Spoken Gently's Blog: All Categories

So you have seen the hundreds of SEO consultancies out there, every man and his dog are now experts in the field of SEO but lets look at their sites and check for the deadly sins. I’m not going to name names but some of the biggest SEO companies fail these really simple steps for well optimised pages. But what are the deadly sins, well read on…[more]

Washington State Resources:

• Richland Washington
• Pasco Washington
• West Richland Washington
• Benton County Washington

Have you considered purchasing a link from a website for traffic or search engine positioning?  Well, you need to be aware of page rank being faked and how to detect it.  Here is a great source for how to detect a fake page rank: DETECTING FAKE  PR

Once you've read the piece about fake PR, here is a place you can test it out on: FAKE PR SITE

Another great source for detecting fake page rank is here and here.    :o)

Resources for Washington State:

• Northwest Inland Empire
• Central Washington
• Benton County Washington
• Frankin County Washington

I’m always looking for tips on link building and am a fan of using directory links as part of the overall link building mix; usually somewhere around 3-5%.

Directories are probably the oldest form of link and traffic building, dating back to Yahoo!, DMOZ, and Go.com’s directory efforts.

They are also still an important part of Internet marketing in terms of site categorization via co citation, establishing a reputation by being listed with the best sites on the web, and establishing some core anchor text which still has ranking influence.

But besides the major directories, how do you decide which directory or category best fits your site and/or is deserving of having your site listed...[more]

Washington State Resources:

• Burbank Washington
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Success Strategies for Optimizing Online Press Release Campaigns By Craig Cannings (c) 2007

I was recently having breakfast with a good friend of mine who
is in management with a large Brick and Mortar Company and the
topic of Press Releases came up in our conversation. My friend
questioned the real value of this medium and pointed out that
Press Releases, while certainly apart of his company's
communication strategy seemed to have little impact or value on
their business as a whole and were rarely picked up by major
news publications. Well, in my last online press release
campaign, I can honestly say we did not receive an enthusiastic
call from the Business editor of USA Today or the New York Times
or even the Grand Forks Herald for that…

7 Residential Real Estate Market Trends for 2007: How They Impact You and What to Do

The key market trends affecting the real estate market are changes in:

1. Advertising, marketing, and the media's assault on the consumer has lead to a change in consumer's expectations and tolerance levels. Real estate media
exposure led to increased consumer activity.

2. The amount of knowledge required for an agent to be perceived as an expert on all areas of real estate, and the diversity in the market, has lead to specialization.

3. The need for Realtors® to identify a specific target market otherwise their marketing will not be effective and they will waste a lot of money.

4. Developing teams that lead to high productivity.

5. Demographics and Geographics…

Press releases were originally designed as a communication tool between company PR staff or public relations firms and the media. But now that online news sites such as Yahoo News and Google News contain such an abundance of press release content and RSS makes it easy to syndicate news, press releases can be effectively used as a direct to consumer communication tool.

Not only are press releases an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers, they can easily be syndicated creating a excellent opportunity to attract incoming links. Some of the press releases our SEO firm optimizes and distributes have gained as few as 30 unique domain name links and some have garnered over 500 - all from a single press release...[more]

Joe and…

~No longer pursuing real estate as a hobby and have looked elsewhere for income opportunities.~  That is the comment I recently received from an ex-landlord unsubscribing from our property management emails.

It got me thinking about a point I raise in one of our teleseminars.  Successful people in real estate investing and management know they are in business.  It is not just "something they do." Before I received this email, I had never thought to use the word "hobby," though.  It makes you wonder if that is what the non-businesslike landlords think they have with their rental properties.

When I think of a hobby, I think of stamp collecting, model railroad building, restoring old cars, and golf, among others. It is something you do that costs money…

Two million rental houses and apartments disappeared in this country from 1993 through 2003, reports the Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University.  Wow!  A lower supply should mean a higher demand. And a higher demand means higher rents.

Put that together with higher interest rates and what should be ever-increasing foreclosures in 2007. According to a recent article in the New York Sun, 62 percent of sub-prime loans made in 2005 were made with little or no income verification. In addition, 52 percent of those loans were interest only or had negative amortization. That means under- and un-qualified buyers will be or already have been in for a shock when their adjustable-rate mort*gages send their payments skyrocketing to the point they can't make…