Read all about it here

The netbusinessblog recently posted about the ever-debated topic of duplicate content and asked readers to weigh-in.

Check it out here.

Today I am officially one year older than yesterday. So, unlike most days, don’t expect to get me on the phone or email today, because I will be taking most of the day off! Naturally, I find birthdays a great time for reflection on the past year; where I have been, where I am, and where I am going.

We recently had a celebration at HometownQuotes thanking our employees, their families, and our families for their hard work, their faith in us, and for buying into the vision of our company.

And so on this day, I want to thank all of you, our hard-working affiliates, for making this past year of my life an amazing one.

We are so blessed to have such great people here in the office and all around the world helping to make this one unbelievable company to be a part of.

Google as posted the transcript from their JuneTune live chat, plus the recording, and the presentations on Personalized Search and Case Sensitivity in Web Search.

According to some accounts, there were over 400 webmasters participating.

This is a must-read and a must-listen. You WILL learn a lot, I promise!

Transcript - Recording - Personalized Search Presentation - Case Sensitivity Presentation

This is something I am asked often. Should I incorporate? If so, how and which way?

I believe that Jonathan Volk has written a post that is both concise and definitive in determining those answers.

His recent post entitled “Best Corporate Structure for Affiliates” is absolutely great!

Ultimately, the decision rests with you and it is always a good idea to get some advice from a trained lawyer or CPA before doing anything, but this post should help steer you in the right direction!

Read more here!

Ann Smarty with Search Engine Journal wrote a good FAQ post this week about Google XML Sitemaps.I often get asked the million dollar question: Will Google Sitemaps help or hurt my site?

Well, the short answer in my opinion is help…or at least NOT hurt it. It will not make you #1 on Google for your primary keyword overnight. But it will help index some of those lower tier pages, which are often the pages with the best content after all, right?

Ann answers many more questions in her post, so give it a read here. And have a GREAT weekend!

Google Street View driver ticketed in San Francisco

Read all about it here

From Sam Harrelson, a recap of the link-buying debate between SEO Expert, Wil Reynolds and Mahalo CEO, Jason Calacanis, complete with video of the “throwdown.”

The question, should you buy links?

Click here to read the post and view more

Just a reminder…

Free Affiliate Summit Passes on June 11, 2008 | Affiliate Summit Blog: “We’ve got a special Affiliate Summit deal that’s only good for 24 hours - the day of June 11, 2008 EDT.

Everybody that is currently registered for Affiliate Summit 2008 East, taking place August 10-12 in Boston, is welcome to share the following coupon code with their friends and colleagues who are not yet registered:

ASE08JUNE11

This code is good for a free exhibit hall only pass (value $199).”

From the Affiliate Summit Blog Today:

Free Affiliate Summit Passes on June 11, 2008 | Affiliate Summit Blog: “We’ve got a special Affiliate Summit deal that’s only good for 24 hours - the day of June 11, 2008 EDT.

Everybody that is currently registered for Affiliate Summit 2008 East, taking place August 10-12 in Boston, is welcome to share the following coupon code with their friends and colleagues who are not yet registered:

ASE08JUNE11

This code is good for a free exhibit hall only pass (value $199).”

According to many sources, MSN will cease to give out the $50 credits for new account promotion on February 29th of this year! Previously they had said April 15. So, if you have not yet set up a new account for you…or your best friend…or dog (if you get my drift), NOW is the time!

Click here for the MSN $50 New Account Credit

I have been asked to contribute to this affiliate blog by those in charge at HometownQuotes. It is the least I can do.

Before I begin, I thought a short introduction might help.

I am Terry, Bartimus on here and several other forums and blogs. I do the SEO for HometownQuotes and it is thought that my experience and knowledge could be useful to the affiliates for HTQ. I am more than happy to answer any SEO related questions and will post any questions and my answers on this blog for the benefit of all.

I will also be posting regular SEO related information in the weeks and months ahead. So, make sure you keep visiting this blog and feel free to contact me at anytime.

Email me at terry [at] hometownquotes.com

On behalf of everyone at HometownQuotes, I want to wish all of you a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving.

I hope that each of you can back away from the computer and pull up to a great meal with family and friends!

Many of you have heard this I am sure, but man have things been busy. Anyway, I am back as much as possible!So Google is killing paid links. This is bad news for some of you and great news for others. Long story short, is this proves once again that Google is doing the right things and is out to get the best search results. WebProNews began speculating on it back in September (article here) and recently the “rumors” have been confirmed. Affiliate forums (like ABestWeb) , SEO forums, webmaster forums, probably even recipe forums, are buzzing about it!

For all the conspiracy theorists and those who feel like they got caught by surprise…

Google has never hid that this was inevitable. They even tell you here, here in their guidelines, here, and here.

That all being said, I do feel for those hurt by this but I hope the lesson learned is to follow the rules…there is no substitute for just being really good at doing things the way they tell you to!