When we enter into a discussion on the sort of topic they want a website business on, nine times out of ten the answer is something along the lines of “I don’t care, whatever makes the most money”. This is completely the wrong mindset to have and one which is doomed to failure. Here I will address why you should build a business around something you love and not something you think will make more money.

Why a Business You THINK You Should Get Involved In is Doomed to Fail!

A lot of customers, especially those I do business with via eBay, have it in their heads they should be running a website business on a topic purely because they think they will make more money with it than if they based it upon another topic. Regardless of whether they have huge knowledge on one subject, if they think they can make “more” money elsewhere, they assume that is the right path to follow.

It isn’t.

Earlier this week the web business community was shocked to hear banking-based blog Bankaholic was bought by financial information service provider Bankrate for $15 million. So, does that mean we should all build website businesses based around banking information?

Perhaps, if you have expert banking knowledge or a passion for the financial markets. If your knowledge in this field is limited to how much interest your savings account receives, then forget it!

It is vital you choose a topic or niche you are knowledgable about otherwise you are going to fail. There are two major hurdles to overcome if you plan on building a web business purely for “the money”. They are:

• You have no expertise in the subject and therefore have nothing of value to offer the online community who want information, products and services on it. You are competing with professionals in this niche so why are people going to choose you when it is painfully obvious you don’t know what you are talking about?

• If you do not have a genuine interest in a particular niche then you are not going to struggle to motivate yourself to update your website and come up with new ways to attract customers to it. Again, why are people going to come to you if it is clear your heart isn’t in this business?

Build a Business Around Your Passions, Interests & Hobbies Instead!

In every area of web business, there is competition. You will be competing against hardened, knowledgable professionals, regardless of what topic or niche you choose to make money online with.

In that case, why don’t you give yourself an edge?

You are that edge.

If you are to have any chance of succeeding online with your own web business then you need to set one up where you are an authority, an expert who knows that topic inside out.

Determining the type of website business you should set up is easy, just answer these simple questions. You may be shocked at the results!

• What topics are you the most passionate about?

• From those topics, theoretically, which could you write about for eight hours every day without getting bored? This will really separate the genuine passion from passing “interests”.

• If you could make the same amount of money from a web business based around any topic, what would you choose?

• Finally, the decider. Would you become involved at some level in a web business on that chosen subject even if there was no financial incentive?

By answering the above questions you should have identified a topic or niche which stands out from the rest - a subject you are so passionate about you would even do it for free!

However, this will not be necessary because there is money to be made online in any given topic or niche but only if you are truly passionate about it and are willing to put the work in which will enable you to rise head and shoulders above the competition!

The Benefits of Being an Authority

You should now be coming around to the idea of building a web business around something you are both knowledgable and passionate about, rather than chasing the dream of a big payday in a subject you have no experience or interest in.

By using your edge in a particular subject you will be able to set up a web business which achieves the following:

• You have knowledge and expertise in a particular area which you can share with others - you can solve their problems and you will become the “go to” guy or girl if they have any other queries.

• You will come over as genuine to your customers because you have personal experiences in this topic which they can relate to. Your trust factor will go through the roof!

• You will be contacted by other prominent people in the same niche who will want to exchange website links with you, get you to produce some guest articles for their website or do other joint ventures with you.

• You may even be contacted by even more powerful bodies such as the BBC and national newspapers who want you to provide a quote on an article of feature they are producing. How many free visitors to your website do you think a link from one of those websites would produce?

• You will be involved in a topic you are so passionate about, you will never lose motivation to create new content for your website and try out new ideas to bring even more customers to you.

• Work will not seem like “work” at all!

It simply will not be possible to achieve the above success with a web business if you have no expertise or experience in that subject - regardless of how much money you think there is to be made.

Remember, knowledge is power!

Darren Rowse suggests 13 tips for encouraging great conversations on your blog. [ProBlogger]

Glenn Allsopp offers five simple, but effective tactics to promote a new website. [SEOptimise]

Ian Lurie names three things your description tag must contain if you want to attract more search engine clicks. [Conversation Marketing]

Danny Sullivan talks about his conversation with an “idiot” link broker. [Search Engine Land]

Mike Tek wonders if SEO is a service after all? [SEOMoz]

Dean Hunt offers some advice if your Wordpress blog has been hacked. [Dean Hunt]

I give customers the opportunity to buy websites on eBay UK, although the 56 techniques here can be applied to any of eBay’s websites, especially eBay.com.

1. Use an Appropriate Username

Let’s start right at the beginning. If you want to be taken seriously as a professional website business seller then you need to use an appropriate username. I use the handle fulltimeonline, which suggests I work online for a living (or just spend all my time on there, haha!) and it’s more professional than calling yourself something like kewldude69. If you don’t want to be treated like a 14-year-old muppet then don’t give the impression you are one.

2. What Type of Website to Sell

There is no reall right or wrong answer on what to sell. You have the freedom to create a website around any subject you want and list it on eBay. For the best results, create a website in a general niche, such as dvds, fashion, gadgets, soccer, tickets etc. to appeal to a wide audience. You can break this down further, such as childrens fashion or horror dvds but you are then relying on somebody really interested in this sub-niche to spot your listing and want to buy it. Broader is better on eBay.

This is perhaps down to the mentality of the eBay customer, who is more often than not new to web business. Having more ‘options’ on their website means they can sell to more people and therefore make more money. This may not necessarily be factually correct but it’s what they want. So give it to them

3. Include a Domain Name

This sounds obvious but you would not believe the number of “websites” which are being sold on eBay without a domain name. The sellers just link to a “temporary location” where the website can be viewed by prospective customers. This looks highly unprofessional and for the sake of a few pounds extra, you can register a domain name and subsequently branded website which the customers can visualise themselves owning. You don’t even need to spend money on registering a specific domain name if you have some old ones you are not going to use - just build a website around them to sell!

4. Link to the Website

Whereas you are not allowed to link to website from within your eBay listing, due to the risk of you conducting business away from the auction website, you are still able to link directly to the website you are selling.

This may sound obvious, but do not pass on this opportunity to link to your website so customers can have a good look at it and visualise themselves owning it.

5. Show Screenshots

Even though you are linking to your website, do not forget to add some screenshots of it to your listing. I was surprised at the number of people who emailed me asking to see the website, despite me linking to it. They obviously scanned the listing quickly and missed the link.

By adding some screenshots of some of the more important pages, e.g. homepage, eBay listings page, Amazon store page, the customer can see what the website looks like and the chances are will spot the link when they take another look at your listing more closely.

6. Include Hosting

This is an area which causes eBay customers some stress because they are new to web business and don’t know how or where to arrange their own hosting. Take the stress away from them by offering them hosting. If you plan to sell websites on an ongoing basis then purchases a reseller account (I have one with Heart Internet and cannot recommend it enough) and host your customers websites for them. You can either offer them free web hosting for life, which is adopted by some sellers, or you can charge them a nominal fee every year.

7. Price Your Website High

Pricing your website at a higher amount, e.g. around the £1,000 mark rather than the £30 mark will give your product a much higher perceived value to your customer. Plus, you will have to sell at a higher price if you want to make any money on eBay when their new pricing structure comes into play at the end of September.

You can justify selling your website at this level because you are selling a “web business” and not just a “website”. You are offering your customer much more than a bunch of files linked to a domain name and stuck on a server somewhere. You are actually going to help them succeed with their new business!

8. Provide Support

If you want to justify asking for a price a lot higher than the turnkey merchants who are lucky to sell a website for £30 before listing and final value fees then you need to instill confidence in your customers that you know what you are talking about and are there to help, nay, mentor them.

Starting a web business is scary for eBay customers and is entirely new territory. With the financial climate the way it is at the moment they want reassurance they are not buying into a scam and have some to help them achieve their goals of making money online.

9. Enable Skype Contact

eBay bought Skype some three years ago but has only recently made more of an effort to integrate it into listings across all categories. If you haven’t got one already, sign up for a Skype account and when listing a website for sale, allow customers to contact you via speech or the text chat facility. Your listing will now have active Skype buttons embedded enabling customers to contact you for further information.

10. Offer a Contact Number

Some customers will not be aware of what Skype is so it is also worthwhile listing some contact numbers in your listings so they will be able to speak to you directly about the website they are interested in. I have set up a freephone number with this company, allowing customers to call me at no cost to them.

There are lots of companies which offer freephone services, or you could set up a local rate number (beginning 0845), all of which can be forwarded to your existing landline so you do not need to get an additional phoneline put in. Alternatively you could invite customers to contact you on a mobile phone number or landline.

This is an important step to consider because being able to speak to you directly will really instill confidence in the customer to do business with you rather than an anoymous eBay user who is not as forthcoming.

11. Include an Email Link

One of the few clickable links you are allowed to include in an eBay listing is an email link for customers to contact you directly. There are two advantages of putting in an email link:

a) You can set up the email address to forward to an autoresponder account and increase your mailing list.

b) If you use an email address associated with your business website’s domain name, more savvy eBay users will type in your website address to find out more about you.

12. You Do Have a Business Website, Don’t You?

If you are a serious internet marketing professional, then you must have a website! While you cannot link to your website directly from your eBay listings, you are able to guide customers to it via an email link. If customers see your website which gives details of your services and your success, your credibility factor will go up a notch and people will be more open to doing business with you.

13. State You Are a Business Seller

eBay have clamped down on “private” sellers who are in fact trading as a business and selling online for profit. From May 2008, it is illegal to trade as a business and mislead customers by pretending you are a private individual.

By law you have to register as a business if you are indeed behaving like one, but most eBay users, especially those new to eBay, will not know this so there is no harm in stating the obvious. Tell them in your listing you are a registered business seller for some instant credibility and professionalism.

14. Join Squaretrade

I considered for a long time whether to pay the money for the privelige of displaying a “Square Trade Seal” on my eBay listings. Essentially, it means nothing. By displaying the seal you “agree” to abide by seal member “standards” and “guidelines” but Squaretrade themselves do not guarantee the performance or practices of any seller who displays their seal.

However, several competitors were proudly displaying the seal which confidently tells eBay customers to “bid with confidence”. Even though the seal is meaningless, it is a third-party service telling customers you are a trustworthy seller. That in itself is worth the extra expense.

15. Offer Paypal

Not so much “offer” Paypal because those sneaky so-and-so’s at eBay now demand you offer their payment provider on pretty much all their categories. However, this does not mean you cannot advertise the fact you offer Paypal to please the newbies who have been brought up to believe it is the most water-tight method of paying for goods and services online (poor souls!) A “Paypal Verified” logo on your listing also gives the impression you have been approved by Paypal and thus increases your credibility and trustworthiness.

16. Become a Powerseller

This step takes a little more work and you need to be doing enough turnover across a three month period and have an overall positive feedback rating of at least 100 before you are invited to accept an invitation of Powerseller status. While achieving this status does not affect how you conduct your business, it is thought of highly among eBay customers. By seeing you are a powerseller, you will be perceived as more trustworthy than “regular” sellers and of course including a large powerseller graphic proclaiming your superiority will not harm your chances of making a sale either.

17. Tell Your Customers Who You Are

If you want your customers to trust you enough to part with over £1,000 for a website, then you have to tell them who you are. This is no time to be shy or try to hide behind an anonymous eBay ID. Plenty of sellers do this, but they are the ones who sell turnkey junk for peanuts.

If you are doing this part-time, and are “afraid” someone from work will see your listing, then tough. You either want to do this properly or you don’t. If you want to be successful on eBay at the top end of the scale then you have to give your customers an opportunity to connect with you and that means revealing your true identity. They need to know who you are, what you do and why you are the best option for them to spend their hard-earned money.

18. Show Customers Your Face

If you were unhappy at revealing your name to your customers then you are going to hate this point, but again it needs to be done to build trust. You can upload a photograph of yourself to your eBay account which will be displayed on your MyWorld page and also your Feedback page.

You need to convince your customers you are a trustworthy person and not a scammer who hides behind an eBay ID - what better way to achieve this than by showing your face?

19. Display Photos of You in Action

You can give your customers more reasons to believe in you by displaying some photographs of you “in action”. Have you trained a client on a one-to-one basis? Have you given a talk at your local Chamber of Commerce meeting? Have you attended a networking event? If not, why not? You are a legitimate professional in the internet marketing field aren’t you?

Anything you do on a day-to-day basis in your internet marketing business can provide a great photo opportunity and really crank up the trust factor in your eBay listings. Here are a few of mine below:

20. Add a Video

eBay allows you to embed videos into your listings as long as their are hosted on certain websites. Several of the more recognised video sites such as Youtube, Dailymotion, Myspace and Google are permitted.

You can add a webcam-recorded video introducing yourself and the website you are selling and discuss the benefits of doing business with you rather than another eBay seller. This is such a powerful way to communicate with your customers but hardly anyone is doing it.

21. Add Audio

If you are a little camera shy then the least you can do is let your customers hear your voice to accompany the photographs of you they have already seen. Use a cheap software product such as Impact Web Audio to record an introduction to your auctions. It’s nowhere near as effective as using video but it will do as a stop-gap until you get more confidence in front of the camera.

22. Display Feedback

I know visitors to your eBay listing can just click on your feedback score to take a look at the latest positive comments left by your customers, but why not make it even easier for them? Take a screenshot of your feedback page and perhaps edit together some of the most relevant ratings to the website you are selling. Why risk potential customers not looking at your feedback when you can create a simple image which portrays you in such a positive light?

23. Use Testimonials

The staple of any good sales pitch is the use of testimonials from delighted customers. Of course, your feedback page is a list of mini testimonials but encourage your customers to write a couple of paragraphs for you explaining to visitors to your listing just why you are better than all the alternatives.

Unfortunately, people are lazy by nature so you may have to offer your customers a “bribe” to produce the testimonial even if your product was top notch. This could be something as simple as a few months worth of free hosting, some eBooks or a little extra training. Testimonials are vital to your success on eBay as they add more depth to your listings and again, boost the trust factor.

If your customers are particularly confident, try and persuade them to record an audio testimonial, or better still, a video one.

24. Explain the Benefits of a Website Busines

You are not just selling your customers a “website”, but an “online business” which has benefits that outweigh the conventional method of working “9 to 5″ for an employer. You need to point out these benefits in your listings and I usually do this via a bullet list. Make sure you include benefits such as:

• Easy to learn - no experience necessary
• You can start work on the new web business on the day of purchase
• Highly lucrative
• Flexible hours allowing the customer to work on it around their current job
• You can work on a web business anywhere in the world with a laptop and internet connection

25. Ease Your Customer’s Fears

As I have pointed out several times in this article, the majority of eBay customers are new to web business and they will have a lot of concerns and apprehensions you need to overcome if you have any chance of making a sale.

Some of these can be eliminated when you reveal your identity, talk to them in person and explain the benefits of running a web business, but there are other fears which play on their minds:

• They may be concerned whether they need to set themselves up as a limited company
• They may be concerned about tax implications when making extra income
• They may even be fearful of success - what happens if the business gets too big?
• What can they do if they realise the web business isn’t for them after a few months?

I have answered a few questions one-to-one regarding tax issues but do not include them in my listings because I don’t want to send the customers fleeing to the hills as soon as they read that dreaded three letter word.

However, I do mention the business is scalable, so it can be grown as big (or left as small) as the customer wants it to become and that they can also sell it on quite easily if they are ready to try something different.

26. Play on Their Fears

Just as you should ease your customer’s fears, in some cases you should also play on them to increase your chances of making a sale. You should not play on their fears regarding the business, but more on what could happen if they do not buy a website business from you.

The obvious fear at the moment is the recession and a struggling economy. Mention the recession and also Christmas is coming to get their minds thinking about whether they could do with some extra money in these uncertain times or not.

27. Be Honest

I have found honesty is the best policy with eBay customers. A number I speak to are interested in running a web business, but are focused more on the idea of making money rather than maintaining a website on a topic they are genuinely interested in.

If they are enquiring about a football website business, for example, but are not interested in the beautiful game, then I suggest they do something differently. If they are not interested in the niche, they are less likely to put the work in and a couple of months down the line they will give you hassle because they are not making any money. The fact they have done no work since buying it will not deter them from insisting it is all your fault.

Find out what they are interested in and build them a website based around they passions. Of course, you should sell them the website via eBay so not to break any rules of soliciting any business away from it!

The domain name in question was for iphone21sales.com which I registered because the iPhone has recently updated its software to version 2.1. I thought I’d try my luck with it because it may appeal to someone who sells or promotes the products online.

This is the first email I received from Elite Investment:

Hello,

Your domain name has been found online.

Please let us know your price.

We make money on selling and buying names and sites. Now the domain business is very attractive.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,
Paul Rancour
CEO
ELI LLC

I didn’t really think too much about it at this point because the domain was listed for sale on eBay, I believe it to be fairly relevant and (perhaps naively) assumed it was from a buyer who was interested in purchasing it outside of eBay. I replied:

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your inquiry.

That domain, along with the .net version and four others are available as a package on my eBay listing below:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=150293966033&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=005

Kind Regards,

David

What made me suspect this was a scam was when “Paul” replied, completely ignoring the fact my domain was listed on eBay and he would offer me $12,000 instead without any sort of negotiation. Did he think I was greedy, stupid, or a scammer-friendly combination of the two?

Can you accept 12,000 USD?

Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name?

Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.

Have you had your domain names evaluated in the past? I mean domain appraisals. Without valuation we cannot be sure in the sale price. It’s very important for me in terms of reselling too. But we must engage a valuation company with REAL manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources I and my partners trust.

To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies.

Please check this blog with suggestions from other sellers and buyers:
http://webtalk.007sites.com/Archive/425389.htm

If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly. It will be fair. I also hope you can give me 12% - 15% discount.

After you send me the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we’ll continue our negotiations.

What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

He wanted me to have a look at a blog hosted on a free service for “recommendations” of domain appraisal services. This smacked of a con whereby I would be persuaded to spend money on an expensive appraisal service associated (unbeknown to me) with the scammer, only for him to disappear with my money as soon as the appraisal was returned.

Anyway, it was a bit of a slow day so I thought I’d have a bit of fun with him…

Hi,

I do not have the time to get the domain name “valued” because ultimately it is a waste of time.

As you know, a domain name is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

If you want to offer $12,000 with “discount”, I will happily accept $10,000.

A bank transfer would be the most convenient for me.

Let me know what you think.

Kind Regards,

David

My suspicions were confirmed when the scammer replied again, citing he was “prohibited” by “industry professionals” to proceed with any purchase without “manual valuation”. So, he is not allowed to make his own decisions?

Plus, he warned me “nobody would buy” my domain without such a service. Thank you for telling me how to run my business and the countless domain names being sold on eBay, Sitepoint and other forums without manual valuation must be some incredible hallucination.

The slimy character did not recommend using a specific service at this point but I expect he was lining that up for the next reply. However, I was getting bored by this and didn’t give him a chance to line one up for me with this response:

Hi,I don’t want to take additional risks either, so I’ll obtain a “professional appraisal” from a business contact of mine who deals with domain names for a living.

He will be able to provide me with an honest, professional appraisal free of charge within six hours maximum.

This will ensure I do not have to use a dubious and expensive service “recommended” by you due to the risk of it being a scam and run the risk of you disappearing as soon as the valuation has been decided and my money has been banked.

If you are happy to proceed with this and thus prove your intentions are legitimate, then please get back to me at your earliest convenience.

Unsurprisingly I didn’t hear anything back, thus indicating the company’s intentions were anything but legitimate.

Some further research revealed their company website looks like it was put together in 1999, complete with clipart image and not that of a company which throws around five and six figure sums on domain names.

A WHOIS search shows the domain name was only registered on 10 August, but they have paid a little extra to mask their identity, funny that.

It seems Elite Investment have been busy, with people discussing the scam here and here and this little beauty also shows they have dabbled in Forex Trading as well. Multi-talented these guys!

So, if anyone gets an email from this company, or similar, do the sensible thing and file it neatly in your Deleted Items folder!

Has anyone else heard from these clowns? If so, leave a comment below!

Chris Brogan lists 50 ways to take your blog to the next level. [Chris Brogan]

Daniel Scocco comments on link baiting, social baiting and viral content. [Daily Blog Tips]

Tad Chef discusses 25 outdated SEO terms and tactics and their modern-day replacements. [SEOptimise]

Andy Boyd looks at wasy you can successfully linkbait an ecommerce website. [Set Fire Media]

Dan Zarella notes the six ingredients any viral piece needs to be successful. [Dan Zarella]

Michael Estrin presents the thoughts of five experts who demysify link building. [iMedia Connection]

Chris Brogan suggests seven ways you can grow your audience or readership. [ProBlogger]

Sonia Simone describes occaisions when you should repeat yourself in your blog. [Copy Blogger]

Susan Moskwa attempts to set the record straight on duplicate content. [Google Webmaster Central]

James Duthie reveals the dysfunctional personalities of Sphinn. [Online Marketing Banter]

Eduard Blacquiere proclaims search engine rankings are worthless. [Yoast]

Ann Smarty discusses whether baiting for links is easy or not. [Hobo Web]

Wiep Knol explains why more than 90% of all link exchange requests end in failure [Wiep]

Richard Kershaw lists 44 ways to discover the identity of any webmaster. [Quality Nonsense]

Rae Hoffman explains how affiliate marketing works. [Copy Blogger]

Daniel Scocco wonders whether mini niche websites are a dying breed. [Daily Blog Tips]

Alysson, aka SEOAly, considers removing the “no follow” element from her blog comments. [SEOAly]

Paul Teitelman charts the history of paid search directories. [Search Engine People]

Jim Whalen demands you use SEO terms correctly. [Search Engine Land]

Something funny to finish off on Friday, the SEO Squares. [Ranked Hard]

Leaving well thought out and inciteful comments on other people’s blogs can be a great way to direct traffic to your own blogs and websites and is also useful for building your online brand, reputation and communicating with both the blog owner and their readers.

Here are a few pointers to help you find the most worthwhile blogs to leave your comments on.

Complimentary Interests

If you are going to go about commenting on blogs properly and not aimlessly spamming them in the hope of getting some backlinks to your website, there is no point in commenting on blogs which are in a different niche to your own.

For example, AffiliateDragon.com is all about how to build your web business and make money online but I do not have to restrict my commenting to the exact same subjects. I can comment on complimentary blogs which deal with search engine optimisation, social media and cast my net further to include business support services, consultancy and even IT suppliers.

To find blogs which will compliment yours, here are a few good places to start:

• Google Blogsearch
• Technorati
• Icerocket
• Sphinn (for blogs related to Internet Marketing)

Blog Popularity

Once you have found blogs which you think may be suitable, you need to determine if they are popular enough to warrant you spending time leaving comments on them. There is no point in you crafting useful comments to blogs which have no readers and therefore direct no traffic to your own website.

There are lots of ways you can assess whether a blog is worth commenting on by seeing if current posts have a thriving community of readers who actively comment on them! On blogs as popular as ProBlogger, owner Darren Rowse would only need to post about his latest bowel movement and he would spark over 100 comments but you don’t need to be that choosy. As long as the blog you are interested in is getting some decent comments which add value to the article then you should join in the conversation.

If you are in the internet marketing niche, some blogs you should get involved with right away, aside from ProBlogger (and AffiliateDragon.com of course!) are:

• Copy Blogger
• Blogging Tips
• John Cow
• Search Engine Journal
• SEOMoz and YouMoz

Likelihood of Reciprocal Comments

If you leave a comment on someone’s blog, it would be nice if they could return the favour. With some of the smaller to medium sized blogs you will find the owners will follow the link you left with your comment and respond with comments on your own blog.

This is a great way to build a relationship with other webmasters in complimentary niches and could lead to mutual guest blog posts or even joint ventures later down the line.

Do not, however, be disappointed if some blog owners do not comment on your own posts. Some of the larger blogs in the internet marketing niche get in excess of 50,000 unique vists every day with posts attracting hundreds of comments. These blog owners simply will not have the time to visit the website’s of each commenter to return the favour.

However, if you do receive a comment from one of these guys, you should take it as a huge compliment and do whatever it takes to build on that relationship!

Summary

You should now be able to identify blogs which would benefit from your expert comments and also which can benefit you in terms of traffic. Always ensure your comments are meaningful, on topic and add value to the conversation. You should be able to build lasting relationships with the blog owner and also regular commentors which can lead to joint ventures and projects which will help you grow your business even further.

In keeping in the spirit of this article, if you have anything to say, please leave a comment below!

Ann Smarty explains how to optimise your website for Google Chrome. [Search Engine Journal]

Dr Peter Meyers considers searching online without SERPS. [User Effect]

Dan Zarrella suggests using a “they might miss it” hook when trying to make your content go viral. [Stuntdubl]

Matt McGhee raises eight flags when choosing directories to submit to. [Small Business SEM]

Richard Fergie offers 10 resources to pass the Google Adwords exam in a week. [SEOptimise]

Pritam Barhate shares his link building notes and tactics, including a 19-page PDF document from SEOMoz users. [SEOMoz]

Randfish offers six unique content ideas to enhance your website’s value and link-worthiness. [SEOMoz]

Gnet shows you how to attract attention as a blogger through blogger interviews. [SEOMoz]

Adam Hirsch reports CNN are using Twitter and promoting it heavily on air. [Mashable]

SEOHack gives us a laugh with a rant against Plurk, with comments from some very special guests! [Worst SEO Blog Ever]

The Guardian may have been ridiculed for its frequent typographical errors in its printed newspaper, but owns without question an “authority” website, boasting a PR9 homepage, 553,000 indexed pages and 15,600 backlinks in Google.

This is why the following article, Paris Hilton to Manchester United, warrants some closer attention.

Perhaps author of the article, Tom Lutz, has read up a little on search engine optimisation tactics and wanted to show off a little of his new-found knowledge, or perhaps he fancied conducting a little on-page optimisation experiment on one of the UK’s most powerful websites?

The (admittedly longtail) search phrased “how to make vast sums of money without working for a living” ranks between positions four and five in Google for the phrase and I’d bet my Joe Calzaghe v Roy Jones Jnr tickets they have got at least a trickle of traffic from it.

If a website of such global standing as The Guardian can rank well for popular phrases such as “Paris Hilton”, “Manchester United” and “Make Money Online” merely by inserting the phrases into articles then the rest of us could be in trouble. The above article is written rather tongue-in-cheek, with a smattering of unrelated keywords in the article, but what if such websites took things a step further and created keyword-rich and linkable articles based around one hot topic, niche or person?

Have you noticed recently how many articles from the UK-broadsheets, e.g. The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph are hitting the front page of Digg? The journalists writing for these newspapers and their subsequent websites are writing content which attracts thousands of readers and gathers links along the way. Plus, they have enough online clout to make a big splash on the social media websites to make pretty much anything they churn out an instant hit.

The internet is getting more corporate, with a lot of large organisations starting to “get it” when it comes to online marketing and soon the search engines could be a closed shop for the rest of us industry professionals who make a living by assisting the little guys to compete with some of the bigger players online.

Bryan Eisenberg argues if you don’t rank in the top three positions on Google, searchers will barely notice your listing. [Future Now]

Matt Cutts comments on Twitter and the no-follow bio links. [Matt Cutts]

Paul Glazowski reports on Germany warning users to steer clear of Google Chrome to due privacy fears. [Mashable]

Stephen Shankland reports on a webmaster whose website had its rankings decimated due to using “widget bait”. [CNet]

Yaro Starak dispells the myth internet marketing is just another fools gold rush. [Entrepreneur's Journey]

Shannon Lilly discusses using guest posts as a method of driving traffic, subscribers and backlinks to your own website. [John Cow]

Zac Johnson shows you how to make money with survey and poll websites. [Zac Johnson]