Over the last few days I bid on a few PR domains, for a total cost of $327.85. I later found out they were all PR0 domains. When I first checked them, they all showed a PR3 or PR4, and I didn’t notice they were actually iframes/redirects. With GoDaddy Auctions, once the auction is over, you cannot go back… so I went ahead and paid the $327.85 fee. Check out the invoice I received:

Now if this sounds a little complicated to you, or just want to learn more about this, watch the video I just made. It’s only a few minutes long and shows exactly how not to be tricked.

As you can imagine I’m glad I found out about this, because I could be one of those people bidding over $600 on a (fake) PR6 domain. The domain I mentioned in the video permanently redirects to another domain, which means all the link juice is transferred to that other domain. If I check it on RankChecker.com, here is what I get:

Whenever I share a link with my list (whether it’s an affiliate link or not), I want people to trust me. I want them to know I fully support the site I’m linking to… so they are more likely to take action. That’s why I got the domain name colinlik.es, so I can create links like colinlik.es/marmite (that one is just for fun) or colinlik.es/socialmonkee (instead of using colinklinkert.com/socialmonkee).

If you’re not sure how you can use this domain, I suggest that you sign up to ViralUrl (which is free) or log in (if you already have an account) so you can add your .es domain name to your account and cloak links to get stats including clicks, unique clicks, conversions…

All you need to to is to log into your account, go to the ‘Advanced Shortening, Cloaking + Tracking’ page (in the ‘Links’ section) and follow the on-page instructions. You will then be able to cloak your links from ViralUrl, using your lik.es domain name, and get stats from the ViralUrl Links interface.

Alternatively you may setup WordPress on your .es domain name and install Pretty Link Lite, which is a free plugin that allows you to cloak links and get basic stats such as clicks, unique clicks… If you want advanced stats I suggest that you upgrade Pretty Link Pro. The only downside here is that you have to install WordPress on your lik.es so it’s a bit more work than with ViralUrl.

Do you like this idea? Did you just register a lik.es domain? Feel free to share it with us by leaving a comment below!

Yet with this opportunity comes an increasing risk. An online reputation can operate in the same way as your profile one to one. If a company or entrepreneur is trusted by their expertise, experience and personable quality they will go far. However, bad customer service or a casual remark that offends or alienates consumers can be damaging. This is as true online as it is offline. The issue becomes more important when talking to a global marketplace. Language, culture, online practice; all these things change from country to country. If engagement is the buzzword that ensures an online reputation is protected in the US, then surely this same practice has to be rolled out across the globe to match expansion?

Talk in a native tongue

English may be the dominant language online but if a business is built in different marketplaces then it is important to employ native copywriters and communicators who can translate content and make it applicable to each different marketplace.

Translation services online, like Yahoo and Babelfish, can in theory be used across each social networking platform and translate each post. Yet the reason social networks, particularly like Twitter, Facebook and Renren work is that they give companies a human angle. Machines, or bots as they are known online, churning out untargeted material make consumers switch off. Personable, chatty updates using slang and colloquialisms – vital if a brand is connecting with a younger market – are more attractive. If an entrepreneur is using social networks to prove their knowledge and expertise they may use jargon or technical language. One mistake and it will undermine a reputation. Using a native speaker removes this risk. Not only utilized for social networks, copywriters can produce blogs topics, news stories or articles that will increase the content on a website boosting a brand’s visibility on search engines and giving consumers more to read.

Where are you talking?

Not every country uses the same social networking sites, so to engage with different users around the world and cast your net, a company or entrepreneur will have to research and investigate the popular networks in their target markets. Twitter is blocked in China for example. Users there prefer Renren, which is similar to Facebook. In India Orkut is as popular as it is in Brazil. Mixi and Gree are used in Japan while in Russia sites like VKontakte and Odnoklassniki have more than 100 million users. Huge audiences and huge potential for interaction.

Researching the right social network is the first step. The next is to investigate best practice and how users interact and share information. In Japan networks users will be more likely to invest in good content. Vkontakte is so high profile in Russia because of its ability to easily share music and video. Firms in Russia often use it for recruitment so for a business wanting to interact with graduates or students this platform is vital. In China social networks are used to share blogs and forum comments. Understanding how consumers interact makes it much easier to join the conversation.

Invest in regular work

Some companies think it is enough to simply update their Twitter or Facebook once every few days. Social networks are built on interaction, and this is true around the globe. Investing in a native speaker who can interact with consumers, answer their questions and requests will develop a more solid online reputation. A calm and measured response works well if dealing with complaints.

Encouraging engagement is an ideal way to build an online reputation. Whether online reviews, polls or the opportunity to add comments these will help customers feel they are part of a brand. Yet to maintain this engagement investment does need to be made on the right person to interact on the same level as customers, ensuring there are no language errors and grammatical faux pas.

Monitor your reputation

The best way to keep a good online reputation is to monitor what people are saying. Either free or with a monthly fee, there are different programmes that can send regular reports of social media comments and mentions, blogs or news stories. It is a useful way of keeping track, responding to comments and questions that might not have been answered or setting the record straight if a comment is made that might damage the brand. Programmes like Radian 6 and Lithium provide regular updates for a fee. For free SocialMention charts keywords in different networks and platforms including blogs, events, news and videos. BlogPulse searches for mentions in blogs while MonitorThis searches 26 search engines. These are particularly vital if working with a global market as some may simply focus on Facebook and Twitter, making it difficult to track what consumers in different countries are saying.

Maintaining an online reputation around the globe is simply a matter of knowing what consumers are saying, and where they are saying it. Using the same communication principles in social networking platforms in the US and Canada of engagement, honesty and personable interaction it becomes increasingly important to understand trends abroad and make sure a native speaker helps a company or entrepreneur talk to new or potential customers in their own tongue.

About the author

Christian Arno is the founder of Lingo24, providers of professional translation services and multilingual SEO. Launched in 2001, Lingo24 now has over 165 employees spanning four continents and clients in over sixty countries. In the past twelve months, they have translated over sixty million words for businesses in every industry sector. Follow Christian (@l24ca) and Lingo24 (@Lingo24) on Twitter.

The actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators, barring search engines from linking to such sites, requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites… The bill would make it way too easy to get court orders to shut down any site suspected of participating in copyright infringement in any way, even if it happens to be indirectly.

There are 120 or so SOPA supporters, including ABC, CBS, ESPN, GoDaddy, NFL, Sony Music Entertainment, Time Warner, Visa… Shortly after the release of the list of pro-SOPA companies was released the list of anti-SOPA companies, which includes names like AOL, eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mozilla, PayPal, Twitter, Yahoo!, HostGator, Craigslist…

GoDaddy Sucks!

I personally am against this bill as I think it’s the beginning of the end of the Internet as we know it today. Just like how I Can Has Cheezburger’s Ben Huh stated he will move his 1,000 domains from GoDaddy, I will move my 718 domains if they don’t drop full sport for SOPA.

GoDaddy quickly pulled support amid boycott threats but still supports the Senate version of SOPA: PIPA or PROTECT-IP. The company has also stated that they would consider supporting future versions of the bill… and the fact that GoDaddy helped craft the bill’s current wording hasn’t helped the case either.

GoDaddy Sucks!

I feel concerned not only because I can be directly affected by this bill (e.g. if someone uploads copyrighted content on my sites) but most importantly because I feel one day we will have no more freedom… I will move my domains as they expire, as I invite you to do the same if you have domains on GoDaddy. I already wanted to move my domains when I found out about Bob Parsons’ elephant hunt… Now I have another reason!

I will systematically move my domains off GoDaddy until they are ALL moved off, and never order from GoDaddy again. We, as online business professionals, deserve better, so it is with this in mind that we are opening our own service where you don’t get ripped off on renewals like GoDaddy does with hyped up marketing and cheap coupon prices, only to sting you with auto-renewals at much higher levels.

With our domain service we will give you FREE privacy protection so that your information does not get onto spam lists, unlike GoDaddy which charges you for this. Our service isn’t fully set up yet so for now we recommend that you move your domains to NameCheap.com or Name.com which have both publicly proclaimed their opposition to SOPA and PIPA (or wait until our domain service is up and running).

GoDaddy Sucks!

How to Transfer Your Domain Name From GoDaddy to Another Registrar

Here is a simple step-by-step guide to move your domain name from GoDaddy to another registrar:

Step 1 – Verify that the domain name is eligible for transfer: The domain has been registered for at least 60 days, and has been at GoDaddy for at least 60 days. The Registrant contact information has not changed for at least 60 days.

Step 2 – Update Administrative contact information: Before you can transfer a domain, the Administrative contact information must be up-to-date at GoDaddy, because the Administrative contact receives the transfer request (by email) and okays the transfer.

Step 3 – Get the authorization code or retag the domain name: Some domain name registrars require that you provide an authorization code for your domain name, to provide an extra level of assurance that the transfer request comes from an authorized source. In GoDaddy, go to ‘My Domain Names’, and click the domain you want to transfer. In the ‘Domain Information’ section, find the ‘Authorization Code’ row and click ‘Send by Email’. Then click ‘OK’.

Step 4 – Unlock the domain name: The domain must be unlocked. Locking is a feature registrars offer to prevent unauthorized transfers (hijacking) of domain names. In GoDaddy, go to ‘My Domain Names’ and click the domain you want to transfer. In the ‘Domain Information’ section, find the ‘Locked’ row and click ‘Manage’. Select ‘Unlock domains’ and click ‘OK’.

Step 5 – Transfer the domain: The final step depends on which domain name registrar you are transferring the domain name to. If you’re transferring it to Namecheap.com, you can find more information here. If you’re transferring it to Name.com, you can find more information here. If you want to transfer it to our domain service, please be patient… We will add the final step to transfer your domain to our domain service below.

If you want to learn more about SOPA (and PIPA) and why you should not be supporting it, I suggest that you read Stanford Law Review’s concise and informed takedown of SOPA.

Possible drawbacks of running your own online business:

-       It is Addictive (meaning even though you might not ‘need’ to work 15 hour days, you find you will, because it is fun)

-       You don’t leave your computer chair much, so no fixed eating times

-       You are your own boss, so you have to be self motivated

-       You eat what ever is handy or nice, and you eat at your desk

Short Personal Story:

I travel a fair bit and always get my blood work done in Australia, as I like and trust the system here. (People trust who and what they already know, good to remember for your marketing campaigns) – In 2007 my results were quite good, everything in normal range. I carried extra weight as my lifestyle is lots of meals either out with friends or in front of the computer (takeaways normally) but the blood sugar, cholesterol and live was all fine.

2010 were my next results and WOW, what a change, high cholesterol, liver readings off the charts and a few other ‘highs’ where they shouldn’t have been. I was 97kg (213lbs) and stand 180cm tall (6ft), so well over ‘normal’ range considering I am a computer guy with a fairly low muscle mass.

I decided it was time for a change, and ‘dieted’ aggressively for a couple of months and dropped my weight to 87kg (191lbs) and felt good, so I went back to my old habits, and ended up doing even less exercise than before. The weight came back and now for this year…

2011 – More blood tests, weight was now 96.5kg again (212lbs) but this time I got a shock. I now had high fasting blood sugar levels and needed further blood tests to see if I was diabetic. The results came back negative, I am ‘pre-diabetic’ and have a glucose sensitivity (basically means I don’t digest sugar well and my system is out of whack) so the solution…

I am vegetable juice fasting… 5 veg juices a day and no food. This is day 2. I found out about my high blood sugar just over 2 weeks ago and have already lost 5.7kg (12.5lb). After a 10 day Juice fast, I will eat the right foods until, as well as after I hit my goal weight of 80kg (175lbs)… and here is where you come in:

Vital ingredient to be successful in online business & life:

Your health is your most prized possession, and your functioning mind is your most valuable asset, so here is some short tips to look after it…

• High Protein intake to control blood sugar and protect muscle mass (the body’s main fat fighting tool)
• Lots of Vegetables. 80% of Americans DON’T get anywhere near enough veg. Vegetables are the vitamin and nutrient base for your body, this is your medicine. I used to hate veg, now I see it as my friend, and my best advise to you, for a functioning mind (clarity important in business) and a happy body is to increase your veg intake. Either freshly squeeze a juice once or twice each day, or increase your raw veg intake on your plate each meal. The more you eat, the better.
• Very low carbs… This is filler food, it is a waste of calories. Things like breads, pasta, rice, and even some fruits like orange, banana and pears… Don’t eat these, (or in massive moderation) Instead, eat more protein and more veg.
• Exercise – This one is Vital… Movement is what our body was built for, it is what our body wants. Even 30 minutes walks each day with a bit of stretching time is enough in most cases if you really don’t want to go to the gym and currently don’t play any sport. Swimming is also one of the best, low intensity, high efficiency activities you can do, so if you have access to a pool, or the sea, use it a few times a week

This is my plan going forward and I will keep you updated occasionally on how it is going. I expect to hit my goal weight before March next year… and then it is about maintaining the healthy lifestyle.

If you are feeling a bit out of shape, or feeling a bit consumed with your business, take some time each day for yourself. Make healthier food choices and take a few walks, where you can think about your next business move

This video covers the ‘on page seo‘ factors that you need to get right if you want to make it easier to rank on higher searched terms. This video lasts about 30 minutes and is mainly about on page seo with some conv’s about other SEO factors covered too. The two main factors in SEO is:

* On Page SEO (Covered in this video)

* Off Page SEO (Backlinks etc.)

There are a few new tools out to make it super easy to sort out your ‘on page seo‘ if you use wordpress. I wrote a review on the best software I have currently found, you can read all about it here.

Great News - For everyone wanting to solve their on page seo issues I have been able to make sure that you can afford Dan Tan’s plugin… he told me he never discounts it, but I have my ways and so I was able to secure you $20 off his on page seo plugin:

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If you already use SEOpressor for your on page SEO, please leave your feedback below for other users.While this video might be basic for some, it is vital to still make sure you are getting as much of it right.

Thanks and enjoy the video

I strongly recommend that you sign up to my link building services SocialMonkee and BacklinksKingdom. With SocialMonkee you can submit 1 URL to 25 social bookmarking sites, every day, free. With BacklinksKingdom you can submit 1 article to 15 article sites every day, free. That’s a total of 45 daily backlinks, free of charge. If you want to submit more, you can upgrade at anytime…

- Sign up to SocialMonkee & Create 25 New Social Backlinks Every Day, FREE
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Bonus #1: 10 Actions Steps to a Successful Online Business (eBook)

How to build a successful online business in 10 action steps:

(right click, save as)

Step 1 – Download 10 Action Steps to a Successful Online Business (right click, save link as…)

Extra Bonuses:

Step 2 – Download the Successful Online Business Mindmap (right click, save link as…)

Step 3 – Download the Rebranding Package (right click, save link as…)

Bonus #2: 30-Minute Call with On-Page SEO Expert Konrad Braun

Learn the important techniques to improve your On-Page SEO.

Bonus #3: Product Giveaway

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Check out the great offer I prepared for you… Great value for money!

Make sure you take a close look at the following offer! ALL-IN-ONE INTERNET BUSINESS PACKAGE Warning: Time-Sensitive Offer 50 WordPress Themes + 24 Header Graphics! All these marketer-friendly, professionally built WordPress themes and ready-to-use header graphics will be yours! Pick any you like and change whenever you feel like! Valued at $1997 Get More Traffic and Make More Money Now! With Traffic Siphon Learn how to drive targeted traffic to your site in no time! All you have to do is follow the steps given in this guide and traffic is very likely to start flooding your site! Valued at $97 Internet Marketing Product Kit 17 Internet Marketing Products ALL YOURS! Learn everything you need to know on Affiliate Marketing, Article Marketing, Blog Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and lots of other internet marketing topics! Valued at $457 SEO Strategies Quick Search Engine Optimization Strategies Revealed By optimizing your site for Google, you will traffic, leads and potentially sales. All you need to do is learn how to best optimize it and then seat back and watch! Valued at $77 So how much is it in total? $1997 + $457 + $97 + $77 = $2628 $97 $37 ONLY! GRAB THIS ALL-IN-ONE INTERNET BUSINESS PACKAGE FOR ONLY $37 AND START MAKING MONEY ONLINE TODAY BY RESELLING EACH PRODUCT! Yes, that’s right! You also have the right to resell them!

Kindle Marketing

Marketing for the Kindle also represents a huge opportunity for marketers, but you need to understand how Kindle readers think and buy if you want to make some serious money.

For instance, internet marketers are used to paying a lot for eBooks. Upwards of $30 for an eBook isn’t uncommon, and that’s for eBooks that aren’t particularly long. This isn’t going to fly if you’re trying to sell books on the Kindle, where many of the best sellers are 99 cents.

What this means is that if you want to prosper in this new market, you need to learn about the new market. You need to take a different approach than you’ve probably been using in your ordinary marketing. If you’re going to go into Kindle Marketing, here are a few things that you need to know before you get started:

Kindle Marketing

Price – Right now, Amazon offers you seventy percent royalties on books priced between $2.99 and $9.99, so this is your pricing sweet spot. You need to forget about high priced eBooks; this range is your sweet spot.

Promotion – One of the big advantages to Amazon is that they do the promotion for you. The customers also bought feature and best seller lists are great ways to advertise. You can certainly use SEO and other methods to promote as well, but your time might well be spent creating more content.

Popularity – Right now, a lot of marketers are basically just trying to use the Kindle as another way to sell their preexisting products. While there’s not really anything wrong with this form of Kindle Marketing, you’d be better off figuring out what is popular on Kindle and trying to fill gaps.

Product – The real winning strategy is to have a lot of products up. You are not going to make a huge amount on each book you sell, so you want to sell a lot of copies. The more books you have, the less each one needs to sell in order to get you where you want to be. One subtle advantage of the Kindle is that it doesn’t have page numbers, which means that these books don’t have to be long, especially if you’re only charging $2.99 for them.

PLR – There is a lot of crappy PLR out there, but if you can find the good stuff, you can use it to build up your product. What you don’t want to do is put it up as is; take the time and rewrite it or have it rewritten and put out the best product that you can.

Publisher – Once you’ve gotten the hang of formatting books for the Kindle and have a good idea of what you’re trying to do, you can set yourself up as an ePublisher. Basically, you’l prep and publish the books, and split the money with the author. If you have a well-developed promotional machine, this can be a win-win for you and the author.

Print – Amazon also has a program known as CreateSpace, which is their print on demand service. The most basic level is free to use, so you can list your books as print books on Amazon. This is an additional income stream for you, and another way to make money from your content, so don’t miss out.

Platforms – While we’ve been discussing Kindle Marketing here, the Kindle is not the only player on the block. You can also sell through Barnes and Noble’s Nook, as well as through iTunes and a host of other sites. If you’ve got the books, you’d be crazy not to upload them there as well.

Online businesses can be volatile. If a piece of your content gets picked up by a major blog or goes viral, you can get a huge influx of traffic and sales. On the other hand, a site closing or Google reshuffling their search algorithm can mean that your sales go away, usually temporarily.

How to Build a Membership Site

One way to get around this is a membership site or continuity program, which are basically the same thing. People pay you a fee, automatically, in return for new content and other perks. This gives you a constant flow of cash each month, which can a long way to smoothing out the bumps in the internet business road. The problem for a lot of people when it comes to starting a membership site is that they think too big. Now, generally, thinking big isn’t a bad thing when it comes to starting a business, but you don’t want to aim so high that you talk yourself out of getting started before you even begin.

How to Build a Membership Site

The truth is, you can start a membership site close to instantly. You don’t need a big, elaborate site to get started. All you really need is a domain name, hosting, a nice WordPress theme and an autoresponder like Imnica Mail or Aweber. All of which, I’m willing to bet, you already have.

The first thing you need to do is decide what your membership site is going to be about. This is going to depend on what you know and what you’re good at. If you can write, offering PLR and bonus materials is always a good idea. Or you can offer SEO tips or niche resources.

Once you’ve decided, you need to grab a domain name with the relevant words in it and set up hosting. Most hosting plans (like those offered on HostGator) have Fantastico built in, which means you can put up a WordPress blog with a couple of clicks. Alternatively you may sign up to ViralHosts and use our proprietary hosting panel: SimplePanel, which allows you to install WordPress with the push of a buttion. What you need to do is set up a basic sales page with a subscribe button.

You can sweeten the pot by getting some relevant PLR guides and ebooks and offering them as a bonus, and giving them the first month at a large discount, maybe even for as little as a buck for that first month.

Once they pay, your future members will be taken to a page where they can sign up for a private list. This list is going to be your delivery method. You can either include the content in the body of your posts to your list, or you can include a download link within, or a mix of both.

How to Build a Membership Site

All of that is the easy part. The hard part, which isn’t all that hard, is getting the content. If you’ve picked an area you know a lot about, you shouldn’t have too much trouble providing your members with enough value that they won’t mind paying the monthly fee.

There are a lot of benefits to this method. Not only can you make a lot of money from the method, you’re also creating a list that is actually paying to hear from you. These are people that will buy from you consistently, so treat them like the asset they are and you can build a huge business from an extremely basic site.

On-page optimization is overlooked by too many site and blog owners. I myself overlooked that aspect of SEO for a while but I quickly solved that problem after I purchased SEOPressor a while back. I always wanted to write an SEOPressor Review but never took the time to actually do it… I eventually did so here is my full, honest review of this WordPress plugin by SEO Expert Daniel Tan.

SEOPressor Review

On-page SEO consists of optimizing the pages of your site for the keywords of your choice: optimizing the page titles, headings, body content, images, links… Nothing really complicated if you know what you’re doing, and don’t forget about it. Knowing how to do it is one thing, actually doing is another.

SEOPressor Review – SEOPressor is an easy-to-use WordPress plugin that tells you exactly how you can optimize your posts and pages for the search engines. Let’s say you recently submitted a blog post about puppy training and want to optimize it so it ranks well in the search engines for ‘puppy training’. You simply enter the keyword ‘puppy training’ and the plugin will tell you exactly what aspects of on-page optimization you can improve.

SEOPressor will for example tell you if the keyword density is too low or too high, whether or not you should add more headings containg your keyword, remind you to bold, italic and underline your keyword at least once… and many other factors that have an influence in the ranking of your post or page.

SEOPressor Review

Here is an example of an article that was recently published on The Tech Labs. The article is about Microsoft’s new Office 365 project, and of course I want the article to rank well for the keyword ‘Office 365‘. On left is my SEOPressor score before I optimized it, and on the right is my SEOPressor score after I optimized it.

Before	After

It took me less than a few minutes to fully optimize this article, and now I know the on-page work is done, I can fully focus on backlink building. I am fairly knowlegeable in both on-page and off-page optimization but without this plugin I would keep forgetting about some aspects of on-page optimization.

With SEOPressor, I am assured that I won’t forget about some important aspects of on-page optimization. If something’s wrong, the plugin will tell me even before I publish the post or page! What I really like is the suggestions that the plugin gives you when your post or page is badly optimized. Even if you don’t know anything about on-page optitmization, with SEOPressor you will learn how you can improve your content.

SEOPressor Review

When I first read ‘A WordPress Plugin That Becomes Mandatory’, I was a little skeptical. My team and I gave it a try and we loved it! There are plenty of plugins that I consider as must-have plugins… but if I only had to choose one, it would definitely be SEOPressor. Bottom line is if you use WordPress and want to optimize your posts and pages, then SEOPressor is a plugin that you need more than anything else! Click here to get it now…

Click Here to Download SEOPressor Now
& Give Your Pages The Rankings They Deserve!