Archive for the ‘Web Marketing’ Category

Well folks it sems like DMOZ has gone forever! A post on Rich Skrentas blog (founder of DMOZ) says

Apparently the machine holding dmoz in AOL ops crashed. Standard backups had been discontinued for some reason; during unsuccessful attempts to restore some of the lost data, ops blew away the rest of the existing data on the system.

So for the past 6 weeks, a few folks have been trying to patch the system back together again (reverse engineering from the latest RDF dump, I suppose). But 6 weeks is a very long outage. Add in the massive AOL layoffs last week, and it’s not clear if there’s even any left over there who cares. Even if some form of the ODP editing system is brought back, the likelihood of continued existence within AOL seems extremely doubtful.

dmoz doesn’t exactly operate on a model of transparency, to say the least, so they have been keeping the details of what happened private. Perhaps they’re concerned about an exodus of the remaining editors, or gleeful proclamations of death from the SEM industry. The remaining ODP editors will probably be mad at me for discussing this, but they get mad at me whenever I talk about the ODP….ironic! Hey guys, it’s 2006, open up.

read more at his blog…

Danny Sullivan yesterday wrote his final post on Search engine watch. It is of course his goodbye speach, but it was not goodbye and thanks for all the fish, indeed it was upbeat, and is a tribute the professionalism that Danny has.

read it here

Danny’s goodbye speech

Danny Sullivan yesterday wrote his final post on Search engine watch. It is of course his goodbye speach, but it was not goodbye and thanks for all the fish, indeed it was upbeat, and is a tribute the professionalism that Danny has.

read it here

Danny’s goodbye speech

Lately I am getting a lot of emails about SEO tools, bought, free online and offline. Questions range from “is this worth the money” to “will this get me to number 1 on Google”. This has brought me to the conclusion that I should add a product and services review on this blog, and also on my website!

The first product I will be reviewing will be Karon Thakstons Copy-writing Course To be honest I can’t wait to review this product (and another she has provided me with), as I have heard good things about it!

Here is the thing though, I intend to write no nonsense reviews of products, I am now asking anyone to let me know of any tools, websites, online or offline services like directory submissions etc, and I will review them here on the blog. If the tool is your own then please let me know as it will make life easier when I have to contact you to answer any potential questions I might have. Feel free though to propose other peoples products or services.

Hopefully we can build up a good resource for ourselves, and others.

 I would like to add that even though there are affiliate schemes with some of the products I will be reviewing, I will not be including affiliate links from the site, as I feel it might be seen to undermine my objectivity.

So either suggest here, email me, or use the contact form on this site.

This is a response to a question about relevance and trustrank. Hope you like it! 

Relevance and trustrank are different things. To appreciate them you have to step back!

Trust rank is a system that shores up the original back rub aglorithm. Links are STILL a good way to work out how important a site is, PROVIDING, you can work out how important the sites are in the beginning.  I have written an article about trust rank here http://www.umbrella-consultancy.co.uk/art1-trustrank.htm

So if the BBC sports site, link to my rugby site, and I link to your football site, then there is a definite sports theme going on there right? BUT, and this is the thing here  another football site might link to yours, but they have hardly any trusted links pointing to them, so even though they are more closely relevent, their link will not carry as much weight as mine!

There is a lot more to it than this though, for example……… Read the rest of this entry »

Recently there has been a pagerank (PR) update in the Google index. so, I thought now would be a good time to blog about PR and its importance.

OK firstly what does this PR update actually mean, and will it have an effect on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s)? Well what it means is simply that Google has updated the public facing PR values., will this affect rankings? Not in the least! (sorry to break hearts) WHY is this OWG ‘I hear you ask’ . well I shall explain… Read the rest of this entry »

Is Google raising the LSI element in the algo? I have thought for a while now that Google is using some sort of semantic element in their algorithm, but now I think it has been increased. LSI will totally turn on its head the importance of on topic linking, and a lot of the sites that have ‘bombed’ their way to the top will take a hit. For those of you who do not know what Semantics is, the dictionary says…. Read the rest of this entry »

WHY? Why do so many directories only allow the submission of your homepage? How can a site that covers multiple topics have the home page as its most relevant page for all of them? It cant. So we have launched a new deep-link only directory called www.deeplylinked.com submit your deep link most relevant pages to whatever categories you have and get the traffic you deserve.

YES this is blatant self promotion, but it is a resource that i believed was missing online. Currently it is free, but we will be charging in the future.

This is the argument that many have been making for a few years now. But while all this debate has been going on, those who knew who the real king is sat, smiled, and got on with earning money. Those who knew and understood what it is all about just kept doing it, and watching the money roll in.

So if neither copy content nor links are king, then what IS? I will tell you what is king, it is…. Read the rest of this entry »

I was over at Small Business Ideas Forum where I moderate, and someone brought up cold calling on the telephone. Now cold calling is something I loved, as I did a LOT of it way back in my sales and advertising early days. I have also helped clients with their cold calling setup, so this was right up my street  

One thing that sales people and sales trainers often fail to get across is exactly what the job of the sales person is. They say it is to sell products, (which is true), but they do not sum it up properly.

You see your job as a sales person, be it teleselling, face to face selling, or selling online is the same, selling is selling no matter what medium you sell in. Your job is to ensure the person you are talking to has the information they need to make a decision. Note I said a decision not a purchase? No matter how good your product or sales methods, some people will either not be able to, or not want to buy your product.

To sell you must listen more than you speak, but you need to get the information to the client, to get that information to the client you need to know what THEY need to know. You do this in the time honoured way that any parent will know. You ask questions! Kids by the way are the best salespeople you will ever meet, they master the skill of open and closed questions with ease. How many of us have gone through this

Please can I have an xxx?
NO!
Why not?

note the use of open and closed questions there! 

I will explain the difference between an open and closed question, and explain how as a top salesman I used it shamefully to speak to pretty women without fear of rejection. (when like me you have a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp, you need all the help you can get in order to not be rejected). Read the rest of this entry »