The year 2008 is almost over. The year started with a bang for me, but it got a little bit slow towards the end. Now that I think about it, this year has been awfully short. I don’t know about you but it seems as you get older, the days start going much faster. 2009 promises to be an interesting year to say the least. The state of economy is expected to get worse before better, and the job market will be even tougher than it has been in 2008 (as a self-employed person, I’ve got to always be alert when things are not working out). But I can’t be more excited about the prospects in the new year. It’s still fun to go over things that did go right in 2008.

Here is the list of what I am thankful for 2008:

1. Thankful for still being in business so far. The year has been tough on many folks, so I am thankful that I can still provide for myself and my family.
2. Glad to be still healthy. Another year has passed, and I am not getting any younger. And while I am not exactly in the best shape of my life, I am still healthy! Yay!
3. Thankful for somehow managing to stay on top of most things going on in my industry. Some folks start becoming stagnant as they age. Hasn’t happened to me yet, I hope
4. Grateful for Facebook and Twitter. The amount of stuff I have learned from folks on these communities are just astronomical.
5. Still single and going strong. I am still glad that I can take risks without thinking twice about it.
6. Thankful to my previous company for offering me a chance to work with them. Those guys were great, and I made great friends there, but I moved on, and they did too. Every-one’s happy!
7. WordPress is a big part of my life, and I owe those guys a lot. I don’t know most of them, but that doesn’t mean I can count them as my friends.
8. Thankful I got to hear about the God particle experiment. Science has always been my first love, but I never got to pursue it as a full-time career. But I keep up with the most important developments, and that was one!
9. I am lucky to have had the chance to attend a few events earlier this year. Hopefully, I’ll go to more conferences next year.
10. And I am extremely blessed to have my close family members healthy, alive, and kicking for 2008. Hope for the same in 2009.

Probably missed a bunch of things as I had a lot to be thankful in 2008. What are you thankful for this year?

Traffic Secrets by John Reese is a legendary Internet marketing course that has been around for quite a while. The first version came out a few years ago and made a few millionaires. Traffic Secrets 2.0 has been updated and released just a couple of months ago. As you can guess, the new course covers Twitter, Facebook, and all Web 2.0 things. I intented to write a review for TS2 a while back, but it took me a while to thoroughly analyze Traffic Secrets’ 12 CDs. I have finally finished up reading the course, but I am going to write reviews for each CD to do this course justice.

P.S. I intend to release more freebies to my newsletter, so if you haven’t signed up yet, I strongly encourage you to do so. Stay tuned for the reviews.

A lot of folks complain about the difficulty of writing a XML Sitemap for their sites. In fact, many of these folks come up with these excuses that “sitemaps don’t matter” and Google “doesn’t like sitemaps” in order to justify them not taking time to create a sitemap for their site. I do agree that adding a sitemap is not going to push your site all the way to the top of the Google SERPs. But having a sitemap in place is not only a best practice, but also helps Google go through your site structure without too much trouble.

If you have a blog or a dynamic site with thousands of pages, you are well-served to have a sitemap in place. But you don’t even have to know XML to create a sitemap for your site. You can always use thousands of sitemap makers that are available on the Internet. I personally use XML-Sitemaps for my sites. XML-Sitemaps is a premium solution. If you have Ruby on Rails site or a particularly huge site, you can pay a small premium to acquire the script you need to create XML sitemaps on the fly. But the first 500 pages can be indexed for free. So if you have a blog or a dynamic site that only has about 500 pages, you don’t even have to pay a fee.

At the end of the day, I prefer not to take any chances when it comes to optimizing my sites for the search engines. I have heard from some very paranoid folks that Google actually penalizes sites with XML site-maps. That’s not true, and a poor of an excuse to avoid getting the site-map done for your site. It’s not as if you have to do it yourself anyway.

What tools do you use to create sitemaps for yours? Do you do it by hand?

Is Google’s algorithm really over-hyped? In some circles, questioning the merits of THE algorithm is a blasphemy. After all, Google has managed to grab a huge market share lead thanks to its oh-so reliable SERPs, and it’s really hard for folks to game the system, right? Wrong! I have been an advocate of Google forever now, but I can’t explain how disappointed I am with Google and its lack of focus on what matters the most.

Unreliable SERPs: A few days ago, I talked about how I was impressed with Google’s SearchWiki, and how bringing the human factor would help improve the results for all of us. But I am astonished by Google’s refusal in addressing the holes in its algorithm and putting the organic search gamers in their place. I am not talking about some magic black hat technique that folks are using to get ranked. But it’s truly disappointing to see a parked site be in the top 10 results for a fairly competitive keyword (for more than 6 months). And let’s not forget that you can put a keyword phrase in your domain and if you are lucky you may end up in top positions without lifting a finger. Reliable? No. Pathetic? You could say I am going there.

Denial: I am still surprised that Google continues it’s PR based ranking system when it has proven wrong over and over again. The fact that folks can buy links and get ranked high does not sit well with us purists. I have been an advocate of white-hat SEO for a long time now, and It amazes me when Google penalizes one company and then turn its cheeks the other way.

Bullying Tactics: Google’s recent tactics in dealing with those who violate its guidelines show why a monopoly is not the way to go in the search industry. With Microsoft poised to take over Yahoo!, the consumers are going to be left with even less options. Microsoft is not exactly the fairest company in the world, but here is pulling for them to get their search business straight.

At the end of the day, Google is still the best we have in the search industry. Will there be drastic changes in this market? I mean now sure. But I certainly hope that companies such Cuil and Microsoft can mount a serious challenge to Google in the organic channel.

You decide: Is Google the fairest of them all?

Link building should be on the top of your search engine optimization efforts. Research has shown time and time again that there is a limit to the ranking you can earn without a proper link building campaign. Directories are still a potent way to get one way links back to your web properties. Free and paid directories not only can help you improve your ranking, but they can also bring you targeted traffic.

The problem with submitting to directories is that it usually takes time (to sign up, optimize your anchor text, track results), and a whole lot of effort. If you are running a business, should you really be doing the directory submissions for yourself? The answer is a simple no. A lot of folks recommend using automated software packages to automatically submit to directories (e.g. article announcer).  But these software packages are usually highly inefficient, and they make you do a portion of the work yourself (simply, overrated!).

The lesson I have learned from top SEOs is that you can’t do everything yourself, and you shouldn’t. Having the right partner can help you do more and be more successful. That’s why I went on a mission to find a SEO partner that would take care of my directory submissions for me. That’s where Directory Maximizer comes into play. After playing a few directory submission solutions, I have finally found the one that does everything it is expected to do without asking a huge premium fee.

Directory Maximizer allows you to submit to hundreds of free directories on the fly, and it will cost you only 14 cents per submission. You can also choose to submit to paid directories through the service, and they take care of that for your as well. But before we go any further, let me show you why Directory Maximizer is worth every penny and more.

Once you sign up for a free account on Directory Maximizer, you are going to see the above interface. From your dashboard, you can add your websites and submit them to directories. You can also view reports per site. If you have already submitted your URLs to other directories, you can use the “upload submissions” feature to submit those listings to avoid duplicate submissions. As you can see in the above figure, Directory Maximizer gives you rewards (MX rewards) for every dollar you spend on it (You get 3% back per every dollar). Each $MX dollar is equivalent to $1 that you can use towards future submissions.

Adding a site to Directory Maximizer is easy. All you have to do is provide your URL, your contact name, and your e-mail plus the categories and keywords that you want to use for your listing. You want to make sure you give them a working e-mail as directories send confirmation emails to that e-mail. But the most important feature here is the ability to add multiple title and descriptions for your listings. That allows you to choose up to 5 different anchor texts and descriptions for your listings.

Directory Maximizer also allows you to submit by budget, PR, or the number of directories you want to be listed on. Now, you may be worried about submitting to all directories in one week. After all, Google does get suspicious when you amass links in a short period of time. That’s why I love Directory Maximizer. It allows you to control the speed too (see below).

Not everyone gets started with Directory Maximizer in the first place. You may have already used a software package to submit to directories before. By using the “upload submissions” feature, you can make sure you avoid duplicate submissions.

Finally, you may decide that submitting to thousands of free directories is not all you are after. You can use Directory Maximizer to submit to paid directories. That is going to be more expensive, but there are a few decent high PR directories that you probably need to submit your site to improve your PR.

Once you submit your site to Directory Maximizer, you start getting emails back from directories. Some of these directories may ask you to click on a link to verify your submission (so you shouldn’t get rid of those emails right away). You can access your directory stats through the reports section.

Directory Maximizer has worked very well for me. I don’t have to worry about filling out forms or submitting to directories by hand. I just set it and forget it. I do use their rotating anchor text feature to define 5 different listing titles for my sites. Other than that, these guys take care of everything else for me. I do encourage you to sign up for Directory Maximizer and take a look around (see the tutorials and so on). It’s free. I can tell you one thing though: submitting to directories has never been this much fun.

I admit that I am a serial shopper. I shop around and try to find ways to save money. I have done that with hosting, books, and everything else you can name. But one thing that you should know about is your hosting location does matter. So what do I mean by that?

Let’s say you live in the U.S. and you decide to host your .com domain in England. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with that. However, using an England IP for your site can throw search engines off a bit. After all, if your site is hosted in England, there is a good chance that it targets that area only. Now, I admit that search engines have gotten better with this, and you don’t get penalized as often as a few years ago, but this is still an issue that you should be aware of before choosing a hosting service.

I would personally stay away from messing with my hosting plans. Nobody knows what Google is exactly thinking when it comes to ranking sites, but you don’t want to take any chances, do you?

Most U.S. citizens are familiar with the amendments of the constitution (at least I hope so). Folks talk about the first and second amendment all the time. In fact, the 2nd amendment was a big part of presidential election that we just had. But nobody would argue that the constitution of the United States was made when nobody is even dreaming of having a digital age like we have now. That’s why there have been small changes here and there in the past to bring it up to date. Will the Google age bring yet another change to the constitution?

I don’t know if we will get away with an amendment for this, but I think we are going to get to a certain point in this digital age that being found by search engines will be as essential as having the right to freedom of speech. We are not there yet, but wouldn’t it be unfair if you put up a site and search engines for some reason refused to pick it up? Of course, if you are a black-hat and you pull a nasty trick, then you will lose your right, but I personally don’t believe we have enough in the constitution to protect us citizens in this modern age.

Just like having the right to own a gun is a right in this country, I believe having access to the Internet and being represented on it through a website should also be a right. Now to be fair, we really don’t have too many laws about this whole thing. Nobody forbids you from owning a site or getting your own domain. But at the same time, search engines don’t really have to index your site.

If you are a logical person, you probably agree with me that we won’t really get that far with whole amendment thing maybe in 50 years. I sure do hope that Mr. Obama will keep the regulation on the Internet to the minimum, but if and when we get to a point where the Internet is heavily regulated, I believe there should be regulations in place to protect us consumers against abuse. Is that too much to ask?

I don’t know about you but I have been hearing vicious rumors about WordPress sites being slapped by Google. A lot of folks have been complaining about their sites disappearing from the SERPs, and they are blaming on, guess what?, the platform they are running their sites on. I mean think about it. If WordPress can help you get into the search engine index fast, it also needs to be responsible when you fall out of it, right?

I have been around long enough to realize when sites are actually slapped by Google. Squidoo was slapped, and may I say slapped fairly by Google a while ago. They got their act together and got back their ranking. WordPress issues however are another story. WordPress is used on the majority of blogs, and blogs have been notorious for going in and out of the SERPs. My iPhone blog lost 3 PR points in a matter of a month, and I have never gotten it back. I don’t blame WordPress for it though. 

It’s easy to blame your platform for your search engine standing. But at the end of the day, blogs are volatile and things can change so quickly. For instance, you may lose a bunch of incoming links in a month. You may use characters in your title tags or inside your code that could block search bots from navigating through your site. You might decide to pay with .htaccess file and do something crazy and restrict access to your blog. 

Besides, blogs are constantly attacked by hackers. You may want to make sure your blog is clean by trying to figure out if you are getting ranked for search terms such as Viagra. You can do that by using the site command:

Site:xxx.com + viagra

Now if your pages show up with the above command, you are pretty much in trouble. You basically wouldn’t know the extend of the problem unless you go through your DB and pages and figure out what has changed. It could be that the hacker has used hidden links all over your pages and got you penalized. 

At the end of the day, Google wouldn’t slap a platform by itself. Google penalizes folks who do not abide by its guidelines but it’s not good for business to alienate 75% of bloggers by slapping them all with a WordPress penalty. So the next time someone talked to you about the WordPress slap, ask them to stop playing around and look for the real reason behind their drop in rankings.

I have been lucky enough to be involved in affiliate marketing, PPC, and other marketing segments in the past few years. What I have realized is most affiliate marketers don’t pay enough attention to the ABCs of SEO. In other words, they don’t get the basics straight and go in expecting to get ranked on top search engines regardless. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen monumental affiliate sites that do not have optimized title tags. The concept behind these sites are great, but if you forget the most important SEO tactics, you are not going to get ranked as well as you should.

A lot of affiliates argue that SEO is not their “cup of tea.” That they are good with marketing, but not with the technical “stuff.” In reality, you don’t need to be a super geek to be able to implement the basics of SEO. Advanced SEO often requires some technical knowledge but even that shouldn’t be an issue if you have the drive to learn (There are plenty of sources such as AffiloRama that can teach you how to implement advance SEO tactics).

In order to achieve higher traffic from organic search, you should at least take time to do the bare minimum. In essence, you should be prepared to:

• do proper keyword research before setting up your affiliate site. Choosing the right keywords can bring you lots of targeted traffic and who doesn’t want that.
• optimize your website tags (including title, meta, alt, header, and robots) in order to give yourself a better chance of getting ranked high on search engines.
• optimize your website structure (URLs, file names, and directory names) to get the most out of your content.
• optimize your sitemap and robots.txt files to help engines find your pages, and  reduce content duplication issues.
• feed your website with fresh, optimized content in order to keep search agents coming back for more.
• use the social media to drive extra traffic to your website (through providing valuable content to your readers).
• optimize your website linking structure (internal links) to help Google understand the theme(s) within your site.
• gather incoming links (inbound links) from article directories, web directories, blogs, forums, and other sources.

The above steps are a general blue-print on how to optimize an affiliate site for the search engines. Most of the above steps do not require you to be a super geek, which means there should be no excuse for you not to do them. Are you getting the most organic traffic out of your affiliate sites?

I know Google and other search engines are not exactly in love with search engine professionals. After all, whether you are a white-hat SEO or just a pure black-hat, your goal is to make modifications to your site and its links to get it ranked higher on the SERPs. But folks who think they can keep SEOs from manipulating the results are have something else coming.

History has shown that no system is secure enough or foolproof enough these days. If you don’t believe me, just ask those ninja security folks at Pentagon. They were attacked badly a couple of weeks ago, and that just shows that no matter how sophisticated your system, you are bound to be bested by a hacker (gamer).

Search engines have become more sophisticated through the years, but the problem is that they can’t deny us SEOs the data we need to figure out ways to beat their system. Now, I don’t claim to be an expert in Black Hat tactics. There was a time I was fascinated by them, but you can’t build a business with black hat techniques. What most people don’t realize is that you don’t need to be a black hat to have massive success in the organic search channel.

Google folks talk about how they are going to do this and that and kill the SEO industry, but that has really not happened yet. I don’t believe there is anything Google can do to stop folks from gaming their system. Not in the next few years anyway. Google agents need to be improved immensely to be able to figure out real quality sites from SEO quality sites. That’s not easy to accomplish and won’t be foolproof either. I think the Oracle said it the best in the Matrix series. Every system has its balances and imbalances. We SEOs balance Google out. That’s just all there is to it.