Some good advice to day for Social and Local - one thing to remember many people think that you can 'trick' the Social networks... my advice is don't do it. It does take a whole lot of work, but isn't doesn't it make you feel better when you have to work for something worthwhile.

Some questions to ask yourself before you start a blog.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628251

Some truths about marketing with social media.

http://searchengineland.com/080129-122519.php

Creating your profiles

http://searchengineland.com/080129-083225.php

Why your local business should be like the jerk.

http://searchengineland.com/080128-070132.php

Digg changes their algo and lots of folks are angry.

http://searchengineland.com/080124-094438.php

Using Social Media to Increase your search visibility

http://searchengineland.com/080124-091032.php

A good image that explains Long Tail SEO

http://searchengineland.com/080129-070419.php

Enjoy your day.

Use SpyFu to spy on your competitors.

http://www.spyfu.com/

Another good article on Spying on your competitors.

http://searchengineland.com/080128-152513.php

Writing effective headlines.

http://www.wilsonweb.com/conversion/wilson-headline1.htm

Enjoy your day.

We hope you had a wonderful weekend.

The Mysterious position six penalty -

http://searchengineland.com/080123-091710.php

Marketing positions for 2008 - part two - make sure that you check out part one.

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3628216

Flying under Googles radar

http://searchengineland.com/080124-080800.php

Enjoy your day !!

It's Friday !! Hope you have had a wonderful week. We got a skiff of snow, but like I mentioned earlier. We got a whole lot of fun things for Christmas but like I mentioned earlier it has been a busy time so far.

So we'll talk a bit about television. The writer's strike has hit some of my favorite shows pretty hard, including 24 and Hero's. I have enjoyed quite a bit the new show Terminator, and Prison Break has been pretty good as well. I'm not a huge fan of reality shows which if the strike continues will be all we get to watch.

One of my favorite computer mmorgs World of Warcraft hit Ten Million subscribers - say the average subscribe cost is low at $6 - thats 60 million a month. I am looking forward to the next expansion.

This weekend we're having a skating party for Haley's birthday if the weather fairs up like it is supposed to... and speaking of the weekend we hope you have a very enjoyable one as well.

We finally have the ground covered with some white stuff - and it is supposed to be 60 degrees on Monday... who would have thought that.

A video explaining social bookmarking -

http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english

Some power points that you may find of interest.

http://www.slideshare.net/toprank/social-media-marketing-with-social-bookmarking

Longer version -

http://www.slideshare.net/toprank/seo-social-bookmarking

Tips on building your social profile.

http://www.10e20.com/blog/2008/01/22/tips-tricks-strong-social-news-profile/

What drives local search directories.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628130

Using widgets to help your social campaign.

Anchor text illustrated -

http://searchengineland.com/080122-120943.php

Yahoo's search update -

http://searchengineland.com/080122-100508.php

Enjoy your day.

Focused pages do best -

http://www.wilsonweb.com/conversion/wilson-landing-page-focus.htm

Google has created a quick start guide for their tools -

http://www.google.com/webmasters/edu/quickstartguide/

Some strategy guidance for 2008 - Click Here

Enjoy your day.

Happy Monday - hope you take at least some of the day off to celebrate the holiday.

Google has issued a marketing challenge to some folks.

http://searchengineland.com/080116-103222.php

Some more predictions for 2008
http://www.bruceclay.com/newsletter/volume45/2008predictions.html

Reasons to avoid dates
http://searchengineland.com/080117-083954.php

Some opportunities for publishers.
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628141

Boooyahhh - It's Friday!! Hope you have enjoyed your week. It's been a busy week here (but I'm not complaining after all that's what puts food on our table). I kept thinking that every day was Monday ... last week everyday was Friday... hopefully this coming week I'll finally be able to get the days of the week down. I haven't really had much of a chance to play with many of our new toys yet, so we'll work on those reviews as we get time.

Should be some good football this weekend as both of the teams I was rooting for continue with a chance to go to the super bowl (and they aren't playing each other this weekend).

I thought this was pretty neat as well - some pictures of Mercury.

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/mer_flyby1.html

It's supposed to be chilly this weekend in our neck of the woods although no where close to how cold it will be up north. So stay warm and enjoy your weekend.

Welcome to Social Thursday -

Some important Facebook updates.
Click Here

Some ways to spice up things (most Digg related).
http://searchengineland.com/080115-155559.php

We got some snow today but was mostly just slush by 6am - then some sleet, then rain. Bahh ... I would really like to have just one decent snow. Enjoy your day!

This week is zooming by. It has decided again that it is winter and the 60+ temps have been replaced by the 20s and this weekend we may hit zero.

A visual SEO checklist.
http://searchengineland.com/080115-113645.php

Boosting conversion rates -

http://www.wilsonweb.com/conversion/wilson-persona.htm

A good article - there is no guaranteed results.

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3628035

Understanding Usability part 2

http://searchengineland.com/080110-145013.php

Hope you enjoyed your weekend.

The most fun so far we've had with things we've gotten from the Holidays is our Xbox and particularly the game "Rock Band" - the cool thing about this is that 4 people get to jam. Two guitars, the drums, and a singer. The whole family has enjoyed this quite a bit. It does take some time get the 'feel' of things, and it may sound hard but its really not. One of the coolest features is if someone is not as good as the rest of the band they can be rescued and everyone can set their own individual level... but one note to progress your band you'll have to play things on a higher difficulty than "Easy". So far we have about 20 bands in various stages... the good thing is that it has some good tunes and although we haven't done it yet, you can download additional tunes from the internet.

Enjoy your weekend.

Happy Social Thursday,

It still thinks it is spring here (and a good day for ducks), although this weekend we're supposed to get some snow.

10 steps to help your social media campaign.

http://searchengineland.com/080108-134105.php

Make your blog posts viral - click here.

Expanding your blogs reach.

http://www.doshdosh.com/expand-your-blog-reach-in-2008/

Enjoy your day.

Here is a good tutorial on tracking ad results using Google Analytics.

http://www.wilsonweb.com/analytics/henson-ad-tracking-google-analytics.htm

Enjoy your day.

A collection of Google Tools

http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2006/04/the-big-google-search-tools-collection/

A list of marketing techniques.

http://www.webreference.com/promotion/email_marketing2/

Enjoy your day.

Happy Monday.

It is summer here now - or seems like it.

Google's Algo rewarding new pages?

http://searchengineland.com/080102-082903.php

Enjoy your day.

One of my New Years Resolutions is to try and post every Friday. I've been kind of lax about that lately but we hope to change that. We'll start here next week with some things we got (and gave to the kids) for Christmas presents. I got something today thought that really made me think... the New Year should include some review of what happened last year and some planning for what you want to happen this year.

Reflections for the New Year includes reflections on the past and some goals for the future.

http://chris.pirillo.com/2008/01/03/reflections-for-the-new-year/

Do something fun this weekend. I will be enjoying the NFL playoffs.

Hope you are having a great day - we got our first snow in a while ( more than just a skiff) and it's cold... in the mid teens. By Monday it is supposed to be 60 - go figure.

Below are some social posts for Thursday.

The 2008 outlook for local search -
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628002

Not just for your social marketing but a great place to help remind you to post on your blog and otherwise promote your site.

http://www.joesgoals.com/

Is Google the stealth social network?
http://searchengineland.com/071230-104658.php

A link building case study.

http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3627929

Enjoy your day.

We hope you had a great New Years celebration and got a few days off with friends and family.

The most popular stories -

http://searchengineland.com/071231-142906.php

2 Search budgets for one business.

http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627985

Most influential blog posts in the past year.

http://www.capecodseo.com/top-10-most-influential-blog-posts-for-2007/

It's snowing here today and bitterly cold... so stay warm and have a wonderful day.