I know it’s a little bit late, but a few days ago, the winners of the SEMMYs were announced. One of my posts was nominated in the link building category. To my big surprise, my post with 69 link building techniques managed to beat Adam Audette’s link building fundamentals and Jeff Quipp’s list of 75+ link building techniques in the finals and won the SEMMY!

A big thanks to all who voted and to everybody who contributed to the SEMMYs in any other way. Congratulations to all other winners, who probably all feel just as honored as I do.

Just like last year, Matt McGee organized the SEMMYs, an “annual awards event honoring the great content produced across the search and online marketing industry”. A selection of 25 well-known judges have made a selection of 3 to 6 awesome posts from 2008 in 17 different categories. One of these categories happens to be a Link Building category, and my post with 69 link building strategies was selected by Aaron Wall and Tamar Weinberg (the category judges) as one of the finalists. Thanks, guys :)

I’m really honored that one of my posts is listed amongst exceptional articles, such as Rae Hoffman’s link building expert interviews and Adam Audette’s link building fundamentals (which both were in my top 3 of last year). You can vote for your favorite link building post of the year right here.

When I started this blog little over a year ago, I set only little expectations. No specific targets but having fun writing about SEO and link building and improving my (English) writing skills. Although my writing skills remain far from perfect (I’d give myself a “that’ll do”), they certainly have improved and I’m still having fun maintaining this blog.

Recently, when I evaluated my first year of blogging, I decided to set some additional goals. The first of these goals has been accomplished today; being able to publish dark text on a light background.
Although the current design looked pretty nice (at least to me) a year ago, the readability kept bugging me more and more over time, as a dark background is even considered to be a usability sin.

The design still isn’t completely finished yet, but considering the former readability and the little amount of time that I have on my hands right now, I decided to push it a little bit. I will keep on tweaking it though, reading tips from guys like WordPress Joost and Richard Baxter really helped a lot and they will keep providing a lot of future work.

So, what do you think? Is the new one design better than the old one?

Most people see spam as nothing but annoying. However, like I’ve mentioned before, there are lots of things you can use spam for. You’ll receive spam no matter what you do, so why not use it in your advantage?

You’ve probably received the CNN Daily Top 10 email just as often as I did. Lots of people received this email and it raised a lot of questions and discussion. People that have questions usually use Google to find an answer to their questions. Now combine this with Patrick Altoft’s nifty strategy, a domain name like www.CNNDailyTop10.com (still available…) and I’m sure you can come up with something.

This is nothing long term, of course, but it shows that spam is not completely worthless and annoying…

When I was playing around with my (referer) statistics a bit, I noticed that something strange was going on. After a little bit of digging, I noticed some new sort of penalty or filter. It’s not a minus 950 penalty or something like that, but more like a Till-Here-And-No-Further penalty.

Earlier this year, Wiep.net received a PageRank penalty because of a few sponsored links (not sponsoring me, though) in the footer. In that post, I said that

Some have suggested to nofollow or remove the links in the footer and to do a reinclusion request, but I’ve decided not to. In stead, I’ll do exactly what I said I will do my footer; I’ll leave the links up (which is mandatory when you use the template) until I have a new design.

Apparently, Google didn’t like this. All posts that were published before this date (including the PR penalty post) show up in Google without a problem. Every post that got published after I said that I won’t live by all rules that Google sets, however, don’t. Pages still get cached and indexed, but they just don’t show up anymore. No signal in the Google Webmaster console, btw.

So, Matt, after the #6 penalty, the -950 penalty, and other penalties, is this the Silence! penalty?

Are your ad pitches a bit outdated? Can’t think of a new angle to describe the product you’re selling? Then learn from the pros! Take a look at what kind of one-liners and which selling techniques are being used by marketers, who harass millions of people every single day with their commercial messages, and who even try to lure women into taking a look at their, to penis enlargement pills dedicated, websites.

This is a selection of the 30 most creative (or weird) email subject lines used by Viagra spammers (well, at least in my inbox).

Try to sell by using fear:

- A man with a small penis is not a 100% man.

- All jokes aside, yeah you do got a tiny cock!

- Will she wait or has she found a bigger dick already?

- If you can cover your penis with your thumb…

- She might stay with you if your dick gets bigger.

Try to sell by using envy or desire:

- The reflection of your size will stay forever in her eyes.

- Bigger pen!s gives you a bunch of benefits!

- The most defiant fillies will strive for riding your new big Italian stallion.

- I have girls that ring me for sex now, its amazing!

- A big penis after a small one feels like the sun after rain.

- Make an elephant out of your ant.

- Never be limp again, make your cock rock solid!

Try to sell by using confusing language

- May i ask why you’re so unhappy with your d!c’k?

- Specify How Much You Want Your p3N!ss to Grow

- Your new s’e_xual world is waiting for its leader.

Try to sell by using other techniques

- Well done; you’ve just found the best kept secret to enlarge your penis!

- Yes it gets big, yes it gets strong, yes you can do it.

- Go to the disco and let your love stick glow!

- A real man should have a real penis. Here it is!

- Bigger pen!s stimulates more nerve endings in female vagina.

And the top 10:

10. 21st century is the century for big penises.
Ok, so you’re just advising me to keep up with the modern trends?

9. Prove your manliness! Take ÜberDik and be a man!
I have to give this company some credits for that brilliantly selected brand name…

8. Have you ever heard this, “Gush! Your penis is so small!”?
Ehm… No?

7. Try it now and shock all your friends with your tool.
I guess just showing my tool is already enough to shock them…

6. Nothing can seduce women faster than a big penis.
Tried this in a night club. Didn’t work…

5. 25% discount on your penis!
Something like buy 4 extra Inches and only pay for 3?

4. Satisfy all big cock lovers with Penis Enlarge Patch.
There’s a patch for it?!? It’s like Windows Vista!

3. Be proud to change your underwear on public.
Isn’t that kind of illegal?

2. Does your Mr. Winkie need upgrading? Our offer will interest you.
Mr. Winkie 2.1 Beta. It already sounds interesting, what’s the offer?

1. Men with big penises go to heaven!
Nearly made me buy that blue crap. Nearly…

I’m pretty sure that your SPAM-filter blocks even better viagra subject lines on a daily basis, so feel free to share your favorite viagra headlines.