<html lang&equals;"en" xmlns&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;w3&period;org&sol;1999&sol;xhtml"><head><meta name&equals;"robots" content&equals;"index&comma; follow"&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<meta http-equiv&equals;"Content-Type" content&equals;"text&sol;html&semi; charset&equals;UTF-8"&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<title>Livin&&num;8217&semi; the dream &&num;8212&semi; Tropical SEO<&sol;title>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<meta name&equals;"generator" content&equals;"WordPress 2&period;6&period;3"&sol;> <&excl;-- leave this for stats -->&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"stylesheet" href&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-style&period;css" type&equals;"text&sol;css" media&equals;"screen"&sol;>&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"stylesheet" href&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-custom&period;css" type&equals;"text&sol;css" media&equals;"screen"&sol;>&NewLine;&Tab;<&excl;--&lbrack;if lte IE 7&rsqb;>&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"stylesheet" type&equals;"text&sol;css" href&equals;"wp-content&sol;themes&sol;copyblogger&sol;ie7&period;css" &sol;>&NewLine;&Tab;<&excl;&lbrack;endif&rsqb;-->&NewLine;&Tab;<&excl;--&lbrack;if lte IE 6&rsqb;>&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"stylesheet" type&equals;"text&sol;css" href&equals;"wp-content&sol;themes&sol;copyblogger&sol;ie6&period;css" &sol;>&NewLine;&Tab;<&excl;&lbrack;endif&rsqb;-->&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"alternate" type&equals;"application&sol;rss&plus;xml" title&equals;"Tropical SEO RSS Feed" href&equals;"feed&sol;index&period;html"&sol;>&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"pingback" href&equals;"xmlrpc&period;php&period;html"&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<link rel&equals;"EditURI" type&equals;"application&sol;rsd&plus;xml" title&equals;"RSD" href&equals;"xmlrpc&period;php&lowbar;rsd&period;html"&sol;>&NewLine;<link rel&equals;"wlwmanifest" type&equals;"application&sol;wlwmanifest&plus;xml" href&equals;"wp-includes&sol;wlwmanifest&period;xml"&sol;> &NewLine;<meta name&equals;"generator" content&equals;"WordPress 2&period;6&period;3"&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;head><&excl;DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-&sol;&sol;W3C&sol;&sol;DTD XHTML 1&period;0 Transitional&sol;&sol;EN" "http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;w3&period;org&sol;TR&sol;xhtml1&sol;DTD&sol;xhtml1-transitional&period;dtd">&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<body class&equals;"custom">&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div id&equals;"header">&NewLine;&Tab;<div id&equals;"logo">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;Tropical SEO&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h1>Livin&&num;8217&semi; the dream<&sol;h1>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;<div id&equals;"container">&NewLine;&Tab;<div id&equals;"nav">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<ul>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<li>home<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>about<&sol;li>&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;<div id&equals;"content&lowbar;box">&NewLine;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"content">&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Back from the Dead<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">November 3rd&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; SEO<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>><font style&equals;"position&colon; absolute&semi;overflow&colon; hidden&semi;height&colon; 0&semi;width&colon; 0">rent a car bulgaria<&sol;font>&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been a bit busy lately in the past few months&period; Tropical SEO got hacked &lpar;again&rpar;&comma; and a few months later&comma; I finally got around to fixing it <img src&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-icon&lowbar;smile&period;gif" alt&equals;"&colon;-&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-smiley"&sol;><br&sol;>&NewLine;Google is still showing the site as &&num;8216&semi;dangerous&&num;8217&semi;&comma; though Firefox doesn&&num;8217&semi;t display a warning page anymore&period; Please comment if you&&num;8217&semi;re still seeing a warning in your browser&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">3 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Must-Read Monday Links<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">March 10th&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; Competitive Webmastering<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>Normally I try not to do posts like this but I think every competitive webmaster needs to read the following two posts&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul><font style&equals;"position&colon; absolute&semi;overflow&colon; hidden&semi;height&colon; 0&semi;width&colon; 0">&&num;1082&semi;&&num;1086&semi;&&num;1084&semi;&&num;1087&semi;&&num;1102&semi;&&num;1090&semi;&&num;1088&semi;&&num;1080&semi; &&num;1074&semi;&&num;1090&semi;&&num;1086&semi;&&num;1088&semi;&&num;1072&semi; &&num;1091&semi;&&num;1087&semi;&&num;1086&semi;&&num;1090&semi;&&num;1088&semi;&&num;1077&semi;&&num;1073&semi;&&num;1072&semi;<font style&equals;"position&colon; absolute&semi;overflow&colon; hidden&semi;height&colon; 0&semi;width&colon; 0">&&num;1083&semi;&&num;1072&semi;&&num;1085&semi;&&num;1076&semi;&&num;1096&semi;&&num;1072&semi;&&num;1092&semi;&&num;1090&semi;<&sol;font><&sol;font><&sol;p>&NewLine;<li>Guilty Until Proven Innocent by Jay Weintraub<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Excerpts from Google Reviewer at SEO Blackhat &lpar;and good for you if you have a membership to read the whole thing&excl;&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Back to the first link by Jay Weintraub &&num;8212&semi; whether<&excl;-- Traffic Statistics --> <&excl;-- End Traffic Statistics --> or not you agree with his entire post&comma; I have heard <strong>dozens of people all agree on one thing about Google&colon; they have the<&excl;-- Traffic Statistics --> <&excl;-- End Traffic Statistics --> worst customer service in the history of the world&period;<&sol;strong> Yes&comma; worse than Best Buy&comma; worse than Comcast&comma; and far worse than Micro&dollar;oft or Yahoo&excl;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">5 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>My Predictions for 2008<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">March 5th&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; SEO<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>On the heels of some other guy&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; I give you my own&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li><strong>Linkbaiting will <em>not<&sol;em> jump the shark&period;<&sol;strong> It&&num;8217&semi;s here to stay&period; Online and Off-&period; Forever&period; Naysayers&comma; please fast forward to 2026 &&num;8212&semi; will Cosmopolitan publish &&num;8220&semi;Collected Thoughts from a Writer on How to Have Sex Better&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;33 Ways to Drive Him Wild and Make Your Bedroom Sizzle&quest;&&num;8221&semi; Now&comma; linkbaiting may get a bit more refined&&num;8211&semi;no more publishing &&num;8220&semi;The Geek&&num;8217&semi;s Guide to Losing Weight&&num;8221&semi; on your spammy dental plans affiliate site &lpar;&ast;ahem&ast;&rpar;&&num;8211&semi;but good&comma; baity content is the foundation of successful publishing&comma; and that ain&&num;8217&semi;t gonna change in 100 years&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Premium content will gain more momentum&period;<&sol;strong> OK&comma; I already made this prediction six months ago&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m sticking with it&period; Aaron Wall&&num;8217&semi;s switch to a premium model seems to be going well&comma; SEOmoz&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;PRO&&num;8221&semi; is gaining steam&comma; and&comma; outside our little SEO-sphere&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m still addicted to the paid content at Browns&period;Scout&period;com&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Tropical SEO will post a total of 9 times&period;<&sol;strong> Hey&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m just being honest&period; Besides&comma; my <em>not posting<&sol;em> is really my way of sending you the message that working on non-revenue-producing activites is overrated&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Niche social media sites will reach critical mass&period;<&sol;strong> It&&num;8217&semi;s already happening&comma; of course&period; Once these guys start sending 500 referrals instead of 80&comma; SEOs will start spamming <em>en masse<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ll admit my predictions are pretty much gimme&&num;8217&semi;s&&num;8230&semi; what can I say&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m conservative by nature&period; But feel free to rip any or all in the comments&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">7 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Digg&&num;8217&semi;s &&num;8220&semi;Florida Update&&num;8221&semi;&colon; Digg Anti-Spam 1&comma; Linkbaiters 0<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">January 24th&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; Link Baiting &amp&semi; SMM<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;re a n00b in the SEO world&comma; you may not know about the Florida Update&&num;8211&semi;basically&comma; it was the single day in history when Google rolled out a new algo and thousands of SEOs said to each other&comma; &&num;8220&semi;<em>Dammit&comma; Google finally got smart<&sol;em>&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Well&comma; as the latest Digg update rolled out&comma; thousands of SMOs&sol;linkbaiters reacted by saying&&num;8211&semi;angrily&comma; long-windedly&comma; and periphrastically&&num;8211&semi;&&num;8221&semi;<em>Dammit&comma; Digg finally got smart<&sol;em>&period;&&num;8221&semi; &lpar;See a concise summary of the new changes at SEL&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The good news is&comma; we SMOs &amp&semi; linkbaiters still have dozens of other social media traffic sources&comma; which&comma; as long as they stay &&num;8220&semi;medium size&&num;8221&semi;&comma; won&&num;8217&semi;t roll out anything like Digg&&num;8217&semi;s Florida Update&period; Meanwhile&comma; a lot of the heavy users leaving Digg will juice the membership at alternatives like Mixx and Tweako&period; No need to cry or get angry&period; Come up with a Plan B&comma; move on&comma; evolve&period; Digg had peaked anyway&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">2 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Rand Fishkin &&num;038&semi; Tropical Give Advice to Startup CEO&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">January 22nd&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; Competitive Webmastering<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>From Rand&&num;8217&semi;s advice to CEO&&num;8217&semi;s&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve also found that personally&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s easy to spot someone who&&num;8217&semi;s just in the business for the money vs&period; those who really care and want something great for the industry&period; It might be the optimism speaking&comma; but I feel that the latter group usually produces the brightest innovations &lpar;and eventually&comma; profit&comma; too&rpar;&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The urge to make a snarky reply is unbearable&&num;8230&semi; Tropical&&num;8230&semi; <em>must&&num;8230&semi; resist&&num;8230&semi; impulse to&&num;8230&semi; scratch itch&&num;8230&semi; hippy jokes&&num;8230&semi; overloading&&num;8230&semi;<br&sol;>&NewLine;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote>&NewLine;<p align&equals;"left">Not every CEO needs this&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;ve found that in a web-based market&comma; having watched dozens of people navigate &lpar;or try to navigate&rpar; websites has given me an extra edge in empathizing with the user and trying to understand what they need&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>No disagreement here&period; Increasing usability is often the easiest&sol;fastest&sol;bestest way to quickly juice a site&&num;8217&semi;s revenue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I&&num;8217&semi;m great at telling people when they&&num;8217&semi;ve done a good job&comma; but awful at criticizing any effort&period; In order to overcome&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve started hiring only those folks who have a deep&comma; internal need for perfectionism&period; If you are your own harshest critic&comma; it helps me to work around this pervasive flaw&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>My nickname around the office is &&num;8220&semi;H8er&&num;8221&semi;&period; I call it &&num;8220&semi;my critical eye&&num;8221&semi;&period; Rand&comma; where do you find these people with a deep need for perfectionism&quest; I&comma; ahem&comma; haven&&num;8217&semi;t found this trait much in our generation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a dictatorship&period; When tough decisions come up&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re my responsibility&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve noticed that even with little things&comma; when we take a company vote&comma; dissent and discomfort abound&period; If you want to run a company with a pseudo-democracy&comma; take everyone&&num;8217&semi;s opinion and input&comma; then make the decision&period; You need to be able to take the blame when something goes awry&comma; and bowing to internal pressure is no excuse&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m impressed&period; Is the &&num;8220&semi;team building&&num;8221&semi; and &&num;8220&semi;consensus&&num;8221&semi; fad over yet&quest; Good&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re CEO for a reason&colon; you have a higher batting average at decision-making&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>I can remember dozens of times when I felt like the world was crashing down around me - that I could barely hold up another day&period; I think all CEOs probably need to have those experiences a few times before they start to recognize that nothing is as bad as it seems&comma; the sun&&num;8217&semi;s coming up tomorrow and time heals more than you think it could&period; That employee who&&num;8217&semi;s struggled the last few months may indeed turn things around&period; The client who hasn&&num;8217&semi;t paid might just need a little extra contact&period; The product that&&num;8217&semi;s not taking off yet could&comma; with a few tiny fixes&comma; soar&period;<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;re living in a dumpster&comma; working on a stolen laptop online with stolen wireless&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ve been indicted for embezzlement&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;re trying to get a new social networking site off the ground&comma; then&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m sorry to tell you&comma; things are indeed as bad as they seem&period; Also&colon; employees don&&num;8217&semi;t generally &&num;8220&semi;turn around&&num;8221&semi;&period; Underperformers have no place in a company that&&num;8217&semi;s not publically traded&comma; so ditch them as soon as you know&period; <img src&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-icon&lowbar;smile&period;gif" alt&equals;"&colon;-&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-smiley"&sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">5 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Sell Your Web Site to Tropical SEO&comma; Lose 15 Lbs&comma; and Attract Hot Women &lpar;or Men&rpar;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">January 21st&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; Foo<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>My last post offering to buy readers&&num;8217&semi; sites turned out to be a modest success&comma; so it&&num;8217&semi;s time to self-whore my blog once again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My company DomainDev has an acquisitions budget we&&num;8217&semi;d like to spend in the next few months&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;d rather give it to an intelligent&comma; snarky Tropical SEO reader than some random dude off the InterWebs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So if you&&num;8217&semi;re thinking you might like to cash in some of your virtual real estate sometime soon&comma; why not take two minutes and fill out our form&quest; We do have some things we&&num;8217&semi;re actively looking for though&comma; so please note the following&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li>I am not interested in domains less than a year old&comma; or with multiple hyphens <img src&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-icon&lowbar;wink&period;gif" alt&equals;"&semi;-&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-smiley"&sol;><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Any niche is fine&comma; except&colon; pr0n&comma; pills&comma; casino&comma; or celebrity<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>I am not interested in domains which have been banned in Google<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Please don&&num;8217&semi;t submit any site doing less then four figures a month in revenue<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Please use the DomainDev &&num;8216&semi;We Buy Sites&&num;8217&semi; form to submit your site for consideration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>p&period;s&period; thanks to Media-hyphen-Scoreboard&period;com for reminding me of what a good idea posts like these are&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">1 Comment<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>A Festivus Gift for My Readers&colon; 9 New Niche Social Media Sites<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">January 10th&comma; 2008 &&num;8212&semi; Link Baiting &amp&semi; SMM<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>I hope all you readers had a good Festivus this year&period; The Airing of Grievings was pretty brutal to me&comma; apparently I&&num;8217&semi;ve been a real dick to a lot of people this year&period; But all ended well as I crushed T-bo in the Feats of Strength ceremony&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Meanwhile Tropical SEO is once again bringing you the good stuff&&num;8211&semi;9 new niche social media sites <em>that actually send traffic<&sol;em>&period; I have to credit Improvetheweb for pointing me to some links where I found &lpar;and tested&rpar; these new sites&period; &lpar;p&period;s&period; those <em>other<&sol;em> lists have a TON of abandoned sites in them&period; All the more reason to bookmark the Tropical SEO list which I actually try to maintain&period;&rpar;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I have held off on including some sites which are TOO niche &lpar;Firefox only news&quest;&rpar;&period; And as usual I don&&num;8217&semi;t include any which I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure have sustainable communities&comma; which are abandoned &lpar;or too new&rpar;&comma; or which don&&num;8217&semi;t seem to send significant real traffic&period; Paraphrasing Jane Copeland&comma; most of these web 2&period;0 sites are flaming piles of sh&ast;t&period; The ones on my list aren&&num;8217&semi;t&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Today&&num;8217&semi;s additions&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>ArmchairGM <strong>&lpar;Sports&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Daytipper <strong>&lpar;Tips<&sol;strong><strong> &amp&semi; Tutorials<&sol;strong><strong>&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Design Float <strong>&lpar;Design&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Hacker News <strong>&lpar;Web Development&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>iliketotallyloveit&period;com <strong>&lpar;Shopping&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>IndianPad <strong>&lpar;India News&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>KillerStartups <strong>&lpar;Startup Reviews&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>tipstrs <strong>&lpar;Tips &amp&semi; Tutorials&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Value Investing News <strong>&lpar;Investing&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>You can check out the entire updated list here&period; Happy linkbaiting&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">8 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Can You Make &lpar;a LOT&rpar; of Money with Premium Content&quest;<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">November 27th&comma; 2007 &&num;8212&semi; Competitive Webmastering<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m hereby naming 2008 the year of premium content&period; Yes&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m aware that The New York Times is moving away from the premium content model&comma; as are several other traditional general media outlets&period; But I&&num;8217&semi;m actually seeing things move in the other direction&period; I think premium &lpar;paid&rpar; content is making a huge comeback&comma; and will be part of the Web for many years to come&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>SEOmoz appears to be making more money with their new paid subscription model then they ever did otherwise &lpar;based on their &&num;8220&semi;financial transparency&&num;8221&semi; posts in the past&rpar;&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Aaron Wall&comma; ever the forward-thinking-highly-strategic-web-trending thinker&comma; is planning on moving to the premium subscription model for several stated reasons&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>While ESPN still barely even offers <em>free<&sol;em> content covering the UFC&comma; Sherdog&&num;8217&semi;s paid membership program is ticking along&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>I just renewed my premium Scout&period;com subscription&period; I just <em>have<&sol;em> to have every single piece of info about the Cleveland Browns as soon as it comes out&period; We just signed a new &num;3 punter to the practice squad&quest; Yes&comma; I need to know that&period; OK&comma; this bullet point was completely subjective&period; But it passes my gut check&&num;8211&semi;if <em>I<&sol;em> have ever paid for premium content&comma; and there are other people in the world like me&comma; then&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Of course&comma; the paid content model isn&&num;8217&semi;t right for everyone&comma; and for every success story above there&&num;8217&semi;s another story about a site cancelling their premium content section&period; But when paid content works it <em>really<&sol;em> works&period; Here&&num;8217&semi;s a handy&comma; no-BS quiz to help you find out if the paid content model could possibly work for you&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ol>&NewLine;<li><strong>Have you built a free readership of at least 10&comma;000 subscribers or daily readers&quest;<&sol;strong> My napkin calculation says that you can reasonably expect &lpar;best case&rpar; 1&percnt; of readers to pay for a premium membership&period; Unless you can successfully charge a thousand bucks a month for membership&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d guess you need a base of at least 100 members to break even on content production costs&period; <img src&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-icon&lowbar;smile&period;gif" alt&equals;"&colon;-&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-smiley"&sol;> <&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Are you a recognized authority in your field&quest;<&sol;strong> This is a huge selling point in being able to convince people they should actually pay for your information when other less formal or less expert informational channels are free&period; e&period;g&period;&comma; Scout&period;com isn&&num;8217&semi;t just a bunch of bloggers&&num;8211&semi;they have real reporters and NFL insiders whose journalistic integrity I actually trust&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Do you have serve a regular dosage of exclusive content&quest;<&sol;strong> This could be videos&comma; in-depth guides&comma; research&comma; tools&comma; or whatever&comma; but if you don&&num;8217&semi;t have exclusives&comma; why wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t a reader go to your free competitor&quest; e&period;g&comma; Scout&period;com gets plenty of &lpar;usually true&rpar; rumor stories not carried by ESPN&comma; and also has an exclusive &&num;8220&semi;Ask the Insiders&&num;8221&semi; forum&comma; etc&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>Is your content <em>niche<&sol;em> enough&quest;<&sol;strong> If you&&num;8217&semi;re reporting on world news&comma; you are competing with approximately 1000000 other free sites&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re reporting on the Cleveland Browns&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re competing with approximately five other sites&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re SEOmoz&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re competing with approximately 5 or 10 really good&comma; regularly updated SEO information channels &lpar;along with about a thousand crappy or quasi-crappy blogs like this one&rpar;&period; The point is&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re not niche enough&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re going run into some heavy problems&&num;8211&semi;a large number of free competitors&comma; a larger hurdle to brand yourself as an &&num;8220&semi;expert&&num;8221&semi;&comma; a harder time getting true exclusives&comma; etc&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li><strong>I&&num;8217&semi;m sure I&&num;8217&semi;m missing other bullet points that ought to be here&period;<&sol;strong> Comment and let me know <img src&equals;"&sol;static&sol;tropicalseo&period;com-icon&lowbar;smile&period;gif" alt&equals;"&colon;-&rpar;" class&equals;"wp-smiley"&sol;> <&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ol>&NewLine;<p>Now&comma; all this being said&comma; I can&&num;8217&semi;t say I&&num;8217&semi;m currently experimenting with the premium content &sol; subscription model&&num;8211&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m too busy with my big project right now&period; But damn&comma; I wish I was&period; Godspeed&comma; SEOmoz&period; You hippies in Seattle may get the last laugh after all&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">5 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>5 New Niche Social Media Sites&comma; Vegas Updates&comma; a Domainer Sh&ast;tstorm and a Special Surprise<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">November 13th&comma; 2007 &&num;8212&semi; Domaining&comma; Link Baiting &amp&semi; SMM<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>Mr&period; Tropical is back after a short blogging hiatus&period; After I convincingly won the bet with Scoreboard &lpar;first man to 350 bloglines subs got &dollar;500 Cleveland Browns tickets&rpar;&comma; I was uninspired to write for a while&period; But you know what&quest; I miss your guys&&num;8217&semi; snarky comments&period; I miss the glamour&period; And I miss all the action I get every time I post&period; So here&&num;8217&semi;s an update with a little bit of everything&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>1&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve update my niche social media site list&period; 5 new sites have shown me enough to join the exclusive club&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>BuzzFlash <strong>&lpar;News&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Mixx <strong>&lpar;Anything&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>PhotographyVoter <strong>&lpar;Photography&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>ShowHype <strong>&lpar;Entertainment&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Small Business Brief <strong>&lpar;Business &amp&semi; Entrepreneurship&rpar;<&sol;strong><&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>Check out the whole updated list here and remember to make submitting to niche social media sites part of your regular link baiting flow&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>2&period; I have to say I&&num;8217&semi;m a bit hurt no one has joined the Scoreboard Media Vegas Contest&period; I was promised that when I became a successful SEO I&&num;8217&semi;d have groupies&period; So where are the groupies&comma; I ask you&quest; <strong><em>Where are my godd&ast;mn groupies&excl;&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>3&period; The Domainersphere was rocked with scandal the past few days&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t fully understand all what went on or understand who&&num;8217&semi;s at fault&comma; but one thing I do know is every time I get really emotional about business I usually regret it afterwards&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>4&period; Along with a few other smart folks&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ve started a new company&colon; DomainDev&period; Come check us out if you&&num;8217&semi;re in Houston&period; We have a Ms Pac-man machine in our office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">6 Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<h2>Party Like a Coked-up Has-Been Rockstar at Pubcon&colon; Tropical SEO and Scoreboard Contest<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;date">October 25th&comma; 2007 &&num;8212&semi; Foo<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"entry">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p>On the heels of Shoemoney and Neil Patel&&num;8217&semi;s announcement&comma; Scoreboard Media has announced a contest of his own&period; Winners &&num;8220&semi;get&&num;8221&semi; to &&num;8220&semi;party&&num;8221&semi; with us at &&num;8220&semi;Vegas&&num;8221&semi;&period; Check out the details here and submit your entry&period; And don&&num;8217&semi;t forget to bring cash&period; Lots and lots of cash&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<p class&equals;"post&lowbar;meta"><span class&equals;"add&lowbar;comment">No Comments<&sol;span><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"navigation">&NewLine;&Tab;<p>&larr&semi; Previous Entries<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;<p class&equals;"next"><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"sidebar">&NewLine;&Tab;<p id&equals;"rss"><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;<ul class&equals;"sidebar&lowbar;list">&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&NewLine; <li class&equals;"widget">&NewLine; <h2>Categories<&sol;h2>&NewLine; <ul>&NewLine; &Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-11">Affiliate Marketing &lpar;7&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-6">Competitive Webmastering &lpar;25&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-9">Domaining &lpar;11&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-3">Foo &lpar;22&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-8">Interviews &lpar;1&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-7">Link Baiting &amp&semi; SMM &lpar;16&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-17">Local SEO &lpar;2&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-5">Places &lpar;2&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-10">Privacy &lpar;2&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-4">SEO &lpar;34&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;<li class&equals;"cat-item cat-item-2">The Dream &lpar;12&rpar;&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine; <&sol;ul>&NewLine; <&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; <li id&equals;"linkcat-12" class&equals;"linkcat"><h2>Blogroll<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Avivatastic<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>BHartzer<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Cavey<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Charizard<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Copycat<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>D-Sull<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Don&&num;8217&semi;t H8&comma; Think B8<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Fangirl<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>He knows the score<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>He likes &&num;8216&semi;em old<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Mr&period; Dubl<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Nobody beats the Whiz<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Panks<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Princess<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Professor Wall<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>R&period; Ray and I don&&num;8217&semi;t mean Rachel<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>T-bo<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The Berg<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The Lisa<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The Other Andy<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The Wolf<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>UltraGeek<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Werty<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Woman Who Can Pull Rank<&sol;li>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine; <li id&equals;"linkcat-13" class&equals;"linkcat"><h2>Bookmarks<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;<ul>&NewLine;<li>10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>EscapeArtist - Travelpr0n<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>IntListings&period;com - International Real Estate Listings<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Resolve Uganda<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Shanghaiist<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Steve Pavlina&colon; 10 Reasons You Should Never Get a Job<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Top 21 Signs You Need a Break from SEO<&sol;li>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine; <li id&equals;"linkcat-15" class&equals;"linkcat"><h2>Best Posts<&sol;h2>&NewLine;&Tab;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Linkbaiting and Social Media Marketing<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>How to&colon; Build an Affiliate Site You Can Sell for &dollar;1M<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>How to&colon; Escape Google’s Supplemental Index<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Is Your Site Defensible&quest; A 10 Point Quiz<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The Dream<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>The Lazy SEO Manifesto<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Top 38 Niche Social Media Sites &lpar;That Actually Send Traffic&rpar;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Warren Buffet’s Advice to SEOs<&sol;li>&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<&sol;li>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;&NewLine;<&excl;-- Site Meter -->&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<&excl;-- Copyright &lpar;c&rpar;2006 Site Meter -->&NewLine;&NewLine;<br&sol;><br&sol;>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&Tab;&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;<div id&equals;"footer">&NewLine;&Tab;<p>&copy&semi; Tropical SEO &&num;8212&semi; Copyblogger theme design by Chris Pearson<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;