Peter Vatistas

For those of you who are serious about building extremely quality links and have a padded budget, I recommend checking out a service called Hosted Marketing Pages by Text Link Brokers.

Hosted Marketing Pages are an extremely powerful link-building method that are optimized pages with content relevant to your keywords. The Hosted Marketing Pages are hosted in Text Link Broker’s partner sites which are all above a Google PR5 and have between 10 and 10,000 links pointing to them.

The great thing about this service is these pages are optimized content based on your keywords. They contain embedded links that are natural looking - much more powerful than links located on the side of bottom of a page.

HMP’s (Hosted Marketing Pages) also give you more control over your online reputation. Because your adding many HMP’s across many domains with your optimized content, you build a stronger presence for your site and your reputation, helping to lower other (not so nice) pages in the SERPS along with your competitors.

So what do you guys think? Who here has tried HMP’s before and what was your level of success? Click here to learn more about Hosted Marketing Pages.

Want to talk about Hosted Marketing Pages in detail? Check out this thread in the Peter-V Forum.

Here is a quick and easy fix for an issue I have been running into with my newly upgraded Firefox 3. I noticed that every time I visited www.msn.com my Firefox 3 browser crashed. After some basic troubleshooting I realized that upgrading to the latest version of Microsoft’s Silverlight fixed the issue.

Click here to download the latest version of Microsoft Silverlight.

I hope that helps! Let me know if Firefox 3 still crashes on www.msn.com after installing the lastest version of Silverlight.

Since the Mozilla website will be crushed today with traffic, here is the direct link to download Firefox Version 3.0 now:

Click here to download Firefox 3

Here are a few quick and easy steps I suggest to optimize your WordPress blog:

Permalinks
Permalink Settings > Custom Structure
/%post_id%/%postname%/

Mod Rewrite (Make sure you have Mod Rewrite enabled on your server)
Permalink Settings > .htaccess

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

Ping your posts
Writing Settings > Update Services
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://api.my.yahoo.com/RPC2
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://ping.feedburner.com
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://ping.weblogalot.com/rpc.php
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.newsgator.com/
http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://topicexchange.com/RPC2
http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2
http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://ping.weblogs.se/
http://blogmatcher.com/u.php
http://coreblog.org/ping/
http://www.blogpeople.net/servlet/weblogUpdates
http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc
http://trackback.bakeinu.jp/bakeping.php
http://ping.myblog.jp
http://ping.bitacoras.com
http://ping.bloggers.jp/rpc/
http://ping.blogmura.jp/rpc/
http://xmlrpc.blogg.de
http://1470.net/api/ping
http://bblog.com/ping.php
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/XMLRPC
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.amagle.com/
http://ping.rootblog.com/rpc.php
http://rcs.datashed.net/RPC2/
http://rpc.blogbuzzmachine.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogsnow.com/ping
http://www.lasermemory.com/lsrpc/
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/
http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping/
http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping.php
http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2

In a following post I will provide my list of WordPress plugins that I use and recommend.

I’ve consulted for a countless number of companies over the years and one thing I’ve noticed more recently is the concern many companies have for their online reputation. Social media allows anyone with something to say to be heard, everyone has a voice on the web and it’s up to you to find out what their saying about you and your company.

In the past I’ve set up my clients with Google Alerts to monitor what’s being said about them and who’s saying it. One of the downfalls of Google Alerts is it lacks features; it’s a strong tool but it’s missing the ability to monitor all social/search sites, produce RSS feeds and the ability to share the information effortlessly across your network of contacts.

Trackur goes beyond just Google content. It tracks images, videos, Digg, del.icio.us, Twitter, as well as the usual news and blog stuff. Trackur allows users to submit multiple keywords–such as their name, products, and brands–and automatically monitor news, blogs, images, video, and other social media for any mention of those keywords.

Users can view their results using a cool AJAX enabled interface and get updates via email or RSS. You can save multiple searches, add filter keywords, save discovered items, and sort the results the way you want. Think about this, by using RSS feeds you can quickly integrate the feeds into your company’s intranet site so the right people can have the right information without any extra steps! Even better, integrate these feeds directly into their email client and spare them their inbox!!

Google Alerts, can’t do any of that!

If your one of the thousands of companies interested in hearing what the world is saying about you, then I suggest signing up for the 14-day free trial so you can see for your self. Even if your an individual, wouldn’t it be nice to see whats being said about you, your friends, family or even or your boss? How about an old girlfriend or childhood buddy?

Trackur works for your peace of mind, every hour of every day.

Here is a video-walk through created by the maker of Trackur, Andy Beal:

Click here to sign up for the 14-day Trackur trial.

It’s funny how private I’ve been about my SEO techniques and where I spend my money to help optimize my clients sites. It’s not so much that I tried to hide some secret SEO technique that makes my client’s sites rank #1 on Google, its more resources than anything (which is my secret weapon).

The most valuable thing I spend my money on by far is events, website memberships and books. Of course I buy links, I pay for analytical services, content and etc but those come secondary to my budget and many times I never spend a single dime on them.

So what resources I spend my money on and recommend?

SEOmoz - Get the premium membership, well worth the money.

SEO Book Training Program & the SEO Book - Either is fine, I find the training program is a lot like the book with updated content & a community presence.

For resources that is basically it; I’ve read probably close to 100 books on internet marketing and I’m a member of probably every SEO forum on the internet but with everything I know now the only two resources that actually teach me new things are the two listed above.

As for events (physical conferences, forums, etc) I recommend the following:

SMX: The Search Marketing Expo - $1395 for an all access pass.

SES: Search Engine Strategies - $1795 for a platinum passport.

PubCon: Search Marketing Conferences - $799 for a full pass.

Forums I recommend:

Search Engine Land

Sphinn

The V7 Network

Search Engine Watch

SEO Guy

Another thing I like to do is track the experts in search engine optimization. Here is a list of people I highly respect and follow religiously:

Aaron Wall

Chris Hooley

Andy Beal

Matt Cutts

Andy Hagans

Danny Sullivan

C.K. Chung

Lee Oden

Neil Patel

Patrick Sexton

Todd Malicoat

Content baiting is a technique I have utilized for many years while building social communities and blogs. As an internet marketing consultant I am faced with many challenges while developing client’s social communities and blogs; the most challenging and important pieces to any site’s growth and success are content and links.

While I was consulting for a large student loan company, marketing a new community site, I regularly contacted webmasters for links. Because of how new the site was I constantly had issues getting other sites to link to me, the biggest reason why I had such a hard time was the lack of content. This went on for a few weeks and while I was still steadily building links, I wasn’t satisfied with the amount I was getting vs. the amount of content being produced by the internal staff.

One late night I decided to try something new, I emailed a handful of webmasters in relevant content fields and I asked them for help. I stated that we are a new, quality social-website in need of exposure and content. Instead of asking for a link, I asked if they would be interested in writing an article about their product, solution or experience and link to their site within their content. At the end of each email I added how beneficial this is to their exposure and if they would reciprocate the “love” by providing a link to us (even if its to their article on our site, I didn’t care).

Out of the 30+ emails I sent that night I received over 20 replies by the next afternoon; out of the 20 replies all but 2 agreed, linked and produced content for us. By the end of the week I had replicated this process several hundred times and the response was overwhelming - I had more content than I knew what to do with and my cup of link juice was overflowing big time!

Content baiting has proven to be a fantastic way to kick start the growth of many types of sites. One very important part to this technique is how you communicate to the potential content providers and link providers. If you really feel there will be a mutually beneficial connection then say that, let them know how you like their site and how you would love to give back to them for making you laugh, teaching you or getting you a better deal on your insurance. Ask them for their help and give them yours, people will respect you if your honest and sincere.

Good luck and please let me know if you’ve used content baiting, I would love to hear your hit and miss stories.

Here is a very cut and dry list of my preferred web hosts and colocation facilities. Over the years I have been through my share of web hosts; below you will find web hosts I’ve personally used and/or currently use along with the services I know they do best.

Managed Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux Servers: Choopa
Windows Servers: Rackspace, LanLogic

Unmanaged Dedicated Servers
FreeBSD & Linux: Limelight, Servers for Less, WebAir
Windows Servers: ServerBeach, Limelight

Colocation Facility
Limelight, Cave Creek Hosting

Virtual (Shared) Servers
WebAir, ATCI Hosting

Exchange Servers
LanLogic, Rackspace

Game Servers
Dedicated & Shared: GameServers

Thats it! Simple and to the point. I hope this list helps you in your desicion for choosing a web host. None of the web host links I provide above are affiliate or partner links, I do not make a penny if you sign up. Just remember me when your adding links to your website.. WWW.PETER-V.COM!!!!   LOL!

BTW, I want to hear what you think about these hosts as well as who you host with and why you like/dislike them.

Good luck!

As an SEO I always try to stay up to date with techniques, tools and information. A few years ago I started my own Internet Marketing firm offering SEO, SEM, Analytics, Affiliate and Ad marketing services for medium to large companies and over the years I’ve compiled quite a list of SEO tools.

Within the last three weeks I’ve received over 150 requests for what tools and/or applications I use specifically for search engine optimization. Below you will find my list of tools, applications and services I use on a regular basis, I hope this information helps and keep the questions coming if they don’t! :)

Analytics:

Google Analytics
Omniture SiteCatalyst
Web CEO’s HitLense
StatsCounter

Keyword Research Tools:

WordTracker
Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool
Microsoft Ad Intelligence (Excel 2007 Plug in)
Web CEO
SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool
SEO for Firefox

Link Analysis Tools:

SEOElite
Web CEO
SEO for Firefox

Competitive Research Tools:

HitWise
Alexa
Compete
SpyFu
Quantcast
DomainTools

SERP Rank Research & Reporting:

Web CEO
SEOBook Rank Checker
Rank Tracker
Free Monitor for Google

SEO Web Browser Tools:

The Best SEO Plug-ins for Firefox

If you have suggestions on SEO tools please comment on this post, I’m always looking for tools to save me time and headaches!

TuitionU is the 1^st web site that provides the chance to rate and review resources and products in higher education and financial aid. TuitionU’s position is neutral so all providers of content, resource, and tools are welcome to participate and help grow the site. This helps create a true “one stop shop” for higher ed. TuitionU provides immediate answers to questions and access to tools and resources through a wealth of content provided by industry professionals. At TuitionU.com you can find the following:

* Peer to peer ratings and reviews for schools, lenders and much more.
* Talk to students, teachers, parents and industry experts.
* Articles related to higher education and financial aid.
* Blogs, forums, videos galleries, image galleries and of course friends!

Lots of tools can be found at TuitionU like the following:

* Student Loan Comparison
* Private Student Loan Calculators
* Student Loan Calculators
* College Cost Estimator
* Private Student Loan Payment Calculator
* Expecting Family Contributing Estimator
* Planning and Budgeting for College Calculator

I am really fascinated by this higher ed community because you find real information and advice from all sides of the industry. Parents can talk to parents about their children’s school, loans, teachers or even get insight from other students and industry professionals. Students can talk to students, parents, even schools and lenders about their options and needs for higher education.

TuitionU is a win-win for anyone looking to learn more about all aspects of higher education and because TuitionU is non-bias, you’ll always get the best answer - not a sales pitch. Where else can you rate your lender or teacher and know for sure its not a marketing team boosting the numbers? No where!!

Check out TuitionU and see for yourself how this community is really making a difference for everyone.