The internet is filled with many directory resources. Many of them are a complete waste of time, money and can even potentially harm the success of your site. The search engines are constantly looking for the low quality, sneaky efforts of site owners to advance their websites.

I once had a conversation with an ex technology executive at IBM who is now involved with a small outside venture. We were talking about link building strategies and he said some things that (after some extensive research and investigation) were absolutely appalling to me. He was talking about a black hat technique called article spinning and he was also talking about mass directory submission.

After doing some extensive research of my own, Ive come to learn how incredibly detrimental techniques like these can be. I learned a valuable lesson from my interactions with this man: Age, experience and position does not mean

Solution: Always go for quality rather than quantity. Here is a list of the top 3 paid directories to submit your site to.

1.       www.dir.yahoo.com

The Yahoo Directory is one of the oldest and best directories on the web. It offers high authority and valuable links back to your site and can also drive a fair amount of traffic to your site.

The cost to submit to this directory is a onetime fee of $299.95.

2.       www.botw.org

Best of The Web Directory is a very high quality and high authority directory. Directories like this are an absolute must to submit your site to.

The fee for this directory is the same as Yahoo…onetime fee of $299.95.

3.       www.business.com

Business.com is a very well established and respected directory. It has been around for a very long time and holds a great deal of weight with the search engines.

The cost of inclusion for this directory is a onetime fee of $299.00

The benefit of submitting to directories is that you gain increased internet exposure, back links and an increase of relevant traffic.

We encourage all of our clients to submit to these directories in addition to www.dmoz.com and any high authority industry specific directories.

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!

This week we’re going to extend some awesome resources for high quality information about SEO. The more you educate yourself on SEO and, to some degree, stay current on industry trends the more you will understand what we are talking about when discussing your campaign (if not a client yet, your soon to be campaign).

Also, just a quick follow up on last week’s blog post…if you didn’t go to the Peninsula in Newport Beach on the Fourth of July last Sunday, you missed out. I have been a couple of times prior; however, this year took the cake. I would highly recommend going next year if you have not been on the fourth.

1.       seomoz.org/blog

Seomoz.org is my top pick for useful information about the industry. Theirs is one of the most interactive, current and enlightened blogs around. With new blog posts every day, a “who’s who” list of clientele and a full staff of experts constantly researching and staying on top of the industry trends, it’s difficult to find a blog post that isn’t meaningful.

Their signature blog entry is called White Board Friday. Every Friday, they post a video blog about whatever topic is hot at the time. The videos are usually hosted by rand fishkin, CEO of seomoz.org.

2.       mattcutts.com/blog/

For those that don’t know, Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s web spam team. Yes, he actually works for Google. In a way, this is kind of an inside source, however, he is careful not to divulge too much information as his disclaimer clearly states.

The information he offers is typically on the very technical side of SEO and its usually most helpful to web developers working on the backend side of SEO. That being said, his blog is an excellent resource for staying up to date and collecting valuable information to throw in your arsenal of knowledge.

3.       seobook.com/blog

This site is an excellent resource. They have tons of educational information and offer some very valuable teachings for those that are trying to understand the SEM jargon.

I would highly recommend that you at least glance at some of these resources so that you can understand your campaign with us a little better. The more information you have, the more you understand the importance, necessity and benefit of the work we are doing for you.

Search Engine Marketing is a lot of work. It takes years of experience, trial and error and continued education. Our team is proud to serve you and we are always trying to assist our clients in achieving a higher level of education and understanding.

I recently embarked on my first vacation as an employee of Netscope to the beautiful desolate Grand Cayman Island in the Caribbean. I have been on lots of family trips and have had my fair share of traveling but this time was different.

Trips use to take a lot more resources and effort. I remember on my first trip out of the country I had to pack a paperback book, a journal, disposable camera, and stamps for the postcards I would buy. On top of all those pre-arrangements, when I got back I had to wait two weeks for pictures to develop that if I wanted to share with friends and family I would have to make doubles and send by snail mail. This time around was so much easier! 

I was laying on the beach with my dad reading one of his 5 books all on his iphone, my mom listening to music on her ipod, my sister was uploading pictures of snorkeling with sting rays to her Facebook Page, my brother could find World Cup updates anywhere we went, and when the vacation was over I posted an album of all my pictures that friends and family could see. Technology and Social Media made traveling quite compact and convenient; and being a Social Media Manager at Netscope turned an excellent vacation into a fitting post for our blog!

In light of the holiday, im going to switch gears a bit and offer some information that ive been able to find (via Google) about the top 3 places to be for the Fourth of July holiday. If you’ve lived in Orange County for long, im sure that these locations will not come as a surprise to you.

Top 3 Places To Be For The Fourth o’ July

1.       Newport Beach

 

Newport Beach, California is a world renowned hot spot for awesome parties and great holiday celebrations. Newport Beach offers 2 main attractions for the holiday, aside from the wild, non-stop party on the peninsula.

The first of these events is hosted at a waterfront resort known as The Newport Dunes. The Dunes are just to the right of PCH if you are traveling north and on the left if you are traveling south. My personal experience at The Dunes has been very positive. The Dunes creates an excellent family environment and is a little less chaotic when compared to the Peninsula. The Dunes will have live music, food concessions, volleyball tournaments, limbo contests and many additional fun activities for the whole family. Here is a link to their site if you would like to see the full details.

The second (and most popular) of these events is the Newport Boat parade. Located near the Peninsula, this event is more about the party than anything else. With an amazing display of decorated boats, a wonderful fireworks display and the thousands of people that show up, this event is a must see.

2.       Huntington Beach

 

Astonishingly, Huntington Beach’s 4^th of July bash has been going strong since 1904. Today, there are an estimated 150,000 + attendees. The days festivities are launched with an annual 5k run and followed by food, drinks, surfing and celebration.

 

Huntington Beach also hosts a pier festival that lasts the entirety of the 3 day 4^th of July weekend. This festival includes delicious food and great entertainment.

 

3.       Your House

 

Yes, I’m serious. With all of the madness going on over the fourth of July weekend, hosting the party at your house isn’t a bad idea. Having a small get together at your house is a fun and safe option. This insures that no one will be drinking and driving and that everyone is in a great environment to let loose and have an awesome time.

 

Please have a great 3 day weekend and be safe!

What is Guest Blogging?

 

There are 2 different forms of guest blogging and they are defined as follows:

On-Site Guest Blogging: On-site guest blogging is when you find a writer/blogger that you feel can contribute valuable content to your on-site blog. That writer/blogger agrees to create a unique post on a specific topic that will be posted on your blog for your readers to enjoy.

Off-Site Guest Blogging: This is the type of guest blogging with the highest level of benefit. This is the process of seeking out blogs that are related to your industry and acquiring an opportunity to publish a blog entry that will be posted on their blog.

Top 3 Reasons to Guest Blog

 

Guest blogging is a very important aspect of online marketing. There are a few substantial benefits to be derived from investing in a guest blogging campaign.

A.      Increased Site Authority: The more content you have in as many different locations as possible, the more of an online presence you have. Having a greater presence builds a stronger brand, boosts your authority in your industry, increases visits to your site. The ultimate goal is for all of that to translate into increased sales.

B.      Back Linking: The primary reason for guest blogging is back linking. Back links are arguably the most important aspect of internet marketing; more specifically, Search Engine Optimization. The more one way back links you have pointing to your site, the higher you are going to rank in the search engines. The higher you rank in the search engines, the more visibility and sales you generate.

Its important to keep in mind that acquiring back links is a strategy that requires a plan of attack. Guest blogging is one of the most important weapons in your arsenal. When you acquire links from other high authority blogs, it makes your site look more knowledgeable and important to the search engines.

C.     Increased Traffic to Site: When you participate in guest blogging on highly visited sites, you automatically increase the number of eyeballs on your site.  Assuming that your site is conversion friendly, you should notice an increase in sales. If you see an increase in traffic but your sales do not elevate it’s time to take a look at the design and usability of your website.

Links for Tips & Resources

 

http://weblogs.about.com/od/marketingablog/tp/GuestBloggingTips.htm

http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingtips/tp/TipsIncreaseBlogTraffic.htm

In my opinion, “Twitter for iPhone” is the best Twitter app out there. Read more to find out why.

As we all know, blogging is a vitally important aspect of SEO. That being said, there are many components to blogging . The best strategy that you can have in mind when creating your blog campaign is that you are trying to create the highest level of SEO and simultaneously making your blog read worthy. In other words, people should want to read your blog.

Instead of making you read my own rambling today, I thought I’d give you some fresh perspective on this topic from some excellent authority figures in the SEO industry.

1.       www.seomoz.org/blog/5-simple-tips-for-better-seo-value-from-your-blogs-feeds

This blog entry offers some great tips on how to get more eyes on your blog, and how to increase the SEO value of your blog.

2.       www.seomoz.org/blog/Blog-Launch-Check-list

This is an excellent blog that gives you a comprehensive checklist for launching a blog! Use this when we launch your blog to keep us on our A game

3.       www.seomoz.org/blog/21-tips-to-earn-links-and-tweets-to-your-blog-post

This is yet another wonderfully informative blog about successful blogging from the SEO guru Rand Fishkin at seomoz.com.

Please enjoy these blogs and feel free to contact us directly if you have any questions, concerns or would like to talk about getting your blog in motion!

Internet Marketing is one of the most profitable and cost effective forms of marketing to ever exist. With a relatively low investment and expert knowledge of internet marketing to support it, you can build a multimillion dollar business online without ever having to pay for any type of traditional marketing services. Obviously, having a full bodied marketing campaign that includes internet and traditional marketing tactics will drive an even higher return; however, it’s not absolutely necessary.

However, it seems that many people enter into the internet marketing arena without a true understanding of how much work is actually involved. Thus, I have chosen to publish this week’s Top 3 entry on the Top 3 Reasons to Hire an Internet Marketing Firm.

1.       Time Investment

If you are in a position to even be considering the acquisition of professional assistance in this area, it typically means that you already have a business up and running and you most likely already have a site up that is not returning great results.  

If you are the owner of a business, your time needs to be spent RUNNING THE BUSINESS. Even if you have a mediocre understanding of SEO and some of its counterparts, it is doubtful that you’ll have the time to execute even the initial steps, let alone the ongoing steps. SEO is not a product that you can purchase or replicate; it is an ongoing process that involves strategy development and implementation, analytical review, trial and error, trouble shooting, ongoing education and lots of time.

Forgive me for being harsh, but if a business owner has the time to invest in learning and implementing SEO then some other part of the business operation is being neglected. Do yourself a favor and hire a firm that has the experience, knowledge, time and processes to make things as painless as possible.

2.       Knowledge

 

If the transmission dropped out of your vehicle today would you go buy books, read blogs and waste time trying to fix your vehicle yourself? (if your hobby is fixing cars, just play along) NO! You’d take your car to an auto mechanic who already has the knowledge to fix your car in the most cost effective and time efficient manner.

 

Why would you treat your online marketing campaign any differently?

3.       Experience

The bottom line is that any quality internet marketing firm possesses a great deal of experience with many different websites in many different arenas. We know what works and what doesn’t through actual experience, not theory. A quality internet marketing firm will save its clients time, money, head ache and failure as a result of the years of cumulative experience shared between all of its team members.

Hire a firm, save time and money and see success!

Internet Marketing is an unbelievably broad field. With everything from email marketing, to affiliate marketing to SEO, it can be difficult for a novice to decide what is going to provide the most benefit for their internet sales.

 

With a little over 4 years in the industry, ive seen quite a bit of success derived from many different sources of internet marketing. However, I would have to say that there are 3 platforms that absolutely Trump all other forms (for most industries).

 

 

 

1.       Search Engine Optimization

 

This probably goes without saying, but SEO is probably the most cost effective form of marketing with the highest return on in investment. Aside from the cost of hiring professionals to get the job done for you, ranking well in the search engines is free.

 

I put SEO at the top of the list because when you are ranking well within the search engines, you are placing yourself directly in front of people that are specifically looking for your product or service. This is unique to ANY other form of traditional marketing. With traditional marketing, most of the time you are trying to get yourself into places where your target demographic is and hoping that they just happen to be interested in what you have to offer.  Not with SEO. They are looking for you, it’s your job to be there.

 

2.       Pay Per Click

 

Regardless of what anyone says, PPC marketing is effective. Obviously, SEO has many advantages over PPC. However, PPC is an excellent addition to any internet marketing campaign. You can literally start seeing results from a PPC campaign overnight.

 

3.       Social Media Marketing

 

Im really not a “bandwagon” kind of guy. Actually, when I see a bandwagon start rolling, Im usually the first to skeptically investigate. However, with Social Media Marketing, I can say that it’s definitely a bandwagon you want to be on. With over 60% of Americans using social media, it would be an internet marketing sin for you to not be there when your customers are looking for you.

 

Social Media Marketing can also be used as a way to boost your SEO campaign and it is a huge way to keep residual traffic flowing to your site.

 

Anyways, I’ve done enough babbling for one day. Please have a fun, safe and long memorial day weekend!

Facebook is constantly updating and revising their privacy settings in response to user frustration and confusion. The interview below with Tim Sparapani, Facebook’s public policy director, talks about the new changes taking place and answers some questions about Facebook conquering the web.



Is Facebook the one that’s taking over the web? Aren’t we Facebook? To help you, we're providing you with 5 essentials to help you with your Facebook Privacy.

Tell us what you think! Please :)