SeoBlackhat.co.uk

We have all heard of the .htaccess file right? We know that it is one way in which to cookie stuff your site, but what other uses and capabilities does it have? Come to think of it, exactly what is it?

Well .htaccess is an Apache file, in that it has nothing to do with your operating system, it works best on a Unix server but can be implemented on just about any server. If your webhost does not incorporate Apache as standard then I suggest you find one who does, or maybe start paying them to host you if you currently have ad supported hosting.

.htaccess is an ASCII file (you really don’t need to know this but if you do not use an FTP client you mat need to alter the way in which you upload and download it) and can easily enough be created with a simple text editor. Just open one, add a few lines and save it as .htaccess (depending on the editor you use you may be required to place a .txt extention on it, do so and then rename the file without the .txt

If you don’t have a FTP client then get one, there are enough free ones out there and it will save you loads of time and potentially cut down your error margin. I would suggest changing the attributes of .htaccess using CHMOD (see your FTP client for details) to 644 which makes it usable to the server but not by a browser so people cant access it and see what’s inside (Affiliate managers specifically)

Bear in mind that .htaccess, being an Apache file, doesn’t like multiple commands to be placed on one line so disable wordwrap and have each command on different lines.

.htaccess files affect all files within that directory and any subdirectories within, so if you place a command on /public_html bear in mind that it will also affect public_html/stuffing/random/muppet There is a way to get around this by just creating another .htaccess file in the directory muppet. This ensures that anything in the /public_html /public_html/stuffing and /public_html/stuffing/random will be affected by the first .htaccess file, and anything in public_html/stuffing/random/muppet will be affected by the .htaccess file placed in that directory

Ok so that’s a quick explanation of the file, let’s move onto it’s uses

Hey guys just thought I would write up a real quick step by step method to post using the Home Business method manually. I use this exact method and get about a 90% post rate. I only post about 15 ads a day but I usually make around 30-50$ using it. I hope this helps somebody who is new out here.

Step 1) Get a new gmail email account. I usually make a new gmail account everyday just to have a few backups. And remember to use the “+100@gmail.com” trick that was taught.

Step 2) Copy and paste some random famous quotes into a Open Office Writer file. I do this so that all I have to do is copy and paste a random famous quote into my CL post. This helps to keep the post look random to the bots. I use:

Step 3) Write up your ad and encode it. It doesn’t have to be anything that would make Tolstoy happy but make it look like a real job offer. I Then use the below address to encode the ad because whenever I would open the site that was in the Home Business method in IE my AV would pop up and tell me there was a trojan on the page. Who knows, but I do know this site works just as well.

As some people know im big time black hat.. on the net and off..

There are various ways to either take an identity or create your own with alot of ease.. its just knowing how to do it.. and its good to keep your actual name / identity clean

I call it beating the system

Im from the UK so I will explain where and what entails and what can be gained from changing your personal info:

Years ago I was in the British army, came out with alot of debt, but worked with intelligence officers.. so I know a thing or two..

method 1#
It is legal without using deed poll, you can just resume any name that you think off, its best putting this in your local newspaper and letting resources such as you tax office know that you have done it.. it is that simple:

this is done in stages,

NAMECHANGE = BILLS = BANK ACCOUNT / PASSPORT /

the problems with this is you need ID’S and thru this method it can be hard, because you will need a national insurance number: or bills to get bank details to resume more proof

Method#2
Deed poll, change your name, but this will be tied to you address.. so its always best to use a family or close friend address, BUT do a credit report on the address, make sure the address is not black listed, if it is you cannot get credit, or credit cards.. once your name has changed then you can go for bank accounts, but the low down on this, is that you do actually change your name by law.. so I wouldnt use this method.

Method#3
My favorite, Using fake documents.. There is a site out there, (pm me for the site) which charges 300 for a UK driving license.. they do utility bills, bank statements.. ok all at a price but you can setup a virtual identity..

Ive tried this, the photo id of the driving license was on TV approx 6 months ago, they showed an actual official from dvla a fake license and he couldnt tell the difference.. these have the hologram logo on them, the dogs bollocks.. then there is utility bills, rent statements, landlord agreements.. all with the info on that you choose.. all that is real is the picture of your mug shot..

Once you have all this, you could have real credit cards, real bank accounts, under your fake ID. You then can move to the internet setup your paypal , **** and scam or make a fortune..

problems come accross is national insurance, a freidn of mine changed his last 2 digits on his NI, and after several months, contacted NI, saying his boss told him his NI was wrong and why he didnt have a ni number.. they asked for his birth certificate.. he didnt have one.. told a cock and bull story he lived on a farm, in a remote area..and was brought up by his aunt and didnt know his real family.. he got his NI number 6 weeks later and his NI card came a further 2 weeks later

I personally know a few people making new accounts every 6 weeks, spending like hell, , making shops on **** with virtual stock, making a small mint then closing everything they have..

my brother is setting up a mortgage with a fake ID.. he wants to do property management, to sell and move on..or to let properties..

Unlimited resources

Ive been hosting websites at Hostgator long before I started this website and I still run all of websites with them currently. With its quality service, the hosting company is growing fast and hosts over 2,500,000 Domains! There are too many awards to note each one, so here is a list

Indeed they are one of the best hosting companies you can ever get and they are top in my A list!

Here are the keypoints of Hostgators success:

Reliable server with guarnateed 99.9% uptime

Thru out the years Hostgator has never failed me as a reliable hosting service. I never notice any downtime for my websites while this was quite a surprise until I recently found out that Hostgator is running its own data center (huge plus point).

Also, its worth noting that every web hosting plan with Hostgator comes with a 45 day money back guarantee and 99.9% uptime guarantee. The deal is fully guaranteed by the company founder and CEO (Brent) himself which is another huge plus point (responsible management team).

Host unlimited domains

Hostgator is now offering UNLIMITED disk storage and UNLIMITED bandwidth – wait, what was that? UNLIMITED bandwidth and disk storage? Yes it was! On top of that, you will get unlimited domain hosting with Hostgator. In short, this actually means that you can host ALL YOUR WEBSITES in just one single web hosting account with Hostgator. (Which is what I do!, infact, you are on just one of my websites hosted on the ‘baby’ package of Hostgator right now!)

Unlimited MySQL and POP3 email account

While most other hosting companies will only allow you to have a certain number of MySQL databases (which sucks), with Hostgator you get UNLIMITED (I repeat, UNLIMITED!) MySQL databases. Thats quite an advantage if youre planning to build a huge web application.

Room to grow

Hostgator offers shared, dedicated, reseller hosting. Along with the recently launched VPS hosting plans, Hostgator offer great rooms for website growth. This makes server switching and upgrading possible within Hostgator which in other words equals huge money and time savings for you as the website owner.

Environment Friendly

Lately Hostgator had turned green by powering and cooling their servers using wind power.

Hostgator Hosting Promotion

Hostgator hosting comes with tons of great addon features and promotions. From CPC marketing credits to discount for website templates these promotions will definitely give greater bang-for-the-bucks.

Conclusion: Is Hostgator recommended?

Hostgator offers three different hosting packages, known as Hatchling, Baby, and Swamp (recently changed to Business). Each hosting plan has different features which you can see from the features table at Hostgators site. The Hostgator hosting plan (Baby) is slightly expensive ($1 extra if compare to average price) however youll get what youre paying for. Not many hosting companies are willing to offer unlimited MySQL connection as this will eat up server resources however this is not the case with Hostgator. In case cost is a big issue for you, try out Hostgators Hatchling Plan where you get hosting with Hostgator at a cheaper price!

Hostgator is highly recommended especially if you are looking for a reliable web host or a reseller hosting account.

*UPDATE* A reader wanted me to add all the coupon codes for hostgator, so he has his wish, they are in the sidebar on the right, at the top. *UPDATE*

Verifying Your PAGE is the Right Theme
Okay, this is a quick update today. We know how vital Theme-based sites can be for our rankings in Google. Calling them Silos, Themes, Sub-Themes, or whatever you wish, having the proper theme is one of the key components to top ranking. Too many Webmasters make the mistake of just looking at their overall site’s theme, instead of looking at the individual page’s theme.

I stumbled across this last week with Barry Byers and Michael Cloake of Sesimi and I have been testing hard on it and achieved some good results. By the way, if you are looking for a good partner to outsource your overflow SEO work to, Barry and Michael know their stuff.

Problem: You may think a page is a certain theme, but Google maybe scoring it differently. Therefore, your ranking isn’t as high as you know it should be and it is driving you nuts.

Solution: Ask Google direct what the theme is for the page in question.

Reality: My testing has shown that while a site may have a strong “theme” the individual pages are lacking certain elements or Google is scoring the sub-page in areas that were ONCE the intention of the page, but the focus has changed. However, because the page is being scored on the old theme, the page becomes a detriment instead of an asset in your SEO campaign. In other words, the content of the page doesn’t match how Google has scored the page’s theme, therefore, the page is hurting your SEO efforts rather than helping.

What to Do:

First we will check the theme of your home page, then the theme of a sub-page and then we will analyze the results.

Step One: Open the Google External Keyword Tool.

This information is killer for your business and well worth the read. Digest the important info in about twelve minutes, as I not only give you the numbers, but more importantly, what to do with the information.

Often when we create sites or focus on a market, we tend to forget to check the trends and how they have evolved. I have taken the numbers so far this year and compared the numbers of 2005 and 2006. The hope here is to see “trends” and the path visitors are headed with technology so you can stay ahead instead of being in constant “chase” mode.

Many people ask me what I feel is one of the things which gives me an edge in the affiliate space. This is one of them. Now, the one thing about web stats is it’s great information, but it can also suck your time dry.

The data below is taken from REAL affiliate sites. Real sites with real visitors. These are US based sites only and do not include any foreign properties. The YTD numbers include the change from the August numbers so you can see the trend from the last three months. To make this data real easy to digest, I marked any key data, which increased in BLUE and decreased in RED.

On to the information… (Note: If you have a text reader for email – you will need to login to the back office in order to view the numbers correctly).

Visitor Return Frequency

Commentary: This refers to the frequency of visits by a user. You want your sites to be “sticky.” The idea of making a site “sticky” has been preached in the Internet community for about a decade now. I know, it is a “yawner” but it is still an issue you MUST consider.

As you can see from the data, visitors coming back everyday is strong, and in showing a strong upward trend over the last two years. My testing shows that Blogging and “email drip” systems are pushing these numbers up. Think about it; if one-third want to come back everyday how would that change your content development schedule?

As stated above, this is where a blog can come in handy. Also, keeping in contact with your visitors via email is a good move … and I have seen no fall out by contacting my lists on my affiliate sites every five days with new information, even if it is to tell them about a new blog post. Just keep the emails short, to the point and make sure there is great content for them to read. Nothing is more disappointing than being taken by an “evening news hook” trick … you “stay tuned” through the commercial only to be served lame content.

If you contact your list via email, don’t give them the information in the email. Instead, give them a link to your site or blog. Get them back to your site whenever possible. Your goal is to get them back to your site over and over again until they buy or buy again. What is really interesting is the consistency of the numbers in the 2, 3, 4 and 5 day returns. What is also good to realize, the numbers are still strong 6-30 days out. This means if you remain in contact with your list, even if it is on a monthly basis, you are likely to get them back to your site.

Fact: I can tell you from my testing if you stack your return visits within a few days of the original visit, your conversions ratios will surge. I have interviewed dozens of buyers who said, “You kept in contact with me and it seemed that the questions/concerns I had with the product were answered in your follow-up emails. It was highly professional and engaging.”

What You Should Do: Do you have new content to show new visitors on a daily basis? A weekly basis? If your answer is “no” then you need to get a plan in place to get new content on your site that will assist in converting those visitors into buyers. Look at your own numbers and see how they compare with the numbers above. If they are a lot lower in return visits within the first five days, you need to revamp your approach so you can get them to come back more often.

1) Make sure you have a Blog (Get “Fantastico” for your web server, which allows basically a one-button install for WordPress).
2) Email your list at least once a month (I use 1AutomationWiz and swear by it).
3) Add new, engaging content at least once a week (Hire a Ghostwriter through eLance, Guru.com, oDesk.com or RentaCoder).

Organic Search Engine Market Share

co.uk – Google United Kingdom

Have you ever noticed that titles on the cover of magazines sometimes differ from the actual title of the articles themselves? The next time you purchase a magazine, look at the titles and see if they are the same. In the latest copy of Wired magazine on my desk, the headline on the cover is The Rebirth of Music, however, the actual name of the article is Music Reborn.

Why is this?

This is because the objective of the circulation department of the magazine is to sell as many copies as they can. In their effort to do so, they often simplify, modify or reconstruct the titles of the articles to make it more interesting and make people buy their magazines. In effect, the circulation department is working the headlines. They simply try and make a good headline better. To make the title better, they sometimes lengthen the title, as with the example above. Sometimes they shorten it. Other times, they change a word or two. And sometimes the entire title is reworked.

To improve your online campaigns, it is a good idea to review printed marketing material to spur ideas and to get you thinking creatively.

As often is the case, looking at printed marketing material can spur ideas in your head on how to improve your online campaigns.

Here are some more examples taken from the book, Tested Advertising Methods.

These titles were given more impact by being shortened:

[Original Title]: Hot Tips on Heating Your Home
[Revised Title]: How to Cut Fuel Bills

[Original Title]: A Smart Shoppers Guide to Bargains
[Revised Title]: Shoppers Guide to Bargains

[Original Title]: Three Ways to Mothproof a Marriage
[Revised Title]: 3 Ways to Save a Marriage

[Original Title]: How to Understand the Perplexing Teen-Ager
[Revised Title]: How to Understand Your Teen-Ager

[Original Title]: Which Diet Tips Pay Off?
[Revised Title]: Diet Tips That Pay Off

The following are article titles that were given more sales appeal by being lengthened:

[Original Title]: When Your Husbands Affection Cools
[Revised Title]: When Your Husbands Affection Cools – and what to do about it

[Original Title]: Birth Control for Men
[Revised Title]: Now – Safe, Simple Birth Control for Men

[Original Title]: You Can Read Faster
[Revised Title]: Read Faster – a 20-Day Plan

[Original Title]: Key to Fitness at Any Age
[Revised Title]: Key to Fitness at Any Age for Men and Women

Here are article titles that were given greater interest by reconstructing them:

[Original Title]: The Smugglers of Misery
[Revised Title]: Where All the Drugs Come From

[Original Title]: Building on the Positives in Marriage
[Revised Title]: 4 Ways to Keep Your Marriage Young

[Original Title]: High Blood Pressure – New Light on a Hidden Killer
[Revised Title]: New Protection Against Heart Attack

[Original Title]: Backyard Gardeners Are Back in Style
[Revised Title]: How to Start a Backyard Garden

[Original Title]: What You Can Do to Combat Inflation
[Revised Title]: 10 Ways to Beat the High Cost of Living

Look at your Titles, not just in your PPC campaigns, but on your web sites as well. Could your Titles use a rewrite to improve the message?

Note: Please understand that this information is for Google AdWords Landing Pages – not Landing Pages in general.

Affiliate marketers know that Landing Pages are the best weapon they have. Those who do not use it either do not understand the concept or are just plain lazy. More often than not, it is the latter. Affiliate Marketers see that others do not use it and so, they dont bother with it too. You see, laziness is contagious.

To have an effective Landing Page, we need to understand what the Landing Page is for. A Landing Page is not just a duplicate of your sales page. It is not a page renamed to run a PPC campaign. It is, on the other hand, a page that focuses on selling the product or service. This is why all the elements of effective design are usually stripped out on this page.

When visitors come to your site, your Landing Page should give them only two options: To Buy or To Leave. There shouldnt be any other option aside from that. Do not distract them and make the mistake of giving more options to choose from. If you want them to subscribe for more information, create a name squeeze page. Keep your focus and remember that Landing Pages exists for only one reason to make a sale.

Below is a list of what I do when I create a Landing Page:

Webserver/Configuration – You do have a good host, right? The domain has its down IP address? A clean domain, clean IP address, with no ties with link farms, spamming, etc. is vital to your success.

Headline – This aspect is often greatly misused. The thought of, I must cram as many keywords as possible into my Headline for maximum performance is a thought process hooked on failure. Here is a tip that makes absolute sense, but so many people do not do it. The headline on the page should match (somewhat) to the keyword phrase being targeted.

Example: The keyword discount widgets could have a headline of: This is the Place for Discount Widgets. That alerts the visitor that they are indeed in the right place. Just by changing the headline to one that is relevant to the search causes a drop in CPC and can cause an increase in CTR. Or worse, you can get Google Slapped.

Font Face, Color & Size - Avoid having a distracting and cluttered look on your Landing Page. Having four to five different fonts on your page create a messy look that people would love to hate. While having different fonts for your headlines are fine, having different fonts in your body text is distracting. Do not even think about doing this. Use only one font for your body text.

Test results show that Times New Roman is the best offline print font and because of this, it has become the default font on the internet. This, unfortunately, is a big mistake. It turns out that Times New Roman causes rapid eye fatigue which makes it one of the worst fonts online.

The best fonts for online use are Verdana and Arial. Of the two, I would recommend that you use Verdana as it consistently outperforms every font. It reduces eye strain and increases readability. Remember to use a standard font at all times. Also keep in mind that not all computers may have the font that you use. If you want a standard headline font, it is best to create it as a graphic so it will look constant on every computer. You definitely want your message to have the look that you intend it to have.

You should always aim to make your text readable. The standard size for text is 2 and it is advisable to put dark text on white background. In fact, black text on a white background is preferred. Landing pages arent supposed to show off how cute you can be. Landing pages are supposed to sell. This is serious stuff and requires you to put on your best face.

There is a reason that the top companies choose dark text on a light background. It isnt by accident, it is by design. Follow their lead.

Dont Let Search Engines Crawl Your Landing Pages – Many marketers want as many pages in the search engine indexes as possible. Dont do this as I mentioned above.

The last I checked, were still in a recession, but despite the recession and the news of all the layoffs, business is pushing ahead. Some analysts state that the news of layoffs is a sign of worse things to come.

Me?

I love hearing about layoffs. Ive been laid off and while it was tough, it was a throw you in the water to see if you will sink or swim experience. People are laid off for two main reasons: poor performance or they make too much.

I have spoken with a lot of people in charge of some big companies, and when you get them in a setting away from their office and the stress, the feedback is nearly the same:

Were going to be just fine. We purged our company of those who didnt want to work for a full day. They felt they were entitled to a paycheck just for showing up. We will still meet production numbers even with 5,000 less on the payroll.

Those are sharp words, but they are true. Back when I was with WordPerfect, we ballooned to nearly 6,000 employees, but due to competition from Microsoft and shrinking margins, there were massive layoffs and three years later we had just over 500 employees.

Why was it with 5,500 fewer people, we were able to sell more packages and release more products than we did before? Seriously, there were 11 buildings to house all those workers and in the end we were in just one, yet we not only met the old production numbers, we out did them.

It all comes down to having the right people, people who want to work and love what they do. Even if you are a consultant, the company who hired you wants the same too.

So what should you do? A Needs Analysis. If you own your own company, you are going to perform one on your company, if you are a consultant, you are going to perform one for them. Might I suggest performing this service for your client free of charge.

Am I crazy?

Maybe. But in these tough times, offering something of value (the needs analysis) to something you value (your customer) is never a bad decision. Plus, your goal is to get more business from your customer, and you cant get new business if your customer goes under.

We all know that you cant help a customer until you know what he or she needs. You cant provide a solution until you actually know what the problem is to solve. Determining what they need to solve this problem is key – and often, the customer doesnt even know what their actual problem is. They might know the symptoms, but they dont know the root.

Doctors diagnose a customer (patient) by asking Where does it hurt and administering tests. Rainmakers diagnose customer problems by asking questions and LISTENING intently to the answers and reading body language (or listening to voice influxion on the phone).

Asking questions randomly is going to solve one thing: wasting everyones time. You must be prepared. Asking general questions such as, What are your goals? or What are your challenges? is also a waste of time. Honestly, what do you expect to get as an answer to What are your goals? If it was me, my reply would be To make more money than I spend.

During tough times and high stress, think like the makers of Tylenol. They are, in a word, brilliant in how they market their product.

Their tag line is a simple, Feel better, Tylenol.

The #1 benefit they have marketed is, Use our product and feel better.

Is there anything more powerful?

Stress, Anxiety, Noise, and life in general all weight heavily on you or your client. If you take those away, what is the outcome?

Exactly. It is the best outcome. Since that is your goal, how do you get there. With one simple question.

What keeps you up at night? or What is your biggest stress right now?

The answer is where you attack with a series of follow-up questions until you know exactly the root of the cause and can formulate an action plan from there.

Here are some questions I have used in the past and make sure you take great notes:

- What have you tried? (remember that just because they tried it doesnt mean it wont work if you try again with a slightly different approach)

- What would you estimate this problem is costing you a week? (never just ask what it is costing them, get it in a time frame everyone can understand)

- If the problem remains unchecked, what will it do to your company in 30 days? (this compounds the seriousness of the issue and gives a timetable every consultant can work in – 30 days)

- What is your timetable? (when do they want a solution?)

- What is their budget for this problem? (this is key, as this is how you get paid. If it is high priority, their budget will reflect this. You also need to compare their budget to fix the problem in comparison to how much it is costing them a week. For example, if the problem is costing them $20k a week and they say their budget is $10k, theres a problem. In 30 days, they will lose $80k. You could propose to fix their problem for half of the loss, or $40k).

- Who else are you talking to? (Find out if you have any competition on this project).

Your meeting needs to be one hour or less. This is why preparation is key and the right questions are asked. Respect their time and you will be rewarded. Spending all day at their offices will just bog down the process. Get in, ask your questions, get out. Formulate a plan of action and win the business.

Q: Tell me more about Google SiteLinks. How do they determine which links are used?

A:

I have tested SiteLinks algo pretty hard and the one thing I have learned is that the algo is NOT easily influenced. In other words, attempts to “steer” Google to the links you want included doesn’t work on a consistent basis.

As far as getting certain keywords to appear as SiteLinks for your domain, it has mostly to do with your site being “the” landing spot for that search. It isn’t as easy as you might think. For example, I am getting a Mac this weekend. It is my ritual, a new laptop every Labor Day, and this year, I’m going Mac … let’s see if it sticks this time.

If I do a search for “Apple” … apple.com has SiteLinks. However, it does NOT have SiteLinks for the following phrases: iPhone, iTunes, iPod, Mac. The only phrase I could get to come up for Apple.com with SiteLinks was “macintosh”, and that was really one of my “last gasp” phrases to try.

So, as you can see, even the large companies have issues when it comes to getting the right keywords tagged with SiteLinks for their domains.

Q: Does the geographic location of the web host matter for search? Organic? Local?

A: I had a great discussion about this with three Google engineers. The actual location of the server does not matter. Even though there is some “chatter” that it does matter, the choice where to host is clearly yours as a business owner. However, where people tend to get into trouble is the TLD (Top Level Domain). For example, if you had a web business in Portland, Oregon, it wouldn’t make too much sense to have a co.uk domain would it? And the same is true the other way around. If you want localized traffic, and you’re in the UK, get both the .com and .co.uk domains. Build out the .co.uk and 301 redirect the .com to your localized domain. This way you keep your brand, but you are far more likely to get localized traffic with the proper TLD than without it.

Tip: If you are in the US, you don’t need a local host to rank well locally. Your “dot com” doesn’t need to be hosted in Portland if you are also in Portland. You can host in Miami and rank just as well in the local search.

Q: What changes is Google working on right now?

A: I was able to get some info when a group of Googlers thought I was an employee by accident. The biggest issues was a new filter they are working on which would “kill half the businesses here tonight.” The individual who said that was pretty young, and I have learned over the years in this industry that young people like to talk and say bold things in order to get attention and have a feeling of “betterment”.

I don’t believe that statement for many reasons, first, he has no clue about the level of people at the party … as SES attracts mainly newbies. And I followed this comment up with a few Google engineers that I am good friends with and they basically laughed it off. I was on the Organic SEO panel with Aaron (he’s on Matt Cutts’ team) and there are no big filters being worked on currently.