Here’s what I wrote then:

1. algoholic
Someone who watches search engine algorithms closely for the purpose of making appropriate changes to websites with the intent of getting higher results.

Usage:
If you check Google datacenters regularly you’re probably an algoholic.

Today I thought of the term that obviously must lead to becoming an algoholic… SERPES.

Here’s the definition I submitted to UD:

1. Serpes
The virus caught by those new to search engine marketing. Typically characterized by beginning to use the abbreviation SERPs in conversation and email. Further, those newly infected will display a heightened interest in analytics and any shred of information regarding the algorithms that determine how pages rank in search engines.

Leads to becoming an Algoholic.

Usage:
Ooh boy I just gave my new clients teh Serpes – they just sent me links to Search Engine Watch articles from 2004.

The UD editors haven’t approved serpes yet, but when they do feel free to add to the definition

His recent article in the Search Marketing Standard print magazine got my pulse pounding from all of its revelations on the searches that Ward performs to find link partners. If Ward was an affiliate marketer this would be like giving away his most profitable keywords in paid search. These are like gold and I present them to you for edification and for me for remembering them:

1) “public library” “useful links” nutrition site:gov
2) “submit food news”
3) “useful nutrition links”

Of course these are for a site seeking links for nutrition related content, and you could run other variations for these as well. I’d try stuff like: “submit food articles” and “submit nutrition articles.” Plus I’d probably dig into the nutrition-related blog space.

His article, “The Link is Dead, Long Live the Link” suggests that the era of the mass-submitted article, press release and directory submission are less effective and it’s time to start augmenting mass efforts with more niche directed efforts. I couldn’t agree more! Thanks Eric for a timely article (note – it’s in the print edition of Search Marketing Standard).

It was Ben who introduced me to the back link analysis processes that have become the foundation for my content creation and link building efforts these days. This post is an outline of my methods for the more creative SEOs out there – the article marketers and bloggers seeking to build powerful, business sustaining links – who have perhaps overlooked some crucial publishers and communities to target with awesome content.

1) Know and Target Your Most Profitable Keywords
2) Conduct a Link Hub Research Dig
3) Sort By PR and Links Out (Co-Citations)
4) Determine Your Strategic Options: Social Media, Directories, Blogs, Publishers, Forums
5) GO! GO! GO!

1) Know and Target Your 3 (for now) Most Profitable Keywords
This link building process begins – as your online marketing efforts always should – with your most profitable keywords. It’s likely that these are your most competitive keywords too – the words you used in your URL, the titles of your site pages and in the link text of the articles you’ve been writing and distributing and links and PPC ads you’ve been buying.

The process I outline here can certainly stretch to encompass ALL of your keywords, from the top of the big head to the very tippy-tip of your long tail. I’m not adept at managing and manipulating such enormous amounts of data and for my purposes I find that limitations – like digging in on only a couple of the most important keywords – give me far more traction and forward momentum.

I say know and target 3 keywords because this will give you plenty of data to start a two-three week project at a couple hours or so a day. Target more if you want, but if you lean on the creative side like me it’s important to maintain momentum on projects. Aiming at just 3, or 2 or even 1, will simplify the process for your first run through and will get you to spend more time focusing on the important hub sites in the communities that influence rankings for your target keywords.

2) Conduct a Link Hub Research Dig
This is an exciting part for me because of the tool I use to support my dig. Nothing beats hands-on rankings investigations, but these won’t show you as efficiently whose links are actually affecting rankings right now.

I use a for-pay windows-based program on my wife’s computer for my hub digs. Before plunking down your hard-earned cash for a hub finder I’d suggest working with Aaron Wall’s hub finder, currently housed on his LinkHounds site.

Hub Finder on LinkHounds.

I’m not as familiar with Wall’s hub finder as the tool I use, but in conducting a search on his I found it did help identify the sites that link out to more than one of the top 10 sites for your search term.

It has several posted mirrors in case Wall’s has reached its maximum queries:
http://webseodesign.com/seo-tool-chest/hub-finder.php
http://www.emeraldcoastentrepreneur.com/Hubfinder/hubfinder.php
http://www.cyclelicio.us/hubfinder/

When I search for hub site potential link partners I “open up the flood gates” and investigate the maximum listings for my tool (top 30 sites for a term) and the minimum number of links to sites in the top 30 (which is 2). This means I’ve got tons of back link data for those top 30 sites and will see the hubs that helped these top sites achieve those rankings.

I’d suggest that you conduct as wide a search as possible at first with whatever tool you’re using. Over time you can narrow down your searches as you experiment to find that sweet spot for the term or niche you’re developing links in.

3) Sort By PR and Links Out (Co-Citations)
So once you’ve got 100,200 or even 1,000 sites in your spread sheet you can start analyzing and organizing them.

First I list my sites by PR – though this metric alone is NOT an indicator of a good link – and then by number of “co-citations,” which is how many of the top 30 sites for my keyword this given site links to. All the sites that didn’t return PR get cut. Depending on how many sites I’m analyzing, sites with PRs of 1, 2, or even 3 get cut too. I can hear Mike Grehan slapping his forehead as I type these words, but hey. When you’re faced with analyzing 1,000 sites and you’re spending your clients’ money on your time you’ve got to draw lines using some kind of metric

The other important metric of course is how many of the top sites each of these hub sites link to. If there’s a low-PR site that happens to link to a bunch of the top sites then there’s a reasonable chance that this site would be a good one to get a link from. Further, if we’re talking about an uncompetitive keyword then there’s more reason to throw the PR metric out the window as a starting guide.

Once you’ve trimmed the list at the bottom you can trim it at the top too by cutting out Google Answers and all the DMOZ clones out there. You’ll find lots of unreachable-for-now type of sites like CNN and others that you needn’t worry yourself with at this stage of the game. A link from a major site would be awesome, but for now you should focus on the easily attainable!

4) Determine Your Strategic Direction: Content Creation, Link Requests, Link Purchases, Content Distribution
By this time you should start seeing some interesting link possibilities emerge. For one thing social media sites will start to appear – you’ll start to see the ones that may have some bearing on the keyword(s) you’re trying to rank for. Give these their own list and make time to set up profiles in them and see about finding a few friends within them.

You’ll also see directories that appear to have bearing on the rankings for your keyword too. Mark these down as potential submission points and places to potentially buy a link. Some sites sell links and even regular banner ads. If it’s a niche site it could well be worth buying some actual advertising!

Finally, the blogs, forums and other relevant and influential content publishers will emerge, and these are the sites that I focus on with my creative efforts.

For me, the content sites, blogs and forums are a creative revelation on a number of different levels. As a writer these sites show me what kinds of content will earn me publication on their sites, or links from their sites. They’re also a sneak peek at what kinds of content are most relevant to this demographic (as sliced by the target keyword). Whether I’m creating content and requesting links or creating content and requesting publication with link attribution, this list of sites helps me understand what kinds of content (how-tos, opinion, entertainment) work in this space.

Further, these hub sites are often focal points for communities, or are even forums. This kind of a link dig is an awesome starting point for beginning your “conversation marketing” and community outreach because it reveals the influential community sites for a given keyword.

5) GO! GO! GO!
Write articles! Submit to publishers! Write tailored, custom link requests! Conduct interviews for targeted link exchanges! Buy links! Go! Go! Go!

It’s easy to get caught in the analysis paralysis of link digging. It’s exciting to find 100 potential sites to link to you. Excitement is great but I’ve had a hard time getting grocery stores to let me exchange it for their food. The point of this hub identification exercise is to better target your link building efforts on the sites that will make a difference to your rankings. Good luck, God bless, build links!

6) Oh Yes, By the Way…
I’m currently seeking link building clients Shoot me an email: gfrench@gmail.com or call me at (919) 696 4225 to discuss!

I look forward to learning from my fellow pimps in this project.

From my conversations with folks from the most recent round of layoffs, which totaled 21 as far as I’ve learned, the feelings people had were primarily of relief, though a relief woven with anguished disgust that will linger in the form of stories that will bore our great grandchildren when they come visit us at the retirement home.

I felt my own relief upon hearing MSI had finally closed its doors, and some of that disgust when I was laid off two months ago, and I suspect the remaining 9 folks who went to work for MSA feel a similar mix, plus the uncertainty of a new job.

Describing the Relief:
It’s like finally pulling the plug on a cancer-ridden and aged PT Barnum who’d quit selling circus tickets and tried to open up a Shakespeare theatre by calling in directions from his hospital bed.

Or it’s like the Titanic, finally slipping beneath the waves as the idiot crew members who’d attached outboard motors to the foundering hulk leap clear onto floating deck chairs, watching the horizon for another ship.

Or it’s like… (bleh I’ll let you fill in the blanks on this one).

Describing My Relief
My relief is in part selfish. I was laid off too – in late October of last year. My fiance told me then – and it’s still true – that “getting laid off will be the best thing that ever happened to you.”

It was my first lay off though, and it stung to get laid off from a company I’d labored so hard for, uprooted my life for, and defended at the expense of my credibility with peers. It also felt like a criticism of my abilities, though it wasn’t. The company really was failing.

what haunts me still – why?
But why? Why did this company fail? What does the failure of a company mean? Why can’t a handful of people who really want to make a difference with 20 or so who don’t give a shit make a change? The questions nag me now as they did even when I still worked there, trying with the Quixotic few to propel our sinking Meta Tag Tanker with oars instead of the SEM engine we required.

Nine people were rehired by the sister company MSA. Congratulations to you and polish those resumes – ask not for whom the pink slip tolls – it tolls for thee!

If you were laid off:
Adam Schultz is poking around for potential employers for this most recent glut of talent, as is Andy Beal. Also hit that unemployment with both fists: apply for NC unemployment online.

And remember – there’s a huge difference between getting fired and getting laid off! Fired = no money, while laid off = 1/4 of your salary. Which is useful for a month if you’re getting your independent feet under you

Update: the autopsy begins…
Thanks to Evan for his take on answering my question as to why MSI failed. Also, thanks to Tansy OBryant who answers very eloquently and insightfully from the comments.

Note that Tansy was on both sales AND the services side while Evan was primarily services. Evan points to sales and management while Tansy points to failure to provide ROI.

Here’s Evan’s post:
Why I believe Websourced, MarketSmart Interactive, Keyword Ranking failed

Here’s Stephan Ward’s take:
The Layoff Bomb (Stephen Ward please give me a call – 696-4225)

And here’s my buddy JP Sherman’s take (he was rehired by MSA):
MarketSmart Interactive Closes its Doors