Does SEO Link Building Takes Time? There is no easy backlink method

Ethical Marketing

A while back, I wrote about how to craft an auto-DM for Twitter that isn't spam. In that post, I promised to elaborate on my "4 'N's of Twitter" strategy in a future post. This is that future post. The First 'N' of Twitter: Engage Okay, so the first 'N' doesn't actually start with the letter "N". That's [...]

Hi. My name is Antone, and I have a problem. I am an idiot. (But please, no comments saying "I agree with everything in this post!" :-) This morning, I took a look at the opt-in stats for my mailing lists, and discovered something disturbing. Two of my most important opt-in forms weren't getting any new [...]

As I mentioned in my last post, this blog was in need of a facelift. And today, it's here. (You can see what it used to look like in a screenshot at the end of the previous post.) The goal of the new theme is to reduce distractions, so that you can get right to the [...]

It's been said a million times - your website needs more white space. Judging from how most websites look (including this one! More on that below), it needs to be said a million and one times. I've been thinking a lot recently about how to use white space and related design elements to communicate more impactfully, [...]

You've heard the argument before: "Facebook is the biggest site on the internet. They get 70 gajillion hits a day. If you're not marketing on Facebook, you're missing out on the biggest traffic opportunity on the internet." You'll hear the same thing about YouTube -- it's the third biggest site on the internet. Therefore, only an [...]

Last July, I posted an article, inspired by Seth Godin, entitled Do Only Cheaters Prosper? Something one of my Twitter followers, Robert Medak, wrote recently brought the question back to mind yesterday. He said: Treating customers ethically and honestly is good for your bottom line, customer retention, and word of mouth advertising. What you are helping to [...]

The verdict is in on auto-DMs -- those direct messages you receive shortly after following somebody on Twitter. The judge and jury agree: everybody hates 'em. Some people unfollow anyone who sends one. Don't use 'em. But wait...breaking news! The decision has been overturned on appeal! That is, if you know how to write an auto-DM with [...]

If marketing had 10 commandments, one of them would be "thou shalt know thy customer". It's not difficult to get a general idea of why this is important. For example, you have to know your customer to know what kind of sales pitch will appeal to them. If your product has two benefits, and most customers [...]

I was thinking today that I'd like to do something for my subscribers -- something to benefit you, and to build some relationships. Those are themes that keep popping up in different ways in a lot of the things I'm doing and reading recently: do a favor, work together, build relationships. Nice ideals. But without action, [...]

Amazon.com is running an ad on TV where they brag about all their innovations. And they deserve to brag. Heck, I'll brag for them. My dad bought me a Kindle for Christmas nearly two years ago, and it's the one present I've used every single day since getting it. Awesome innovation. Another thing they brag about [...]

Internet Marketing Tools

In 2013, Outrank Competitors & Pick Keywords with Confidence: Two Powerful New ?Authority? Metrics Have you heard this SEO ?story? before? Two African explorers who realise they?re being stalked by a hungry Lion. The first drops everything and runs for his life while the second scoffs and says, ?why bother, that Lion?s faster than you!?. [...]

Hi Folks, Today we?re excited to launch an important upgrade to our Keyword Research module. Quickly finding the perfect keywords and boosting your online profits just got easier. As a Market Samurai user, you?ve heard about the Samurai ?Four Golden Rules?. The rules that ensure you don?t waste hours (or months…) on the 99% of [...]

For many years, the 4 minute mile was considered not only physically IMPOSSIBLE, but according to doctors of the time – actually dangerous to the health of anyone who attempted it. But then on May 6th, 1954 a 25-year-old medical student named Roger Bannister – smashed through the 4 minute barrier in what Forbes magazine [...]

As a business owner like you, I?m constantly on the lookout for ideas that can help me and my team be more productive, and I?ve got a great one to share with you today! Recently I was reading a book named ?The Lean Product Development Guidebook? by Ronald Mascitelli. I?ll spare you the technical details, [...]

Following the carnage of Google?s Penguin update and the release of their Disavow tool, I?ve noticed an interesting shift taking place in the SEO community. I must admit, when I hear a new idea for the first time, I usually take it with a grain of salt… BUT – when several people I respect start [...]

On April 24th Google unleashed the biggest change to its search engine algorithm in over 8 years – the dreaded ?Penguin? update. In a nutshell, they began PENALIZING websites that obtained poor quality links, and websites that had too many ?SEO Optimized? anchor text links. For the first time ever, links can POISON your site, [...]

Today we have some GREAT news: After many long weeks of coding (and over 80,000 lines of new code) we?re really excited to unveil your New Rank Tracker System to you… And we couldn?t be happier with the result! Now there?s a ton of information in this blog post, but I wanted to be as [...]

Hi All, This is just a quick progress update on the new Rank Tracker… 1,218 Market Samurai Owners Have Tested The New Rank Tracker: Thanks to the 1,218 Market Samurai owners who have generously taken time out of their schedules to test the new Rank Tracker ? the beta program has been a huge success! [...]

**Sorry guys, the Rank Tracker Beta program has now closed! A huge thank you to everyone who participated in the Beta, we received some excellent feedback and made many changes to the software as a result. For everyone else, be sure to check your inboxes over the next few weeks for more information about the [...]

I’m really glad to be able to share with you some more information about the new Rank Tracker service. This blog post contains a lot of information, but I wanted to answer as many of your questions as possible about our new service. In particular this blog post will cover: A recap on the current [...]

Premium WordPress Themes

We are very pleased to announce that Genesis 2.0 Beta is now available!

NOTE: Please remember that with all beta versions, we strongly suggest that you do not use it on production sites, but only for testing purposes.

Genesis 2.0 utilizes HTML5 to provide a number of features that we’re very excited to share with you, so can get testing.

Ready? Click here to see the new Genesis Framework 2.0 demo site.

Brand New Design

Genesis is sporting a fresh new look.

We’ve taken advantage of the new HTML5 markup, as well as some snazzy CSS3, and we think you’re gonna love this.

HTML5 Markup

Genesis has always been on the cutting edge of web technology, and Genesis 2.0 continues in that excellent tradition.

With a single line of code in a child theme, Genesis will now output HTML5 markup in place of the old XHTML tags. Also, every theme we build in the future will be developed on HTML5.

Microdata

If you’re using a theme with HTML5 enabled, Genesis will also output your markup using microdata.

We did all the research and modified the markup to serve search engines the microdata they’re looking for, so you don’t have to. It’s good to be a Genesis user.

Removing Features

We want to keep Genesis as lightweight as possible for you, nobody wants to use bloated software.

So we’ve removed the “Latest Tweets” widget, the “eNews and Updates” widget, the “post templates” feature, and the “fancy dropdowns” setting. There are some good plugins you can grab and install, if you want to continue using those functionalities.

Boring, but Very Important

We’re always improving. Call it a sickness, but we like to make things work really, really well. Here’s a list of the technical changes in this latest release of Genesis:

Better named loop hooks for HTML5. Network Upgrade now upgrades the Genesis database for all sites in a network when running WordPress in multisite mode. Widget classes are now coded in PHP5 format. Admin CSS and Javascript are now minified. Inline HTML comments have been removed to reduce page size. The Scripts option now has its own metabox when editing an entry. Custom Post Type archive pages now have a settings page so you can control the output. Genesis tracks displayed entry IDs so you can exclude entries from showing twice on a page. Entries without titles now display a permalink after the post content. How to Upgrade to Genesis 2.0 Beta

One of the very cool features that we’ve included in Genesis 1.8 is the ability to automatically update to future Beta versions of Genesis.

This is similar to the WordPress Beta Tester plugin that exists — the only difference is that users won’t have access to the bleeding version of Genesis.

You can automatically update your site to this version by downloading and installing our Genesis Beta Tester plugin.

If you don’t see the update notice via the plugin, we’ve also added the Genesis 2.0 Beta and Genesis Sample 2.0 Beta theme to the Member Downloads so you can login and access theme there as well.

Reporting Bugs

If you’re testing Genesis 2.0 Beta and would like to report a bug, head on over to our help area and fill out the form.

It’s been a few months since we’ve released a new StudioPress theme, and there’s a good reason for that … our development team is hard at work putting the finishing touches on Genesis 2.0.

If you want to see what the new default looks like, you can check it out on the Genesis demo site. We’re hoping to release the beta version within the next week or two, and then release it shortly after WordPress 3.6 drops.

Genesis 2.0 isn’t the only reason we’re happy around here at StudioPress.

I’m very pleased to announce that Lauren Mancke has joined the Copyblogger family as Creative Director of StudioPress.

I’ve known Lauren and her superb work for over 5 years, so when we began thinking about who might fill this new role of Creative Director, it was a fairly simple decision.

If you’re thinking “but … don’t you have Rafal Tomal, the Superman designer?” Yes, we do, but Copyblogger Media is growing, and we’re expanding our reach in various ways. We’ve got a number of big projects in the pipeline, and with the upcoming release of Genesis 2.0, we needed someone to design themes, and manage the day-to-day creative aspects of StudioPress.

We are very excited about the coming months.

There are lots of great features coming in Genesis 2.0, some incredible theme designs from Lauren, and a few things up our sleeve that I think you’re going to like. Stay tuned …

We are happy to announce the release of the Crave 1.0 theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be purchased here.

Crave was developed by Jessica Barnard of The Pixelista, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of them are top-notch.

Theme Features

The Crave theme includes the following features: 3 color styles, 3 layout options, custom header, featured images, fixed width, theme options, threaded comments.

Take the Crave theme for a test drive…

We are happy to announce the release of the Epik 1.0 theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be purchased here.

Epik was developed by Wes Straham of Appfinite, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding of them are top-notch.

Theme Features

The Epik theme includes the following features: 10 color styles, 6 layout options, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, mobile responsive, theme options, threaded comments.

Take the Epik theme for a test drive…

We are happy to announce the release of the Fabric8ted 1.0 child theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be purchased here.

The Fabric8ted theme was developed by Shannon Dow of EightCrazy Designs, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding are top-notch.

Theme Features

The Fabric8ted child theme includes the following features: 4 color styles, 3 layout options, call to action, custom header, featured images, footer widgets, mobile responsive, threaded comments.

Take the Fabric8ted theme for a test drive…

We’re happy to debut the newest offering from our crack crew here at StudioPress.

Today, we welcome the Modern Portfolio 1.0 theme to the StudioPress lineup.

This mobile-responsive WordPress theme is built on the Genesis Framework, and can be downloaded by Pro Plus members by logging into my.studiopress.com.

If you aren’t a StudioPress Pro Plus customer yet, you can purchase it right here.

Want a more detailed description of Modern Portfolio’s design and features? I did a short write up about the theme for you over on Copyblogger today.

The Modern Portfolio theme is the 23rd mobile responsive design we’ve developed for you at StudioPress. You can see a full selection of all of our responsive themes for WordPress here.

What’s in Modern Portfolio 1.0?

This high-contrast, black and white frame emphasizes images with photographers and developers in mind.

Wide spacing and clean typography highlight your best work and the theme sports other out-of-the-box features including: custom background, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, footer widgets, landing page template, mobile responsive, theme options.

Go ahead, take Modern Portfolio theme for a test drive right now.

I’m pleased to introduce you to our newest theme from the hardworking team here at StudioPress… the Metro 1.0 theme.

This mobile-responsive WordPress theme is built on the Genesis Framework and can be downloaded by Pro Plus members by logging into my.studiopress.com. If you aren’t already a StudioPress customer you can find it here.

If you want a more detailed description of Metro’s design and features, I did a short write up about the theme for you over on Copyblogger today.

The Metro theme is the 22nd mobile responsive design we’ve developed at StudioPress. You can see a full selection of all of our responsive themes for WordPress here.

Theme Features

With an unprecedented 1152 pixel-wide content frame and magazine-style design, Metro theme sports the following out-of-the-box features: 6 layout options, 5 color styles, 3 story locations, fixed width, mobile responsive, after-post footer widget, landing page template, custom background.

Click here to take Metro theme for a test drive.

We are very pleased to announce that Genesis 1.9 is now available.

New Look for Genesis

As you can see, the default look for Genesis has been updated. The style sheet has been condensed and completely rewritten, with an emphasis on flexibility for mobile responsive design.

Note that in Genesis 1.9, we are also utilizing the rem unit of measurement and will use a pixel fallback for browsers that don’t support rems.

Want to see it? Go ahead and view the Genesis 1.9 demo site.

Google Authorship

Genesis now offers support for authorship. This allows Google to associate your content with your Google+ profile.

Just edit your profile, find the field where you can enter your Google+ account URL, and save. Genesis does the rest. And if you want to associate an author with the homepage, you can do that in SEO Settings.

Read why Google plays a critical role in building a successful online business and should be inevitable part of your content marketing strategy.

Updated Security Audit

It’s very important to us that we provide you the absolute best framework possible, so once again we hired WordPress Lead Developer Mark Jaquith to perform a full review of code for security as he’s done in the past.

Here’s what Mark has to say:

It’s clear StudioPress made security a priority when developing Genesis and from a security standpoint, Genesis 1.9 is at the top of its class.

Deprecating Widgets

Genesis has always included some useful widgets to help you build your sites faster and easier. We realized that some of these widgets should really be plugins, so authors can push out updates more frequently.

With that said, the “eNews & Updates” and “Latest Tweets” widgets are being ported to plugins, and will eventually be removed from Genesis.

Download Genesis eNews Extended plugin
Download Genesis Latest Tweets Plugin

Genesis Category/Page Menu Widgets Removed

We deprecated the Category and Page menu widgets a few releases ago, and as of this release, we’ve completely removed them from the framework. If you were still using either of these widgets, you will notice that your menu is no longer showing.

You will need to build a custom menu and add the custom menu widget to the Header Right widget area.

Special Thanks to Our Community

We’d like to thank the following developers for their contributions with the update to Genesis 1.9 — Jared Atchison, Chris Cochran, David Decker, Bill Erickson, Thomas Griffin, Gary Jones, Andrew Norcross and Travis Smith.

Genesis 2.0 Roadmap

We have big plans for a new markup structure in Genesis 2.0, all built with HTML5. You will have the ability to turn on HTML5 support with a simple function through your child theme.

In case you can’t tell, we’re big fans of designing for mobile devices around here. So, we’re going to be doing some things that will make it a whole lot easier to get your site mobile ready with Genesis in 2.0.

I’m sure you want to know when Genesis 2.0 is slated for release, and the best I can say is that we’re hoping for a Spring/Summer 2013 date.

Comments on this post have been closed. If you have a technical question, please file a ticket with our support team at My StudioPress.

We are happy to announce the release of the Pretty Pictures 1.0 theme. This theme can be downloaded by Pro Plus members in the My StudioPress member area. Others can purchase the package here.

The Pretty Pictures theme is the 21st theme released here which has been developed to be mobile responsive in design.

View all responsive WordPress themes.

Theme Features

The Pretty Pictures theme includes the following features: custom header, custom menus, featured images, fixed width, mobile responsive, theme options.

Take the Pretty Pictures theme for a test drive…

We are happy to announce the release of the Decor8ted 1.0 child theme. This WordPress theme works on the Genesis Framework and can be purchased here.

The Decor8ted theme was developed by Shannon Dow of EightCrazy Designs, and is categorized as a Community theme. These are not included in the Pro Plus All-Themes package, but we assure you that the design and coding are top-notch.

Theme Features

The Decor8ted child theme includes the following features: 3 color options, 6 layout options, custom background, custom header, featured images, footer widgets, threaded comments, mobile responsive.

Take the Decor8ted theme for a test drive…

The official HostGator Company blog

When it comes to website promotional techniques, there?s almost nothing better than a good quality guest post.  Not only does this powerful marketing strategy send traffic to your website and confer upon your brand the implicit recommendation of the hosting site, a well-crafted guest post also gives your website the benefit of a natural, highly-relevant backlink. But that said, not all guest posts are created equal.  There?s a big difference between securing a guest post spot on a well-known authority blog in your industry and posting your content to a no-name blog orchestrated by an SEO spammer.  If you really want to take advantage of the power of good guest posting, keep the following five guidelines in mind:   Tip #1 ? Post to relevant websites  Plenty of websites accept guest posts ? but that doesn?t mean that they?re all good targets for your guest publishing campaign!  For best results, stick with publishing to websites in your industry or in fields that are closely related.  Trying to shoehorn your area of expertise into an unrelated article results in content that won?t encourage visitors to visit your site (as they likely won?t be interested in your on-subject content) and diminishes the SEO value of the link you ...

Snappy recently had the pleasure of hanging out on-stage and backstage with Houston’s own Ryan Scroggins & The Trenchtown Texans. The band’s namesake and frontman is a veritable renaissance man; artist, multi-instrumentalist, song writer, professional tattoo artist and former herpetologist for the Houston Zoo.  Mr. Scroggins originally made a name for himself in the music world as the organist for the well-known ska band Los Skarnales. The Trenchtown Texans play a unique mix of Americana/Ska/Roots/Reggae/Swamp music and have released three albums and toured extensively, however these days the band only makes appearances sporadically.  As such, it was truly a pleasure for Snappy to be able to share the stage with them at Houston’s Continental Club: After the show, Snappy was fortunate enough to spend a few minutes with Mr. Scroggins.  Having again been a former Herpetologist for the Houston Zoo, Ryan is very familiar with gators, however this would be his first encounter with a blue gator: If you have a keen eye, you’ll be able to spot Snappy in the video below of the band performing “Too Tired to Fight”: A quick YouTube search will return lots of videos of this great band, and if they happen to come to your town do ...

You?ve put tons of effort into building your website ? so don?t let your hard work go to waste by slacking off on your webmaster responsibilities! As a site owner, you owe it to yourself and to your business to be the best possible webmaster you can be.  The following are just a few of the activities that separate run-of-the-mill webmasters from great site managers.  Add them to your weekly routine and you?re sure to see a difference in your website results.   Tip #1 ? Update your website regularly Having a website is great, but if you never update the site that you built initially, you?re missing out on two very powerful webmaster benefits. The first is that regularly updated content ? whether published through an articles section, a blog or some other format ? helps to form a connection between your business and your target customers.  People feel much more confident interacting with and buying from sites that are regularly updated, versus those that clearly haven?t been touched since their initial launch. At the same time, adding new content to your site on a regular basis confers a powerful SEO advantage that could lead to your site ranking higher in the natural search results. ...

If you?re a webmaster who?s devoted hours upon hours to building up your site and its presence in the natural search results, there?s almost nothing scarier than the thought of logging into your Google Analytics account and seeing the massive drop in traffic that indicates a search engine penalty. It doesn?t matter if you?re facing manual action by Google or if your site simply fails to meet the quality threshold imposed by an unexpected algorithm update.  What does matter is the potential loss of traffic and revenue your site faces if you don?t take the necessary steps to determine whether or not your website is at risk. To minimize your site?s chances of being struck with a search engine penalty, pay attention to the following three factors:   Factor #1 ? Is your content written for humans or computers? In the ?good ol? days? of SEO, the search engines relied more heavily on the number of keyword repetitions present in a piece of content than on its quality when it came to determining which site to place at the top of the search results. As you might expect, website owners and early SEO strategists figured this out pretty quickly ? resulting in websites that were cluttered ...

There?s no arguing with the fact that the number and quality of the backlinks pointing at your website play a role in your site?s performance in the natural search results.  But unfortunately, since the recent Google Panda and Penguin algorithm updates, building effective backlinks isn?t as simple as using an automated tool to crank out spam links from bogus websites. Instead, the name of the game in 2013 is ?natural? links.  For a few ideas on how to create these highly-desirable site-to-site connections, consider implementing any of the following techniques as a part of your website?s SEO plan:   Technique #1 ? Publish and distribute good ?link bait? content The phrase ?link bait? refers to articles, videos, infographics and other types of content that use intentionally provocative titles and subjects in order to attract both attention and backlinks.  As an example, a blog in the personal finance industry could publish a post titled ?101 Ways to Save Money? ? a topic that?s bound to generate excitement amongst its audience members. A few typical link bait formulas you can follow include: List posts, as in the example above Interviews with industry experts Content that takes a controversial stand on a popular topic Resource roundup articles Breaking news pieces that cover an ...

We recently chronicled Snappy’s trip to the Houston Zoo on Instagram.  However we’re going to re-cap here as well as share some additional pictures of Snappy that didn’t make it onto Instagram; think of this as the bonus footage of Snappy’s trip to the Houston Zoo.  You can also revisit Snappy’s trip to the Houston Zoo on Pinterest! First and foremost, what would a trip to the zoo be without seeing the famous pink flamingos? After Snappy communed with the flamingos, he found this other unique bird that apparently has its kneecaps on backwards: Snappy does like to take a moment to enjoy the scenery form time to time.  The Houston Zoo has tons of beautiful rest areas throughout its grounds. One of the Zoo’s newest exhibits is the African forest.  This exhibit contains giraffes, rhinos and numerous other animals, but Snappy couldn’t pass up the photo op with this mask, near the entrance of the exhibit: What can we say about this next pic?  If you followed this adventure on Instagram, you saw another picture of Snappy up in a different tree… for a gator, Snappy sure likes to climb! The only appropriate way to conclude Snappy’s trip to the Houston Zoo is with a ...

The Internet never sleeps.  Is it possible to even fathom the idea of any given moment without someone in the world being connected to the Internet for one reason or another?  It wasn’t that long ago that the Internet wasn’t even a thing, but anymore it’s something that we can’t do without.  Let’s take a look at “A Day in the Life of the Internet”: A Day in The Life of The Internet via HostGator

In many ways, choosing a domain name for your new website is the hardest part of the site creation process.  Given how difficult it can be to transfer websites to new URLs ? and given the potential SEO losses that could occur by doing so ? it?s vital that you get things right from the start. But staring down endless lists of available and already-registered domains doesn?t make the process seem any easier.  If you?re struggling to choose the right domain for your new website, consider the following tips:   Tip #1 ? Look for ?.com? When it comes to domain names, you have the option to register everything from a standard ?.com? URL to a country-specific extension like ?.tv? (Tuvalu) or ?.ly? (Libya). That said, registering a ?.com? is the best choice for nearly all businesses, for two specific reasons: ?.com? domains have better name recognition.  If you want readers to be able to enter your URL directly into their browsers, they?re far more likely to remember your address if it ends in ?.com.? There?s a small SEO benefit to registering a ?.com? domain, as the search engines tend to view these web URLs as belonging to stable, legitimate businesses. Unless you have a truly compelling reason ...

WordPress has been under fire lately, though it is important to note that although WordPress has been the target that there is truly nothing the platform has done to cause these recent circumstances to occur.  You may have heard about the recent distributed brute force attack, which is presently on-going still and targets the “admin” user name. A subsequent, and slightly lower-level attack has since been launched against popular WordPress plugins, like WPSuperCache and W3TotalCache.  While we did identify this circumstance very early on and take pre-emptive measure to effective mitigate this attack on our server farm, it simply reiterates a point we often try to make: please make sure your scripts and plugins are always up-to-date. Metaphorically speaking, having out of date scripts or plugins installed is akin to having a very nice house, with a very nice door with a very nice deadbolt on it that you simply choose to not engage, effectively leaving your door wide open to anyone what wants to walk in and do as they see fit with your property. As a web host, we provide the house, the door and the lock.  We also hand you the key to the lock on the door, but we ...

If you?ve ever conducted a Google search and seen results that appear with the author?s picture and byline attached (as shown below), you?ve seen the results of Google authorship: Essentially, this feature ? which launched at the end of 2011 ? allows writers to ?claim? their content with Google through the use of their Google+ profiles.  The results of these marked-up search results listings are higher click-through rates, greater perceived authority and increased website traffic ? making it highly advantageous for website authors to set up authorship correctly. Because the guidelines for doing so have changed over the past few years, the following steps will give you the most up-to-date process for setting up Google authorship on your own site:   Step #1 ? Set up your Google+ profile The first thing you?ll need to do to take advantage of Google?s authorship features is to create a personal Google+ profile. If you don?t already have a Google Account, start by navigating to https://accounts.google.com/SignUp to complete your registration.  If you have an existing Account, head to https://plus.google.com and log in with your Google credentials. Once inside, you?ll see a number of different options for creating your personal profile and adding your friends and contacts to your Google Circles. ...

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Bob & Leann show you the biggest and most positive change to hit the internet since it began. It's going to be huge. Lots of opportunity. Billions of dollars are up for grabs. How to get in on the action.

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We're back! Bob and Leann step through the top 10 reasons why you should start your own business NOW!

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Got a problem! News flash: Just about everybody does. My favorite techniques for dealing with problems, so you can keep your sanity and stay productive on the job.

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It's the employees who make a business work. That's why it's so important to hire the right ones. Bob tells you his top secret technique for avoiding bad hires and hiring great employees.

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It's hard getting any business off the ground. Bob steps you through 10 reasons why MOST entrepreneurs are NOT successful.

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How you use the web tells others quite a bit about YOU. Successful people know the pitfalls to avoid. It's about time YOU did too. In this video blog Bob tells YOU the top Internet 10 do's & dont's.

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Like it or not, Cyber-bullies and Cyber-haters are for real. Bob gives you his top tips for putting these pesky losers into perspective and getting them out of your hair.

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Great businesses are built on good decisions. Bob shows you the simple decision making rules he used to build 3 mega million dollar businesses.

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It's a fact. Life can be a bitch. It's easy to give up. Bob shows you his best tips for hanging in there and enjoying the ride when the going gets tough. Leeann is a crazy as ever!

Being an IndyCar sponsor worked well for us last year. We were an associate sponsor of Go Daddy Girl® Danica Patrick's number 7 car, and the presenting TV sponsor of the Indianapolis 500 and the Indy 300 at Kentucky Speedway.

Danica heats up Sports Illustrated!
Sports Illustrated just published a series of revealing photographs of Go Daddy Girl Danica Patrick. It's definitely worth a look. After checking out the photos I called Danica and asked her "Why were you wearing a watch?" And, "why not a Go Daddy (temporary) tattoo?" Danica's response: "Gee Bob, I had a Go Daddy tattoo on my forehead. They must have photo shopped it off. Sorry." I'm not sure I believe her.

Better than beer!
We were also trackside at most races. Indy patrons who visited our tent picked up souvenirs and had their photos taken with a Go Daddy Girl, alongside the Go Daddy Chopper. The crowds at the Go Daddy tent were usually so huge, one of our staff commented "we wouldn't attract more people if we were giving away beer!"

An old tip from Dad.
My Dad used to tell me "you don't need to taste much soup to know how the whole pot is going to be." Early on we knew our decision to do IndyCar was a winner. So we started thinking ... "If Indy works so well ... we wonder ... how would NASCAR work for us?"

A little about NASCAR.
First a quick little lesson on the makeup of NASCAR. NASCAR - which stands for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — is actually composed of three separate and distinct levels of competition. The most important is the Sprint Cup Series. It's followed by the Nationwide Series. Finally there's the Craftsman Truck Series, which, unlike the other two series, races trucks.

Bootleggers started it.
Lore has it NASCAR has its roots long ago when bootleggers would race each other to see whose car was fastest. A typical NASCAR has a 358 engine, is a Chevy, Ford, Dodge or a Toyota, and boasts about 850 horsepower. Bumping into each other or "trading paint," as they say, is often part of every race.

NASCAR dwarfs IndyCar.
We learned quickly that NASCAR has a following that literally dwarfs IndyCar.

For example, total annual viewership of all Sprint Cup series races is about 160 million households. The Nationwide Cup Series has a total viewership of 56 million households. This compares with the IndyCar Series which has an annual total viewership of about 31 million households. The difference is just huge.

It started with a test.
So last year we decided to test NASCAR. We used a few of our Danica Patrick testimonial commercials. The results were encouraging. From there it didn't take long, we struck an exciting deal with the Hendrick Motorsports team.

Our deal revolved around Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Our deal involved a relationship with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., and creation of the #5 Go Daddy Car that will run in six races in the Nationwide series. We are also an associate sponsor of the Nationwide #5 car in 29 of the remaining races. In additional to these Nationwide series sponsorships, we will be an associate sponsor of the Hendrick Motorsports #5 car driven by Casey Mears for 20 races in the Sprint Cup series.

Meet the Go Daddy #5 Chevy NASCAR!
The GoDaddy.com Car will participate in six Nationwide races this season - Texas Motor Speedway, Montreal, Darlington Raceway, Watkins Glen International, Michigan International Speedway and Kansas Speedway. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. will be behind the wheel in Texas and Watkins Glen. Mark Martin will drive in Darlington, Michigan and Kansas. Ron Fellows will drive in Montreal.

To see the GoDaddy.com car - PLEASE CLICK HERE!

A big TV deal to boot.
We also agreed to be the presenting TV sponsor for the Nationwide Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 15th.

Trackside at Daytona.
Fans who attend Daytona can expect to see a GoDaddy.com tent trackside. The Go Daddy #5 Chevy will be there on display, along with several Go Daddy Girls. They will be providing visitors with special souvenir lanyards. Go Daddy Girl Daytona Lara Haworth will also be there this Saturday and Sunday signing photographs.

New Go Daddy NASCAR ads.
The crew at Go Daddy Productions produced two new ads with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to air this season. To check out the ads please click on the following links:

To see Dale One — PLEASE CLICK HERE.

To see Dale Two — PLEASE CLICK HERE.

I'll be at a lot of the races.
Business aside, I'm excited about the upcoming NASCAR and IndyCar seasons. You can expect to see me trackside and in the pits at a number of these races - many of which my friends and I will travel to on our motorcycles.

Ain't that America!
There's no doubt about it, NASCAR racing is as grassroots American as it gets. I love the sport and all the people connected with it. I definitely identify with them as "my people." It's where Go Daddy belongs!

Until next time.

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