by David Wallace | May 14, 2007
Owning a few directories myself, this is a question that is of interest to me, especially after Matt Cutts recently stirred up some controversy when he invited people everywhere to report paid links as spam. With our directories, some listings are editorial while others are paid. In the beginning, every site added was editorial simply to populate the directory. Today we require payment for every submission simply to compensate for the time that is taken to review, edit and include the listing.
by David Wallace | May 14, 2007
My thinking for the last few years now is that static search engine ranking reports hold little value in and of themselves. These are reports typically run by a software program in which a list of keywords is added along with the main URL of the site(s) you wish to check and the software then queries pre-selected search engines, creating a report showing where your site ranked for each term.
by David Wallace | May 8, 2007
I just came across this story at WebProNews regarding a new IRS proposal that could have a negative impact on e-commerce. Essentially, The U.S. Treasury Department wants to crack down on Internet businesses like eBay and Amazon.com and require them to share their customer’s personal data with the Internal Revenue Service. What data specifically do they want? The obvious – names, addresses, etc. but then the not so obvious, social security numbers.
by David Wallace | May 7, 2007
I came across a video of our own Arizona senator and presidential hopeful, John McCain being interviewed by Google CEO, Eric Schmidt at the Googleplex thanks to Barry Schwartz. In the video, Eric plays the role of genial talk show host. McCain also fielded questions from several Google employees including questions about how the senator feels about atheists, what he plans to do about the current situation with Iran and nuclear weapons and even his opinions on gays in the military.
by David Wallace | May 3, 2007
In January, I wrote a post about how I was fed up with the Better Business’s Bureau’s Online Reliability program in which they force an additional fee on already paying members in order fro them to be able to display the BBB logo on their sites. A few weeks later, I received a phone call from one of their representatives congratulating me on my post, stating they also wanted to see the program done away with and that my post was helping to speed up that process.
However, little over three months later I get a renewal bill in which the price has now increased from $135 annually to $177.50. I’m not paying. It is not the money… really it is not. It is the principle.
by David Wallace | Apr 27, 2007
Blogs exist on just about every variety of subject one can imagine. And more and more blogs come online each and every day. But what does it take to really have an active blog that people will subscribe to and come back again and again to read? It requires creativity. It requires dedication. Even more so, it requires an addiction to the act of blogging itself.
How about you? Are you a blog addict? Here are ten signs that may indicate that you have an addiction, my friend.
by David Wallace | Apr 25, 2007
When talking to a potential customer, I can usually tell in a minute or less if they are going to be problematic. Call it intuition. Call it sixth sense. Or simply chalk it up to years of experience. It usually starts with a gut feeling that tells you, “Don’t take on this new client, it is going to be more trouble than its worth.” It is then up to you to decide whether to listen to that still small voice or go against it and sell out for the money. Everytime I have done the latter, I have lived to regret it. Fortunately the longer I do this, I learn from past mistakes and pay more attention to the voice inside my head.
by David Wallace | Apr 23, 2007
Unless you have been living in a cave for the last month, you have no doubt heard of Google’s plan to acquire online advertising company, DoubleClick. Along with that deal, they will acquire search marketing company, Performics which DoubleClick had purchased beforehand in 2004. This has created a stir of controversy among search marketers who are now concerned over the fact that Google owns a search marketing company. Will they embrace it of which there would then be concerns over whether Google would give them preference over other search marketing efforts? Will they sell it to avoid the obvious conflict of interest? Or will they simply shut it down.
by David Wallace | Apr 18, 2007
I can now say that we have been providing search marketing services for a decade. That’s right, April 18th is the day that we celebrate as our birthday. At least it is the date where we obtained our first trade name and opened a business checking account here in Arizona.
by David Wallace | Apr 17, 2007
What started with a three hour flight delay and three gate changes at the airport turned out to be another great SES, this time in New York City. While Irma and I were supposed to arrive in New York from Phoenix at about 4:30 pm, we actually did not get to our hotel till a little after 8 pm.
