In a last attempt to resurrect Blogger Talk, here is a thread I have started on the best ways to promote your blog.
Please make only meaningful posts and don’t try to sell your services.
If you want to be a moderator or help out in any other way, go here.

Blogger Talk - Send an Email to the World!

I sometimes wonder why so many people out there don’t really understand how Google works. There are questions about the next PR update, where to buy links, how to change your site and what else can be done to move up in the search engine.
I got ranked by Google before I even tried to figure out Google and mainly because I asked myself what I can do to increase affiliate sales with the traffic I’m already getting.
Back in 1999 I’ve registered 400 domain names and was led to an affiliate program which I redirected many of the domain names to.
I started making money and a friend of mine suggested he’d host one of the domain names and I started building a few pages redirecting my domain name traffic to them.
So let’s say I was getting traffic related to diamond rings.
I would add a cj text link, a little bit of text and from there build new pages about flowers and added another banner.
Soon Google would start sending me traffic, sales started coming in and eventually I started ranking for gift related terms.
Google loves to send traffic to sites that seem to have a lot on whatever people are looking for.

If there is one thing Google provides, it’s variety in search results.
Try typing in “cigarettes” in msn and you will see 10 pages of sites selling the same cigarettes.
Do the same in Google and you will also find a lot of results with government information, anti smoking related subjects and wikipedia.
A page from Fox News is popping up as well.
I’m looking at the top result below wiki and Cig Outlet pops up, a site with tons of content.
If Google sees you as a site with a lot to offer, it figures the likelihood of web searchers finding something they’re looking for is high and they are willing to get you listed for terms that strong. It enables them to give variety, because how many pages of the same thing do you really need?
Not only do you get authority sites, when the term is commercial, adwords will provide additional results.
For the life of me I cannot figure out why the other search engines haven’t tried harder to please their visitors and the only explanation I have is that msn and Yahoo! are just so lazy and complacent, they simply don’t have to work hard on providing good results.

Google aims to please.
Google has for years made a lot less money and focused on increasing quality. Now this has changed, but Google still is superior to the other search engines and will remain to be just that.

What should you do if you have a site and want to make money with it?

It sounds simple, but you need to forget about Google and just do what you believe will convert traffic into sales. Also give people a reason to come back again and again and provide information that not everyone has.

In this day and age, the directory link sales are in full swing and it’s created a big mess. I am often surprised by how much money some companies put into buying links not even understanding how much more effective it would be to find links that help you with direct traffic as well.

A couple of years ago me and “incredibill” rode in my car from the Las Vegas Hotel to the Webmaster Convention and one of the points made by him was how important it is to NOT depend on Google. His insight on how Google rewards you for “real links” was priceless and even though I haven’t spoken to him since, the conversation with him is one of those that will stay with me for the rest of my career.

Many of the newbies in the forum circuit are drawn in by the devil of lights, the “success stories” of web directories getting 100 submissions daily and they don’t seem to understand the effort that needs to be put into a project to really make it successful long term speaking.

BOTW, Go Guides, Yahoo!, Business.com, Joe Ant … all of those make huge bucks from submissions. So do some DMOZ editors.
Will those directories ever get canned?

No!

Why?
Because they have been around for ages. The other day I have come across this thread and made a comment here.

This comment I stand behind 100%.
You can make a web directory about anything and be financially successful.
But you need to have something to offer.
Starting a general directory is not recommended unless you really have a cool concept or something going for yourself that hasn’t been done better by 100 people before you.

The Digitalpoint Directories section is over and done with and posting your signature may do more harm than good if it’s just another web directory in there.
Take it from me, I know!

Mike

Just noticed on YouTube that it’s only an LLC and not a corporation. Seems strange to me. I know that its owned by Google, but something of that size not being it’s corporation is something that I didn’t expect.
Check it on the bottom of this:
Phil Collins on the drums

Interesting thought from the Abakus Marketing Blog.
I forgot all about Abakus, not sure if Webby is still the one running it, but then again, I haven’t been on seochat in ages.

As I’m randomly roaming thru some keyphrase, I have come accross this results page and noticed

Netscape.com Tag Search - “frog”
Netscape.com Tag Search - “frog”. Karl Rove to Resign August 31st No frog marching, but at least America will be rid of the influence of Karl Rove. …
www.netscape.com/tag/frog/rss - 6k - Cached - Similar pages

and

Netscape.com Tag Search - “frog fungus”
Cars, hotel development, and the threat of a deadly frog fungus are pushing one of the world’s rarest wildcats closer to extinction, conservationists warn. …
www.netscape.com/tag/frog%20fungus/rss - 3k - Cached - Similar pages

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the best search engine in the world has not yet figured out a way to discard feed urls from it’s organic search results.

My friend Jeremy, owner of Aerospect has created this thread which I have mentioned voicing my opinion over here.
Google has hit me pretty hard, but life goes on.
Right now is the time for directory owners to focus on maybe a couple of directories (unless they already are doing well and have editor(s) working for them. There is a lot you can do in order to regain Google’s blessing if that indeed is what you’re after.
As we speak, business in the Digitalpoint directory section continues and people seem to not get that that section has been targetted when the directories were penalized (see my previous posts).

When you ask yourself whether or not you should start a directory, you need to ask yourself what you can offer that hasn’t been offered before.
The last thing I would advise is to register 100 domain names, get a reseller hosting account and slap a free php link directory on each one of them spamming all of them on forums.

You won’t get anywhere!
If you think you can build something for the enduser which people want to be listed in for more reasons than just gaining higher rankings in Google, you need to do some work.
As I have posted on the link, you need a good design. You also cannot have empty categories when you advertise it. You need to list quality websites in order to be considered quality as well.
There is nothing wrong with having a few mediocre websites listed if the pay you for submission (whoops, I meant “review”).
You need to make up for it though.
Let’s just say that you happen to get an enduser to search for something and finds nothing of value. You will have missed the chance of getting not just one regular user, but also someone potentially passing your site on to friends or even linking to it as a recommendation.
Tunnel vision is a desease. SEO tunnel vision and directory tunnel vision.
You need to focus long term, because the day and age of quick bucks is over.

I also recommend using a powerful domain name and please … stay away from TLD’s such as .info and .us unless you can use it to brand youself somehow (example: Filecabi.net.

A good name is key for bait. Not just “linkbait”, “talkbait” as well.

Let’s just say you want to invest some money in advertising and wonder where to get it. Here is my advice:

After reading How to: Buy Links Without Being Called a Spammer, find some niche sites and deeplink from there (buy advertising space using a cool banner) to one of your best directory sections like Frog Engine Search - Costa Rica.
If you use a text link, then make it say something like “Find the best Costa Rica websites”.
Indirect marketing can be very good if you do it right. You may start ranking for terms related to what is on that page and you will get website owners wanting to be on them.

Should you ever get penalized, you will still get targetted traffic and as time goes by, you will also get traffic and rankings for other categories as satisfied searchers will pass you on.

Talking about passing it on … pass on this post of mine if it’s been of help. Pass on this message as well. Discourage “entrepreneurs” from giving the web directory business an even worse name.

If you have a question, a comment or just want to say Hi, leave it and say it on this blog.

If you were penalized like me, don’t panic. Many directories (example: Site Sift have been banned before hitting it big.
Nothing is over, the real estate sites came back quickly after taking off their “state pages” and if you continue being positive and get thru this while working on improving your web directory, you too have a good chance coming back stronger than ever.
If you are a Google employee reading this, please consider unbanning at least this blog. It didn’t do anything, and I promise I won’t sell links within my post

Mike

Here is a great example on a site ranking thru incoming links alone. http://www.oswd.org is of course number 1 for Open Source Web Design , but on page 2 for the term you can see Outdoor Women of South Dakota. Why? Because when people link to oswd.org, they accidentally switched the w and the s and linked to owsd.org instead.
Ongoing discussion …

So let’s see if I can sell some skateboards.

This i also something worth checking out. If you haven’t purchased SEO Book yet, you should do so right away.

This is something worth reading. You may have read my previous posts about pagestrength. I still don’t recommend using it for more than a filter and then use your judgement when selecting sites which you consider worth getting a link from. If link buying is what you are into, that is.
I still disagree with some of what he says about Aviva.
Here is the interview …

You can now submit to the Directory Contest Directory. Permanent listings are $10 only right now and will soon go up!

Enjoy it while it lasts.

- Mike