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Matt Cutts vs. V7N

Geek Smackdown!

Written on Friday, January 26th, 2007 by lorien1973 :: 1 Comment so far

V7N - some forum/site I never visit, apparently has a new service where they sell contextual links. Cleverly, its url is: http://contextual.v7n.com/. Not knowing much about this, I assume its a service where you post up an offer asking bloggers to write about your site and, in turn, they’d link back to you. Much like Pay Per Post.

Matt Cutts brought it up in the sense that it is “undetectable spam” in reference to an errant email he had received. The whole post is kind of funny, actually. Cutts suggests that finding these links and discounting them is easy enough, programatically. Yeah right. Contextual links are, by far, the hardest to detect. As I’ve brought up in many forums, I could show up 100 pages and ask “are these purchased or natural links” and I bet you couldn’t guess more than 50% (which are your odds of getting any guess correct). Making a program to guess correctly is even harder.

I’m curious why Google simply doesn’t close the loophole that makes these schemes work. Discount anchor text. Google has taken the first step by finally fixing the “google bomb” problem.

Here’s my question to Cutts on this. Let’s assume you buy blog entries from blogs that get traffic. These blogs lead directly to traffic and sales for the target site. Blogger gets paid; target site increases traffic/revenue. Where’s the harm done? Now, if ‘links’ don’t help in Google (in terms of ranking, popularity, etc) who really cares. But, will Google actively penalize you for getting those links. That’s the question.

Saddam Executed - First Photos from Arabic TV

Here are the first photos of Saddam’s execution from Arabic TV

Written on Friday, December 29th, 2006 by lorien1973 :: 5 Comments so far

No comment needed. I wont post the images in the post, rather I’ll link to them. Content Warning

http://www.seohaiku.com/images/saddam-hanged.jpg

Poor Villagers Sue “Borat”

Villagers threaten suit against Borat producers

Written on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 by lorien1973 :: 1 Comment so far

Here’s the complete story.

But now the villagers of this tiny, close-knit community have angrily accused the comedian of exploiting them, after discovering his new blockbuster film portrays them as a backward group of rapists, abortionists and prostitutes, who happily engage in casual incest.

…

Disabled Nicu Tudorache said: This is disgusting. They conned us into doing all these things and never told us anything about what was going on. They made us look like primitives, like uncivilised savages. Now they,re making millions but have only paid us 15 lei [around £3].

I’m confused. Are they offended that they are portrayed as “rapists, abortionists, and prostitutes” or that they weren’t paid enough? Reading this story, it seems to be the latter. I think their priorities are just a little askew.

Gaining Traffic from Article Submissions

A brief discussion on our success of posting articles to various article sites

Written on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 by lorien1973 :: 4 Comments so far

I’ve read some debate the past few days of the value of article submissions. I think the main focus of these discussions is misdirected. People, apparently, focus solely on the link value from your article. Many people seem to acknowledge the direct traffic you get from the articles. When doing anything online (these days especially), I think you should focus on traffic - not on links, not on PR. Traffic. It’s all it’s about.

Currently, I rank #2 on Search Warp for traffic driven to the site through my articles. Searchwarp also accounts for traffic, and direct sales to my websites as well. So providing information and content to other sites, helps me make sales to customers who many have missed me otherwise. Cost of creating an account and posting information. Zero.  Price of getting customers you may have missed otherwise. Priceless. Searchwarp is actually my 10th largest referrer to one of my websites, sending me about 20,000 visitors every year.

There’s a lesson in here somewhere (I’m sure someone will help me out). Earlpearl, from the DP forums, brought it to my attention that I am #2 on Searchwarp. My submissions have slowed there due to lack of time, but I want to be #1, so I will definitely be putting more submissions there shortly.

I also got accepted as a writer to Buzzle the other day and will begin submitting articles there as well. The submission process is much the same, but the acceptance rate seems a little slower. My first article was approved there, and already has pageviews. If I can pull good traffic at Buzzle too (alongside the Searchwarp traffic), it will add 2 more avenues to getting traffic to my sites. One through the articles themselves and Buzzle’s natural traffic, the other through the SERPs Buzzle will possibly generate.

Since I have about 60 articles that I’ve written, but have not put online yet, there is a lot of work to be done, but in the end, it’ll help secure several venues for traffic that my sites could really use.

Now, if I could only secure a DMOZ editor position. I did apply a few months back (rejected because I submitted to a category that wasn’t narrow enough), so I may apply again. Who knows. Not sure if it’s worth it.

Small businesses are tough like that. Not enough people to handle all the work. Too controlling to hire someone to help. It’s a tough life.