Welcome to the latest issue of the SEO Chat newsletter. We have plenty of ground to cover this week, so let's get started with the article we're highlighting from eWeek. If you've been drooling over the iPhone but holding off on buying one, it might be time to take out your wallet. Apple just added more features and raised the speed on the latest version; at the same time, it lowered the up-front price. Curious about the details? Check out the article.

We ran a nice variety of articles this week. On Wednesday we wrapped up our look at LinkedIn optimization by showing you how to raise your visibility on the business networking web site and discussing its newest feature, company profiles. On Tuesday we reviewed Vivaty, a site that combines social networking with virtual worlds to give its users a digital room of their own. How does it compare to what's already on the web, and what are its future prospects? On Monday, we took a hard look at ways of detecting content theft and what you can do if your content is stolen.

We're doing it by the numbers this week with the SEO-related tutorials we've highlighted for your from Tutorialized. Learn five SEO myths, 10 basic SEO tips to improve your search engine traffic, correct usage of 301 permanent redirects, and more! Don't forget to check out the other great tutorials we have on Tutorialized.

This week's forum thread tackles a question that may interest both SEOs and those who hire them. If you can't pay an SEO outright, how hard is it to find one who will work for a percentage of the profit they bring to your company? And what kind of arrangement would he or she expect? You can expect a thorough discussion of the pros, cons, and possible terms when you visit this lively thread. Be sure to stop by and add your voice!

Our Spotlight, just for readers of this newsletter, keeps it simple with a few good SEO tips to help you attract visitors to your site and get them interested and engaged. Remember, an involved visitor is an interested visitor, and more likely to convert. So scroll down to the Spotlight for a few ways to hold their interest.

And last, but certainly not least, be sure to check out the fun and exciting SunQuest Chronicles: Ruby of Destiny choose your own adventure style book, brought to you by the good folks at Sun. Sign-up to the Sun Developer Network and play the game for your chance to win one of seven Sun Spots! Play now!

Thanks again for reading.

Until next time,
SEO Chat Staff

• Can Facebook's new Social Network Faithbook bring peace to the Middle East? Shalom a lakem, salami and bacon.
• What drove Juan Valdezburg to become a lawyer for the tech industry? Vendetta!
• Does IBM soda refresh you? Do it to it IBM Dew!
• Will the mad Russian Yakov Polinski explain why Microsoft decided to keep Windows XP around? And furthermore, does it really need an explanation. Vista seen crying in the corner, will do anything for your love

Watch the video!

In the first part of this two-part series, I showed you some of the basics for improving your LinkedIn profile. In this article I am going to finish fleshing out a LinkedIn profile and go over the more social aspects of the site. You can use these to draw attention to your knowledge and abilities.

Everyone engages in promotion of one form or another; it is a necessity. If you are an individual, some of the most traditional forms of promotion include business cards and resumes. The smart job hunters always include a customized cover letter with their resumes, written after performing a little research on the company. Most of the areas I have covered on a LinkedIn profile equate to the information you would see on a resume. My profile is now 55 percent complete. It is time to work on the "cover letter."

I am talking about the "summary" area. I have seen it referred to by LinkedIn employees as the "elevator pitch." You can not be sure who is going to read it, but you can be sure of one thing - people search on the words you use in this area, especially the ones you put into the subsection marked "Specialties." Guess what? Mine is blank, but it is not going to stay that way.

Read Raising Your Visibility with LinkedIn

Vivaty Combines Social Networking, Virtual Worlds
by Terri Wells
2008-06-10

Both social networking sites and virtual worlds have grown popular over the past few years, but they each have their disadvantages. Could these be overcome by combining the two? California-based start-up company Vivaty hopes to find out. Currently in private beta, it offers users a virtual room of their own.

From a certain perspective, neither virtual worlds nor social networking sites are quite as "social" as they could be. Most social networking sites, for example, are distinctly two-dimensional experiences. You have a profile page; friends can leave you email; you can chat if you both happen to be online at the same time (though your chat may be limited to just the two of you, and you might or might not be able to use a microphone or web cam); you might be able to post images and at least links to audio or video. It is nice, but it does not give you the social experience of being at a party and mixing with a lot of people.

Virtual worlds give you at least a simulated experience of going to different "locations," meeting people, shopping, and doing things. These can be as bare bones as Kingdom of Loathing, renowned for its stick figure art and truly horrible puns (you are usually sent on your first adventures by someone called the Toot Oriole) through the well-known Second Life. One of the most popular, of course, is World of Warcraft.

Read Vivaty Combines Social Networking, Virtual Worlds

Thwarting Content Theft
by Terri Wells
2008-06-09

Not long ago I found several complete articles I wrote online - on a web site owned by someone else. We did not grant permission to republish those articles. If you have experienced the same problem with your original work, you will want to keep reading. Content theft is no minor issue.

The most typical form of content theft happens when the thief sends a scraper bot to grab original articles from web sites, and then throws a bunch of them together onto a single site. The thief then sets up the site to make money from AdSense. If you are a blogger, and you do not make money from your content, this can be particularly infuriating.

The thief may or may not realize that the search engines penalize sites for duplicate content. So he may be penalized - or he may not be. Search engines can not tell who published an article first. And content thieves often work very fast; I have seen articles I have written published in full on other sites within a week or two of their going live here. So it is entirely possible that you will suffer an unjustified penalty for content you created!

Read Thwarting Content Theft

Tutorialized is dedicated to programming, designing, and many other
tech related tutorials.

5 SEO Myths
Are you still spending too much time on worthless optimization tricks. Cut back with these tips.
Read the tutorial.

SEO for Flash Optimization
While Flash content is attractive, it is not good for spiders. Use these tips.
Read the tutorial.

10 Basic SEO Tips To Improve Search Engine Traffic
Learn these 10 steps to increase TRAFFIC to your site.
Read the tutorial.

301 Permanent Redirect
Use 301 Permanent Redirect when you migrate your website.
Read the tutorial.

Easy Search Engine Friendly URLs with mod_rewrite
Create search engine friendly URLs easily with mod_rewrite.
Read the tutorial.

SEO Through Standard HTML
Highlighting keywords using standard HTML tags.
Read the tutorial.

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What do you do if you need an SEO but don't have a lot of money up front to pay him or her? That's the quandary the original poster in this week's thread faces. He has an idea, but will it work? Check out this lively thread for our forum members' wise input, and add some of your own.

Does this type of SEO/Consultant exist?

Does this type of SEO/Consultant exist?

An SEOer or consultant that gets paid by how much money your site generates off of their services, as opposed to what ranking they can get for a certain keyword(s). For example, maybe give them 10% or whatever the agreed percentage is of your monthly earnings for a specified period of time?

I can see how this would be tough to do with an aged site that is already making money, as it would be hard to decipher how much of the earnings the consultant is responsible for. But, in the case of a newer website that is not generating any earnings yet it might work.

The reason I am asking is because I thought it would be a good way for newer sites that do not have a lot of money to spend off the start, to be able to afford such services. And I suppose it would be an added incentive for the consultant to try and get the site to make as much money as possible, so they can get more money themselves.

It might work...

I've built, optimized and promoted sites for people based on a cut price / lifetime commission (but only for people I know, trust and want to help out)!

The downside is that the SEO gets little or no income whilst doing the majority of his work (So - for a start - you'd need a binding legal agreement to prevent you from shutting him out at some point and "full disclosure" to allow him to be certain you aren't skimming/scamming)... The only way you could do that to my satisfaction would be to give me an equal share in the company that owns the site, otherwise you could sell off the completed site to a new company - owned entirely by you - and I'd get squat.

And - once the work is done he/she's at the mercy of Google / other SE's (who could devalue months of work in a single stroke and therefore make his/her efforts worthless.

So if you're lucky enough to attract a real SEO professional, you would probably have to pay more in the long run to make up for the short term risk.

The main problem - when starting out the site owner wants to save money - so an experienced SEO professional doesn't need to take the contract when he/she can take contracts which pay from day #1.

If you can only attract rookie/opportunist SEO's you would probably be better off doing it yourself and keeping all the earnings (or offering the same deal to a trusted friend who might have the brains/time/inclination to study the subject if there's money to be made).

Risk & rewards are one in the same...

All new sites can make money immediately with low cost PPC... it's low cost because you pay as you go at the level you can afford... and as your sales grow so does your available budget...

But any owner not willing to risk a dime, a dollar, 50 or 100 on any form of advertising - doesn't sound like a good investment for anyone putting up sweat equity when they're not the owner.

If you're not willing to risk "anything" on your own opportunity - surely you can see how that is a huge blackmark against working with you... you don't believe your own opportunity has any money making merit.

That said, if I was the SEO partnering with you and you proposed this to me... and I wanted to assume all risks for you...

I'd want:
1. ownership of the domain.
2. direct access to the bank account and all merchant services that is provided by your service providers [not just something you can edit me out at your convenience.
3. and whatever my agreed percentage is per unit sold I get first - the first bill paid - not the second or last.

Now you have what you wanted "zero cash risk"...
And I have what I want.. equal risk that we both can live with.

Posts from this thread may have been abridged or removed. Forum members are responsible for the content of these posts.
Read the full thread.

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Engagement and Eyeballs

If you're trying to increase the traffic to your web site, there are a number of points to keep in mind. First, in a web context, people like to interact with a product or a web site. Second, as any advertiser will tell you, the more your brand is seen, the more it will be remembered. Third, people like seeing new things on their favorite sites; they get the benefit of something new and something familiar at the same time. Keeping these ideas in mind, what are some ways you can promote your site?

Let's start with interaction. Make it easy for your visitors to share your content with their friends. Add an email to a friend link to your newsletters and the articles you have on your site. This is probably the simplest form of viral marketing. While you're at it, you might consider setting up an RSS feed, too. Let visitors comment on your articles, and encourage your authors to reply. If you really want to get visitors involved, you can create some kind of contest. The specifics depend on your business, of course, but you can come up with a contest to cover almost anything.

Now let's talk about getting your brand seen. Since you're trying to attract visitors, think of your URL as your brand. For openers, are you using signature files on all the email you send? They're very discreet, rather like business cards in that you can put your title, contact information, and company URL in them. If you use Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, they're very easy to create and add to all your outgoing email. You can have your employees set up signature files as well; they're all but expected these days. Of course, signature files aren't the only place you can put your URL to make sure it's seen. Don't forget to add it to business cards, letterhead, promotional items, invoices, and so forth.

You should be used to adding new things to your site nearly every day for your visitors. You might even have a What's New or New Products page to help draw attention to site changes or updates in your product line. If you don't, consider adding one; it'll make it easy for visitors to find whatever you want them to get excited about. You can also announce special promotions here (remember, everyone loves a bargain).

Running short on content ideas? You can always ask your visitors what they'd like to see. There are a million possibilities: interviews with professionals in your field, news events, press releases, industry-related conferences (find someone to go and blog about it, if you can't do it yourself!), new ways to use your product, lists of resources you've found helpful, reviews of industry-related books, how-to items...the list goes on and on. Use your imagination and you'll be well on your way to success. Good luck!