Here’s a link to the resource sheet for tonights session.

The readers who frequent this blog often know I’m a big fan of Google Alerts, and I use it often to build links and keep track of a few other things.  Google Alerts is a free service from Google that emails you whenever something new has shown up on the Internets with a search query you’ve specified.

Since I’m sitting on an SEO panel tonight covering blogging, splogging and SEO, I thought I’d post a quick little ditty that you can do to keep track of who’s stealing your content (without permission).

When you blog, there are certain things that you have control over, besides the ‘meat’ of the post.  For most blogging software, you can modify other things, such as posted-by, date formatting and tagging. Somewhere you need to find something that you can make unique to your blog - a phrase, a set of random numbers, or a weird tag.  For this example I’ll use a number/letter combo: 68wcrada72

Once you’ve decided on something, make sure you incorporate it into every post as you write (as I just did).
Then head over to Google Alerts and set up your trap.

(Click to see larger image)

Make sure you add the -domain.com or else you’ll get an alert every time you post.

Now when someone steals your content and posts it on their website, you’ll get an email showing you the link to the splog.  Take appropriate action - ask the author to take down your content.  If they don’t, or won’t answer, take further steps such as flagging inappropriate/spam posts on Blogger or reporting the splog to WHOIS (if appropriate).

People are out there to steal your content.  Since we can’t stop a copy/paste, at least we can still keep tabs on what’s happening.  Don’t let people use your content freely!

Starbucks has a whole crew of people who do nothing but study their customers.  They study the obligatory demographics, as should any business.  They step a little further and study things such as:

• Do customers buy more when there are certain colors near the register
• Do customers tend to shy away from certain products during certain times?

…and so on.

But they also try to get into the customers mind (and mess with it a little bit). (more…)

I ordered some new business cards for the big festival this weekend.  My old ones didn’t mention my Missouri SEO website, and I kinda want to start promoting that more than the hosting one.

What do you think, too girly?

Hey St Louis - Anyone interested in starting a Meetup group in Saint Louis for SEO gurus?  Currently there isn’t one.

Tonight I had the pleasure of speaking with Jaelithe Judy, the writer who will be moderating the upcoming SEO panel that I’ll be sitting on (along with Ellen Gooch) next week.  She has great charisma and I can tell this is going to be a fun session.  Since we are expecting a crowd of mostly personal, professional and corporate bloggers, the session will focus around that audience.  Without giving away all the topics we’ll discuss, here is a “10,000ft view” of what is to come.

• How understanding SEO basics can increase your readership numbers
• Why sploggers want to steal your content (and how it can affect your bottom line)
• Why businesses are hiring full-time bloggers
• What the long tail is (and how knowing what it is can increase your blogs revenue)
• Some of the latest changes Google has made and how they can affect your rankings

Oh, we’ve got lots more, including a nice list of resources that will help our audience get more traffic, more effectively promote their blog, or make more money from their website.  And we’ll be taking questions from the audience!

The panel will be just one of many Interactive sessions to attend this week in St. Louis at the Play:StL festival. Some of the other sessions (some of which sound pretty cool to me) include Cyberbullying, Business and Social Media, and even one on the dreaded CSS (yukk!)

Get a wristband for the festival at a host of local places, and half your money will go to LiveFeed.  If you come the SEO panel, please take a moment to introduce yourself, I’d love to meet you!

I watch a lot of CNBC.  I’m not in to the whole financial scene, nor am I into stocks.  But I do love to watch those shows about rich people, how they live, and most importantly how they got rich.

I read a lot, too.  I’ve read all the ‘Rich Dad’ books, even bought one for my son.  I’ve read Tim Ferris’ 4 Hour Workweek (loved it) and many more.  Now I’m reading a great book called The Millionaire Next Door.

You could say I’m obsessed with being rich.

But I don’t think I am.  I do think that money is an awesome tool, and there are plenty of people out there who could use more, me included.  I’m not a believer in lotteries or unexpected windfalls.  Sure, that’d be nice, but I’d prefer to earn it myself.

(There’s a saying in the custom auto industry - build it or buy it.  I prefer build it.  A little old fashioned hard work never hurt anyone.)

Anyway, I pay attention to how these people make their money.  The guy on Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Super Rich made his money doing what he loved: mortgages.  There’s another guy on there who is in to leveraged buyouts of undervalued companies.  Most of these guys grew up in an average middle-class family, started working in an industry that interested them, and soon thereafter started their own companies doing the same thing.

It’s no secret that you’ll most likely never get ‘rich’ working for someone else.  Most all millionaires in the US are self-made, and they did it by starting their own company.  So I guess I’m on the right track.

Can an SEO firm make a millionaire? I don’t know, but I’ll let you know

My buddy just called and said that GoDaddy had 99c domains.  I went and checked it out.  Looks like you can only register one domain at this price, but what the heck.  I reg’d one and then tried a second time, but it wouldn’t work at the 99c price.

Nonetheless cruise over there and getchaself a domain name.  .com too!

Use the code ‘test99′ at checkout.  Now, where is that dang affiliate link?

I stumbled upon this post a few weeks back thanks to a friend and found it quite interesting. I was intrigued, so I tried it out and sure enough, it’s rather easy to rank for someone else’s URL. You’ll probably never get top spot, but I’ve got a few #2’s.

If you read through the post that inspired me, you’ll see that the SEO community is divided about how to handle these types of rankings. Are they ethical? Is it black/gray hat? Or is it just helping out your client in any way possible? Is it “just another keyword” that you and your competition rank for? Or is it hijacking?

I think I’ll continue to do it for my personal sites (affiliate sites, etc), but I’m not real sure if I want to do this for my clients. I’d love to hear what you think.

In my recent SEO seminar, most of the attendees were surprised to hear me tell them that starting a blog is a great way to connect with their customers. Since blogging is becoming more and more popular every day, getting mentions on nationally syndicated shows, being quoted in the news, etc, more and more people are getting familiar with the word ‘blog’.

Problem is, once people hear it enough, they go online or ask a friend what exactly a blog is. Most definitions fall in line with something like “an online diary or journal. people post thoughts about news or events that affect their lives”.

That’s a good definition, but we’re missing something there. When people hear that definition, the words that hit home are ‘journal’ and ‘diary’. They immediately pigeonhole the concept into nothing more than an online version of what they did that day.

When I mentioned blogging as a great way for your website to start ranking better, particularly for long tail searches, they were pretty surprised. Why? Well, they were thinking along the lines of “I changed the baby’s diaper today. Went to the store. Got some turnips” instead of “Saw a great opportunity for one of our widgets to help an elderly lady today at the store” or “ten great ways to use blue widgets when cutting the grass“.

There are plenty of reasons to start a blog for your business, no matter what the industry. Blogging about industry trends will help get you noticed as an industry leader. Blogging about some of the bigger competitors will get you ranking for their name. Blogging about upcoming events and products (in a non-salesy way) will lead you to more customers. Blogging about local happenings, concerts, trade shows, whatever, will get you noticed in your community.

Think beyond the diary mentality. There is an endless amount of material right there on your desk. Keep it fresh, don’t give up, and you’ll see positive results.