My Favorite Traffic and Backlink Attraction Method
July 31, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 33 Comments
I almost hate talking about this one because I’m not sure I want the competition. Luckily, every niche or industry is different, so you’ll only be competing with me if we serve the same niche. While this method is nothing new, it is very tried and true. The one thing that consistently brings in large amounts of traffic and garners backlinks in the process is the creation of a good tutorial. Make sure the tutorial is somehow related to your niche. Even the most boring of niches can come up with some kind of interesting tutorial. Then do the following:
Watch Matt Cutts Zap a Spammer!
July 29, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 10 Comments
I secretly filmed Matt Cutts when I caught him zapping a search engine spammer into oblivion! Check it out!
Sphinn Added to Social Bookmarking Reloaded Plugin
July 27, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 1 Comment
Because I’ve had issues installing other social bookmark plugins, I’m currently using Social Bookmarking Reloaded, and thought I’d see if I could add Sphinn to it. Luckily, it was easy, so my goal was accomplished. I’ve packaged the plugin up so you can have the revised version as well. Just click here to grab the revised version. See the original creator’s site for any help or info you may need about the plugin.
If SEO were Politics, Which Party Would You Be In?
July 25, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 6 Comments
Let me start out by saying that I am extremely non-political, so if I get my political definitions a little wrong, well, just forgive me. Recently, an SEO called a friend of mine a spammer and the guy obviously knows nothing about my friend. My friend is not even close to being a spammer. Nevertheless, the fervor with which this guy and his cronies lambasted my friend without having any facts whatsoever reminded me of extremism, which then made me think of politics. So I thought maybe we should dump the old white hat / black hat / whatever color hat descriptions and see if political party designations fit better.
Search Marketing and The Persuasion Principles
July 24, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 15 Comments
Way back in 1993, long before any of us were optimizing sites, Robert Cialdini published a book titled “Influence: the Psychology of Persuasion”. This book broke ground by explaining that the magic of persuasion was really more “science” than magic. His premise was that by understanding six persuasion principles, any of us can LEARN to persuade others to do what we wish them to do…link to us, buy from us, etc. At every step of our search marketing strategy, our goal is to get someone to do something. So I thought it would be interesting to take each of these six “weapons of influence”, as he refers to them, and apply them to search marketing.
DazzlinDonna As A Simpsons Character
July 23, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 2 Comments
My computer bit the dust this weekend, so now that I’ve got my new computer up and running, am I working? Oh no, I’m playing with Simpsonize Me. I’ll try to get back into the whole work thing soon, but until then, here’s what I’d look like as a Simpsons character.
New free Google rank checker by datacenter
July 19, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 18 Comments
A couple of months ago, I told you that Bad Neighborhood was going to be rolling out some new tools. One has just been rolled out, and I’ve been waiting for it for a long time. It checks the ranking keyword phrase in several Google datacenters. Yes, there are other tools out there that also do this, but this one does it better, if only because it doesn’t have the erroring out problems of the most popular one. It is called the Google Multiple Datacenter Keyword Rank Checker (whew, what a mouthful), and it is both visually easy on the eyes, as well as fast. Do try it out. Oh and wanna know a secret?
Visual Timeline of Search Engine Acquisitions
July 18, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 5 Comments
I was going to research and analyze the various companies that the search engines have acquired over the years, creating some pretty charts along the way. I still may do some analysis, but of course, midway through my research I found a much nicer chart than I could ever hope to build. So, instead of creating one, I’ll just pass along some link love to whoever created this awesome timeline chart. It’s interactive, in that you can use your mouse to scroll through the time line. Below is a reduced screenshot, with each colored dot representing one of the big 3 (Google, Yahoo, MSN).
I am no longer an SEO
July 16, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 33 Comments
I have been training/mentoring someone recently and I have come to the conclusion that I am no longer an SEO. That saddens me in a way. I liked being an SEO. But after going through the process of teaching someone the ins and outs of what I do, I realized that I just cannot call myself that anymore.
How To Transfer Domains from Dotster to GoDaddy
July 14, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 10 Comments
Rumor has it* that Dotster may be in financial trouble. If so, it may be wise to move your domains to another registrar. Each registrar likely has its own process for transferring domains from one registrar to another, but I thought I’d document the process of moving domains from Dotster to GoDaddy in case anyone needs to know how to do so.
Plodding your way to success
July 12, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 5 Comments
How creative are you? On a scale of 1-10, I’d guess I’m a 6 or maybe a 7 when it comes to being creative. But I’m not that creative all the time. Some days, my creativity level is more of a 2 or 3. However, I’m certain I’d be within the 8-10 range on the nose to the grindstone, crank out the work product scale on any given day.
Community sites – love em and hate em
July 10, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · Comments Off
If you’ve ever owned a community-oriented site, you probably know that there are both pros and cons associated with them. From an SEO standpoint, they can be wonderful for creating rich, long-tail content, and building large sites based off the backs of the users themselves. However, administrating, managing, and maintaining community sites can be quite a challenge. Forums, for example, are rife with feuding members who must constantly be patrolled and cajoled into playing nice. It can start to feel like you are the parent of thousands of bickering children, rather than a webmaster.
5 Free GrandCentral Invitations to Current Readers
July 9, 2007 by DazzlinDonna · 21 Comments
A few days ago, I got an invitation to try out GrandCentral from Reuben Yau. With the invitation came the ability for me to give out 5 invitations. I used the opportunity in the same way Reuben did – by offering them up in trade for backlinks on my DazzlinDonna blog. I gave away the last invite today, but guess what? I now have another 5 invitations to give out. Woohoo!
