Nick's Internet Marketing News

9 Tips To Pitch Your Blog Successfully

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:25:23 +0000

This is a guest post by Brandon J. Mendelson. I have successfully pitched stories and thoughts to local and national media outlets, ranging from the Albany Times Union, where I volunteer as a blogger, to The Christian Science Monitor, MSNBC.com, E! Online, Newsweek, the LA Times, and others. Working as both a blogger and journalist for [...]

The Top 10 Social Networks for Generation-Y

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:24:56 +0000

Dan Schawbel is the author of Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, and owner of the award winning Personal Branding Blog. With thousands of social networks globally, only a handful of them cater specifically to a special group of individuals, known as Generation-Y. Also known as Gen-Y or millennials, Generation-Y are individuals [...]

10 Ways For Bloggers To Stand Out From The Crowd

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:24:15 +0000

This post was guest blogged by Eric Hamm of Motivate Thyself and Sean Platt of Writer Dad. They are co-authors of Blogopolis Blueprint. Over time you’ll hear us use the term herd when referencing the majority of bloggers on the Net. It may sound condescending, but it’s not. It’s a fact that should be [...]

Find ‘Em On Twitter: 15 Twitter Directories Compared

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:23:47 +0000

Searching for people or applications on Twitter? Good luck with that. Since Twitter offers little in the way of people search features (though they now have a suggestion tool), your search for interesting and dynamic people to follow and applications to use could be a giant time suck. Thankfully there are more than a few third-party [...]

5 Questions with Dave Naylor

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:21:51 +0000

by Manoj Jasra Search Engine Strategies London is less than a month away and is host to a number of great speakers. This includes SEO Veteran Dave Naylor, Owner of Bronco Internet, a highly talented and successful web development and SEO agency. I had a chance to catch up with Dave Naylor to get insight on [...]

Web Viewers Will Tolerate Twice the Ads in Online Videos

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:21:37 +0000

AdAge reports that ABC.com has started research to prove that online viewers will tolerate seeing multiple advertisements when watching popular shows like Grey’s Anatomy (funny, I can’t even tolerate that show.) So in other words, they can serve up ads similar to the way you would watch it on TV, and viewers will be fine [...]

Amazon Provides Economic Light in Dark Days

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:21:21 +0000

Amazon had a great fourth quarter as reported today in the WSJ. Sales were up 18% and profits rose 9%. Those numbers are pretty strong when things are going well but in today’s economy these are outrageous results. Here’s a few more numbers to drool over. Earnings of $225 million for the quarter ended Dec 31st. [...]

What Is The Best Business To Start Up In A Recession? - Entrepreneur Poll Results

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:20:55 +0000

The results are in from our most recent Entrepreneur Poll. I asked you “What is the best business to start in a recession?” and you responded in record numbers! The top 5 results were: Online Business It Doesn’t Matter - Just Love What You’re Doing Healthcare Education Video Games Here is what you had to say: Online Business (11) - Online Business for sure! - I [...]

Root Domains, Subdomains vs. Subfolders and The Microsite Debate

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:20:02 +0000

Posted by randfish Last week, I did a Whiteboard Friday, The Microsite Mistake, in which I called out a practice I see as potentially detimental to SEO - using a separate domain to accumulate links for your content site. I was not arguing against all microsite strategies or all domain separations or even all subdomains, just pointing [...]

Affiliate Marketing 101

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:19:40 +0000

This is a guest post written by JR Lang who is an affiliate marketer running several niche websites and an Internet Marketing Blog, where she focuses on providing honest and step-by-step guides and strategies to create, optimize and market online campaigns. She loves lists and has created some popular blockbusters, including 144 Do-Follow Forums Categorized By [...]

What are you good at?

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:18:13 +0000

As you consider marketing yourself for your next gig, consider the difference between process and content. Content is domain knowledge. People you know or skills you’ve developed. Playing the piano or writing copy about furniture sales. A rolodex of movers in a given industry, or your ability to compute stress ratios in your head. Domain knowledge is [...]

Let’s Write an eBook Together!

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:13:37 +0000

The idea of writing an eBook with collective efforts has been on my mind for a while now, so let’s give it a try. Basically I want to create a project that would group together the ideas and tips from different people, in a way that it would benefit both the collaborators and the end [...]

Web Site and Social Media Metrics You Should Monitor

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:12:38 +0000

This post is the last in a series of posts by Hendry Lee. Check out part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 and part 5. Website tracking is one of the least discussed topics. When it comes to blogging, most people only think about how to produce content, promote and make money. Well, newbie bloggers [...]

Q&A: What Is a Sitemap? Do I Need It?

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:07:35 +0000

Rajasekharan asks: I couldn’t find an XML sitemap in your blog. Do you have one? If no, why are you reluctant to include an XML sitemap? First things first, what is a sitemap? According to Sitemaps.org: Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. In [...]

Neatorama Has Social Bookmarking Features Now

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:07:17 +0000

Neatorama is one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. They cover all sorts of neat, weird and interesting things. A great part of their stories is also sent by the readers themselves. I have been linked from them in the past, and it sent over 3,000 visitors my way in matter of 24 [...]

Snipt: Share Source Code on Twitter

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:05:50 +0000

Here’s the short description of Snipt: it’s like Twitpic for source code. As opposed to uploading a picture and sharing a short URL though, Snipt lets you upload source code in any of dozens of programming languages, formats it, and then generates a short Snipt.org URL you can share on Twitter. Snipt obviously could be [...]

GDrive One Step Closer to Reality

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:05:16 +0000

Ah, GDrive, the mythical, all-encompassing online storage solution that will practically render most of your hardware obsolete. At least that’s what the legend says; my bet is that it will be another free online storage service, just with more storage and less crap: just like Gmail was (compared to the competition) when it first came [...]

What is school for?

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:37:11 +0000

Seems like a simple question, but given how much time and money we spend on it, it has a wide range of answers, many unexplored, some contradictory. I have a thoughts about education, how we use it to market ourselves and compete, and I realized that without a common place to start, it’s hard to [...]

How One Smart Move Can Attract Constant Attention

Nick — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:35:49 +0000

What’s the one stat that most bloggers care about the most? Is it page views, visitor location, referring sites or subscribers? I know for me and most other bloggers out there, getting more subscribers is a priority that is pretty high up on the list. Why? Subscribers are people who have said they want to read [...]

50 Useful Design Tools For Beautiful Web Typography

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:08:22 +0000

By Noura Yehia and Smashing Magazine Editorial Team Typography is elegant when it is attractive and communicates the designer’s ideas. When chosen wisely and used carefully, it can be very effective in supporting the overall design. Designers are always exploring different techniques with type: some use images or sIFR to produce very beautiful typography, while others [...]

10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:08:05 +0000

By Sergej Müller and Alex Frison The administration area of a Web application is a favorite target of hackers and thus particularly well protected. The same goes for WordPress: when creating a blog, the system creates an administrative user with a perfectly secure password and blocks public access to the settings area with a log-in page. [...]

The SEO Process Chart

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:07:13 +0000

It is no secret to readers here that SEO is an ongoing process, but I was playing with SmartDraw and created an SEO process circle. One of the problems many people have with SEO is that they think that they will use SEO to get their site in front of thousands of relevant people, but that [...]

Colors In Corporate Branding And Design

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:06:36 +0000

Color is a major consideration in any Web design. Whether for an individual, small company, or major corporation, color scheme is one of the most significant factors in the overall look and appearance of a website. In some cases, the designer may have the sole discretion in making color choices, but many times a color [...]

Vintage and Blues WordPress Themes

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:06:22 +0000

In this post we release 2 free high-quality WordPress magazine-themes. The themes include full PSD-templates and can be used without any restrictions whatsoever. The themes were commissioned by Smashing Magazine exclusively for our readers and designed by Wendell Fernandes. As you may know, since the beginning of the year, each release on Smashing Magazine has [...]

Starting Your First Blog? 29 Tips, Tutorials and Resources for New Bloggers

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:04:21 +0000

Are you starting your first blog? Looking for some tips and advice for new bloggers? I just received a tweet from @MillerMosaicLLC asking for some links to posts about starting a blog so I thought instead of just replying to her I’d compile the list here as a post for new bloggers. There are literally thousands [...]

Google’s Measurement Lab and What it Means

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:03:51 +0000

Google today introduced Measurement Lab, a set of tools (some already working, some upcoming) for network diagnostics. To create them, Google partnered with the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, and several academic researchers. These tools include the Network Diagnostic Tool, which tests your connection speed and gives you a diagnosis on speed [...]

Find Your Brand’s Influential Voices With BuzzGain

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:03:38 +0000

With the prevalence of social media properties and the propensity for people to use the Web to express their thoughts on a company, it’s obvious why professional buzz tracking is a hot commodity right now. BuzzGain, a newbie in the space, is hoping to best competitors by focusing on finding the influential voices and conversations [...]

Access, Download, and View Your Mac Files From Your iPhone

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:03:29 +0000

You already know that you can use your iPhone to view your computer remotely. That’s yesterday’s news. What is current, though, is the brand new ReachMyFile iPhone app that lets you remotely access your files on your Mac and download them or send to contacts via email. ReachMyFile adds the missing piece between your iPhone or [...]

Add Mass Transit Directions to Your Website with HopStop’s API

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:03:22 +0000

Most websites that want to get you to a physical location – like a store or an event – offer directions of some sort. But with HopStop’s new API, you can now offer your visitors not only driving directions, but also options for getting to you via mass transit (train or bus), taxi, or [...]

Make To-Dos Dead Simple With Deadline

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:03:12 +0000

The last thing you need is yet another calendar application trying to make you more efficient or productive, right? By now, you’ve probably discovered the right methodology that works for you. That’s great, keep your system - but now you can add a simple layer to your workflow for quick to-do adds and updating via [...]

Yahoo Mail Chases Gmail with IM and SMS Features

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:03:04 +0000

Yahoo Mail has rolled out SMS and IM options, allowing users to send messages to their friends’ phones or instant messaging accounts from within the Yahoo Mail interface. The features were already available in the new version of Yahoo Mail, but with millions of users still on the “Classic” version, today’s rollout brings them [...]

HOW TO: Survive a Social Media Revolt

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:02:55 +0000

Muhammad Saleem is a social media consultant and a top-ranked community member on multiple social news sites. You can follow him on Twitter It often stuns me to see how poor social media entrepreneurs and their executives are at listening to their communities, communicating with them, and generally using the communities’ feedback to improve their services. [...]

What would a professional do?

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:41:54 +0000

Every day, you do a hundred or a thousand jobs, some of which are occasionally handled by specialists. You make a sales call or give a presentation or answer the phone… you design a slide or create a simple spreadsheet. You get the idea. When you are busy being a jack of all trades, you’re competing [...]

How To Use EzineArticles For Content

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:41:17 +0000

The EzineArticles directory is the best-known and most-cited article directory on the Web. Due to its stringent editorial guidelines it has garnered a high level of trust in Google and other search engines. This is a good thing for anyone willing to spend the time and effort in creating original articles for submission to the [...]

Introducing Measurement Lab

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:40:39 +0000

When an Internet application doesn’t work as expected or your connection seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP, the application, your PC, or something else? It can be difficult for experts, let alone average Internet users, to address this sort of question today. Last year we [...]

Raising data privacy awareness

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:40:18 +0000

For the second year, the U.S. and Canada are joining 27 European countries to celebrate Data Privacy Day today. As we explained last year, the lack of understanding about online data protection is a global issue. As increasing amounts of data get uploaded to the Internet every day, it becomes more and more important for [...]

More computing, less power

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:39:52 +0000

In the fall we posted information about the efficiency of Google data centers and promised to update this information every quarter. We’ve now collected data for the fourth quarter of 2008 and published them to our sustainable computing website. Specifically, we’re keeping track of the efficiency of any Google-designed data center with an IT load [...]

Valentine’s Day & President’s Day ad templates now available

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:39:36 +0000

Last week, we gave you a sneak preview of our seasonal display ad templates for Valentine’s Day and President’s Day. We’re excited to let you know that these new templates are now available for you to use in your campaigns — just visit the “Seasonal” section of the Display Ad Builder gallery in AdWords to [...]

A new year, a new traffic model for Ad Planner

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:39:09 +0000

If you are looking for more site information to help plan your display advertising campaigns and understand audiences on the web, Google Ad Planner can help. Our goal is to provide you with the most accurate site information for better planning and decision-making, and we’re excited to kick off the new year with an improved [...]

Do more with less — Part 2 of 3

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:38:49 +0000

Last week we talked about how Website Optimizer can help you convert a higher percentage of your website visitors (getting you more conversions with the same amount of clicks). This week we’ll see how you can get more conversions from your existing AdWords campaigns and keywords with the Conversion Optimizer. We’re also happy to announce [...]

Add on to AdSense

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:38:39 +0000

Do you regularly work with your webpages and AdSense implementation, tinkering with HTML or PHP and creating images and code on the fly? If you do, Firefox add-ons can help streamline the process of creating webpages. Here are some in particular that you may find useful: ColorZilla This extension tells you which RGB or hex color you’re [...]

The Pick-Up Artist Guide to Effective Online Marketing

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:38:13 +0000

A beautiful woman sits alone at a bar. She’s had a long day. Clients were difficult, work piled up, and she scrambled frantically to get it all done. Now she’s tired and trying to unwind. On either side of the woman sits a man. One is wearing a fancy suit, a gold watch, and has a [...]

SpeedBlogging: How To Write Better Posts In Less Time

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:37:42 +0000

“SpeedBlogging” is a term I use for a four-step system I work with to write better posts or articles in less time. And no, I don’t mean just for articles under 300 words, I mean this system works for much longer articles or posts too. Articles that engage, inform, and entertain your blog community. So here are [...]

What My Kids Taught Me About Blogging

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:34:38 +0000

by Jennifer Laycock So far this week I’ve written about the Search Engine Optimization and Social Media lessons I’ve learned from watching my kids grow up. Today I’ll be looking at what my two year old and four year old have taught me about creating content, building a community and increasing engagement rates for your blog. Attention [...]

New Tools Add to Twitter’s Networking Potential

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:34:13 +0000

by Mack Collier Twitter itself is pretty simple, but as the site continues to boom in popularity, 3rd party sites/tools are popping up like kudzu in the South. And many offer a great deal of potential for helping you tap into the networking ability of Twitter. With the economy as bad as it is, many of us need all the [...]

What My Kids Taught Me About Search Engine Optimization

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:33:38 +0000

by Jennifer Laycock Yesterday I wrote about the Social Media lessons I’ve learned from watching my kids grow up. Today, I’m going to put the search engine optimization spin on it. After all, no matter how well we learn the basics of good search engine optimization, there’s always something to be said for a reminder of [...]

Don’t Be Blinded By Social Media and Social Networking

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:32:51 +0000

by Mack Collier EMarketer recently reported about a study on how small businesses would be spending their online marketing dollars in 2009, and the results were interesting at times, and downright scary at others. The article pointed out that the study found that only 37% of respondents do NOT use social networking, the lowest percentage, even lower than the 38% that [...]

Do You Have a Twitter Twin?

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:32:28 +0000

By Danny Brown Perhaps it’s a sign that the site is reaching more mainstream popularity levels, but Twitter is fast becoming a haven for spammers. Accounts include semi-naked girls with just one link to an affiliate site to brands that use the service for nothing more sending direct messages to other users with a sales link. Now [...]

Twitter is a Cash Cow in the Making

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:32:04 +0000

We have been talking a great deal lately about how Twitter should be monetizing their service. Most of this talk comes after news that Twitter secured $20 million in venture capital, to push its total valuation to $250 million. It wasn’t long ago that Twitter started looking for a product manager to define a revenue [...]

Google Grabs Almost All Search Growth; Others Flatline

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:31:28 +0000

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Then I present to you the growth charts for US search trends for 2008: If that doesn’t send chills down the spines of Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask, and AOL, then this observation from TechCrunch will: What’s even more impressive is that nearly 90 percent of all the growth in search [...]

5 Sure-fire Ways To Know If Your Business Will Work Or Not

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:30:55 +0000

Last week I wrote about the startup of my most recent business (7 Steps To Build A Startup From Scratch With No Money) and it received a number of comments so I thought I would expand on Step 1 from the post and talk about 5 sure-fire ways to know if your business will work. #1: [...]

SEO Advice - CADrite

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:30:28 +0000

It’s time for another SEO Advice post! Last week, I offered free SEO advice to Capability Events. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader Paula from CADrite. Paula - www.CADrite.net Dear Evan. We have started a CAD services venture and I would really appreciate your comments and suggestions about [...]

Are You Demonstrating Enough Proof?

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:30:05 +0000

If you’ve been reading my blog over the last few months you’ve seen me publish quite a few successful case study podcasts with my coaching students. Stories like Alborz Fallah the million dollar blogger, Leigh Peele making $4,500 a month in the fat loss niche (and recently another $11K in a relaunch), Miami Mitch attracting [...]

Has Yahoo! Search Marketing Lost Their Minds?

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:29:38 +0000

Imagine selling web traffic as a commodity in a blind auction, while touting its value based on the traffic being targeted, relevant, precise, and trackable. Then imagine taking away the default keyword tool on the internet that has been written about in thousands of marketing books, ebooks, and web pages - and replacing it with [...]

Root Domains, Subdomains vs. Subfolders & The Microsite Debate

Nick — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:29:10 +0000

Go Beyond Blogging - Multi-Channel Marketing via Online Media

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:10:39 +0000

This post is the 5th in a series of posts by Hendry Lee. Check out part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. Scrupulous readers should have noticed that blogging is not just about writing and get their opinions, rants and random stuff online. In fact, a blog is just a tool for publishing and [...]

Click Fraud Reaches Record High

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:10:04 +0000

Click Forensics has released a study showing that click fraud has hit 17.1%, an all-time high. For those of you who are unfamiliar, click fraud represents the act of clicking on a web advertisement to inflate click-through rates. TechCrunch points out that over 30% of click fraud is via automated bots—another all-time high. This is a [...]

Google’s Gmail Finally Gets Offline Capabilities

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:09:41 +0000

It’s time to mark an item off my Google wishlist! The Gmail team has announced that, starting this week, users will be able to use a Gmail Labs feature that allows for the email service to be used when offline. Huzzah! It’s something that I–and many others–have longed for. OK, maybe it wasn’t so much of a [...]

Yo Yahoo! The “Truth” is, Your Search Marketing Changes Suck!

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:09:21 +0000

I’m not normally one to keep stirring the pot–I usually say my peace and be done with it–but someone over at Yahoo is smoking crack. After I, and many other bloggers, outed a new Yahoo policy that allows the company to make changes to an advertisers account–including the addition of keywords–the company is claiming that us [...]

More Bad News for MySpace

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:08:53 +0000

By Danny Brown In a move that won’t surprise as many people as it would have this time last year, Fox Interactive Media has announced it will be cutting its workforce by as many as 100 jobs. Fox is the parent company of social network site MySpace as well as Photobucket and various mobile sites. The move, [...]

Should You Have Multiple Websites?

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:08:14 +0000

Or just one? Let’s take look at a web strategy that has a number of SEO and benefits: the hub and spoke strategy. A hub and spoke strategy is when you create one authoritative domain (the hub), and then hang various related websites off that domain (the spokes). If you don’t yet have an authority site, it’s [...]

Take the ball and go home

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:07:27 +0000

Bullies can’t be bullies when they are alone. If you work with a bully, this is all you need to know. They need you. A bully is someone who uses physical or psychological force to demean and demoralize someone else. A bully isn’t challenging your ideas, or working with you to find a better outcome. A bully [...]

New ideas for working with the display ad builder

Nick — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:05:22 +0000

Since launching our display ad builder a few months back, we’ve updated you on several new features, such as our seasonal templates which are now available. We’re focusing on building this product primarily for advertisers with limited display experience on our network but we’d also like to highlight ways in which agencies can use our [...]

What Are the Top Performing Brands on Facebook?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:49:30 +0000

Facebook Pages, which let people become “fans” of their favorite brands, people, and places - have become an important piece of the social media strategy for lots of companies. But how do you measure how well the effort is performing? Raw number of fans is one way, but more important than that are [...]

Book On Wikipedia Becomes Part of Wikipedia

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:48:47 +0000

This is nice: O’Reilly’s book “Wikipedia: The Missing Manual” by John Broughton is now available for free in on Wikipedia itself. If you want the paperback edition, it’s still listed in O’Reilly’s catalog at 29.99 dollars. The interesting thing about this book is the fact that it’s released in wiki format, which means that -in true [...]

Q&A: What Happens to My PageRank If I Delete My Blog?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:47:16 +0000

Potato Chef asks: I have a second blog. I want to completely change what I write about on that blog. I want to keep the url and even where it is hosted. Question: If I were to delete all the catagories and posts that are now on that blog but kept the url, name, and host [...]

Check Out The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:46:55 +0000

It was inevitable. Just a matter of time. Leo Babauta is one of the most prolific and talented writers I have ever seen, so coming up with a print book is a natural extension to his popular blog, Zen Habits. I stopped counting a while ago, but if I am not wrong the man grew his [...]

Q&A: What is the Nofollow Link Attribute?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:46:24 +0000

Satish asks: Most blogs use nofollow in the comment section, but I see Google showing even those comments made by me in their Result page! Then whats the meaning of nofollow ? I know that its good, if Google indexes my blog URL even from the comment section. But I am getting confused about the meaning of nofollow [...]

Google Confirms Testing Favicons In Search Results

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:41:01 +0000

Over at Search Engine Roundtable, Barry posted this weekend about Google showing favicons in search results, and updated the post with confirmation from Google that it’s a test, not a bug. I can’t get this to show on my computer right now, but here’s the screenshot Barry posted (via Brian Ussery): The favicon only appears when you [...]

Errorlytics: A More Intelligent Way to Handle 404 Errors

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:40:34 +0000

One area often neglected by webmasters is the handling of 404 errors – the pages that visitors get when they attempt to access a page on your site that doesn’t exist or has been moved. While it’s usually fairly easy to create a custom 404 page to offer your visitors, Errorlytics takes 404 management [...]

Bonanzle: Social Media’s Quickly Growing Alternative to eBay

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:39:58 +0000

One of the fastest growing eBay alternatives just hit a major landmark and chances are you’ve never heard of them. Bonanzle, which combines an online marketplace with social media features, has now had one million items posted to their site - an impressive feat given it just launched late last year. While eBay is struggling to [...]

5 Ways Obama Should Change How You Communicate

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:21:18 +0000

Posted by Lucy Langdon After Obama’s inauguration speech last week, a lot of attention was paid to his speechwriter, Jon Favreau. Listening to Obama and reading about how he and Favreau wrote the speech got me thinking about how we use language when writing for the web. I spent some time analysing Obama’s oratory and reading [...]

Struggling Against Google’s Greatest Advantage

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:20:39 +0000

Posted by randfish Thousands of posts, news articles and analysis pieces have covered the central topic of battling Google’s dominance in web search, but I’ve seen very few that have discussed what is, in my opinion, the most telling example of the search giant’s dominance. The latest (made popular across Techmeme and many individual blogs) was [...]

Action-Based Numeric Goals That Get Results

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:20:11 +0000

I’m not usually one for goal setting but 2009 is really feeling like a new start so I want to push hard towards achieving my dreams. The trouble is, how to track the progress I’m making in a way that gets results? I’ve decided to use some action-based, numeric goals to help me do that. The [...]

Blame The Copywriter, Not The Copy

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:19:19 +0000

Guest Post by Michel Fortin I’m seeing a lot of posts in public forums these days about people getting really sick and tired of seeing “crappy,” “hypey,” used-car, Ginsu-like, looooong copy. Now, I agree (and object) to many of these posts. First, let’s get something clear off the bat: long, Ginsu-like copy does work. It has always [...]

10 Tips for When Startup Life Gives You Lemons…

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:05:37 +0000

Posted by randfish There’s no doubt about it - being a startup in any economic condition is rough, and in the current tumult, mind-bending challenges aren’t out of the ordinary. However, I, like most other entrepreneurs I’ve encountered, am a staunch optimist and thus, even in the face of hardship, seek the silver lining. Tonight, I’d [...]

FeedBurner May Suffer Glitches, But PostRank is Not the Answer to Our Prayers

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:04:42 +0000

Over at RWW, Marshall Kirkpatrick takes a look at whether RSS service PostRank has what it takes to mount a challenge to our dependency on oil Feedburner. PostRank is one of our very favorite services on the web today. Give it any RSS feed and the service will give you a filtered feed of just the [...]

Do You Have The Guts To Be An Entrepreneur?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:04:15 +0000

Last August I did a profile on Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard that focused on making a contribution (Make A Contribution - Hewlett-Packard). I wanted to continue to story today by sharing another Hewlett-Packard nugget of wisdom - make sure you have the guts to be an entrepreneur. “We were just opportunistic,” said Hewlett. “We did anything [...]

How To Make The Recession Work For You - Entrepreneur University

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:03:30 +0000

Due to the popularity of our recent entrepreneur poll on starting a business in a recession (What Is The Best Business To Start Up In A Recession? - Entrepreneur Poll, Update, Update 2) I thought it would be valuable to focus this week’s Entrepreneur University on how business owners can make the recession work for [...]

The 7 Secrets To A Successful Podcast

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:02:41 +0000

This is a guest post from Mwangi, as I know him from the Blog Mastermind program. He is by far one of my best students and an extreme-action taker. He came away from Blog Mastermind with a new love for Podcasting and has put together this guide for us on how to create a successful [...]

Google’s .edu Domain Love: Department of Economics ? Mortgage, or Does It?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:02:27 +0000

Some recent Google shifts have caused a lot of .edu websites to rank for competitive keywords like mortgage and credit card. Here is a screenshot of the top 100 search results for “mortgage” with 57 .edu results and 15 .gov results. And here is a similar credit card screenshot. Note that few of these pages have [...]

Where Do New SEOs Go Wrong When They Set Learning Priorities?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:01:46 +0000

Another question we received recently from the SEOBook.com community was: What qualities are common in Aaron Wall, DaveN, Bob Massa, Jason Duke, SugarRae, et al, that new SEOs can adopt, to come closer to people like these in expertise. Where do most new SEOs go wrong when they set learning priorities? I’ve asked these people to provide [...]

The Best Spam Submission Ever

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:01:19 +0000

Posted by rebecca As you may know, one of my job duties here is to manage our user-generated blog. Every day I sift through the queue of blog entry submissions and publish posts about Internet marketing, business tactics, social media, web dev/design, etc. While I publish one or two worthy, relevant blog entries each day, I [...]

Track Your Spending with Gmail and Google Docs [Money]

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:59:21 +0000

If you’re looking to keep a closer eye on your finances this year and you live and breath Gmail, reader Nick Espinosa has developed a clever method that may be up your alley. Using Google Docs, Espinosa creates an expense form designed to quickly and painlessly gather expense information and save it to a Google Spreadsheet. [...]

Hive Five Winner for Best People-Search Engine: Pipl.com [Hive Five Followup]

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:58:59 +0000

The majority of Lifehacker readers start their hunt for lost acquaintances at Pipl.com. If you’re not getting lucky at Pipl, try some good old-fashioned GStalking at the second-place finisher, Google. Coming up short with both Pipl and Google? Poke around with the third-place search app in this week’s Hive Five Best People Search-Engines, Facebook—the place [...]

Mobile Firefox Alpha May Release Next Week [Firefox]

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:58:43 +0000

A few months back we gave you a sneak peak at Fennec, the innovative version of Firefox for mobile devices, and now it looks like the mobile browser could hit your Windows Mobile device as early as next week. On the first alpha release, Mobile Firefox will target the HTC Touch Pro, so it may [...]

Avoid Getting Fleeced at Liquidation Sales [Shopping]

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:58:31 +0000

They’re going out of business! It’s a liquidation sale! The prices will be crazy marked down, right? Not necessarily. Read on to avoid getting ripped off by liquidators. Photo by Cosmic Kitty. Many an unwitting shopper can be lured into a store with an enormous “50% OFF!” sign strung across the storefront. Even more so when [...]

iPhone and iPod touch 2.2.1 Update Available, Fixes Bugs [IPhone]

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:57:23 +0000

Apple has just released the 2.2.1 update for iPhones and iPod touches today, complete with various bug-fix promises for Safari, Mail, and the Camera app. The update applies to all versions (iPhone and iPhone 3G) and most likely to both generations of the iPod touch. (Just plug in your device and hit Update to find out [...]

An Interview (with Me) on Getting ‘Fast Traffic’ to a Blog

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:57:20 +0000

A couple of weeks back I was sent these questions as part of an interview that someone wanted to do in the writing of a book. In the end the person doing the interview couldn’t use it - so I’ve decided that rather than waste the significant time I put into responding that I’d post the [...]

What My Kids Taught Me About Social Media

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:57:18 +0000

by Jennifer Laycock I was sitting around this afternoon thinking about how we approach so many areas of our lives and how many things I’m having to teach my four year old and two year old on a daily basis. In the spirit of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” I’m offering [...]

SEO Selection Via Google Webmaster Guidelines

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:56:58 +0000

by Stoney deGeyter Show of hands, how many of you have read through Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Mmmm, ok. go ahead and put your hands down. Every now and then I find it useful to look and see what Google has to say to webmasters about their websites. It’s been years since I was last in here and [...]

Does cleaning out cookies stop personalization?

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:54:51 +0000

by Mike Moran Image by she_ra via Flickr Many marketers are asking me about personalized marketing, which you should expect to see more and more of in the next few years. We’ve already seen behavioral targeting in display ads and personalized search, and we’ll see more personalized advertising emerge. But are we marketers just assuming that users [...]

Google Promoting Chrome via YouTube

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:54:06 +0000

CNET reports that there is a Chrome sighting over on YouTube. Google recently began showing display and overlay ads on YouTube, and now seems to be pushing their own product line. I think this raises a few questions as to Google’s 2009 objectives: Is Google going to put a greater focus on promoting their own products like [...]

How to Stay Sane as the Job Market Plots Against You

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:53:42 +0000

If you are among the millions made redundant by this economy, you will find that idleness chips away at your self-esteem. As unemployment stretches from weeks into months, life essentials start eroding– your energy, your sense of humor and even your sanity. Solutions for coping with unemployment are not one-size-fits-all. How can you help resenting [...]

5 Steps to Going Viral on Twitter

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:51:36 +0000

Back in 2006 when Brian wrote the Viral Copy report, Twitter didn’t even exist. Now Twitter is a force that any serious web publisher needs to reckon with in order to gain maximum exposure for content. Twitter is changing the way information spreads online. Links that would have been blogged a couple of years ago are [...]

Facebook Gives Me Back My Account

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:50:49 +0000

As I’m sure you read on my blog or elsewhere on the web, Facebook had suspended my account. After sending a few emails and having some friends with contacts at Facebook work on my behalf, my account has been reinstated. Here is the email I received from them… Read More…

Give Your Blog Away

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:50:21 +0000

You’ve probably noticed that some of my websites don’t have any AdSense units at all. Some people certainly have. They find it surprising. After all, I make a living teaching people how to use AdSense. I get fat checks from AdSense every month. I think that AdSense is the greatest money-dispersing invention since the automated telling [...]

Blogging Discovery Platform Rewards Best Bloggers

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:49:26 +0000

Are you looking to make a name for yourself as a blogger, but you don’t know where to begin? Sure, you could start your own blog and work hard on growing a readership, but another option for you to consider would be signing up for an account on BloggersBase. Dan Barak, a long time fan of [...]

Being Featured In The WordPress Showcase

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:48:41 +0000

John Chow dot Com has reached another first. The blog has been selected as a showcase blog at WordrPess.org. According to WordPress, my blog was selected for the following reason: John serves as the quintessential example of the financial power of blogging and has made it his job and his hobby to tell others just how [...]

MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate Wordpress Plugin

Nick — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:48:08 +0000

Pawan Agarwal and MaxBlogPress have done it again. The maker of the MBP Stripe Ad plugin has came up with another money making WordPress product and has ordered this review to generate the buzz about it.. The MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate Wordpress plugin allows you to turn any word on your blog post into an affiliate [...]