Niche Switch

Every single time I login to any webmaster or seo forum, there is someone looking for secrets. Because, it surely can’t be hard work coupled with a bit of publically accessible knowledge that’s behind the success of most. There are virtually thousands of people (who will ask, and millions hanging out who don’t even bother) out there who think you need to know a special sleight of hand, that you need to trick search engines into whatever to rank well.
Shoemoney runned a 6 tips to having a successful website podcast, and, oh well, besides the six tips, he talks about if you come up with something that really works, don’t tell anybody.

Now forget you are the one on the search for pain-free tricks, try to put on the shoes of the “seo guru” who just hit the nail:
1] Yahoo and Google and other big players, are reactionary. They are closely observing the playground. If you tell your secrets on any popular forum, be prepared that that leak or whatever you found, will be fixed quickly. Especially when everyone who listened to what you was disclosing, will use your idea on the battlefield. Which brings us to next point:

2] Even if it will not or cannot be fixed, expect tens if not hundreds of people to jump on your idea - let me introduce you your new competitors.

If you still think someone will tell their secrets, reread the above two paragraphs. If they had enough business sense to make any money, they would have more than enough brainmatter to figure out what’s going to happen if they told their secrets in the public.

Too bad this is the only thing I picked up from Shoemoney’s podcast 6 Tips to Having A Successful Website.

oh wait…

here is one secret:

make a tiny progress with your website every day

Hot off the press: PayPal users in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Thailand will be able to receive funds into their PayPal accounts as well as withdraw them to a local bank account as of September 14th, 2006.
This will have an impact (though supposedly low) on directory business, and seo and sem industry in general, as plenty of people in the field come from the above countries, especially from Poland, and Paypal is the prevalent payment type for directory transactions. I guess some of the Polish free directories will turn to paid one, and maybe we could expect the coders behind one or two directory scripts, to come with Paypal payments extension and subsequently, release their script to the English speaking market. Not a direct corollary, but closely related after few longer thoughts (Paypal integration with English interface I mean).

People from many other countries are still prevented from the ability to receive money by Paypal, they can only use it for payments. In light of the extension over above named countries, the question is why for example Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus or South Africa, were not included in the extension batch.

This is just a rant. Paper will stand anything, they say. Leave it to the paper, let it out, others say. Some call it brainstorming. I call it not knowing how to solve a problem, and not knowing what to write about, thus merging two seemingly discreet problems. One can do that in a blog that no one reads, without even blushing.
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Soooooo…… you got this what you think is a great business idea, and the dilemma you face is, sell the idea right now for what seems to be an OK sum of money, or develop it yourself and face an uncertain outcome, maybe nothing, maybe much more than for what you could sell it right now, but certainly not a dime for next few months. On top of it, you are in a situation where something right now would be a godsend.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, they say. They didn’t have an internet when this old adage saw the light of the world, but I can’t think of an environment to which it would fit more than the internet business.
That’s not the first time I’m facing such a situation, thus there are all kinds of thoughts and possible solutions popping up in the head. How would have the wise King Solomon solved it? Where I live, if you approach a problem with a solution that will cater to all major possibilities in often a somewhat foxy manner, it’s called the Solomon’s way. In that tradition, both selling the idea now and developing it long-term myself, would be the way to do it.
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Hey…maybe that “leave it to the paper” method really works! This post cost me an hour, but solution seems to have crystalized, or at least an approach how to solve the dilemma. I didn’t know you can use blog for that kind of stuff!

a citation from the classic : “There is a new directory born every minute.”

But why? Isn’t ther plenty of them already? Isn’t market saturated? The answer would probably take a committee of seo experts, directory specialists, psychologists and economists, but I will inmodestly try to tackle it by myself:

1. pure boredome
2. to take a sneak peak on and inspiration from the website and topics others are working on
3. to make money
4. for swapping links with others
5. to feel the power and satisfy the ego (well….you will not get the power over others lifes, but power over approving or disapproving their links can be also satisfying for some)
6. to start another DMOZ or Yahoo
7. because they hate DMOZ and want to take it by storm
8. because they have a domain name they have no clue what to do with
9. to test the directory script
10. because a friend and neighbour have one too
11. to collect the email addresses of chicks (oh…..sorry ladies)
12. to collect email addresses and spam submitters
13. to promote their services
14. to collect passwords
15. just because they can, like someone pointed out on their directory

It’s completely beyond me what’s the value in tracking the acceptance of submissions to free seo friendly directories. Some clients want to get a report for where their website will be listed, and some submission services even offer this service as standard. IMHO it’s just a waste of time.
1) They are free directories. They are no more free after you have spent time on them or paid submission service. If you spend further time with tracking, you are increasing your costs.

2) The url of where your link will be listed is changing, and will be changing, especially in highly competitive categories like real estate or mortgage, due to pagination. So that in 10-30% of the cases, maybe more, you will get a false “no backlink” message, while in fact your are listed, just that it’s on the page no. 2 and up of that particular category.

The only sound reason for submission tracking to me would be if you are new to submitting to free directories, and you want to find out what’s the approximate approval rate, ie. to confirm for yourself whether the efforts or money spent are worth it.