Webmaster Gathering @ The Curve, 5th July

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It’s ON. After weeks of putting things together, we are going to have our 3rd official Webmaster Malaysia Gathering in KL on this coming 5th of July at The Curve, Mutiara Damansara.

This time, we’ve managed to book a nice and cozy place called “The Apartment” at The Curve. Even better than that, we’ve even managed to get our legendary members like LiewCF and Alang, and few other great webmasters to speak in this event.

The best part is, the admission is FREE. Though, we only have seats for 40 members. To participate, simply reply to  this email (limcs@webmastermalaysia.com) with your name and phone number. Act fast ;)

p/s: the above excerpt is copied from the newsletter I’ve just sent to the members of Webmaster Malaysia. What can I say? I’m too excited!

Lim CS on June 9, 2008 | 3 Responses 

Malaysia Top Web Designers

There is a fine line that separates the great, good, bad and ugly website. I hate to say it, but (the truth is) - web design is a very saturated field in Malaysia, and oh yes, I’ve seen a lot of downright ugly works from web designers (and some of them even dare to charge higher).

Anyone can be a web designers. A few tutorials, with the right tools and you are well on your way to design your uncle’s company website for RM800. But it takes years of experience, hard work, practice and some design sense to become a good or even great web designers.

Hence the list. I’m listing every Malaysia web designers I knew, heard of, and even worked with, whom I think they are really good (Malaysia boleh!). I’m sharing the list with you so that they know who to look for when you need a website done.

Here you go, in no particular order, and I’ll let their best work do the talking:

Kai Loon

Blog » Loon Design

Ikram Omar

Studio W..--..All Women Fitness Studio..--Great People, Great Workout, Great Value--..

Bel Koo

Bel Koo - freelance web designer, Malaysia.

Hasrimy

Welcome to Macross Malaysia

Timothy Su

µTorrent - The Lightweight and Efficient BitTorrent Client

Alan Bernard

Alan Bernard’s F’kn Mayhem!

Kris Khaira

STREEThing

Tommy Ng

Fruitastic!™ For Healthy Living, Longevity and Wellness

Well, that’s it. Hope you enjoy the list. And if you think you or someone you know should make the list, drop me an email at ceo@netizensmedia.com with their portfolio URL.

Oh, and you never would have guessed it, I’m not a big fans of flash-based website (you should know why). ;)

Lim CS on May 23, 2008 | Join the discussion 

When It’s Time To Blame Your Web Host (and move on)

The blog sphere will amuse you once in a while with a post like this:

Hosting on Exabtyes Can Affect Your SEO Ranking . Quoted:

My recent drop of PageRank 3 to PageRank 0 could be directly linked to Exabytes’s hosting, as pointed out here. Asking for a refund would be one thing. As it is now, www.meshio.com could be associated with “Explicit XXX Content”, hmm…

Looking from the brighter side, it came from a very well and passionately written personal finance blog (which rightfully deserved my linkback). Kudos to the owner of the blog, but allow me to clarify your above mentioned post.

Firstly, I’ll look past the obvious truth that page rank has no relation with the search engine ranking or traffic. The page rank dropped (and increased) is due to Google’s usual update their page rank algorithm. And definitely has nothing to do with your web host.

Secondly, the number of websites hosted on the same server would not affect your search engine ranking. A server that host 400++ websites are a norm for web hosting companies.

Thirdly, adult-related websites would not affect your search engine ranking either or associate your websites with it.

Search Engines are not retarded

Though I do not have any rock solid evidence to support my opinions above, but I would like you to think of this: - Search engines are not retarded. They are in the business because they provide relevant search results to users.

Would they put themselves out of business by associating your website with other websites hosted on the same server? Not likely so.

Think blogspot, Google’s own hosted blogging platform. How many bad apples (as in splogs) are there? Countless. Then how many blogs hosted there have high ranking and high traffic? Countless, too. You get the idea.

When it is time to change your web host

All in all, it is too easy to blame your web host when lightning strikes. It happened to me before. But there are times when your web host is really hurting your search engine ranking.

1. Down Time. Downtime is inevitable. Hardware/software upgrade and server restart cause downtime. There are so many web host that promise 100% uptime, but only few (or none) can deliver it. But constant downtime hurts your ranking. Because when search engine bots visit a website and get a 404, the search engine wouldn’t want its user to get the same message too.

2. Constant Migrate of Server. There are web hosting companies that keep changing the server for your website for no obvious reason (they will tell you it is hardware upgrade, but if the server needs to be upgraded every 2 months, it’s something fishy). Every time website changes its IP, the ranking decreases, and it takes time to regain back.

3. Server Crash, Data Loss, Spyware infected. This is the worst nightmares for all webmasters. One of my client’s website got infected by spyware (where the search result shows “visit this website may harm your computer”), then loss weeks of data when performing MS SQL upgrade (from 2000 to 2005) due to the incompetence of technical staffs. That hurts, big time.

When these things happen, then you really need to change your web host.

Lim CS on May 14, 2008 | Join the discussion 

Practical SEO: SEO Guidelines and Techniques that WORKS!

This is the summary of my presentation at the internet millionaires mastermind session.

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(oh, I was sweating :P )

The topics covered are:

  • What is SEO
  • The correct philosophy of SEO
  • The FORCE is strong with this one: “choosing side”
  • Get real! Practical method that works!
  • The kiss of death: things you shouldn’t do in SEO

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization is maximize the potential of the website to be found by targeted audience through search engines.

The Correct Philosophy of SEO

1. Who Controls The Search Engine?

  • The search engine people (Larry, Sergey and company) controls the search engines - not us, not SEO, not the webmaster, not anyone else.
  • It is important to realize that we are not control; but we can make the best of the situation (SEO is all about maximize the potential, remember?); then only hope for the best will happen.

2. Build your website for Human or Robot?

  • A lot of people build their website with search engines in their mind. They built it for robots (search engine bots, to be exact).
  • Build your website for your users, visitors, the people. The reason is simple: because search engines want to think like people too.

The FORCE is strong with this one : Choosing Side

1. Black Hat SEO

  • exploiting every possible loop holes from search engines; and make a fortune before search engines realize it.
  • The SEO artist of the dark side: must be perfect and cautious in all execution. One careless mistake is fatal.
  • Conclusion: not recommended for everyone because of its high risk and high learning curve.

2. Grey Hat SEO

  • this is where most of the people are. They do not know what is right/wrong for search engines: a mixture of black hat and white hat.
  • but lightning can strike anytime: a simple Google Dance or changing of algorithm can wipe out your entire army overnight.
  • Conclusion: this path is going nowhere, and you can easily lose sleep every night.

3. White Hat SEO

  • adhere the search engine guidelines: do what search engine wants you to do.
  • slow and steady wins the race.
  • Conclusion: this is the recommended ’side’ for everyone.

Get real! Practical methods that WORKS!

These are the simple ‘four steps method’ that I use to perform for my clients for the past years.

Step 1: Research Your Keyword

  • Use keyword research tool (Google Keyword Tool is highly recommended)
  • Brainstorming.
  • Think from the users standpoint (what they will type if they are looking for you).
  • Focus on certain keywords (don’t spread your bullet too far too wide).
  • Strike the balance between “difficulty” and “traffic”. Go for the mediocre keywords that are not so hard to rank and have average traffic. Don’t shoot for the star, because you probably end up with nothing.

Step 2: Keyword Mapping

Now that you have a list of relevant keywords, map (’assign’) these keywords to the following tags/section of your website:

    • Meta Tag (description, keyword)
    • Title Tag
    • Anchor Text
    • Link Title
    • Image Name
    • Image ALT
    • URL  (search engine friendly URL)

Step 3: Content Creation

Make no mistake: content is the king, still is, and will be.

  • Try to have a “content section” on your website: be it a blog, knowledge base, articles section, forum, white paper or report.
  • Encourage your users/visitors to contribute content in any sort of way.
  • If it is really IMPOSSIBLE to have a “content section”, provide ‘useful tools’. They are a great replacement for content, and a great addition too (why not have both?)
  • Uniqueness is CRUCIAL. (copy and paste, then you’ll be punished)
  • Spend time/money to create contents.

Step 4: Link Building

  • Spend 2x more time doing this (in comparison with content creation).
  • Social bookmarking websites submission are GREAT (reddit, del.cio.us, digg etc)
  • Participate in forum. See my ‘principles here’.
  • Public relation: Know the people of your industry/niche well. Don’t be shy/afraid to email them about the great piece you have written.
  • Partnership: a better word for ‘link exchange’. Exchange link with blogs/websites in the same niche as yours.

The Kiss of Death: things you shouldn’t do in SEO

  • Don’t buy links. If you need to do it, buy it under radar (don’t do it using a text link network, or a script, or a system).
  • Don’t hire an SEO or somebody to build links, without knowing how they are going to do it. They can ruin your website by getting links from spammy websites / link farms.
  • Don’t SPAM (this should be common sense).
  • Don’t join a link network. We should have learn from the lesson of many horrible story of link network (DigitalPoint Coop, Link Vault..thank goodness they are all dead now).

That’s it ;) Hope it can benefit you guys, and those who came for the mastermind session, thank you for listening and your active participation.

Lim CS on May 5, 2008 | Join the discussion 

The New GetFound

Readers,

Welcome the new GetFound.com.my ;)

  • New Design - new header with black background and red title.
  • New Tagline - inspired by “Where On Earth Are You?”, now we have “Where on Internet Are You?”
  • New Contributing Feature - now I accept guest post and contributing article (with a linkback to your website in the “About the Author” post). If you would like a link back from GetFound - there is no better way :D

Lim CS on April 22, 2008 | Join the discussion 

Catch me in KL + few more updates

Yes. I will be one of the speakers (along with my friend Daniel and Gobala) at the Internet Millionaires Mastermind 02.

A sneak peak of what I’ll be talking on the 26th of April:

Practical SEO - SEO Guidelines and Techniques That Work!

  • What’s SEO / Search Engine Optimization?
  • The Correct Philosophy to SEO
  • The Force is STRONG on this one: Choosing ‘Sides’
  • Get real! Practical methods that WORK!
  • The Kiss of Death: Things you shouldn’t do in SEO

So be there ;) I’ll be around until Sunday. If you guys want to catch me in my KL trip, email me.

What’s with the recent “All Talking No Blogging”?

The main reason is, I’ve been very busy with my new baby. And when you stop writing, you stop writing. You can’t get the flow going. I need to change that. I love blogging, as much as speaking, really.

Another reason is, I’ve been receiving many request for my speaking engagement (yes, a heap lots coming up). And you know, these are HARD to reject. Especially when they sincerely WANT you. :)

Readers! What do you like to see more?

I’m asking for your favor to give me more inspiration to blog more often here. What do you like to know more or see more in GET FOUND? A few topics I can suggest:

  • My SEO success stories
  • Internet marketing techniques
  • Lead generation
  • Free way to do most effective internet marketing

Anything you could think of, let me know. I’ll blog about it. ;)

Cheers.

Lim CS on April 14, 2008 | Join the discussion 

Online Advertising for Small Business Owners

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I’m fortunate to be invited by John to share about online advertising in a seminar. It’s my first time to talk about similar topic, and I was given less than a week to prepare. Nonetheless, I’ve tried giving my best shot.

I thought I would share the presentation with my fellow readers at Get Found (yeah, I know it has been lack of content here). In a summarized way, here you go:

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on March 24, 2008 | Join the discussion 

Internet Millionaires Mastermind

Congratulation to my friend Gobala for successfully launching his internet millionaires mastermind session.

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The Internet Millionaires club is a group of people who shared about their success on internet. If you wish to become an internet millionaires, there are no reason you shouldn’t be part of the club.

I don’t know every gurus in the club, but Gobala - is the ‘go-to’ guy to learn about building an internet business. And, he really shares his knowledge without holding anything back.

It is too much a pity that I was invited to speak but couldn’t join them this time. Hopefully, I get invited again in the next session.

Lim CS on February 17, 2008 | 1 Response 

10 Steps to build a Niche SEO Empire - Part II

Continuing from Part I (it’s been a while):

Step 6: It’s GAME time
Time to get your websites up. Find a few interesting domain names (I use Bust a name). Register them, and setup on different hosting accounts (step 3).

Then, different scripts on different domain names. For example: Forum on domain name A, Blog on domain name B, Portal on domain name C, Social Bookmarking on domain name B. so on and forth. Trust me, you will have fun. *wink

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on February 16, 2008 | 1 Response 

My Biggest Client So Far…

*drum roll please…*

They are…

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Netizens Media.

Well, let’s cut through the hype ;) It is actually my new venture.

Netizens Media is basically an online advertising network. Quoting from the official site:

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on February 2, 2008 | 5 Responses 

10 Steps to build a Niche SEO Empire - Part I

This post is greatly inspired by Eli’s SEO Empire. His particular post is informational in a way with powerful ways to build a highly sophisticated linking empire, in a mixed of white hat and black hat techniques, aiming to earn substantial income on the net. But in my opinion, it is full of jargon, and often too complicated for a regular webmaster to grasp it well, also the black hat mixture impose some future risks.

159774Ss Sm2

What is SEO Empire? It is simply a huge group of websites, linking to each other in some way, with the purpose of improve the overall ranking by leveraging.

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on January 22, 2008 | 9 Responses 

Happy New Year

This is probably the latest new year greetings you ever seen in the blogsphere.

It has been a great year - lotsa ups and downs ( yeah..cliche), but it is the most interesting year in my life so far.

Hi, nice meeting you

I think a huge part of our life is about meeting people. I’ve met a lot of GREAT people in year 2007, who selflessly share their wisdom with me, whether it is the way of doing business or their philosophy of life.

So, if you are the kind of guy that shut himself in your room, this is a good year to come out and play. You couldn’t benefit much more.

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on January 3, 2008 | 1 Response 

Selling SEO like a a retail product

Seobox

As both a business person and search engine marketer, I couldn’t resist toying on the idea of selling SEO as if it’s a retail product. Make it duplicable, scalable and applicable regardless the type of websites, and then slap it with an affordable price and attractive packaging. Tada~ I’m a millionaire in the making.

Not likely so.

We have notice many’s idea of packaging web services into a box and sell it on retail shop, only seen them fail miserably, though some still survived - by playing on the crowd’s ignorance or technical disabilities.

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on December 20, 2007 | 2 Responses 

Our local SEO scene - is it booming?

For the past months, I have received the most enquiries for search engine optimization service (since I entered the industry 1.5 years ago). Most of them enter my company website with the keywords related to SEO.

I also notice the fact that more and more foreign SEO companies are ‘localizing’ their service here - like this one and this. And most of the web design company are offering SEO services in addition with their existing web solution packages.

So that could only mean 2 things: (i) The awareness of SEO is high (ii) It is starting to get saturated (like the current web hosting industry in Malaysia).

Ok. Does that mean I’m cashing in now from the booming industry since I entered it years ago? The answer is NO.

(Continue reading…)

Lim CS on December 8, 2007 | 6 Responses 

Google Adwords Seminar

I received emails from both Hanson Toh from Google and Chan from Exabytes about this upcoming Google Adwords Seminar on 3rd December.

It’s RM20 registration fee; free for Exabytes customers. The more attractive part is you’ll immediately get the value for money back with the RM120 Adwords coupon given.

Haven’t start an Adwords campaign before? There will not be a better time with expert’s advice and a RM120 money for you to burn :D (and you can always get to me when you’ve been bite by a quality score bug. I’m happy to help..with my fees of course).

More information at the Exabytes Blog.

Lim CS on November 29, 2007 | 1 Response 

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