The main key element that LeapFish is looking to utilize in order to differentiate themselves from other search engines, is its ability to allow users to search AND share. In the past, if you found something of interest (or something that was really, really cool), you would need to switch over to a bookmarking site like Digg, or StumbleUpon in order to share your findings with others. Of course, many already have the bookmarking features built into a downloadable toolbar which they can easily access in their web browser.

The only catch is, internet users would have to be on their own computer in order to access the bookmarking friendly toolbars. There was no way to access your personal toolbars when using someone else’s computer. Now there is a way to have your cake and eat it too (luckily, this cake won’t go straight to your hips). The bookmarking capabilities of a toolbar are built right into the infrastructure of the LeapFish search engine. You can even customize your own personal homepage when using the search engine making it that much easier to keep up with your favorite websites. The previous demo had two setup choices, but they both looked very similar to the Google search page. The new look of LeapFish is a cross between Yahoo! and Google’s homepage. The page starts out with a default, but this default can definitely be customized to show what you are most interested in right on your very own homepage.

The LeapFish search engine has concentrated on getting search results from the big three search engines – Yahoo!, Google, and Bing which covers a very large portion of the search engine market share. You can find pics, videos, and regular search results all in one place. And, as mentioned before, once you find these internet gems, you can easily share your findings with others using some of the most popular social bookmarking portals – without leaving your search results! If you are looking for a simple and powerful way to combine your search results from the top search engines, then LeapFish may be just what you are looking for (and what you’ve been missing).

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According to stats recently released from a study performed by Chitika, an online ad network, traffic from August through the first half of October appears to show that the number of users coming through Microsoft’s search engine has declined much more quickly than they were expecting for this time of year. Over 8% of search engine users and 6.7% of search traffic came from Bing in August 2009. Since August, Microsoft’s share of impressions has dropped to 5.44%, and the user share has decreased to 6.28%.

Here are some stats released in Chitika’s report:

    Search Share: Impressions
                            August           September            October
    Google                  81.80%             84.19%              84.99%
    Yahoo!                   9.08%              7.73%               7.26%
    Bing                     6.76%              5.76%               5.44%
    (Based on a sample of 579,555,134 impressions across the Chitika network)

    Search Share: Unique Users
                            August           September            October
    Google                  79.86%             82.87%              83.82%
    Yahoo!                   9.36%              8.03%               7.42%
    Bing                     8.24%              6.56%               6.25%
    (Based on a sample of 273,537,852 users across the Chitika network)

There are several reasons why this may be happening, but the overall reason would be that Microsoft simply isn’t doing much to help early adopters develop a strong desire to tell later adopters Bing. There is a lot of marketing going on to get people to check out Bing, but in order for the interest to grow, you have to constantly point out new features to help keep a new product from becoming an “old hat”.

With Google, they have created several videos on YouTube about the different features that currently exist with their different products, and also videos that speak of things to come. This helps to keep a sense of excitement and curiosity around their brand. Just when you are getting tired of the “same old thing” from Google, the water cooler gossip starts up agai about a new technology that Google is unveiling that a friend, of a friend, of a friend happened to mention to you. People flock to the internet checking out websites, and blogs to find out what part of the rumors are true, and what is purely fiction. Finally, Google admits to the world their “secret” technology, and everyone is rushing to be one of the lucky chosen few to adorn the lofty and envious title – Google beta tester. From there, the popularity of the new technology explodes on Twitter, and Facebook, and the whole process starts all over again.

Microsoft could learn a thing or two about “perpetual marketing” from Google.

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In a letter that I received today, Snapnames explained the situation:

From: SnapNames.com [mailto:noreply@snapnames.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 12:23 PM
To: XXXX@XXXXXXXXXXX.com
Subject: Important Update From SnapNames

Dear Moniker customer:

I’m contacting you today to inform you of an unfortunate incident at SnapNames, and to let you know what the company is doing to address it.

Recently, SnapNames discovered that an employee had set up an account on the SnapNames system under a false name and, under this name, bid in SnapNames auctions. This is a clear violation of our internal policy and was not approved by the company. We deeply regret that this conduct has impacted our customers.

Extent of impact

This conduct affected a small percentage of SnapNames auctions:
• Bidding affected approximately five percent of total SnapNames auctions since 2005, most of which occurred between 2005 and 2007.
• The incremental revenue from the bidding represented approximately one percent of SnapNames’ auction revenue since 2005.
No matter the level of impact, SnapNames takes this matter extremely seriously. When the matter was discovered, the company immediately closed the account in question and began a thorough investigation. The employee has also been dismissed from the company.

SnapNames further discovered that, on certain recent and limited occasions, when the employee won an auction, the employee secretly arranged to refund from SnapNames to the fictitious account a portion of the winning bid amount.

Remedy to affected customers

Though on some occasions the employee won the auction, in many instances the bidding caused the ultimate auction winner to pay more for a name than had the employee not participated in the auction.

SnapNames neither condones this conduct nor wants to be perceived as benefiting from the conduct. Accordingly, we have decided that regardless of the circumstance, in every auction where the employee’s fictitious account submitted a bid which resulted in a higher price being paid by the winning bidder, SnapNames will offer a rebate, with 5.22% interest (the highest applicable federal rate during the affected time period), to affected customers for the difference between the prices they actually paid and the prices they would have paid, had the employee not bid in the auctions. The rebate will be available in cash or in credit on the SnapNames platform, at your discretion.

SnapNames has moved quickly to address this situation. The company has retained Rust Consulting, an independent third party, who will administer the rebate offer. Within the next week, Rust Consulting will contact affected customers to provide details regarding the offer.

Your business and ongoing relationship are important to us and we can assure you that we have taken all necessary steps to ensure the integrity of the platform and reinforced controls and procedures to avoid any possibility of further breach. These include:
• Enhanced monitoring of bidding activity for suspect behavior
• Additional controls over financial transactions
• Specific domain name registration policies for employees
In the meantime, if you have any questions, you may consult the FAQs here, or contact the SnapNames support team:

By e-mail: support@snapnames.com
Phone: +1 (866) 690-6279 (toll-free in the U.S.)
+1 (503) 241-8547 (outside the U.S.)

SnapNames, and all in the Oversee family of companies, are deeply disappointed with this incident. Since its founding in 2000, SnapNames has been committed to the principles of fairness and trust; the company wants to assure customers—through both words and actions—that it remains committed to those principles.

Thank you again for your business, and for your ongoing trust in SnapNames.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kupietzky Craig Snyder
President and CEO General Manager, SnapNames.com

SnapNames
1600 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 400
Portland, OR 97201

Whether it’s a domain name auction or any other type of auction, the driving up of prices like this is not an acceptable behavior.

There have been rumours that this former employee was Nelson Brady, the former VP of Engineering at Snapnames. I personally have not been officially told the name, but one could certainly look at the List of Snapnames Employees and probably figure it out for oneself. Domain Name News is also reporting that the name of this rogue executive (former Snapnames Executive) is Nelson Brady.

Snapnames has officially written up a FAQ Page to keep you informed of the situation. If you were a bidder in one of the auctions, then you will be contacted at some point by the consulting company that they have hired to deal with this. You may want to seek legal advice as to whether or not you should accept their offer or not.

I’ll keep you posted here as to what’s going on, certainly this is a fluid situation and I’ll update as warranted. I’d like to credit www.domainnamenews.com for breaking the story.

At this point, I’m beginning to wonder if this incident had anything to do with what was really going on behind the scenes.

Thanks to Elliot for posting this on his blog and keeping us all updated. And DNN, as well, for first reporting this.

More here about Halverez and Nelson Brady. There is a photo of Nelson Brady here over at DN Journal.

Washington Post has picked up the story here, as well. Techcrunch is also apparently covering the story, as well.

Adam has posted a great editorial here. A must-read. Also, my buddy Chef Patrick also is talking about the Snapnames domain name scandal here.

DN Expert also has a word about it, as well. Apparently DN Expert says that Snapnames is “doing the right thing”.

TheDomains asks about getting money back. Domain Gang has their say as well.

Domain Name Wire also is talking about this Snapnames incident, which is sure to be another black eye:

This is obviously bad news for SnapNames and Oversee.net. But how they have handled the situation shows the company’s commitment to professionalism and making things right.

DNJournal.com has posted photos of Nelson Brady, and has other interesting information about the Snapnames Nelson Brady incident.

Just learned that Snapnames’ Extended Auction has abruptly been ended on a quite note.

Rick has his say here. He brings up the question, “are there more”?

There’s an interesting article that sums it all up pretty well over here. Sorry, but Nelson Brady, you’re no Bernie Madoff.

The Internet Storm Center also weighs in, as well.

Domain Bidder Halvarez was given sniper of the year award last month. Domain Gang has an interesting post from October 2009 that details some of the activity.

Update: 11/05/09 5:36pm CST: I just received a statement from Mason Cole, VP Corporate Communications at Snapnames. Regarding the discussing of any names involved in this situation, Mr. Cole had this to say: “SnapNames won’t discuss any HR-related matter.” Certainly, this is understandable. He also wished to convey the fact that “everyone at SnapNames is extremely disappointed over this situation.”

Update: 11/09/09: There is a poll that has been set up by Domain Name News regarding the Snapnames Rebate Offer. If you have a chance, please take the poll.

Blim & Edelson, Chicago based class-action attorneys, now have a website to gather up possible plaintiff names and investigate the case.

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Thanks to the LeapFish multimedia searching platform, internet users worldwide will be able to enjoy the convenience of searching Google, Yahoo!, and Bing all on the same webpage. LeapFish is a new multimedia search engine that captures the variety of the web in a single search platform. This multi-faceted searching machine promises to change the rules of the game in regards to REAL-TIME multimedia searching.

Leapfish is comprised of a simple design that features a search bar at the top of the page where users can choose between searching on Google, Yahoo! or MSN. From there, users choose whether or not they are looking for sites on the web, or more specific items such as images, news, videos, and blogs. There is even an answers links for those looking for questions on specific topics. This is highly useful to bloggers who may be looking to tailor their blog posts to answer questions commonly found on the web.

As an added bonus, anyone looking for some great deals while shopping online, will find the shopping search link very useful. This specially created link helps users find the latest offerings from Amazon.com and eBay. Visitors also have a choice between using the latest version of LeapFish, or going back to the Classic version. Switching between the two versions is as easy as clicking on a link located at the top of the page.

The Classic page tends to have a much more simplistic look and feel, while the latest version of LeapFish is feature rich, and has several different sections where you can look at the latest Twitter trends, as well as, check out the latest in “Today’s Tips”. You can also hover your cursor over an image, and a larger version of that image will pop up making it easier to see what is featured on a site. You can easily switch from different media types displayed, and can even install the LeapFish toolbar to make your searching even easier.

On October 28th, LeapFish released a private demo for a select few to check out the features of this social media searching platform. It definitely met with positive reviews, and although there are a few kinks here and there that need to be worked out, LeapFish looks to be gunning for a position in the world of search engine platforms.

Overall LeapFish is easy to use, and highly intuitive, and makes searching the top three searching platforms much easier than doing the same thing in three different windows or tabs. LeapFish is definitely going to change the way people look at browsing for social media.

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The study used the MH Group Communications Community Index and Conversation Index measurement methodologies to determine the size and activity level of communities around specific auto brands across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr.

What’s interesting is that the study shows 9 luxury car brands: These rankings are based on their engagement in social networks:

1. BMW
2. Porsche
3. Audi
4. Mercedes
5. Cadillac
6. Lexus
7. Acura
8. Infiniti
9. Lincoln

MH Group Communications says that “Porsche had the highest community rating in the Community Index with a score of 5,448, followed by BMW at 3,681 and Audi at 3,612. In the Conversation Index measurement, BMW held a sizeable lead over competitors with a conversation rating of 6,164 for the period studied.

However, the study also concluded that the industry has yet to tap the full potential of social media by utilizing an integrated and holistic approach, and are focusing their efforts on YouTube and Facebook rather than the full spectrum of social media platforms where benefits could be gained.”

The study revealed that social media conversations around luxury auto brands focused on four key topics, each of which offer specific challenges/opportunities:

Here are some other interesting facts brought out in the study:
Admiration: The luxury auto sector enjoys a privileged admiration consumers express for most luxury brands. Being part of an “exclusive” club, these owners and fans err on the side of adoration when discussing their vehicles. Challenge: Where is the tipping point, when the club no longer feels so exclusive because of the social media involvement of everyday consumers?

Sales and Deals: The auto industry’s huge investments into e-commerce and the dealer-based, decentralized sales network make deal talk the dominant topic of social media conversation. Challenge: Brand management in this environment is a challenge, given that the community drives the conversation, rather than the brand, in contrast to pre-social media days, when sales messaging was focused around brand web sites.

Questions about Features, Service, Availability: Social media are a powerful tool for brands to monitor questions about their vehicles and address them directly and immediately. Opportunity: This should be viewed as an opportunity to extend a brand’s customer service commitment, rather than just treat social media as a marketing tool.

News and Vehicle Announcements: There is a virtuous cycle of amplification among these brands, auto bloggers and social media networks, in which news is shared by the brands with influential bloggers, reposted or tweeted within social networks by readers of those blogs, and further echoed within smaller SM groups. Opportunity: Links to blog posts, rather than traditional media, are shared most often by consumers.

MH Group Communications and Forum Strategies & Communications partnered to perform this study because of their shared extensive experience and interest in the auto industry and social media. The top-selling luxury auto brands and luxury brands owned by major global automakers, including Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Lincoln, Lexus, Mercedes and Porsche were studied to assess their level of involvement and success in using social media. Researchers examined social media activity during August 2009 by the brands, as well as activity about the brands initiated by consumers, dealers or others. More information about the study is available at http://mhgroupcom.com/ or http://www.forumstrategies.com/.

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There is a new study out that shows that people who visit Digg and Facebook are more loyal readers than on other web sites. Visitors to Bing.com and Twitter.com are not as loyal. Twitter, in fact, was shown to have visitors that are not as loyal as other web sites.

The study, based on a sample of 33 million users on the online ad network Chitika, compared the number of visitors coming from major traffic sources. According to the results of the study, it showed that “Facebook was far and away the best provider of loyal users – over 20% of all visitors from Facebook visited the site four or more times per week. Digg came in second place with slightly over 16%.”

Amongst the search engines, Yahoo! had by far the most loyal readers with 15% of referrals being loyal. Google and Bing were just about in a tie with slightly below 12%, and Twitter came in last place overall with barely over 11%. Here are the actual numbers:

Loyalty by Referring Site:
————————–
Facebook 20.69%
Digg 16.09%
Yahoo! 15.89%
Google 11.84%
Bing 11.74%
Twitter 11.08%

Source: 33,667,507 uniques across the Chitika network in September, 2009

Does being a loyal reader mean that you’re a loyal consumer? Maybe Twitter users are not as loyal because they’re more internet savvy and just tend to follow links on Twitter that their friends tell them to click on? From what I can tell based on my own personal use of Twitter, when someone “tweets” something to their friends, they’re pointing out something: and while Twitter can certainly bring a lot of traffic to a website, those visitors will tend to click on an outgoing link in a Tweet and view it; apparently rarely do they go back to that website.

For Twitter users to be labeled as “not loyal” to other web sites (as a referral to that website), it makes sense to me. Twitter is all about “in the moment” and “real time” and what people are talking about “right now”. If you follow 100 people, you’re seeing exactly what they’re talking about right now. And if you see a link that you’re interested in you’ll click on it: and personally I don’t see myself searching Twitter for that link later on. It’s just not something that I’m going to go back to once I’ve seen it and clicked on it. For example, if someone I’m following, like @vizionweb, says something and points out a great tool then I am going to go to that tool: and if I like it then I will most likely bookmark that tool. But if there is something that they tweet about that’s kind of random (not in a conversation I’m having with them), then sure I may follow the link or click on the link: but I don’t recall any time where I’ve gone back to it again and again, even more than once.

So, it makes sense to me that Twitter users, when seen as a referral, are not very loyal to other websites. In fact, isn’t that the way Twitter works?

But what about Digg users and Facebook users? Perhaps you need to pay attention to Digg and Facebook a bit more. I’m kind of surprised about Digg users. Especially since Digg is designed to be a site where a story that goes popular sticks around for a while, but not necessarily for more than 24 hours. After 12 hours or so it tends to fall off the face of the earth and then the traffic just tends to die after that. But, when it comes to Facebook, the Facebook users are following their “friends”. In fact, if someone who is a friend of yours recommends something to you then there’s a good chance that you’ll go visit it: and, frankly, since your friend or relative or other contact on Facebook is recommending it to you, then there’s probably going to be more “trust” there than on other websites.

So, does that mean that we trust our Facebook friends more than we trust those who we follow on Twitter? Perhaps. Or maybe it isn’t about trust at all, it’s about how the website is designed: on Twitter, there’s not a good chance that you’re going to be a loyal visitor and click on a link again. Especially because in a few minutes that link will be gone from your view.

What is the bottom line? I think Chitika sums it up nicely:

While Google naturally wins in sheer numbers, if a website owner can drive a thousand people to their site via Google, or they can drive the same number via Facebook, Facebook seems to be the way to go for creating a loyal reader.

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To get noticed by the search engines and to get noticed by the search engines, you need to concentrate on getting links that other people will notice. But what makes link building difficult is that there are actually links that can hurt your search engine rankings. There are links and link building (and content building for the purpose of getting or “making” links) that can be considered “white hat” and then there’s the “black hat” type of links or those people who only concentrate on one type or another type of link.

Do you know the difference between a “white hat” link and a “black hat” link? What about a “grey hat” link? Does it matter? Yes.

On October 14, 2009, I will be speaking (as part of a panel of other great speakers) to the Dallas Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association (a trade group that I help found) about link building, the part of search engine optimization that can be pretty controversial at times.

Building quality links is an important part of any search engine optimization (SEO) effort. On October 14, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. the DFW Search Engine Marketing Association will be hosting a panel discussion on link building titled “White Hat/Black Hat Link Building – You Decide”. To purchase tickets online go to http://dfwsem.memberlodge.org.

Whether you’re a “white hat”, a “black hat”, or just someone who would like to find out about marketing your business online in the “proper, acceptable” way, you might want to attend this event on October 14, 2009.

A link building campaign is a necessary step in the overall success of your website. You can put up a website, have great web design, and have great content; but without other websites linking to your website no one will know about it. Furthermore, the search engines rely on links in order to find new websites and new web pages. A proper linking campaign will not only increase your website’s online visibility and traffic, it will allow the search engines to find your site and help your website get indexed.

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What’s more important here, though, this is the first time that FTC rules have covered bloggers. This is significant because the US Government is actually acknowledging bloggers as being a source of information that apparently needs guidelines. It’s another step in the “acceptance” of blogging and blogs–which is a good thing.

Here is some information from their press release:

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

While this is certainly news to bloggers and an interesting turn of events, it is important to note that the Federal Trade Commission did NOT say “how” bloggers must disclose the fact that they have received a freebie or a payment. So, if you are a blogger, then you might want to read my post about the different ways that you can disclose that it it is a paid post (without actually saying that it’s a paid blog post).

The Federal Trade Commission says that their commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines. What is important to note is that these are guidelines:

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

Penalties are actually rather steep in nature, the fines for not disclosing paid posts are now up to $11,000 in fines per violation.

The rules take effect December 1st, 2009.

What is not immediately apparent to me is whether or not older blog posts are included in these requirements.

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But this sealed it for me today. I mean, this is why I no longer am going to use Yahoo! Search. I am talking about Yahoo! Organic Search, the free search results, not Yahoo! Search Marketing, their Paid Search (their Pay Per Click).

Take a look at the search results for “mobile home”. You know what a mobile home is, you know, right? Well, apparently Yahoo! does NOT know the difference between a mobile home and a cell phone:

I mean, really, Yahoo! Search, why are you showing the T mobile website, a cellular phone company, in the search results for “mobile home”? Let’s compare the Yahoo! search results for “mobile home” to Google’s “mobile home”:

Mobile homes are where people live. They’re NOT cell phones. Yahoo!, if you’re listening to this, I have some advice: T-mobile is not a good search result to display when I am looking for a “mobile home”.

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In this case, the SEO Horror Story contest is looking for SEO Horror Stories: and Mark Jackson explains it all very well here.

This Search Engine Optimization is different. This is quite the opposite of a traditional “SEO Contest”. In fact, Vizion Interactive is looking for the worst SEO on the planet. They’re looking for Search Engine Optimization Horror Stories, extreme examples of cases where Search Engine Optimization efforts have failed. And if you have experienced such an extreme example of SEO gone bad, go on over to the contest website: SEO Horror Story.com

So, what will you get when you submit your SEO Horror Story? The first twenty submissions will receive a copy of “The Unfair Advantage Book on Winning the Search Engine Wars” for $1. That book also comes with a three month membership to SearchEngineNews.com and access to the Planet Ocean “Site Strength Indicator tool”. I have been a Search Engine News subscriber for many years now. And if you take the time to submit your own SEO Horror Story and you’re one of the first 20 submissions, getting that book and access to the “Site Strength Indicator Tool” is definitely worth your time and effort: Planet Ocean does a great job at telling you everything you need to know: and may even show you where your SEO efforts failed in the past, so you can correct them.

There’s a lot more cool prizes up for grabs, including:
– 1 free year Raven Tools membership (worth $948)
– 6 months “Pro” account at SEMRush.com (worth $249.95) and 2 months account at SEOPivot.com (worth $296.78) for a total value of $546.73.
– 6 month subscription to Trackur Corporate (worth $528)
– 6 month subscription to SEOMoz Pro (worth $474)
– 3 month subscription to AdGooroo SEM Insight (also includes tools, worth $1197)
– 12 month “Standard Pack” subscription to Errorlytics (worth $179)
– Gold Pass to Affiliate Summit West 2010 (worth $749)
– Two SEMPO Institute courses – Insider’s Guide to Search Marketing and Effective Search Marketing: Social Media (value $700)

Why all the cool prizes? Well, if you have an SEO Horror Story to tell, then you will definitely need one of these search engine optimization tools or access to the great SEO information that you can get. By subscribing, becoming a member, attending, or taking one of the SEMPO Institute courses, you will further enhance your search engine optimization knowledge, what you need to know in order to analyze your own website, analyze your online competitors, and fix what needs fixing.

Who are the judges?
There are some pretty awesome people, SEO Insiders and Search Engine Optimization Experts, SEO Veterans, who are judging the contest:

Aaron Wall, SEO Book
Aaron Wall is the author of SEO Book, a dynamic website offering marketing tips and coverage of the search space, free SEO videos, and free SEO tools.

Andy Beal, Marketing Pilgrim
Andy Beal is an internationally-renowned consultant, author, and speaker specializing in online reputation management and internet marketing. He is the coauthor of Radically Transparent and CEO of Trackur.

Barry Schwartz, SE Roundtable
Barry Schwartz is the Editor of Search Engine Roundtable and President of RustyBrick, Inc., a Web services firm.

Brett Tabke, WebmasterWorld and Pubcon
Brett Tabke is the Founder and CEO of WebmasterWorld and chair of PubCon conferences.Tabke was a founding board member of SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization).

Debra Mastaler, Alliance Link
Based in Williamsburg, Virginia, Debra Mastaler is President of Alliance-Link, an interactive marketing company focused on providing custom link building campaigns and link training.

Lee Odden, Top Rank Marketing
Lee Odden is CEO and founder of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing agency that provides search engine optimization, social media and business blog consulting services.

Mark Jackson, Vizion Interactive
Mark founded Vizion Interactive, Inc. in July of 2005.Mark is a frequent speaker at the Search Engine Strategies in New York, San Jose, Chicago and Toronto and Pubcon conferences in Las Vegas and Austin. He has written a regular column for Search Engine Watch since early 2007.

Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz
Rand Fishkin is the CEO & Co-Founder of SEOmoz, a leader in the field of search engine optimization tools, resources & community.

There is a lot of misinformation out there when it comes to Search Engine Optimization, and let me tell you that I’ve heard just about everything there is to hear: and I’m still amazed that companies are still telling others that you can “submit” to a search engine. In fact, most likely, once you registered your domain name, all the major search engines have visited your website within one week. Sometimes it’s within hours: and I’ve seen Google spider a new domain name within minutes. There are no more submissions to search engines: and that’s just one tiny myth out there still circulating around.

I have to admit, Search Engine Optimization is tough: and many choose to initially go out and purchase keyword ads in order to drive traffic to their website (by the way, purchasing PPC ads on Google AdWords is NOT search engine optimization, that’s search engine marketing). Search engine optimization is only focusing on the organic or “free”, “natural” search engine results, the ones you do not have to pay for.

So, if you think you have been involved in an SEO Horror Story, then get yourself on over to the SEO Horror Story website and make your submission. Contest entries need to be received by October 31, 2009.

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