I want to take a class at UVSC in business accounting but it’s not going to happen yet. I ran across CDs of accounting classes taught at BYU.

Has anyone heard them? What do you think? What is the best way to learn accounting (video or audio please) for running your own business? I know I can hire someone (and I always will) but it’s something I want to know more about.

Wired Magazine: Splogs: Spam+Blogs=Trouble by Charles C. Mann

This is hot news. I promise I’m not making this up. There seems to be a lot of drama in Utah Valley lately.

I’m reading the latest issue of Wired Magazine and blogging about spam blogs. It talks about a BYU grad who proliferates splogs. And to my surprise I know him. It’s John Jonas! He and his partner Dan Goggins said they made over $71K in about 2 months with splogs. They take high paying keywords, grab other people’s content and run google adsense on them.

The ease of blogs makes them an ideal target for blackhat methods. There are fake search boxes, fake chats with pre-programmed responses, keyword stuffing adsense traps. Some run ads for affiliate programs. There is no real content for people. In other words, it’s a garbled mess of words that make no sense to a person. They’re written for a search engine.

The founder of WordPress, Matt Mullenweb, talks about how susceptible blogs are to spam. He thinks it could prove the undoing of web 2.0. Web 2.0 thrives on openness but that same openness that lets in a lot of garbage along with everthing else.

Thanks for putting us on the map guys! John’s partner sounds pretty irresponsible, quoted at the end of the article as saying, “I’m just making a living.” A very good one at that. The author has another name for them: sleazeballs.

Jonas is a brilliant programmer. I wish he’d do some of the good online like he does offline. Also, Google would be hypocrites not to do anything about it. Advertisers get no value when there is incentives like this for money to made for zero value.

Here’s another post on the subject. This John goes so far as to put Jonas’s name in his copyright notice on every page of his blog.

Jonas counters in a recently pulled post on his blog that Matt Mullenweg has done a bit of his own splogging. Matt responded last year. Jonas isn’t so sure that Matt has stopped…

I noticed more internet marketers are phone spamming me. Since I’m on a cell plan I’m paying. I hang up. There needs to be privacy policies for phone numbers!

This month’s Wired magazine talks about splogs and boldly proclaims that more than half of all blogs are spam. Wait a second, this deserves its own post!

I read Tyler Jensen‘s comment and went to his blog. I really liked this part:

Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are just that, opinions. Don’t have a fit if you think they’re wrong. Post your comment or write your own blog.

I think that’s exactly what I find endearing about blogging. This is my favorite blog disclaimer.

Thank you Michael Eager and Phil Burns for blogging about the shakedown at Provo Labs. I wondered when someone would. As you know it’s always easier for OTHER PEOPLE to be transparent. It’s a little harder when it’s YOU who has to be.

What amazes me is that everyone seems to be being very balanced and fair. This even when they had no notice and they lost their jobs. This shows a lot of goodwill towards Provo Labs.

Most are entrepreneurs themselves. They know as an entrepreneur you’ll probably fail more often than you succeed. It’s the lessons and teaching in the failure that can either crush you or make you even more determined. I see no shame in something not working. I only have shame if I do not adjust and I let it paralyze me.

Plus, we LIKE Paul Allen, he’s a great person.

Transparency can be painful at times. You give up some control in exchange for credibility and authenticity. If you’re not transparent the truth will most likely come out anyway. May as well come clean. I think it’s a good trade.

SEOBook gives 101 ways to get links to your site.

Links to your site are effective for search engine optimization. Get links, especially from prominent sites in your industry. Pay attention to the anchor text (what words are underlined), make them keywords not your domain name. Shoot for a link to a deeper page in your site, the page most relevant to what their site is about.

I wouldn’t recommend all the tactics in the list. Use the ones that make sense for you. I do think these are funny (though you may annoy people too).

Spam People in Person

90. Go to webmaster conferences and rave about how rich you are, and how your affiliates make millions doing nothing. [This tactic seems to be already in use at Affiliate Summit. Now ask for a link.]

91. Instead of asking people what their name is, ask what their URL is. As soon as you get their URL ask if they have linked to your site yet and if not, why not.

I will add that when you send press releases link to pages in your site using keywords to describe the link. Also, send an image and put your URL in the caption along with keywords or a good description of what the picture is about.

As you may know PR software company Vocus bought PRWeb last week. This change affected a U|Tech Internet Marketing Conference speaker.

Judd Bagely has taken a new position as the Director of Social Media at Overstock.com. His presentation will now take a broader approach. He will focus on how companies can leverage social media (podcasts, blogs, search engine optimized press releases, and video).

In taking with Businesswire’s advice I’m going to try to add more images to my blog. They said almost 60% of journalists will read your press release if it has an image. Bloggers like them too.

If you work at a PR agency, send your clients to U|Tech. Once they are informed they will likely turn to you for guidance. The more you know about these emerging technologies the better. Small businessese in particular can get a lot of bang for their buck with these low cost methods to get traffic to their web sites.

We do have group discounts and an affiliate program. You’ll get 15% of cost for every person you sign up.

Contact janet@affiliateflash for details.

You can view Wil Reynold’s search engine optimization presentation from Affiliate Summit on Google video. It’s a must listen.

Here are some of his ideas:

What isn’t that effective: keywords in your alt image tags, keyword density, keywords in your meta tags, submitting your site to search engines (if you’re important they’ll find you).

What is effective: develop a circular architecture (explained), do intense keyword research, use search optimized press releases, put a link to a sitemap on every page. Use marketing text or offers in your meta description tags. Links to your site with the text the keyword you want to rank high on (anchor text) and links like that to other pages than just your home page (deep linking).

BTW, Google video has some decent videos to teach you new concepts. Wil says he uses Digitalpoint, google trends, SEObook, and Keyword Discovery for keyword research. Aaron Wall of the SEObook has a free video on how to use the SEOBook’s keyword tool Wil recommends. Here’s a link to the keyword tool itself.

Here’s an even more complete writeup on Wil’s ideas on Vinnie Lingham’s blog.

I know I keep saying it but you have to go to the U|Tech Conference. We will cover how to use press releases for search engine optimization. This is low-lying fruit. It’s cheap! You should be doing it. Most PR firms won’t know what you’re talking about. I’ll blog more about this tomorrow…

I found out there is another conference in October. I talked to Stuart to see how we could work together.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to attend these conferences. Sign up for both for just $200 until September 15, 2006. That’s a $50 discount if each conference was registered separately. Each of the conferences are worth that by themselves.

To receive the discount go to www.ePIFanyconference.com and mark the box to also register for the U|Tech Conference.

The U|Tech Conference on October 18 is to help businesses learn practical ways to market their business online. Paul Allen, CEO of Provo Labs, is the keynote speaker.

Utah entrepreneurs Greg Warnock, Chelsea Rippey, and Utah blogger Ryan Money are speaking at ePIFany on October 6. It’s a full day of networking and speakers on starting a business. Read the ePIFany blog and web site for more info.
Questions? Contact either Stuart Reeves at stuart@epifanyconference.com or Janet Meiners at janet@affiliateflash.com.

We look forward to seeing you at both conferences.

I read CEO Bob Parsons blog about pulling GoDaddy’s IPO (yes I spend all my time reading blogs). Sounds like a smart idea under the circumstances. They didn’t need the cash, the accounting methods they must use don’t do the business justice, and my personal favorite, Bob Parsons couldn’t handle being quiet during the quiet period.

I found this refreshing comment from one of his former employees:

Bob,
I think you made the right decision for the company. Good Job! GoDaddy was the best company I have ever worked for and Im glad to see that things are better than they ever have been! I check back every now and again and see whats going on and and it makes me very happy that GoDaddy continues to grow and prosper. If I ever get back to Phoenix, that is probably the first place I will go. For now I will continue to be a very satisfied customer!

Good Luck in the future!

Sarah

PS Having GoDaddy on my resume has been one of the top reasons why I was hired at my last two jobs!

Now I must say that is a dream comment. If I had a company and someone wrote that about working for it, I would beam with pride. I can imagine thinking the same about my job now.