Article about Miva that was published.

I gotta share stuff that we get picked up;) Good Job Amy!

Miva Merchant is a search engine optimized out of the box shopping cart solution for any size business, large or small. This is an ecommerce software solution that is comprehensive enough for a new online business to get up and running in a few hours yet is powerful and packed so full of features that it would meet the needs of the most diverse web designer. If you are interested in really taking your business to the next level, then Miva Merchant SEO is what you need.

There is absolutely no limit to the potential of this program and you can customize to fit your specific needs. Miva Merchant SEO is unbelievably flexible and you will find it very easy to use. All you have to do is purchase the software, download it and you are on your way to a perfectly search engine friendly website for your business. The functionality of Miva Merchant is unprecedented and you will be so happy at how many different things it will enable your site to do. Miva Merchant SEO friendly program comes that way right out of the box and it provides you with everything you need in order to develop, maintain, and expand an online store into one that you could only dream of at one time.

When you become a part of Miva Merchant you are provided with an advanced catalog and content management systems, credit card processing and shipping calculation functions, and the ability to create and add on any type of module or service. Miva Merchant also has no limit on the amount of data you are able to store. If you have an online business and you think upwards, then Miva Merchant can take you there. You can bring unique, one of a kind marketing service to your business that also includes pay per click advertising campaigns.

There are also many other types of shopping cart software that are available on the market today that you can also look into depending on if you are a small or large online business. Some software you may want to look in to and research also is Zen Cart, OS Commerce and BV Commerce. An easy way to find different types of software to look into is to conduct a simple Google search and start paging through the results. Be sure to educate yourself on the different programs to ensure that you make the best decision.

What is a rel=nofollow?

The "rel=Nofollow" is a a value that tells Google and Yahoo that a link should not be considered for search engine's indexing. Mainly it protects Yahoo Answers, Blogs, etc from having spammers who attempt to leverage the site's power to help them move sites up on the rankings.

How can u see if a site has a nofollow? Check the view source under "View" in firefox. Right click and select view source for Explorer. crtl-F and search for Nofollows.

The good news...It doesn't remove the power of getting a link for Page Rank increase....the bad news it won't help in the war of link building for Search Engine rankings.

No Dummy: Using Yahoo Answers for Link Building.

I just interviewed a seasoned SEO professional who was looking to get a job with my firm.

I asked him how he builds links - he said he liked to use Yahoo Answers to build links. I know mistakes happen and people aren't aware of nofollows (see my posting on nofollows) but low and behold I have to say:

No Dummy....Yahoo Answers doesn't allow you to build links as they have no-follow tags. Yes it will show in Yahoo inlink's and sometimes even in Google - but they don't provide power.

And...No I didn't actually call him a dummy during the interview:) Thanks!

How to Start a Small Online Business Cheaply: Ecommerce; Part 1

1) Think of an idea.

2) Start looking for a domain name at GoDaddy.com – If you come up with something creative and unusual, great! (i.e. ScanCafe.com, Myspace.com)

a. If you are struggling for a name, open up a thesaurus and find names that are functional to what kind of industry you are pursuing. A good example is one of my first sites, ChatRelations.com. It was a Live Chat Software that would allow you to speak to customers that were shopping on your website. Chat described what they were doing and Relations was a word that related to communication. If you have a keyword like Window Cleaning, I would recommend finding something like SanDiegoWindowCleaner.com because that will help you in the long term with rankings on Google, Yahoo, and MSN.com. Also one can assume that with a company like window cleaning you have geo targeted area.

b. Caution: I don’t typically recommend making up a new word or using a word that is hard to remember (Foreign Languages, Long Names, etc). Generally, this will not help you in your efforts to brand your site so it is better to use something that is simple and easy to remember. The poor Italian restaurant in my neighborhood is failing because they have a name that no one wants to or can remember.

c. Costs: Domain names are cheap and can cost anywhere from $9.95-$19.95.

3) Create the site. Start on the cheap. My first site I spent $3,000.00 and it was fairly custom. To start on the cheap, I would recommend looking at a template from a site like MonsterTemplates.com! If it’s for an adult site, because I’m not going to act like that’s not making billions, check out Adultwebsitetemplates.com.

a. But Billy, I don’t know anything about designing a site!? Find a local college student who is great with design! They are starving and will work to build a portfolio. Craigslist.org should be helpful for this. I would recommend going to odesk.com or rentacoder.com and finding help from other countries when it comes to programming and small design work. A few tips. India can not design or program on time…I’m sorry I have heard every excuse from 5 or 10 different teams. It’s always a holiday in India or a family member is getting married or dying; China and the Philippines have great designers, but they need a TON of instruction. Russia is a great programming country, but not so great with design work. I built and designed my first site with the help of Russia.

b. Clean is important; here are lists of designs I like: WD-40, Chatrelations.com, Luxlube.com, Sugardvd.com, and Easylooky.com; all are strong with a good message. Designs I don’t like: http://www.bvs.com/bank/bank-training.asp, http://www.thecreationmuseum.org/, http://www.openbexi.com/. Thanks to http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ for giving me those examples.

c. E-Commerce – I recommend using Miva; it’s very easy to use and get on the top of the search engines for SEO, then I would use Zen Cart if not Miva. Miva is really cheap though and you can get it on most hosting company sites. MivaMerchant.com.

d. Hosting on GoDaddy.com is pretty cheap – I hate using them so a bit more expensive would be Rackspace.com who has a sister company that does hosting…I will find the name and update this sometime.

e. Caution: Deadlines are important – don’t pay someone unless they do the work. A good custom web design and or template changes should be done in 2 weeks at the most. Programming can take extra time. You should never use an agency, I would go freelance to start, with an agency you run the risk of them draining you out of money and providing you with little to nothing. I had that experience with clients – they would have someone take 50% of the total project cost and deliver little to nothing.

How to promote a Facebook Application.

So we are working on promos for "American Teen" a movie by Paramount Vantage. Check out the preview below. It's a great movie. Also I have a face book application that we are promoting pretty hard for the movie.

The street date for the movie is July 25th check your local listings eh...Should be a great thing.

How are we doing it? We are using our network to take advantage of link backs and a pretty strong blogging and press release campaign. So far we have seen some off line and online movement. I'll have numbers for you all soon!

Face Book Application for American Teen

Who we are....

I see so many blogs out there - NO, I won't start with how we will be different then all the other blogs. I will tell you that most people don't have any idea of what they are talking about and that SEO is pretty much the biggest snake oil industry out there.

I will give you tips on how to get up on the rankings and share case studies of how I have achieved top rankings for many of our customers.

SO - I'm Billy and I will be your guide into the world of SEOhaus.com - I started SEOhaus.com from SenuMarketing.com a couple of years ago.

How I got here? WELL...Started a DVD rental company similar to Netflix about 5 or 6 years ago (as of June 2008) It grew leaps and bounds and my business partner and I were approached about selling. SO we did what any young guys do and we sold it!

We were approached by the new buyers and a ton of other people on how our rankings were achieved and the rest is history. We have now worked with Toyota, RedBull, McDonald's, Ronald McDonald Charities, and many other well known clients. We have also worked with smaller companies from local lawyers to personal trainers:)
Stay tuned.