DO NOT GET FOR CHILDREN!!!!!

I did an expirement on it to see if kids like them…:) They don’t rip off it took my cousin a month not to be a little scared plus they ate dangerous.
The balls hit the kids!!!

Thanks for tuning in..like and follow me!!

Today, Ken Hollowell prepares over 100 private placement offerings for clients annually. Ken Hollowell conducts workshops, seminars and consult with hundreds of entrepreneurs annually. Ken Hollowell calls the Reg D Series of private placement offerings “The Best Kept Secret in Business Funding”.

Ken Hollowell
Orlando, Florida
PO BOX 3543
President/CEO
Profran Consultants
Profran Capital Group
Profran Video Productions
Life Policy Assets
407-363-3545 Local
407-443-1476 Cell
407-386-7852 Fax
http://www.kenhollowell.com
http://www.profrancapitalgroup.com
http://www.profranconsultants.com

ken hollowell, ken, hollowell, orlando, florida, profran capital group, profran, capital, group, consultants, franchise, private placement, investors, venture capitalists, hedge fund, investment, manager, ken m hollowell, review, complaint, ripoff, scam, lawsuit, bankruptcy, public records, phone, address, email

The Majority of the islands in the Pacific are Volcanic; the few which aren’t are coral atolls which are pretty and entertaining for about five minutes, much like an American News Anchor.

To me the idea of the Earth vomiting forth its filth to create these testaments to false advertising is rather apt. That visual was most likely inspired by seeing a weeks’ worth of German sausage and bread plastered over the footpaths in the middle of this quaint town on the day after New Year’s, but still, it seems to fit.

The Earth After a heavy night drinking

I think Fiji and the Caribbean (which I will cover another time) suffer from the same problem, at one point, before entertainment was created in the 80’s, Fiji was probably quite entertaining for the time period. Also during that time people didn’t tend to travel as much, flight having only been discovered the previous decade.

Pyramids est 1912…My timeline may be a bit off…

Thus the few people who went had probably never been anywhere else to compare it to, and much like an able bodied person looks to the deaf man with envy at a Miley Cyrus concert, the rest of the world looked at envy at the few people who could afford to travel to Tropical Hell hole of Fiji.

Now though we really should know better. We have TVs, the internet, and me. All of these sources have been telling the world for years that Fiji has all the lustre of a polished turd.

The Government has been thrown over every six months for the last twenty years as each group thinks it can squeeze out just a tad more corruption from a country that is as empty and pointless as Paris Hilton.

The capital city of Suva is awash in filth and scum; I made the mistake of eating there once.  I chose a well-known chain restaurant thinking they would at least have standards, unless those standards were not to allow the grime on the tables to exceed an inch in thickness, they still only barely passed. I picked my cup of the table to the same sound of a bare back peeling away from a vinyl car seat on a hot day.

“Ah well, you get what you pay for” most people think. This is true if you go to some place like India. Fiji on the other hand has first world prices at third world quality. This for me is the nail in the coffin, I can put up with crap if I pay for crap, I can even enjoy crap if that is what I expect and pay for, you make of life what you will.

But Fiji drapes itself in the illusion of a tropical paradise, whether it is golden sand beaches, a Robinson Crusoe style island or a beautiful tropical rain forest on mist covered mountains shinning like emeralds in the pacific. Fiji disappoints on all of these after taking thousands of your dollars (tens of thousands if you include the cost of treatment for the myriad of diseases you will likely get while visiting).

The beaches are covered in trash from the cyclones that hit every year but that no one can be bothered to clean up after.  The rainforests have both rain and forests, but then again so does a few thousand other locations that are less practiced in the art of pick pocketing.

I have meet people who have been to Fiji and love it. This would seemingly have one of two explanations. One is just that everyone has different tastes and I am a bitter jaded shithead who doesn’t appreciate the unique culture and charm of Fiji. This would be more believable if I hadn’t been charged $25 for greasy, over cooked, emaciated chicken that had been fried in the chefs own body oil and one of my friends had their foot cut open on part of a window that had been washed ashore by a cyclone 3 years ago that nobody could be asked to clean up.

The other option is that these people are just masochists or have a fetish for filth. Again, these options are dismissed as sun bathing in a dumpster gives you the same ambiance as a Fijian beach and masturbating with a glove covered in broken glass is just as painful.

Then I realised as I stumbled through the detritus, flotsam and bones of former prime ministers what these people saw in Fiji. For right there on the coast, usually protected by fences, armed guards and death to any local who comes within half a mile of these oases are the holiday resorts.

These oases of hygiene and manicured beaches are a breath of fresh air in a weight watchers meeting hall. Perfectly maintained beaches (not for swimming, mind you, when you swim in Fiji it’s not jelly fish that brush your leg, it’s the curtains from someone’s house that had been washed away), crystal clear pools, and imported chefs give a perfectly none Fijian trip of a life time. These places exist purely to shelter you from the real Fiji. If they are smart they go so far as to turn some of the smaller islands into miniature havens to be sure you don’t spot a local.

These resorts are not Fiji. What’s more, these resorts are found everywhere in the world. No matter what country you are in right now there is a good chance there is a resort that can emulate a stereotypical island holiday, even if that country doesn’t have beaches.

So why the hell anyone would want to go over all the way to Fiji to experience something they can find in the yellow pages at home… Save your money and shop local. It’s safer and cleaner.

But if you do feel like wasting money, just put it in a pile in front of a homeless shelter and burn it, that way the rest of the world can see you’re as big of a douchbag as the rest of us think.

I walked it back to the kitchen and asked if they had made me the correct sandwich. I was informed that the recipe for the Turkey Artichoke Panini had been overhauled — although its name remains the same. To accommodate the removal of actual artichoke, the use of an “artichoke parmesan spread” is now employed.

I reacted in typical first-world fashion and took my grievance to Twitter:

.@panerabread‘s new artichoke-less turkey artichoke sandwich. What a ripoff: twitter.com/CynicalDispatc…

— Lance Goff (@CynicalDispatch) January 2, 2013

To Panera’s credit, they quickly replied:

@cynicaldispatch Hi Lance. That panini is made w/ an artichoke-parm spread. If that isn’t what you received, contact us bit.ly/N49plo — Panera Bread (@panerabread) January 2, 2013

And on it went…

.@panerabread I know that now. But it used to be made with actual artichokes. — Lance Goff (@CynicalDispatch) January 2, 2013

@cynicaldispatch Sorry to hear of your disappoint. We updated the recipe a little over a yr ago. If you wish, we’ll pass your feedback along

— Panera Bread (@panerabread) January 2, 2013

.@panerabread No problem. And thank you for the replies. I’ll just eliminate this as a potential meal choice in the meantime. Bummer.

— Lance Goff (@CynicalDispatch) January 2, 2013

I suppose I was most incredulous at the thought of a condiment ingredient receiving top billing on the menu. With that in mind, I think next time I’ll opt instead for a fromage-covered dijon steak and tomato served within a toasted split roll — otherwise known as a cheeseburger with ketchup and mustard.

As near as I can tell, the American Girl Doll racket is one of the shrewdest, savviest marketers out there.  Not only have they been out for years and maintained market share, but they sell an amazing number of dolls and accessories, at the highest possible price.  My mom ordered my daughter one of those blasted dolls for Christmas after she begged and whined and wheedled.  Let me just say that my daughter has never played much with dolls and this is probably all peer pressure.  $129 for something she probably won’t play with for two minutes.

The choice of dolls is stunning.  They have a doll of the year, every year since I don’t know when.  You can special order a doll that looks just like you.  With freckles even.  My daughter wanted McKenna, the doll of the year who is a gymnast, supposedly.  McKenna does not exactly look like her.  She doesn’t have freckles.  But McKenna is what she wanted, and McKenna is what she got.

You can get matching outfits for the girl and her doll, so they are both wearing the same thing.  You can buy pets for your dolls.  You can buy schoolhouses and books for your dolls.  Along with getting that doll for Christmas, my daughter got one of the girl/doll matching outfits as well.  And let me tell you what else she got.  This is where the story gets ridiculous.

There are several American Girl stores around the country, in major cities.  But these are not just shops, oh, no.  They are full immersion ripoff centers.  I guess peer pressure never ends, because my mom heard her best friend tell about taking her granddaughter on one of these pilgrimages to the American Girl Doll store.  She decided that she would bring my daughter after Christmas during New Year’s break to Atlanta where the nearest doll center is.

So here’s the deal.  This trip is a full package.  You check into a hotel within walking distance of the store that has the American Girl Doll package.  There is a separate special check-in area for families with their girls with these dolls.  When you get to your special American Girl Doll room, the walls are printed bright pink and there is a special bed for the doll that you get to keep.  They bring pink lemonade and cookies to the room at night.  Then the doll fun begins.  You go to the American Girl Doll store, which has a bistro where you can dine.  They have special high chairs at the tables where the dolls can sit.  Once you go into the Death Star shop area, anything is possible.  You can go to a special salon and have your doll’s hair styled and curled.  You can go to a special area and get the doll’s ears pierced, for an exorbitant fee no doubt.  They sell all the American Girl Doll accessories, and when I say all, I mean all.  They have special movie nights with American Girl Doll movies.  These people are marketing geniuses.  And I can’t believe this child talked my mom into something like this, because it wouldn’t have even been considered when I was a kid.  Not that I would have wanted to go, being as I hated dolls and all.

So hats off to the American Girl Doll empire!  They have developed the most immense marketing racket of all time, practically.  And this has been going on now for about two generations.  When I told a nurse at work about my daughter’s little trip, instead of being horrified as she properly should, the nurse merely remarked, “Oh, I have five of those dolls.”  FIVE???  What the hell do you do with five $129 dolls (and that’s on Amazon, which is pretty reasonable)?  I guess you buy matching outfits, and books, and movies, and classrooms, and on, and on, and on.  And of course now there are myriad American Girl ripoffs – dolls about the same size and look as the originals, with cheaper accessories and such that will fit the real dolls.  Everyone wants a piece of that pie.  My daughter’s friends carry their American Girl catalogues to school with them, and sit and compare dolls and accessories and what they are going to ask their mommy for next.  Each tries to outdo the other.

I am amazed at the excess of the American Girl Doll immersion phenomenon.  It would never have occurred to me, did I not have a daughter, that this empire existed.  Now that I know, I am disgusted and awed.  I just hope that new McKenna doll doesn’t get tossed off to the wayside, with her newly pierced ears and styled hair, and special bed and Husky dog pet.  I do know that my mom and dad and my daughter probably had a weekend that they will remember forever.  It will be a great memory for my daughter.  But I know my daughter.  And we’ll see how long this phase lasts.

Then as time went on I wondered why an executive at the Southern California Gas Company , married to a sister of my friend could afford to build one of the largest homes in Palos Verdes Estates (Southern California) while we were in our 40’s and still establishing our careers.  What did he do at this utility to earn so much money?  And later in Thousand Oaks, California, a water executive retired at an early age with a one million dollar bonus  (I think he had not taken vacation time – is that worth one million tax payer dollars – is not vacation absence work needs  covered by the other workers?).

Then my real estate career took off and I was busy with that and my family.  When the Fukshima Nuclear Catastrophe happened in March 2011 I googled the name of my novel (which was out of print, but had been purchased by many libraries).  It was still being sold as a used book by Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and survival sites.  So, over a period of time, I updated it and brought it out again as a 3rd edition in EBook and paperback formats.  (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WDRWXY)

Now I was interested in not only nuclear problems, but the whole concept of public utilities and what they are up to WITH OUR MONEY.  Utilities are a monopoly.   About ten  years ago in California, someone decided to let electricity be sold to private companies and let those companies resell  it to consumers on a competitive basis.  Since I  managed apartment complexes, I loved it…..the utility bills at these complexes went down about 50%.  But someone important must have been losing money because that whole deal was abruptly cancelled and once again I had one company only that I could buy from at their prescribed mandatory rate.

And where does that rate come from?  There is a Public Utilities Commission.  And an advocate for the consumer (available for complaints).  Have you EVER gotten a response from the Public Utiities Commission or the consumer advocate?  I HAVE NOT AND I HAVE COPIES OF THE LETTERS AND FORMS I HAVE FILLED OUT AND SENT.

Published in the LA Times on 12/29/12 page A14 is the following statement:  “Utilities charge ratepayers for every dollar spent…for which the state of California guarantees utilities an annual return of 11% for 40 years”.  That guaranteed return is paid by YOU, THE UTILITY USER!.

And what return is available to you, the utility user, in your investments?  1/10 of one percent to 1% at a local bank. 4 to 5% in tax free bonds (some are insured).    Even junk bonds don’t pay much more in today’s economy.  SO WHY ARE UTILTIES GETTING 11% GUARANTEED FOR 40 YEARS?  Because they can, or have, or have someone in their  pocket.  Our state and federal deficits are HUGE.  I continually hear that we will have to cut medicare.  What about cutting the UTILTIES hold on us?  We are a prisoner that no one is interested in paroling.

I wrote the Public Utilities Commission and stated that our local water company (a public company) had shown profit increases of 20% per year and they were still increasing rates.  NO RESPONSE.  My water bill started out at $500 per month in the summer and went up to $3000 per month in the summer within 5 years, until I  gave up and started letting things die.  I certainly would not want to interfere with their necessary increased profits by demanding reasonable water rates.

Have you heard the rumor that the Japanese Mafia controls their nuclear/electric production?  And that is why even though they experienced the horrific  Fukushima nuclear plant disaster, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs, there are still  public officials making the statements that they “cannot do without nuclear”.  It is my understanding that all their nuclear plants were shut down for almost a year after the disaster…..and they still had enough electricity for the nation.  Nuclear plants require a large investment of money – and then return a large amount of dollars to their owners.  Big Bucks for Big People.  What about the rest of us – the consumers who pay to make this happen.  We need to make our displeasure a priority. Cut utility returns in half and give half  of the savings to the consumer and half to the government and we would, as a nation, come out ahead.

If you have been following anything about the latest developments with The War Z, then you might also be interested with the news I’ve discovered.

CVS store at 5208 W Washington in Indianapolis that was hit by money transfer scam.

(Indianapolis) — A CVS worker in west Indianapolis didn’t even realize it was a setup until her cash register door suddenly popped open.

Now the nation’s largest pharmacy chain is telling all 7,327 of its stores to watch out because it’s only the latest in a series of surprise attacks on retailers.

Police were called to the neighborhood CVS at 5208 West Washington Street in Indianapolis on Friday, after a scam artist was successful in having hundreds of dollars wired from the store’s coffers directly into his account.

The west Indy worker told police she answered the phone and a very convincing sounding man told her he was employed by MoneyGram, a wire transfer service that allows people to send money around the globe.

The very competent sounding caller said he needed her help to install some new software that would keep the CVS computers in tune for all future wire transfers that customers may send or receive at the store.

For the unsuspecting worker, it likely sounded as harmless as the Coca Cola man calling to ask for help with the store’s Coke display.

The worker kept punching buttons on the stores computer and cash register system, following every detailed step that the caller was giving her. Any moment now, she figured she’d be finished in upgrading the software that the store needed to perform some of its daily business.

When the caller told her to punch one more button to complete the upgrade, her cash register door popped open.

Police say the employee knew right away she had fallen for a con because the cash register only pops open in that fashion when a sale is completed.

The caller, who gave a fairly common male name and claimed to be calling from Valparaiso, Indiana had already said goodbye. He was gone, but when that cash register drawer flung open, a wire transfer of $948.95 of the store’s money had been transferred instantly to the scammer.

“This is a scam common in the retail industry,” wrote Mike DeAngelis in a Tuesday e-mail from CVS corporate office in Rhode Island.

“It is not specific to CVS, nor does it require any insider knowledge of our systems,” he wrote.

He said all stores in the Indianapolis market were notified to keep their guards up after this weekend’s crime. Separately, he said all CVS stores nationwide got an alert from headquarters for all employees to guard against this racket.

“We remind our stores on a regular basis not to accept requests for such transactions over the phone,” DeAngelis wrote.

He emphasized that no private credit card or prescription information from customers has ever been compromised with this wire transfer scam. The money comes out of the store’s account and flashes out over the wire transfer network without ever dipping into the store’s main frame computer that stores customer information.

When asked to quantify how many CVS stores had been hit with the crime, he declined to provide even a ballpark number.

Moneygram has a web page dedicated to common rip-offs, but scams aimed at retail outlets are not listed on there.

One message is clear on the posting: Once the money is transferred, victims of any scam won’t be able to get it back, whether you’re CVS or the lady down the street who wires money to a stranger.

In 2009 and again this month, the FTC levied massive penalties against Moneygram, accusing it of looking the other way while some of its crooked agents used the money transfer system to line their own pockets. The company said it disagreed with the findings, but it paid the fines.

Unlike the Western Union money transfers of 30-years ago, where you actually had to walk into a bank or a business and present identification in order to walk away with money, Money Gram and other services now allow online wire transfers.

Online crooks know exactly how to create phony identities and leave very few digital footprints, including bank accounts that they open and close quickly in order to receive wire transfers and then withdraw them with the cash going right into their pockets.

If it’s as widespread a threat as CVS suggests, it’s yet another danger lurking for retail workers who are swamped with holiday shoppers.

Justin Bieber’s single “Mistletoe” off his 2011 Christmas album sounds eerily similar to “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. The melody, rhythm, structure of the song and pretty much everything besides the lyrics reminds everyone of the 2008 Mraz hit.

What do you think?

Justin Bieber, “Mistletoe”

NOW, for the original…

Jason Mraz, “I’m  Yours” (Official Video)

Justin Bieber’s single “Mistletoe” off his 2011 Christmas album sounds eerily similar to “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz. The melody, rhythm, structure of the song and pretty much everything besides the lyrics reminds everyone of the 2008 Mraz hit.

What do you think?

Justin Bieber, “Mistletoe”

NOW, for the original…

Jason Mraz, “I’m  Yours” (Official Video)

This leaves players with existing subscription time and lifetime subscribers in the lurch. In this new model, players that purchase the box price have full access to the game in its current state. Players can then subscribe for $15/month for 1200 Funcom points ($10 in real money) that expire after 6 months needed to buy future DLC (slated to be released in monthly installments costing $5-10), a fluff vanity item of the month, an xp booster item and a 10% discount on the item shop. Existing subscribers are being switched to this plan for the remainder of their subscription time, without a refund option. Remember that these subscribers also had to buy the game box in the beginning.

This is not what subscribers paid for. The deal they signed up for has been changed without their consent or prior knowledge. The terms of agreement have been pulled out from under them. Subscribers paid for access to updates (“DLC”) but also access to the game itself. In the P2P model you simply could not log in if you were’nt subscribed. Now that you can get full access for free, the value of the subscription has been cheapened.

The services subscribers get with the B2P model are worthless. $15 per month for $10 worth in limited time points, whereas a B2P player can buy DLC each month for cheaper ($5) and have exactly the same access to the game. $15 (sub per month) > $10 (in virtual Funcom monies) > $5 per month for DLC you need to keep up with other players.

I feel that the subscription option is only there so that they don’t have to refund people with existing subs and of course lifetimers. The sub has no value and is a ripoff. A sub gave players both access to new content and to the game itself. Since everyone has access to the game for the box price, the sub has lost part of its value and so people with existing sub time should demand a refund. I would really like to know what a lawyer’s legal opinion of this change would be.

I have contacted Massively and MMORPG.com suggesting they write an article investigating the legal implications of TSW’s B2P change or otherwise recommend me a lawyer specializing in this area that I could talk to. I hope this way we can get something started moving forward and clarify exactly what legal recourse existing subscribers have. My demands are fair: I only ask that players get the option of having their extant subscription time refunded, since the subscription service has so wholly changed from what they originally intended to pay for (i.e. which in large part was paying for access to the game itself).

If you’re just starting out, then hopefully you haven’t had any work stolen from clients yet. If you have or haven’t,  you can take measures to prevent this, until you are strong enough to know how to avoid this completely. But, there are predatory marketeers out there that prey off fledgling developers and manipulating their trust.

This article is about how you can create dependencies to your project, on their server, that will cause the website to fail completely. Why would you do this? Well, sometimes people change the deal when they profit off this. They could change all the passwords and move your code to another domain or whatever they try…. this could make a large difference. Adapt mine, develop your own to add, and do it earlier then too late.

We’ll demonstrate it in JS, PHP, and then we’ll discuss using it in WordPress.

I gladly put together a proposal that addressed his needs and delivered excellent value. Dutifully, he shopped around and gathered quotes from other agencies as well. However, it soon became clear to him that my proposal was significantly different than the others he was receiving. “Why are you only offering me seven new inbound links when everyone else is promising thousands?” he asked.

At that point, I realized that, like him, many business owners are stumbling around a minefield of misinformation about SEO which is being propagated by snake oil salesmen littered across the industry. The purpose of this article is to expose the lies that business owners are told by low-quality SEO firms. I’ll discuss exactly what those SEO firms are promising, what they are actually delivering, and why they won’t deliver a positive return on investment.

More is Not Always Better
Intrigued by the other proposals he was receiving, I asked him to share them with me. I quickly noticed a bunch of SEO “tactics” that may have worked years ago, but no longer have any positive value in the new, Post-Penguin and Post-Panda (Google algorithm updates) era of SEO. The most common, and most egregious misinformation perpetuated by low-quality SEO firms that I found in the other proposals was that thousands of new inbound links per month was a good thing.

While this would be true if those links were all coming from high-quality publishers with editorial review and unique, quality content, this would be simply impossible to do on a budget of $249/month, which is what one firm was promising.

In reality, if an SEO firm is promising thousands of inbound links, it’s very likely that those links are going to be coming from spammy, low-quality websites that have no favor with Google (and will actually get you in trouble, these days). Common bulk link-building tactics to watch out for include:

• Mass website directory submissions
• Mass article directory submissions
• Social bookmarking
• Link wheels
• Profile links
• Blog commenting

These types of tactics worked long ago, but those days are long gone. Since Google’s Penguin algorithm update back in April of 2012, these tactics can actually hurt your site’s organic search rankings if they look spammy or manipulative.

So, what exactly do you get with each of the tactics above? Let’s dive into a bit more detail.

Mass website directory submissions
Directory submissions done on a mass scale were very popular several years ago, due to the scalability of the tactic. Tons of software programs were developed that automated or semi-automated the process of submitting one’s website to a directory. The problem is that these directories added no value to users; they simply existed to make money off advertising revenue and leach users from search results pages. Furthermore, business owners and SEOs were trained to use manipulative, exact-match anchor text in their listings, which was later heavily penalized by Google’s Penguin algorithm update. Of all the link profile audits I’ve conducted, spammy website directories are the most common type of link I’ve recommended for removal.

Mass article directory submissions
This tactic is different than website directory submissions, because it requires an article to be written and submitted to the directory. This was another scalable and popular tactic prior to Google Penguin, because it worked pretty well, and also had strong support from software that would automate the process. Articles are often “spun,” meaning that certain words or phrases are changed (usually automatically) to their synonyms and then randomized, resulting in something unrecognizable to search engines. This is done to avoid a duplicate content penalty. Unfortunately, the output of the “spun” articles is often gibberish that makes no sense and only clogs up search engine results pages with nonsense.

Social bookmarking
This tactic became popular after webmasters realized that social signals affect SEO rankings. The idea is that if people bookmark a website on various social platforms, that website will gain “social proof” and improve in organic search rankings. This tactic is easily scalable, spawning several web-based services that automate the process of collecting them. The problem is that when Google updated its “Link Schemes” Webmaster Guidelines on October 16th, 2012, it specifically called out automated link building programs, which is exactly what these web-based services are.

Link wheels
When SEOs figured out that they could extract extra value from links by including multiple links to other content that linked back to their own website, this tactic became popular. It worked quite well for months, but was quickly sniffed out and squashed by Google.

Profile links
Like website directory submissions, this tactic became popular because it was easily scalable and supported by numerous software programs which automated the process.  The process involves registering at various forums and social sites that allow users to have a publicly-viewable profile, then inserting a link in the bio to one’s website. This is really annoying for website admins, and results in no value to users.

Blog commenting
If you run a blog, you already likely know what comment spam is. I get dozens per day across my websites. While blog commenting can be a beneficial tactic when done properly (ie, in a way that adds value and insight), I’ve never seen it done by a firm in a way that I’d consider acceptable. This tactic is usually performed on a mass scale by either an automated software program, or by someone overseas who barely speaks English and doesn’t actually read the blog post.

Other Useless Tactics
Aside from the zero-value link building tactics above, I saw several other services promised on the various proposals I reviewed. Among them were:

• Search engine submission
• SEO work (hours)
• Local map and places visibility
• Onsite content writing

Let’s take a closer look at what each of these tactics actually mean, and how to know whether it’ll provide value or not.

Search engine submission
While this tactic may have been useful 10 years ago, before search engines had the capability to crawl vast amounts of the Web quickly, it’s completely useless now. The point of this tactic is to get your website indexed in the search engines, essentially letting them know that your website exists. There’s a way to find out if this will help you or not in about 10 seconds; simply visit Google.com and search for your company name (or your company URL). If your website returns as a result, then you don’t need to submit it to search engines, because they already know about you. It’s as simple as that. I’ve never actually worked with a client whose website wasn’t already indexed in Google and Bing.

SEO work (hours)
While spending hours working on your website’s SEO is not a bad thing in itself, the value of this tactic depends entirely on the expertise of the SEO working on your website. There’s no textbook on proper SEO, and there’s no regulation on who can call themselves an SEO professional. As a result, way too many under qualified self-professed “SEO professionals” are providing services and advice that’s just plain bad. I saw one proposal that included 8 hours of SEO consulting per month (in addition to many of the other services listed above), with the total price being $249/month. That tells me right away that the consulting hours would be provided by extremely cheap labor overseas, and this is usually the type of “SEO Professional” that you should avoid. Good SEO consultants generally don’t charge less than $100/hour, and top-tier ones are in the $1,000-$2,000/hour range.

Local map & places visibility
Local SEO optimization is important, but initial setup is a one-time thing. When a company promises local SEO, ask them specifically what they’re going to do on a monthly basis to improve local SEO results. Otherwise, you’re paying monthly for a service that was only rendered in the first month.

Onsite content writing
One proposal I reviewed promised several onsite articles posted to the client’s website each month. I had him ask for examples of content that would be provided, and wasn’t surprised when I saw the examples that were provided to him. They were littered with poor grammar, obviously written by someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language, stuffed with unnecessary over-use of keywords, and provided no useful or insightful information. Furthermore, each example was only about 250 words.

An onsite content strategy should be an important part of every business owner’s online marketing initiative, but if you can’t read an article and truly feel proud of it, then you shouldn’t post it. Google has become very good at differentiating high-quality content from low-quality content, and Google’s Panda algorithm update will penalize you for having too much of the low-quality stuff.

Conclusion
Now more than ever, business owners are bombarded with bad advice and the lure of cheap services with impossible promises. While several years ago it was relatively easy to manipulate organic search results with quantity-focused spammy tactics, those days are over. SEO success is no longer about specific tactics, but rather an overall strategy. Furthermore, it’s an investment in your business for the long-term and should be treated as such.  I hope this guide helps clear up some of the misinformation pervading the SEO industry.

Did I leave anything out? Did I get it right? Did I save you from a bad deal? Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

Jayson DeMers is founder and CEO of AudienceBloom, a Seattle-based SEO agency. You can contact him on LinkedIn or by email.

photo credit: kevin dooley via photopin cc