Google Link Shortener Now Live

The Google Link Shortener service is now live. I played with this in beta a bit, but it is now official that Google has opened it's own link shortener service. I have used bit.ly for some time and will be starting to use one on my own server as soon as a buddy wraps up it's development. You can bet Google really wants you to use theirs as they love the data coming in and out. The good thing about it would be you do not have to worry about the links going dead or 404. Or being redirected elsewhere for right now. The bad news is Google will have tons of free stats. it is what it is though and I thought I would alert everyone to this non earth shattering news. Link shorteners are here to stay for a while. i have some plans of my own I will be refining in the near future. I will pass it along when I work out the bugs and implement it wrong at first.

How Everyday Is Great For Me

A reader emailed asking a few questions over the last few days and in the final email noted that everyday seems great for me. She hit the nail right on the head. Does that mean that everyday goes off without a hitch? Does it mean I never run into errors or problems? Absolutely not. The longer you are in the business, you learn to expect the unexpected as it is what makes this business so dang enjoyable and makes no two days exactly alike. I am a list maker, learned that excellent trait early on and have talked about often. There are things on my list from two years ago I have not gotten to and there are things I do daily that are like clockwork, with posting on this blog along with others as being part of those things daily type task.

I assure you, I have dentist appointments, I get sick and get the unexpected errors. There are so many moving parts in this business and life in general you have to be flexible. As an example, the whole internet, cable and phone all went down this morning on me. Right in mid-stroke. Right in the beginnings of a day that started off super productive. Now I have emergency means setup and available to get on the internet if it had been urgent, but it really wasn't that urgent. Instead I used the down time to sift through 3 hard drives and organize, delete and do some well needed housekeeping on them. In fact, one of those drives has been on my list for two years. Guess what? I scratched it off the list today. The internet is now back up and it has indeed been another great and productive day for me. Same as every other day. Off I go to finish my daily task.

Google Updates SEO Starter Guide

The word is out that Google has updated their SEO Starter Guide and you can download the new 32 page PDF guide right here. The guide was originally released back in November of 2008 and was originally just 22 pages. The new guide has added content and features like a glossary of definitions and terms and more example images to illustrate the content in the guide. In addition they now give mobile device optimization techniques and easier understanding wording of the content so that it reads easier than the prior guide. The guide is also now available in over 40 languages. Make sure to refresh yourself and read through the new guide.

Interactive Photos With Phlook

I came across Phlook today which is a service that makes photos interactive and more engaging in the process. I have not tried it, but I have it on my list to get to by this weekend. First you take a photo and upload it to Phlook and then you get an embeddable piece of code which is then entered into your content or blog post and the photo shows up with several interactive options. Surfers will have the ability to leave a note on the photo, vote on the picture along with having zoom functions and the ability to email the photos. Of course this will not be a fit for ever site you build, but my wheels are already turning on how to best implement this. You can see a demo here.

Keywords To Websites Wordpress Gets Nice Update

Mark Wielgus, the developer of the KeywordsToWebsites Wordpress plugin, emailed an update that the plugin has been updated to version 1.7 and is available for download. The new update includes a new template (widgetized menu), cloaking images for ebay and amazon, linkshare module, and a Google news module. I have built three sites with this plugin and have done nothing more than that on two of them as I wanted to see how it worked right out of the box. Those 3 sites have totaled nearly $100.00 in their first 45 days. Not too shabby for just set and walk away. Imagine if you added some content and built a few solid backlinks. Wielgus looks committed to developing it a while too, so that is a plus. Check out his demo sites here as well.

Free Arras Magazine Wordpress Theme

I like to pass along good clean Wordpress themes I find and found one last night that happens to be a magazine type Wordpress theme as well. The name of the theme is Arras and this theme comes in brown, blue, green, red, orange, violet and legacy. It features top and main navigation with full menus support. Also it offers custom post types and taxonomies support which means multiple selection of categories. It has an improved thumbnail system and a few theme options you can customize. The thing I like about it is how clean and simple it is and it's ease of use. You may not need it now, but be sure to bookmark it and give it a try down the road.

Your Are Probably Going To Fail If You Do Not Do The Work

I hate to be harsh, but every now and again I have to remind readers that this is a business and it requires work as I get some crazy emails. It also is not quick results more times than not. I know most of you get bombarded with the same emails that I do, that promise quick money and quick results, but if you do not have a good firm basis and solid work ethic in this business, you can forget success. Can you make money with auto blogs? Absolutely, but you have to learn the wrong and right ways to do it. Also what may work in one niche does not necessarily carry over to another niche. The purest type of site still is the product review /catalog type site. If you want the simplest way to build these, just refer back to the tutorial that Adam and Kelvin released some time ago with the Build A Niche Store Guide except use Wordpress as the platform. Do not get caught up with backlinks and all the other type stuff, learn to build a damn good site first. 200-300 words per product is super. A 30 page site should take you no more than 30 days. You can't write or pay someone to write 30 product reviews/descriptions in 30 days? If you can't, you need to find something else. These types of sites do not have to display eBay products either. Try Amazon, ShareASale, Commission Junction or the Google program if you are bugged about the EPN program. Build a good site, then SLOWLY backlink to it. They make money. Some more than others. Some less than others. Do the work, learn what a great site looks like a learn to study the traffic. There are 365 days in the year. That equates to 10 great sites you can build with 65 days off just writing one page a day. If you can't do that, yes you will fail. Wordpress is free, there are even a few free Amazon Wordpress plugins to get you started if you are broke. Hosting is cheaper than ever. Get off your ass and do this. One foot in front of the other. Put your blinders on and do the work. Let the others fail.

WP Robot 3.20 Released & The New WP Robot Control Center

The new WP Robot 3.20 version has been released and contains (besides a few bugfixes) many new features that were suggested by users including the possibility to save all images in WP Robot posts to your own server and a new option to have posts from certain campaigns be created as "drafts". In addition there are three cool new modules with WP Robot 3.2, to get some fresh and unused content to your websites! The new modules are:

Linkshare Module - one of the largest affiliate networks besides Commission Junction. More content and another way to earn money from your sites!

Eventful Module - using the huge database of concerts, musicals and other festivals on Eventful.com to provide targeted content.

iTunes Module - access all the content in the Apple iTunes store, no matter if you want apps, videos or music.

Finally the new WP Robot Control Center has been released and you can see the details in the video below.

Video Never Killed The Radio Star & It Will Not Kill Your Site

I might be showing my age, but I remember the first video ever played on MTV. The video was "Video Killed The Radio Star", by the Buggles and you can see it below. The song is about the golden days of radio, describing a singer whose career is cut short by television. The talk and interpretation of that time was video was going to kill radio, but as we know all these years later, it only helped record/cd sales and music videos are as popular today as they were back in 1981. Everyday I am willing to bet everyone reading this post has watched some sort of web video today. If it was indeed only one video, I would be surprised. Web surfers expect video these days. Every site from non profit to shopping giants like QVC use it online. The Youtube nation is alive and strong. It is so easy to make your own video and submit it to the several free video sites out there. Not enough people take advantage of this and not enough people use the free videos done by others to help engage their own visitors. Look around you, look at the sites you visit on a daily basis. How are they using video? What are they doing that you could be doing? Video did not kill the radio star and it will not kill you to start finding ways to utilize it more. Now excuse me, I have some old Van Halen videos I tracked down I want to watch. I want my MTV!!!!

Free Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate

If you are into video as much as I am and see the benefits of them, you might find the Wondershare Video Converter Ultimate tool worth the while especially as it is being offered for free for a limited time only. This tool normally sales for $65 and you can see all the features and benefits right here on their sales page. The special free promo runs until September 25th and to get it, all you need to do is go to their Facebook page and hit the LIKE button. You will need to enter your email and name and then you will be sent the single-user personal license registration code. I downloaded it yesterday and played around converting some videos and it does as advertised and is very easy to use. Free is free and if you do not like it, just dump it. Works fine for me.

Why I Like Name.com For Domain Names

I have used many, many domain registrars over the many years in this business. For the longest time I used Godaddy until about a year and half ago. That is when I came across Name.com. If you have used Godaddy in the past, you know how hard it can be to be to just get from point A to point B in just getting a domain name registered or renewed. On top of that they want to upsell you at every turn and make navigation very difficult. Now this post is not to really knock Godaddy, as I have used them over the years with only one domain stolen about 7 years ago. It was my own fault and I got it back with the help of Godaddy. This post is to point out how easy Name.com is to use and navigate. It is super simple to transfer over domains there as well when the come up for renewal. All you need is the authorization code for the domain name you are transferring from your current registrar. You will get a few emails of course to confirm the transfer, but I have never run into any problems. Name.com is also active on Twitter and have a blog in which they alert you to upcoming specials. I have nothing to gain by referring you, I just like to give credit where credit is due and by the end of this year, Name.com will be the registrar for all my domains. Give them a look.

International Talk Like a Pirate Day

Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day! No, really it is. Anyways, just goes to show that you do not have to take everything so serious all the time. I did some early morning writing this morning and have pretty much took it easy for most of the day, but will write a little more before bed.

Mashable has a great post on How To Celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day which is quite entertaining. Also I am pleased to announce that my wife and I celebrated 17 years of marriage on Saturday. We lived together 7 years before that so we are coming up on 25 years together. Fantastic times! We make a perfect team and I must admit have a pretty much perfect lifestyle thanks to this business. It by no means though that I take my foot off the gas pedal as I know just one speed.

In closing, I hope you had a happy Sunday and a great big ARR!!!!!!!!!!! to all of you.

Last Time You Did Server Maintenance & Cleanup?

I am using today to go through and check all my servers and do some clean up of unneeded files, plugins and sift through some non-emergency type error codes to straighten up. Over time this stuff can build up and it is good to set aside a day every few months if possible to just run through each site completely. I like to thumb through each root directory to give it a visual as well for anything that may not belong there. I do use a server monitoring script to alert me to all files uploaded, just in case I am hacked or something is exploited. it has happened once before to me and I have caught it. I also use this time to visit all my sites one by one and make sure everything looks good and loads fine from a visual standpoint. It is quite time consuming depending on the amount of sites you have, but is pretty mindless work and good to do. You would be surprised at the things you will stumble upon that need to be addressed or have been forgotten to be taken care of. Back at it now!

EBay Partner Network Head JJ McCarthy Discusses Quality Click Pricing

Happy Friday everyone, JJ McCarthy of eBay Partner Network recently spoke with Scott Parent of MediaTrust about the success of Quality Click Pricing. JJ also shares eBay Partner Network’s internal realignment and focuses for the upcoming year. Check out the video below and draw your own conclusions.

Do Not Overlook The Opportunity To Promote Ebooks

I have a few sites that I have been making a more concerted effort to sell ebooks through the Ebooks.com affiliate program and it has been going quite well. Their program is run through the ever popular Commission Junction and they offer a diverse amount of titles to choose from. I came across a great post by Ronald Marva on how to link to individual books or you try to one of the many Commission Junction Wordpress plugins if you are indeed using that as your platform. If you like dealing with the datafeeds, this post explains how to work with them. They also have an example site listed that has it in action for you to see. People are very use to ebooks now and they are becoming more accepted every day and the best thing about them is the fact that they can be delivered in a matter of seconds to buying customer. See if there are any you can promote.

Do You Suffer From Main Keyword Tunnel Vision?

I helped a reader out today by looking at a few of his sites for him to point him in a better direction. He suffers from what so many of us have suffered from at one time or another and that is keyword tunnel vision as I like to call it. Keyword tunnel vision is when you focus too much on just one or too keyword phrases or just a small sampling of keywords as targets that you fail to reach just over your head and grab the easy low hanging fruit or complimentary keywords one would expect to also find on site.

Now by no means does this mean that you should not have a few primary keyword targets that have good search numbers and hopefully low competition, but do not let it end there. The more you target, the more you have out there that are likely to hit. The wider the site, the larger the funnel. Does this mean that five page sites or even one page sites can't earn well? Absolutely not, but the newer you are in this business, the wider you ought to be and the larger the cast net you should have. The better you get at keyword research, the better you will get at building narrower sites. Been there, done that and you will too. Don't get caught up in the old method of just targeting one phrase per page. Have a main target along with a few complimentary sub targets. Use common sense when deciding if it fits on the page, not search engine sense. Stay away from keyword tunnel vision as it will blind you.

Thank God For CPanel Backups

I have been working on restoring some sites today as one of my servers had a melt down. I am not going to name the host as this melt down was the last straw with them and it sped up me moving these sites to one of my VPS accounts that was long overdue. Thank goodness that I had a a recent full backup in the CPanel as it was VERY helpful. Hopefully you have a full frequent backups yourself, not just the database, but site files as well. Below is a quick and dirty video I snatched in a hurry from Youtube on backing up in CPanel. A good backup is good insurance and a HUGE time saver. Make sure you have one, you never know when you will need it.

SEO Certification Programs? Yeah Right!

I found the latest video from Matt Cutts entertaining that he even had to go this far into depth on SEO certification programs. SEO advice comes in all shapes and sizes. I have seen a ton of everything in my many years of doing this. The single best learning tool is trial and error and following basic SEO guidelines. It is not like there is just one magic secret everyone is hiding out there. Most good SEO is common sense mixed with basic practices. I have seen some sites overcome crappy SEO with great content that gets natural backlinks. Not everyone that builds websites is a SEO pro, they just want to build a site. I would find it hard to suggest anyone pay a SEO professional and would highly suggest seeing examples of high ranking work, legitimate references and site longevity, but hey, some folks will buy just about anything. I have said it many times, write great content and use common sense when in doubt. Track your traffic and work from there. You can always tweek things. It is how we all do it. You will never learn anything about SEO by merely paying someone to do it. The picture is much bigger than it appears on the surface.

OK enough rambling. Here is Matt Cutts.

Future Of Social Media 5 Years Down The Road?

I love social media and have said it time and time again. I get it and have seen the results first hand. Adam Ostrow had a story surface on Mashable a few days back in which he takes a look at the The Next 5 Years in Social Media. Ostrow points out several ideas and the most interesting in his point that people need learn how to leverage the social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as opposed to how to build the next mega social network. I certainly agree as these giants are already ingrained into the culture and are not going anywhere. There are still ideas that pop up every day in using the Twitter API and Facebook is as p[popular as it has ever been. If you are not learning to market on it or how to do paid ad placement on it, it is not too late. A great read with several offshoot links as well I suggest clicking and reading.

9 Years Later & It Still Seems Like Yesterday - We Will Never Forget

It goes without saying that today is the 9th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. My baby brother, who is serving the Navy, sent me this video below that the U.S. Navy Visual News Service posted.

God bless America and God bless those that serve and protect us. We will never forget that day.

Google Instant Conspiracy Theories

OK, not really, but it is Friday after all and we have talked most of the week about Google Instant. I have been doing my share of reading on it and sifting through what I believe to be the good and bad on it. So far, none of my huge volume sites have suffered in earnings at all in fact it is obvious that some big ticket shopping is increasing. Could be an early start to the Christmas season, but i am not complaining. I am hurrying through a few well overdue rebuilds as well and have nearly $800.00 in original content being written right now to get put together on those sites by the end of this month.

Back to the Google Instant Conspiracy Theories. There is a fun post here on The Ultimate Tinfoil Hat Guide to Google Instant as Andrew Goodman has some fun at the expense of Google. Enjoy the chuckle and remember that Saturday is the 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack on America.

Google Alphabet Features Just Large Companies?

The new Google Instant that we posted about yesterday continues to create quite a buzz across several blogs and webmaster forums I have been reading on. One of the most interesting things I came across today is the The Google Alphabet post on the Wall Street Journal. It points out by typing in each letter of the alphabet typing each letter of the alphabet into Google that the top results included a lot of marketers. Not really too surprising in itself, but of course in the post on Adage, you can see that several readers posted what they were seeing in their area and of course the results are different across a large selection, which is nothing new. I would expect the large companies to show up being as they are probably searched for quite a bit, but also get heavier weight if they advertise or convert well Adsense or Adwords wise. Remember that Google is a for profit company.

Also to send you another direction, go to Twitter and search for Google Instant SEO. Tons of good and not so good reading. Lots of conspiracy theories as well.

Google Instant Has Arrived

In case you have been hiding under a rock, you should know by now that the new Google Instant is now live and running. Follow the link I just gave you for a run down of what it is and frequently asked questions concerning instant. In addition there have been several great post concerning the launch and I point you first to Matt Cutts and his take on Google Instant as he addresses it in relation to SEO. He does point out that over time people will learn to search differently and gives examples of it.

Search Engine Land has a complete users guide to Google Instant and how to disable it should you find the need to do so. Danny Sullivan pointed out the 2005 patent on what Google Instant does today. As you can see, it is trending today on Twitter as well and you can learn more by following some links here.

Greg's High Performance SEO Wordpress Plugin Reduces Server Load

I was recently turned on to Greg's High Performance SEO Wordpress Plugin to help speed up a few sites and reduce the site load on several very high traffic sites of mine. I will admit that I have been using the Light SEO and the All In One SEO plugins for quite a while and it took a while to weed my way through all of the settings. One plus is that Greg's High Performance SEO also provides built-in support for titles and keywords left behind by alternative SEO and other legacy plugins such as All in One SEO Pack among many others, but I suggest you learn the settings going forward and not to rely on this. I have seen it reduce the load already by 5% on one site and have some more playing to do. Read up on it and see if it fits your needs or at worst, throw it up on a test site.

Alex Goad To Launch The RankBuilder Tuesday

Hope everyone is having a great Labor Day today. On Tuesday, Alex Goad is launching a new software app called The Rank Builder that makes attaining some syndicated backlinks very easy. You have heard talk about syndication in the past and it remains very powerful way of not only getting your content out there, but obtaining some backlinks in the process. I will likely be in line to check this app out myself on Tuesday and you can opt in to see the Free SEO Case Study video, see the database listings of the 812 sources he talks about and read up on his rankings formula to see if indeed this is an app you can use. Do not get caught up in the ranking hype, but do understand the preface of what he is getting across as far as syndication and the formula. I can not wait to play with this. Have a great and restful evening.

Rand On Link Building Tactics

Late for an annual fantasy football draft tonight, but wanted to make sure I pointed you to the Whiteboard Friday video done by Rand Fishkin this week in which he goes over four link building tactics that you likely haven't heard about. Wish me luck in my draft.

Google Giving Away Free Ice Cream And They Know My Favorite Flavor

No, Google is not giving away free ice cream, but you will see why I titled the post that way when you watch the video below. The "do not track me list" is a novel idea, but I think we are WAYS away from that. I could see a VERY, VERY strict privacy policy regulations thing coming down the road, but Google makes its money knowing the type softball bats you buy and if you are having problems with your attic fan. They want to know how to best market to you. Put your tin foil hats on and face north west, they are coming for you. Every direction, every day.

I found this on the guest post on SEO Book, by Jim Kukral.

Incansoft 50% Off Labor Day Sale

I always try to keep readers updated whenever Big Mike Kotzakolios of Incansoft has a sale on his software. These sales happen about 4 or 5 times a year if memory serves me. Well the Labor Day weekend is upon us and I received an email from his partner John Rogers stating that Incansoft is celebrating the Labor Day weekend by offering everyone 50% off on their entire catalog. Everything is on sale right now ranging from $4.95 to $14.95 using Coupon Code SELFEMPLOYED (use GRAPHICS for GFX Writer and VIDEO for GFX Video Writer). They also have a new product called Llama Spin, but I have not purchased that yet as I am a big fan of the Best Spinner and use that almost daily. You can browse the entire Incansoft product catalog right here. If you are headed out for a long Labor Weekend, all the best to you and yours.

WPBeginner Blog - Tutorials For Beginners To Wordpress

I came across the WPBeginner Blog today that features tutorials and post dedicated towards beginners to Wordpress. This business is constantly seeing new influx of people and i like to be able to point them in the right direction every now and again as well. Make sure to really browse around there and try the search feature they have for specific tutorials. I also remind you of my top 40 Wordpress plugin list that I recently updated and you will see several on the WPBeginner Blog as well. Also not to be lost in the shuffle is the great Wordpress.tv site. Wordpress is easy to learn and I suggest it be the niche CMS platform of choice. Every thing else compares in comparison and you will be using Wordpress sooner or later so fooling with any other platform that you might have to pay for is foolish, especially if it does not have a long track record like Wordpress especially where security is concerned. Do yourself a favor and learn to use what the pros use.

Rae Hoffman On Identifying Industry Leaders On Twitter

A comment and an email came to me wanting to me to devote more time on Twitter per my post the other day. It just so happens that the great Rae Hoffman posted on Search Engine Land a post about, How To Identify Industry Specific & Mainstream Media On Twitter. Rae goes over some great resources to find some leaders in certain industries and how to engage them once you do find them. Going right for the jugular is not the way, as I too have asked too early. Remember that you are networking and often times you have to give first before receiving. Some of these backlinks are very powerful and well worth the time invested in only acquiring just a few. Remember that with these links it is quality over quantity. Just a few of these can catapult a properly SEO'ed and properly researched site in the rankings. Don't forget to ask to guest blog and write content for them as well for the link. Trust me, it works. It just takes some time and patience.