Build something so valuable that Google looks stupid for not ranking it
The affiliate playbook that made me money in 2010 is dead. Here's how I'd invest $100,000 to build something better in 2026.
Topic: Entrepreneurship
Breaking into SEO starts with creating your own opportunities
Your projects can build a portfolio, your publishing can build credibility, and your relationships can lead to jobs, clients, or partnerships.
Yes, you need to use AI, but you need to use it strategically
Stop losing revenue to missed opportunities. Here's how strategic automation cuts costs, captures leads, and speeds response times.
The billion-dollar one-person SEO agency: Fiction or the future?
A look into the potential for streamlined operations, increased productivity and billion-dollar valuations of AI-powered SEO agencies.
How to build a $10 million SEO agency
From ranking to riches – how one SEO firm mastered positioning, marketing and management to build an empire.
8 lessons before starting a digital marketing business; Plus, voice analysis for marketing; Thursday’s daily brief
Also read Search Engine Land’s guide to SEO: Content and search engine success factors
Video: Shimon Sandler on building and growing your search marketing agency
Shimon Sandler has a long history in the space, working at some of the most well known agencies and brands in the US.
The onus of diversity should not fall to Black marketers
Keys to diversity and inclusion in our industry include mentorship and promotion of Black search marketers
7 life lessons on leadership during COVID and beyond
Jeremy Bloom, the founder and CEO of Integrate, shares key takeaways from conversations with extraordinary individuals.
How would an SEO agency be built today? Part 2: Current business model(s)
In Part 2 of this series, we explore the current business models of SEO agencies – including value propositions, revenue drivers, key resources, and more.
Video: Eric Enge on building and selling his SEO agency
Also learn about why giving back to the community can return huge rewards.
Rand Fishkin leaves Moz, announces a new start-up
After 17 years of working at the company he co-founded, Fishkin is starting a new company around influencer and audience intelligence.
Esther Afua Ocloo Google doodle honors co-founder & chairman of Women’s World Banking
Ocloo spent her life helping the women of Ghana -- and, eventually, the world -- start and run their own businesses.
Google Was Nearly A Site That Allowed Users To Order Pizza Through A Fax Machine
Last year, Sergey Brin gave a speech at Google Ventures CEO Summit on the value of failing, and how failing fast can be beneficial. One of the subjects that he covered was his original foray into building a Web service some 20 years ago — the service that allowed users to order pizzas by harnessing […]
Obvious Corporation Re-Launched By Some Of Twitter Founders
Biz Stone is following in Evan Williams’ footsteps in stepping away from day-to-day operations at Twitter, joining with Williams and Jason Goldman, also a Blogger and Twitter veteran, to re-form The Obvious Corporation, the company that incubated Twitter. On his blog, Stone explained his departure: “…it has come to my attention that the Twitter crew […]
Live Blogging: Aol’s Tim Armstrong & Arianna Huffington At Signal LA
FM’s Signal LA event kicks off today with a dynamic duo: Aol CEO Tim Armstrong, who is joined by Arianna Huffington, who’s Huffington Post site Aol bought this week and becomes the new president & editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group within Aol. Tim and Arianna were at the Super Bowl together, it turns […]
Report: Twitter Co-Founder Ev Williams No Longer Works There
Back in October 2010, Twitter announced that then-CEO and co-founder Evan (@ev) Williams would step down to focus on product. According to a report in the Business Insider, that hasn’t really materialized. Says the Business Insider report by Nicholas Carlson: The truth is, right now, a few months after Williams wrote a blog post saying […]
Live Blogging Baidu CEO Robin Li At Web 2.0 Summit
Baidu CEO & Chairman Robin Li will be speaking today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. I’m here and will be live blogging his remarks, when the session begins. Li is set to speak at 5:15pm Pacific, and he’ll be interviewed on stage by John Battelle. Live blogging to start shortly. There’s also […]
Seven Questions For SEO Pioneer John Audette
I wasn’t that well-versed in John Audette’s contributions to the SEO industry before meeting and chatting with him recently at the Bend WebCam search conference. During the “History of SEO” session that concluded the festivities, each of the panelists that worked with John back in the mid-90’s universally praised his professional guidance and acknowledged his […]
Live Blogging SXSW: Ev Williams Keynote
Live blogging from SXSW continues, with Twitter cofounder Ev Williams to take the stage shortly. Will he announce Twitter’s rumored ad plans, as expected? Stay tuned for the news.
An Insider’s Look At SMX Advanced: Chris Elwell
Many people don’t realize that Search Marketing Expo is just one part of Third Door Media, the company that’s also parent of Search Engine Land, Search Marketing Now and Sphinn. Chris Elwell, today’s featured SMX insider, is president of Third Door Media, and provides the business expertise and acumen to keep our different businesses thriving. […]
Search Biz: Wall St. Flips On GOOG; Google Canning Slackers & More
When Google went public in August, 2004, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin made no secret of the company’s disdain for how the Wall St. system of analyst ratings and recommendations works. They wrote a letter saying they had no interest in trying to manage analysts expectations and keep Wall St. happy on a quarterly […]
Small Business Success Stories: What We’ve Learned So Far
A baker, a guitar teacher, a florist, and a real estate agent: Those are the four small business owners I’ve profiled in this space recently. Before I continue with more online marketing success stories, this seems like a smart time to step back and see what we’ve learned to date. Listening to the experiences of […]
Ten Strategies For Avoiding Search Marketing Burnout
Search marketing is the ultimate seductress. It lures you in with the promise of an interesting, exciting career that can actually pay the bills, but soon you’re regularly pulling 12 hour days with no vacations. There’s intense pressure to achieve high search rankings and triple digit ROIs to keep clients happy in a dynamic industry […]
7 Things I Love About Small Business SEO
It’s Valentine’s Day, and what better day to give a big smooch to small businesses? Having worked exclusively with small businesses for the first nine years of my online marketing career, and with several small business owners in my family, I have a lot of appreciation for the hard work it takes to succeed. The […]
Godfather Of AdSense Leaves Google For Own Projects
Gokul Rajaram, apparently known internally at Google as one of the “godfathers of AdSense,” is leaving the company to pursue his own entrepreneurial projects and writing.
Google’s Alumni Reveal Reasons for Departure
At the Web 2.0 conference John Battelle interviewed several prominent former Google employees about their reasons for the leaving the company, the culture there, and its challenges as the company continues to grow. InformationWeek captures some of that discussion.
From eTours To Commanding Ask.com: Jim Lanzone’s Story
I Fought the Law from the New York Times tells the story of how Ask.com CEO Jim Lanzone abandoned pursuing a legal degree and learned his true passion was for internet companies. Lanzone attended Emory University’s School of Law in Atlanta. He then worked for Justice Hugh P. Thompson at the Supreme Court of Georgia, […]
Profile Of Susan Wojcicki: Mother Of AdSense
The house that helped build Google from the USA Today looks back at how Susan Wojcicki’s decision to let Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, rent out space in her garage changed her life and ours. Wojcicki purchased her 4-bedroom home on 232 Santa Margarita Ave. for about $600,000 and rented out the garage […]
Mahalo Launches With Human-Crafted Search Results
Mahalo, the expected people-powered search engine backed by Jason Calacanis, has now gone live in an early "Alpha" test release. In Mahalo, human editors have crafted the top search results for popular queries. For example, search for [paris hotels], and human editors at Mahalo have assembled a page that lists actual hotels in Paris rather […]
Eric Schmidt Interviewed On Entrepreneurship, Management & More
Iinnovate has an excellent interview with Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt. He discusses many topics around the theme of entrepreneurship and management but also touches on other topics during the 20-minute interview. One point Danny and I found interesting from the interview was how he replied to the question on “what the characteristics of an entrepreneur?” […]
What’s So Different About Being Small?
Let’s get this out of the way right now: Hands-on SEO and SEM for small businesses is no different than it is for large corporations. Small businesses need to develop great content around targeted keywords and get quality inbound links… just as any other business does. On the PPC front, small businesses need to write […]
Bloglines Creator Mark Fletcher Resurfaces At Startupping
Mark Fletcher, creator of Bloglines and other startup ventures, has just launched Startupping, a “community resource created for Internet entrepreneurs by Internet entrepreneurs.” Fletcher left Ask.com last summer, after scaling Bloglines to handle the increased traffic the service attracted after he sold Bloglines to Ask in February 2005. Although the site is not specifically search […]