Three star links:
- Great news for Internet marketers and e-commerce: more shoppers are purchasing goods via the Internet because of the high gas costs.
- The New Atlantis exposes the "myth of multitasking." Well, there goes my built-in excuse to Rand whenever he asks me why I'm browsing Etsy instead of doing site reviews. Crap.
- Interesting opinions here: Paul Graham discusses pooled-risk company management, and 37signals disagrees with him, saying you don't need to sell your company in order to have financial freedom.
- Say goodbye to the Googlebomb 1.0 and make room for v2: reputation mismanagement. :)
- Coming soon to a Facebook profile near you: Microsoft Live Search!
- Danny Sullivan examines how well Knol pages rank in Google's search results and finds that about 33% of the pages listed on the Knol pages are ranking tops.
- Speaking of Google Knol, the ever-chipper Michael Gray tells us all how to turn Google Knols into an MFA scraper.
- AudetteMedia came out with a free SEO diagnostics tool, the log file parsing script. It quickly parses out key criteria from log files using simple commands.
- SEMvironment also debuted something new: the link builder for Wordpress. The Link Builder tracks the websites and pages you link to and sends an email to the website's owner/administrator, notifying them of your link.
- Kirix.com has a video illustrating Benford's Law against Digg post submissions. They also use the law to show how a woman in Arizona was making fake payments to a fictional company to defraud the state. :O
- A former astronaut claims that aliens do indeed exist. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!
Four star links:
- Y Combinator came out with a list of startup ideas they'd like to fund. I think it's pretty clever and classy of them to list some good ideas and express an interest in being involved with them in some way.
- Season 2 of Mad Men starts this Sunday on AMC. If you haven't watched or heard of Mad Men, it's a show about an advertising agency in NYC in the early 1960s. It's a very well written and visually stunning show, and as a marketer I find it especially compelling to see a glimpse of what advertising and marketing was like 40 years ago (especially on more traditional media like radio and print).
- Here's a fascinating study: bloggers' interactions with their readers decrease the more prominent they get. I'd encourage you to discuss this in the comments below, but I'm too important to read them so never mind. ;)
- In case you were all wondering what our former CTO, Matt Inman, was up to, he's still building dating sites. For zombies.
- AgencyTool is "the definitive resource list for anyone designing, developing, marketing, or maintaining websites." The list of resources is pretty impressive. Check it out for some hidden gems!
- Best extra credit idea ever. My favorite is the illustration of the guy using Netscape Navigator. :D
Five star links:
- Loren Baker provides some great advice on how to combat complaint sites that are ranking for your brand.
- Now THIS is some extremely clever and awesome link bait. Can you guess the accent? (I scored a 39, by the way...need to brush up on my Lithuanian, apparently.)
- Congratulations to Sean Maguire for winning our SEO Haiku contest (see Rand's announcement here)!
YOUmoz entries:
- Hey Microsoft, Here's How to Kill Google. Carfeu proposes that Microsoft use Windows to incorporate search into the OS core and effectively get rid of the browser, thus eliminating Google.
- Simple Fix: The Easiest Page Views You'll Ever Get. PennysylvaniaFarmer shares some tips on how to optimize your 404 pages and provide some gateways for searchers so that they don't reach a dead end and leave your site.
- BLVD Status - Track Micro Conversions and Non-Traditional Goals. Cbin shares with us a new analytics program he and his brother created called BLVD Status.
- Link Building Using Unique Original Content and Other Techniques. MattRoberts shares his current link building tactics and encourages the readers to pipe in with tips of their own.
- Dumbing It Down For Your Sales Force. Tim Staines crafts up a letter to one of his clients and shares it with us. It details the benefit of links and the purpose of building them, and also outlines ways to ask for links.
- "Follow" Your Brand with Twitter. Fabio Ricotta talks about Twitter's acquisition of Summize and discusses how to watch your brand/various keywords/events/competitors on Twitter.
- Stop Wasting Money on SEM: How to Drive Cheaper, Better Traffic. RichPage shares some great tips on how to maximize the value of your PPC campaigns.
Best of YOUmoz:
- Advanced White Hat SEO, or How I Learned to Stop Chasing Rankings and Love My Users. LGTim authors up a very well-written and entertaining post identifying the difference between white and black hat SEOs, basic and advanced SEO, and quality vs. quantity. Very eloquently put--read it if you haven't already.
New events added to the Events Calendar:
No new events added this week.
Upcoming events:
- SMX Local & Mobile July 24-25 in San Francisco, CA
- Forex Affiliate Convention July 25-26 at the Flamingo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, NV
New additions to the SEOmoz Marketplace:
Featured job postings:
- Internet marketing consultant and sales consultant for Rise Interactive in Chicago, IL
- Contracted JavaScript/PHP web developer for Patrick Sexton, aka feedthebot
- SEO/PPC coordinator for SEER Interactive in Philadelphia, PA
Featured companies:
United States/North America:
- Utah Web Services in Utah
- 3K Interactive in San Diego, CA
- ListGalaxy in La Mirada, CA
- Nothing But SEO in Lynnwood, WA
- First Web Search in Las Vegas, NV
UK/Europe:
- Naxtech in Reading, UK
- Ph.Creative in Liverpool, UK
- Collective ID in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
- Your Media Factory in Groningen, Netherlands
- Construkt Development in Marbella, Malag, Spain
Featured resumes:
Currently looking:
- Lisa Wilberding (who I think lives in Michigan) is a communications and marketing expert who specializes in writing and public relations. She has experience managing traditional and social media relations accounts for various online marketing agencies.
- Michael Kennedy (who I think lives in California) is a versatile Internet marketing executive who has a strong e-marketing orientation. He has over 7 years of experience with SEO, web 2.0 product development and management, customer relations, email marketing, and online subscriptions.
Happily employed:
- Carlos Obregon in Vancouver, BC, Canada is an SEM specialist for HealthPricer Interactive. He manges PPC campaigns with a budget of $50k/month, and he also develops keyword-rich content, title tags, builds links, and performs a number of other tasks.
Heh. Rebecca, FTW! :)
I'm really surprised the only SEO Knol post so far after a full 24hrs was Danny's Firefox plug-in one, I thought the spammers would be all over it like {fill in the blank}
{A Blood Tick On A Pig's Butt}
Texas style
{Two Wise Guys On a Truckload a Suits}
New York Style
{A Preacher on Fried Chicken}
Southern Style
eww...
i was gonna say a tick on a.... neveremind..
Wow! Congrats to Sean! I missed Rand's announcement.
Thank Ann. I didn't see that. A five star link? Whooda thunkit.
I guess Rebecca was feeling in touch with her feminine side - you know, considering the poetry thing and all.
That said, as much as I appreciate the votes and the shirt, since I won an SEOmoz sweatshirt from the Link building contest, if it's okay with you Rebecca, I'd like to offer up the SEOmoz t-shirt to my personal favorite from mkraft.
Happy Friday everyone.
you are proving yourself to be a good egg everyday Sean.
I showed the extra-credit idea to one of my co-workers and I'd give him 3 out of 1 extra credits. have a look :-)
The shopping online thing. My mentor has been telling me this for the past 6 months.
Haha. Matt, Zombies. I wonder how much he'll make with this one. ;)
Thanks for all the industry updates. These 'Roundups' are very helpful.
So many things to comment on... And Sean as the chosen Haiku poet, didn't know it!
Great summary of many things I would have missed if it wasn't for your time putting this together. Thanks!
Thanks for featuring my resume!
Um, didn't you forget one of the YouMoz entries?
One that got over 100 comments?
let it go bro
Hah, that one got enough attention.