Will Spencer is one of the many web publishers who has been around for many years, learned his craft and until recently has been low key. His forum Netbuilders.org was voted as the most helpful webmaster/ web marketing forum by the readers of SearchFeature.com.

Net Builders at its young age already enjoys nice success and many have started seeing results in their internet business from advice they have taken from a community filled with successful web publishers earning $50,000.00 and above monthly and freely contributing knowledge for those who take the time to take the steps to improve their earnings.

Search Feature: Will, Google adsense has been a catalyst for countless discussions and arguments on forums everywhere and I would like to get from you your point of few as to how you believe their performance has increased, decreased, shifted or changed for better or worse in the past few years and what do you believe adsense could do right now to help them become more efficient for advertisers and publishers alike?

Will Spencer: AdSense payouts to publishers have been steadily decreasing for several years.  It is widely believed that this is because Google is constantly lowering the percentage of AdWords revenue it shares with publishers. One of the best things Google could do would be to introduce transparency into it’s accounting systems to allow publishers to find out what they are being paid.

Google could also improve their publisher relations by providing telephone and email support to AdSense partners.  Google is relentlessly focusing on automated support mechanisms that are unfortunately terrible.  They provide very little value to AdSense publishers and Google is providing no effective alternative to their automated systems.

SF: Everyone seems to want quick cash, but few have the patience to actually do their homework and then work towards reasonable goal. Let’s say I am a newbie and come on your forum asking, “Hey Will, I want to make as much money as you, what should I do?”

WS: I’d recommend you find a niche that you are really interested in and build a site so good that YOU would want to visit it. Building great sites saves you a lot of money which you would otherwise spend on marketing.

Of course, in reality you will not say what you really think in response to such a question, at least not on your own forum, but please be frank with us and let us know exactly how you would respond were you forced to be brutally honest without the fear of hurting someone else’s feelings.

I’m a straight forward guy.  I’ve never been good at sparing people’s feeling.  I think that, overall, most people need to toughen up a bit. In kindergarten I was taught “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”  It believe that most people would benefit from learning that lesson.

SF: Net Builders seems to be doing great, and I would like to know from you what is your long term vision and what are you trying to build that has not yet been delivered in this industry of ours?

WS: My goal with NetBuilders is to create an environment which pushes people to succeed.  A lot of other webmaster communities seem to revel in gossip and chatter.  I believe that while a reasonable amount of socialization is healthy, a lot of webmasters should be paying more attention to their building their web sites than to inflating their forum post counts.

NetBuilders is focused on maintaining a higher quality of posts, because I really want it to be a learning environment.  I want every hour a person spends at NetBuilders to be a worthwhile investment of their time.

SF: Even though you yourself have great knowledge of SEO, you are not providing services for others. Can you please give us some insight as to what you would be looking for if you yourself considered hiring an SEO company after years of seeing the good, the bad, the ugly and the scammers?

WS: As a fairly knowledgeable SEO, I tend to buy from vendors who provide a la carte service offerings at competitive prices. Customers who are not in the SEO industry are often more interested in package deals which are prepared for them.

I want to know what I’m getting, in detail.  Vendors still occasionally try to snow me with vague claims about their services and after one or two message exchanges I just ignore them.  Life is too short to deal with people who won’t talk straight.

SF: Will, let’s say I am making $50,000.00 a year and I need it to keep up with my bills. I make $1,200.00 a month working 10 hours a week online in addition and want to do nothing more than break free from my job and devote all of my time to start my own Internet business but am frightened to take the step. Having seen you make that leap at one
point, give us a few reasonable steps for someone to goals and when would you jump into it 100 percent?

WS: I have always been a huge proponent of starting a business while keeping your day job.  For most people, it’s a great compromise between security and growth.

I’d say that if you’re only working 10 hours a week on your business, you’re a slacker and you don’t deserve to succeed.  :p

The point to make the jump to full-time is different for everyone, because it really depends upon your needs for cashflow.  If you have lower expenses, you can be more aggressive.  If you have a mortgage and kids, you’re going to have to be a lot more cautious.

Keep working at it though — you can succeed if you WANT to succeed.

SF: What makes Net Builders a forum that people are interested in spending time on is the fact that members discuss what works and what doesn’t rather than getting too deep into search engine related discussions. To think outside of the box for a little bit, where do you see the best traffic coming from.

WS: The best traffic is traffic that converts.  That’s different for every niche.  For me, referral traffic converts the best and search engine traffic is a close #2.  Social media traffic converts very poorly in my niches.  PPC traffic is just too expensive to consider in most of the niches I operate in.

SF: I know quite a few people who have managed to land deals through Twitter, Facebook and other networks. Are you exploring those avenues, do you recommend that webmasters spend time doing so and where do you see new opportunities rising and old opportunities dying in the next 5 years?

WS: Social networks are great for people in professional service industries like SEO.  I am not selling services, so I don’t invest a lot of time in those networks.  Of those networks, the one I use most in LinkedIn.  I think they provide a lot more value in less time than Twitter or Facebook.

SF: Aside from Net Builders, name a few resources worth taking advantage of. Where do you go when you want information? What networks do you recommend paying attention to and name a couple of mistakes to avoid which you have witnessed people wasting their time on.

WS: I am a huge fan of Aaron Wall’s SEOBook Community.  I’ve learned a lot from Aaron, and I would have learned a lot more if I had joined earlier.

I believe that the biggest mistake people make is not trying enough new strategies and tactics.  The second biggest mistake is not sticking with each one long enough to determine if it will work.  Webmasters, as a group, tend to spend too much time getting caught up in “paralysis by analysis” and not enough time actually building stuff.  The best way to
determine if something will work is to try it.  That’s what I would like to encourage everyone to do.

SF: Thank you for the interview, Will, and I’ll see you around!

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SearchFeature.com’s first poll in September 2009 was to find the most helpful web marketing blog by our readers. The first out of the top 7 most helpful blog chosen by our readers that month are the blogs belonging to Bas van den Beld, of SearchCowboys.com who is also a contributing author at Danny Sullivan’s and Chris Sherman’s  SearchEngineLand.com, also one of the top 7 most helpful web marketing blog according to SF’s readers. SearchFeature.com decided to interview Bas to get to know and have a closer look at the person behind.

Search Feature (SF): Thank you Bas, for agreeing to this interview! Perhaps the best way for us to begin is for you to tell us a bit about yourself, SearchCowboys.com, SearchEngineLand.com and Nettraject.nl.

Bas van den Beld (BB): I am blogger, consultant, project manager, coach, search marketer and publicist on the web. I live in The Netherlands and am the owner of my own company NetTraject and Chief Editor of Searchcowboys. I also contribute to Searchengineland and I am the host of the Searchcowboys show on Webmasterradio.fm. I am also a regular speaker on international search events.

As Chief Editor I am responsible for the content of the website and one of the most active writers. I am well informed about what’s going on in the world of Internet Marketing and Search Marketing.

Searchcowboys.com has a European focus but covers the entire search industry. The website also is known for its extensive coverage of events such as A4UExpo, SMX and SES.

Next to being Chief Editor I am also owner of the company NetTraject, which focuses on strategy on search and social media. NetTraject also is a gateway to Europe. In this company we help those looking to do business in Europe and wanting to use search in that get to the right partners.

Could you tell us a little bit about your own history and background? How did you get started with search engine marketing?

I’ve always had an interest in search engine marketing. I was first pointed to it by an ex-roommate of my sister, Paul Aelen, one of the founders of DutchCowboys together with Henk de Hooge. Since I always wanted to be a journalist I started following what went on in the search market and write about it. That’s how Searchcowboys started.

A lot of people have attempted to generate income online and conquer the search engines but many of them fail to do so. What do you think is the biggest or the most common mistakes people make in search marketing?

The biggest mistake is thinking you are done, because you never are. You have to keep on working and keep on improving. Only with 110% effort you will become successful.

What kind of result should people expect when they are just starting out with search marketing? How long did it take for you to succeed in search marketing?

That all depends on what exactly you are working on and aiming for. If you work hard and choose the right direction you can be successful soon. I am successful now, but if I’ve succeeded you can only tell when I retire, not before that .

You have a bunch of up-to-date information on an industry that is constantly changing. How do you keep yourself up-to-date all the time?

You wouldn’t believe the size of my feedreader . Next to that Twitter, conferences, blogs and networking keeps me up to date.

Where do you see the internet is taking us in the future? And also how important is and will the Internet be for business ventures in Europe specifically?

Try looking at Layar.com that is a peek into the future. It will be much more ‘natural’ than it is now. Internet will be very important for business ventures, both inside and outside Europe. In Europe it will also be important because it can make boundaries disappear.

Do you have any last words that you would like to share with the readers in order to succeed in search marketing?

Give it your 110%, be realistic and don’t think you can do it all alone .

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Back in 2002 I lived in Ocean Beach, San Francisco and worked at Haight and Cole. I went by the Craigslist building a few times and it didn’t look like much. I used Craigslist back then and when I moved to San Diego, I was happy to see that he had put up a San Diego section.

Now Craigslist is known world wide as a place to find just about anything, a business directory, a free alternative to ebay, a place to meet people. Craig Newmark is one of the few who will be likely to have a permanent place on the web for generations to come, so I am happy to have had the opportunity to conduct an interview with the man who came out of nowhere to become one of the first to connect the dots of the web:

Mike Dammann: Craig, you have started out in a small building in San Francisco and have now become one of the top internet site owners. At what point did you realize that Craigslist was going to be bigger than anything you have ever done and what was the first thing that you did to get ready for what this would turn out to become?

Craig Newmark: Never was much of an observation like that, since growth was always slow and steady.  On a continuous basis, we try to keep ahead of the performance curve.  In the race between the tortoise and the hare, we’re
the tortoise.

A lot of people out there want money, they want to make money online, but don’t really have a clue or any guideline on how to go about it. You on the other hand seem to be the opposite. You filled a need without even monetizing for quite some time, correct? What was your initial goal and how have your goals changed since then?

Never had an initial goal, just wanted to give back to the community. Now the commitment is larger, and it’s all a matter of following through.

Regarding other websites: Do you own any, have you ever failed at any projects? Are there projects you have yet to start? No need to reveal anything, but I would like to know what else inspires you and if there is anything new that we can expect from you.

I’ve made a coupl of big blunders early on, at craigslist, that I can’t talk much about.  Some of my consulting efforts didn’t go anywhere, including a box that was supposed to be a cheap home server, in 1996.

Let’s look for a moment on how the internet has changed since you have started. How marketing has shifted. Back in the days, social media was unheard of. There obviously was a need back then which has not been filled until recently. Unlike most sites which have started back then, your model has not changed, only expanded. Are you planning to ever change anything from how you have been operating for years and if so, why?

No changes in the sense you mean; we do one thing really well, and don’t want to screw that up.  There will be more cities, more languages, and always better customer service.

I’m curious as to how much time and energy you guys are spending to cut down the spam. I am assuming with your traffic it must be quite a bit. Do people get the hint that spam won’t last long, or are spammers getting smarter and what advice would you give any platform owner out there when it comes to keeping their community clean?

Can’t disclose anything along these lines.  You don’t want to tip off the bad guys.

I have checked your blog before conducting this interview, and obviously it’s tough to miss who you support in this upcoming election. Even though I myself am vocal in this arena, I am not always sure if it’s a good idea and would like to get your opinion on a comment which I have just read, Cartoonbarry.com.

Ultimately I feel it’s my duty to vote based on what’s best for myself, my family and my own situation.

I feel it’s *NOT* my job to change anyone else’s mind because their situation may be very different from mine.

my $.02.

Do you think that us supporting a candidate is good and what approach do you believe to be the best? How do you educate people who have not that much interest in learning about what either candidate stands for?

I think 2008 is much like 1776. Back then, the Founders gave up pretty good representative democracy, with some means for grassroots efforts. The Internet allows one to scale grassroots efforts from thousands to millions and that complements the representative system well.  I feel we all need to stand up for what we feel is the right thing.

Educating people, I’m not so good at, but I’ve been blogging and doing public speaking, hopefully with some effect.

Your resume and previous interviews have shown me that you feel comfortable being a “nerd”, yet you have been in the limelight for quite some time.

What is it about the net industry that so many talented programmers have such poor social skills, yet there are some who combine both worlds well? Are you more inspired by the technical aspect of the web, or are you more motivated by what you want to bring to the world and then find a way to deliver that?

Some people live in their head a lot, and have good technology and engineering skills. I’m one such person, initially attracted by the tech but now I’ve become a kind of community organizer. That works for me.

I forgot how much it was, but you have been offered a substantial amount of money for Craigslist and didn’t sell it. I sometimes ask myself what will happen to sites like yours some day, let’s say in 100 years.

Are you the kind of person who has a hard time separating from his own creation and what are you going to do to impact a continuance of your own vision with the project?

I’m committed, and persistent, and just don’t even consider separation.

Craig, this last question is about the future of the web. Where do you see the web in 50 years? What sorts of phenomenons do you see coming which have not been thought of yet? What sort of advice would you give web marketers, creative people and entrepreneurs who want to become an early part of something new and how do you yourself anticipate your very own role in what is about to happen?

That’s a huge question, hard to start.

For sure, I think the primary connection to the Net for most people will be increasingly smart mobile phones.  It’s easier, in much of the world, to set up wireless networks, and maybe everyone needs a phone.

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Mike Dammann: Anil, you have been on the map for a while, but one of the things most people will remember you for is your victory in the first SEO contest ever. How has this popularity in the SEO world affected your regular work and do  people still ask you for advice because of it?

Anil Dash: These days, very few people ask for my feedback on SEO, because it’s been a number of years since that contest. But being aware of search engines is still a big part of my job, trying to make best practices automatic on our platforms, so that people don’t have to be aware of
this stuff if they just want to share their ideas or promote their efforts online.

In the past few years you have been responsible for quite a lot of innovations online. Being a part of the team creating Typepad and Moveable Type is one thing that comes to mind. It seems to me that blogging is what really your passion is. How has blogging changed your life, business and private and what do you recommend taking into consideration when creating an online persona per se through a blog?

Blogging’s impacted every part of my life, from being the base of my career to connecting me to some of my closest friends to helping me the couple that introduced me to my wife. I think if you consider it just another communications medium like email or the telephone, but with some unique powers for reaching a large audience, you can immediately think of ways to take advantage of it.

Of course, the potential for reaching that audience has some risks as well. The key thing to keep in mind is that the things you say will be online forever, with your name attached. I probably was a lot more antagonistic when I was younger and hadn’t quite learned that lesson.

Similarly, those of us who run sites are responsible for them, and it makes sense to make sure your authors and commenters are being accountable for what they publish online.

Now about Moveable Type version 4.2. Tell us a little bit about what to expect and in light of the many hack attacks on wordpress blogs, what sort of improvement in blog security can we expect to see?

Well, Movable Type’s long had a history of really strong security. This is where I think we really benefit from having a dual-licensed platform. Many of our best security improvements have come from submissions created by developers in our open source community, and then of course our own team of developers has done extensive work on security as well.

The key thing is, this isn’t about some competition between two successful blogging companies — this is about what’s good for the web. It’s a serious danger when there is potential for a huge number of sites to get hacked or even to be silently attacked and taken over by malicious coders. It’s just as terrible that so many people who don’t use Movable Type are at risk of having their content removed entirely from search engines if they get hacked through no fault of
their own. That’s basically facing an SEO death sentence, and it’s largely avoidable by using tools that don’t have that history of being insecure repeatedly.

How much attention do you yourself pay to seo these days and what are some of the best new things you have learned in the past let’s say 6 months?

It’s interesting, I’ve kind of changed the way I look at SEO. I think my initial introduction to it was from some of the worst black hats kind of defining the space, and there’s been a great evolution as the importance of regular best practices starts to be the focus. I mean, if you’re selling enlargement pills, maybe you need to be super aggressive with what you’re doing, but for 99% of publishers and businesses, they’d do well just to follow a few simple rules and not
having to know all the tips and tricks.

So the thing I’ve mostly been trying to pay attention to recently is, how can we at Six Apart (as a company that makes publishing tools) make it automatic that a lot of the fundamental SEO rules are being followed, so that regular people don’t have to even think about such things.

Looking at the history, I need to ask you what you are planning to do to help make it easier to install Moveable Type. And also easier for not so tech savvy bloggers to get security updates without having to hire anybody. Can we expect something new on cpanel anytime soon? Which are some of the new features coming up and also: Do you believe that the majority of recent attacks on WordPress blogs came thru plugins and is it true that themes aren’t code, so they can’t have security bugs? I have also noticed that when a MT database goes down due to high traffic from Digg or whatever, you can actually still access the  content of your blog. What else is there that makes MT unique and better than WP?

There’s a few different issues all tied in together here, but at the highest level, we don’t focus on our competitors who make software, we try to focus on what’s good for the web as a whole. So, we can do things like making TypePad AntiSpam the only totally free, open source blog spam prevention system. Of course, the competitor in my points
out that it works better than Akismet, but we’ve made it freely available for people whether they’re using WordPress or Movable Type or anything else, because we think it’s good for the web. Same with our Blog It application for the iPhone or for Facebook, which work with any tool out there.

With that in mind, though, there’s still a lot we can learn from other platforms out there, and installation is a good example. By its very nature, MT does a lot more out of the box than most tools, without needing third-party plugins, and partially as a result of that, installation can be tricky. So we’re making available completely-configured systems with MT in formats such as virtual machines and Amazon machine images for EC2. That means we’re definitely interested in working with the Cpanels and Fantasticos of the world about integrating Movable Type.

Here’s the thing, though: A five-minute install doesn’t save you any time if you’re having to repeat it every other week for a new security update. With MT, it’s very common for a major release version to be completely supported and secure for a year, during which time you don’t have to touch your system at all. So the biggest thing we can do for security is to reduce the upgrade fatigue that makes people not want to stay up-to-date with their software.

We also make some smart choices with the application itself. While we’ve supported dynamic publishing for years, we still are huge advocates of publishing static pages, because then you don’t have to worry about that Blue Screen of Death, the dreaded “Database Connection Error” that other tools always show when a site gets Dugg. In the past, static pages had a tradeoff in publishing time, but MT 4.2 is several times faster in publishing and supports some really
smart caching abilities by default, so a lot of that wait time is gone.

And Matt Mullenweg himself placed the blame for most security bug reports on the WP community’s theme developers and plugin developers. I’m not sure if that’s true, or if it’s fair, but I think it’s hard to expect all plugin and theme developers to be completely secure all of the time. As a result, the vast majority of what people would use a plugin for on WordPress can be done using native, secure, tested Movable Type template tags instead.

Where can we see you next? What is new in your personal life? Share something readers may not know and give a few more words of advice for anybody who wants to be successful online. What do you want to be known for the most?

I’m actually taking a little bit of time off from travel for a while, though I’m usually running around nonstop speaking at conferences. As a proud New Yorker, I’m really looking forward to the Web 2.0 Expo coming to New York this fall.

In my personal life, I’ve just been enjoying being in the city in the summer. From the great food to an infinite number of things to do, summer in New York City is still a pretty magical thing.

As far as advice goes, I’m not sure I’ve got any insights that people wouldn’t figure out on their own. But what’s worked well for me is to pick something that I genuinely love, even when people thought it was crazy and there was no money in it. And I’ve just stayed focused on that for nearly every waking hour for a few years now, even long after people said “oh, that’s old news” or whatever. And as a result, every opportunity or achievement I could have aspired to has opened up to me.

I’d like people to remember that I don’t take myself too seriously, and that I really appreciate that I get to have so much fun and have such a good life.

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Mike Dammann: Darren, thank you for your time to grant me this interview.

Darren Rowse: You’re welcome Mike – always a pleasure to be invited to a ‘Blog Party’

I’m not sure when exactly I’ve started noticing ProBlogger, but I recall about 6 months ago seeing your site all over the place and being referred to everywhere.

Did you anticipate such a success or did it just happen?

ProBlogger.net is a blog that has emerged over time. It’s been referred to as some as an overnight success but the reality is that I’ll have been blogging on it for two years this September.

When I started it I didn’t expect that it would ever be the most visited blog going around (and it isn’t) but I knew it was a topic that would have an increase in the amount of people wanting to explore it so I was quietly confident that it would be a worthwhile venture.

How did you get started? Was it something you’ve planned or simply sharing aspects of blogging you yourself are interested in?

I had previously been blogging about blogging on my personal blog off and on for a year or more. On that blog I’d been documenting my own discoveries about making money from blogging but it got to a point where that topic began to dominate the blog a little too much. I also didn’t see the sense in continuing to blog there on the topic on a domain that just wasn’t aligned with the topic.

The idea for ‘problogger’ as a name just hit me one day as I realized that that is what I’d become (or was becoming) in terms of where my primary source of income was.

I didn’t plan it out in great detail but just started ProBlogger with the goal of sharing what I know about blogging and making money. There was no goal for it to become anything other than that in those early days.

Where do you see blogging headed? Where do you see yourself headed? How do you believe the internet and the way people surf/search is going to alter over the next 5-10 years?

Blogging is a slippery thing to define or predict as it’s something that is still growing and always changing. Obviously more and more people are getting into it with commercial aspirations so ProBlogging is becoming quite competitive. We’re also seeing a lot of self organization going on (blog networks etc) and a whole industry of tools, services and associated products rising up. Along side blogging is an increasing focus on other technologies (podcasting, vidcasting, web 2.0 services) which all seem to be feeding off one another and converging. I suspect this will continue to happen.

Where am I headed? I’ve been slowly putting more time and energy into b5media (the blog network that I co-own). We’re only 8 or so months old and are in a stage of consolidating what we’ve done and taking a step up to the next level. This will continue to be a larger part of my own focus in the coming 12 months.

Do you read blogs like Shoemoney and Jensense dealing with more ways to generate income? I’ve also noticed you spending some time discussing Search Engine Optimization. Are you yourself studying the search engines and experimenting with new ways bloggers can generate revenue from their weblog?

I read hundreds of blogs each day including those two blogs. I try to keep my head around as many developments on the topic of making money online as I can (both inside and outside of blogging). I try to blog in a holistic way which means being aware of SEO as you suggest but which also looks at other ways of generating traffic, blog design, writing quality content, using blog tools effectively etc. As a result I keep an eye on a lot of threads of conversations and topics and don’t just focus on any one of them.

Tell us something to get to know the man behind the ProBlogger phenomenon a little bit better. What advice do you have to those who want to start a blog, but are unsure about how to go about it? What impact on the world would you like to leave behind?

I’m just a normal guy. If anything I’m a little shy. I enjoy being entrepreneurial, I’m interested in spirituality (I’m a voluntary minister in my ‘spare time’), I love photography, I enjoy interacting with people.

My advice to new bloggers is simply to start one and see whether blogging fits with you, your personality and your lifestyle. It’s not for everyone but the only way to find out is to do it and let it evolve from there. Be yourself, interact with the readers who come visiting, interact with other blogs and bloggers and write about what you love. It’s not rocket science. I’ve written an extensive series on blogging for beginners here

Thank you, Darren.

No Problem.

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The interview with John Scott of V7N.com below was conducted by Mike Dammann.

John, thank you for your time to give us this interview. What have you been doing lately?

First, thank you for taking the time to interview me.

Since the latter part of 2005, I’ve gotten back into the Internet marketing thing full time. Most of my time is spent developing v7n.com into the website it should have been years ago. We are adding new value to the site – more features, more activities – on a weekly basis now.

I look forward to v7n keeping and maintaining its previous traffic levels and usefulness.

You have been absent more or less for about a year. What has motivated you to come back full force?

The Sea of Japan.

In 2003 and 2004 we grew by leaps and bounds. But with growth comes headaches, and I succumbed to burn-out somewhere in the beginning of 2005. I essentially walked away from v7n and left it in the hands of employees.

In late 2005 however, I spent some quality time on the Sea of Japan. I had time to reflect on my life, and it occurred to me that I had wasted a lot of what God had given me.

It was a rebirth of sorts for me, and I became determined to see this community – the v7n community – reach its full potential. We’d gotten to where we were by being genuinely concerned with the well being of our members, and it’s something I’m now committed to.

My opinion may be biased, but I believe that v7n adds something special to the Internet landscape. Our members are top notch people, and they care for one another.

What do you consider your biggest accomplishment so far and what do you want to accomplish in the future?

My biggest accomplishment – my children. They’re absolutely beautiful.

Professionally, I believe that V7N would have to be the one thing I’m the most proud of. I’ve put a lot of work into it. I’ve put a lot of my life into it, and when members say “Thanks, I’ve learned so much” it really means a lot to me.

Looking into 2006 and 2007, I believe that V7N is in a great position to start offering webmasters more tools to build their businesses. I believe we can offer many services for free that other sites charge fees for. I believe the key to success here is in offering more webmasters more of what they need, and not charging for it.

Who has inspired you when it comes to running your business and creating a company like yours?

My father. He was a successful businessman, but he didn’t chase the money. His advice was, “Whatever you do, do it best, and success will follow.”

What do you say to those who are critical of you? How do you feel when you’re publicizing a contest and there are some who are right away jumping on you and making a name for themselves by using yours?

There will always be folks like that. But it’s a short term strategy which doesn’t really build a positive brand.

When we look at how Greg Boser has promoted himself, it’s always by being obnoxious. But it’s the easiest thing on the Internet to do – and Internet critics are a dime a dozen – and most folks see right through it. The simple fact is that most folks in this industry don’t give a rat’s tail about the politics.

The SEO industry is full of politics, and there are different ways of dealing with it. I called Doug Heil up a year or so ago, and we talked a bit, and I’m genuinely convinced that we could never see eye to eye. But I don’t run around ragging on Doug Heil personally. It wouldn’t be professional, and although I may not respect his professional opinions, I respect him as a person.

And let me take this opportunity to say that I don’t take any of what Greg Boser has done personally. When people contact me and express concern over this “war of the SEO’s”, I’m somewhat amused. I’ve attacked several clowns who I believe are nothing more than scam artists and borderline criminals, but you don’t see me doing background checks and asset searches on Greg. If Greg Boser wants to offend me, he’ll have to try harder.

Where do you see search engine optimization headed in the future?

I’ve long been critical of most search engine optimization. Any sort of on-page optimization which places search engine rankings over the marketing integrity / brand integrity of a website is a mistake. You don’t see strong brands using cheap SEO tactics, and that’s because cheap SEO tactics are not compatible with strong branding.

What would you think if you went to the Google home page and saw “Search Engine” on the index page in heading tags, italics, and bolded font? Your perception of the Google brand would be drastically altered, and not for the better.

In my experience, strong brands opt for pay per click advertising before they opt to trash their pages with bloated keyword density and the like. One thing many amateur SEO’s can’t seem to understand fully is that brand, not search engine rankings, is the ace in the hole. Build a brand and consumers will search less for “generic” and more for “your brand”. If you doubt me, look up and compare the search count for “soda” and compare that to the search count for “Pepsi” or “Coke”.

Traffic has never equaled sales. Branding is much closer to profitability than traffic, and having said that I’ll venture a guess that more money will go to PPC and less to organic search engine optimization.

You’re currently living in Japan. When are you coming back on American soil and will you be going to conferences again?

I currently go back to the States about once a month. I look forward to attending more Search Engine Strategies Conferences and meeting the friends I’ve made online.

After the contest … any plans?

Building V7N and doing some other things I would rather not mention just yet. Look out for lots of improvements!

Who would you like to see win?

A friend. I have so many friends competing in this that I can’t really choose one over another, but it would be great if a friend got the prize money.

Looking back at the past 3 years, what would you have done differently if you could do it again?

I think that it’s easy to mess up in your personal life when you’re doing the best professionally. It’s easy to spend too much time working, and not enough with your family, kids, wife, etc. That is one thing I regret immensely.

In the “other regrets” department, I definitely regret not being more personally involved in the management of our web directories. I was very happy when BlueFind got PR8, and I wish that we had been more careful with it. The folks we had editing it were not as strict as they probably should have been, and it’s entirely my fault for not being more involved. BlueFind got hit pretty hard by Google, and when I took the time to go look through some of the categories, it’s entirely understandable why it got whacked. Some of the crap in there should never have been allowed in, and it’s going to be a lot of work to clean it up and get it to where I want it.

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