Mike tagged me in the desktop meme, which means I had to reveal my rather bland and somewhat not organized desktop.

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Posted: September 28th, 2007 under Memes.
Comments: 12

Digg has introduced a few important changes, including the addition of profiles which will vastly help with networking capabilities. Now, Digg has introduced filtering options which will allow users to select what news they do not want to read. So goodbye Britney and Paris!

I spoke recently about the specialization of social bookmarking and social networking sites, and I see this as a very positive move for Digg. This means that users will no longer have to sort through unwanted information to get to what they really want to read, and those submitting to Digg will find interested readers that much easier. Applying the filters is easy - simply login to your Digg account and then “Customize” your account, selecting which news is relevant to you. Then, you can also filter profanity as well as how many Diggs an item must have before you view it.

With these new filters in mind though, I see the grave possibility that people might want to submit to the wrong category to ensure that their news was seen. I am looking forward to experimenting with these new options, and hopefully I will never have to read about those stupid girls on Digg again. :P

Posted: September 28th, 2007 under Web 2.0.
Comments: 1

I was recently approached by a company asking the question: Can search engine optimization get rid of bad press in the search engine results? The answer is both yes, and no.

While you can’t wipe out the pages themselves from the search engine results (some scoundrels claim they can, but that’s another story), you can help your public relations online by getting rid of those results in a roundabout way. You don’t really need them to disappear, you just need them to sink a few pages back where no one will find it. So how do you do that? Good press. Lots of it that ranks well.

Generally where bad press will really affect you is not the keywords for which you are competing in your niche, but for your name itself. As you cannot have more than a few results on the same page for your site, you must then have high ranking content on other sites for your name.

There are two options available to you, and I suggest making use of both of them to increase the likelihood that the bad press will no longer appear in the first few pages.

1. Create content on another site that uses your company name in the title tag. Press releases are a good example of how businesses might go about this.
2. Create content on your site and submit it to sites that generally rank high in the search engines, such as Digg. Use your company name in the title tag.

It’s that easy… you can even link to these pages so that they achieve higher results as well.  You can also build links, but this must occur in a specific type of directory that gives each site it’s own page generally with the name of your site in the title tag.

And if you really want to spend money, why not get some reviews on blogs with the stipulation that they use your company name in the title of their post.

And that’s what I told them.

Posted: September 27th, 2007 under SEO.
Comments: 1

9 years old! Big day… next year it’s double digits!

Posted: September 27th, 2007 under Google.
Comments: 3

On October 9, I plan on attending FaceBookCampToronto2, an “unconference” that is part of FaceBook Developer Garage, and it brings together developers and marketers to discuss the creation and promotion of FaceBook apps. The first FaceBookCamp that occurred on August 8 was geared more to the development crowd, but the agenda for the October 9 FaceBookCamp seems geared more to the marketers among us.

I am still making my mind up whether I want to live-blog the event, or if I want to cover it in a series over the week following. But I will be be covering the events of FaceBookCamp Toronto on October 9 in any case for those who are unable to attend.

For those interested and who will be in the Toronto area on October 9, you can confirm your attendance to FaceBookCampToronto2 here: BarCamp wiki

To learn more about FaceBook application development, check out The Entrepreneurial Blog of Matt Huggins: 5 Simple Reasons You Should Become A FaceBook Application Developer where Matt discusses the benefits and opportunities for developers utilizing the FaceBook platform.

Posted: September 26th, 2007 under Web 2.0, Internet Marketing.
Comments: 10

The pink bear… in a pink chair!

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Posted: September 26th, 2007 under Memes.
Comments: 8

Before ever undertaking my new Blog Contest to Win a Pink SEO bear, I certainly did some background research to make sure that I did it right. I want to make the most out of this in order to thank my readers for their support by offering prizes, as well to draw some new attention to my blog.

I have compiled a list of the different things I considered prior to hosting a blogging contest on my Pink Internet Marketing blog:

1. I have seen lots of contests going on around the blogosphere, many for prizes of great worth. Certainly, the bigger the prize, the more attention you will receive, but at the same time, you don’t want to offer a prize that is too big for your blog. I felt my prizes are reflective of my traffic, but for higher traffic blogs larger prizes may be offered as they will receive the attention they deserve.
2. Make updates on the contest throughout - perhaps link to the newest entries. I myself plan on making an update each week showing the progress of the candy jar, and showing new entries.
3. Don’t expect people to find out about your contest just by visiting your blog. Promote your contest on contest blogs and sites and on blogging communities to which you belong. One of the major reasons for hosting a blog contest is to help promote your blog, so ensure that you announce it in as many places as possible. A list published recently on Contest Blogger of the Top Contest Blogs on the Web is a good place to start when promoting your contest. Another site, Laura Williams’ Musings, is another site to consider, as she presents a daily contest roundup.
4. If possible, make the prize something that extends your branding. I was lucky to have the cute bear on my blog already - and I know EVERYBODY thinks it is cute and I know many of my readers would a) want the bear or b) want to give the bear to a loved one (romantic liaison or tiny person). You want the prize to appeal to your readers (being your niche), appealing to everyone is not required as you want to reward and attract those in your niche.
5. You might want to have a small blog contest at first (like mine) if you are looking to offer a very large prize. Test it out, find out what works and what does not. Learning from your experiences the first time around will help you really get the most out of having a big blogging contest.

Be sure to enter my blogging contest, and win the cutest bear in the blogosphere. ;)

Posted: September 25th, 2007 under Internet Marketing, Blogging, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 9

Over and over again I have heard how cute my little Pink SEO Bear is, and now you have a chance to win your own Pink SEO Bear! Made with love by me at Build-A-Bear, this Pink SEO Bear is also wearing a pink Canada T-shirt. Not a fan of pink? Perhaps a loved one might appreciate this as a gift.

How to win the Pink SEO Bear from Canada

Unlike at the carnival, to win this bear you will not have to perform any feats of coordination or strength. Just blog about my blog. Please include a link to my home page with appropriate anchor text and also please mention and link to one of my posts. As I discuss a range of topics here, I am sure that you can find something that fits with your site’s theme. Please mention the blog contest to encourage participation, and link to this post so that I know about your entry.

In addition there is a BONUS PRIZE!

For each and every entry in my blog contest, I will add one PINK CANDY ITEM into “the pot”. (ie. a pack of FreshenUp Gum, etc.). Which means if the more entries in the contest, the bigger the bag of pink candies gets.

To be eligible for this Bonus Prize, include the following image in your post. This was made by the ever talented Hernan. It is in .gif format and to ensure that you retain the movement, please keep the .gif format.

The contest winner will be announced on October 28, 2007 and will be selected randomly out of a hat.

If you have any questions, please email me at danielle [at] seoisforgirls.com

N.B. Posts of “inferior” quality will not be considered for this contest. I am not looking for Pulitzer winning material, but I would appreciate a quality review. :)

Looking for more contests? Check out Contest Blogger

Edit: Please note, only the bear wearing the pink tee is up for grabs… the bear wearing the black leather coat, denim mini and adorable hi-top sneakers is mine, all mine. :)

Posted: September 23rd, 2007 under Contests, Promoting My Blog.
Comments: 42

How do you get a Free Sunday Blog Review on my Pink Internet Marketing blog? Comment on my blog - and make it a good one. I will pick 5 blogs for a mini-review here every Sunday. Just my way of saying “Thanks for stopping by” and to encourage comments from other bloggers.

Girl Meets Yarn is a great blog for knitters, knitted fashion addicts and people who appreciate being crafty. This blog features great photos of beautiful yarns and knitted creations (some of which I would give someone else’s left arm to get them). Steph is passionate about knitting and everything yarn, and she “knits together” this interest with her love for her family by including a personal touch to her posts.

Only one new commenter this week, and I saw Aaron posted some link love for link love, so why not do the same…

Mike at Ordinary Folk and A Little Link Love

Brown Baron at Brown Thoughts and the Link Love Fiesta

Aaron Cook at Aaron Cook Dot Com and Super Link Sunday

Bush Mackel and Saturday SpeedLinking

Posted: September 23rd, 2007 under Sunday Reviews.
Comments: 7

BlogRush, the blog traffic pyramid scheme, sends traffic to your blog by including your post titles in widgets on other blogs. You get credits for traffic sent to other blogs, and for people who sign up, which means your post title appears more frequently in the widget. Very high traffic blogs, for example Mashable, need only discuss this in a post, and have countless credits no doubt. For lower traffic bloggers, it is necessary to include the sidebar widget. It heard about it recently, but did not want to clutter my sidebar to get an extra 15 visits a day.

So how did I get almost 500 visits to my blog from a BlogRush widget?

Here is the post that received all the traffic:

Goodbye Wonderful World of Windows 98, Hello Feisty Fawn

Catchy title, I know. Since you can only see the first 40 characters in the title in the widget, then you see the first part of my title… which in itself is funny in the year 2007. That is what inspired so many people to actually visit my post, but to be honest it beats me how I managed to get onto the BlogRush widget without actually submitting my blog.

So maybe I will rethink my disregard for BlogRush. ;)

Posted: September 20th, 2007 under Internet Marketing, Blogging.
Comments: 12