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So after coming back from SES I had some interesting conversations, looked at some interesting things and came up with a few ideas. One of the things I’d like to try but have never seen is a recently updated function/plugin. How would a recently updated plugin differ from a recently published function … well I’m glad you asked …

Looking for a “Recently Updated” Wordpress Plugin »

I added Joost’s upcoming plugin that uses the upcoming system to let everybody know where I’m going to be. If you attend or speak at a decent amount of conferences, shows or events, IMHO it’s a pretty neat tool.

So back in the beginning of August I mentioned two plugins that I felt needed to be developed. Joost DeValk stepped up to the plate and wrote one, the Amazon Auto Linker, so he gets the free link love. In caser you missed it the plugin goes thru and auto appends your amazon aff id to any amazon URL’s, nifty huh

If you are interested in writing some plugins and kicking them into the public domain in exchange for some link love and attention drop me a line I’ve got some ideas …

Seth Godin has an article today called ads are the new tip jar, where he advocates clicking on webmaster welfare Google adsense or other contextual ads to help bloggers get paid for their work. He of course completely ignores that advertisers will be paying for clicks from people who had absolutely no intention of using or buying the service advertised. If you click on an ad and your purpose is to make sure the site owner or blogger gets money from the click, and you had no intent to buy or research, that is click fraud. Seth Godin Wants to Cheat Advertisers with Fake Clicks »

Ok so I’ve run most of my guest posts, I still have two or three to run, but they won’t be going live until after SES San Jose. So what did you think? Like em? Dislike em?

Share your feelings in the comments. Constructive criticism is fine, being a dufus troll is not. if you don’t want to be public feel free to drop me an email.

The following is a Guest Post from Joe Hall.

The internet is changing the real estate industry on a daily basis. And, not surprisingly, it’s the Web 2.0 innovators that are leading the revolution. Of course this isn’t the first time that new media gurus have redefined an industry. However, this time around old school brands are being left in the dust, while innovative startups are reaping all the benefits.
Why Old School Real Estate Brands are Losing to New Web 2.0 Innovators »

One of the difficult things of trying to share ideas, or teach a concept to large group of people is the different levels everyone is at. What some people consider advanced others consider intermediate. The second problem is the larger and more diverse the audience, the more general and ambiguous the examples have to be.
Teaching Advanced Link Building and Why Pagerank Will Never Die »

Last week Giovanni Gallucci sent me a link to Viewzi which has some interesting search UI’s that I think advanced users might actually use. Unlike Cuil I don’t think they spent 30 million and ended up with a product that thinks the best picture for me is a picture of Elliot Spitzer.

Viewzi - Interesting Advanced New Search UI »

Many moons ago I wrote about how short videos are better than long ones, and I took lumps in the comments because I didn’t do a good job explaining myself and some readers took me far to literally. However I came across a video last week that allows me to explain myself a little better.
Short Videos, Long Videos, and Don’t Take Everything So Literally »

The following is a Guest Post from Amber Benedict.

A client of mine emailed me in a panic, saying two of their affiliate PPC sites have been “tagged” by Google Adwords for violation of the Google double serving policy. “Tagged” meaning that Google is planning to take down my clients’ paid ads for violation of the policy.  The Google double ad serving policy, according to my Google rep, states that, “Any client that offers the same products or services at similar price points as other advertisers without significant differentiation in terms of website content may run into this policy.”
Are You in Violation of Google’s Double Serving Policy? You Just Might Be! »

One of the more common questions I get from people is how do I show my paid context to search engines, but not to non-paying/membership customers, and staying within search engine guidelines. The answer always comes dangerously close or steps over the cloaking line.
Hey Google Can We Get a Clear Cloaking and First Click Free Explanation »

The following is a Guest Post from Everett Sizemore.

The ethics of paid links aside (we all know how Michael Gray feels about that already) the best paid links don’t usually come from a network or broker, and aren’t generally thought of as ‘paid links’ in the first place - though they are. In fact, they don’t even come from someone who knows what a nofollow tag is, or why selling links is against Google’s guidelines. And regardless of the fact that they are paid, Google doesn’t seem to mind them so long as they are on-topic and coming from a reputable website. As the title suggests, this “link buy” comes in the form of sponsoring an event or website. The trick is to find sponsorship opportunities that are in your corner of the web (read: on-topic).

Five Search Queries to Find Sponsorship Link Opportunities »

The following is a Guest Post from Michael Martin.

When performing SEO its best to first implement the KISS strategy, Keep It Simple S…..

Forget about the old school keyword density equations, being completely W3C compliant, creating X amount of content, pages or acquiring X amount of links.

KISS SEO would include, but not limited to:

• Unique TITLE tag for each page that includes your page’s targetted keyword(s) plus the benefit followed by Company/Site name.

 

• Unique META Description tag for each page that should be used to enforce the page’s usefulness and be the marketing pitch to the visitor.

 

• A CSS styled H1 tag centered around the page’s main keyword(s) focus - as a side note when I spoke with Matt Cutts at SMX Advanced he said Google doesn’t weigh the H1 tag any heavier than an H2 or H4, but it shouldn’t be used more than once.

 

• Content that is both informative, unique, and useful by fulfilling a need of your target audience.

 

• URLs in a non-dynamic descriptive format.

 

• A flat site structure with breadcrumb links.

 

• Absolute internal linking.

 

• An html user friendly site map plus the backup parachute of a sitemap.xml file.

 

• Robots.txt file blocking any duplicate content (print pages, etc).

 

• Using 301 sever side redirects to consolidate similar pages and domain changes, including canocalization such as www vs non-www.

SEO can be boiled down to simply good organization of your site’s code and assets plus acquiring quality links natuarally via useful interesting content.

If this were Gene Simmon’s KISS SEO then it would be keyword heavy toward the ASSets.

So my friend Cesar Serna launched his new site this week and is making his first tool Tweet Pro available. If you don’t know Cesar he used to work for Greg Boser aka Webgeurilla. I was in on the beta program and had a chance to put the tool thru it’s paces this weekend.
How to Use Twitter as a Marketing Tool with Tweet Pro »

The following is a Guest Post from Brandy Eddings.

Last school year while at recess my daughter approached a group of boys playing kickball. She asked if she could join, the boy holding the ball told her “only boys can play”. My daughter’s response was “then why are they letting you play” she grabbed the ball and ran onto the field and no one else opposed her joining and the game went on. Her teacher told me that now all the games at recess are now co-ed and they have never had that happen in the years she has taught at that school. Without realizing it she used determination and humor to change the culture of the school.
Blogher, Pro-Woman or Anti-Man? »

After my SEO plugins for wordpress and backend plugins for wordpress most people would think that should cover most of the things anyone would need. However I can think of two that are needed right off the bat. Two Wordpress Plugins That Need to be Developed »

Somedays there are jobs which were absolutely made for you … sadly I’m just in NY … hey Terry *cough* *cough* telecommunting *cough* *cough* I heard working from home is great for the environment

I’m going to be doing some real time experiments on Google tomorrow, if you’d like to participate be sure to follow me on twitter and retweet the messages … lets see what happens shall we

There are lots of posts dedicated to showing you wordpress plugins that enhance your post functionality and add features but not many that focus on helping you clean and maintain a secure and orderly backend. I’ll include a few you may have seen before but also a few new ones to help keep things running smoothly. Wordpress - Clean Up Your Backend »

Somewhere in the middle of all the drama last week was a discussion on fake social media profiles, and as usual the white hat zealots were ready to crucify anyone associated with them, claiming they were yet another tool disparaging the SEO and internet marketing industry. Well it’s my profession responsibility to provide some examples of this nefarious behavior and out some of these high profiles social media spammers …
Looking at Fake Social Media Profiles »