Patriotdebate guide

Google looking to join the legions of SEO companies

It's been reported that Google is considering starting their own SEO company. This, if true, would be potentially massive news for the SEO industry.

Serena Shapero over at Newswire has stated that Google intend to get their SEO business off the ground by early May. Allegedly, Google's SEO team would consist of about 100 employees, clients could be charged up to $25,000 a month and Google will have a team of SEO robots* to deal with poor rankings.

Allegedly, Google will promise only ethical practices but how many giant corporations play nice? If Google does jump into the SEO pool they will have a monopoly of the SEO industry and it will be nowhere near as fun as the game.

Small SEO businesses will surely be put out of business and probably some medium sized ones too. Will the SEO companies just take their business to Yahoo and Bing? Unlikely, seeing as how popular Google is with the general public.

You can't handle the truth!

Okay, so enough of the scare mongering, is it likely to happen? SEO has been around for a while; if Google was going to do it surely it would have by now. Also, Google offers a lot of information to users so they can produce sites with high quality SEO, surely they wouldn't bother if they had ever considered becoming an .

Some highly regarded colleagues of mine (and one I'm indifferent to) offered their take on the report. "Where's the proof?" was retorted to the Newswire article. I've had a quick look on Google's blog and if they were going to start a business in early May wouldn't there be (at least) a bit of advertising? Another colleague said "this would just be like buying space in Adwords only you pay $25,000 for it instead of a few pounds per click".

So, will Google be starting an SEO company? Don't hold your breath (that's just good advice for most situations).

By the way, if you're interested, the state of Oregon is incorporating Google Apps into the education system.

*Quite probably not true.

In order to create a profile you will need a photo and your first name. Avoid posting very personal information such as your home address or last name. Post only the basic information needed to create your profile without submitting any sensitive information.

Do not be shy! If you find a profile you are interested in, send a message. If you continuously wait for someone to contact you, you may be missing out on a potential catch. Being proactive will help you narrow down your contacts to the people you are interested in. It may be a little easier over the computer to approach someone you do not know than it would be to do so in real life.

Once you have made initial contact through the messaging system on the website, and both parties consent, exchange e-mails. Once you have exchanged a few emails and everything feels right, exchange phone numbers. The aim of these websites is to get you a date, not a virtual buddy. You can move things along by contacting each other by phone.

Remember to only give your cell phone number, as opposed to your home number. Giving a stranger your home number can give them the opportunity to trace this number and find out your home address. Cells phones are not as easily traced, and can be changed instantly if you incur a problem with your correspondent.

When you feel comfortable enough with the other person, it is time to meet. Do not give your date your address and meet in a public place. Make sure to arrange your own transportation to and from the meeting spot. If you are driving your own car, make sure your gas tank is full.

Using a service can be a rewarding experience when used the right way. Take the necessary precautions and reach out to people you seem interested in. The stress of getting rejected is a lot less when you are pursuing a prospective date online. Also keep in mind that these websites cater to all adult age groups. Even seniors who are looking for love may find it online!

The beach-front villa, A1, offers stunning views looking out over to Anthong Marine Park and Koh Samui’s neighboring islands, an ideal background for the daily sunsets. Both villas have comfortable lounge area’s and TV’s, along with adjoining kitchens and dining areas with a large long verandah.

If you are selling an eBook, studies show that having an image of the book creates an increase in sales. A 3D cover gives the customer the feeling that they are actually getting SOMETHING for their money, not just a bunch of digital 1s and 0s.

There are several ways of creating an image for you to use. The first is to pay a designer to create one for you. The advantages of this are that you can usually receive an image or collection of images (in various sizes) that really looks nice. However, these custom images can be costly...between $50 and $200. And frequently it takes several iterations before the designer makes a 3D cover that matches exactly what you need.

The second method is to buy Adobe Photoshop and an Action Script. An Action Script is like a macro or mini-program within Photoshop. In the case of creating a 3D book cover, it involves converting the flat image and giving it effects like depth perspective, reflection, shadow, etc. There are existing templates and scripts for Photoshop that produce some really beautiful images. The difficulty is that both Photoshop and the Action Scripts are fairly pricey and have a bit of a learning curve. Photoshop costs $300 and the popular scripts for the 3D covers run about $50 to $100.

The third method is to use GIMP. GIMP is a free graphic software package that is as close to Photoshop you can get. There are some technical differences between GIMP and Photoshop which high-end graphic designers will argue about. But for the purposes of designing your own 3D book cover, GIMP can produce the same quality image as Photoshop.

GIMP is 'open-source' software. It is not owned by any one company. It is available freely on the internet.

There are several steps to creating a photo-realistic 3D cover. First, the image actually consists of several smaller images: the face, the spine, and the top edge. Reflections are created for the face and spine layers. Highlights are added to give texture to the book, especially at the bend and top edge. Those 'layers' are then wrapped around a box within GIMP.

One of the best things about mastering the GIMP technique is that GIMP can open . There are free book cover templates available on the internet, but they are all in PSD files, which is Photoshop's format. Those free files can then be opened by GIMP, and the technique for wrapping can then be applied to those files as well, all without having to pay for Photoshop!

In addition to being fun, designing your own 3D Book covers can be profitable. Many internet marketers are looking for graphics to go with their products. Once you learn how to create those graphics, you then have the ability to sell them! Search Internet Marketing forums for people looking to buy graphics, or sign up with one of the many freelance design websites on the internet.

However you choose to create your 3D book cover, always strive for top quality results. A poor image, such as those created by free websites, can hurt your eBook sales. It is better to have NO image than to have a bad one.

I'm asked often enough, both by clients and by friends, whether they should exchange a link with the total stranger that just e-mailed them, asking them to do so, and pointing out the benefits of doing so.

The short answer is no.

The long answer is this:

A few years ago, a link counted as a vote in the 'eyes' of a search engine. The formula for top rankings was easy back then: the more links you had (websites linking back to your website) the more 'votes' and (generally) the better you ranked the higher your website appeared in the search engine results).

Pretty soon website owners and anybody with anything more than a passing interest in Internet marketing saw the opportunity to outrank competing websites simply by getting links. And one of the ways to get links is to ask another website owner to place a link on their site pointing at your site.

In exchange for... a link on your site back to their site.

This is called reciprocal linking, and back in the day it worked really well.

This is why you shouldn't exchange links

The ONLY thing you need to remember when it comes to Internet marketing is this: play fair. Not because it's nice, but because search engines are not in this to make you money; they're in this to make themselves money. They have terms of service and a whole range of technology that helps them prevent website owners from manipulating the search engine results.

Getting links in order to increase your website's ranking (appear higher in the search engine results) is an attempt to manipulate the search engine results.

And this is a no no.

The whole idea of the Internet is that everybody has a voice, and people can freely point links at you if they like, support or admire what you have to say.

In other words, they have to place links on their website pointing at your website, to help them tell THEIR audience about YOU.

And they have to do so because they want to, not because you bribed them.

And exchanging links... is not the same as a free vote.

Exchanging links can harm your website's reputation

Today search engines are a lot cleverer than they once were, and they're certainly clever than the website owner who believes he or she can still trick them.

Search engines now place values in links. What those values are, nobody knows. Websites also place value on websites. What those values are is easier to guess in this instance.

In the Internet marketing industry, this value is called reputation, and sometimes it's referred to as 'trust'.

And it's important. In fact, it's KEY.

Your website's authority is affected by your website's reputation. If a website with poor reputation links to your website... then you're putting your website - and your business - on the line.

Get enough links from websites with poor reputations and your website will have poor reputation by proxy.

When somebody asks you to exchange a link with them, unless you know that their website is 'clean' and in good standing with the search engines, then there is every reason on Earth not to exchange that link.

Knowing or even guessing the status of the website in terms of reputation and authority takes knowledge, so unless you have access to a professional with the right knowledge, the prospect of finding out is not even worth considering.

Of course, it goes without say, that you should never ask the owner of the website if their website is 'clean' and in good standing with google and co.

Naturally they'll say yes (because they want a link from you).

So why are people asking you to exchange links?

The main reason a total stranger e-mails you asking you to exchange links is because they want to benefit from it. When it comes to Internet marketing, there is a ton of misinformation and out-of-date 'strategies' that lead to countless people using poor or plain bad practices.

Link building software usually has a bunch of template-ready e-mails that contain the whole message, structured like this:

Greeting ask for link exchange point out the benefits of exchanging links (usually a raft of benefits including better search engine rankings)

A lot of it is not accurate, and some of it is not true.

The bottom line is that most of these people are sending you a template e-mail to convince you to give them a link back.

How or why they found your website is a case of how visible your own website is.

If your website is popular and you actively market it, expect plenty of requests to exchange links. Take it as a compliment and move on, unless you know what you're doing.

Are all s bad?

The answer is no. Link exchanges can be very beneficial, when done correctly. However, the effort involved in checking that their website is 'clean' is seldom worth it.

Moreover, you have no control of their website and who or what they link to - or who links to THEM - now or in the future. A website you agree to exchange links with could have anything from porn websites, gambling websites and spammer websites linking to THEM, and passing some of that reputation to YOUR website.

On the whole, the Internet is full of website owners firing template e-mails to everybody asking for link exchanges with websites that have poor reputation

Keep one thing in mind: if the people asking you to exchange links had strong, authoritative websites, those websites would rank well naturally in the search engines.... and they wouldn't be contacting you (a total stranger) to ask for a link in the first place.

Therefore, assume that their websites are not altogether 'clean'. If they've asked you for a link, they've asked a thousand people (remember, they're using automated software that sends out a template e-mail to hundreds and thousands of addresses at the click of a button).

The verdict: exchange links or not

Unless you can verify the website wanting to link to you is reputable in every sense, don't do it.