links for 2009-03-13

There’s a lot of stats and analysis today about Twitter’s traffic, how it compares to other social search sites, and who’s benefiting from all the traffic Twitter can send. It seems no one argues that Twitter is on the rise, but just how high it’s risen is still up for debate.

One of the most common questions that I’m asked by fellow Twitter users is how I manage the large number of people that I follow and am followed by on Twitter.

If your company has a major brand, domainers who exploit cybersquatting have likely already targeted your business. Their practices are often looked down upon, but if their dark powers weren’t effective, they wouldn’t make money. Still, you can learn the same black magic and turn it into good and profit for your company. In this down economy, don’t ignore the shady domainers—instead, strike back by reducing what they’re costing you and increasing your profits! Read on and I’ll explain how.

The Inside AdWords Blog posted a video from Google’s Chef Economist, Hal Varian. The video shows how Google prices and ranks search ads in the AdWords system based on quality and bid. This is a really basic overview of the AdWords model, but I personally find the video to be incredibly easy to understand and great for beginners or for SEMs to show clients who are beginners.

Earlier this week Rand and I spoke at the third annual Searchfest, put on by SEMpdx and a load of lovely sponsors. Loyal readers and R. Kelley fanboys (and girls) will remember that my first ever speaking engagement was at the first Searchfest two years ago. The organizers were gracious enough to overlook my profound suckitude and invited me back to speak about link building last year. This time around, they asked me to participate on the blogging panel with Stoney deGeyter and Heather Lloyd Martin. I wasn't sure what to cover since the panel details simply said "Blogging," so I talked about various blogging myths. It seemed to go over fairly well considering it was 9:00 am–I think my half naked pictures of David Hasselhoff helped.

Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis has offered Twitter $250,000 to appear in the suggested users area that newly signed up members see when they first join Twitter.

An Australian company called uSocial.net, founded by 24 year old Leon Hill, openly sells votes to promote stories on Digg.com to the front page. Hill claims he sells 200 digg’s for $200, with a special offer currently running for 400 Diggs for $314.50.

Google Analytics is used most of us search marketers with the exception of the paranoid and even a growing number of top 500 websites. These free web analytics suite is just too tempting not be used. It’s very advanced compared to many other, especially free web analytics tools. Google Analytics has some significant flaws and shortcomings though.

There is always something to be learned from history, either from mistakes or successes. With the current state of the economy, I chose to focus on the positive. The other day I was thinking that there must have been businesses that thrived during a time of an economic slump. After all, there is always a need for something, and so there should always be someone who is able to recognize a need and fill it. So, I did some recession research and found quite a few well known and successful companies that have grown during a recession and even during the Great Depression.

There’s been a lot of chatter about social media and security issues, from social engineering to the naivete of users. There’s especially been a lot of talk about Twitter and security issues, especially in the case of last week’s account hijackings. Much of this talk has focused on how individuals might better secure themselves. What about brands? And, more than that, how to brands take better social media security responsibility to protect their users? Because like it or not, some of the onus is on them. Here are two examples.