Traffic Flow SEO

It has been awhile since my last free directory update. I have recently found some new free directories which are listed below for your submission (and back link) pleasure:

(Directory name - Yahoo back links - Google PR)

Blue Abstract - 0 - 0
directory.ipgp.net - 8,340 - 3
World Links Directory - 5,050 - 3
chestnut6floor directory - 0 - 4
Waikey Web Directory - 12,200 - 3
MyDigLog Directory - 1,450 - 0
PR Fresh Directory - 37 - 0
Directory General Web Directory - 40 - 0
Social Networking Blog - 561 - 0
WeLink2U - 317 - 0
2Sky Frsh SEO Directory - 0 - 0
Best One Way Links - 6 - 0
StrongBackLinks Directory - 45 - 0
The Web Directory - 42,900 - 4
aCotm - 3,960 - 4

Good luck and happy submitting!

Good domains are getting harder and harder to come by. In order to get a leg up on the competition and grab a good domain you will need a little help. Well, that help is here in the form of a site to help find expiring domains - check out - Dropscout.com for more info.

One of my favorite SEO/SEM people, Aaron Wall over at SEO Book just released a cool new Web tool called - Website Health Check.

It is a great tool to keep you website SEO optimized by checking:

* Missing Title Tags and Description
* Missing Descriptions
* Duplicate Title Tags
* Duplicate Descriptions
* www vs non-www (canonical)
* Multiple Index Pages
* Check Error Handling

You can check it out for free here - Website Health Check

As the Web gets bigger the competition for exposure, eyeballs and attention will become even more heated. If you own a blog you more sites, blogs and general resources become available there is less chance people will actually find your blog as there will be even more competition for traffic. If you would like to try and keep your blog more visible one way you can do this is by submitting your blog to RSS feeds. Below is a small list to get your started. Good luck!

*** http://feedfury.com/
*** http://www.rssmicro.com/
*** http://www.millionrss.com/add-my-feed.php
*** http://www.strategicboard.com/addblog.php
*** http://www.mobispine.com/Feed/Publish/Buttons.do
*** http://www.feedsubmitter.com/
*** http://pingomatic.com/
*** http://feedshark.brainbliss.com/
*** http://www.globalsyndication.com/directory-submit

Microsoft wants in on Google's dominance in free Website analytics. Google bought Urchin, which was a very popular analytics package and then offered it free to users. This was a big move as the package was previously not considered inexpensive. Many speculate that Google offers the package for free in order to get additional intelligence on Web activity (and to probably control the world in the near future).

Now Microsoft is offering it's own free Website analytics package. It is called Gatineau and it appears to have some interesting and cool features not offered on Google Analytics. Some of the features, unique or not, include, but are not limited to:

- Click and visitor tracking
- Marketing campaign reporting
- Conversion tracking
- Demographic and geographic segmentation
- Paid and natural search analysis
- Visitor information including browsers, languages, operating systems and resolutions

I feel this is a very good move for Microsoft and one that Yahoo should (and probably eventually will) follow. Below are links for additional information and free registration.

Here were some early pictures and info - 'Cant't beat a good rank' blog

Invitation to join (currently limited to US residents only) - Gatineau invite

General information - Marketing Pilgrim

I have to say this search engine site has one of the most interesting, animated logos I have ever seen. They appear as if they really want to be a player in the search world to the point of even creating and airing TV commercials nationwide. Sounds like a lot of potential, but after a little research I found a lot of articles discussing their deceptive toolbar and the fact that they do not identify their first result first three listings as paid or sponsored. This is more than a little bit shady. I hope they get their act together because I do like their animated logo and "Search 2.0" results.

You can check it out here - RedZee Search Engine

Interesting articles about RedZee (from 2005-2007):

- Search Engine Guide: Seeing Red - Search Engine RedZee� Reviewed

- SEOmoz - Investigating the RedZee Search Engine

- Les Jones - Beware of Redzee.com

Finally one last interesting note - RedZee.com is different from RedZee.net. Check them out as it appears the .net version seems outdated as if it was the earlier search engine. Why would they not update this URL? Seems weird, but I guess so is the engine.

I stumbled on this and just had to share.

Directories are great sources for building inbound links to your site, but you need to be careful as to what directories you submit to especially if they charge a review fee. Below is a quick list of what I look for in a directory before I pay any review fees:

1. A unique logo and/or custom or customized template.
- If a directory owner does not care enough to make their directory stand out from the crowd I feel that is a direct statement on how much they care about their directory (probably not much, so why should I care).

2. A unique set of categories.
- If a directory owner uses a common category download and does not spend the time to make their directory a little unique by creating their own categories, it is another sign that they may not care a lot about their directory.

3. Something that shows activity and life.
- What do I mean by this? Well I am looking for a stats section or a news section or anything that shows me the directory is active and alive. This gives me the feeling that I am going to make a good investment because I want to be involved in a directory that is growing and being actively promoted, so my investment does more than provide just another link to my site, but also provides a little traffic.

4. Active responses to inquiries.
- When a submission review fee runs $50 plus I will usually send a quick email to the directory owner and track how long it takes for him/her to get back to me (if at all). If they are responsive in a timely manner, it gives me a good feeling that I will get a fair and quick review of my submission. If there is a delayed response or no response at all I usually just pass over the directory as it is a sign that the owner may not care much about customer support.

5. General stats.
- Check out Google PR, Yahoo back links, Alexa rankings, age of site, etc. The more stats your can review the better as no one stat can provide a whole picture.

There are additional items that I analyze before submitting sites for reviews including making sure there is some kind of contact information and/or open 'who is' information, but the list above will give you a good start.

I recently visited one of my favorite search engines WiseNut, a great secondary source of relevant search results and was a little saddened to realize that it had recently been shut down. In a day and age where it seems like Google may end up controlling the world it was nice to have another option in the search engine realm.

Back in 2001 when it was launched it used its own database and had critical acclaim as becoming a real player in the search engine world (the same was true for Teoma which was later bought and integrated into Ask.com). It never really lived up to its potential due to lack of features and updates, but did have around 1.5 billion pages indexed which allowed it to return some interesting and relevant search results.

LookSmart bought WiseNut in April of 2002 for a whopping $9 million dollars which, as of the recent WiseNut closing ended up being a bust for them. LookSmart has basically shut down or sold almost every Web-based business unit they owned in the last couple of years from their very established online directory, Zeal to their online parental controls technology, NetNanny to their open source distributed search crawler platform (search engine), Grub and now WiseNut. The only thing left is Furl which may go soon.

It is a sad day to loose another established player (even if it was only a minor player) in the search engine competition.

Well it is actually 32 this week. This new list of 32 free directories for your to submit your site(s) is gathered from all over (forums, suggestions, submissions to my directories, etc.). Many of these directories are new, some are new finds and some are older, but offering free submissions for a limited time.

** Please note that free submission offerings, PR rank and Yahoo back links were valid on 9/16/07 and may change without notice.

nicksyear - PR5 - 461 Yahoo back links

Mvzr Directory - PR3 - 1,160 Yahoo back links

Digitnext Directory - PR3 - 4,680 Yahoo back links

EastLink - PR3 - 45 Yahoo back links

The Web Directory - PR3 - 18,300 Yahoo back links

Voda Web Directory - PR0 - 40 Yahoo back links

0q6 SEO Directory - PR0 - 17 Yahoo back links

INDUSTRY FACTORY - PR0 - 5 Yahoo back links

OHXK - PR0 - 0 Yahoo back links

Great Directory - PR0 - 1,930 Yahoo back links

The Big Web Directory of US - PR0 - 135 Yahoo back links

Find Good - PR0 - 577 Yahoo back links

Sitemoz - PR0 - 227 Yahoo back links

z0p Directory - PR0 - 0 Yahoo back links

Internet Stromer Directory - PR0 - 4,280 Yahoo back links

Internet Ahead - PR0 - 3,620 Yahoo back links

Link Professor - PR0 - 4,910 Yahoo back links

MassiveNet Links - PRO - 4,560 Yahoo back links

Wow Internet Directory - PR0 - 4,600 Yahoo back links

Find Turtle Directory - PR0 - 4,160 Yahoo back links

Net Category - PR0 - 3,290 Yahoo back links

Directory Spider - PR0 - 4,220 Yahoo back links

My Group Directory - PR0 - 4,290 Yahoo back links

Hit Boss - PR0 - 1,060 Yahoo back links

Agii.net Directory - PR0 - 11 Yahoo back links

OJRJ Directory - PR0 - 4 Yahoo back links

Yellow Pages - PR0 - 19 Yahoo back links

ZTDN Directory Network - PR0 - 923 Yahoo back links

EKWK Directory - PR0 - 1,060 Yahoo back links

Holiday Dir - PR1 - 653 Yahoo back links

Your-Bids Link Directory - PR0 - 3,450 Yahoo back links

KlickNa Link Directory - PR0 - 7 Yahoo back links


In addition to this weekly list you can find a lot of additional free directories at 5 Star Directory.

Have Fun!

Omgili is new search engine that claims to be the best way to find out what people are saying about anything and everything.

As per the Omgili hype:

- Omgili is your way to find "subjective information". As opposed to traditional search engines, which search for sites and pages, Omgili finds consumer opinions, debates, discussions, personal experiences, answers and solutions. Most of the questions have already been answered - find the answers through Omgili. Most of the technical problems have been solved - find the solutions through Omgili. Most of the experiences have already been described - Find these descriptions through Omgili.

- Omgili is a specialized search engine that focuses on "many to many" user generated content platforms, such as, Forums, Discussion groups, Mailing lists, answer boards and others.

- Omgili is a crawler based, vertical search engine that scans millions of online discussions worldwide in over 100,000 boards, forums and other discussion based resources. Omgili knows to analyze and differentiate between discussion entities such as topic, title, replies and discussion date.

Check it out today at - Omgili

Every week on Saturday or Sunday we will release a list of the newest free directories and/or directories we find (some may be a little older, but recently offering free submissions) that are offering free listings, many times for only a short period. These are great opportunities for creating one way back links to your site!

Below is a list of 30 for the week of – September 3rd, 2007 (listed in order of Google PageRank). Hurry, they may not be free forever!

Sincrona Directory – PR6
Submit Directory – PR 6
Web 1 Directory – PR5
InfraSec-Conf.org – PR5
Topsites Directory – PR4
SampleTec Web Directory – PR4
UStac.org – PR4
Karmania.Net – PR3
5 Star Directory – PR2
Maxi23 – PR1
FreeWebsDirectory.com – PR0
9Y6.NET – PR0
Directory for rank – PR0
Dabfeed – PR0
SEO: Project Web Directory – PR0
Yooley Directory – PR0
A Free Directory – PR0
Mix Directory – PR0
Gathjod Directory – PR0
CMEP Intl Directory – PRO
Free 1 Free Directory – PR0
EastLink Directory – PR0
Link Holes – PR0
Any Websites – PR0
Free Web Directory – PR0
Link Drip – PR0
Links Pedia – PR0
Ferret Seek – PR0
Link 1 Directory – PR0
Directorme – PR0

Just recently stumbled upon an interesting list at eBizMBA that had a list of the top 30 social bookmarking sites. I really like the amount of data used and analyzed to create this list.

Check it out at - eBizMBA Top 30 Social Bookmarking Sites

A new report released by a Wall Street analyst on Tuesday labels Yahoo as an "attractive acquisition candidate" for many large technology or media companies including the possibility of Microsoft (once again). While I think Microsoft will need something like this to truly compete with Google I would be very sorry to loose Yahoo as an independent entity (and search engine) as I feel that there needs to be more than one or two big players to keep everyone on their toes and I do not feel that Ask is up to the job (yet). It will be interesting to watch this play out and may even create a opportunity for some of the smaller engines to grab a little market share.

You can read more here - Microsoft might pay 53 billion for Yahoo

I have used a lot of analytics programs in the last couple of years and as of late (since Google bought it from Urchin) I have been using Google Analytics almost exclusively. As Google has made some updates I have liked the service even more, but recently on a whim I decided to try a new analytics package called GoingUp!. While I was initially drawn to the idea that it was an analytics package geared towards the SEO crowd, I have grown to really like some of the features which Google Analytics lacks. While I was a little put off by what they call free SEO tools which ended up actually being cheap (freely available) tools that were not completely functional in some instances, overall I am very happy (using the free package to test the service) as of now.

Here is the pitch from GoingUp!

"Introducing GoingUp! site tracking, web analytics and search engine ranking. Similar to Google analytics, you'll see a COMPLETE picture of your website traffic, visitors and ranking. Where we excel over other site analytics is our extra features and great service. Easily see web traffic, visitor actions, where your visitors come from and where they go on your site, all in real-time. Need to track sales and other critical onsite factors? With our advanced web analytics you'll always be in the know."

While I agree with the additional features that Google lacks, I would not completely remove Google Analytics from my sites. I would run GoingUp! to be an additional, and sometimes easier to read source of analytics and real time information.

Some of the benefits of GoingUp! I have experienced are (as compared to Google Analytics)

- A better and easier to digest presentation of the much of the analytics data.
- Better layout and options for tracking visitor paths within the site.
- A feature called - Visitor Activity that gives you a quick snapshot of each visitor, where they came from, what page they entered and what page they exited.
- My favorite - SiteSpy, track your visitors in real-time as they come to the site and as they bounce around. It really gives you a completely different perspective on the site usage as you are watching people interact with it (a little big brother, but fun).

The biggest disadvantage I have experienced is the lack of long-term data. You can buy packages that allow data to be collected for a longer period of time, but the pricing can run upwards of $60 per month and would not even handle the traffic data for 6 months of one of my directory Websites. This is a little disappointing.

Overall what I think I like best about GoingUP! is the way it makes analytics appear much more intimate where I find Google Analytics more formal and proper. GoingUp! allows me to get a better vision of my site on a minute by minute basis while Google Analytics allows me to see and analyze the long term data and traffic in order to make better marketing choices. As both packages serve a specific purpose, I will probably end up using both of them together on my sites in the future.

The DMOZ aka "The Open Directory" started out with the best intentions, but as of late has become that train wreck that you don't want to watch, but you can't take your eyes off of it. In it's original form it was a human-edited directory that would list all the best sites on the Web. This was very important as the search technology was not very advanced at the time and this directory was an important resource for Web surfers.

Many early (and some current) search engines utilized information from the DMOZ in their results. This gave the DMOZ some early recognition and respect which made it a desirable directory to have your Website listed. In 2000 Google decided to take a copy of the DMOZ, sort it by PageRank and call it the Google Directory. What is important about this is that in addition to creating the Google Directory, Google also started to give extra preference to Websites listed within the directory (DMOZ/Google Directory) and as Google has grown in popularity and reach getting a listing within the DMOZ has become even that much more important.

Today, it has almost become impossible to get your site listed in the DMOZ as the volunteers that run the directory may only be active within certain categories that they have an interest in. Many sites are submitted and the owners never hear anything back, even after years and years of waiting. How can you figure out which categories are active, which may give you a chance of having your submission seen by a volunteer? Well you can use - DMOZ is alive to check this out.

Even though a listing in the DMOZ is still considered a big plus for SEO efforts it may be coming to end. First of all, Google has becoming slower and slower in updating their Google Directory with updated DMOZ data. This may be a sign that Google is losing interest in the value of the directory. In the past couple of years I have seen many forum posts offering to get your site listed in the DMOZ for different amounts of money supposedly from DMOZ editors/volunteers. Recently, Shoe Money which is a very popular Blog was sent an email requesting money from a "so called" editor asking for $5,000 to not have their site removed. This email was ignored and amazing enough a follow-up email came and the site was removed. This is absolutely amazing and you can read all about it here under a post labeled - DMOZ Extortion.

In addition to everything else, the DMOZ had been sold, appeared to have potentially run out of funds for hosting, saved at the last moment, stopped submissions for a period of time and had general errors and inconsistencies. Is it just a matter of time before this mammoth directory ends it run or will it be updated and reborn? My guess is that the interest is waining and the corruption questions may be it's downfall.

UPDATE - Joost De Valk, a former DMOZ editor tries to figure out what is going on with the Shoe Money Blog corruption and gets locked out of his account. You can read more at - The DMOZ mob strikes again…

You can also see this corruption played out over at ScriptLance.com (custom freelance programming forum) where people are buying links. You may write this off as a fraud, but he reality is these jobs get completed and the people who complete these jobs do not get paid until the job is done. Check it out for yourself here - DMOZ Listings For Sale

If you are interested in seeing what the future holds for the Web, you may want to check out Killer Startups. This great site reviews around 30 new Web startups every business day. I have found many great tools and resources here and am always on the outlook for the next 'big' thing or idea and this provides a great consolidated resource for this type of information.

To check out all the new startups click here - Killer Startups

It seems like it never was going to be updated, but after 19 months Google has finally pulled a new data dump from the Open Directory (DMOZ) into it's Google Directory - which is essentially just the DMOZ branded with Google's logo. Why is this important? Well it seemed that not to long ago the DMOZ was all but left for dead. New submissions were halted, the directory appeared to not be accessible (or certain categories not accessible) for periods of time and Google had not pulled data from it in awhile. It looked like it's days were numbered, but recently the directory started accepting submissions again (getting approved - that is another story), it appears more stable and Google is pulling data again. I guess that this means the DMOZ will be around for awhile longer and still powerful in influencing Google search engine results.


For information adding your site to the DMOZ - click here.

mylivesearch (beta) just sent me an email to alert me to their "World Wide Public Beta Launch" on Wednesday August 29th. I thought by signing up early for alerts I would actually see something before everyone else, but it looks like everyone is invited.

You can check it out at - mylivesearch

In case you don't remember from previous posts, this new engine may be pretty interesting as it is supposed to search the net in real-time or as they call it 'live'. The idea is this would provide very current and up-to-date results. My guess is they may not have enough funding to keep a potential hit like this on their own and if successful it may get gobbled up by a larger player.

Finervista is a new search engine focused on finding the best online seminars and Webcasts. Here is how the site describes itself:

Finervista is a free and fast educational and learning resource for business professionals. Use Finervista to get up to speed or stay in the know with the latest in your field.

* Find the best free educational business webcasts and online seminars by industry experts on many business and technical topics.

* Search thousands of online seminars in all areas of information technology, computers, software, career training, business management, sales, marketing, human resources, and more.

* Find and attend a live online seminar today. Or view a recorded webcast at your leisure. Do it right from your web browser without ever leaving your office.

Check out today by visiting Finervista.

Google recently announced and released their new "Universal Search" system for anyone searching in English. What does this mean? It means Google will now blend in listings from their news, video, images, local and book search engines along with those it currently gathers from crawling Web pages. This leaves a lot of new opportunities for your SEO efforts. Below are some ideas you may want to consider:

Make sure your site/business (if applicable) is listed in Google Maps.

Add a video (or videos) to Google Video and YouTube (owned by Google) tagging it with your important keywords.

Make sure to use good alt tags on all the images on your site to entice the Google image bot to correctly index them. Please note that the Google image site gets updated rather slowly, so don't expect immediate results as they may take 6-12 months.

A great example of Google's "Universal Search" in action can be seen when you search for "Laird Hamilton". The first item you will see in the search engine results are 3 images, then a couple of Web sites followed by a couple of YouTube videos all within the first page of results!

This question gets asked all the time and the quick answer is yes. But not all free directories are actually worth submitting to. I just read a great article from the Alive Directory Blog which does a great job of summarizing this.

You can check it out by clicking here.

Social bookmarking/networking sites are part of the Web 2.0 experience that is the future of the more interactive Web. In the last couple of years these sites have really taken off and it seems new ones are added on a daily basis.

SEO marketers have been submitting to these sites hoping to create traffic and get quality backlinks for their sites. With the amount of social sites available to submit to this has become a very tedious job. As of late, we are starting to see some tools to try and make this easier. Below are a couple of newer ones that are getting a little attention:

Social Poster - Great site that allows you to submit to up to 40 social sites. Includes most of the BIG sites, but also has some of the smaller, less known ones as well.

OnlyWire - Offers up to 19 social sites to submit to. The list is very interesting and includes some sites not found in other tools.

META data makes your Web page(s) easier to find. Some search engines, like Yahoo and MSN still rely heavily on the contents of HTML META tags to understand the content of your Web page(s).

To build META data for your Web pages(s) can sometimes be difficult. I recently have found an online service that has teamed up with Yahoo, Google and Wordtracker to make this easier with relevant suggestions after reviewing your Web page(s), articles or any content that you load in. The service is a feature of WordsFinder.com called keyword suggestion.

An interesting service that promises to help increase your Alexa ranking is now available. The company is called UpMyRank.com and the premise of the service is that if you load the Alexa toolbar into your browser and visit sites they request you will receive traffic at a 3 to 1 rate (you visit three sites for them and they will request one other member visit your site). This traffic will be guaranteed to be running the Alexa toolvar which will create a credit for you with Alexa (as the toolbar is the way that Alexa gathers much of its information and ranking data). With enough of these people visiting your site your Alexa traffic ranking will increase and your site will appear as if it is getting more traffic.

Check out the service at - UpMyRank.com

Many sites have URLs that incorporate underscores. Examples of these could include:

Top level domain:
- www.i_love_google.com

Subpage domain
- www.xyz.com/this_is_an_extreme_example_of_an_underscored_url

Matt Cutts, head of Google's Web Spam Team recently announced at WordCamp 2007 that Google will now treat underscores as word separators. What does this mean to you? It means that in the past those underscored URLs appeared as one long word to Google, so from the examples listed above Google would see www.i_love_google.com not as three words - i, love and google, but as one big word - i_love_google. Since most people do not use underscores in their searching and they don't tend to search for big phrases utilizing underscores, having underscores in your URL did not help you from an SEO perspective. Now all that is changing and with this news I expect to see a lot more underscoring usage in the future.

One of my favorite Google tools, Google Analytics has been down since last Saturday night (7/28). While no one is sure when it will be back online, Google has placed a message on their Analytics Blog which can be seen here with an update and information.

It is good to know that they mention no data will be lost. Also, an update will be posted to the Blog as soon as everything is back online (if you don't see it in your stats first).

It has also been speculated around the SEO community that this outage may be associated with a bigger update at Google that may include the next PR update. That would be great as many have been waiting impatiently for the last month or so for this update.

While no one really knows the exact date of the next Google PageRank (PR) update, except maybe Google what is know is that it usually happens about four (4) times a year resulting in around one (1) update every quarter or so.

As everyone seems to want to guess when the next one is coming you can find people's guesses and other interesting info on threads about these updates at places on the Web like Digital Point Forums. One thread in particular has had over 1,680 posts since June 2nd.

There is also a great history resource available at SEO Company Canada that lists every update since July of 2000.

In the end, no one really knows exactly when the next one is coming, all we do know is that history tells us it should be on its way in the near future!

Have you ever wanted to check out a site or directory and see if they are applying any ‘no follow’ code to any outbound links? If so, you probably had to spend a little time looking through the site’s code and/or use some tool to check it. Well it just a got a whole lot easier as I found out when I downloaded and installed the latest versions of Quirk’s SearchStatus Firefox add-on (version 1.20). It has a great ‘no follow’ highlighter that is incredibly helpful when reviewing sites for possible link partners. It is very simple and all you have to do once you have installed the add-on is turn on the ‘no follow’ highlighter by right clicking the symbol next to the SearchStatus toolbar and check it.

Once the ‘no follow’ highlighter is checked when you visit a page you can easily and quickly see which links are ‘no follow’ links by looked at what is highlighted. SearchStatus is not just a ‘no follow’ link highlighter is also includes rankings in Alexa and Compete, Google PR ranking, a keyword highlighter, a listing of the number of indexed pages, Meta tags and more.

Check it out at – Search Status 1.20 (for Firefox)

Many people choose to host their Website on a shared server, usually as a cost saving measure. While shared servers offer considerable savings do you have any idea what sites are being hosted with yours, do you care? You should. A bad site on your server could create problems for everyone. There have been other services to help figure out what sites you are sharing server space with, but recently I found a new site with a nice and easy (Web 2.0ish) interface called, 'myIPneighbors'. It makes it easy to reveal who is being hosted along with your site(s).

You can check it out at - myIPneighbors.com

After seeing this you may consider moving your site(s) to a better neighborhood, for more information check out the discussions at the premiere Web hosting forum - WebHosting TALK - Good luck!

If you want to get some cool and detailed stats on a domain look no further than the new Web-based tool at dnSCoop. In addition to the forum, directory and hosting reviews, dnScoop offers a tool that allows you to enter a domain and it will extract (in a very pleasant Web 2.0 looking layout) all kinds of data for you. The data includes approximate domain age, current PR, inbound links, traffic rank (via Alexa), indexed pages (in Google, Yahoo, AlltheWeb, AltaVista and MSN), an interesting domain name IP report, text link values (via Text-Link-Ads) and a cool site value estimate.

Check it out now at - dnScoop

Have you been struggling to get some reasonably priced high PR links from quality Web sites? Why not make a donation to a good cause and get that quality link you have been look for? There are many high PR sites on the Web dying for contributions ranging from $5 to $100 that would just love to give you that link from their contributor’s page. Below is a small list to get you started:

Cacti – a complete network graphing solution.
PR6 - Donation page Contributor’s page -$5 minimum, appears to be permanent.

Moodle - a course management system designed to help educators who want to create quality online courses.
PR6 - Donations/Contributor's page - $50 minimum (for a link, the more you pay the higher you appear on the page), appears to be permanent and also an added bonus of being a '.org' backlink.

Open Wall – a resource for finding open source software to help bring security to open environments.
PR 7 – Donations/Contributor’s page - $100 minimum, appears to be permanent.

In the next few days eSyndiCat Web directory software pricing will be going up. Currently they offer an unlimited license (set-up as many directories as you want) for only $149. This is a steal for anyone creating their own directory empire. The new pricing will be $249, which is still a good deal, just not as good as $149....:-)


Also, I believe that the new version 2.2 (coming soon) offers some cool new features link a deep links mod!

Check out the deal at eSyndiCat.

Smart PageRank (beta) is a new Website that offers a interesting twist on monitoring the PageRank (PR) value of your Website. It allows you to submit your email address which they will use to communicate with you when there has been any updates to your Website PR. This is a nice service by itself, but the site also offers some additional information that you might find interesting including PR ranking in up to 67 datacenters, the age of domain (in detail, not rounded off), Alexa rankings, DMOZ and Yahoo directory listings, backlink checker, indexed pages checker and Website value estimate (which is probably not that accurate, but interesting).

Check it out now at - Smart PageRank.

How many search engines can you name? Probably 5-10 at most, but there are others out there and some of them offer some pretty cool features and have some interesting search results. Well the guys at Alt Search Engines have their top 100 list ready for July. Click here to visit the list of top 100 alternative search engines.

Also, check out the top 10 mobile search engines!

Watching this is a like watching a car accident. You don't want to see it, but you just can't help yourself. Watch at your own risk...:-)

Have you ever been in your favorite forum and noticed people selling the signature links at the bottom of their posts? One of my favorite forums is Digital Point and I have seen many people sell one or more of their signatures links (Digital Point allows up to four) to make a little extra money. I guess I never realized that there was such an organized approach to selling signature links until I found the forum to end all signature link forums - Sig-Link. Check it out and see what your posts are worth....:-)

Apparently the 'Rumor of the Day' is that Microsoft wants to desperately get some additional traction in the Web world and is going to try and buy Facebook.com. Since most of their recent efforts have been less than stellar and more of a 'me to' catch-up approach, why not buy yourself some additional presence? They may want it, but it may not be for sale - read all about it at Internet Outsider.

Just noticed that iwebtool.com has added some cool new tools.

List Cleaner
&
IP Location

Have fun!

Search Engine Land has opened it's new social network, Sphinn. At first glance it looks like a great place for the SEO/SEM community. I am getting ready to register and will provide an updated opinion in the coming weeks....:-)

Are you familiar with the Google of China? If not, it is called Baidu and it is very popular among China's large population (1,321,851,888 estimate as of July 2007). I have noticed some of my English sites starting to get indexed and actually receiving traffic from Baidu.

I wanted to optimize my sites and recently came across a great blog post at China SEO Blog that has some great tips on getting and staying indexed within Baidu.

Baidu site submission

I wanted to share some of my favorite FREE Web marketing resources. Some of them are print and some are electronic - see list below:

Website Magazine - A great printed and electronic magazine covering all aspects of running a Web site from SEO to programming.

Revenue Magazine - A printed and electronic magazine that covers everything abotu making money with your Web site from Affiliate programs to AdSense advice.

Make Millions and Make Change - An electronic book broken into chapters that is an incredible resource that provides practical and useful Web business advice.

The Marketing Pilgrim Essays - An electronic collection of essays from leading industry individuals that contain advice and information on SEO and Web marketing advice.

SEO Fast Start - A great getting started in SEO electronic book.

Good luck and enjoy!

Another Monday, another bought company. This time it is Postini, a leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions. To learn more check out the links below:

Info and response - Search Engine Roundtable

Google Press Release

I get asked a lot about how to find free keyword research tools, so I decided to make a quick list of some of the more popular tools (Web-based and downloadable). They are not listed in any particular order:

Keyword Tracker (free edition)

Keyword Discovery (free tool)

Google's Traffic Estimator

Yahoo's Traffic Estimator (via a little outdated and slow Overture database)

SEO Book's Traffic Estimator

Digital Point's Keyword Tracker

wordpot.com

Good Keywords (download software)

Good luck on your keyword research!

Just got an email from Adrian who owns Directory Share and the upcoming dValuation.com and he shared with me that everything is hush, hush at dValuation.com and that as soon as he was ready to release this new service to directory owners we would be getting EXCLUSIVE information 24 hours prior to launch! Make sure to stayed tuned for more updates, this looks to be an exciting new addition to the Web directory community!

I was just poking my head around the Digital Point Forums and was reading some new posts by a guy who is incredible at making PHP Link Directory (PHPLD) mods and noticed a new link in his signature (by the way he also owns Directory Share - check it out). This link took me to a site that is running a pretty cool teaser track for an upcoming project that looks to help directory owners. If I can read a little into it, it may be a a new list of directories with a new twist. Check it out for yourself at dValuation.com.

P.S. I have requested more info to share and will post if and when I hear anything...:-)

I recently saw a great article on using Flickr in your SEO efforts. You can check it out at Search Engine Roundtable.

I run some Web directories and I am constantly amazed at what crappy sites people submit. Usually they are some type of AdSense templated site with little to no value or some affiliate program with a URL like www.affiliate_program_name.com/x123hh67. Sometimes they are placeholders without an actual site yet or they are someone's blog which has not been updated since 2005 and only contains one entry. I wonder if these submitters actually think that I would ever consider approving their sites? It must be like spam, if you submit to enough directories (usually free ones) some of them will probably overlook it and you will get accepted (I suspect this usually happens with the newer directory owners who have not seen thousands of these sites before - I once fell for them too, early on as I was just excited anyone wanted to submit to my little directory). I wish these sites would all go away as they are a complete waste of time for me and serve no purpose but to get a cheap, misleading buck off some unsuspecting Web surfer while clogging up search engine results.

This is just my little soapbox rant as I am reviewing the thousands of sites waiting for approval in one of my free directories and realizing that almost 95% of them are just crap!

Who could not just love a new search engine where it's namesake logo appears to have eyes that follow your mouse movements and as a bonus is also from Russia? Not me, so go check-out gogo.ru and be bedazzled....:-)

Is Business.com still for sale? How much is it worth if it is for sale? I have heard a lot as of late. It first started while reading an interview with Jessica Bowman, the director of SEO at Business.com on the Aviva Directory Blog. The story was entitled, "What Everyone Ought To Know About Business.com" where an offer of 20% a submission was offered. I thought this was nice, since I had never seen any discounts for Business.com submission previously. After that I started reading for and more about Business.com being for sale. The pricing in articles I read said that Business.com was worth somewhere between 300 and 400 million dollars. I originally thought that maybe they were offering discounts to pump up their submissions to make it look better on paper before the sale, but in the last couple of weeks I have not heard much. Maybe it has cooled down and Business.com is not actually for sale, or maybe it still is - only time will tell.

Article in paidContent.org

Article in Search Engine Journal

Article in Searchviews

Article in Reuters

It is not an easy business, but some do well buying and selling domains. I had recently found a new online expiring domain research tool that I found rather interesting. Below is a link to this tool.

Dropscout - Free expired domain name research.

You may also enjoy the wonderful domain information provided by the Seven Mile blog from world famous domain investor Frank Schilling.

If it is not acquired by Google before it goes live (no pun intended), My Live Search has a chance at being an interesting new search engine. Instead of pulling from an indexed database that may or may not be out of date, My Live Search treats your browser as very fast spider to instantly crawl for relevant results in real time. Seems like an awesome task, but Rob Gabriel the creator of this new engine seems to believe that he can produce better, more relevant results in 'real time'.

You can read more by clicking here.

Check out the My Live Search Homepage by clicking here.

Even though I have only been involved in SEO for a couple of short years, I was a daily visitor to Threadwatch.org and always looked forward to the news and especially the feedback. Many of those posts really made me think and impacted my opinions on subjects. It was like news and views with an edge, and I loved that edge!

It was announced that last Friday (06/29/07) would be the last day for Threadwatch.org by it's current owner Aaron Wall. To read all about it click here.

I had just recently stumbled upon SEO Digger and found it to be a fun, but not perfect tool to help determine keywords or phrases that a site may be currently ranking for that you may or may not have know about. I highly recommend registering for extra flexibility (I have not received any spam so far from my registration). As I was looking over some of the results from a couple of my sites I noticed niche terms that I was ranking for that I had no idea (I would see a the keyword a couple of times in my analytics, but thought it was more of a fluke than anything). I am not sure how this is going to change my Web strategies, but I enjoy having the additional information.

If can check it out by clicking here or visiting www.seodigger.com.

Welcome to my new blog on all things SEO. In this blog we will review the latest tools, sites, directories and discuss general news.