Spiderbait - SEO Expert

Twitter: Free Local Business Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 19:32:00 +0000

Twitter is a "messaging service" or "micro=blogging" service which you have either heard of, never heard of, love it or hate it type deal. If you're not Twittering yet, hopefully you'll do so in the near future! For those already using Twitter have you been harnessing the power of twitter for free business promotion? Here is a quick run down on how you can use Twitter for free local business promotion.

Free Business Promotion using Twitter

Create your Twitter account and include a picture. Folks prefer to converse with a "person" instead of company logo.
Make the most out of your bio line; add your company website, blog or mention your company specialty!
Have more than one person at your business utilizing twitter. This is helpful when trying to reach a wider range audience, providing different insight and having online back up.
When promoting your own posts ensure you add alittle something to your tweet! Link dropping is not welcomed in the twitter community unless its followed with commentary, question or additional input!
Try not to make it all about just you. Tweet about what you find interesting, share info, links and "cool" sites! Try to engage your audience.
Check out what people have under their "favorites" there is useful information there! It'll give you insight as to what your audience likes!
Make use of Twitter Search - from here you can see what the trendy topics are. Also, use it to search for your name/company to keep tabs on what's being said about you.
Ensure you're providing feedback. Comment or reply to tweets, retweet or simply thank a person for a link. Everyone loves feedback!
Harness the power of Twitter polling! Easy and instant feedback is a huge plus to the twitter community- opinions are quick to come by using this service.
Twitter news travels fast! So if your a local business try attracting & befriending people in your community. Utilize Twitter Local to keep tabs on local twitterati!
Make the most out of local "Twitter Meet-ups" getting to know the potential cliental can make the difference in attracting newbie customers.
Twitter Real Estate! Ensure you make the most out of your Twitter background, include company logo for brand recognition or contact info for easy viewing or go the extra step and include images of products or special promotion info!

Check out my Twitter post here for additional Twitter tools and goodies. There are a number of other services which have surfaced since that post; therefore check back soon for a Twitter tools & goodies update!

Follow SpiderBait on twitter!

Twitter, Social Networking, Free Business Promotion, Local Business Promotion

Spooktacular Halloween Fun Sites

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:21:00 +0000

Is Trick or Treatin'not your thing? Have you not gotten into the spirit of Halloween yet? Well perhaps you can still join in the Halloween fun by adding some fright to your online persona.

Halloween Fun Sites:

Craftsman invites you to Share a Scare with their customizable eerie characters

JibJab also has fantastic creative greeting cards which allows you to morph your/your friends faces into the interactive Halloween sendables

Crazy Pumpkin for the iPhone, includes multi-colored flashlight, digital Jack-o-lantern and fun odd pumpkin features

Spooked turns your innocent little Mac into "virtual poltergeist"

Halloween WordPress Themes for your site

Myspace Halloween Themes are also available for free by none other than Emily the Strange!

Unconventional Halloween Greetings presented by someecards!

Halloween sites, Virtual Halloween sites, Halloween greetings, Halloween myspace, Halloween Themes

Win a $500 Apple Gift Card in time for the Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:17:00 +0000

Looking for a bonus this holiday? Do you own a video camera? Well then, here is an opportunity you can't pass up! 7Search.com is holding a video contest to promote their company. It's a simple contest.

To enter participants must:

Create a short video
Incorporate the 7Search logo
Submit your video to the 7Search YouTube Group

The video with the most views and highest rating wins 1st prize

7Search.com Video Contest Prizes:
1st Place: $500 Apple Store Gift Card
2nd Place: $100 Apple Store Gift Card
3rd, 4th & 5th Place: $50 7Search advertiser account credits

Visit the official contest page here!
Or simply join their YouTube page here.

If you'd like to participate in the contest yet don't have a camera or editing equipment look around online, there are plenty of services out there that would enable you to create a video in a jiffy. My 7Search Video Contest example found is proof that creativity is all you need! This video was created using free online services and complimentary music found on YouTube "audio swap". Be creative and have fun.

Good luck to all participants!

Free Local Business Web Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:50:00 +0000

Benefits of local business listings and free web promotion are priceless. Obviously the more web exposure a business gets the higher the chances are to attract new local customers. Often you'll see a company offering submission of your business to local business listings on Google, Yahoo and MSN by experts, for a service fee. Now what they may not be exposing is that theses submissions are absolutely free! Free exposure can be gained from Google, Yahoo and MSN, by you the business owner. Sure if time is an issue feel free to pay someone to do this for you, but honestly its a free listing that Google, Yahoo and MSN all have made available for everyone to use.

What you can expect to gain from these listings?

Free Local Business Exposure on Google Maps (Plus option to create a coupon/deal to attract new customers)

Yahoo Local and MSN Local Listing Center Maps will also provide your business with free exposure on their maps along with options to provide specialties, photos, business hours etc...

Web Presence, if you do not have a current website then at least you'll have exposure, the ability to gain customer trust via the "review me" section of your listing (can help with ranking) and access to other customers who may not know your location

As far as buying into the hype that these "experts" know how to highlight your business better than you would, I would think twice prior to signing up. Often times I find that those in the business have more of an expertise in their business than "expert" submitters. The one advantage they may have is when choosing "keywords" - but more often than not these submissions provide tools or ideas for you to choose from to submit them yourself.

In addition to getting your free listings, you should try getting exposure elsewhere on the net where user interaction is essential. Such as destination sites like Twitter, Niche Forums, Local City Groups, Neighborhood Blogs, Flickr and other locally targeted online sites. I'll get into how those services are beneficially to local businesses in a future post.

Give local business submissions a shot for yourself, if you feel overwhelmed then ask others before paying for a service which is essentially free.

Theme of the day: Color Palette Generators

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:54:00 +0000

Searching for a color palette for your website? Looking for just the right color to POP against your current theme? Then I have a handful of sites that can help you do just that!

5 Free color palette generators:

I've been using Adobe Kuler for some time now and it's one of my favorite color theme generators by far. To import & save color themes directly into CS3 all one needs to do is complete the free registration, create an Adobe account and start selecting your color base! If you'd like to download the Kuler widget onto your desktop, installation of Adobe Air is necessary, other than that its pretty self explanatory. You can save themes for public or private viewing, add other themes to your collection, use CMYK, RGB, HEX and other input/output preferences, select rules, select color from an image and more! Also, check out the kuler community for inspiration and current themes put to use!

Another highly recommend site is COLOURlovers. Here color trends, palettes and patterns are monitored to stay ontop of whats hot and loved in web communities! COLOURlovers allows users to download schemes & patterns into Photoshop, Illustrator, as an ASE file, into Gimp, as HTML or zipfile. Both of these sites have user interactions with voting systems, comments and active communities which I find to be an added bonus to the service.

So if you're stumped for a color, pattern or simply need to find an edgy color scheme try one of the color palette generators and tools listed. As a newbie web designer or blogger, color may not be your strong point so let these sites give you helping hand.

Next post: Free Local Business Web Exposure, perfect for newbies!

color palette, theme generator, color scheme, color theory, website color palette, web design, website color themes, rgb color, cmyk color

Website Magazine Revamped!

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:21:00 +0000

If you aren't a subscriber of Website Magazine by now, what are you waiting for? It's a free publication for those in the industry and its full of web industry goodness! So if you've slacked on this "must read" magazine & "must visit" website, well your in time to jump on the band wagon right when they have quietly launched their newly revamped website! It's a sleek new look with a ton of great information right on the homepage!

Highlights of Website Magazine:

You can subscribe to the magazine for Free!
Create a personal profile and network with other subscribers
Great opportunity to advertise to a niche audience via print, online, digitally and email
Guest/Contributor writers offer great insight to WSM already knowledgeable staff
Helpful and easy to read articles/posts are just what you need when looking for solutions and suggestions on topics of marketing, affiliate programs, social media, PPC, SEO and more.
WSM Blog is updated frequently with the latest and greatest 'must know' news
Affiliate program has a very nice payout (starting at $2 per subscriber)

Feel free to add them to your Twitter feed as well! Get the lastest & greatest delivered right in your timeline! Twitter.com/websitemagazine

Technorati Tags: Website Magazine, Internet Publication, Internet News, Affiliate Program, Advertising, Web Marketing

Twellow, Twordy and Summize for Twitter!

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:12:00 +0000

The good folks over at WebProNews have introduce us Twitterati to Twellow! Twellow is the very first Twitter directory; a little overdue but none-the-less exciting to have! It launched just under a month ago and so far seems to have indexed just over 360,000 Twitter users. It's designed to aid twitterers "cut through the clutter" and enable users to find others with shared interests to follow and befriend, hassle free!

How does it work? Can you get listed? Want to check your listing? Well, great!

Twellow.com snatches up messages from Twitter, analyzes & categorizes them. Thus making it simple for you to find users interested in like-minded topics.
If you have a Twitter account (that is not private) you're probably already listed! To double check, simply search for your name. If you don't find your name visit their "Get Listed" page to get submit yourself.
To edit your personal data Twellow recently added the Profile Editor option to their service. Verify your ownership, claim your profile and edit your name, bio, categories listed, location and url. (Twellows allows users to add themselves to up to 10 categories)

Subscribe to the Twellow blog to stay on top of new additions/changes to the service.

Also for fellow Twitterati! Have you tried to get your message to fit into 140 character limit yet sometimes you just can't? 'Tis time for Twordy. Say what you'd like and post it, a brief version will post on twitter with a link to Twordy for those who want to keep on reading! Easy enough for users to say what they'd like yet keep it in the short twitter format. Doesn't this go against the whole keep it short "micro-blogging" type of scheme that IS Twitter? Yes, but at times you need just a few more lines to fully express yourself!

Lastly, its official- Twitter has acquired Summize! What is summize and why should you care? Well Summize is a service used for searching Twitter and keeping up with 'trends' in real-time. For those who fell in love with the tracking option Twitter offered (I for one was addicted to tracking 'beta' updates) Summize will be an upgrade of what that tracking offered. The Summize merger now presents us with an official Twitter Search! If you're interested in knowing what 'iphone' conversations are taking place; simple enter your query and voila Tweets are at your finger tips! Look for more news on this merger or other Twitter news here!

Befriend Spiderbait on Twitter- find us here!

Technorati Tags: Twitter News, Search Twitter, Twitter Search, Twitter Tools, Social Networking, Mergers, Web 2.0, Free Twitter Tools

SMX Advanced 2008:Tips on Buying Sites for SEO

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:20:00 +0000

The session covering 'Tips on Buying Sites for SEO' at SMX Chicago 2008 reviewed the process of purchasing expired domains, contacting site owners, valuating sites and closing a site purchase!

Gab Goldenberg, Owner of SEO ROI; Todd Malicoat, Internet Marketing Consultant with Stuntdubl; Jeremy Schoemaker, CEO of Shoemoney Media Groupd and Jeremy Wright, CEO of B5Media all touched key points regarding the "How To's" of buying sites for SEO.

Jeremy Schoemaker presented us with a video presentation. He reviewed the importance of finding domains that are expired but are also linked to from .edu and .gov sites. In his presentation he also highlighted the importance of dedicating a spider specifically for finding these sites and checking their value. Also, use caution when 301ing purchased domain names to your site; wait and space them out to make the transition as smooth as possible.

Jeremy Wright illustrated their metrics for buying sites! Capturing value is key when purchasing sites, therefore he says to keep in mind:

We buy for eventual revenue purposes
Potential, specifically unrealized potential is what we're looking for
Core metrics: existing traffic, uniques, revenue, feed subscribers, Google PageRank
Secondary metrics: age of site, "stability", age of domain, amount of content, existing SEO metrics, "staleness"
Tertiary questions: Is it/can it be a blog? Does it cover a unique area? Does it add non-core value we can put a number to? Does it have a real rand name in its industry?
Blog Valuation Calculator (internal tool, but built of our blog Modeling tool, which is public @ ensight.org)
Compete.com (for uniques/traffic number historically)
comScore (internal tool, measures our secondary criteria and puts a "multiple" we can run against our Blog Valuation Calculator valuation)

Jeremy also advises not to deviate from your playbook. If you are going to buy alot of sites, create a playbook to follow and don't deviate from it. Buy early, buy often and admit failure quickly. Lastly he reviews the importance of creating networks to compound value!

Gab Goldenberg, owner of SEO ROI summarized the principles, tursts and shared a brief case study for buying sites for SEO. Gab reviewed the importance of a sites footprint and how to identify/locate them. For example if a blog makes a post slightly off topic and ranks for those off topic terms then you know its high quality, learn how to check for blogs/sites footprints to ensure you get the most out of your purchase.

Internet Marketing Consultant, Todd Malicoat with Stuntdubl recapped the process of buying old sites.

Contact site owners- be credible, brief and lucky
Valuating a site - Check the domain, age, links, theme, traffic and revenue
Negotiating & Closing a Site Purchase - Lowball (but don't offend), Get a price, Counter, Agree, Sign Agreement, Escrow Service and remember the Transfers (Files and WHOIS)

This post is based on notes sent by Dante Monteverde who attended SMX Advanced 2008 in Seattle.

Technorati Tags:SMX Advanced 2008, Buying sites for SEO, SEO Tips, Boost Web Traffic,

Link Building Techniques: SMX Advanced 2008

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:53:00 +0000

The session on Blow Your Mind Link Building Techniques at SMX Chicago last week reviewed the how to build, attract and mold your link building campaign just right to better ensure acquisition of those ccoveted high valued links.

Over all Rae Hoffman (Todd Friesen), Sugarrae Internet Consulting; Roger Montti, Founder & Owner of MartiniBuster.com; Stephan Spencer, Founder and President of Netconcepts and Jay Young, Owner of Link Fish Media Inc. all hit key points regarding golden link building techniques.

Impressive Link Building Techniques

Industry heavyweight backlinks: See who is bidding on Ad Words & do backlinks check
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu "bookmarks"
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu "links"
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu "favorite sites"
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu "your product or service"
Take all you can get - even from those "Dot edu's" - desirable or not they are helpful!

Search for Charitable Opportunities
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu sponsors
linkdomain:example.com site:.org donors
linkdomain:example.com site:.org sponsors
linkdomain:example.com site:.org benefactors

Acquire links thru:
- Big name Text Link Brokers
- Blog Advertisers
- Smaller, Specialty or Amateur Brokers

Link Bait - buy links to compete in highly competitive arenas, be relevant, vary the anchor text, do whatever it takes to get links!

Darker yet still effective methods to practice: Comment & Trackback Spam, Reciprocal Links, Three Ways, and Link Farms. (Note: Although this technique was discussed and may work we do not utilize nor recommend these methods because of the possibility of being banned by search engines.)

- Think outside the box
- Widgets
- Templates
- Template Sponsorship (Find a WordPress Template, sponsor it by having them embed your link in it)
- Contests (Offer a prize with the stipulation that the contestants must link back to you)
- Content trade (Offer to do articles for links)

This post is based on notes sent by Dante Monteverde who attended SMX Advanced 2008

Site of the Day: Animoto

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:41:00 +0000

Animoto your pictures and tunes to create a slick slideshow mix which you can embed into your website or social profile page!

Why is it so cool?

Sign-up is free, easy and video is made in a jiffy
Upload your photos from your computer or from a website
Use your own tunes or music pre-made from Animoto
Easily exports your creations to Youtube
Simple method to share with friends and embed on websites

This service isn't your typical slideshow creation type of tool - they have fresh, catchy methods of mixing up your photos/music which takes the mundane out of slideshow creation and turns it into something worth showing!

Better yet check it out for yourself:

Technorati Tags: animoto, slideshow, cool widgets

Share Your Web with All Your Friends

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:28:00 +0000

Google released a preview of "Friend Connect" which seems to be the next really big thing to hit the social web! This is an awesome Open Social child which makes it extremely simple for website owner to incorporate social applications on their sites.

Friend Connect Hoopla Includes:

Copy/past method of transforming your site into a dynamic, engaging, social destination site.

High potential for your site to grow traffic and attract more visitors - keeps visitors coming back since users will be engaging more with your sites

Ability to choose several different social features from a catalog of gadgets(Provided by OpenSocial & Google Community)

Friend connect seems like the monster of all social services. It's pretty portable, easy to install, transforms static sites into engaging sites and allows for easy distribution of applications for developers.

For a Visual on this new monster social platform check out their video:

So although the geeks, site owners and all who wished for a better social portal are celebrating this colossal social networking hub, the boxing gloves have come out. Facebook has blocked access of friendconnect due to privacy issues, rumor has it that the CEO of Facebook want to sit and chat with Google to work things out. Lets wait and see what compromise is reached. I'm sure the social networking giants will find a way to resolve issues/concerns that revolve around this new concept.

Sharing made easy seems great! Read a brief post on the Google blog and navigate sites which currently utilize Friend Connect!

Technorati Tags: friend connect, web 2.0, social networking

5 Popular Free Video Capturing Applications

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Whether you are working on a company tutorial, trying to capture your family video online or simply need a visual aid to better illustrate your point, screen capturing software is key in completing these tasks. I've tracked down a few popular services that you may want to try out for your next visual task!

Five Free Video Capturing Softwares:

FreeScreenCast - Free web based service that not only enables users to record anything on your computer screen but also takes the hassle out of uploading your recorded clips and takes it a step further by providing users with an embed code to post their screencast immediately after capturing the footage. Great when trying to rush and get your stuff up and shared! Check out their Video Tutorial here!
Jing Project - Free Image and Video capturing project which is available for both Mac and PC. Users have 200MB of space for storing screenshots and screencasts and 1 GB of bandwidth that renews monthly. Here you can also instantly upload your footage and therefore share what you see easily via chat, email, flickr, your server or their default hosting on Screencast.com. Video Tutorial is here!
Debut - Free software which enables you to record from a webcam, other devices or simply screen capture. Video saving options include .avi, .wmv, .asf .mpg, .3gp, .mp4, .mov and more! Allows users to set recording durations, set-up a time for recording to start and also automatically send the recorded video via email once the recording is done.
Demoawy - Free basic windows based screen capturing program which will record screen to .avi or .wmv files. Hot Keys enable users to easily start/stop recording or hide the program window. Not the most popular of free services but it gets the job done.
ICQ Webcam Recorder 3 - Popular for those seeking to share screen captures via ICQ, AIM, MSN, YAHOO messenger and Screen. Program loads video compressors making it as simple and easy as possible for fast and easy sharing possibilities.

The five services above are suitable to complete all basic video capturing tasks. If you are seeking a video capturing application with more bells and whistles then check out Camtasia Studio. Camtasia has better editing tools, multiple audio tracks, editable time line and various output formats. There is a slight learning curve but overall its still extremely user friendly. Best of all you can try it out free for 30 days and see if its worth the $299 to purchase. Check out the "Getting Started Tutorial" to see what they have to offer!

Technorati Tags: Free Video Capturing Software, Video Capture, Free Screen Capture, Video Editing Software Free

To Twine or Not to Twine

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:34:00 +0000

Semantic Web, Web 3.0, Smart Web; all are catch phrases associated with Twine. Might I add this was also one of the toughest beta invites to get a hold of. But I've had the pleasure to attain a beta invite and have been tinkering around with the service. At first glance, I was not digging the interface or lack of pizazz. After giving it a little time to get the gist of things....I'm hopeful.

What is Twine suppose to do?

Automatically organize information, learn what your interests are and make recommendations based on your interests
Allows for one central location for newsgroups, forums, social networking, databases and wikis
RSS feeds to track multiple topics, events, comments etc
Auto tagging: people, places, organizations and concepts related to items! You can add your own tags or simply use Twines discovered tags! (visible in orange)
Bookmarking: using their bookmarklet which allows users to add content to twine right from the browser
Email your items: Many of us email ourselves sites, attachments or messages with important points or great quotes! Now email them to twine and post it- the body of your email will appear in your twine.
Connecting with others: Dual purpose for reaching out and connecting 1. Share information between users and 2. allows Twine to read what the shared interests of users are so theoretically it will provide better recommendations for information delivered.

Now in theory this service seems pretty cool! The issue is...it simply doesn't work. Well, not the way it's been hyped-up at least. Since it's still in Beta I won't rip the service apart on all its short comings, I will simply continue to use it (so that I give Twine a fair shot at better understanding my interests) and review it at a later time. Perhaps the tweaks and improvements are right around the corner.

Having other information, videos, sites & notes of interests delivered to me without the hassle of research should be dynamite!

P.S. One strong suggestion for Twine: Video Tutorial!

P.S.S. UPDATE: According to Nova Spivack (co-founder and CEO of Radar Networks / company created Twine) on a recent interview with CNET: 'Twine has about 7,000 users in private beta, as well as 40,000 standing in line for access'; so lucky for us to have snagged an invite and give it a test run! Also stay tuned for major enhancements due out for the summer and fall.

Thank you Mr. Spivack for the update!

Technorati Tags: Twine, Semantic Web, Smart Web Apps, Web 3.0, Twine Review, Social Networking, Smart Web

Video Search Optimization: SES NY 2008

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 21:21:00 +0000

The session on Video Search Optimization at SES New York this week reviewed the importance making your video available to your target audience.

Over all Eric Papczun, Director of Natural Search of Performics, Gregory Markel Founder/President of Infuse Creative and Arnaud Mauvais, Vice President, Truveo & Vice President, AOL hit key points regarding enhacing text content with videos.

Tips to follow to improve your online video presence:

Enhance existing text content with Video Thumbnails! This makes a huge difference when the user selects which video to click.
Encode for the right keywords (Title, description and keywords)
*Remove metadata noise
Use keywords in the file name separated by hyphen
Video File Metadata and Page Optimization (Video File Metadata and page optimization)
One video per URL (and avoid Flash and pop-ups)
Surround video with on-page relevant text
Upload Optimization (YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, etc)
Allow video files to be embeddable and include logo watermark
Brand yourself in video: easier to rank for video than text
Link Global Footer

Also recommended was Everyzing.com, which is a SEO video tool!

As with traditional SEO, video SEO is extremely labor intensive therefore having proper title & description tags are important. Once you have optimized your videos share them! Link, embed, forward and mention your videos where ever your key audience would be!

Do not underestimate the power of videos online!

In February 2008 alone 116 million of internet users watched an average of 124 minutes of online videos! They viewed more than 5.9 billion video streams; 72% watched news video online 31 at least once a week. So the audience is there, its your job to make sure you make it as simple as possible for them to find you.

This post is based on notes sent by Dante Monteverde who is live at SES NY.

Technorati Tags: SES NY 2008, Video Search, Video Search Optimization, SEO Videos

"Plan of Attack" for the Local Marketer

noreply@blogger.com (John F) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:26:00 +0000

Dante's been busy at this years Search Engine Strategies - Helping at the WebsiteMagazine.com booth, attending the sessions, and trying to lock down a video interview or two for his "On the Road" series started last year.

And yesterday he sent his notes on Local Search Marketing Tactics which, based on that, is a session I am sad I missed. Today the notes were posted on Website Magazine's blog. And what is posted there is pure gold!

If you find yourself tasked with promoting a local business such as a doctor's office, real estate agency or even an auto repair shop you'll want to bookmark that page for future reference. Dante's notes on the Local Search Marketing Tactics session reads like a plan of attack for the local marketer.

You could guarrantee improved search engine presence for local keywords if you simply went down this list doing everything mentioned. In case you missed the link here it is again, Local Search Marketing Tactics.

Tags: Search Engine Strategies, Local, Search, Marketing, Tactics

SES NY 2008 - Quick Notes on Universal Search Panel

noreply@blogger.com (Dante Monteverde) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:29:00 +0000

I caught the last 30 minutes of the Orion Panel on Universal Search here at the Search Engine Strategies 2008 Conference (link).

A lot of this is not new but nonetheless it's nice to hear it phrased well. For example, John Battelle, Founder/Chairman/CEO, Federated Media had a nice analogy;

"We are just now going from DOS to Windows in the new age of Search."

Here are some other quick notes/thoughts

(previously posted to Twitter)

Everyone on the panel agrees Universal search is the future however it's just beginning. We are just seeing a glimpse into the future.

Universal Search is here to stay, it's what consumers want. Google will continue to tweak around with the SERP's.

Mike Grehan's top 10 tips for Optimizing Universal and Blended Search:

Understand what universal and blended search is

Widen your perspective or get creative about your digital content

Start with optimizing your images: name each file in a descriptive way, use alt tags. include a descriptive caption next to each image.

Target local results, open Google account and go to the local business center and enter your free listing.

Think newsworthy, optimize press releases. become an expert commentator in your industry.

Power of Blogs, embed audio, video, and images in your blog. Optimize title tag, description tag, and publish date tag.

Get into the movie biz, make video's and upload them to: Google Videos, YouTube, and Metacafe. Bookmark them in Social Network sites.

Take advantage of Google Finance, your own stock quote can pop up on the SERP's if your biz is large enough

Sell, sell, sell Upload everything you want to sell to Google's product search

Don't panic! Relax, take a deep breath, and remember your audience!

Stay Tuned for more from SES 2008...

- Dante Monteverde

Tags: SES NY 2008, Universal Search, John Battelle, Federated Media, Google, SERPs, Mike Grehan, Optimizing, Dante Monteverde

7Search has Gone Blog Friendly!

noreply@blogger.com (John F) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:17:00 +0000

This week 7search.com introduced its newest and most blog-friendly money maker: SearchAdRoll, the Text Ad Widget.

7Search has always aimed for easy integration of its many ad formats but with "widgets" being so popular these days they've decided to add one more format, a widget format!

Check this out; in as few as 3 steps you can now have a fun and PROFITABLE Text link Widget on your sidebar. When visitors click on the links it takes them to a page of keyword relevant ad listings like this...

When one of those listings gets clicked you earn money.

Sounds easy because it IS easy!

The 7Search SearchAdRoll is currently in beta but is available to all pre-existing affiliate accounts. I spoke earlier today with their press department and have been told that a percentage of new accounts will also be given access (so try signing up, there's a good chance you'll have immediate access to SearchAdRoll!).

We are testing SearchAdRoll out on our blog but would love to hear what others think. Have you tried SearchAdRoll? What do you think?

Technorati Tags: 7Search, SearchAdRoll, Widget, Advertising, Ads, Make Money Blogging

Friday Fun Site: Pingg

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:45:00 +0000

Looking for a cool invite to send out? Are you tired of Evite? Perhaps you just want something a little different... well Pingg might be just what your looking for! Pingg offers sleek designs, web, e-mail, SMS, print or social network options of delivery and an easy to use management interface!

Coolness from Pingg:

Sleek designs: Use the free designs, upload your own or pay $10 for a custom Pingg Plus images.
"Pingg surroundSend" their catch phrase for describing the many options available for invites to be sent at the same time by any delivery
Customize text, background color and layout of your invite
PDF invitation: upload your design create a web event page and track RSVPS, manage comments and send out reminders.
Simple import address option and drag and drop method of adding invitees
Management service: create guest lists, RSVPs, track whos veiwed your email/event page
Ability to set up mass sleek reminders before the scheduled event
Gift registry and Charity registry integration- RSVP, donate and comment all at once
Money Collection option coming soon! Great for fundraising events or party costs contributions

Pingg is a polished, modern looking invite service with options that transform the invite process into an event itself! Charity, collections, event url, sms and social integration all in one bundle! One negative though would be lack of "voting", I have become accustomed to offering a voting system in my invites thanks to Planyp.us and from the feedback I've recieved others love the ability to vote on an event as well. Other than that personal preference Pingg might just become my new invite service of choice!

Happy Friday

Technorati Tags: web 2.0, Pingg, Sleek Evites, Polished Invites, Web 2.0 Invites, Customizeable Invites

Netvibes Ginger: Sharing Tool 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:42:00 +0000

I've reviewed Netvibes before and in that Netvibes post I referred to this service as a User Friendly Home Page. But now not only it is still user friendly but it's been given a makeover! New features include the once "exclusive for brands" Universe pages for all. I was lucky enough to get a hold of a Beta Invite (using my Twitter Beta Invite technique) and have been testing out the new features ever since. Below are cool features I'm sure you'll love!

Create, Name and share your Universe page
Star items from your feeds (publicly or privately)
Activity Stream:allows you to see what your friends are doing, starring & reading
Ecosystem: sleek interface to find & add widgets
Locate and import your friends from: Email accts, Twitter, Flickr & Facebook!
Status features (similiar to Twitter, Facebook & Myspace)
Public, Private & Friends Activities: great to share, reference and track links
Ability to listen to web radio stations thru your Netvibe pages
2 GB of free storage

Why am I loving the madeover version of Netvibes...because I can now easily share feeds/links, notes, events & widgets; which are tab specific. The universe option also serves as an excellent business tool for sharing information, not only internally but customize one for clients as well! Feeding them extra information will give that extra touch of personalization! That's my quick summary of what the upgraded netvibes has to offer!

Netvibes Ginger is currently open to those who have a private beta invite only. It is due to be released for all to use in mid-Febuary.

Technorati Tags: Netvibes Ginger, Start Page, Beta Invite, Sharing Tool, RSS Reader,

How To Score Beta Invites!

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 19:57:00 +0000

Ever wonder how ordinary people are suppose to get their hands on those hard to get beta invites? Seems a little unfair that only A-list bloggers or industry experts are offered invites to all the cool beta services, doesn't it? Well, my friends, I'm happy to share one of the easiest methods I've found for the ordinary Joe to get a beta invite.

2 Simple Methods To Score Beta Invites

Join Twitter and Follow Industry Experts
Sign up for Invite Share

So how does Twitter help you get Beta Invites? Well, its quite simple! Sign up, find and follow the industry experts and on occasion they will twitter, blog or simply offer beta invites to those reading. For instance in the past TechCrunch has twittered that they would be giving away 100 beta invites to the first 100 people that emailed and requested one. I've tried this twice and twice I got my invite! This doesn't guarantee you an invite but it sure does give you a good chance.

Now if you rather just join a service where beta invite sharing is their 'thing' then by all means sign up for Invite Share! Browse their site for various beta services, once you find what you're looking for simply 'add yourself to this list'. For each service available you will see "waiting users", "pending invitations" and "invitations sent", obviously the higher the number the longer the wait. Also, be sure to list beta invites you have, those who actively participate and send out invites get bumped up to the priority list! Simply invite people on the top of the list and click their name to confirm you've sent out the invite.

I've had better success using Twitter for Beta invites, but others prefer InviteShare since you don't necessarily have to race to be amongst the first 100 people to email and request an invite.

Oh, lastly if you decide to beg the right person for an invite - that has worked as well. I'm not mentioning which service or who I specifically know that has done this but good old fashion begging has been known to pay off!

Technorati Tags: Beta Invites, ShareInvite, Private Beta Invites, Twitter, Free Beta Invites, Insider Tips

2 Ways to Help Visitors Share Your Content!

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:01:00 +0000

How do you share your sites, blogs or articles of interest? If you've been using del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Twitter or other social bookmarking & networking sites - great! Now, lets take those sites and add them to your site with 1 click sharing! Better yet add mobile sharing options! After-all why would you want to deprive your audience the ability to share content using mobile capabilities? I've looked into two cool services which allow readers to spread the word multiple ways, see below for MadKast and AddThis overview.

MadKast Pros:

Easy installation "less than 30 seconds to install it using our one-click installation for Blogger and Typepad"
Offers analytics which tracks which posts are shared and visited the most
Cool module pops up for users to either email, text message, or share on social sites
Doesn't slow down the blog
Keeps friends contact information for one-click sharing on sites that use madkast
Simple method of Bookmarking Sites
No registration nor extensive sign up to go thru

MadKast Cons:

I myself am not a fan of having the madkast icon next to all my blog entries
Forces users to "recruit" their friends in order for the mobile text sharing to work
Inability to customize the share module box to better blend into your blogs background

AddThis Pros:

Free, easy installation
Ability to place the widget anywhere you'd like on your site
Several Social Services pop up in this share module- one click away and you've got your stuff where you'd like it to go
Stats! Have the 411 on what your readers are sharing and bookmarking, easy to read interface and ability to sort stats to match your preference
Small widget which offers bookmarking options or feed reader options

AddThis Cons:

It is not touching base on the social mobile community

Overall I like how easy they've made it to share and give options to readers to broadcast your information, yet due to the lack of customization on MadKast I choose to utilize AddThis for this blog. (you can see the small share widget at the end of this post)

Technorati Tags: MadKast, AddThis, Social Bookmarking, Mobile Sharing, Social Networking,

Site of the Day: Read It Later

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:43:00 +0000

Read it Later has become one of my favorite FireFox extensions! Why you ask? Well simply because I'm one of "those people" who constantly comes across an article online which seems interesting yet don't have time at that very moment to read it; so now I mark it as 'Read Later'. When I have a bit of free time I go back and read it! Sure you can bookmark it and save it into your "To Look At" folder or email the link to yourself, but honestly how many times have you done that and actually gone back to it? I know my folder of "To Read" normally ends up full of stuff that's just buried and never looked at again. So now I skip the whole emailing & folder stuffing ordeal and simply make use of "Read it Later", it's clean and simple!

Read It Later 101:

It's a free easy install
Two buttons will appear in your tool bar
You can right click on a page to include in your Read Later
You can click the Read Later button on your tool bar to mark it
Adding links to del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Digg is all made simple from the toolbars drop down menu
Reading List- here is where your articles come back to you! Click your reading list when you have a moment to spare, it will randomly pull up something for you to read.
Mark as Read - once your done check it off as read or feel free to add it to other services for future reference.

The drawback is that Read it Later doesn't sync across computers or browsers; which would be ideal since I come across interesting reads while at work but can't get to them til I get home. Word on the net is that they will have updates soon, so maybe we'll be able to cross out that drawback soon!

Technorati Tags: Friday Site, Helpful Tool, Read It Later, Clutter Free Bookmarking, Bookmarking Service, Web Tools,

10 Reasons You Should Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 21:14:00 +0000

Are you Twittering yet? If not, maybe the following '10 reasons why you should twitter' will convince you to check out the service and sign up!

For those who aren't sure what Twitter is here are a few simple explanations:

Twitter is a service which allows you to post what you are doing and read what others are up to. Real Time info channel, instant messaging for the masses, mobile friend and news outlet.

Twitter is a Social Web Service that also works with your mobile phone via text messaging.

Twitter is a place where you say what you are doing and check out what others are up to, its a stripped down blog, Myspace, IM, where you don't have to have a network of friends, here you can easily make one or add to your existing network.

Now that you know what Twitter following are 10 reasons why YOU should Twitter:

Quick Informal User Feedback - need an opinion or have a question? Simply Twitter what is on your mind and feedback is inevitable.
Untapped Resources - utilizing twitter I have found and formed constant open communication with designers, programmers, A-list bloggers and others whom I may not have had the opportunity of befriending.
Tracking your interest - if you're looking for updates on "T-Mobile," "Internet Marketing," "Google Party," 'Track' allows you to do just that.
Self Promotion - if done right you can use Twitter to let others know what you are doing, why you are better and why your services are crucial, only if done in a tasteful moderate method. If you get spammy your followers will more than likely remove you.
Citizen Journalism - Twitter is an excellent source for immediate news from the mundane local free food sample to instant news of traffic accidents and roads to avoid.
Communication - stay connected with friends, co-workers, family and your twitter friends by answering a simple question "What are you doing?" in 140 characters-simple enough! Insight as to whether your friend is having a bad/good day is one twitter check away!
Last Minute Plans - Want to go out, have free tickets to a play, looking for a friend to try out a new restaurants? Twitter your idea there is normally someone else looking for last minute plans as well!
Motivation - Need motivation to stay on track with your workouts? Tell twitter they will cheer you on.
Web 2.0 Applications - Tools & Goodies are popping up constantly, bringing new twists to this already popular social /microblogging / communications 2.0 service.
Twitter is Fun - if you start a new account be sure to check out the public time line, people in your area etc and add friends. If you start off as a twitter newbie and no one is following you, you will find you are simply talking to yourself- who wants to do that, right? So check out TwitterMap and type in your zip code I find this to be a simple way to find fellow Twitter users in your area.

I must warn you Twitter can become somewhat addictive! Mobile Social, real time broadcasting, immediate feedback, how can you not want to check it out constantly! Stay on top of Twitter news by subscribing to the Twitter blog!

Check out Spiderbaits Twitter and feel free to follow us for Web 2.0 news, Blogging and free marketing tips!

Technorati Tags: twitter, social networks, web 2.0, social mobile, twitter applications, twitter news, mobile social networks, 10 reasons to twitter, twitter tools, self promotion tools

Halloween Fun Sites

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:18:00 +0000

Looking to have some web fun today in honor of Halloween? Well below are a couple of fun sites to keep you in the Halloween spirit!

Here you can carve your own Virtual Pumkin
Check out these free Halloween Greeting Cards
Spruce up your Blog with these Halloween Blog Themes

Wishing you a safe and Happy Halloween!

Technorati Tags: Halloween Blog Themes, Halloween Fun Sites, Halloween Greetings, Halloween Online Fun, Halloween Virtual Pumpkin

Get Listed Easily For Major Local Searches

noreply@blogger.com (A. Garcia) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:54:00 +0000

What is local search and why would "I" want to get listed locally?
Well the answer is simple. Local search can be looked at as an online replacement for "Let me check out the phone book for a hardware store near me" type of reference and if you're a local business with or without an online presence now is the right time to get your business on the local search / local listing bandwagon.

Is local search only beneficially for small businesses?

No, not at all. Larger businesses with various locations or who'd like to get their name on the Google, Yahoo and MSN maps would greatly benefit from local listings as well.

There are a number of reasons why all types of businesses should take local listings into consideration. So to better summarize the who, why and how questions regarding the local niche I've found three articles which I find to be beneficial for those who would like to get better familiar with this service.

Local Directory Submissions - What You Need To Know : Great summary with information you should have handy and links to submission pages for your site.
Who's Who in Local Search : Great break down of information with the who's who and the who provides information to whom in local search.
The Benefits of Local Online Advertising : Brief overview of why local would be ideal for your business.

Technorati Tags: local online listing, local business directory, local directory, major local search, business listing locally, free local listings, how to get listed locally