Traffic Flow SEO

Okay, now that I have your attention I want to tell you that it really is a FREE offer. I recently stumbled upon IMAutomator ad signed up for a FREE account to see if there was a catch.

There is a catch, it will only submit your website to 15 of the different social booking marking websites within their list and it will only perform 10 submissions a day. For FREE, that is fine with me. While the social bookmarking websites are ones you probably have never heard of, it is a FREE service and it does create a backlink with your specifications (including deep-linking).

So, why do they give the service away for FREE? Well, the idea is to move you up at a later date to the PRO account at $24.95 a month which gives you access to all their social bookmarking websites and more.

Here are some videos to better explain the service:

IMAutomator Introduction:




They have a lot of great training video here - IMAutomator Training Videos

So, what are you waiting for? Get your FREE account today and start submitting those bookmarks:

Homepage - IMAutomator

FREE Sign-up Page - IMAutomator Sign Up

Coming soon, a new direction in search marketing.......:-)

Are you curious as to what happened in 2010 on the Web, well you have come to the right place as Pingdom recently released some stats from a large set of different sources and I am going to also share those here for your viewing pleasure.

Original post - Internet 2010 in Numbers

Here we go.....


Email

* 107 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2010.
* 294 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
* 1.88 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
* 480 million – New email users since the year before.
* 89.1% – The share of emails that were spam.
* 262 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 89% are spam).
* 2.9 billion – The number of email accounts worldwide.
* 25% – Share of email accounts that are corporate.

Websites

* 255 million – The number of websites as of December 2010.
* 21.4 million – Added websites in 2010.

Web Servers

* 39.1% – Growth in the number of Apache websites in 2010.
* 15.3% – Growth in the number of IIS websites in 2010.
* 4.1% – Growth in the number of nginx websites in 2010.
* 5.8% – Growth in the number of Google GWS websites in 2010.
* 55.7% – Growth in the number of Lighttpd websites in 2010.


Domain Names

* 88.8 million – .COM domain names at the end of 2010.
* 13.2 million – .NET domain names at the end of 2010.
* 8.6 million – .ORG domain names at the end of 2010.
* 79.2 million – The number of country code top-level domains (e.g. .CN, .UK, .DE, etc.).
* 202 million – The number of domain names across all top-level domains (October 2010).
* 7% – The increase in domain names since the year before.

Internet Users

* 1.97 billion – Internet users worldwide (June 2010).
* 14% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
* 825.1 million – Internet users in Asia.
* 475.1 million – Internet users in Europe.
* 266.2 million – Internet users in North America.
* 204.7 million – Internet users in Latin America / Caribbean.
* 110.9 million – Internet users in Africa.
* 63.2 million – Internet users in the Middle East.
* 21.3 million – Internet users in Oceania / Australia.


Social Media

* 152 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
* 25 billion – Number of sent tweets on Twitter in 2010
* 100 million – New accounts added on Twitter in 2010
* 175 million – People on Twitter as of September 2010
* 7.7 million – People following @ladygaga (Lady Gaga, Twitter’s most followed user).
* 600 million – People on Facebook at the end of 2010.
* 250 million – New people on Facebook in 2010.
* 30 billion – Pieces of content (links, notes, photos, etc.) shared on Facebook per month.
* 70% – Share of Facebook’s user base located outside the United States.
* 20 million – The number of Facebook apps installed each day.

Web Browsers


Videos

* 2 billion – The number of videos watched per day on YouTube.
* 35 – Hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
* 186 – The number of online videos the average Internet user watches in a month (USA).
* 84% – Share of Internet users that view videos online (USA).
* 14% – Share of Internet users that have uploaded videos online (USA).
* 2+ billion – The number of videos watched per month on Facebook.
* 20 million – Videos uploaded to Facebook per month.

Images

* 5 billion – Photos hosted by Flickr (September 2010).
* 3000+ – Photos uploaded per minute to Flickr.
* 130 million – At the above rate, the number of photos uploaded per month to Flickr.
* 3+ billion – Photos uploaded per month to Facebook.
* 36 billion – At the current rate, the number of photos uploaded to Facebook per year.


Data sources and notes: Spam percentage from MessageLabs (PDF). Email user numbers and counts from Radicati Group (the number of sent emails was their prediction for 2010, so it’s very much an estimate). Website numbers from Netcraft. Domain name stats from Verisign and Webhosting.info. Internet user numbers and distribution from Internet World Stats. Facebook stats from Facebook and Business Insider. Twitter stats from Twitter (and here), TwitterCounter and TechCrunch. Web browser stats from StatCounter. YouTube video numbers from Google. Facebook video numbers from GigaOM. US online video stats from Comscore and the Pew Research Center. Flickr image numbers from Flickr.

I am always on the lookout for new or better webmaster tools and it never hurts if they are also free. My newest find (maybe a bit older for some who have already found it) is woorank. It is probably one of the best and most accurate website analysis tools I have found in quite a while.

What I really like about woorank is that it provides a scoring system that helps frame all the data easier. While you may or may not agree with the scoring variables, I do give kudos to them for trying.



In addition to the website woorank the report also provides insights on:

- Visitors:
--- Traffic Estimation
--- Current Alexa Rank
--- Current Compete Rank
- Content:
--- Google Indexed Pages
--- Popular Pages
- In-Site SEO:
-- Homepage:
--- URL
--- Title Tag
--- Meta Description
--- Meta Keywords
--- Headings (H1, H2, etc.)
--- Image Alt Text
--- Text/HTML Ratio
--- Frames?
--- Flash?
-- Inside Analysis:
--- Inside Page Analysis
-- Website Compliance:
--- WWW Resolve
--- Robots.txt
--- XML Sitemaps
--- Language
--- Doc Type
--- Encoding
--- Google Analytics
--- WC3C Validity
--- Microformats
--- Dublin Core
--- Geo Meta Tags
- Off-Site SEO:
-- Popularity:
--- Google Last Crawl Date
--- Backlinks
--- .edu Backlinks
--- .gov Backlinks
-- Directories:
--- DMOZ Listing?
--- Yahoo Directory Listing?
-- Social Media:
--- Delicious Links
--- Twitter Recent Backlinks
--- Twitter Account Check
--- Wikipedia Backlinks
--- Feeds
- Usability:
--- Readability Level
--- Favicon
- Website Information:
--- Load Time
--- IP Address
--- Location
--- gzip
-- Other Facts
--- Safe Browsing
-- Related Websites:
--- Related Wesbites and WooRank
-- Domain:
--- Whois

Check it out now and Get YOUR WooRank - WooRank

I have run across hundreds of websites claiming to help determine the value of your website. The problem with most of them is that either they are broken, outdated, use the wrong data sets (in my opinion) or are just plain so far off that you know it can't be right.

Well, every once in a while you run across a new(er) service that seems to actually have their act together. The one that I recently found is called Real Website Worth and it tends to do generally do a good job and is somewhat accurate. I really like the amount of data sources and information that it all pulls into one nice report within 60 seconds. The great part about all of it is that the service is free and has no strings attached.

So, check it out today for FREE at - www.RealWebsiteWorth.com.

First, on November 9th we hear that Ask.com decided it no longer really wants to be a search engine. You can read more here - Ask.com Update from their blog (I think it is weird that the President of Ask.com decided to write his name in all caps, what is that supposed to mean?).

Then, 1 day later, on November 10th we hear that Business.com is going to 'realigned' into some other Dex One Offering. There press release is here - Dex One Realigns Interactive Operations

This after all the excitement of Yahoo! also deciding to get out of the search business earlier this year, has created a lot of change within the search space in such a short time. The problem is that as we lose things we seldom get anything back and/or if we do get a new web property it is usually never as good as something else we lost.

Hopefully, Blekko, a new search engine proves me wrong and fills in the void of Ask.com. So far it does not appear to be happening, but there is always hope....:-)

Entireweb is having a great sale today (Black Friday) on their guaranteed inclusion service. Below is the information from the website:

Get listed in less than 48 hours!

Your entire site (up to 1,000 pages) will be listed throughout one of the major search engine networks on the web. We will update your listing every 48 hours for a full year, refreshing any new information you've changed on any page and listing any new pages you've added. If you keep your website updated, we'll do the rest!

Your website will be listed within the Entireweb search engine network which includes (but is not limited to) the search engines below:



The promotion is highlighted below in their promotion graphic:



Click the banner ad below to sign-up and get your savings today!

In the last year the search engine selection, at least among the larger players has vastly diminished. This year Yahoo decided to no longer be a unique search engine and is now completely powered by Bing results (both organic and paid listings) and recently Ask.com waved their white flag and have basically announced they are no longer going to compete in the search space and be a search engine. That basically leaves us with two large players left - Google and Bing.

But....all is not lost! There are some new players coming on the scene and while they may not topple the Google and Bings of the world, they do offer us some new and unique opportunities within the search space. Below is a list of 3 of the new(er) search engines available. I decided to let their descriptions from their own 'About Us' pages doing the taking for each one. I recommend that you try them all and see what you take is on them.



Using BweezyWeb, Bweezy makes web search faster than ever by allowing the user to open multiple search results in the original browser window without having to leave the search page. All the user has to do is click a button next to the search result, causing an embedded BweezyWindow with the desired website to open up on the page. This allows you to immediately see whether that search result is what you're looking for. No more having to open a bunch of tabs or windows! The Bweezywindow can also be maximized and minimized, allowing the user to check each search result out in either full screen or half screen - either horizontally or vertically - and if desired, use the Bweezywindow as a browser window.

Search Engine Link - Bweezy



slash the web!

blekko is a better way to search the web by using slashtags. slashtags search only the sites you want and cut out the spam sites. use friends, experts, community or your own slashtags to slash in what you want and slash out what you don't.

web search bill of rights:

1. Search shall be open
2. Search results shall involve people
3. Ranking data shall not be kept secret
4. Web data shall be readily available
5. There is no one-size-fits-all for search
6. Advanced search shall be accessible
7. Search engine tools shall be open to all
8. Search & community go hand-in-hand
9. Spam does not belong in search results
10. Privacy of searchers shall not be violated

Search Engine Link - blekko





48ers was created to help you search for what's happening right now.

We trawl conversations from all the major social networks across the web to bring back nuggets of information to help you:

* Discover what people are saying about your company or brand
* Find out what other people think of the TV shows you're watching
* Be the first to find out about breaking news stories
* Tap into the public mood about the latest sporting events

Search Engine Link - 48ers

Ask.com just cannot seem to get things right. It's search traffic volume rarely changes, but it's focus seems to change with the wind and it has seen a lot of change as of late with most of it not being considered good. Here is a hit list of fun items over the last year:

- A new look and feel with a new direction as more of a Q&A engine (haven't we done this before?)



- Barry Diller say he sees no value in it - TechCrunch article, Barry Diller: Ask.com Has No Value Inside Of IAC. Somebody get him a muzzle before he further devalues his 1.85 billion dollar investment, please!


- The guy who created the search algorithm leaves - Ask.com’s Founder Of Search Technology Leaves: Apostolos Gerasoulis



- The rise and fall of Ask Deals (a lot of Brady Bunch, but little actual substance)



- The return of 'Jeeves' in the U.K. only (what, is 'Jeeves' not good enough for everyone else?)




.....and now they just sent a message out to all self service credit card advertisers that reads:

Ask Sponsored Listings will be discontinuing the self-service credit card channel on September 30th, 2010.

When the self-serve credit card channel is discontinued, your advertising account will be permanently closed. As a result, your ads will not longer be in distribution and your account will become inaccessible.

Please review the timeline below as this outlines the account deactivation process.

September 1st, 2010 - The Client Services Team will disable the auto refill feature on all accounts. This will prevent any future credit card charges to your account.

Mid September - The Client Services Team will begin deactivating self service credit card advertising accounts and processing refunds for their remaining balances*. When your account is deactivated, you will be given "Reporting-only" access which will allow you to run click reports until September 30th.

September 30th, 2010 - The self-service credit card channel will be discontinued and access to the advertising console will be removed.

*Please note: The refund process can take up to 90 days, but this deadline may be extended.


So, where does this leave us? It leaves us a new interface, lack of confidence from the owner, loss of our technology lead, failed product extensions, a revival of a lost icon (in the U.K.) and now......the end of self service paid ads. Why not just drop another nail in the coffin and also get rid of one of your revenue sources - well it sounds like a good idea, right?

All I can say is that Ask.com once had a chance to be bigger and better than it is today, but I think that time has long passed us by.

Miniwatts Marketing Group just released some fun new data:

* There are 6,845,609,960 humans
* There are 1,966,514,816 Internet users
* There are 517,760,460 Facebook users

Put another way:

* About 7% of the world's humans are on Facebook
* About 26% of Internet users are on Facebook

For all the stats check out - Internet World Stats

My favorite web directory is at it again with a special and not well known promo code until the end of October. This code is for 20% off any of their directory submission services - US and UK web directory listing submissions and blog directory submissions. All the details are below:

Code: SAVE20

Link: Best of the Web Discount Link (use code on checkout)

Good luck and happy submitting!

GroupM just released an incredible study and analysis on the potential impact on pay-per-click campaigns running in Yahoo, Bing or both during and after the search alliance process which show increased costs as much as 78%!

All I can saw is wow. One of the things that I really appreciated about Yahoo and Bing, to a lesser extent was the cost savings on a CPC basis over Google, but with these potential increases much of that advantage is now erased and it will be interesting to see how this play outs for advertisers.

You can read all about it and the methodology at the link below:

Financial Implications of the Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance White Paper

Bing beat Google to Instant Search functionality by introducing it way back in 2009.

Click here to see - Bing Instant Search

Okay, well Bing (or Microsoft) did not actually produce an Instant Search function, but some kid with too much time on his hands took your browser and Bing's AJAX APIs and created basically the same thing to some extent.

What is all the hype with Instant Search? Really nothing. The idea is to shave time off your search queries, but to date it has only made my ADD more advanced and actually take me longer to get to what I was actually trying to find (sidetracked by too many interesting, not relevant results that kept popping-up along the way).

So, what I do find interesting is what I am coining Bing's upcoming Seamless Search. This interface is a work of art that is functional, while Google's Instant Search is just an annoyance. Check out the video below to seem a glimpse of Bing's Seamless Search functionality in action:



I think the interface war is going to heat up and make for an interesting 2011, now Bing just needs to make sure that it's results are equal or better than Google's otherwise all this eye candy means nothing.

Online Free Web Directory Submission Service:


EasySubmits - http://easysubmits.com/
- Great service that updates directories often and allows you to check back to see if your submission was accepted, but it lacks the ability to have multiple titles and descriptions for rotation (can be done manually, but it is very time consuming). Great for beginners.


Free Web Directory Submission Software/Scripts:


digiXMAS Directory Submitte - http://www.digixmas.com/directory-submitter.php
- Limited features in FREE mode like only 150 directories (out of 2,000+ available in paid version), but overall a good piece of software.

Fast Directory Submitter - http://www.fastdirectorysubmitter.com/
- Another great piece of software that limits the submissions in FREE mode to just 150 (out of 1,700+ available in paid version).

SubmissionGate - http://www.med-sites.com/SubmitterGate/directory_submitter_software.asp
- Great software, but limited to 60 web directories in FREE version.

Free Directory Submission Software - http://www.imguru.biz/internet-marketing-downloads/view.download/4/46.html
- Free, easy to use, but some limitations. Overall a good product to get started.

Submit'emNow 3.0 - http://www.submitemnow.com/
- Great, completely free directory submission software. A bit dated, but still very usable.

Enough Said......

Just thought I might share a new tool I found today as I was wandering around the Web. This backlink tool does a great job of pulling data correctly with the exception of PageRank (PR), which I hope will be updated soon. It is not clear where they are pulling the data, but it appears to be pulling the better quality backlinks to a website (possibly Google data?). Also, not even though it may appear as if it is done pulling data, let it keep running as it probably is not (I thought it was done and then suddenly about 2-4 minutes later new backlinks started to pop-up again, so give it time - Just an FYI).

Check it out for free at - Blue Backlinks (beta)

A new, interesting study by Google (Facebook's arch enenmy) shows something that most of us suspected, but never had research data to back up. There has always been a lot of discussion around 'friending' a brand and what that means in real value to the brand. Well, the results below show us two things:



1. People who do 'friend' brands, do so somewhat selectively and....



2. The number one reason for 'friending' a brand is to receive discounts and promotional offerings.

So, the moral of this story is that if you are a brand and do not have many 'friends', you could offer up special 'friend' discounts and promotions in order to drive brand loyalty, but most people are not going to be your 'friend' just because they love your brand. Which leads me to believe that Facebook 'friending' does not create new opportunities for brands, but could actually cannibalize existing sales by driving demand for discounts where they may not have existed before. I would love for a deeper study on this topic to tell the second part of this story. Does 'friending' a brand help (increase sales) or hurt (sames sales, lower profit) a brand.

Learn more that the official Google study page - Why do Customers Friend Brands?

So, I may have mislead you a bit with the 401 FREE backlinks title. The reality is I just found an incredible tool with lots of potential. You may or may not be familiar with web stats or whois websites, but they offer great potential for burst search marketing efforts.

What do I mean by burst search marketing efforts? Well, these sites allow a user to submit a URL and then they analyze the URL and provide feedback as web stats or whois information. The great part is that many, if not most of these sites keep a log of the recent websites submitted which are highly indexable by the engines as these sites tend to get crawled much more rapidly than most sites due to the ever changing content.

What does this mean to you? Well, if there were a way to automate submissions to a large grouping of these types of sites this activity would have value otherwise the time it would take to do each one individually does not make this a good use of your time.

So, now there is a completely automated solution for this opportunity that is nothing short of awesome. This new service from Webmaster Deck that will submit your website to 401 web stat and whois sites completely automatic while allowing you to also see every one of the submission as it is happening in real-time.

What are you waiting for? Go check it out now as you have nothing to lose and much to gain!

Click here to visit Webmaster Deck's Web Stats Backlinker

Just another example of the hilarious Google Suggest, suggestions, because you know Google can read your mind...:-)

Image from - Black Hat SEO

Wandering around my favorite search marketing websites I stumbled on 2 great, new and free SEO/SEM tools that I thought I might share.....



1. KeywordEye

- An absolutely incredible visual representation of Google data for use in online marketing efforts. This is the tool Google should have provided, but does not currently (until they buy them).

Check it out now at - KeywordEye

2. Übersuggest

- A great tool to expand your keyword lists and remove hours and hours of tedious manual work. It uses a combination of keywords from 'Google Suggest' and it expands your keyword options by searching for your keyword + every letter of the alphabet, one by one allowing you to create an incredible and comprehensive keyword list.

Once again, this is a tool that Google should have provided, but does not currently.

Check it out now at - Übersuggest


What is your favorite tool? Please comment and list your favorites to share!