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Hello Blog World Attendees!

Okay, so as I’m sure you heard me say a thousand times when we met, I’m sorry there’s not more up here right now for you to see!

My intentions were to get this up and running for a “launch” of sorts this past weekend, and it didn’t work out that way, due to computer issues and all sorts of other things, so for that, I apologize and simply implore you to subscribe to the feed so you can be the first group to watch this company grow from the beginning.

I’ve got a lot of things set up behind the scenes that I just haven’t had time to get here on the site, but just in case you’re thinking, “Well who is this chick?” I wanted to point you to my first startup, Anubis Marketing. That company’s been around for almost three years, and has had me working with fantastic people like Darren Rowse from ProBlogger fame. (You might recognize me if you’re a fan over there… I do a lot of comment moderation and other admin-y, virtual assistant type stuff for him.)

In any event, I do promise that Ginkgo Consulting will be here for the long haul. We’re in the process of migrating things over from Anubis to here, as this company is sort of an “evolvement” of Anubis Marketing. As with anything you do in business, you have to be willing to grow – and I’m so glad we are!

Thanks again for stopping by to check out the site – I look forward to staying in touch with you all! Check out the contact page for some of my social networking accounts so we can connect there, if you like!

~ Lara Kulpa

“Zombie Spammer” Arrested – Charged with 35 Counts of Law-Breaking

One of the world’s top 10 email spammers was just arrested – Robert Alan Soloway, 27, is accused of using networks of compromised “zombie” computers to send out millions upon millions of spam e-mails. (story and quotes via Miami Herald)

A federal grand jury returned a 35-count indictment against Soloway charging him with mail fraud, wire fraud, e-mail fraud, aggravated identity theft and money laundering.

Holy hot damn!

Prosecutors say Soloway used computers infected with malicious code to send out millions of junk e-mails since 2003. The computers are called “zombies” because owners typically have no idea their machines have been infected.

He continued his activities even after Microsoft won a $7 million civil judgment against him in 2005 and the operator of a small Internet service provider in Oklahoma won a $10 million judgment, prosecutors said.

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan said Wednesday that the case is the first in the country in which federal prosecutors have used identity theft statutes to prosecute a spammer for taking over someone else’s Internet domain name. Soloway could face decades in prison, though prosecutors said they have not calculated what guideline sentencing range he might face.

The investigation began when the authorities began receiving hundreds of complaints about Soloway, who had been featured on a list of known spammers kept by The Spamhaus Project, an international anti-spam organization.

And this… this is the part that really frosts my you-know-what:

Soloway used the networks of compromised computers to send out unsolicited bulk e-mails urging people to use his Internet marketing company to advertise their products, authorities said.

People who clicked on a link in the e-mail were directed to his Web site. There, Soloway advertised his ability to send out as many as 20 million e-mail advertisements over 15 days for $495, the indictment said.

After having worked with so many clients who have fallen for stuff like this, or variations of it, it just makes me crazy because people can’t help but think that all “Internet marketing companies” practice this kind of behavior! Never, ever have I worked for or participated in email spam, nor have I (or any company I’ve worked for) offered to spam people for some ridiculously “low” price. Same goes for directory submissions, links, or anything else related to online marketing.

I feel like people like him are pushing miracle pills that just don’t work. It makes me so mad, and now that he’s been caught and arrested – I’m thrilled.

Paid Advertising Putting Baby In A Corner?

Okay, so I’ve let a bit of time pass by on this, but mostly because I wanted to see what everyone else was saying before I opened my yap, and I wanted to see how long the buzz lasted (for the record, less than a week). Matt Cutts has asked the internet masses to now REPORT sites that use paid advertising.

I’m a huge fan of Matt’s but this is getting a little extreme even for my tastes. While I agree that paid links should be acknowledged to the site visitors (as can be seen in the “sponsors” link on my sidebar), and that transparency and disclosure in terms of paid reviews and affiliate links is the “high road”, I think asking the masses to report sites that have paid links on them is a bit too much like encouraging tattle-taling in kindergarteners.

In fact, please go read Matt’s post about hidden links, because this is something that I’m strongly against, and have had far too many clients come to me with these types of links in their sites – without even knowing they were there. (They were likely put there by a less-than-honorable designer/SEO prior to them coming to me.) Seriously, even if you think you know what I mean by “hidden links” – go read this one. This is a relatively “new” way of doing it.

However I’m not a fan of his other posts on the topic. For one thing, it’s been mentioned already that morning radio dj’s don’t say “this was a paid review” when they talk about their latest cellphone plan or their new favorite restaurant in your local metro area, but everyone knows that the reason he said it was to get some free upgrade or an extra bottle of wine with dinner. No one ever comes out and says that Coca-Cola is a paid sponsor for TV’s “American Idol”, however you can’t miss those gigantic red cups that the judges drink from during the show.

Of course, there’s a retort to that, because that’s television/radio and not print media. Newspapers have clear, defined ad sections. Magazines that publish full page ads that are designed to look like they’re part of the ‘zine but are solely for advertising will put “ADVERTISEMENT” somewhere along the binding or bottom of the page. (Yes, it’s usually in light grey lettering, but it’s there. Oh no! Isn’t that the same as “hidden text”? For shame!)

But which side of the line does the internet fall, and why is Google trying to tell us what we can and can’t have on our websites?

As has been quoted several times already, this is directly off Google’s site (Google’s Webmaster Guidelines):

• Make pages for users, not for search engines.
• Another useful test is to ask, “Does this help my users? Would I do this if search engines didn’t exist?”

• I don’t see how including paid advertising on a site can affect users negatively if it’s disclosed. I also don’t see how reporting sites that allow paid advertising TO A SEARCH ENGINE follows this guideline. I guess this one’s up for interpretation? Depends on what the Big G is trying to crank down on whether or not it matters what we do?
• Advertising for relevant companies related to your site’s niche can help your users by giving them another resource to find more information. Just because you get money for linking to a product doesn’t mean that you don’t believe in said product. In fact, I don’t allow links to anything unrelated or anything I don’t believe will help my site’s visitors. And yes, I would do it if search engines didn’t exist. I like money just like everyone else.

I think if Google wants to tackle a problem, they need to focus on the sites that trick people. Sites that use doorway pages, scripts, redirects, that sort of thing. There are SO many other, much more “heinous” tactics being used than paying for ads. (Here we go, back to TV/Radio/Magazines again… if no one advertised, the networks and publications would crumble.)

Can’t they just give us some commented code to use around the ad blocks that would signal the spiders as to what we’re doing, but not punish us for doing so? (Note: I can’t honestly say one way or the other whether I’d comply if they intended to use the commented code to punish me… that’s like telling a child to go “cut a switch” for a whippin’. But if there were a guarantee that using it would NOT punish my rankings, then I might.)

Note to Google: Not EVERYONE buys links for the purpose of getting the PR juice. Some people do think of it as another form of traditional advertising!!!! Why punish everyone for the sins of the bad seeds?

Ask an SEO: Nichebot and other keyword research services

I received this question in a comment on my “SEO Expert Q&A” starter post, so here goes:

Comment by Dan on April 26, 2007 12:45 pm
Lara,

Could you please comment on a keyword research service called nichebot.com and if the kei is really such a good indicator of a good opportunity. I noticed that the title tag google competition results are not really accurate… have you seen this before?

Thanks for your question, Dan.

First let me start by saying that I don’t use nichebot, and I haven’t really dug into it too much, since they won’t let you do anything if you’re not willing to pay a dollar to try it out. I don’t like “squeeze pages” (the page that you’re brought to when you try to click on something that scrolls a mile long with calls to action in bright bold red every other block – they reek of “quick money making scheme” to me) and I dislike them so much that whenever I come across one, I click out and go find something else. Yep, I know – they only seem to want a dollar for a 14-day trial. But I just don’t trust anyone who’s still using pages like that.

That said, let me delve a little deeper into the whole keyword research thing. There are lots of ways to figure out if a niche or topic is going to be profitable for you. I personally use WordTracker – but honestly, I only use it to get more ideas on related topics for a term I’m already interested in, and I pay absolutely zero attention to the KEI analysis. In fact, I don’t even include it in the keyword list I send to clients when I’m seeking approval on targeted words and phrases. Keyword research is the absolute tip of the iceberg, and depending on what you’re doing and how far you can expand your mind, using any keyword discovery tool might not be necessary at all.

Let’s say for example that you’re wanting to build a site about fishing in the Great Lakes region of New York. The very first thing I would do if you came to me would be to go to the three major search engines and do a search for that (fishing Great Lakes New York) to see what’s already out there.

Google pulls 1,250,000 results
Yahoo pulls 6,190,000 results
MSN pulls 197,166 results

HUGE differences, right? But let’s take a closer look…

The sites listed in the top 10 for each engine are pretty much the same exact sites, just placed in different rankings. Google shows the DEC in #1, while Yahoo puts it in the #4 spot, and MSN tosses it down to #5.

Personally, I’m not scared of 1 million pages, any more than I am of 6 million pages. I’d love to take on this project! What I’d do at this point is use WordTracker (or whatever keyword discovery tool you prefer – even nichebot I suppose) to find other things we can talk about on this site.

A quick pull through WT gives me a lot on Lake Erie fish species; “Lake Erie Bass”, “Lake Erie Walleye”, “Lake Erie Steelhead” and a lot about ecology around the Great Lakes; “Great Lakes watershed”, “Great Lakes environment”, “Great Lakes environmental directory”.

“Lake Erie Bass” shows 10 phrases that have those three words in them. Of those 10 phrases, the predicted search count goes no higher than 7, the actual goes no higher than 4.

Now here’s my magic statement on this: If you could optimize and market your site for that phrase “Lake Erie Bass” in just half these phrase results (5), and got 2 search hits a day for each one (10 hits per day) and 40% of those hits resulted in a sale (4 sales per day), aren’t you doing pretty well? Don’t forget that you’ve got at least 5 other phrases you’ve found to work with, and we’re just talking search traffic here (no other form of advertising).

I know you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, but that’s a small niche. I want something bigger.”

So go bigger! Build a section of your site on Great Lakes fishing, a section on fishing the Mississippi, a section on deep sea fishing in the Atlantic, one on deep sea fishing in the Pacific and so on.

For each section, do the very same thing – check the search results and see what the top 20 or 30 listings are doing. Expand your own mind to think of new ideas, check out how much competition there is by doing manual searches on the topic, and see what other phrases they’re using to target search traffic.

The bottom line here is that if you’re optimizing and marketing the site properly and filling it with good, useful and fresh content you really won’t have to worry about ranking well in the search engines. This goes for any topic and any niche.

If you want to use a program like WordTracker, Nichebot, Keyword Discovery and so on – go ahead and do it. But don’t rely on those temporary results for your permanent work. You need to focus on your niche, expand it to related topics and not worry about what people are searching for – you can’t market your site for “deep sea fishing” if you’re not going to provide enough relevant and useful info on it to begin with and expect to get anywhere in the search engines anyway.

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