Building your permission-based email list is one of the best ways to maximize your email marketing efforts. You don’t want to miss the opportunity to communicate with your customers or members. Make sure you give them ample opportunity to join your list.

We have a number of great features you can use to grow your list. Get started by logging into your account, then click on the “More Features” tab. Here you will find the following tools that will help you build and manage your list.

• A visitor sign-up box to use on your website
• A “Send Page to Friend” link for your website
• A special feature that allows your subscribers to forward your email and add a personal note to their friends

If you need help with any of these features, please contact us. We would be happy to assist you in setting them up for your account. Best Practice: Collect Emails Every Chance You Get

Make a habit of collecting emails to add to your list. Just remember that you are building a permission-based list, which means a person must give their permission before being added. Here are some tips for growing your list. Have a sign-up sheet available at your place of business

• Train employees to collect addresses and permission at every point of contact
• Collect addresses at tradeshows and events
• Collect business cards of people who request information

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I’ve been meaning to do a “fun” post for awhile, but haven’t had the time or gotten around to it. A reality shared by many, no doubt. With the recent launch of the Professional’s Guide to Advanced Search Operators, there seemed to be no better time than right now. 

As everyone here knows, the web is great with all the information that is at our fingertips. The greater challenge is often in making sense of all the moving parts.

Even some of the most basic and easily accessible bits, like indexation, can leave one scratching their head, trying to figure out what is the “right” number. Of course, the reality is that there are no right numbers . . . just right now numbers. On the web though, right now is often measured by the click of a mouse or hitting “Enter.”

At best, we often hope to find something that is closer to reality than anything else. It is less about the number, but the relationship of numbers from month to month, and how those numbers compare to the number of URLs we believe “exist” for a site.

Along with the advanced search operators detailed in the guide, there are also parameters that can be appended. In playing around with this several months ago, I couldn’t help but chuckle and think that I “broke” Google for a second. Rest assured, Google seems to have recovered nicely, but you too can experience this for your own amusement.

After doing any kind of search, you can append the “num=100″ parameter to the query string to get 100 results instead of the default 10. Another useful parameter is the “start=990″ that takes you to the last page of the results, without having to click through to the end.

To recreate, just append the following to the URL query string in the address bar of your browser after running a query in Google:

&num=100&start=990

Combining these two not only lead to a result I wasn’t expecting - no results - but also a situation that I think Google just wasn’t ready to handle. Poor Google . . . I made it drop an “o” . . . uh oh.

Most of us are pretty good spotting shady SEO outfits. At the least, if someone practices enough SEO and reads enough good resources, they’re aware that a company promising to have a site atop one-hundred major search engines in forty-eight hours is lying. That sort of shtick is the most obvious giveaway of a crook, but have you ever noticed how much meaningless advice passes for expert content?

I am talking about what you read on a daily basis when you do your rounds on the Internet and when you hear dubiously meaningless things said at conferences. For example, what the hell does create good content mean?

???

We gladly accept statements that say nothing in the same way we sit and listen to some politicians say nothing when they speak. At its best, saying a lot without saying anything is a remarkable talent. Blogs attract thousands of readers, public figures gain thousands of fans and people really can make a lot of money and build a lot of credibility by saying nothing. The only way this will stop (and, in general, it probably won’t), is by communities no longer humouring it.

University sociology departments are quite good at spending a lot of money to find out what most of us already knew, but SEO and social media writers aren’t bad at it either. Both parties are also good at identifying and defining elements of their topics that everyone already knows and understands. The reason they’re praised for writing obvious, meaningless articles and blog posts is because most people agree with what they’ve written. It’s easy to praise someone with whom you agree, so stating the obvious and not adding anything of meaning is an easy way to gain praise.

Here is an idea: When you see bogus content like this slithering its way up the rankings of Sphinn, desphinn it. When you stumble upon such a piece, thumb it down. When a speaker at a conference advises you to “get to know your audience,” and adds nothing more, ask the person during Q&A “how?” and don’t be satisfied with boilerplate, lazy answers. Don’t add comments like, “I completely agree!” because that  is why the piece or the speech is useless. All you can do is agree with it because it states the SEO equivalent of looking at this picture, taken out of my office window, and saying, “it’s sunny in Seattle today.”

There are three reasons why people spurt forth this sort of useless information:

1. Laziness: It’s easy to put together the Top 10 Ways to Write Good Content, even if they’re actually a lot better informed and a lot smarter. They could analyse a merger or deconstruct a search results page, but it looks a bit too much like hard work.
2. Lack of knowledge: They don’t know very much, so defining the defined and pondering the pondered is the limit of what they can write.
3. Fear of giving away good tactics: This is more understandable, but should probably be remedied by writing less, not writing rubbish. At a conference, this is unacceptable: if people have paid the sort of money is usually costs to go to conferences in our industry, they should be treated to at least some of a speaker’s more valuable knowledge.

There is a big difference between creating content for beginners and underestimating people’s intelligence. Our Beginner’s Guide does not belittle those who read it, and Rand’s soon-to-be-released rewrite is even better. I’m also not proposing that every post or every presentation should be ground-breaking. Far from it. It’s simply not possible, and we’ve all been guilty of phoning one in. However, we must stop paying attention and handing out praise to those people who have seemingly tricked us into believing that their brand of hot air is worth consuming over and over again. It does none of us any good, and it boils down to blatant trickery.

Tonight, I received an email with a familiar question, asking why the top companies providing SEO consulting and development services rarely ever provide guarantees (and virtually never use it as a marketing tactic). Since the subject has been popping up of late, and since we’re just emerging from the summer lull, I thought it was as worthy a time as any to address persistent concerns. Here are five solid reasons that compel SEOmoz as well as the many companies we work with/recommend to stay far away from any “guarantee” of search engine rankings.

Reason #1: SEO & Guarantees Have an Abominable History

From 1996 through to today, SEO scams have used “guaranteed rankings and traffic” as a slimy catchphrase to lure in gullible buyers with too-good-to-be-true promises. That association has stained the entire industry and repulsed even businesses that might consider using the “guarantee” label. Just look at some of the questionable messaging used by so-called SEO companies that employ this moniker:

(source) Our search engine optimization software comes with the latest link popularity and web site optimization tools for helping you achieve guaranteed ranking. Here is what the Internet’s best search engine optimization software has to offer:

• Link Popularity & Link Exchange Tools
• Website Submission Software

Automated software for link exchanges and website submissions? If you’ve done ten minutes of due diligence into how SEO is practiced, you’re well aware that these claims venture deep into the sort of tactics that haven’t been effective in the last half-decade.

(source) $399 annual - Guaranteed fast listing on DMOZ, Netscape, Google, MSN, AltaVista, LYCOS, FAST, ASK/Temoa and 100+ other engines and portals! Trace your traffic and guarantee a higher position!

Not only is the listing and traffic guaranteed, it’s guaranteed fast. I’m reminded of Homer Simpson’s infamous utterance after a crayon is re-inserted into his brain, “Extended warranty? How can I lose?”

(source)

• We guarantee to keep you on 1st-page results each month, or you don’t pay for that month.
• We guarantee to optimize your website for up to 100 different keyword phrases.
• We guarantee to provide monthly reports that document all of your 1st-page positions.

Many of the SEO companies that do still guarantee rankings have taken the clever tack of guaranteeing a certain number of keywords that they themselves choose. In this fashion, they can select primarily non-competitive terms and have a fairly high rate of success. Whether those keyword rankings provide any serious traffic is another matter altogether.

The point doesn’t need belaboring. Just as time shares have their “free” weekend getaways and used cars have high pressure salespeople, SEO has its own insiduous, stereotyped marketing claims that legitimate providers avoid like the plague.

Reason #2: The Search Engines Expressly Warn Against It

I don’t often reference Google’s guidelines on search marketing, but since the page ranks so well for a variety of queries related to SEO and guarantees, its virtually unavoidable if a client is performing research about your offerings. This line in particular, stand alone:

No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Even though the context is meant to put it in a slightly different context (”Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a “special relationship” with Google, or…”), the messaging comes through very clearly. If your potential clients have read on Google’s website that guarantees are bogus, they’re likely to carry that bias with them as they peruse what the market has to offer.

Reason #3: Rankings are Inherently Unstable

If I perform a search for SEO Company here in Seattle, then drive 3 hours south to Portland (or 3 hours north to Vancouver) and execute the same query, I’m likely to end up with very different ordering of results. Likewise, if I log into my Google account and get personalized results or hit a different datacenter during the course of my querying. Many searchers have even had the odd experience of hitting refresh on a query and finding the results change or re-order.

Given the incongruous nature of ranking fluctuations and the fact that ranking in a particular position on a given machine at a single point in time says very little about the future or even the present, it’s no wonder that savvy SEO firms stay away from the guarantee.

Reason #4: Rankings are a Poor Metric for Overall Performance

Rankings do not equal traffic. A great SEO campaign should be measured by the increase in search engine traffic and (if the contract also includes site optimization for conversions) the rate at which that traffic performs the desired actions on your site. Achieving rankings is (almost) always a means to an end and not the end itself (the one exception being reputation management campaigns).

If your patrons are seeking rankings for posterity or to boost their egos, they might not be the best choice of clients. Those clients who have a solid business model and great content or services to back it up want the kinds of qualified, interested visitors that come from search engines because they’ve expressed a desire that the website can fulfill. Yes - position #1 will generally get you more traffic than any other real estate in the search results, but plenty of campaigns we’ve seen and even some we’ve worked on have been sabotaged by an obsession with pure rankings.

The metric shold always be traffic - increasing search traffic means the SEO is doing their job. Making the rankings of a few top phrases the priority, above and beyond the overall search traffic means that goals are out of whack. Don’t forget that 70% of search volume is in the tail of the demand curve - and there’s usually a lot more low hanging fruit to be found therein.

Reason #5: Making Guarantees About Something You Cannot Control Carries Inherent Ethical Problems

Politicians constantly fall into the trap of making promises they cannot possibly deliver on. Luckily, since they’ve let people down since the dawn of government, we’ve set the bar relatively low. This isn’t true, however, in the business world. If FedEx promises to deliver a package by tomorrow, that’s a guarantee they can make because they control the means of delivery. On the flipside, if a camera-maker promises that all your pictures will come out beautiful, that’s irresponsible - what if you decide to point your lens at Gary Busey?

This same principle applies to SEO.

What search engine optimization companies can & should guarantee is that they’ll provide the best advice possible to help your site earn more traffic. They may even guarantee, after reviewing your site, that they can grow your search traffic by at least 10, 20, 30% or more (we’ve done this in the past, at least verbally, when we’ve seen sites that had incredible potential and extremely poor SEO practices). But, SEOs cannot control the search results the way FedEx can control shipping packages or Coca Cola can guarantee the taste of their beverage. The search engines alone are responsible for and privvy to the rankings methodologies.

In my personal opinion, there are times when I would be willing to gamble a large amount of money on the fact that we could achieve a certain ranking for a given keyword. However, that’s not the same as a guarantee. A guarantee is a promise - a basic contract that necessarily creates an assumption of certainty by the deliverer to the recipient. Anytime you cheat on that logic and make a promise outside your sphere of direct control, you’re walking on shaky ethical and business ground.

---

Thanks to the list above, I shy away from even using the word “guarantee” in relation to our consulting business. In reality, we do guarantee that our clients will be happy with our results (and so far, at least, we’ve made good on that promise), we do guarantee that if they implement our recommendations, search traffic will rise (but that’s often a big “if”), and we do guarantee that our work won’t put you at risk of penalties from the search engines. I think that these types of promises are perfectly acceptable to make - just stay away from guaranteed “search engine rankings.” It’s just asking for trouble.

The Internet, as fragile, infuriating and enigmatic as its features can be, certainly does some things that I’d really like to see implemented, at least for beta testing, in real life. I am not a programmer, so this is piecemealed together from things I do know… but in my ideal world, I’d be able to solve most of my problems with a couple of simple instructions and a hard refresh.

1.  Redirecting phone numbers. When I moved to Seattle (two years ago last Saturday), I acquired a local number. In the days before Facebook became microchipped into everyone’s forehead, I had little means of getting in touch with everyone I knew and letting them know that my number had changed.

I would like to take the hassle out of changing my phone number. I should be able to text my service provider with this:

Redirect 301 3456 1-206-555-2387

This would be far more convenient than trying to email everyone in my phone book.

Additionally, upon receiving a new number, it came to my attention that the number was only one digit different to that of a large parking garage in Seattle. No, I cannot help you get your car out of the Union Square garage at seven a.m. on Sunday morning.2.  To deal with the people who’d abandoned their cars in the garage whilst out drinking in Seattle, I’d like to text in:

 

if ($question==”parking garage”)
echo “Your car has been impounded.”;
else
echo “Hello.”; 

3.  Another thing I found infuriating upon moving to the U.S. was your addresses. In New Zealand, we have addresses like:

23 Smith Street
Wadestown
Wellington
New Zealand

I shall not entertain the idea that New Zealand may have, in the time I have been away, instigated postal codes. Here, and in various other countries too cool for simple addresses, you’ve made things far too complicated. In the United States, they number street addresses like it’s a contest to count to one-million. I’ve not lived at a street address below 1000 since I came here. And Britain: what is with those postal codes? EC1M 5UJ? W2 1JU?

I would like to be able to rewrite a complicated address, sending this on a postcard to the post office:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^30 Brown Street Seattle $ComplicatedAddressLongPostalCode 

4.  Real life should also be programmed such that I don’t waste my time trying to get into bars and clubs that I’m not going to be allowed into. It’s just a risk you take when you’re underage: you can guarantee that some bars in some towns either aren’t going to ask to see identification, or they’ll let you’re in because you’re a female and you’re wearing lots of make-up. But most won’t.

A simple system of cue cards would save us all a lot of time. A bar that will definitely ask you for ID posts a 401 on their doors. Those that will also not fall for fake IDs should make it clear with a 403. A simple 502 indicates that the bar is at capacity.

5.  Unplugging and re-plugging-in anything that doesn’t work properly should immediately result in it working again.

6.  I would like to be able to establish a secure connection to my pizza delivery place. Encrypting the information that I send to the person on the phone at Palermo’s would make me feel a bit better when they repeat both my name and my credit card number aloud in the store whilst taking my order. Fantastic work, telephone guy. Now everyone knows all my basic financial details, including my card’s expiration date and my middle initials and my address.

7.  Given how many friends I have living in different time zones, it would be useful to employ IP delivery on my mobile phone. If someone calls my phone from Australia or New Zealand, they’re delivered the me who knows how to pronounce words like “g’day” and who says “eh” instead of “huh.” When my grandmother calls, I can serve up the version that passes all the Safe Search requirements. Americans are served a Jane who says “soccer” instead of “football.” Without such a feature, speaking the correct version of English at the correct time is far too difficult.

If someone would get onto that, I’d appreciate it. Especially the bit about cleaning up my language around my grandmother.