BEWARE! Liberty Names of America SCAM

Liberty Names of America sends out official looking documents to unsuspecting domain owners telling them "...Failure to renew your domain name will result in losing exclusive rights to it on the web, and losing access to your online identity. Renew today and take advantage of the big savings we have to offer."

The part that REALLY burns me up is the "big savings" bit... their prices are DOUBLE what you would pay from a reputable domain registrar like GoDaddy.com. Who does not send out scammy mailings trying to steal your domain from another registrar.

Domain owners beware. KNOW who your domain is registered with. Keep your email address with them up-to-date. DO NOT fall victim to scams like these because you're not sure who you are registered with. When in doubt, check the WhoIs record for your domain, or Ask Joanne :-)

Aaron Wall Rocks!

Aaron Wall, the author of the SEO Book has put everything you need to know about the nuts and bolts of SEO in one place. Not only that, the book gets updated online, so you are never without the most up-to-date information. This book is definitely written for the person who wants to do their own SEO work. It demonstrates accurate how to's for every step of the process.

I like Aaron's approach because the way I do SEO consulting is to provide my clients with a report of how to implement the right keywords and begin building their search engine rankings themselves. I want my clients to learn how to do it themselves, because in essence, it's not difficult to do. But like all things, people need to decide where to put their attention and where to spend their time and money. If you decide to pay for ongoing SEO work (like link building and spotting new SEO "keyword opportunities"), just like you'd decide to pay for ongoing lawn care... knowing how it all works will make sure you hire the right professionals to do the job at the right price.

How to Choose the Right Keywords for your Website

Choosing keywords is almost more of an art than a science. The trick is to shift your viewpoint from one within your company into the head of your target audience.

Who are you talking to? Who is your target audience? How do they search? Where do they hang out on the internet.

What do you intend to sell them? What words might they use to describe what you have to offer - generic or specific?

What problems do you solve for them? Often people search using problem words because they don't yet know what the potential solutions are. What problems do your products or services solve.

Make a list of all the words that come to mind when you answer these questions. This is your starting list of keywords.

Seth Godin Rocks!

I have read nearly all of Seth Godin's books and every time find myself saying "YES!" I haven't yet read his latest - Meatball Sundae but I did attend a webcast this week that he did about the ideas in the book and, as usual, it was excellent.

The basic idea is that things don't work when you add all the fun sundae toppings (social media, blogging, podcasts, interactive web tools, etc.) on top of plain old meatballs (everyday products for everyday consumers.) These days it takes being "remarkable" in some way to really create a buzz about your business or products. You need to choose your niche and be the best within it... not too hard to do, but a very different approach than the "old" way of marketing meatballs.

Jill Whalen Rocks!

I have been a huge fan of Jill Whalen and www.HighRankings.com since I started learning about optimizing websites... in fact, it's from Jill's newsletter and forum that I learned how to optimize sites.

While doing some searching the other day on techniques for link building, I came across this interview with Jill on www.RecognizedExpert.com.

It's a very down-to-earth look at the basic tactics of SEO that worked in the early days, work now and will continue to work in the future. Why? Because ultimately the goal of the search engines is to provide their users with relevant information. If you "feed" the search engines relevant information about your site by using the right keywords in the right places, the search engines will "reward" you by ranking your site high.

Regardless of all the new internet marketing tools, techniques, gadgets and gizmos success on the internet is really all about providing relevant information and unique value to your customers. Search Engine Optimization is about making sure that message comes through loud and clear on your website through using your keywords in your page titles, web copy and behind-the-scenes code.