SEO Blogs- Big Brother, Bad Karma or Boring?
Have you checked the SEO blog weather today? Have you checked SEO blogs in the last week… month? Insight; my morning routine; coffee, coffee, coffee, Drudge Report, local news, coffee, time set aside to read the SEO news blogs, life. What?s your routine? When (if) you check SEO Blogs, what do you think about as you read [...] (Read on Source)
AOL Instant Messenger worm attack feared
... Instant Messenger is vulnerable to worm attack due to the way it works with Internet Explorer 7, according to security researchers. The critical flaw is in the way that the ...
Widgets Lab on the Blog Commenting Space
Widgetslab has a very thorough post up about the intensifying competition in the blog comments space between companies like Disqus , JS-Kit, and Intense Debate . Widgetslab covers a number of areas in which these companies are trying to differentiate themselves. Profile, seo-ability, and synchronization with a native blog commenting system (like ... (Read on Source)
Linux Dedicated server
Dedicated Server are cost effective solutions for your organization's most challenging linux hosting and application needs. Each linux dedicated server is built with high-quality Intel components, with high-speed SATA disk storage and plenty of premium Internet bandwidth. These linux dedicated servers are perfect for advanced users who have the expertise to configure and manage a Linux dedicated server and who need the flexibility to run their own Internet applications. All linux dedicated servers come with the latest software and utilities to get you up and running quickly.
Business owners need to take time off
... just five days off the first year he was in business, having founded Terralever, Web design company based in a Tempe, Ariz. "It was difficult because it was just me. ...
Vice-President Gore?
Web 2.0 Analytics -- The Rules of Engagement
... an SEO expert and Search Engine Marketing Specialist at Fusionbox, a Denver Internet marketing, web design, and web development company. He can be reached at his Fusionbox email (nyorchak@fusionbox) or ...
SourceForge Adds Hosted Applications
Open source project host SourceForge.net recently added a new feature to its list of project management offerings: hosted apps. In addition to being able to be used for live app demos, the hosted apps feature will allow projects to innovate without focusing on infrastructure. (Read on Source)
Post office trip claim disproved
... this video you will need to use Internet Explorer, or download a plug-in for your browser ... your browser which is capable of displaying Windows Media Video files. RESIDENTS battling to save their ...
Coupon Affiliates are stealing from you
Apparently now in the UK 1 out of every 200 visits to an online retail site comes from a Voucher/Coupon Code website. As this type of traffic is increasing year on year, your hard earned affiliate commissions could be getting flushed down the drain when your cookie is overwritten by these rogue practices. (Read on Source)
Using Linux to Create Holiday Cheer
Datamation: "And with that theme in place, this article will examine the benefits of making room for open source solutions this holiday season in the place of dropping a ton of money -- cash that many of us may not have this year in the first place."
RepriseMe: Number 7 - James Song - Media Analyst
Learn SEO in 30 Minutes a Day
Posted by Danny Dover
Learning SEO can be a daunting experience. To make this process a little easier, I have broken down my method for learning SEO into bite sized chunks that can be completed in 30 minutes or less. I have also tried to create a mechanism to make it easier to get help and expand personal networks.Twitter Participation:
I think the best benefit of learning SEO is getting to know the SEO community. As an experiment to facilitate this, I propose the following. While you complete the tasks below, feel free to share your progress on twitter with the Hash Tag #30MinuteSEO This will make it easier to find people who are doing the same thing and willing to help you. :-)
Learn the basics:
Your first group of tasks will teach you the fundamentals of Search Engine Optimization. You get to start slow by reading some helpful articles.
30 Minute Tasks:
- Read the new Beginners Guide to SEO (30 mins) - This is the table of contents for the up-incoming revision to the beginners guide to SEO. (Note the ‘Parts’ are links to full articles) I recommend this version over its predecessor because it’s material is more focused on today's SEO landscape.
- Read Google’s Starter Guide to SEO - (30 mins) Isn’t reading two beginner guides to SEO redundant? The information might be, but this will teach you to recognize and appreciate Google’s perspective on SEO. (As a side note, notice the juxtaposition between the message Google is saying and the SEO unfriendly URL structure of this page. This is your first chance to study the difference between what Google says and how Google acts. Oh Snap!)
- Build a Basic Website (4 sets of 30 mins) - The Beginners Checklist for Learning SEO will guide you through the process of building a basic website and teach you the basic SEO skills you need. (I apologize for linking to my own work. I wouldn’t recommend it if I didn’t believe it was worthy)
Start Using Your Skills:
Your second group of tasks requires applying the theories you just learned. These tasks are presented as SEO challenges that will utilize everything you learned in the previous section and depend on your own creativity. Note: The work for these will take about 30 minutes. The time it takes for the content to actually get indexed may be much longer.
30 Minute Tasks:
- Rank for a long tail phrase (30 mins) - Choose a long tail keyword phrase and figure out how to rank for it. When I did this exercise nearly two years ago, I chose “fat people falling”. Please be aware that the subject manner and the language of the ranking page may be NSFW. It was written for a very specific audience and may be offensive to others. Hint: See if you can figure out how I got this page to rank with only one inbound link.
- Rank in the top 10 in a local search (2 sets of 30 mins) - Find a actual small business that you appreciate and volunteer to do SEO at no cost. When I did this two years ago, I chose the preschool I originally attended and helped them rank in their area. Hint: Read David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking Factors
- Rank an image (30 mins) - The image vertical is one of the most confusing search realms to work in. Dive in and see if you can get a relevant image to rank for a phrase of your choice. Hint: Read Google Image Search Ranking Factors
- Rank in the top 10 for a popular term on YouTube (30 mins) - Compared to the search engines, ranking in YouTube is a piece of cake. Try to rank for a semicompetitive term with a worthwhile video. When I originally did this, I ranked for popular culture phrase and my relevant video made me $10,000 theoretical dollars. Hint: Read YouTube Ranking Factors
- Outrank Google (3 sets of 30 mins) - This is an exercise with the domain related metrics. Find a REALLY long tail phrase that Google ranks #1 for and see if you can create a page that can outweigh the domain strength of the big G. I have been experimenting with Google's spam filters and I am seeing if I can outrank Google Webmaster Central forums with my awesome website What Is The Best Thing To Do With a Colt with Five Hooves.com
- Pitch SEO to a real client (2 sets of 30 mins) - This is the hardest but possibly most important task on this list. Go out and find a small business and sell them on your ability to do SEO. You will likely learn a lot about SEO and yourself in this process.
Continue Learning:
After completing the tasks above, it is a good idea to spend 30 minutes a day reading SEO blogs - I recommend the following:
- Search Engine Land - Authoritative up to minute search engine coverage.
- Search Engine Roundtable - High quality coverage of SEO as it evolves.
- SEOmoz Blog - SEO blog with a focus on teaching SEO. (Disclaimer - SEOmoz pays my bills and may have been the bearer of my first child. The jury is out)
- Sphinn - A fair amount of fluff, but generally the first source to break inner-industry news.
Example Tweet on Twitter: Enjoying this post at searchengineland.com/post/example/ #30MinuteSEO
Study Advanced SEO:
This group of tasks has less direct return on investment but can lead to big wins. I try to complete these at least once a month.
30 Minute Tasks:
- Review ultra competitive Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) (30 mins) - Watch the progress of SERPs like “Buy Viagra”, “Real Estate” and “Payday Loans”. Most of the techniques used to rank for these are Black Hat but it is important to know what you might be up against.
- Find a site that outranks Wikipedia and try to figure out why (2 sets of 30 mins) - This will likely help you with later work. Wikipedia’s domain strength is incredible. Find and study the sites that outrank it because they generally use the best SEO tactics.
- Attend search conference parties (4 sets of 30 mins) - Don’t get distracted by the people exchanging short term tricks and tips. Instead, mingle and start to talk to some of the most interesting people you will ever meet.
Extra Tasks:
These tasks are more difficult and only indirectly apply to SEO
- Write up a SEO oriented resume (2 sets of 30 mins) - From what I have seen, when businesses are facing hard economic times they look inward to see what current assets they can maximize. This means that SEO is a great skill-set to have when companies are looking to attract free search engine traffic. Hint: You can add your resume to SEOmoz marketplace
- Review HTML Tags (30 mins) - In the same way that the typewriter dictated the course of keyboards, (The QWERTY layout was originally designed to prevent collisions on typewriters) HTML dictates the course of the internet. Become a HTML expert and your skills will apply for the rest of your life.
- Sign up for Social Media (30 mins) - If you haven’t already, sign up for Twitter, Facebook and any other social media sites that you find interesting. Start building your personal brand and make it work for you.
If you have any other tasks that you think are worth sharing, feel free to post them in the comments. This post is very much a work in progress. As always, feel free to e-mail me or send me a private message if you have any suggestions on how I can make my posts more useful. If that's not your style, feel free to contact me on Twitter (DannyDover) Thanks!
Name: SyroBro