Maybe it’s just me, because I’ve spent years ingesting the Purple Cow Kool-Aid. But I can never get over the number of cookie-cutter, copycat businesses that spring up online. Choosing the exact same business model as someone else almost appears to be a favorite pastime in North America these days. Kind of a macho, or at least masochistic, thing. Like training for a marathon, or riding in the Tour de France without Lance Armstrong’s genetics.

And that tough situation leads to an expectation of optimizing implementation of things like paid search campaigns to an almost suicidal level of detail. As I pointed out in an earlier column, this race is damn competitive. By choosing to copy a competitor’s business model exactly, you make the competition that much tougher on both of you.

But for the sake of a frank discussion of the most optimal forms of optimization that a mad optimizer should pursue, I’ll put aside my trepidation about cookie-cutterism and go forward today on the often-true premise that if you really do manage to place first or second in the mad race to optimize everything perfectly, you can make a pretty decent living.

By Andrew Goodman
And when you’re trying to win an Olympic sprint, along with training and eating right, what’s the thing that typically pushes you over the top? Yes, that’s right! Cheating!

In our world, that’s where spying on your competitors comes in. Maybe some of the tools are on the IOC banned substances list, but I don’t expect that to stop you.

Based on a recent experience with Keyword Spy, I thought I’d share with you a few of the things I learned to improve in an account, and a few things that reminded me just how screwed up many of your competitors are. Copying them is a bad idea because many of them are making the same old boneheaded mistakes.

Via SEL

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SUNNYVALE, Calif. & MEXICO CITY, Dec 20, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) — America Movil (BMV:AMX) (NYSE:AMX) (Nasdaq:AMOV) (Latibex:XAMXL), the leading wireless services provider in Latin America, and Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO), a leading global Internet company, today announced a new strategic global partnership providing a framework for making Yahoo!’s industry leading mobile services available to millions of consumers in 16 countries throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The agreement sets the stage for Yahoo! oneSearch to be the preferred mobile search service on America Movil’s diverse wireless carriers’ portals and prominent placement of links on the carrier portal to Yahoo!’s Mobile Web properties.

Under the global framework agreement, oneSearch, Yahoo!’s industry leading mobile search product, will be the default mobile search service on America Movil’s wireless carriers’ portals, making it easier for consumers to find relevant answers to search queries on their mobile devices. In the coming months, Yahoo! will customize and deploy localized versions of oneSearch for each region, integrating America Movil’s wireless carriers’ content and tailoring the experience to best meet the needs of each country’s consumer audience.

More at the Yahoo! Inc. Press Release

(1 votes, average: 2 out of 5)

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1-Make sure that you have a crawler friendly web site

2-Include your business address twice on the page

3-Check out your business listing on the major search engines

4-Get your business rated

5-Solicit local links

6-Check out your competition

7-Verify directory information

8-Create separate web pages for different cities/regions

More>>>

(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Via SEL explain about the risk of the abuse on the 301 Redirects.
Linkbait, link juice, PageRank, paid links—all of these terms are commonly associated with one of the fundamental building blocks of successful search engine optimization (SEO): link development.

One of the problems with link development gurus is their obsession with 301 redirects. Heck, I have even heard search engine software engineers tout 301 redirects as the magic solution to maintaining high quality link development. The problem with this 301-redirect obsession is that the focus is on search engine positioning, not the user.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Google quashes mobile phone talk from The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Google said they will not be selling a phone. Richard Kimber of Google’s South-East Asia managing director of sales and operations and Google’s chief internet evangelist, Vinton Cerf said that building out a phone would change Google’s business model. Google is in the software business and not the hardware business. The quote pulled from is Search Engine Room conference in Sydney “At this point in time, we are very focused on the software, not the phone.” So Google is still going to likely build out more software for mobile devices, possibly a phone OS but they will not build out the hardware.

Via

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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  So it seems that good old Bobby Knight the hall of fame coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders men’s basketball program was back to his roots again Monday night when they were playing Gardner-Webb in Lubbock, Texas. Coach Knight became famous for his hard work with the Indiana Hoosiers whom he led to great success over the years. He was famous for his intense/fierce competiness both on and of the coart. We have all probaby seen his temper flip during games in the past when he has been seen throwing chairs onto the court while the game was being played.

   Most of us whom follow men’s basketball all we starting to think that he was now a more relaxed coach but at the same time we were all just waiting for one of his outbusts to happen on TV again. Well we were all met with that thrill once again on Monday when during a Time Out call it seemed that Coach Knight slapped Michael Prince in the face, after the player walked of the court with his head hanging low. I have watched the video over and over today and I see nothing but a slap to a kids face, when Knight was asked about the incident he said he simply flipped him on his chin in order for his player to keep his head up.

   Michael Prince was asked about the situation and he and his parents backed up Coach Knight’s story so that makes me wonder was there some kind of agreement met between the school officials and the Prince family? Or could it simply be that the player was to scared to step forward and really say what he thought happened, could it be that he was thinking if he made a statement against Knight that this would have an effect on his playing time and the way the other players would look at him. Well people that is not for me to say I can only speculate about the whole situation. Personally I don’t think that we will ever find out, but what we can do it make a judgement call after watching the situation.

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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Peter Dicks is released today after his 2nd trial in New York City after being held for a warrant issued by the state of Luisiana.  Louisiana’s warrant remains in effect, Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Affronti told Justice Gene Lopez, who was reviewing the extradition matter. Lopez dismissed the warrant and said Dicks’s bail money should be returned to him. Louisiana authorities want him extradited to the state to face charges related to Internet gambling.
Louisiana State Police spokesman Dwight Robinette did not immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment on Dicks’ release. 

Juan Carlos
 

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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This week a week after the Ryder Cup that was played in Ireland, the tour finds itself in Chandler’s Cross, England playing the WGC - American Express Championship at The Grove Golf Club. After last weeks crushing defeat of the US and Tiger the week before getting beat in the first round of the European Tour’s HSBC World Match Play Championship. Well a lot of people might have started to think that Tiger was starting to get a little worn out from all the playing and flying back and forth. Well Tiger had other plans for us this morning and came out will all guns blazing to shoot an 63, eight under par which was good enough to take a one shot lead after the first round. His round started on hole one and he managed to throw in six birdies on the front nine to shoot 29. Then on the back nine things cooled down a little until he birdied hole 15, his only hick up came at the 17 when he blew his second shot over the green and made bogey from 117 yards out. This obviously set of some anger in Tiger and this was released on the 18th tee shot, he reached the par 5 in two and then as he always does rolled in the eagle putt, to take the lead.

    Tomorrow will be round two and I would put money on that it will be another day with low scores, this is due to the soft conditions and the good condition of the greens. When a tour player is allowed to throw darts one can count on them shooting lights out. My question is, is Tiger simply too good or does he want to prove to everyone that he is the most dominant player that has ever walked this planet. We already know that he is, but he has been on fire lately and that is probably why, we were all disapointed to see him not do better in the Match Play tournament, his play was by any means not shabby at the Ryder Cup, but it was over shadowed due to the strong play of Europe. If I was to bet, then I would take Tiger in any match up the next three days, and I would say that one would walk away with some heavier pockets.

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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      So the question on the minds of sport writers and football fans across the world, has to be did Terrel Owens really try to take him own life. Nobody is really sure about what happened and maybe we will never know, the only person that really knows what happened is Mr. Owens himself. He says that he is fit and ready to play on Sunday when his team the Dallas Cowboys take on the Titans of Tennessee.

     Owens denies a police report that he attempted suicide, saying he became groggy after mixing painkillers with supplements. Owens says that the confusion likely steamed from an empty bottle of pain medication that was found by his publicist, she was the person that called 911. Mr. Owens claims that the remainder of the pills where in a drawer and that he never consumed them all.

     It was as if Owens wanted to slap everyone that was not having faith in his statement, by going from the hospital to catching passes from quarterback Drew Bledsoe. Then later on he appeared in a news conference at team headquarters a few hours after leaving the hospital wearing his workout gear and no bandage on his broken right hand. The star receiver smiled and seemed more amused than frustrated at the latest hickups concerning him.

     Could this all have been a publicity stunt to gain the attention from the media or his his life slipping out of control?

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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It’s time for Tiger Woods to prove his doubters wrong.
Red-hot Ryders

Not that many people would want to bet against Woods right now, not after he put together five consecutive PGA Tour victories in a row. But for some reason, the Ryder Cup hasn’t been kind to Woods in the past. Tiger is just 7-11-2 lifetime at this international match-play tourney.

Time for a change. Woods is the favorite at +200 to lead all Americans in scoring when the 2006 Ryder Cup tees off at The K Club in County Kildare, Ireland. The last time we saw Woods in Cup action two years ago, he was at the crossroads of his career. Tiger had a new swing coach, a new driver and, for some reason, rival Phil Mickelson as a partner. The U.S. went on to suffer its worst-ever defeat at this competition.

Where Woods was a reluctant warrior two years ago, he is now reportedly eager to put the past behind him and lead America to victory. The odds, though, are not in his favor this time. Europe is priced at even money to hoist the Ryder Cup for the fifth time in six tries (and eight of the past 11). Team USA is a shade behind at +110; a draw result, which has only happened twice in the event’s 79-year history, is priced at +850. Europe retains the Cup in the case of a tie.

Woods is paired with Jim Furyk this time around. Furyk is +400 to lead the American side in points, and he proved to be a compatible partner for Woods when they helped the U.S. win the 2005 President’s Cup. Both players lobbied current U.S. captain Tom Lehman to reunite the tandem in Ireland. But, like Woods, Furyk has a checkered past in Ryder Cup action, going 1-9-1 in team matches.

The European team lacks the star power of the Americans, but it makes up for that in consistency and depth. Sergio Garcia leads the odds list for top Euro scorer at +600; right behind him at +650 are Luke Donald, Paddy Harrington, and Colin Montgomerie, who is playing in what is expected to be his last Ryder Cup. ‘Monty’ is 5-0-2 in singles action and always seems to raise his level of golf at this event. His lack of success at PGA Tour majors, though, overshadows his winning ways in Europe. The Scotsman should get one more Cup moment in the Irish sun.

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(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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