Just checked out the Google homepage and noticed a cupcake - it is their 8th birthday! The Official Google Blog has more info, including a link to the cupcake image.

Technorati Tags: google, birthday, seo, blogger

Neil Patel at Pronet Advertising starts off the week with some tips on increasing the popularity of your blog with great content.

Making your blog popular through content - Pronet Advertising

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog marketing, writing, advertising

Top search providers, ranked by total searches. Searches represent the total number of queries conducted at the provider.

Table 1: Top 10 Search Providers for August 2006,
Ranked by Searches (U.S.)

Provider - Searches (000) - YOY Growth - Share of Searches
————————————————————————-
1. Google Search 3,003,205 30% 50.2%
————————————————————————-
2. Yahoo! Search 1,434,169 23% 24.0%
————————————————————————-
3. MSN/Windows Live Search 595,584 3% 10.0%
————————————————————————-
4. AOL Search 328,559 -18.2% 5.5%
————————————————————————-
5. Ask.com Search 136,919 30% 2.3%
————————————————————————-
6. My Way Search 135,706 42% 2.3%
————————————————————————-
7. iWon Search 30,827 -15% 0.5%
————————————————————————-
8. EarthLink Search 24,324 -20% 0.4%
————————————————————————-
9. Dogpile.com Search 23,033 -18% 0.4%
————————————————————————-
10. SBC Yellow Pages Search 22,929 36% 0.4%
————————————————————————-

Technorati Tags: nielsen, netratings, search, searchengine, yahoo, google, msn, aol, ask, marketing

Tony Ruscoe does a great job of unmasking Google’s both public and internal domains. His recent post, Google’ Internal Subdomains, will give you some ideas as to what our favorite search engine mught be up to next.

Google’ Internal Subdomains

domains, google, google news, googlenews

Why Blog Networks Are The New Internet Marketing Powerhouses:
Blogs have become the IN thing to have for your business. They can be hip, fun, sassy, factual and matter-of-fact — anything you want them to be. You can twist them around to suit your purposes; these can be reliable proof of your …

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog networks, marketing, writing, affiliate marketing, pr, woodside, help a brotha out

Translating your Blog into Different Languages:
They say that there are those who make money from their website catering to USA, Canada, UK and Australia and then their are those who exceed more by catering to every type of language under the sun.

Technorati Tags: blogs, blogging, translation, lost in translation, cultures, diversity

Link Bait Addiction and .edu Link Myths:
I don’t recall if I’ve ever actually met Eric Ward, but I’ve been reading his stuff for years. So, shame on me for only just subscribing to his RSS feed - might have something to do with the fact that he just added MP to his blogroll …

Technorati Tags: seo, optimization, search engine, google, yahoo, msn, edu, linkbait, hahaha, tagging

Blog Ads for Women via Blogher:
Blogher, a well know blog network has started their own advertising network aimed directly at women bloggers. Originally designed just for sites in the network, the new BlogherAds.com goes wider than that. …

Technorati Tags: blogging, marketing, monetization, advertising, mommybloggers, blogher

SEO ethics and practices: A guide - from Blog Business World

Search engine optimization (SEO) ethics are often discussed, but rarely defined in any meaningful ways. Website owners often hear about the so-called “white hat” and “black hat” SEO professionals. A few webmasters are even aware of some undefined “grey hat” SEO techniques, and their practitioners as well.

Found this while looking through links back to the directory. Wayne Hulbert describes the questions one must ask when working on optimization for a site.

Technorati Tags: seo, ethics, optimization, white hat, grey hat, black hat, marketing

5 ways to building a better blog:

“Although the blogosphere is a new space on the web, it is starting to become a crowded. Millions of bloggers are writing on a daily basis and many of them are writing on similar topics. Because of the sheer number of blogs fighting for the same eyeballs, it is becoming harder to become popular, so the question is how do you make your blog stand out from the rest”

Neil Patel at Pronet Advertising does a great job with this post and is a good read on bettering your blog.

Technorati Tags: blog marketing, better blogging, content, advertising, design, usability