I’m not trying to make light of anyone who got caught in the scam, but it seems that Twitter caught the wave of some “phishy” business over the weekend.

A lot of people were affected, including Fox News, Britney Spears and CNN’s Rick Sanchez.

If you got a random direct message from someone and clicked a link that redirected you to twitter.access-logins.com/login/, DO NOT FILL OUT YOUR INFORMATION.

I haven’t been personally affected by phishing on the social sites, but my wife has received some strange Facebook messages from friends on her wall with alleged “pics” of her on sites like “barkjump.com” and “fittry.com.”

If you didn’t know, this is also a phishing scam, just on Facebook.

AriWriter has a list of the all the different .com’s that are part of Facebook phishing. The culprit behind these recent phishing scams is access-logins.com, which is based in China.

Have you ever been “burned” by an eBook? Are you jaded by FREE reports that provide little more than statistics and a call to action from another firm that promises “top placement in Google FAST!”

The market for eBooks is so cluttered with lead gen tools that when a thought provoking piece enters the market, I think it deserves a pat on the back. “Sticky SEO” by David Leonhart - President of The Happy Guy Marketing - introduces everyone to the “Usefulness Algorithm” that he predicts will start to take effect as soon as this year in search results.

Leonhart’s theory: if a site visitor hits the “back” button on your site less than your competitors, your rankings will improve in the search engines.

Thus, the “stickier” your site is, the better it is optimized for search engine success.

Why does this make sense? Search engines do not want to be perceived as a provider of non-relevant results. Therefore, Leonhart believes the bounce rate of a webpage or website will begin to play a featured role in how the search engines determine credibility.

I don’t agree with all of Leonhart’s theories on how search engines might measure the usefulness of a website. That said, I think he offers some great perspective on the type of holistic approach SEO’s will need to take in 2009 and beyond if they are going to produce results for their clients.

The six critical elements of bringin’ sticky back in 2009 (with personal side comments included in bold, lowercase italics):

• Quality Web Design (of course)
• Engaging Web Content (always)
• Ignore Nobody (everyone is a customer)
• Segment Your Market (different people want different info)
• Cover All Personality Types (we all search differently for the same thing)
• Be Their Next Search (you want customers to come back, right?)

I don’t want to give away everything Leonhart offers in “Sticky SEO,” but I did find it thought provoking. If you want to take a look at the eBook - a 25-page quick read - and judge it for yourself, check it out at SEO-writer.com - Sticky SEO.

Coming from Lancaster, PA and heading to York last evening (New Year’s Eve), my family and I noticed a very bright non-moving object in the sky below the Crescent Moon. My hopes of it being a true UFO or even better yet a “Space Station” were quickly dismissed.

When reality set in, further investigation indicates that it was the planet Venus. It was truly a very cool sight to see.

Did anyone else notice Venus last evening under the moon?

Wierd.

I’m sitting here doing some work and just felt the house shaking. I thought it was a truck outside at first or like a ton of wind or something.

Anyone in Lancaster feel it too?

It really felt like an earth quake.

UPDATE:

Turns out it WAS an earthquake. OK… heading to bed now.

Comment below if you felt it, too…

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Twitter made a change yesterday that removed deleted and suspended accounts from your list of followers. Twitter Status had the real scoop.

And don’t worry, it wasn’t just you who lost a few followers. Check out the numbers of followers for the Top 100 Tweeps - even @barackobama lost 789.

I’m not as cool as everyone else - I only lost 10.

How many did you lose?

‘Tis the season to grant wishes, and the team at ProspectMX has the spirit in 2008.

In order to do something special for those that spend all year working for the needs of others, we are proud to announce the ProspectMX Christmas Wish.

If your non-profit organization would like to receive $10,000 in internet marketing services from our company, we invite you to answer the following question on your blog or website between today (12/11) and the end of the year (12/31):

“How can internet marketing benefit your organization?”

Runner-up prizes are also available, including a year-long subscription to the SEO 101 Tools (launching this January), a three-month subscription to SEOmoz PRO (which includes Linkscape), and a three-month subscription to trackur - a social media monitoring service.

In order for an organization to be considered, it must have 501 3(c) status. Here’s what any interested non-profit needs to do:

1. Compose a blog post or web essay that answers the question “how can internet marketing benefit your organization?”
2. Drop a note in the comments of this blog post that includes a link to your entry (just so we can be 100% sure we got your entry).

Official rules are listed here. For more information on the ProspectMX Christmas Wish, you can e-mail me: jbentz [at] prospectmx [dot] com.

If you have ever wanted to see what kind of competition your geo-targeted adwords campaigns have in certain market, the Google Ad Targeting Preview Tool is what you need.

I have outlined in the video how you can see where your ads are placed in certain cities around the nation as well as spy on your competition a bit.

Here’s a text recap:

1. Go to The Google Adwords Targeting Preview Tool
2. Enter your keyword into the box on the left
3. Select the state or country or territory on the top right that you want to “spy” on
4. Refine the location to as detailed as the city level

Let me know if you have questions or other applications below.

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You simply just have to accept it!! Getting it is what we do!

Internet marketing is an absolutely essential piece of your overall marketing plan, regardless of your business model. It is easier to track ROI than most other marketing efforts. Some businesses need to do a lot and some may just need to do a little. Some companies may just need a strong link building campaign. Other companies may need to combine link building with social media and a strong lead generation campaign to find their success.

Even if you are starting out and the first step is simply getting indexed by Google, or your keyword phrase is number two in the organics and you want to be number one, you simply have to accept that an internet marketing company with talent and experience is going to help make a difference.

It is not about having too much or too little SEO. It is truly about having the right amount to meet and exceed your goals and expectations.

Thousands of web sites give away free products and extend special online trial offers as a way to build buzz and drive traffic to their website.

Running a link building contest and awarding a prize to your most active link builder can build buzz, drive traffic, and also provide the most important piece to the SEO equation - links!

Many companies with web sites should still consider typical internet marketing services to improve their positioning in Google. However, hosting a contest to generate interest in your website with the extra benefit of building links can certainly work.

Besides, if you’re going to personally front money for a prize, why wouldn’t you want to receive a return on your investment?

A link building contest should probably have one of two outcomes for determining a winner:

• To acquire the greatest number of links
• To acquire the most relevant, highest powered link

A link that drives traffic to your website can also be used to determine a winner. However, if the end goal of the contest is true link building, traffic should be a secondary concern.

Acquiring the greatest number of links has its pros (quantity) but tends to yield lower value, less relevant links. You will also tend to get a lot of entrants with startup Wordpress and Blogspot sites including one blog post having a link pointing to your site. When the goal of the contest is to receive links based on relevancy, you will get a substantial amount less, but they should be more valuable.

Below are some tried and true ideas prize ideas to consider when building links hosting a contest on your site. The more involved the contest is for the user, the better the prize should be.

1. T-Shirts (bloggers love these, especially when they’re funny)
2. Anything for a Nintendo Wii
3. Any Apple product
4. A complimentary product that makes a job easier
5. A permanent, do follow link to the winners site of choice (a great idea for Google authority sites)

Anyone have great contest ideas or prize ideas they want to share? Would love to see some in the comment space below.