| LED Digest 2598: Article Sites & SEO Tools |
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The LED Digest
Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom http://www.WillMaster.com/Master : the LED's Key Sponsor Master Series Software - Get Connected with Your WebSite http://www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== Guest Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. February 29, 2008 Issue no. 2598 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ====================== --== SEO Tools ==-- ~ Brett Atkin --== Best Article Marketing Sites ==-- ~ Trevor Johnson ==== CONTINUING ================= --== SEO Relevance Factors ==-- ~ Dirk Johnson --== Web Standards (and Doctype) ==-- ~ Al Toman --== Project Management Tools ==-- ~ Mario Soavi ~ Grant Crowell ========= NEW ===================================== From: Brett Atkin Subject: SEO Tools What are the latest opinions on the SEO tools like WebCEO and Bruce Clay's SEOToolSet? I only need/want to be able to check rankings and do keyword research. I've used WebCEO before (years ago) and wasn't overly impressed but I just read an article today on ClickZ Experts where WebCEO was mentioned. On the WebCEO ranking checker page, it mentions that you can you use a Google API key to help eliminate/reduce issues with "spamming" the engine while checking rankings. Didn't Google stop offering this API key last year? Any opinions on Wordtracker and other specific keyword tools? How do they compare to the keyword tools in Adwords? Thanks for opinions, recommedations, etc... Brett Atkin BrettAtkin.com -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Trevor Johnson Subject: Ranking of Article Marketing Directories Two weeks ago, this list discussed directories and rankings of social media sites. References to such sites ranked by Alexa rating or by PageRank were provided. I am now looking for something similar in relation to rankings for Article Marketing Directories. These have multiplied enormously in recent years, though I suspect most are valueless and mostly for the benefit of the site owner collecting content to surround with Adsense ads. I doubt that genuine website or ezine publishers go anywhere near most of them to find material they can use. Thus comes the question: Which are the most serious and useful article marketing directories? A genuine "top 20" or so would be useful, particularly if ranked by some relatively objective criteria. Of course, the best criteria would be in terms of how well they are visited and the articles used by publishers other than the directory owner him/herself, though this is probably a most difficult rating to make. Additionally, from the experiences of the "article marketers" reading LED today, do you submit by hand? Do you use a paid submission service? (My recent experience with one was underwhelming.) Or do you use automation software? (A couple of years ago, "Article Announcer" was being touted and promoted by every web marketing guru out there, but no-one has mentioned a word about it for a long time now.) OK - There are my questions. What are the ranked top 20 article marketing directories and what is the best method of submitting to them? Trevor Johnson http://www.SpinachWords.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Dirk Johnson Subject: SEO relevance > Do what works for YOU. Your site. Your > keywords. Your content. Your links. Your > competitors. Spend time on what works for > your set of unique circumstances, less on > what doesn't. Don't be concerned about what > is myth and what isn't. At the end of the > day your customers don't give a rat's about > the mythical status of your SEO efforts. - Steve Pronger, LED 2597 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2012/190/ Amen. A lot of people have found a variety of ways to make SEO work for them. Whatever works is what works, within legal/ethical means (of course). With most SEO issues, we all live in a vast "gray area". It takes an open mind, and a willingness to analyze real results. Personally, I am always looking for a new "what works". It is also important to realize that there are vast differences in the cost of various SEO approaches. That is where experience and an understanding of return-on-investment and the overall branding effect of various actions comes into play. If site A spends $1000 to get to the first page, while enhancing their brand within their community, and site B spends $20,000 while relying on blatant gaming methods that have no inherent value, then who really has the advantage? Site B now needs to recoup $19,000 of cost that site A does not, while site A also accrues additional benefits for a genuine branding approach. There may also be significant "cost of ongoing service" differentials between the two SEO agencies servicing these accounts. So the hole only gets deeper. THAT is the huge difference between hiring (or following) the advice of guru A vs. guru B. The overall return-on-investment DOES matter. Just like every other business expense. Yet I still see very little, if any, public discussion of the ROI aspect of various SEO strategies. Clients consider it, even if the industry won't. We are seeing a return to basics here, and a wariness of expensive and elaborate SEO gaming techniques. If anyone wants to find out what really works for the least cost in SEO matters, then just study the people who are running a large stable of successful affiliate marketing sites. They need to get rankings as soon as possible, with the least cost and effort. Once they find a successful formula, don't count on them going public with it. So we never really hear much from these people. I am fortunate to know a few. They do not buy into the endless noise that comes from the top levels of the SEO world, and they see it for what it really is. It's the SEO guns for hire that have the need to publicize their own approach. If their proposed solution is not the one that provides the best ROI to a client, then there's an inherent conflict of interest. The average business owner does not realize this prime dynamic when reading the pronouncements from the gurus. In the site A vs. site B example above, you can count on the high-priced guru for site B being the one that publicly belittles the tactics and approach of the guru for site A. They have to justify their own methods. They do this with scare tactics, arrogance, and outrageous, unfounded statements about how SEO "really" works this year. There is always some manufactured reason why the most expensive solution is currently the only one that will work. This need to "differentiate" is where many of these SEO myths start. Absolute statements from SEO gurus are usually wrong. Yet, many of them love to make such statements. Often there are fantastic headlines attached. What I reject about SEO mythology are not the statements that are made on the "look, here's what works for me" side of things. As Steve said, if you can make it work, then it works. It's when these pompous gurus with a self-interested axe to grind claim that it absolutely *doesn't work*, then that's just arrogance run amok. There is a massive amount of it in the SEO world. Best regards, Dirk Johnson DomainDrivers LLC www.domaindrivers.com ========= Begin Sponsor Message ========= Inexpensive Content Rotator Rotate any part of a page. Or even the whole page. ~ Image ~ Headline ~ Leading paragraph ~ Special pricing Content Carousel - http://www.willmaster.com/carousel ========== End Sponsor Message ========== -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Al Toman Subject: Doctype > A short while ago, I posted some comments > re validating pages to standards. It didn't > generate much comment or discussion (as I > had hoped it would). Do LEDers not care > about standards? - Tom Aman Tom, I've been professing W3C standards since I learned its benefits to websites. I was embarrassed by performing anything less then standards based work. I consider anything less to be amateur, unprofessional. Once learned, validating web pages comes easy and quickly, a matter of a few seconds. Unfortunately, we are a people with no standards, globally. The W.W.W. has turned from a sophisticated means of communication amongst sophisticates to a Your Space Helter Skelter Anything Goes! If one does not profit from standards, one does not give a rats about standards. It's that simple. Third party script is rarely valid. Google and Microsoft both have $180,000 a year software engineers and they are clueless. Dynamic Drive and Javascript Kit scripts often fail IF a Doctype is present. It is impossible to have standards strict web pages if one includes third party script on them. CSS, XML, and such are nothing new. Yet they are of great mystery to over 90% of webmasters. The W3C quickly learned that 99% of webmasters are slow learners, lazy, brain-dead, valueless, or all of the above and are now presenting the standards at a slow, slow pace. The technology of ions ago will be considered, WOW, NEW STUFF! It ain't. Dreamweaver is built for professionals, "Built for both designers and developers, Dreamweaver CS3 offers..."(source: http://www.adobe.com/products/dreamweaver/ and http://www.adobe.landingpage1.com/dreamweaver/master/) yet notice how many amateurs speak Dreamweaver as a household word. Some are 14 years old. Why should I pay Adobe 400 bucks when I can very well learn CSS and beyond for far less in far less time!?! Besides, I don't get that kind of an allowance as do these 14 year olds, these days. A bloke in Steve Pronger's territory bought Dreamweaver "to learn...". If one wants to LEARN, one goes to school. The W3 schools are free and one will actually learn and yield web pages faster and better then buying Dreampooper. But don't take my word for it. Webmasters pray to Google and MSN or the like on a daily basis, worldwide. Most all social applications out there are invalid. Follow the discussions at W3C, SitePoint, and such. The argument today is, why have standards if no one uses standards. Consider that less then 99.99% of the entire W.W.W. is standards based. The only way to create a valid W.W.W. is for its inventor, Mr. Tim Berners-Lee to charge, collect, and pocket $100 per month per web page that is not valid. He'd make Gate's years of fortunes look like pocket change, beer money, in one week! No Tom. Talking standards is being anti-social. It's being anti-global. It's not cool. It's not hip. It's profit baseless. Tom, dumb down yourself and do the SOCIAL thing. Give up ALL your standards as does 99.99% of the W.W.W. Instead, go Twitter.com and make yourself useful. Al Toman studio9 web design Web Design Your Business -------- new post - new topic -------- From: Mario Soavi Subject: Project management > I'm on the hunt for a project management > tool. There's one catch: it can't be > Basecamp. I've used Basecamp a lot... too > much probably... and would like to try > something else. - Adam Audette - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/2011/190/ Adam, I use dotProject (http://www.dotproject.net/) which is open source, not so friendly but complete for a real project management activity. I'm using it in two different activities, one dealing KM services (well, it's normal KM people knows how to use PM) but the other Marketing and Communication services. Let me tell you that if a copywriter or an art can use it without big problems, I think the system is for everybody (even if it hasn't others' smart interface). I hope it helps you. Ciao. Mario PS: I'm Italian: anyone else from my country on the LED list? -------- new post - same topic -------- From: Grant Crowell Subject: Project Management Tools Welcome back Adam, and greetings again fellow LED-heads, I'm at the SMX conference as well after returning from the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego, which probably makes me an official "conference junkie." If you're not juggling a few clients and writing articles and moderating newsgroups, it's not really a conference experience in my mind. (Something more like that alien term, a "vacation.") It will be interesting to see how this round of SMX compares to the free-form format of OMS, which is the only conference I've been to where 'boo-ing' is actually encourage of the audience whenever they hear a speaker give anything resembling a product pitch or company plug. Regarding your hunt for a project management tool, I actually teach a digital project management class for a local college, and can recommend a number of tools and other resources. Below is a list I've put together on the fly. (Literally 'on the fly' as I'm doing this on the plane to Santa Clara.) WEB-BASED RESOURCE * PBWiki.com - this is an excellent collaboration tool that I prefer over Basecamp. It has free versions, business versions, and educational version. (I use the educational version for my class, and the platinum business version for my client, which lets all of my stakeholders get continually updated with the highest security for their sensitive documents.) SOFTWARE * Best cross-platform program: Fasttrack 9 from AEC software http://www.aecsoftware.com/products/fasttrack/default.asp. This is more costlier than other programs, but in my opinion its the best of the bunch for the serious project managers. (Meaning, those who can really dedicate a good amount of time to project management on a regular basis.) Its fully Win-Mac compatible and can sync with pretty much any calendar tools, including Google and iCal. The demos and training is great, but if you're not prepared to make the full commitment I would recommend some simpler tools, such as the ones below: * Best Mac program: OmniGroup's OmniFocus, OmniPlan, and OmniGraffle www.omnigroup.com. Even though these have been touted often for personal task management, I would put them against any business-level program. This has the most user-friendly interface of anything I've come across, although it would be more helpful if these could all merge into one program. * Best Windows program: Microsoft Project. (OK, I confess, its the only Windows-based program I have to use, since my class is all on Windows PCs.) Their Gantt charts are particularly easy to learn, and Lynda.com has some excellent training videos on this program. PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS I also want to recommend some business productivity tools, which I find essential for any project management: * Software - MindJet’s Mindmanager http://www.mindjet.com/us/. This makes fantastic map galleries which I also use for site mapping. * Book - The Beginner’s Guide to Project Management. (Available online at www.que.safaripublishing.com * Book and Audio - David Allen's "Getting Things Done" http://www.davidco.com/index.php His site is an excellent, updated resource on business and personal productivity, with excellent products and accessories that I’m actually carrying in my bag right now! I’ve gone 2 hours of his 8 hour program and am amazed by how clear he can explain common work situations and how to get out of our ruts. There’s also a free podcast, newsletter, and newsgroup. Just check out the site! Grant Crowell, Grantastic Designs www.grantasticdesigns.com (c) Copyright 1995-2008 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner |
