but I am interested to know what you think is worth reviewing on your site?

Let me know!

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I have been working really hard with an (SEO) client of mine that has been doing just about everything that I have told him to do - perfectly and is seeing massive results and ROI.  (mostly return on his investment to me)  But something that I wanted to point out from our conversations that (to me) is amazing is what he has said about the power his blog is having on his conversion rate.

When he first startd getting into blogging he was not doing it faithfully.  Maybe a post here one week and a post the next - they were really good posts, (don’t get me wrong) but it just was not consistent.  Once I was able to get him in the mindset of blogging (atleast) once a day things have really started cranking for him in the form of sales and conversion.

He mostly deals with higher end sales where people he is closing down are spending anywhere from 2k - 14k on the spot for his services.  He is a slick dude that can talk to the best of them, but what he has told me about his blog and closing these people down is amazing!  Every single person he has closed down has told him that they have read his blog from first post to last and gained a trust in him that he knew what he was doing and talking about and were ready to sign on the dotted line before he even talked to them.  Now that is power!

I love blogging and have people do it often times for marketing purposes and search engine optimization/content etc, but this is evidence of helping conversion rates be higher simple because of a good blog with amazing content!

The point here is to not just blog for the search engines, but to blog for adding value to your website as well as content for the readers and potential readers and sales you could be getting.  Also, making your blog easy (not so much writing for the search engines) to read, and blogging often will get people back to your site.  I have found through analytics programs that it takes an average of people to visit your site 7 times before they will purchase anything from you.  So blogging gives people a good reason to visit your site and build trust.

If you have a hosting account that allows database creation, and are good with open source software you can download free blogging software at WordPress.  If you are not so good with that hosting stuff, then you can get a free blogging account at www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com (yes different then the above wordpress)  So, even if you have to use a free blogging software I would suggest you link to your new blog right on the home page of your website, and include it in the navigation somewhere so it can be found easily by all your visitors.

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Ok, so by now you have probably read my post as to why I will never buy a PC again. But if you have not, I purchased a MacBook 4 days ago and it was the best (computer purchasing) decision of my life!

The reason for a follow up post, is there is a funny-ironic twist to this experience. Almost two days into my MacBook experience my display crashed hard. I took it to several Apple techs and nobody had ever seen the problem - ever. They repeated that alot. They were stunned! I thought how funny, I purchased a MAC because I was tired of dealing with computers crashing and what did this MAC do? Crashed! Besides the wonderful experience I had with my new MacBook thus far I was wondering if I had made a good choice or not?

After what happened last night I know I did. With no questions asked just realizing that I may have got the one bad MAC out of a million the Apple store gave me a new MacBook. This new one is amazing. I can’t believe how fast it is, sleek, easy to use and everything else! I already created a DVD, and I have been trying to do that on my PC for the last two years with no success! (the commercials really aren’t BS-ing you!)

I give an 11 out of a possible 10 to the MAC customer service and they will have a MAC lover/user out of me for life. I can’t say that I have ever had the same experience with say…Dell, or Sony (both of which I have personal computers or laptops with).

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Reading a few posts today made me think of something that has been on my mind for quite some time when it comes to link building strategies. Should outbound links (and I am talking the regular ones - not this no follow bullcrap) be a strategical part of your link building strategies?

My take on it is simple - Absolutely!

Some of the benefits from giving away outbound links could include better recognition from the search engines. They see that you are not selfish and just getting as many possible links to yourself as possible. If you have good content on your website, blog or forum then you do not need to worry about losing visitors clicking away from you. You should be giving them reasons to keep coming back to you because of the content. Another benefit could be that linking to a bigger site in your industry could build up your credibility with them, and they will accept your posted comments (maybe even let you anchor up a keyword if the comment is useful) on their blog as well as possibly add you to their blog roll. Linking out to other sites/blog posts/forums could get you trackback links as well. There are alot of sites that monitor and most of the bigger ones do, but you should never have to worry about getting deleted if you are being upfront and whitehat about your methods of linking out.

It all comes back to credibilty. Credibilty for your site with your readers, and the search engines. From my experience I have had better luck getting sites to rank that are not stingy with their outbound links, and really use it as a strategical part of their linking strategies.

Be careful of some sites that you link out to though as I have read linking out to certain sites can hurt your rankings. I would probably never link to a site that is not indexed in Google (besides ones I know that are brand new). You never want to link to a site that has been blacklisted, or questionable in nature. If you ever have a question about someone you are going to link to … ask yourself this question: “Would Matt Cutts link to this person?” (this link was not a no follow, but who am I kidding, Matt does not need a link from me) LOL … Have a great day!

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A great question and offer by Aaron Wall from SEO Book in regards to the upcoming Elite Retreat with 4 of the biggest internet marketing/SEO Expert/Bloggers (guru’s) period!  The question is a great question and deserves a follow up post later on, but for now I just want to make sure that everyone knows about this great opportunity.  Aaron Wall posts on his blog that they are offering a free pass to the Elite Retreat for the best answer to the question:  “Why should a legitimate business need to worry about SEO?”  I went ahead and entered the contest but probably won’t even be in the top running for the free pass, but I really felt I needed to add my story, and share my two cents why I think a legitimate business needs to worry about SEO.

To me I can turn it into more of a statement - “You are not a legitimate business if you are not worried about SEO.”  You will get left behind online if you do not start implementing and SEO, SEM, and SMM campaign.  I have no fear in saying this because I know its true and every other internet marketing guru out there will agree with me.  There are those out there that discredit SEO’s and their work and call them bull$&it, but I say those guys will be the ones left behind in the not so distant future.

My thanks to the guys at Elite Retreat for giving us the opportunity to win/or just go to the retreat and learn from some of the top 4 best in the nation.  And to those people that leave negitive comments on their blogs about 5k being alot for a couple days with them - I would pay that in a heartbeat compared to what I payed for my so called education at college.  I guess those are the guys that do not want to succeed and those are the ones that should have been paying attention to the offer - cause they are the ones that need it the most!

Ok - I will get off my soap box….(by the way…I still freaking love this new MACBook I just bought!)

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This weekend I finally purchased a MACBook as my new (and primary) laptop, and it has only been two days of using it, but its been the best computer purchasing decision of my life and here’s why:

1. It just plain works, and is very simple to understand and use. I have never even touched a MAC in 15 years of using a PC, and I just started it up and everything worked. (which leads me to reason #2)
2. It works right out of the box.
3. No need for annoying “updates” or “service packs”.
4. No need to delete all the files I won’t be using-ever! (that saves me hours alone).
5. Everything I wanted to figure out how to do I was able to, for example getting a bluetooth wireless mouse to work. Finding software for programs I use often, such as FTP and starting to understand the file structure of the MAC. Again, super easy!
6. I didn’t have to waste time with annoying anti-virus software.
7. I don’t have to waste time with Internet Explorer anything.
8. Firefox works amazing.
9. Everything is clean and not cluttered.
10. Amazing interface, graphics, look, style … I mean words can’t describe how absolutly sleek this machine is! I love it!

I was trying to decide if I was going to run the dual operating systems (OS X, and XP) and I just figured why give myself the headache. Every piece of software and program I use comes in a MAC version so no reason to have both. Just want to use something that will not keep giving me headaches and crashing! I think I have finally found it in this MACBook.
I will never go back to PC again, and it will bug me to no end until I get all of the computers in my life switched over to MAC. I have have eye on a pretty sick MAC Desktop with a 37inch screen. Maybe I will get that for my birthday coming up! (I would say hint hint, but I really don’t think my wife has ever read this blog once!)

I have not figured out everything with a MAC yet I am sure, but when I come across a problem, or something that I am not sure of, the thing I love the best is how simple MAC’s are so its been so easy to solve thus far! I am just really mad at myself for not making the switch sooner. If any of you are walking the line between PC and MAC and are really wondering if you should make the switch, let me be the first to tell you - DO IT and don’t look back!

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