Archive for May, 2009
30.05.2009
Uncategorized
Google has made the web a popularity contest. Google’s algorithmic changes over the last few years have managed to devalue most forms of SEO-built links, and the most reliable linking method left to exploit is nepotistic links from your friends.
Unfortunately, most of us don’t have friends with high-PageRank sites in our niches. Most of us aren’t friends with our competitors.
Worse, many of us aren’t all that likable. Salespeople are likable –that’s their job. Those of us whose focus is on creating valuable web content don’t have time to build vast social networks. The end result is that good web sites aren’t getting ranked — web sites promoted by slimy sales guys are getting ranked.
This is all Google’s doing, but we can’t look to Google for a solution. Google is focused on AdWords and has almost completely lost interest in the organic SERPS.
So what do we do? How do we win this popularity contest and earn our great web properties decent spots in Google’s search results?
The answers lay in the lessons we learned, or should have learned, in high-school.
Join a Clique
Cliques are the centers of society in high school, and on the web.
The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, waistoids, dweebies, dickheads – they all adore him. They think he’s a righteous dude.
– Grace, from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
On the web, people give links to other sites in their cliques. If someone doesn’t feel like you’re in their clique, they are not likely to link to your web site.
There are many opportunities for joining webmaster cliques:
Of course, you can’t just join a group and expect to be seen as a member of the “in group” — you must participate in the chatter and the social drama that exists in any scene. You must be seen to be linked to.
Flattery Will Get You Everywhere
People like to say “flattery will get you nowhere”, but that could not be further from the truth. Humans love to be loved.
I want you, to want me. — Cheap Trick (1977)
If you say something nice and believable about a person, the odds are reasonably good that they will link to the page where you mention them.
You can also get links to unrelated pages, just because people feel that they should reciprocate your kindness.
Suck Up To Authority
People in authority are looking for constant external validation that they deserve their authority, and those people can throw around a lot of link weight.
This is what after-market “support” sites are all about — sites that simply regurgitate the corporate communications of web authorities like Google or Microsoft.
These sites get regular links from their patron corporations, because they help promote the official party lines of the organizations.
On the other hand, pointing out Google’s hypocrisy or Microsoft’s poor product quality isn’t likely to get you linked to from either company.
Be Popular
Most people act like sheep. They decide what to like by looking at other people, seeing what they like, and copying those likes and dislikes.
This is why we have so many Hollywood actors who are cast in great roles and demand enormous salaries, even though they can barely act. They are not cast for their acting abilities, they are cast because they are already well-known.
This is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem, because to become popular you first have to be popular. Luckily, the web is a bit easier to fool than a group of high-school kids.
Popularity on the web can be faked in a wide variety of ways:
- Buying blog posts
- Creating fake social network profiles
- Buying social bookmarks
- Creating fake forum accounts
- Using automated traffic for fake your Alexa rating
- Buying links or domains to boost your PageRank
Once you “appear” to be popular, people will start writing about you and — if you have enough substance to maintain the popularity — you will be popular.
29.05.2009
Uncategorized
Mr. Bill has released a new tool which can be very useful in uncovering your competitors link networks. The tool, Sites on My IP, allows you to view every domain which is hosted on the same IP address as the target domain.
Go to the Sites On My IP web site and enter your competitors web site in the search box; you will receive a list of other web sites your competitor might own.
Some shared hosting platforms share one IP address among multiple customers, but usually you will find only domains owned by your competitor.
Sites On My IP also has some other useful tools for you:
24.05.2009
Uncategorized
For the last few years, Google has been providing support to AdSense Publishers through the adsense-support@google.com mailbox.
Google provided no phone numbers or contact names, only this anonymous mailbox. Sometimes email was responded to, sometimes it wasn’t. AdSense support was dismal. AdSense was very nearly an unsupported product.
On 1 May of this year, the situation went from bad to worse. Google turned off adsense-support@google.com. If you email that address now, you receive this terse and confusing response:
Hello,
Thank you for your message. Unfortunately, adsense-noreply@google.com is a
notification-only email address and does not accept incoming emails.
Our support team will not be able to receive or respond to your message.
For more information regarding the email you received, please visit our
Help Center:
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=113058.
Information on our program policies (
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/topic.py?topic=8423 ) can also
be found there.
Thank you for your interest in Google AdSense.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
Unfortunately, those two URL’s both lead to a series of completely unhelpful “help” screens.
Even worse, if you follow the excruciatingly awful path through the seemingly never-ending “help” screens, you are eventually able to leave a message — to which no one ever responds.
AdSense is now an unsupported product — and Google made this change without any public announcement.
As an AdSense publisher, I am responsible for tens of thousands of dollars a month in revenue to Google. This is not the level of support I am accustomed to receiving from my business partners. This is irresponsible and inconsiderate and I would complain to Google about it directly — if they would take my calls or accept my emails.
06.05.2009
Uncategorized
We at Free Internet Media like to think that we appreciate the best in life. The best things, the best people, and the best experiences.
We’ve taken our hedonistic tendencies to new levels recently, with the launch of our new web site, Best In Life.
Best In Life is a guide to the best of everything, from the best way to cook frozen shrimp to the best way to heal a cut to the world’s best hamburger recipe.
Our new portal to the best of everything has 131 pages so far, but we’re hoping to receive some feedback from you to help us find more of the best in life. 
05.05.2009
Uncategorized
Here at FIM, we have put a significant amount of time and effort into the proxy niche.
We operate a few proxies, such as A Bebo Proxy, but mainly we run proxy lists like Proxy Leech and @ Proxy.
Financially speaking, this is a horrible niche. I think we’re spending more in terms of development and promotion than we’re earning in terms of revenue. That doesn’t even consider the costs of hosting and of dealing with the ridiculously high levels of hacking attempts these sites endure.
These sites are very rewarding, however, in non-monetary terms. Government organizations all over the globe are growing far too powerful. They are forgetting that government only exists at the consent of the governed.
The founding fathers of the United States placed freedom of speech at the top of the Bill of Rights — even above the right to keep and bear arms. They saw free speech as the most important right a free people, and I am inclined to agree with them.
Unfortunately, free speech requires a certain amount of anonymity. It is simply not safe for many people to speak their minds when their opinions might disagree with those held by powerful governmental organizations.
I am not referring only to the mad mullah’s of Iran. Even in America, young people have been punished for speaking freely about events occurring in their public schools and universities. The United States government oppresses those most whom we entrust to their care. It raises American children to believe that censorship is acceptable and that their opinions are not worthy of sharing. In government colleges and universities, students are punished for disagreeing with the propaganda being preached by their schools academic and administrative staff.
These people need to be opposed — both at home and abroad. Free speech is important for everyone if we intend to live in a prosperous and peaceful world. This is why we both operate and support proxy sites.