Learn SEO | Search Engine Optimization Tips and Techniques

Do you ever get an idea and get excited about it but just cant seem to figure out how to implement it? Maybe it isn’t that you can’t figure out how to make it work, you just don’t have the skill set or resouces to make it happen. I have found myself in this situation a couple times in the past and let a great opportunity pass me by.

The first time was back in June of 2000.  I purchased the domain name PanAmerican-Translations.com and set about setting up a system to duplication English websites in Spanish. In this instance I worked with a local native speaking Spanish language school teacher to duplicate a Houston based industrial website. It worked great. It took us about 3 weeks to duplicate the site and it was identical in every way except the language.  At that time it wasn’t hard to get up the search engines and we were near the top of AltaVista which was the top search engine of the time.  We received calls from Blue Cross & Blue Shield of PA for a site translation and a little known site at the time called Overstock.com. We scrambled to find help and resources who could see the potential, but here in rural Kentucky in 2000, the Internet was still not well known. Well needless to say we missed those two opportunities. We did approach a local businessman about an investment of 50K to get us started and he was ready to help us when at the last minute he was told by a fellow businessman that this “Internet thing” was never going to take off.  uuggghhhh…   We tried for several more months but could not garner the resources we needed to make this work. I wish I knew then what I know now. Now that is a saturated market.

I had several other ideas over the past couple of years that I could not get off the grown for technical reasons. Basically I did not have the knowledge to write the programs needed to make then work. One idea was to build a website with secure access that would allow parents to log into a network of daycare facilities at any time to check on their children via webcam.  We would place webcam’s in daycare’s and then provide parents with login credentials to be able to access that particular daycare and view their kids and chat with the people working there.  There were serveral other ideas over the years that never came to fruition.

Now I find myself in a similar situation. I have an idea but don’t have the technical expertise to make it happen. But I have also figured out what my major problem is. I had a fear of revealing my idea to someone that might be able to write the program. I thought they would take the idea and run and leaving me hanging. So I guess the problem I have is not so much technical but one of trust.

I have an idea for a Twitter based site that I believe would do really well and am looking for a programmer that would like to take a chance on an idea with me.  It is a rather simple concept that requires users to be able to log in and manipulate their data and make parts of it visible to others.  So, if there are any programmers out there who are into social networking and looking for a new project, send me an email at info@logodesign77.com.  Who knows………we may have a dud, but then again we may have the next great idea.

Can you say WOW.  If the reports are true and Twitter starts to crawl links contained in Twitter posts and then the content within those pages that the crawler visits, then there will be some very interesting changes in the search world. (visit Cnet.com to read the entire article) Could it be that a socially driven search function will bring back even more current and relevant data than Google?  One comment that was made basically said that Google, as fast and accurate as it is, indexes only websites and does it slowly. It is thought that Twitter would essentially crawl a link and page as soon as it is established via a Twitter post. That would be lightening quick.

Several days ago I posted how this blog had jumped on the Twitter train and how Twitter is being used on several of my websites.  Within the last few days I have seen a jump in traffic with a significant part of the increase coming from Twitter.  Maybe I should have gotten on board sooner, but as they say, it is better late than never.

It will be interesting to see how Twitter changes the dynamics of traffic generation.

9 days ago i added a plugin to this blog so that each of my entries would go to my Twitter account. During the past 9 days I have started to see more and more traffic coming to this blog from various twitter based sites / programs. While Twitter hasn’t affected by ranking on Google (still on second page for “learn seo”) the added traffic is certainly welcomed.

I have seen a lot of debate lately on whether or not Twitter is a viable marketing tool or if it just a social phenomenon that will quickly pass. My initial impression is that if used correctly it could be a good way to communicate with followers about what is happening at your website. This type of function has already proven itself for me with MySpace.  The MySpace message system is an excellent way to send out a blast to all your followers about the latest happenings at your site.

Normally when I start working with someone to develop an SEO strategy one of the first things I have them to consider for the off site aspect of it is to start a blog and let that blog feed links back to the site. I think I am going suggesting that a Twitter account be started as well. Like MySpace a Twitter account used for business purposes must be closely monitored. On my MySpace account only those people interested in barbecue are allowed to be followers. That way I know when I send out a blast message it will be of interest to everyone.  The same will be true for Twitter.  I am going to set up a seperate Twitter account to go with my barbecue oriented blog and website and that will add an entire new group of people who are interested in the world of bbq.

I am sure this may be old info to many who have been on the Twitter train for a while but I admint I am still learning the ropes of SEO and any time I learn something new that works I intend to pass it along.

What are your experiences with Twitter driving traffic to your site?

Burst Media is reporting what a lot of us in the web-marketing world know but many refuse to accept. Too many ads on your blog or website turn visitors off.  A recent survey of more than 4,000 web users, by Burst Media on the topic of “ad clutter” revealed that most website visitors do not like sites that blast them with too many ads. In fact the study revealed that a staggering 75% of visitors have a negative view of sites with too many advertisements.The study also revealed the older the visitor the less tolerant they are of excessive advertising and that 2 ads appears to be about the normal acceptable limit for most people.

To read this entire report visit Burst Media

In the Make Money Online community this trend is very apparent. In fact if you look at most of the leading bloggers in the MMO genre you will find an overwhelming number of banner ads. If you visit the Digital Product Reporter Top 100 Links (formerly 45n5.com) you will see that the majority of the top blogs listed are very much ad intensive. I doubt they will stop running so many ads any time in the near future but it would be interesting to see how many visitors visit sites like JohnChow.com for the first time and immediately leave because of all the ads hitting them.

What is your opinion on website advertising? Do you have an “ad threshold” that makes you immediately hit the back button?