SEO Black Hat: SEO Blog and Private Forum

According to Yahoo,

The story “Michael Jackson rushed to hospital” was the highest clicking story in our history. It generated a whopping 800,000 clicks within 10 minutes and news of his death saw 560,000 clicks in 10 minutes. Also, the news area on our front page experienced five times the amount of traffic it normally receives.

Yahoo! News set an all-time record in unique visitors with 16.4 million people, surpassing our previous record of 15.1 million visitors on election day. Four million people visited the site between 3-4pm Pacific time, setting an hourly record. We also recorded 175 million page views yesterday, our fourth highest after Inauguration Day, the day after the Inauguration, and Hurricane Ike.

 

Also Interesting are the related searches that have been spiking:

* Who is the girl in the Thriller video?
* Who is the most famous person in the world?
* Who bought Neverland ranch?
* When did Michael Jackson turn white?
* How did Michael Jackson bleach his skin?
* Who was in the Jackson Five?
* Who owns the Beatles catalog?
* How is Randy Jackson related to Michael Jackson? (not related)
* How much was Michael Jackson worth?
* How tall was Michael Jackson?
* Is the real Michael Jackson dead?
* Was Michael Jackson a muslim?
* What is Michael Jackson’s favorite color?
* What is Michael Jackson’s favorite number?
* Where will Michael Jackson be buried?

The Interest, while interesting, is not surprising. He’ll be remembered as one of the greatest Artists of All Time.

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The State Motto of Rhode Island is “Live Free or Die”.

Their state assembly passed a law to try to impose sales tax on Amazon.com. The Law essentially states that because some of amazon’s associates have a physical presence in the state, that amazon must pay sales tax.

Amazon’s response? “Alright, then we’ll shut down the affiliate program in your state.

“In an email sent Sunday to its Rhode Island associates — which receive a cut from Amazon for sending customers on to Amazon’s Web site from their own — the company said it was closing its program due to what it called an “unconstitutional tax collection scheme” passed by the General Assembly.

The bill has yet to be signed.

Last week, Amazon shut its associates program in North Carolina and shot off a letter to California lawmakers, warning them that a similar bill introduced in that state’s Assembly would force Amazon to end its program in the wealthiest U.S. state.

 

They mean business!

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DB Issues.
I’ve been having some problems with my wordpress database lately - so posting has become a problem. I’m working to repair the issue and should have some good updates soon.

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How bad is the job market right now? Check this out:

According to a survey from National Association of Colleges and Employers, the class of 2009 is leaving campus with fewer jobs in hand than their 2008 counterparts. The group’s 2009 Student Survey found that just 19.7 percent of 2009 graduates who applied for a job actually have one.

 

Too bad for them even bankruptcy can’t get rid of those student loans. With the average cost of a private University over $25k, that means that many of these kids have a $100k + mortgage on their education to repay. That’s a bitter pill to swallow when that job you thought a College Degree Guaranteed you some kind of security.

It begs the question: At these prices, is a college really worth it for the middle class?

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Ever heard the expression “Anyone can laid on Craigslist.”?

Well, as of today that won’t be quite as true:

As of today for all US craigslist sites, postings to the “erotic services” category will no longer be accepted, and in 7 days the category will be removed.

Also effective today for all US sites, a new category entitled “adult services” will be opened for postings by legal adult service providers. Each posting to this new category will be manually reviewed before appearing on the site, to ensure compliance with craigslist posting guidelines and terms of use. New postings will cost $10, but once approved, will be eligible for reposting at $5.

 

This move is a response to pressure from law enforcement agencies but it sure does feel like their roots are withering. What’s Craigslist with only a Disneyed-up Red Light District?

Let’s take a pause . . . a moment of silence to morn the Internet’s loss.

Our beloved “Cesspool” may never be the same again.

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Looks like they are clued into the fact that brand searches would fetch much more money if there was serious bidding competition:

Starting June 4, marketers in about 200 countries will be allowed to purchase rival trademarks as keywords to trigger display of “sponsored search” ads on Google. Honda, for instance, could bid to have one of its ads displayed when a consumer searches the term “Toyota.”

 

The whole story is here.

On an unrelated note, on Friday I sold all my stock holdings: including GOOG. I think we’re near the top of a suckers rally.

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Firefox plugins (like most software) don’t make that much on a per user basis from donations. Here’s the story of the writer of a noscript plugin “confessing all”, only to be followed up with more donations than he’s probably received in the life of the project:

When I woke up, the sky was still falling (especially on AMO, where NoScript had had received more ratings than in 4 full years of life). But I also noticed some unexpectedly encouraging email was coming in and, incredibly, donations were skyrocketing. Maybe the sincerity of my sorrow for this incident was arriving to someone. So I started multitasking between the forum and this very writing, and here we are.

 

Amazing, but as Groucho Marx once said “the key to success in life is sincerity, if you can fake that you have really got it made.”

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That’s a question some of you may have after seeing it around. After owning 2 in the last 13 months, I figured I’d chime in with a review.

First the Pros:

It’s light, slick looking, and still has the ability to start people asking you about it when you take it out.

The Keyboard and tracking pad are top notched.

Now the Cons.

No CD or DVD player. This really doesn’t turn out to be that big of a deal, but is rather just a minor annoyance.

It’s slow. It’s noticeable slower than other notebook computer’s I’ve used and can freeze up by just have a few too many applications open (like 7 or so).

It runs way too hot. If you leave this in your lap to use it, it will roast your genitals. That’s why they are careful not to call it a “Laptop” but rather a “notebook”.

It’s Flimsy. My first one started having display problems even before it was smashed elevator doors last years. At the Time, I thought it was great that apple just gave me a new one. Now I’m starting to thing they know just how flimsy these machines are.

Any 1 foot drop will cause ugly denting in the aluminum case.

The replacement MacBook Air started having problems in November when the power supply plug that connects to the computer became unhinged. I had to buy super glue to put it back together and get it to work. Then in December, it stated with display problems. I would have to depress the screen a few times per day to get a large strip to in the middle to display correctly. This only got worse over the last 4 months. Most recently, the plastic that keeps the screen erect started to crack and finally broke. A few days later, the screen would no longer display at all.

I now have a $2000 brick until I can take it in to be repaired which is going to be a pain in the ass as there are no apple stores anywhere near me.

Now, I probably use my computers more and harder than your average user, but the Mac Book Air should NOT be your only computer.

So that leaves the question about using it as a secondary computer. Now that some of the wow-factor has been taken out of it, I’d have to suggest you look elsewhere. 6 months of moderate, secondary use was enough for me to destroy 2 of them. Even when they ran “perfectly”, they were still far from perfect.

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In case you need a refresher, it’s here.

The court entered a default judgment against Fortuny, requiring him to pay $74,252.56 in damages, attorneys fees, and costs. That’s for 1 of the plaintiffs and it sets a precedence for the other hundred or so he did that to.

Good luck getting out from under that load you worthless douchebag.

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Do you have a script or program that you sell to build links, content, or some other black hat SEO trick?

Is your script ready for prime time? Is it ready for an Honest review? If so, contact me, get the program in my hands and we’ll take a look. Then we’ll post an honest appraisal on SEO Black Hat.

Our readers keep asking us for more great tools. If you can fill this need, there’s money to be made.

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