I want to keep this project free.

So in the great tradition of open source projects I am forking from the PHP Links Directory 2.0 code and going to be offering support and upgrades for the project free of charge.

More to come at Php Web Directory in the next few weeks.

1. Search Engine Optimization is fairly straight forward there are no secrets.
2. Search Engine Optimization is marred by the fact anyone can discuss online and seem like an expert.
3. Online Marketing is where its at, and that should encompass SEO
4. The best blackhat stuff is not detectable by the search engines or people.
5. If you can’t program or pay someone to program you will be stuck using the same tools as everyone else.
6. Statistics and math are where its at. There are no fast answers in this business.
7. I’d rather spend time promoting my stuff than a clients. If I fail its my problem and at least I didn’t have to listen to my client
8. SEO is not a panacea for not having a product of your own.
9. Go to a conference its so much better discussing this stuff in person and honestly its more fun.
10. Forums are the suxors but you need to pick at least one to keep abreast of issues you may have missed.
11. Just because someone can argue well online doesn’t mean they know jack shit.
12. If you don’t have your own data to draw your own conclusions then you don’t know anything despite how much you read.
13. Don’t spend to much time arguing online. Its pointless. Spend that time proving or disproving your ideas for yourself.
14. If you want to make money with affiliate programs and your just starting out keep making sites. Make them big and small and in between but keep making them till your fingers bleed. Once you have a hundred then go back and see what is the most successful and then spend time on those.
15. The thing that is in the shortest supply online is creativity.
16. Don’t be afraid to be wrong and listen to the counsel of those who are honest.
17. Always try to find the successful mans networks, once you do don’t be an ass and out them just look and learn and if you feel like it warn them how you did it.
18. Google is not as smart as it seems.
19. Just because a search engineer is nice, smart, witty and reasonably honest doesn’t mean he isn’t your adversary.
20. Forums are good for getting clients. Help people out when you can for free and you’ll see what I mean.
21. What might have been true yesterday might not be true today.
22. Yahoo and MSN have traffic to send too
23. Don’t assume everyone knows what you discovered already when you study your stats. Save it for yourself.
24. Don’t underestimate how much your knowledge or programming skills are worth.
25. Read a book on marketing from a semi unbiased source. I prefer SCORE and the Small Business Association.
26. Remember its the world wide web and there are opportunities to be had in oversea’s markets.
27. Someone thinks you are an idiot.
28. Someone thinks you are a liar trying to fleece them.
29. If you charge for something make sure your potential customer knows that up front.
30. Don’t be afraid to tell someone you want money.
31. Get some exercise
32. There are two types of people in search & affiliate marketing, the Amway/Quixtar type hoping to get rich and keeping the faith and the business type which gets results and focuses on analysis, statistics, and sales.
33. There is always a guru willing to sell you a product to solve your problems.
34. Don’t be afraid to spend money for information, just try and buy it from someone who is honest and not a cult leader.
35. Write often, it doesn’t matter if your a sucky writer most people never take the risk of writing in the first place.
36. If you are a sucky writer get your college texts on writing and read them when you can. If you haven’t gone to college go and take a course in writing
37. SEO is not a replacement for a business plan
38. Be suspicious of a search professionals that run a forums, many are trying to build a cult following.
39. Read a few good articles on pricing strategies to make sure your not screwing yourself.
40. Initially you are going to fail in business often, make sure that if you succeed it is worth it.
41. Set goals and timelines for evaluations to determine if you business plans are working.
42. Don’t confuse business strategies with morality.
43. Read a book on ethics before you try to discuss them.
44. Integrity is not something you can get back after abandoning it.
45. Be honest but remember you are trying to make a sale so don’t give away to much. I know its a tough one to resolve sometimes.
46. You can’t convince customers they need a solution if they don’t know they have problem.
47. Don’t try to recruit potential customers by pointing out their problems unless asked.
48. Put yourself in a position where your customers seek you.
49. Treat your customers as if they were kings and queens. Its easier to retain them than to acquire new ones.
50. The cost of inaction is great.
51. A website, building, computer, or desk is not a business people are.
52. Luck favors the prepared.
53. Try your best not to flame people or sites. It does you no good and makes you look bad.
54. Most people are good.
55. A business budget, even a rudimentary one is required
56. Roboform is the coolest.
57. SEOBook was great I wish I had read it sooner it would have saved me a year or more of reading forums.
58. A Wall Street Journal subscription will pay for itself many times over.
59. On the web you can make money off of your mind but its still a lot of work.
60. I don’t care if you think there is a sandbox, I do and I plan for it so its not a big deal but it would be nice if I knew a way around it.
61. Don’t build your business on another business’s free services.
62. Its easier to sell a tangible good than a service.
63. Books that offer advice similar “Buy low, sell high” are crap. Always ask yourself “Is this to good to be true ?”
64. A good listener is well rewarded.
65. I hate its promotional “speak” and hyperbole but I actually found “How to win friends and influence others” useful.
66. Making a sale is a multi step process.
67. You have to spend money to learn things. Sometimes that means changing an ad layout on a successful page and losing money you would have made the other way. Sometimes it means buying someones knowledge.
68. If the web page is red white and blue, has four feet of text to scroll through, has red bold letters with yellow highlights, and has an offer where the seller is giving away $1300 of free items along with his great guide to X think of it as a tribute to the late Corey Rudl and close the page.
69. A bar full of internet marketers is a funny thing to watch.
70. Email sucks for real communication.
71. There is a big play to be made in local search and it doesn’t involve making a local search engine.
72. Reasonable good graphics can set your site apart from others
73. Usability and seo sometimes are the same thing

Post 100.. by the way :-)

I noticed this week he has turned comments off. I think that is a real lose. Alan’s blog and the comments it inspired were a great source of ideas and discussion. It isn’t often you get to converse with someone who has so much insight and willingness to be frank in his opinions. The comments provided a central place for everyone to ruminate over his thoughts and some of the comments were worth a reading by themselves.

I doubt Alan turned the comments off due to not liking criticism in his own blog. Alan has been blogging a long time and I am sure he expected some of that. I would like to know why he decided after running the blog all this time he decided to turn the comments off. At the very least a note that he was turning comments off for personal reasons would have been enough. As it is though it just looks bad, like he left us hanging after letting use read up to the last 10 pages of his novel.

Alan, if you happen across this, open your blog back up. It was a service to allow a centralized discussions concerning the thoughts you share with us. The way you left it, it just looks like you didn’t want to play with us anymore and took your ball home. Prove me wrong.

[edited - url was wrong to LightReading.Com ]

The Wall Street Journal covered the event in detail. WSJ Article

The Wall Street Journal was quite fair and accurate in the description of third party cookies, their uses, and the threat assesment of them. Given the amount of hyper-sensativity to them do to misunderstanding of what they are used for I was refreshed to read a major newspaper give cookies a fair shake.

In this case it appears that most of the traffic is from the U.S.A., so that is good. Some possible downsides is that the traffic seems to be coming from advertising for the search engine. Since the traffic is solocited that could bias the audience in several ways ( what they search for and who the searchers are ). ( look at the referring stats page for verification )

In their blog they let it be known the much of their statistical keyword information comes from other sources that they pay for. I am not sure what sources they use but I would assume that it is as reliable as any other source.

–

Another interesting note is that the ad serving model is CPA based. and CPC based. ( details here ) On the surface, the CPA model seems like it could be manipulated to provide a run of “branding” advertisements to generate traffic of name recognition without generating a sale.

–

Their blog is open and informative and very direct about their status. It is refreshing that they are not declaring themselves “the breakout search engine” or “the google killer”, I hate hype.

–

Now for the important part…. does the horse run? I preformed several searches, the results were relatively slow but they were more likely to be relevent & useful to the query compared to Yahoo and Google. ( I didn’t bother searching MSN, its a spam trap currently IMO )

So I like it…. I don’t know if I’ll use it as my primary search engine but I think I’ll make it my backup.

-FIN-

My search information:
I performed 2 searches for keyword groups I monitor in a commercial sector related to clothing. [sorry no names to prevent copition in my niche ;-) ] I rated it on the top 20 results.

Search #1 ( clothing related ):
Snap:
- No spam
- No affiliates
- Very targeted and appropriate

Google:
- No spam
- No affiliates
- Very targeted and appropriate

Yahoo:
- 4 spam
- No affiliates
- Very targeted and appropriate ( non spam ones )

Search #2 (clothing related):

Snap:
- No spam
- No affiliates
- Very targeted and appropriate

Google:
- 3 spam
- No affiliates
- Very targeted and appropriate

Yahoo:
- 8 spam,
- 5 Affiliates,
- Very targeted and appropriate ( non spam ones )

– other searches…
For “SEO”:
Snap:
- No spam
- Very targeted and appropriate

Google:
- No spam
- No affiliates
- Very targeted and appropriate

Yahoo:
- No spam,
- Very targeted and appropriate

For “koi ponds”:
Snap:
- No spam
- Very targeted and appropriate

Google:
- No spam
- a lot of affiliates/stores
- Very targeted and appropriate

Yahoo:
- No spam,
- a lot of affiliates/stores
- Very targeted and appropriate