While 2009 was a tumultuous year for many, I look back at 2009 as a year of considerable success and growth. Even though last year had its own significant challenges and losses, they stood only to accentuate the high points and achievements.

I spent less time blogging in 2009, continuing a trend from the year before. I cut RSS subscriptions, funneling information through social media channels instead. Professional commitments, additional responsibilities, and other interests took up more of my time. But as the year moved on, professional curiosity moved back into the blogosphere and blogging in general.

Top 10 Most Influential Blog Posts for 2009
So continuing a (what might just be a biennial) trend started in 2007, here’s a look at 10 blog posts that I found to be incredibly valuable and influential for me professionally and personally (organized by date published). It’s by no means authoritative and absolutely subjective to where I am or have been in my endeavors. That said, I hope you can find value in these blog posts as well.

1. Search Engine Ranking Factors 2009 – SEOmoz
   Not as much a blog post as it is a collaboration of opinion and experience from search marketing experts across the globe. However I don’t think a week goes by that I fail to reference this work and will continue to do so for as long as I’m part of the industry and SEOmoz continues to publish yearly updates.
   
   
2. The Missing Google Analytics Manual – FutureNow
   Google Analytics is by far the web reporting tool of choice for most small businesses and sole proprietors. Bryan Eisenberg’s comprehensive list is a must-have bookmark for internet marketers using Google Analytics for their online business.
   
   
3. 10 Lessons From a Failed Startup – VentureBeat
   There was a lot for me to take personally from Mark Goldenson’s 10 lessons learned, even though our situations are quite different. If you’re a small business owner or thinking about starting a business venture, many of these lessons are worth remembering and reflecting upon.
   
   
4. The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future
   – Brian Solis
   I don’t know how Brian Solis was able to write so much so well. While I am not a PR professional our worlds interconnect in many ways and there is (potentially) tremendous value to what can be learned from those with proven success and experience in related industries. Note that there is a document version as well.
   
   
5. The Power of The Unexpected – Outspoken Media
   Fantastic video and important lesson. I probably directly shared this post and video with at least a hundred people myself. Worth revisiting whenever you need a breath of fresh air while stuck in the daily grind.
   
   
6. Surviving and Thriving as an Ecommerce SEO – Everett Sizemore
   I only have a bit of experience with large, B2C ecommerce sites but if I ever needed a starting point for reference on SEO strategy, this would be it. This article hits so many important points that even SEO’s working in different business models should be able to find value.
   
   
7. Five Attributes of Being an Expert – Conversation Agent
   I stumbled across Conversation Agent sometime in mid-2009 (probably ignoring several well respected individuals recommendations) and am glad to have found it. I don’t consider myself an expert, but I do have high expectations for myself and company, professionally speaking and while this may not be one of Valeria Maltoni’s best posts, it’s one of the many that stood out for me.
   
   
8. What it Takes to Be an Overnight Success – Chris Brogan
   It doesn’t seem that long ago that I met Chris Brogan at at SEO Meetup at Panera Bread years back. I immediately knew then how hard Chris was working and credit him for really getting me interested in all aspects of social media, beyond blogging and bookmarking/news sites. This post clearly illustrates what it’s taken for Chris Brogan to get where he is; I keep it for reference for the times I’ll need that extra assistance pushing forward.
   
   
9. A Shift to Online Business Management Consulting – Stuntdubl
   Todd Malicoat hits a home run with his last post for 2009. The first of two must read posts for SEO professionals contemplating their future and the future of search engine optimization in general.
   
   
10. Is SEO Science or Art? – SEO Book.com
    Aaron Wall saved the best for last with this post, summarizing a lot of what is right and wrong in the SEO industry. The second must read for SEO professionals reflecting on their future. It’s worth noting that if I wrote this post in mid-December (like I should have), this SEO Book post would have been the one to make this list.
    
    
11. Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2009 – Techipedia
    Since this post was written in 2010, maybe it does not technically “count” but since I’m just finishing up my own reflections on 2009, I might as well include the best resource for 2009’s top internet marketing posts as well.

Wrapping Up 2009
Unlike years past, I was actually able to finish a lot of what I started. Which either means I was more effective or needed to start more things I’m looking forward to 2010 with my head up and ready to take on new challenges and opportunities.

I certainly appreciate and thank all of the people whom helped me along the way as well as those subscribed to Cape Cod SEO and have contributed their thoughts, comments and feedback to the posts written.

Wishing you all the best in your endeavors in the upcoming new year!

- Derek Edmond

The BBC recently published a video on how the internet is blurring the social boundaries between our personal and professional lives seen online. It brings to attention how much of ourselves is being broadcast on the internet and how a younger generation’s comfort with these applications brings inherent risk as well.

As 2009 comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting a great deal on how social media is bridging a shrinking gap between my personal and professional space online, and what it means to me.

Adopting Posterous
A few weeks ago I started using Posterous, a blogging platform that allows users to post photos, video, etc through email. With a simple interface and design, I’m finding Posterous quite addictive as a social media application.

But Posterous has made me realize how easy it really is to connect the personal and professional sides of my online activities. One of the features of the application is in being able to auto-post across multiple social media channels: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, etc. I don’t know how comfortable I am with it.

While I do intend to continue using Posterous, I’ve decided not to auto-post on LinkedIn as example. I also removed my Twitter feed from LinkedIn as well, since I use Twitter and Posterous for personal and professional information; and have decided to keep LinkedIn exclusively professional.

Social Media Connectivity
Virtually every social media application provides some way to connect with another site. Digg users can login and share via Facebook; LinkedIn profiles display blog posts and Twitter feeds; and Twitter updates can be imported or integrated almost everywhere.

Now that Google and Bing are bringing real-time search into prominence, social media applications take on even greater significance in providing exposure to our lives online. Do all of these connected channels promote the message you really intended?

My Personal & Professional Space Online
The snapshot below represents social media sites that I am or intend to be more active in, organized based on how I choose to use them. Aside from these networks, I’ve taken note of approximately eighty other sites I use or have profiles in as well; and defined how I want to use them.

What The Shrinking Gap Means To Me
While one can argue that all of this connectivity and transparency is a good thing, I hold some reservation. If anything, to me it means that there must be more personal accountability in how and what I do online.

In addition, defining personal and professional objectives with each social media site is important, along with how a site’s privacy policies, terms of use, and user settings may impact those objectives.

What’s Your Opinion?
As social media gains greater acceptance in the mass market, and new applications provide an easier way to cross-pollinate platforms and integrate services, how comfortable are you with these new capabilities?

Do you draw a line between what you’re willing to share personally and professionally online? I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions via the comments below.

Related Posts

• A Beginner’s Guide to Personal Brand Management in Search
• 6 Social Media “No-Brainers” You Shouldn’t Forget

If Digg is a channel that makes sense for your internet marketing strategy, creating a power account or networking with Digg power users (to get them to submit your stories) is almost as important as the quality of content being submitted (and some might argue more important). However becoming a Digg power user requires time, commitment, and regular activity.

While there are excellent blog posts that detail how one might level the playing field with Digg, the goal of this post is to illustrate eight tools aspiring power users need in their arsenal.

These tools provide Digg user and submission data, activity monitoring, and communication channels Diggers use every day in achieving their goal of getting a story to the Digg front page.

SocialBlade

The most comprehensive site for tracking front page data, history, and trends related to Digg. While SocialBlade’s lists of top Diggers surely gathers a lot of attention, it’s important to realize that each user and popular submission has data to drill down in as well.

Digg enthusiasts should also check out the Social Blade Show, which is broadcast via UStream on Thursdays at 10PM EST.

The BiggBoard

Brainnovate’s BiggBoard provides a real time dashboard for tracking Digg submissions. The site brings together a submissions visibility in primary and main categories “upcoming” sections as well as the current Digg home page.

Individual submissions on the BiggBoard identify votes, comments, and the approximate time left that the story has to go popular.

FriendStatistics

Having a network that reciprocates Diggs is essential for long-term success. FriendStatistics helps Digg users monitor who in their network is voting on their ten most recent stories, broken down by how often they did voted and if those votes were made prior to the submission going popular.

FriendStatistics also shows what Digg users outside of your network are digging your submissions as well; making it possible to add more qualified profiles and drop the “deadbeats” in your network.

Google Reader

There is an RSS feed for every Digg users submission history (http://digg.com/users/”INSERT PROFILE NAME”/history/submissions.rss). Google Reader provides one way to keep tabs on either your Digg network or Digg users you would like to network with.

Active Digg users monitor who diggs their submissions regularly and help them get to the Digg front page. Subscribing to the RSS feed of their submissions and digging them early is one of the best ways to get power users to notice you and (hopefully) add you to their network.

Social Media for Firefox Extension

Social Media for Firefox provides social media users with access to several social sites, including Digg. A click of the Digg icon shows you if a web page has been submitted and how many Diggs it has. A second click let’s you submit the web page if no one else has already done so.

Digg Firefox Extension
Another Firefox add-on worth considering is the Digg Firefox extension. It offers a more comprehensive toolset for Firefox as well as updates on popular/recently submitted stories and your networks’ activity.

TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop

When Digg removed the shout feature they basically funneled all messaging traffic to Twitter. The Result: almost every active Digger has a Twitter profile that they often use for communicating submissions and/or promoting their network.

TweetDeck and Seesmic both have functionality for creating a specific Digg group within your Twitter following. This allows for a more streamlined focus when monitoring your Twitterstream.

HootSuite
There are those that create Twitter accounts exclusively for Digg (in addition to their personal Twitter profile). HootSuite is a Twitter application that provides for easy management of multiple profiles, as well as list function and tweet scheduling.

The main reason I choose this second is because I personally don’t like the OW.LY URL shortener (though you can just copy & paste a Digg URL instead), but the rest of HootSuite’s features come pretty close to compensating for this.

Digsby or Trillian

If your goal is to be active on Digg it’s essential to have at least one instant messaging account. Even before shouts were removed, power users had been using IM regularly; and even more so now that shouts are gone.

The benefit to Digsby and/or Trillian is that users can aggregate multiple IM accounts in one application.

I recommend Digsby ahead of Trillian because Digsby handles Google Talk, which is a fairly common IM client amongst Diggers. I’d also advise that if privacy is a concern, create separate IM profiles specifically for social news activity; which can all be aggregated using Digsby or Trellian (less Google Talk).

Digg Alerter

I only came across Digg Alerter recently even though it’s been around for quite some time. The stand-alone application allows users to monitor Digg profiles, their recent submissions, and the activity happening with those stories.

Active Diggers can use this tool either as a way to monitor their submissions or to get faster updates when someone either in their network or that they want in their network submits a new story. It’s a nice alternative, particularly if you prefer a stand-alone application.

Conclusions

There is no mistaking the fact that certain Digg users – Digg power users – have a greater chance of successfully hitting the home page than others. While the quality of content matters, so can the level of participation of the Digg user who submits the story.

Digg users with high activity levels, a strong network, and a history of success in getting stories popular are more likely to continue doing so.

But as indicated, the road to becoming a Digg power user is time consuming and challenging. Not only does one have to be incredibly active, but they need to be smart about how they invest their time as well. These tools have been incredibly helpful for me in my journey and hopefully they will help you as well.

Well I decided I’d try my luck via Cape Cod SEO .

As an SEO practitioner or site owner, if you’re one focus was to gain inbound links for a period of one month, what would be a realistic expectation for this program?

For the sake of argument, let’s assume the site you are working on is (should be) well known to you (IE, keyword strategy, business model, industry, etc).

Please feel free to comment below and as a “Thank You” for your time, I’ll list participants (with links) via the post.

Thank you for your participation in this link building discussion:

• My suggested benchmark: 30 quality inbound links
• richardbaxterseo
• Wil Reynolds
• MoreProSEO
• Monica Wright
• Philippe
• Nataliya Yakushev
• Brendan Picha
• Jim Spencer
• Brian Hawkins
• Peter Davis
• Casie Gillette
• Paddy Moogan
• Rebecca
• SEO Denver

QUICK ADDENDUM: Based on initial feedback and comments, here are some additional thoughts:

• In the benchmark determination, it would help to identify the assumption of a full-time work week or not. My 30 link benchmark was actually derived from a client project where 20 – 25 hours per month allocated, but I think one could argue 30 links/month full-time if the quality was there.
• Here is a post I wrote a while back on link building evaluation. Since it is 2 years old it probably needs to be refreshed, but my opinion is that the more criteria that can be satisfied here will lead to a higher quality inbound link

Update 2: It’s worth pointing out that setting a numeric goal for a link building campaign is not the only facet in measuring success. Obviously the improvements in organic search engine traffic, leads, and revenue must happen as well, regardless of the number of links acquired.

For one, success stories and buzz around popular networks like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, etc dominates the web. Niche communities are also harder to locate. In many cases, the initial traffic/networking value may seem poor in comparison to the time investment.

I’m a firm believer in finding your sweet spot in niche communities. Here are two examples from friends and colleagues.

• A friend of mine owns the site BubbaBrain.com, which provides SAT, AP, & subject-based tools for teachers across all grade levels. When the site first launched, they marketed the site almost exclusively through Yahoo Answers, generated tens of thousands of visits in the first year.
  
  
• Unfortunately, I cannot reveal the subject-matter for the second example, but another colleague receives nearly a thousand visits per month via a product-specific online forum. The community itself has less than 10,000 members and would never be on anyone’s radar in the general public. For this particular niche, its value is only exceeded by Google in terms of top referring domains.

A large percentage of small business sites I’ve come across are not even coming close to a thousand monthly visits from the largest social media sites; let alone Google.

If you’re a small business owner, it might be worth the time to re-investigate niche communities in your space and invest more time in turning them into a channel for your internet marketing efforts.

As recent as a year or two ago, Google would list a map of “Edmond, Oklahoma” when you searched for “Derek Edmond“. It was annoying but not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Even before Google finally realized my name should not be associated with “oil dereks in the Oklahoma area“, I was working on making sure the rest of the search results showed more “professional” information.

Recently, others have asked how to dominate (or at least control a larger percentage of) search results for their name. Here are some recommendations and ideas to consider for personal brand management in search engine listings.

Key Social Networking & Media Sites
First off, the easiest thing to do is ensure visibility in key social networking and media sites. Here are some of the more important domains that rank prominently for name-based search results.

LinkedIn – Probably the most important from a professional perspective. Create a complete profile and use relevant industry-specific keywords where applicable. Make sure to include your photo, background and up to three links associated to your current work and online initiatives. Seek to get recommendations from colleagues and others you have worked with.

Twitter – Start a Twitter account and user your full name (it will appear in the HTML title of your profile). Include a short bio, link to most appropriate/desired destination, and location. It’s advisable to maintain and update your account on a regular basis. Make sure to submit your profile to popular Twitter directories like Twellow, WeFollow and Just Tweet It.

Facebook – Some people like to separate Facebook from the rest of their professional networks (I was one of them) but if you don’t mind sharing more of your personal information, Facebook profiles rank very well in search results. I spent a fair amount of time making sure my profile did NOT show up in search results, so it will be interesting to see how fast I can reverse that.

UPDATE 2/23/2009 – So it took less than a week for Google to find my Facebook profile, once I cross-linked it via FriendFeed. That was pretty quick, all things considered

MySpace – I don’t use MySpace but others I know who do will rank fairly prominent in name-based search results. If MySpace is of interest (or related to your business interests), consider this social network and make sure what others will see online is what you truly want to convey.

FriendFeed – FriendFeed is not as visible as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter but certainly ranks well for name-based searches. FriendFeed acts as a social media aggregation tool, so you can consolidate all of your social media accounts into one destination (more on linking accounts a bit later). Create a complete profile, include a photo and bio, and add all of your social networking sites to your FriendFeed account.

Other Social Sites to Consider
Check out professional sites like ZoomInfo, Naymz, Slideshare, and Spoke for profile creation. There is a range of personal branding sites like PeoplePond on the rise as well.

Don’t forget to reserve a profile in popular social sites outside of pure social networking as well. Knowem.com has a comprehensive list of social sites to register with and reserve your profile information.

Two Notes:
For all profile generating endeavors, make sure to complete your profile as much as possible. Don’t just add your name and leave the rest of the information blank.

Additional social sites I’ve notice rank well for profile information include Digg, StumbleUpon, and Meetup.

Create Personal Site or Blog
Create a site for professional information, and even one showcasing the personal side. If it’s the former, make sure to identify key experience and successes, contact information and links to other social media networks your a part of.

Try to secure and use your full name as a domain for at least one of these.

Even if you don’t want to use your name as the domain name for your personal site, I would still recommend attempting to reserve it.

If an objective of your strategy is the improvement of your personal brand, add any mentions or links available on third party sites as well. In other words, create an archive of your personal accomplishments and initiatives in a central location.

Many people feel comfortable enough in having a site with more personal information (family, passions, community, etc). If that’s you, make sure to add links to your other social networks and professional credentials as well.

Third Party News and Mentions
Obviously harder than it sounds, getting mentions or links from others certainly has an positive impact. There is a range of sites that I’ve contributed to, been mentioned or even commented on that rank for my name.

While this certainly happens over time, here are some ideas on how to go about this:

• Offer to write guest posts on an industry related blog.
• Comment (appropriately) on others’ blogs and use your full name and link to your most important personal site.
• If you’ve done something newsworthy, issue a press release and syndicate it across the wire.
  
  
  

  When I became a partner at KoMarketing Associates, we issued a press release with my name in the title, which in turn was picked up in several prominent marketing and news sites. Many of those references are still present today.

• Be an active and productive member of the online communities you’re associating with. Over time, others will recognize your efforts and might reference you via their own blog posts, articles and/or links.

Additional Ideas & Considerations
Here are some final site recommendations, ideas and issues that might be considered or come up.

• Wikipedia – While it would be great to get an entry in Wikipedia, my sense is you’ll need a fair amount of information from news and media sources to be successful. If you’ve got it; great. If not; I’d recommend staying away.
  
  
• Competitive Names – If you’re name is the same as someone famous, sorry; you might be out of luck. If you’re name is the same as someone somewhat famous, investigate the places that they’re not listed in and maximize your opportunity to achieve visibility those networks.
  
  
• Industry Specific Niche Locations – Since I’m involved in search engine marketing, places like Sphinn, the Boston Chapter of the AMA, and MyBlogLog make sense. They might not make sense for you. Search for the names of others in your industry and pay attention to the domains that come up in search results. Hopefully, you’ll find industry specific communities to get listed in and achieve visibility.
  
  
• Activity Matters – In many cases, just having a profile might not be the only step. I doubt there is a coincidence that the social sites I am the most active in are often the ones that rank more prominently for name-based search.

Seal The Deal with Cross-Links
Remember that links matter with SEO and they matter when seeking to improve your presence in search results. Link to your other profile information across each social site in an effort to establish relevant connections.

• Your personal site/blog should contain links to all of your social profiles.
• Cross-linking is where a social news aggregators like FriendFeed becomes important (because FriendFeed encourages you to list all of your social initiatives) but look for opportunities across other sites as well.
  
  
• As stated above, LinkedIn allows for three web addresses in your profile.
• If a social site only offers one place to include link information, reference a web page that displays all of your other social profile information (like FriendFeed).
• Digg, StumbleUpon, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc all provide an opportunity to cross-link other profile information. Even if these links are “nofollowed”, they still provide valuable resources for friends, colleagues and potential networking opportunities.

Final Thoughts
Hopefully this guide provides a starting point for those investigating how to achieve better visibility for name-based search engine rankings. What sites have you seen work well in your own online marketing endeavors? Your thoughts, comments, and feedback are certainly appreciated.

When Marty Weintraub asked if I wanted to cover SES San Jose as a live blogger for aimClear, the only answer that made sense was to [emphatically] say “YES”. San Jose, the largest search engine marketing conference in the business, and scores of talented people to learn from and network with was an opportunity not to be missed.

In the end, I found out was just how challenging and rewarding live blogging can be.

Not only was I able to come out of the experience a better blogger but I was able to take so much more from the sessions I covered. The concentration on each presentation in coordination with the speed of entry on the keyboard meant that only a thorough comprehension of the material would be acceptable.

While I already understood live blogging would be a challenge, I have a completely new appreciation for those deep in the trenches on a regular basis (talented people like Barry Schwartz, Adam Singer, Rebecca Kelley, and Virginia Nussey, )

Live blogging was only half of the fun though.

It was phenomenal to meet, learn from and share experiences and discussion with an amazing number of talented online marketers.

Thanks so much for sharing your time – Adam, Anne Kennedy, Barry, Bill Leake, Dana Lookadoo, Dave Snyder, David Szetela, Glenn Chen, Greg Finn, Jason Arango, Jason Ibarra, Jeff Ferguson, Jennifer Sable Lopez, Jordan Kasteler, Kevin Newcomb, Melissa Wickstead, Rebecca, Todd Malicoat, Virginia, and the team at WordStream (Tom, Larry, and Constance – who we still need to schedule a time to coordinate a demo). Hoping I did not miss anyone and apologies if that is the case.

And of course, Lisa Williams, Merry Murod and Marty himself, it was a fantastic time working with all of you. Hoping for safe travels as everyone makes their way home from San Jose.

Make sure to check out the complete coverage of SES San Jose which can be found on the aimClear blog and our B2B post recapping the BuyerSphere Project. Comments and feedback are always appreciated

The subject line of his email read: “You Spike Like a Girl”

It caught my attention; before I read who it was from or in what context the message was about, I wanted to open that message.

The first thing I would recommend for someone wanting to get in to the world of marketing and/or advertising is to catch people’s attention.

I’ve been taught that marketing is about understanding your target market’s interests and needs and providing something that satisfies those things. If you can catch someone’s attention, it’s the first step. From that point, if you can find a way to provide value (particularly at a premium), you’re probably doing a good job at marketing.

Online marketing is really no different, though the tools and tactics used for demonstrating value will be specific to the online space. Some of the ways I try to catch people’s attention include:

• Writing good headlines, titles and email subject lines
• Sharing content that I hope people find valuable
• Actively participating in a variety of social media communities
• Analyzing the type of content that resonates for particular keywords in search and putting together a plan of action (for my sites or for client sites) to outrank the competition

Obviously I’ll give him a more specific answer than this, but what would you tell this person? Besides the traditional educational requirements, if you were talking to an industry outsider, what recommendations would you make for getting into the world of online marketing and advertising?

Your thoughts and comments are certainly appreciated.

It’s pretty obvious looking through this blog’s archives that I have not written much in 2009. While Twitter is not the only reason for the lack of posts it certainly is a contributing reason.

A 140 character update can seem so much more convenient than writing even a short blog post.

That fact is that while finding and distribute interesting information (via Twitter) certainly has value, so might providing additional perspective on the topics important to your business (via your blog).

Wasn’t that one reason to begin blogging in the first place?

Lyndon’s post sums it up perfectly (and effectively), with reasons from both the SEO and overall online marketing perspective. I hope that it helps your blogging strategy going forward.

I’ve historically recommended using a custom permalink structure which includes only the /%postname%/ element. This eliminates the date-based folder hierarchy while still enabling the creation of a keyword-friendly web address.

Rolfe indicates (and this can be supported in WordPress documentation) that using text based variables to begin the permalink structure negatively impacts speed and performance. WordPress “must distinguish page URL’s from post URL’s” and stores this extra information in its database.

According to WordPress Documentation
…it is best to start your permalink structure with a numeric field, such as the year or post ID.

Personally, I have not experienced performance issues using only the /%postname%/ element for permalinks on any of the blogs I run or manage. I find a shorter URL more appealing and (in my opinion) it helps mitigate the potential issue of a long URL breaking due to a line break in email or getting mistyped when referenced.

I also had avoided using a date-based structure because I block archives from being indexed in search engines. Before Joost de Valk developed the Meta Robots plugin, it was a bit more challenging to do this (especially when using date-based permalink structure).

That said, I did find Rolfe’s information of interest and it is an easy adjustment to start using the post ID to begin WordPress permalinks going forward. I’ll make a slight modification to my original post and will be recommending using /%post_id%/%postname%/ as a custom permalink structure from here on out.

Social Networking and Google
Social networking was up 83% year over year in April 2009. Facebook alone commanded 13.9 billion minutes of our attention, up 700% from a year ago. It’s clear that social networking is a threat to Google online dominance. After all, Google’s primary revenue is through advertisements, which require users to stay on Google web properties. If users’ attention is somewhere else…

Enter Google Friend Connect
Simply speaking, Friend Connect allows site owners to give their visitors the opportunity for a greater degree of interaction (on the site), particularly for those who cannot afford or develop interactive capabilities. There is also a developer API for those with the requisite skills.

At the basic level, users can become “members” of a particular site or “community”. Additional applications (Google Gadgets) are being developed for comments, recommendations, ratings and more. You don’t necessarily need a Google profile to get involved, since Google Friend Connect works with a variety of services, including Yahoo, Twitter, AOL, orkut, and Plaxo.

My opinion is that as (or if) more sites adopt these types of programs, it provides the search engine with a greater understanding of how users value content and information, beyond traditional analytics and search behavior.

So if you are interested…
I’ve added the Friend Connect members gadget to Cape Cod SEO and I’ve love to gain your membership. There’s no strings attached (from Cape Cod SEO at least) and I’m not here to pitch, promote or sell anyone anything by joining with this application.

Joining the Cape Cod SEO community through Google Friend Connect is easy. Simply click the “Join This Site” icon in the left-hand navigation bar and sign in with your preferred service. As indicated above, you don’t even need a Google account to register.

I appreciate your participation and if you do join up and we meet at a conference or event in the future, let me know. The first drink will certainly be on my tab

Then, last week, the relationship seemed to abruptly end. My next eight submissions failed to make the FP. For a few of those, I wasn’t even close.

What was I doing wrong?

It takes significant time and commitment to have a consistent chance of hitting the Digg FP. When I first started submitting, it took six attempts before I had success. Twenty submissions later I hit the front page for the second time. In between then and now I’ve dugg thousands of submissions, to gain a sense of the type of content that resonates well and to network with the right Digg users.

Fast forward to this month: I felt that my contributions were valuable and the content was of high enough quality. It didn’t seem like my submissions were overly dependent on votes from my network or that I was shouting incessantly.

Nevertheless, I was not making headway.

Instead of getting frustrated or giving up, I took a couple days to reassess. I reviewed the material I was submitting and the categories I like to stay active in, to see what type of submissions were working for others. I talked to people in my network to get their opinions and advice.

Finally, I worked harder to find (potentially interesting) information, adding new feeds to my RSS reader and setting a schedule to recheck for RSS items on regular intervals. I also made sure to stay active, commenting and voting on the submissions made by friends in my Digg network and reaching out to new Diggers.

Bottom-line, I wasn’t going to give up or stop working on something I had success with.

New Results
Digg gave our “relationship” another chance this week and I’ve hit the Digg FP with 3 out of my last 7 submissions. However, things change and new challenges – directly and indirectly related with Digg – are certain to impact my success sooner than later.

In addition, there are certainly ways to improve and develop an even more productive strategy. As an example, I always feel like my submission titles (important to successful submissions) continue to need work. While I try not to rely on shouts, I use them. It will be interesting to see how things change once Digg takes this function away.

So What is the Point?
I use Digg as the example but any dedicated online marketing initiative will face challenges and periods with limited (or no) success. It’s pretty easy to give up when things are not working. It could also be tempting to take unnecessary risks that could potentially incur “a penalty” or damage reputation.

Successful, ongoing strategies are a lot like relationships. They require hard work, an ongoing commitment, and the understanding that sometimes one needs to try harder or get a bit more creative. Perseverance can pay off, but it takes time and energy to get there.

*Reference: Pronet Advertising

Since I’ve been using the DiggBar regularly for the past week or so, when a site is using Framebuster or Frame Killer code to disable it, it sometimes can throw me off (particularly if I closed the browser window with the original Digg submission).

A List of Sites Preventing DiggBar with a Framebuster
Here’s a list of sites I’ve compiled that use framebuster code of some sort. I am sure the list is far from complete so if your site uses this type of code as well, feel free to contact me via comment or Twitter and I’ll add your domain to the list.

• Aleptu
• Best Free Templates
• Bloggasm
• Blogging Tips
• Blue Living Ideas
• Digital Journal
• Engadget
• Euphoria Magazine
• Highest Five
• Inhabitat
• Kansas State University
• Mighty Optical Illusions
• National Public Radio
• The NY Times
• Quality Health
• Sigma Infotech
• Spike
• ToMuse
• Vimeo
• World Big Cities

Here’s Wikipedia’s entry on how to apply framebuster code to your site:

The typical source code for a framekiller script is:

<script type=”text/javascript”>if (top !== self) top.location.href = self.location.href;</script>

A variation that lets the user know why they are being redirected with the use of a pop-up alert is:


<script type=”text/javascript”>
if (top !== self) {
alert(‘The URL ‘+self.location.href+’ cannot be viewed inside a frame. You will be redirected.’);
top.location.href = self.location.href;
}
</script>

Additional resources regarding Framebuster Code

• Webmaster World Discussion (from October 2000)
• Frame Buster Plugin For WordPress (I have not used this so I cannot attest to it’s effectiveness)

Various discussions related to DiggBar

• Post from Digg: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the DiggBar
• Are the DiggBar and URL shorteners bad for the web?
• The Truth About Digg’s DiggBar
• 3 Reasons Why Breaking The DiggBar Can Actually Increase Traffic To Your Website
• DiggBar Pages and Google
• DiggBar Use Or Abuse

Business owners should note that the WordPress default configuration does lack certain best practices of basic SEO.

In this post I’ve outlined seven challenges all website owners face with search engine optimization. For each one, I’ll outline how WordPress users can overcome these challenges with WordPress plugins, administrative settings and some basic customization.

The Creation of Unique HTML Titles
Its generally believed that the HTML title tag is the most impactful element of an HTML page as it relates to SEO. Under the default configuration, the HTML title in WordPress may be rendered using post titles, category names and general settings, depending on the file type.

While that means post titles and categories should certainly be keyword relevant, installing the All in One SEO Plugin allows webmasters full control of their HTML Titles.

The All in One SEO Plugin’s general settings allow webmasters to easily create a unique HTML title for the home page and logic for creating more specific HTML category and archive titles as well.

When creating new posts or pages, the plugin adds a special section in the administrative panel for adding unique HTML Titles and also META descriptions and keywords.

Prevention of Duplicate Content
If you are not using the “the_excerpt()” function in WordPress, a blog post will be replicated identically on the home page, category and archive pages and search query pages.

Content found in multiple locations may impact a search engine’s ability to rank a particular post for a keyword strategy. You want searchers to find the individual post and duplicate content makes it less clear which web address should be presented in search results.

A solution is to block search engines from indexing category, archive and search-based pages of your blog yet still make sure the search engine follows the links to the individual posts. Search engines will better understand that individual posts are meant to rank for a particular keyword strategy. Joost de Valk’s Robots Meta plugin allows you to do this.

The Robots Meta plugin provides an easy to use checklist of options for preventing search engines from indexing certain sections as well as “nofollow’ing” specific links and locations.

Note on the plugin: More advanced users can create unique content for categories and archives. If that’s the case, there may be less need to prevent a search engine from indexing these sections. Obviously the home page cannot be blocked from indexing and the last tip is specific to making this page unique.

Search Engine Friendly & Keyword-Specific Web Addresses
The optimal SEO friendly URL has a static, directory-based structure, with less than four apparent sub-directories. Having a keyword-specific URL structure is advantageous because when keywords are bolded in search results when they match the search engine query.

WordPress’ default permalink syntax is query based (domain.com/?p=123). Fortunately, this can be modified easily in the admin panel under “Settings –> Permalinks” to replicate a static, folder-based structure.

NOTE – UPDATED 6/14/2009
I recommend using a custom permalink structure which includes only the /%post_id%/%postname%/. This eliminates an unnecessary date-based folder hierarchy while still using a numeric ID as recommended by WordPress. I’ve updated this recommendation based on learned information discussed here.

When writing new posts, make sure to customize your permalink structure per post, to reflect the applicable keyword strategy. Trim permalinks that are extremely long as well. Shorter web addresses are easier to copy and help minimize the risk of an error in typing them.

Notify Google of Your Updates
Google can index blog posts in less than an hour. Posts are first visible in Google Blog Search but are quickly integrated into traditional search results. While it is simple enough to submit your blog to Google, WordPress also has the capability to automatically notify the various blog search engines that new posts have been created.

In the admin panel, under “Settings –> Writing” (bottom of the page under, “Update Services”), blog owners can input the desired search engines they wish to notify. Every time a new post is published, Google will be notified of your updates automatically.

Google’s specific ping URL is http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 but I notify the following services as well (simply copy and paste if you’d like to notify the same services):

http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/

http://www.a2b.cc/setloc/bp.a2b

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogshares.com/rpc.php

http://www.blogsnow.com/ping

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://coreblog.org/ping/

http://ping.blo.gs/

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php

http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php

http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://topicexchange.com/RPC2

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/

Internal Link Architecture – Cross-Links to Related Posts
Cross-linking into related content enables search engines to crawl more of your blog’s material, particularly posts that are older and deeper in the archive.

This can be especially important when cross-linking a very popular post (which ranks well in search engines) to other posts which may not have done as well (but you want them to rank in search). SEO value between web pages can be potentially transferred through proper internal link architecture (cross-linking)

I had used the “Yet Another Related Post” plugin, but found I was not always agreement in the “related posts” the plugin would suggest. As a result, I will often add cross-links (when relevant) within context or simply add “Related Posts” to the bottom a new post.

Important Note: If you’re concerned with the impact of these links with the initial readership, there’s no rule against adding cross-links after a post has done well in social media outlets or gained inbound links needed.

Remember, don’t overdo it. A few relevant cross-links are fine; a few dozen are overkill.

Integration of a Blog Sitemap
An end-user sitemap will enable search engines to quickly crawl and index the important pages and posts of your website. Dagon Design’s Sitemap Generator provides a customizable solution for this.

Once installed, the plugin provides an easy-to-use interface for configuring your sitemap.

Unique Content Differentiating the Home Page
As indicated above; duplicate content is an issue when search engines need to determine the right web address to show in search results. Since the home page is usually your most valuable asset on a blog, you cannot “noindex” it, but you should still make it as unique as possible to differentiate it from individual posts.

This requires two customizations:

1.) Use post excerpts in lieu of the full post with the Post Teaser plugin.

I recommend the Post Teaser plugin because it requires less customization of the main design and knowledge of PHP. The plugin replaces a need to use WordPress the_excerpt() function (which shows a snippet of each blog post) and can be configured to display a “read more” message of your choice.

I also favor the plugin because it creates a clean link to the individual post, instead of an unnecessary anchor link when a reader clicks to “read more”.

2.) Create unique content for the home page exclusively.

This can be done by editing the theme design (“Appearance –> Editor –> Main Index Template”). If you want content to only appear on the home page, wrap the desired content with the following PHP: <?php if ( is_home() ) { ?>Content<?php } ?>

Easy to create content for a home page may include an introductory paragraph, blogroll or specific navigational elements.

What Do You Think?
I chose these 7 opportunities because they are relatively easy to integrate and important to an SEO strategy. There are certainly additional capabilities and WordPress plugins which also are valuable, beyond SEO and for a more complete online marketing strategy. I would love to hear your success stories and recommendations.

Related Posts of Interest

• Joost de Valk comprehensive PPT on WordPress Optimization Strategies
• How to Create Search Engine Friendly Websites

The average Digg submission is lucky to receive a handful of votes. It often can have nothing to do with the quality of content; it’s that the user does not have enough reach to get people to notice. With hundreds of submissions per hour, you can be certain that good material falls through the cracks.

If Digg (and other social news sites) is part of an online marketing strategy, being an active participant in the community is just as important as submitted quality content. To help illustrate the point. here is a snapshot of 13 Digg user profiles who’s content was found on the Digg FP very recently.

Talha Dar (talhaasifdar) A 21 year-old male who joined Digg on November 23rd, 2008

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 3,515
• Comments Made: 25
• Submissions: 31
• Submissions Made Popular: 9 (29% Popular Ratio)
• 176 friends & 295 fans

Scott McIntyre (ScottMcIntyre) A guy from Scotland, UK (UK) who joined Digg on July 4th, 2008

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 36,544
• Comments Made: 1,893
• Submissions: 762
• Submissions Made Popular: 270 (35% Popular Ratio)
• 152 friends & 2,711 fans

bamafun (bamafun) A female who joined Digg on May 24th, 2007

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 96,325
• Comments Made: 1,474
• Submissions: 1,388
• Submissions Made Popular: 278 (20% Popular Ratio)
• 407 friends & 5,752 fans

XDVX (xdvx) A 19 year-old male from Lithuania who joined Digg on November 28th, 2006

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 41,575
• Comments Made: 403
• Submissions: 440
• Submissions Made Popular: 78 (17% Popular Ratio)
• 468 friends & 2,416 fans

Shiner76 (Shiner76) A person from Massachusetts (US) who joined Digg on January 29th, 2008

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 13,188
• Comments Made: 121
• Submissions: 54
• Submissions Made Popular: 8 (15% Popular Ratio)
• 201 friends & 946 fans

Surferess (Surferess) A female from California (US) who joined Digg on April 17th, 2007

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 44,371
• Comments Made: 2,790
• Submissions: 316
• Submissions Made Popular: 86 (27% Popular Ratio)
• 128 friends & 3,087 fans

Ronbry (Ronbry) A male from the United States who joined Digg on February 11th, 2007

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 5,205
• Comments Made: 0
• Submissions: 568
• Submissions Made Popular: 54 (10% Popular Ratio)

Network:

• Ronbry hasn’t added any friends (unknown number of fans)

Louie Baur (louiebaur) A dude from Southern California (US) who joined Digg on December 23rd, 2007

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 50,534
• Comments Made: 3,627
• Submissions: 1,377
• Submissions Made Popular: 466 (34% Popular Ratio)
• 231 friends & 4,383 fans

neorocker (virgintech) A 22 year-old male from India (IN) who joined Digg on November 6th, 2008

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 10,291
• Comments Made: 260
• Submissions: 68
• Submissions Made Popular: 13 (19% Popular Ratio)
• 256 friends & 571 fans

tbhurst (tbhurst) A 36 year-old male from Colorado, USA (US) who joined Digg on August 2nd, 2007

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 26,101
• Comments Made: 494
• Submissions: 255
• Submissions Made Popular: 103 (40% Popular Ratio)
• 212 tbhurst & 2,851 fans

Mr. Baby Man (MrBabyMan) A gentleman who joined Digg on December 27th, 2005

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 123,466
• Comments Made: 2,161
• Submissions: 11,780
• Submissions Made Popular: 3,278 (28% Popular Ratio)
• 242 friends & 14,021 fans

Griny (Griny) A gentleman from Manchester (UK) who joined Digg on February 27th, 2008

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 36,106
• Comments Made: 176
• Submissions: 243
• Submissions Made Popular: 101 (42% Popular Ratio)
• 168 friends & 2,044 fans

SirPopper (SirPopper) A 37 year-old gentleman from Stuttgart (DE) who joined Digg on April 3rd, 2008

Activity & Network:

• Articles Dugg: 72,075
• Comments Made: 475
• Submissions: 6,025
• Submissions Made Popular: 676 (11% Popular Ratio)
• 335 friends & 4,466 fans

What Do These Diggers Have in Common?
Here are some of the key takeaways and observations of this exercise:

• All of these users are incredibly active, with no less than 3,000 articles dugg per user.
• The ratio between articles dugg and articles submitted is at least 10:1, and often much greater. I.E., you need to digg more than just the articles you submit.
• While comments may impact individual submissions, it does not appear that most of these users are overly active with their comments (similar ratio’s to overall digg activity). Takeaway: Don’t comment for the sake of commenting; comment because you really have something of value to say.
• Age of profile plays only a limited role in this sample set. 2 of these users have profiles less than 6 months old and SirPopper has 600+ popular stories in less than 12 months of contributions.
• Only 1 of 13 does not have an active friend network greater than 100 with a considerably larger “follower” base. Also, because Ronbry does not have a friend network, it’s unclear if that user may have additional Digg followers as well.
• No one listed has a 100% success ratio and most fall under 30%. That means that for every visible success, these users are contributing 2 or more other submissions which do not make the Digg home page. Takeaway: Don’t get discouraged if it takes time and more than a few submissions for others to notice your contributions.

Tips for Being a More Active Digg User

• Focus on Digg categories you enjoy most, or are part of your business strategy. Network with other users you see are active in those categories.
• Maintain active participation in the “Upcoming” sections of Digg categories
• Make use the Digg Recommendation Engine to find submissions and users who share your interests.
• Use an RSS reader to aggregate the type of content that does well on Digg.
• Use an RSS reader to follow the activity of Digg users who submit material you enjoy.
• Make sure to add a complete Bio (and avatar) and include links to locations other Digg users can contact you or learn more about your interests.
• If you don’t enjoy the community, you’re much less likely to have success

Conclusions
Participation is the key to most social media communities and Digg is no different. Contribution, quality and networking are all components of building a productive Digg profile, designed to gain an impact with Digg submissions. Remember, less than 1% of Digg submissions make the Digg home page. You face an uphill battle from the start.

In a similar way that Google penalized webmaster’s who abused the system, Digg has become more aggressive in removing the profiles of those taking taking advantage of the system or using shortcuts to automate activity. The point being: if you figure out how to cheat, Digg will eventually catch on and ban you (maybe for good).

There are many who would say Digg is just a popularity contest. This post does not refute that point and if anything, shows that having a network of Digg friends makes it much more likely you’ll have success.

However, I have noticed that in most cases, more than 50% of the votes must come from outside of a users network to get a submission to the Digg home page. It also takes at least 60 digg’s (more so for more active users and competitive categories). That means that as important as your network is, the quality of your submission still must resonate across the overall community.

I hope you find this information valuable and welcome questions, discussion and opinion in the comment section below.

Other Helpful Digg-Related Resources

• Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics
• Digg’s Top 100 Users
• Sneak Peak of Digg Link Acquisition Report
• 75 Suggestions, Best Practices & Resources for Digg
• The Impact of Digg on Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy