Just wanted to let everyone know I finally got around to cleaning a little house with the Internet Business Directory over on Eplanit.biz (the other part of this website). Probably in a month or so there will be a completly new directory with sub-cats and all. For now its going to have to stay how it is. (I am way to busy to do it any other way) I am the only editor on this directory.

There are several categories where there is not much in the way of listings, but the pages still carry good PR. Most anywhere you want to list in the directory has well under 50-100 links, with several 15 and under. I had to offer all the text links inside the directory as paid to get rid of all of the crap that people were trying to submit to me. This directory gets a decent amount of traffic and would be worth listing for that fact alone besides what it could do to help improve search engine rankings.

I look over each listing submitted and do my best to not let any garbage in. So this is still very much a human edited directory. We offer a 29.95 premium submission service that gets you 6 quality text links (yes you can deep link; ie - subpages) and we have a budget listing at 9.95 that gets you one anchor text link with a URL link as well. Most of the time if I like the site I will throw in an extra link or two, but you really do get a lot more for the money with our premium submission service.

I know this directory is not the top of the line ones out there that are all automated and crap, but I wanted to try and keep as much of the human touch to this one as I possibly could!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

Rate Point - This is probably one of the coolest ideas for a social bookmarking/rating site that I have come across in a while. It is kind of a digg/del.icio.us rating type social site. Rate Point will allow you to bookmark and tag your favorite websites and rate them, and include comments to get feedback from other Rate Point users. The reason I am digging Rate Point even over del.icio.us is the fact that other people can rate your site and give you feedback how to improve. That is a huge benefit to this social site. (more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

If you are not familiar with the term “Parasite SEO” it is the practice of creating an optimized web page on sites that Google has placed a lot of trust. Schools and College web sites have become very susceptible to this as the Google “Trust Knob” has been turned way up for .edu domain names. Not just anyone can get a .edu domain name, there is a very lengthy process of approval. In as such there is an SEO Wise tail that claims links from .edu domains will help you rank higher and gain more trust in Google. I think there is some truth to it, I have done presentations on SEO at colleges and recieved links only a couple steps down from the homepage and seen some nice trust passed, I have tested Parasite SEO on different things and found some interesting results. But perhaps the most valid aurgument for .edu’s hording trust is the Google Searches “Buy Viagra” and “Buy Cialis.” (more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

On the official Google Blog tonight Vanessa Fox dishes out some cool new updates about the anchor text inside your Google Site Maps account. You can click on the link to check out her full post, but here are some things I am excited to see:

• They are showing 200 phrases now
• You can see all kinds of variations for your anchor text
• Most common individual words in anchor text
• You can view more of your common words

Check this image out as a sample of the extent of the cool information we are getting now:Â (this is the external links varied use etc)

This information is amazing because it shows us flat out how others are seeing our site, as well as see exactly how other sites are linking to us. We can learn from it and grow our websites. Any other cool uses that anyone has found with this new feature?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

Lets say I have a website that gets a steady flow of decent traffic (and I do - several in-fact) and I have people that want to pay me to advertise on my site because of that, and they feel they could benefit from it, then where the hell is the problem Google? Don’t try to tell me there is no problem if I only disclose paid links by putting a big ugly sign above the paid ad that says: Look here Google - “I am a paid link”. That is bull!

So Google wants to take away your right to make money by selling links, or take away your right to buy a link on an amazing site that could get you good traffic by scaring you? Personally, if I buy a link on a site like that, I do not want an ugly sign that says “Google this is a paid link”!

I agree that hiding links is a bad practice, one that I do not follow, but this is completely different and should not have even been brought up in the same context.

I would love to see the day when the Yahoo Directory has a big disclaimer at the top of it that states: “All of the people listed in this directory have paid to be here - Are we clear on that Google”? Are you really going to take away the value of a directory like that Google?

Here’s something for thought? If buying and selling text links were such an evil practice, then why has Google attended almost every Search Engine Conference whose some of the main sponsors are companies that sell text links?  (OH - and they sell links themselves too - hypocritical?  …. just a little) hmm…..

For a company that is suppose to have a “do no evil” policy, they have fallen to the dark side of the force pretty quickly, and I am starting to think of them like Microsoft. (And that’s lead me to buy a MAC)

Here is another thought:

• What if I wrote a really amazing story with great link bait, and a bunch of bloggers linked to the story because it was good (Well couldn’t I have just paid for a ton of bloggers to do that?)
• What if I had a story dugg and made it to the popular list ( I could have paid a bunch of people to digg that story?)
• What if this article got saved on del.icio.us a ton of times (I could have paid a ton of people to save it - right?)

DO YOU SEE THE POINT? Ok, I am done with this rant because this whole topic of Google hunting out websites that buy and sell links is ridiculous.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

I have been messing around a lot lately with Twitter and just trying to “get it”, and I finally have and want to share my top 10 reasons for using it. I suggest everyone become a part of Twitter today and add me as a friend! If you can get past the site showing quite a few time out errors, and the slowness of it right now, you will love what you can learn from it, and what it can do for you! Here’s why: (more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

Here is the question in full:

I have 50 articles written and ready to submit. I ran across the following suggestion to submit articles but I wasn’t sure it was ok to do. Can i submit the same article to multiple directories? What are your thoughts? (more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

With everybody talking about the 5 reasons “why they blog” I wanted to take a different twist on it, and talk about the only 5 blogs that I think are worth reading (and why I am glad they have 5 reasons to blog). I thank Aaron Wall for giving me the idea (via his blog) to take a different approach with this. (more…)

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

On April 5th, 2007 Dan Eastman a member of the Utah State Senate announced on the Utah Senate Blog that legislation past a new bill he is calling, “The Next Generation in Identity Theft.”

To sum it up it is now illegal to bid on keywords via Adwords or other Keyword Sellers that are either trademarked company names, product names, and it seems even domain names, as well as anything seen as confusing similar brands or products the searcher.

“We passed a bill this session that would protect the value of trademarks held by Utah companies. People who own a trademark or hope to own one will love this new law. People who want to carjack someone else’s trademark will hate it.

Electronic trademarks are protected around the globe, just not in the U.S. or Canada. There seem to be few applicable laws with teeth. Trademark violations on the internet are rampant. In some cases people invest millions on their trademark, only to have their customers’ on-line word searches shanghaied by a pirate who bought off the search engines.”

There are three sites discussing this better than I can with the proper legal rebuttals found here:

Utah Bans Keyword Advertising

A Bad Idea From Utah: A Ban on Comparative Advertising

Utah Ban on Trademarked Keywords Rankles Groups

Utah has quickly become a great place to do business in the last couple of years, the summers here are awesome, and the snow boarding is unparraled, but this latest chivalry by the Utah Senate reminds me I am glad to be a Californian.

It’s pretty Utarded if you ask me (I couldn’t resist Im sorry), this is about as lame as having a blogging code of conduct. or suing someone for linking to them. It is all chipping away at the raw nature of the internet and is definately in favor of large companies.

I guess I will be getting more business for ranking companies for their competitor’s names organically

**Update: Forbes has written about it, andClick Z did some good research.

There are rumors about some companies dipping in the pockets of some State Reps. Also

In the Forbes Article they say that Utah likened it to “You get right to the front door and somebody whisks you away to a different store.” That is one of the worst analogies I have ever heard, when doing a search in Google you have to choose to click on the ads, they don’t force you. You see neighboring stores next to each other at a mall and then choose which one to go in.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers

I freaking think I had seen it all the last 4 years living in Utah, but Utah has gone and proved me wrong - I read this story talking about Rep. Dan Eastman banning keyword advertising and instantly thought (WTF)?

I would love to hear from anybody who may have more insight into this ridiculous waste of time that Utah law makers continue to dabble in. Is this a joke?

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed, or follow Chris Bennett on Twitter and make sure you check out our free analytics product BLVD Status and Social Media for FireFox Which is used by more than 500,000 marketers