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I get sort've misty-eyed and nostalgic when I check this out….Really interesting to see how these websites used to look – back in the day.  I remember most of these looks.  It does make me feel a little bit "web old" that I remember many of these.  And, the fact that I associate the looks of these sites to various points in my life is even a more strange flashback.

Posted via email from Phil’s posterous

Posted via web from Phil’s posterous

Today, I got signed up for a new service called Posterous.com.  Posterous is a way to "post" to a lifestream.  I think it is a fantastic idea.  So, basically, you are "blogging" on the posterous platform.  But, it is different.  Because, I just e-mail an address with posterous.  And, then, from there, the post is syndicated out to any number of services.  Great idea.  But, I don't know about the implications of not "owning" your lifestream.  Personally, I like to have my information on my site.  I guess I really don't have much of an opinion, yet.  I am going to use this in weeks to come and see how this develops.  It is an interesting idea.

Posted via email from Phil’s posterous

Wow… Jessica should dump him before this even starts…

This guy should be mortified.

In the last few days, Google has launched a new feature.  It must be an experimental feature, because I am talking with people that are not getting it in their respective datacenters.  But, it is a cool feature that allows you to dominate more of the page if you are the authority site.

In the past, you were able to get sitelinks for being the authority.  But, clearly, this is an effort on the part of Google to expand the real estate of authority sites.  It has been said that a #1 listing will give you 43% of the clicks.  If you get the indented listing, that will give you another 12%.  If you throw this in, along with the sitelinks,  you are probably sitting close to 60% of the clicks on the page for being the “super authority”.  On the other hand, I am finding that this does come before the sitelinks take root.

Many people, when they first get into SEO, think that they have to go out and spend a ton of money in order to find the right tools.  I think that this is a huge mistake.  It has often been said that the best things in life are free.  When it comes to SEO, I would have to agree with that.  There are a few great tools that I literally use everyday – tools I have never paid for and never will.   Here are the five tools that – when you use them – have the potential of taking you from an SEO ZERO and turning you into an SEO pro… and, yes, they are free.

• SEO for Firefox (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html).  This is an absolutle MUST have.   If you don’t have this Firefox add-on installed, you are missing out on a lot critical intelligence.  From the number of cached pages to the last time a search engine bot has visited the page, this tool gives you everything that you need to know to analyze traffic and competition.
• Search Status (http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/;jsessionid=48D6BBA0F56684543B3511BFAAFA0FC3).  This is another very valuable Firefox extension.  It enables you to very quickly look at meta tags, sitemaps, robots.txtfiles and much more…. all without pulling up source code.  Very valuable tool.
• Rank Checker (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/).  Once again, absolutely free!  This free Firefox add-on enables you to check your critical rankings for terms that you want to rank for without leaving Firefox.  Easy to use and just as effective as much more expensive tools.
• Quarkbase (http://www.quarkbase.com/).  Get a massive amount of information on every website.  From who is linking in to Whois data, this site has it all.  Literally.  This is a fantastic site intelligence tool.
• Greg Boser Backlink Tattler (http://www.gregboser.com/downloads/).  This is a tool that is an oldie but goody.  It’s been around for a long time.  It enables you to type a domain in and pull the backlinks out via Yahoo Site explorer.  How valuable is that?  If you have been around the SEO game for a while, you know that Yahoo Site Explorer is by far and away the best resource for finding the backlinks of your own site or your competitors.  Want to rank for a particular term?  Google the term… find out who is ranking… then, run that domain through this tool.  Export the backlinks to a spreadsheet… then, directly approach them about getting links from them.  It’s as easy as that.

I recently started using the Google Bid Simulator too.  Before this, the Traffic Estimator is about all you had to go with.  The Traffic Estimator was cool.  But, it was not without limitations.  First, I seem to have gotten locked out after a number of estimates.  And, second, you couldn’t take the information from your campaign, your ads, etc., and get estimates.

The Bid Simulator is awesome for scaling.  So, if you have a campaign that is working, you can use the simulator to see how many more clicks you could have gotten to scale that winning campaign.  Awesome tool.

I know that summer internships are coming to an end.  But, hey, there’s still Fall and Spring.  Internships are an incredible opportunity to actually practice skills in the real world.  Let’s face it… you don’t learn that much in college or even grad school.  By trade, I am a lawyer.  But, I can tell you that I learned nothing about the law until I went to work for a very good firm.

But, if you want a career in marketing on the Internet, what kinds of internships do you do?  I mean… if you want to build huge lists … or do lead generation… what should you be doing to build your skill set?  Here’s a short list:

• Work with a CPA Network. Five years ago, the number of CPA networks was pretty small.  Really small.  Commission Junction, ShareaSale and a few others of any value.  But, along came the rampant, ridiculous and vast number of CPA networks.  Now, they are everywhere.  Why not offer to work with one of them?  If you live near a major city, odds are you have a good one near you.
• Work with your Congressman or Politician. Networking is a key trait as an internet marketing.  Where else are you going to see first-class schmoozing more so than working with a politician?
• Work with a Conference Group. How about applying to work with the folks that do SES, SMX, and even the minor, less well-known conferences.
• Google. Yeah, right, not a bad internship to get.  It makes you interesting – even if you don’t do anything worthwhile.  And, it will give you plenty of fodder to talk about on your internet marketing blog.
• Ad Networks or a Large search firm. For most people, banner and ad networks in general are a black box.  They don’t understand who is good and who is bad.  They don’t understand who to talk to or how to even approach these companies.  So, working with them will remove the mystique.  It will also get you plugged into the industry.  There are many opportunities from the big dogs like Media Whiz to even small shops in your town.

Frankly, the best internships will be the ones that just get you plugged in, however possible.   Look, face it… internships are not about money.  They are about experience and connections.  You have to get that somewhere.  So, you might have to work for free.  We have all done it.  So, take the job in the day and wait tables at night.  Don’t worry… that won’t last forever.

I talk with business owners all the time about seo and e-commerce.   Everyone knows that seo can help – and it’s FREE!  But, for many, seo is such a wild card and they don’t know how to even get started.  Sure, SEO can be very time consuming.  But, it doesn’t have to be.  SEO is an area of marketing that you can spend as much or as little time on as you want.  But, most site owners don’t have endless time to commit to seo.   If you are one of those who does not have the time to spend 3 hours of your day on seo, there are a few things you can do that will give you the biggest bang for your buck:

• Mind Your Title Tags. Based on my current testing, Google is valuing good Title Tags more than ever before.  I repeatedly look at sites (And, this amazes me.), and I frequently find that a phenomenal number of sites have identical title tags throughout the site.  Or, they duplicate title tags on multiple pages.  What does that say to Google?  it says that this page is so unimportant that you didn’t even feel the need to give it a unique title tag.
• Build a few Links Each Day. When it comes to link building, there are about 1,001 (maybe more) ways to waste your time.  I tell people all the time that link building and site marketing is not a fast sprint.  It’s a marathon.  That’s why I recommend doing just a little each day.  Pencil in 20-30 minutes per day for link building.  Make it a part of your regular schedule.   Finding quality links is not hard.  But, it just might take some creativity and ingenuity.  The first thing you can do is see what your competitors are doing.  Head to Yahoo and do a search for linkdomain:www.[competitor site] … find out who is linking to that site.  Then, approach those sites about linking to you.
• Watch Your Analytics and Build Content. I find that small business owners, especially, don’t watch their analytics enough.   Good analytics does not have to be pricey.   Google Analytics does an amazing job – and, especially, for the money… FREE!  Also, if you are not comfortable with Google peaking over your shoulder, a new site just recently hit beta, Woopra.   Woopra is an amazing and exciting platform.  It actually allows you to watch on your desktop as visitors hit your site.  But, you need to monitor your analytics in order to see what is bringing traffic – and more importantly – sales to your site.  Then, develop content around those themes.  Build on what makes you successful and you will be successful.

Search engine optimization can be all consuming.  And, there are so many items that can take you off-task.  But, if you don’ t have a lot of time to devote toward SEO’ing your site, just focus on these things and you will be one “leg up” on your competition, in all likelhood.

P.S…. the most important thing that you can possibly do is to watch what the best performing sites in your niche do… and mimic them.  Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.  It is also the quickest way to successful rankings.

It is clear that these cost cutting measures are further evidence that MySpace is falling like a lead balloon.