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Paid Links Constitute “Black Hat SEO”? Hardly…
This week, J.C. Penney was blasted for buying links to increase their search engine rankings. The NY Times said buying links is a black hat SEO technique. I thought that was a little strange. Paid links are hardly black hat. As Fred Black pointed out in his article about the J.C. Penney link buying scandal: […]
Continue readingWhy You Should Never Claim You’re the Best
You should never claim you’re the best in your ads. Here’s why… Reason #1: It’s difficult, if not impossible, to prove anything is “the best.” Reason #2: Even if you could “prove” it, most people would still be skeptical. Reason #3: Blatant boasting is always a turn-off. Reason #4: It does nothing to further the […]
Continue readingWhat Musicians Can Learn from Zoe Keating
Zoe Keating is a cellist. She makes music, and she sells it on her web site. Here’s what that looks like: You can sample her music. If you like it, you can buy it. You can get her music digitally for $8. You can get the CD + digital download for $14. Or you can […]
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The Dream Stealer I Wish I Had Listened To (Or, How I Lost $30,000 on a Dumb Business Opportunity)
I’ve been in business since I was 12 years old. Worked out a deal with the sales guys down at the Richmond model homes. I’d water all the plants in the model homes each Saturday and they’d pay me $5 cash. Not bad since it only took me an hour. Gradually, I scaled up. Started […]
Continue readingInstantly Obsolete: The Danger of Building Your Business on Top of Fickle Social Media
If you’re building your business solely on top of a fickle web-based business like Google, Facebook, or Twitter, I strongly advise you to BE CAREFUL. All it takes is one tweak of an algorithm… one revision of the Terms of Service… and you could be out of business faster than you can say “Google Slap.” […]
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