Here are my specialties:

• Web development – HTML, XML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, SEO, WordPress API
• Movies – Both classic and recently released. Includes science fiction, some fantasy, romance, musicals, dramas, and comedies.
• Poetry – Mainly classical
• Going green – Environmentally friendly tips
• Computers – Computer repair and open source software.

So go ahead. Ask a question, any question. It can be silly or serious and can deal with anything you wish.

I’ll answer as many questions as I can in a blog post in about a week (if there are enough questions).

The initial results are amazing. Actually, I am set to make back more than what I put in. So at 70-100 clicks daily plus thousands of visitors seeing my ad, it is a huge steal. Alright, so this includes me having the widget on my site and doing the max amount of ad clicks daily. But so what? I am at least getting paid for the credits my site is creating.

You might want to read my other articles about Adgitize and how it is a great tool when combined with Entrecard.

For a short reminder, Adgitize pays members for:
1) Page views.
2) Ad views.
3) Ad clicks (you, yourself make through the Adgitize network).
4) Advertising through their network.
5) Publishing new articles on your blog.

Without advertising, I earn ~$0.25/day when publishing an article and anywhere between $0.2 and $0.12 when not.

Now with advertising, Adgitize kicked the earnings up a notch. The earnings are ~$0.90/day when publishing an article and ~$0.25/day when not.

I know what you are thinking, “Why not just publish an article everyday?” Well, that may be ideal for some people; however, I am not able to write quality when publishing that often (well, I think this is quality, do you?). I have way too much going on to be able to do that. But yes, it is possible. Although, the Adgitize people do random checks on quality of blog posts. So don’t post something worthless and think you will get credits for it.

Overall, I am going to make roughly the same amount of money I put into the program if not slightly more. I have been receiving a steady flow of traffic and some additional comments as opposed to usual (not counting Entrecard commentators).

As far as RSS subscribers, well, there no real increase. Sadly, with programs like Adgitize and Entrecard where members visit daily, many visitors don’t feel the need to subscribe. Either that, or my information isn’t as good as I had hoped.

Want to sign up? Go ahead. And yes, I do get paid $5 for each person who signs up through me and advertises (but all this information is 100% accurate based on my participation with the program). So please be sure to come back and click the link when you decide to sign up.

Anyway, this is mostly a rant about Entrecard. Alright, so it is about members of Entrecard or rather, ex-members who are obsessed about the service.

These ex-members are obsessed with Entrecard. Why? Because they enjoyed it-even if they don’t wish to admit it. Many of these ex-members left Entrecard because they were banned. They were banned for spamming, for spreading false rumors about the system, or for simply speaking ill will against the program in a non-constructive way.

Now that these bloggers are no longer to be part of the community, they instead spread speech about Entrecard in order to 1) continue receiving EC traffic or 2) try to get others to quit the program. This is either done through other social networking sites such as Twitter (don’t know what I’m talking about? Search Twitter for ‘Entrecard’ and you will see someone who talks about EC *all day long* and hasn’t been a member in a very, very long time), through other forums, or simply by posting content on their own blog.

Here are some recent “news” spread about Entrecard:

1. Graham is an Asian woman.
2. Graham is racist.
3. Entrecard is a Nazi regime.
4. Entrecard allows porn ads.
5. Entrecard is going to die by June.

Graham is an Asian woman. This was started by an ex-member who wouldn’t give up his source nor would he give a screenshot of the IP addresses as evidence.

Regardless of whether or not he is right, he did not offer any evidence other than hearsay. Graham is innocent until proven guilty.

Graham is racist. Someone stating there are scammers and spammers in Asia and Africa is not racist. There are scammers and spammers in every country, but the majority actually do come from poorer countries and those two continents sadly include a large majority of them.

Ever heard of the Nigerian scammers? Case closed. Saying Nigerian scammer is not racist. It is simply a fact that the scammer is Nigerian.

This was another job done by the person above. This person was banned from Entrecard a while back and will say anything to get people to read his blog and move to his advertising program.

Entrecard is a Nazi regime. Saying silly crap like this has been going on for a long time. And although most of it is said in jest, there are seriously people out there who believe this. If you are one of those people, you are wrong, and it is an outrage that you can even string those words together without thinking out ridiculous and idiotic it makes you sound.

Here’s a few reasons why Entrecard is not a Nazi regime:

1. The leader does not make great speeches.
2. Entrecard does not have a military.
3. Entrecard has not yet invaded Poland.
4. Entrecard has not killed any Jews (that we know about).
5. Entrecard exercises its right as a capitalist corporation.

Number 5 is the kicker. As a capitalist corporation Entrecard reserves the right to offer their service to anyone they please as long as they are not prejudice due to skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.

That means they can kick you out whenever they please and they can simply not accept your blog if they don’t see it fit for their service, so long as the reason for kicking you/not accepting you has nothing to do with skin color, gender, or sexual orientation.

So in reality, Entrecard is the exact opposite of a Nazi regime because they exercise their rights as a capitalist corporation.

Entrecard allows porn ads. Again, no evidence was given. There have been three accusations of this happening, with the most recent coming this past Monday.

So what ad was being pointed out as pornography? A diet ad. Yes. A woman with a toned body (with clothes on) was mistaken for pornography.

So what were the other two ads? 1) A dating website. Again, it was a woman who was wearing clothing. 2) An ad which linked to a blog with women wearing bikinis.

Is this really what the world has come to? I mean, seriously? So a woman can’t wear a bikini without being called a porn actress? I guess these people have never set foot on a beach or else they would think they stepped foot onto a porno scene.

Yes, I understand some Entrecarders are dropping cards with their children around. And to them I say: so what? Your son and daughter aren’t allowed to go to the beach? They aren’t allowed to watch commercials? They aren’t allowed to go to the public swimming pool? Their sexual education classes? Their biology classes? Their A&P classes?

Sorry, but even if you did wish to keep your children away from those areas you are in for some hard times ahead. Humans (yes, children are human) are naturally curious. What you don’t let them see they will want to see even more and the moment you turn your head they will be searching online for it (and yes, school libraries have computers and a large percent of children know how to get around filters, and if they don’t their friends do).

I don’t know about you, but I would rather have my son see a bikini when I’m around in a non-sexual or frightening environment than them crouched in the corner at a friends house searching for ‘hot girls’ to figure out what the hell a ‘hot girl’ actually is. And yes, I am saying this because a friends seven year old child did this exact thing. Did he know exactly what he was looking at? No. Did he think it was sexual? Probably not. Was he curious? Definitely yes.

I’m not telling you to let your children watch porn. No, no no… definitely not. I’m just saying that keeping non-sexual pictures away ‘for their own good’ is actually doing them more harm (and will cause you more harm as a parent later on).

Entrecard is going to die by June.Alright, so last October I said Entrecard would be gone by the end of 2008 (unless it made major changes-which technically it has, just a little later than I thought). And honestly, I’m happy I was wrong. I am also happy EC made some of the changes I suggested. What are the changes? 1) EC is finally paying out for credits. 2) We know exactly how much credits are worth. 3) Graham is learning on the job. Yes, no matter what the ex-members say, he is learning.

In conclusion

Ex-members generally have no clue what is going on in the community except by going by what others say. Since this information is always second-hand (well, third-hand by the time you hear it) something is bound to go wrong. The first person who started the rumor may have lied, the second person may have lied. Even if this person has been trustful in the past does not mean they have nothing to gain from spreading false information. Nor does it mean they should be allowed to make accusations without offering evidence other than hearsay.

As well, these ex-members are generally out to get something. Whether it be to gain affiliate commissions (by getting you to join their new ad program) or by getting back at the program which banned them. Don’t blindly read without first asking the question, ‘where is the evidence?’ And always, always take what they say with a grain of salt. Question what they say and use critical thinking. Don’t let others do your thinking for you.

Hell, even this post I want you to think critically. Do I make sense? Do I make good arguments? Should I be believed?

Ask yourself those questions.

1. VIP forum. The general chat is no longer open to new members.
2. The starting price for selling your credits is $1.
3. Graham’s disappearance.
4. Paid ad annoyance (both the 50% being displayed and the large amount of ads to accept/deny).
5. Ridiculous prices for ads.
6. Market place unreliable.
7. The bounce rate.

That is just a drop in the bucket. There are many, many reasons why members are fleeing.

Although changing to fiat economy would only change a few of these problems, it would help add to the overall effectiveness and value of the credit.

So how would Entrecard go about changing to a fiat economy?

1. Create a set credit limit. Currently there are 40 million credits in the economy, try to get that down to around 25 million.
2. Buy back as many credits as possible to get it there. Keep the price at $1 and see how that goes. Although many ECers are uncomfortable with that price, there are many others who are completely comfortable with it. $1 was the black market buying price before it was against the rules. (#3 may go here instead, depending on your philosophy)
3. Set the drop limit to 100 and distribute the credits by propertion. This probably won’t happen, however. Entrecard is making too much money off advertisers and with a lower drop limit means less page views across the system. Less page views means less advertisers run through their budget quickly. Nonetheless, if this did happen, it may allow more members to be of quality and comment more. As well, less time will be given to Entrecard. At it’s current rate, dropping cards for just an hour a day is equal to one work day per week. It just isn’t worth it in most cases.

   At the end of each day, distribute a number a set of credits according to the proportion of credits dropped. For example, if there are 1 million credits available and only 500 thousand drops, then each drop gets 2 credits. If only 250,000 credits are available, then each 2 drops get 1 credit in return.

4. Make more stats available. I, for one, don’t wish to advertise on websites over 1000 credits in hoping to receive just 12 click throughs from fellow Entrecarders. What I would pay for, however, is 12 click throughs from other social media websites and search engines.
5. Do more to encourage ad buying. One reason Entrecard has so many credits available is because of the low amount of ad buys. Since ads automatically take 75% out of the system, the more buys the less credits available. But how can EC change to a system where more ads can be bought?

   One way, is multiple ad units (which they are said to be working on). The more ad space available means more ads sold. But I think we can go a bit farther.

   A second way, is to allow campaigns similar to ProjectWonderful. Let us auto-buy ads which meet specific criteria. For example, let us auto-buy any ad with popularity above 300 at the ad price of 64 or less. They could even allow us to choose the category and place real stat data, ad clicks from non-members, etc.

   The third way, would be to let us choose specific dates for our ads to display. Many times I have an scheduled to be published on a specific day which I think have the ability to get many comments from Ecers. Right now this is impossible. By letting us choose a specific day we could set up more convenient ad campaigns.

6. Fix the market. Currently, buying or selling anything the in the market can result in one of the parties getting shafted. Secondly, after getting off the first page the sellers listing is almost pointless. What can be done? First, fix the layout. A better layout with better search functionality will go a long ways to make sellers and publishers happy. Second, fix the payout system. If the seller completes his part, make it auto-complete unless the buyer clicks otherwise. It is really bad when a seller does their part, then doesn’t get anything in return because the buyer is too lazy to click a button.

   The more market sells, the more credits that are taxed.

7. Reset the fiat economy every month. Yes, this isn’t technically a fiat economy since fiat never evolves, but lets be serious. A large amount of members come and go every month, and the amount of credits in the system should shadow that. When X amount of members enter the economy, then Y amount of credits should as well.

Although this might not fix everything, this would be a great start. I don’t buy for one second that the market would cost $7,000 to fix. That is ridiculous. Even for a full-time scripter that is about a 5-week full-time payment. Hell, I’ll do the work in half that time and do it for half as much.

The scripting is done by Phirate and he is part owner. Yes, time is valuable. But you get paid for your time used in the long-run. That is why you are the owner. Most restaurants aren’t profitable for 6-months after their opening, the internet is not any different. You do something and in the long run it will pay off. The amount of time and work you put into it is the question.

The bottom line is that Entrecard is fixable. I just feel that the main owner is giving up and letting it die. He doesn’t acknowledge specific questions asked towards him and the ones which are answered are half-baked. I’ve been an EC member for an extremely long-time in internet years, so I don’t wish to see it die. It’s just sad that most of the suggestions are going unheard.

Sometime, someone is going to open a real competitor. The competition right now are from low-budget sites who were mostly just tired of Entrecard. However, once someone with money decides to open shop, EC may very well go the way of mullets and the middle class.

Since some of you probably have no clue about the service, here is a rundown:

Entrecard has members which display widgets on their blogs whom receive credits for drops on their card and drops they give. In turn, these credits are used to purchase advertising space, something in the market, or are sold back to Entrecard in exchange for money.

Entrecard then asks members to display paid ads on their websites to help the service, it isn’t mandatory, but the confusion caused during the launch of the system has made many, unfortunately, display the ads even without the blog owner’s explicit approval. The ads are shown at a random 50% rate.

The paid advertising on the owner hand is a bit interesting, for a lack of a better word. Advertisers are given two choices, to pay by CPM (per thousand hits) at $0.60 or by PPC (pay per click) which is currently $0.04. This of course, is right now. The prices are set to double sometime in the future, and the prices debuted at half these but were recently set to at their current state a few days ago.

To someone unknowing of advertising these prices may look decent, but in reality they aren’t better than other alternatives, especially if you are advertising to make a conversion.

What is a conversion?
A conversion is something you wish visitors to accomplish. An example is signing up to your RSS feed, leaving a comment, or-more commonly-buy something.

The Results

Of the results I have seen (5 separate advertisers), they are roughly the same. $20 purchases roughly around 500 clicks (this includes past results which were doubled for the sake of new prices). This comes down to almost exactly $0.04 per click, regardless of paying per click or by CPM. Of the few which were testing for conversions, none were made.

There are probably still many of you which might think this is a decent deal. $20 for 500 visitors doesn’t sound all that bad, right? Well for one, many of these visitors are most likely Entrecard widget-surfers. This means they will click on your ad without the intent of buying, but rather reading or simply gaining additional credits with the hope of an EC widget placed on your blog.

Nonetheless, I will give Entrecard the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps roughly 25,000 is too small of a number to make a conclusion or the ones which did see results are simply not telling.

Therefor, lets assume a conversion theoretically takes place every 300 paid visits. This comes down to $12/conversion, which is quite expensive. If you aren’t making more than this in return, you’re in the red.

EC Paid Ads in comparison to others
Many advertisers leave Google AdWords with a sour taste in their mouth. Many shout through the rooftops of how corrupted the system is, how clicks are faked, and how the system is just too expensive. So this should be an easy win for Entrecard, right?

With my own experience with Google AdWords and the experiences I have read, a 5-10% conversion is generally seen as average. This means, that every 1 out of 20 visits should-at the very low end of the norm-convert.

Google AdWords’ price fluctuates frequently and has many factors when it comes to determining the cost of each click. There are many SEM experts which claim to pay no more than $0.05 per click, yet still maintain the 5% conversion rate. Although this in itself isn’t much telling when certain niches cost more than others. Someone who sells their service to a specific geographical location is likely to pay much less than someone who pays to advertise their service across the globe (keywords and relevance would play a major factor). As well, someone selling a car will likely pay more to advertise it than someone who is selling designer pencils. So the prices are all relative.

Again however, in my experience the CPC (cost-per-cick) is generally around $0.20 or less with good relevance and a decent, but not large, market.

Assuming the 5% conversion rate, you will be paying $4 per conversion through Google Adwords.

So what is cheaper for advertisers? The obvious answer is Google AdWords.

Entrecard just doesn’t make sense. When a large majority of members simply trade traffic, the costs just outweigh the benefits.

To Entrecarders:
Entrecard members whom advertised did see an increase in drops during their advertising period. With the ability of cashing out, the costs will be less and possibly worth it. More testing in this manner will of course be needed. So essentially, if you are paying simply for the traffic and nothing more, the system *may* be worth it.

Most of you have probably already heard about Entrecard. As for Adgitize, you can check out this post on how the system works. You can sign up here.

In short, Adgitize allows you to gain points by visiting Adgitize member blogs, displaying the widget, advertising through their network, and for new blog posts. In turn, those points are exchanged for cash at the end of the month.

The best part is, traffic from Entrecard is accepted and turns into points. So not only can you gain visitors through Entrecard, but you will be getting paid for it by Adgitize.

Both buttons are nearly the same size, so they can easily be put side-by-side for not only visitor ease, but for an asymmetric design within the sidebar. And hopefully, just hopefully someone signs up through you and buys an ad. It’s an easy $5.

So why not try it out?

Instead of forcing you to take the widgets down and then having to police everyone’s blogs we’re changing the initial 2 weeks notice that the widget must be removed. Now, as of 4/7/09 we will no longer be paying for traffic from Entrecard.

If you still find value in the traffic without being paid for it then you’re free to leave the widget up, however, no paid ads must be shown on it.

What does this mean? Well to put it simply, it means Today.com blogs can continue to use Entrecard, except the traffic will be discounted.

Of course, it isn’t that simple. The only way Today.com can judge where the traffic is coming from is by the referral. Hint: The toolbar doesn’t show Entrecard as the referral. As well, the referral only shows on the initial page view. Even if a visitor comes directly from the Entrecard website and views more than one page, it will count all pages but the initial.

I know, I know, this still doesn’t sound too promising since some members still don’t use the toolbar and only visit one page. So that is a bit disheartening; however, Entrecard still offers a way for members to connect and grow audiences by gaining exposure.

Whenever another blogger links to a Today.com blog, said blog gains exposure. If someone clicks on the link, the Today.com blogger will still get paid. What is the likelyhood of this happening? It is better than you might think.

Take a look at your stats. What were they like before Entrecard? What are/were they like during Entrecard? Do you see a difference? Most likely you have gotten at least a few links to your blog since you joined. This isn’t a coincidence. Bloggers love to link. Actually, that is what they are suppose to do. Even when a link is displayed in ‘nofollow’ the link is still a link and visitors from the linking source will still click.

Top drop lists, featured blogs of the day, and even contests offer great ways for bloggers to receive links.

Of course, you will obviously receive less revenue due to the changes, but don’t let this get you down. Use this as a learning experience and make the best out of it. Change your dropping style to conform to Today.com and find those who will give you traffic which pays.

How does advertising through Adgitize work?

Advertising through Adgitize is quite easy. All you need to do is sign up and click “advertise”. From there, just fill out the form.

How much does it cost?

1. one Month Ad ($14)
2. 14 Day Ad ($10)
3. 7 day ad ($7)
4. Page Peel Ad ($36); one month (the “Choose Length of Ad” states $50, but it is an error)

What ad sizes are available?

1. 125×125
2. 468×60
3. 500×500 (75×75 before peel)

How much traffic?
Although the traffic varies from day-to-day, many report spending just $0.01-$0.02 per visit for a month of advertising. This comes out to roughly 700-1400 visits.

What payments are accepted?
Paypal only.

How long does it take to get accepted?
10 hours or less.

Sounds good, right? Sign up now!

What about Adgitize publishers?

Alright, alright. I know this is what most of you want to know about. So here goes:

How does the publishing system work?
Adgitize uses a point system in order to determine publisher payout. There are five ways to earn points (each topping out at 100 each):

1. Posting an article on your blog (any article, but only one counts per day). 100 points
2. Click points (number of ads you click, up to 100). 1 point each
3. Ad views (number of ads * page views, then converted into points).
4. Page views (converted into points).
5. Advertiser bonus (if you advertise with them, you receive points). 100 points.

How much will publishers earn?
It all depends on points.

As of April 1st:

If you are scoring 300 points to 500 points on a daily basis then you will see earnings from $15 to $35 a month. Publishers scoring 100 points to 299 points daily will see monthly earnings from $1 to $10 a month. If you are scoring less than 100 points a day your earnings will be less than $1 a month.

What is the minimum payout?
$10. Each payment is made on the 20th for the previous month.

Can publishers get rich?
No, at least not at the moment. As Adgitize continues to grow and gain advertisers members will be able to earn more. But right now it is a great way to supplement a small blogs income.

Conclusion

The only “negative” I have experienced with Adgitize is not being able to complete the 100 drops. After roughly 50 drops all ads change to ’spot complete’ and disallows any further clicks (they go directly to Adgitize). This is due to a lack of advertisers within the system. Once all ads have been clicked, it changes to this. So this isn’t necessarily a negative since everyone is limited to this amount.
This has been fixed! The past few days I have been receiving the full 100 points.

Try it out. You have nothing to lose.

Here are some tips:

1. Publish a new post as often as possible (make sure it is quality).
2. Be sure to have your RSS feed correctly entered.
3. Do the maximum amount of clicks daily. Be sure you are logged in when doing so! (The ad banner will be blue beneath it.)
4. Display as many ads as you can (the maximum is 10).
5. Work on gaining traffic.

Give it 30 days and if it doesn’t work for you, just take it off. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose.

Although you may have an idea of what Entrecard’s problem, lets go ahead and look what exactly happens within the economy:

1. New members receive new credits.
2. Anyone can create credits by dropping or receiving drops.
3. When buying an ad or making a transaction, credits are lost (75% for ads, 12.5% for transactions).

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, sort of. The rate at which new members join and leave can have an awesome effect on the currencies worth. If 500 members join and each receive 100 credits, that is 50,000 credits added to the system. If only 300 members leave during the same period, that is still a net gain of 20,000 credits without any other actions taken by the members. To offset the additional currencies, 26,667 credits worth of ads would need to be bought. Again, another problem arises. These members obviously can’t offset their own footprint in the economy unless they generate more credits. And the circle begins: more credits mean higher ad prices. Higher ad prices mean more members dropping cards to have enough credits to buy ads.

A few weeks ago, Entrecard announced a new buyback program which will allow members to sell their credits back for real cash (alright, it is through PayPal, but it is still money, right?). So given the above example, to offset the new footprint just 20,000 credits need to be bought by Entrecard. Easy, right? Sure. But will this fix the economy?

Although the system has yet to be implemented, the announcement stated the price at which credits will be bought will vary daily. One day the credits may be bought back at $0.002 per credit, the next it may be $0.005 per credit (this is purely speculation of course, so don’t quote me on the actual price). The credits will be acting like a non-fiat currency, except when the credits are bought they will disappear and new ones will still be created. So why not use a non-fiat currency then?

Warning: History Lesson
The majority of countries used a gold standard until WWI. At that time, governments around the world couldn’t pay for the war thus a fiat currency was created. However, war was not over long enough, so when WWII arrived the fiat-currency once again took over the world–most countries were planning to return to the gold standard, but couldn’t afford it.

When World War II had ended, the world economy was hit hard. With the United States being one of the two Super Powers remaining, they decided to create a Gold Standard for the world to rely on. So they set the price of gold at $35/ounce. Instead of each individual country creating their own standard, many based their currency on the United States dollar. The idea was when a country decided to cash out, they would be returned with gold.

The problem was, the world population continued to grow. In order for the world economy (the United States in particular) money needed to be printed. So it was. Of course, with the United States being United States, they didn’t bother to officially change to a de facto fiat currency. Actually, they couldn’t. With other countries officially using the dollar as their own, the US had no choice unless they wished to harm other economies in the process. The price of gold kept at $35/ounce.

The change officially happened in 1971. Countries began to cash out as quickly as possible in the 60s because their own economies began to recover from the wars–France made an exchange in 1970 which all but killed the gold price in the United States. Nixon finally decided to make the change de facto so the United States own economy could both continue to grow (and continue to fund the Vietnam War).
End History Lesson

So what does this all mean for Entrecard? A non-fiat currency isn’t always best. Actually, if done wrong it can harm itself. The price must continue to adjust, and that was the problem in the United States. The price didn’t adjust–it couldn’t.

Does this mean Entrecard is doing the right thing? Well, we will have to see. The system hasn’t launched yet, so it can go either way. If credits can be bought at a reasonable price and consistently, then yes. It will create an economy which has the backing of real money. In order for it to work, almost the same amount of credits which come into the economy will need to be taken out. Can it be done?

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the technique of organizing a website in a way to increase its potential relevance of specific keywords on specific search engines and ensuring external links to the site are properly titled and in abundance. This is done to achieve higher organic ranking in search engines to increase the volume of targeted traffic.

SEO Aspects

Title – Use the title to create viewer interest–be sure to use your main targeted keyword phrase. This is perhaps the most important attribute in SEO.

Content – Use keywords in the body of your content several times, but don’t force it. Using strong and em to help build performance.

Links – Links are the second most important aspect of SEO. Use keywords in all links, both internal and external. As well, seek external links from other websites to point towards your pages using your keywords. This can be done by guest posts, linkbait, or article directory submissions.

Headers – h1, h2, h3, etc. are also important. Every page should have at least an h1. Use h2 and h3 as a way to add sections within your content. Put keyword in them.

Theories

Nofollow – Ever since the big three announced nofollow, SEOs have been scrambling to find a way to utilize the attribute. Some suggest placing nofollow on links to contact forms and about pages, while others see those pages more strategically. What SEOs do agree on, is placing the nofollow tag on untrusted links and advertising. Sadly, this includes comments.

Please the Google – Google is the most popular search engine on Earth, by far. Please him and you will find traffic at your doorstep.

Diversify – Don’t be a one horse cowboy. If Google goes down, your website should take only a minor hit. Utilize social media, the blogosphere, and make friends in the industry.

Go long-tail – You won’t get #1 overnight for the word “Cars”. Instead, think long-tail. Target searches for [cool green cars], [new 2009 honda], and [cheap plug-in hybrids].

Think longterm – Don’t sacrifice your site for short-term success. Every now and then a new blackhat technique comes to the forefront suggesting it will make you #1 if you cook crow. Don’t fall for the temptation.

Conclusion

SEO is a long-term project; it is not something that can be done overnight. Instead, find your comfort zone and continue the process of gaining links and optimizing pages over the life of your website. Only then can your site truly gain consistent exposure in search engines.