iamned.com Blog

I couldn’t help to point out this extreme example noobishness and gullibility exhibited by blogger Mandish Pandy. Recently she (he?) wrote this post about how it is easy to rank for competitive terms:

http://www.seomegacorp.com/blog/2008/think-it-takes-2-3-years-to-rank-think-again/

Excerpt:
started the designing work for it myself. Later in July we finally launched the site, and we ranked in October, for few of the industry’s toughest terms seo company (currently #16), seo services (currently #31), seo news (currently #17) and seo news blog (currently #4).

Sorry to bust her bubble but those are NOT competitive terms by any stretch of the imagination. Ranking on page three for the keyword “SEO” or “Search engine optimization” would be impressive but ranking number four for “seo news blog” and then bragging about it is just laughable.

A google query for “I am a dickhead” turns up over 1.3 million results but that doesn’t mean anyone actually searches for that phrase.

On the other hand a google query for “crab sandwich” turns up only 172 thousand results but this is a term that some people actually search for.

There is a stark difference between ranking for arbitrary useless keywords and ranking for keywords that humans actually search for. Pandy, who is a few cards short of a deck, doesn’t seem to realize this and is a legend in her own mind.

Even more outlandish and preposterous is that she offers SEO services on seomegacorp.com. But I think I’ll pass. I can rank for “SEO services company news blog” without her help, thank you very much.

I have decided to share the myspace XSS code

Instering this code into a myspace profile create a huge invisible link upon clicked runs a javascipt file

You can verify it yourself by pasting the code into a myspace profile and then clicking it. Your coookie will be logged and then you will be redirected to google.com However, it only logs complete cookies for Safari users for some reason. INternet explorer and firefox only log the IP address.

You can also paste the code into a myspace bulletin and it will still work.

Since worldpress is retarded and modifies textarea html when it shouldn’t you’ll have to copy it form this textfile:

myspace hacks 

In the first two sections of this three part series I gave a brief overview of the smartist movement and its political and social ramifications, and then listed the sectors that stand to benefit from the smartist revolution; energy, internet technology, and commodities.

The third and final section will cover the various stocks and funds you should invest in to profit off the smartist web 2.0 movement.

Interestingly, Hillary Clinton John McCain won the New Hampshire primary, which came as a major blow to the ‘anti-smarty’, ‘anti-growth’ candidates Edwards, Obama and Huckabee. Although Clinton and McCain are on different aisles neither have elaborated any plans to pull out of Iraq or have insisted on some short of a timetable or exit plan. Should either Romney, McCain, or Clinton will the election (I predict Romney will win, BTW) the war will continue and energy and the stock prices of energy and commodity companies will continue to rise as they have since the war in Iraq began in 2003. In addition, these candidates enact pro-business incentives which will further globalization and entrepreneurship thus benefiting web 2.0 and other ’smarty’ companies.

The stock market took another blog this week with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average falling roughly 1.3%. Negative headlines still dominate the headlines regarding recession, slowdown in consumer spending, bad holiday sales numbers. And Obama and Hucklebee are for some godforsaken front runners?

Here are a list of some smarty web 2.0 new world order stocks and ETFs (Exchange traded funds) that are immune to bad news

1. Google Ticker: goog

Google is the quintessential internet company; the posterchild of the second dotcom boom which we are currently in. Its marketcap of $200 BILLION exceeds that of Yahoo, Ebay, and Amazon combined. Meanwhile its revenue and profits are surging from the boom in online advertising.

However, Google needs to make more aggressive efforts to dominate the web 2.0 marketplace such making an attempt to buyout facebook for over $30 billion dollars. Google’s social networking efforts such as Orkurt have largely been failures and buying out Facebook in the same manner that Google aquired Youtube in 2006 would make Google the leader in web 2.0.

Although Google trades at $630 a share I predict by the end of 2008 it will trade at over $800.

2. Apple Computers (ticker: AAPL)

Although Apple doesn’t have any web 2.0 properties is is still a major player in the second technology/internet boom. Its sales of Ipods and Computers continue to grow as PC users switch over and I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon. meanwhile, Dell, Microsoft, and Sony’s efforts to develop a so called ‘Ipod Killer’ have been unsuccessful.

3. Energy Select SPDR (ticker: XLE)

Since Summer of 2004 energy prices have been surging and show no sign of slowing. One way of profiting off this trend is by buying the Energy Select SPDR (XLE). This exchange-traded fund holds big-name companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Valero. Regardless who wins the presidency the war in Iraq will continue, and there is the possibility of an invasion of Iran. This will only drive up energy prices further. In addition, the global economy is booming resulting in rising food an energy prices. Middle East, Asian, and South American economies are growing at a much faster rate than United States and European economies and growing such as oil to run their infrastructures.

4. iShares MSCI Brazil (ticker: EWZ)
iShares China 25 Index (ticker: FXI)
Claymore BRIC (ticker: EEB)

EWZ, FXI, and EEB are ETFs (exchange traded funds) that track foreign stocks.  EWZ consists of Brazilian stocks, FXI consists of Chinese stocks, and EEB is a combination of China, Brazil, and other so called ‘emerging markets’. All of these ETFs are up over sixty percent in the past year while the S&P 500 gained only four percent in 2007. The reason why these ETFs are outperforming US indexes is because the foreign economies are experiencing much more rapid growth than the United States economy. Investing in Brazil or China now is analogous to investing in the US in the early 90’s as there is still a lot of growth and upside potential left.

Like it or not, we’re in a globalist smartist economy and in spite of the constant complaining of Ron Paul supporters this trend isn’t going to reverse anytime soon, and emerging markets (ie. Brazil, India, China) as well as large cap multinationals (ie. Wallmart, HP, McDonalds, Cisco) are the main beneficiaries of this globalist revolution.

5. Mastercard (Ticker: MA)

Mastercard is arguably one of the best stocks to invest in because they are at the forefront of paymentism and spendism.  paymentism is the means that the smarties use to extract payments from people, such as creditcards and phone billing. Spendism is the growing trend of global consumerism. with the boom in emerging markets mastercard stands to benefit directly from increased consumer and business spending, and hence more creditcard transactions.

Mastercard stock is up over eighty percent this year and will only go higher in the years to come.

Unfortunately there are no actual publicly traded web 2.0 companies, nor are there any web 2.0 IPOs in the pipeline. The closest web 2.0 investment which I would recommend is Google and Baidu (ticker: BIDU), but they aren’t actual web 2.0 companies.

Part two of this three part article will elaborate on the ’smartism’ revolution, as well as investment ideas.

The current 2008 election front runners; mainly Hillary and Edwards try to appeal to the middle class’s sense of entitlement. They are misleading voters into believing the falsehood that they are entitled to:

1. Job security
2. Universal healthcare and inexpensive drugs
3. Retirement
4. An affordable college education
5. A livable wage

Contrary to the mantra of the candidates no one is entitled to any of the above, at least not in the smartist web 2.0 era which we are currently living in. All the problems that the middle class is facing as reported in the media; rising food prices, pain at the pump, outsourcing, increased college tuition, surging credit card debt, etc is a byproduct of the smartist era, and is the inevitable byproduct and consequence of irreversible, unstoppable technological and capitalistic progress. It is out of the power of any politician to reverse these processes. Since it is futile to try to resist this transition, you can try to profit off it instead.

What is the smartist era and who are the smarties?

The smartist era began in late 2004 and coincides with the boom in web 2.0/social networking as globalization and free markets superseding sovereignty. The affects of the smartist era the second dot com boom, hyper-capitalism, the growth of ‘information’ jobs, and the outsourcing of industrial jobs overseas. Other affects include increased immigration both illegal and legal, marginalization of the middle class, surging commodity prices, growing wealth gap, reduced job security, and rising food prices. Most of all the economic and social ills that politicians address can be attributed to the smartist revolution.

Since August of 2004, when Google went public gold has surged from $400 an ounce to over $890 as of January 8th, 2008. Gas prices have risen over 50 percent and oil has more than doubled.

The graph below illustrates this rise:

If you look more closely at the graph you can see that the slope began to increase markedly in the forth quarter of 2004, which coincides with the Google public offering and the beginning of the web 2.0 boom.

The ’smarties’ of the smartist movement include the entrepreneurs and knowledge workers who are the architects of the web 2.0/social networking revolution. Some examples are Steve Jobs, the Google founders, and Jimmy Whales of Wikipedia. A smartie can be more broadly defined as any person whose actions contributes to the smartist movement, regardless of their profession.

While negative headlines of recessions, rising gas and oil prices, rising unemployment, a housing slump, and a credit crunch cast abundant pessimism on investor sentiment, there is a silver lining, which is to invest in ’smarty’ companies and funds that are capitalizing on this new social and economic revolution. The three sectors I recommend investing in are internet technology, energy, and commodities.

Stay tuned for part three where I will list which stocks and funds to put your money in to capitalize on this revolution.

(I am aware that this article has little to do with SEO and internet marketing but if you read it you will make money because I am disclosing information and ideas that are widely ignored. This article is written by someone who derives Riemann Zeta function integrals in his spare time and can cut through fog and BS like a hot knife through butter. I am capable of ’seeing’ things that others miss or overlook because I know how things work.)

Last Friday the stock market tanked over two percent on poor economic data. Unemployment rose to five percent in December, a three-tenth percent increase in November and job payrolls in December increased by 18,000, which was far below estimates. The Dow Jones fell almost two percent and the tech heavy nasdaq lost nearly four percent.

Meanwhile, Obama and Huckabee won the Iowa primary-a great upset to the political establishment. Judging by the results of Iowa it is apparent that voters want change and reform, which is why the heavily funded and experienced Clinton and Romney who embody the so called ‘political establishment’ failed to win.

The headlines are continuously filled with negativity-poor job growth, pain at the pump, unemployment, layoffs in the financial sectors, subprimes, housing problems, ongoing tensions in the middle east, mortgage defaults, and so on. Millions of middle class Americans are desperately seeking answers and resolve to the uncertainly that looms overhead. They fear losing their jobs to outsourcing and being unable to pay for health care, prescriptions drugs and their children’s education.

According to a recent CNN poll half of Americans believe we’re in a recession in spite of the fact that economic data indicates otherwise. In September 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said 110,000 new jobs were created. For each of the last three months, our economy has created an average of 97,000 new jobs. Since August 2003, the economy has created more than 8.1 million new jobs in 49 consecutive months of job growth.

Meanwhile the price of commodities continues to surge with no end in sight. This week oil recently passed $100 dollars a barrel and gold traded over $850 dollars an once. Gas prices continue to rise as well a food prices. However, the American consumer is extremely resilient and unaffected by these rising costs. And the overseas economies of India, China, and Hong Kong show no sign of slowing in spite of signs of economic weakness in the US.

A lot of idiot ‘bears’ attribute rising oil, wheat, and gold to inflation but this is simply not true. The reason why these commodities keep rising is due to HUUUUGE demand overseas. China, brazil, Mexico, India are consuming natural resources at a feverish pace to keep up with DEMAND because their economies are growing so fast. Demand is the key word. This is a demand problem; not a supply problem as was the case in the 80’s when oil peaked. The demand is so huge that prices are rising, which is fundamental economics at work and isn’t indicative of inflation.

To be continued….

Arguably the number one detriment to higher rankings is not insuficient linkage, but being hit by an unnamed google penalty. I have observed this penalty since summer of 2006 and it seems to affect sites that are compliant with google’s guidelines.

One such instance of this penalty has happened one of my sites www.myspooz.com. Myspooz.com is a myspace resource site that used to rank well for several competitive terms and was getting thousands of visits a day. Then I woke up one morning and all my rankings had vanished. All my linking pointing to myspooz.com are still intact and the site is still indexed in google; it is just that the rankings are gone.

Why did this happen? Beats me. I didn’t conduct link spam and most of my links came from link exchanges to related myspace sites. Is the sandbox the culprit? I doubt it. Myspooz.com was already several months old when the penalty was applied. The sendbox is a filter that affects sites that were just launched. Nevertheless, it is futile trying to apply any more SEO to myspooz.com until the penalty is lifted and my original rankings come back; the benefits of any further SEO will be negated by the penalty.

Here are some previous sites I know of that have been hit by penalties.

1. Mypimpspace.com The myspace resource site used to rank in google for a slep of keywords until in summer 2006 when it was hit by a penalty. In spite of having a pagerank of 5, a three year old domain name, and a lot of inbound links its rankings have never been resorted. This is a total enigma wrapped in a riddle.

2. Myspacesupport.com used to have good rankings until a similar penalty was applied. Traffic has fallen substantially since. The site doesn’t contain any obvious spam and has numerous aged backlinks. The domain is over two years old.
3. Doobix.com same as #1 and #2.

4. Blingcheese.com. I already wrote about this site a month ago. A lot of inbound links, tons of original content, no good google rankings for some reason.

What is interesting about this penalty is that it affects whitehat sites that seem to be completely devoid of any of the well-known red flag spam triggers. None of these sites have spammy content or spammy links.

More research needs to be done regarding a penalty that is afflicting sites that are compliant with the google webmaster guidelines yet are having their rankings suppressed.

If your site is hit by this penalty I suggest building a new site and stopping all SEO campaigns to affected site until there is sufficient evidence that the penalty is lifted. Unfortunately, this penalty appears to be virtually impossible to lift.

I have uncovered come cool working myspace XSS hacks but I am in a dilemma as to if I should reveal them or not on this blog. These hacks will allow you to store myspace user cookies and thus be able take over peoples accounts.

On one hand revealing these hacks will hasten their death, but my my readers would appreciate the knowledge being shared.

The downside with this hack is that it requires that the user click a link. Back before 2007 there were many on-load myspace XSS hacks that were capable of being executed on profile.myspace.com page but those were patched. What this meant was that as soon as a profile page loads the xss would be executed instantly and discreetly without the victim being aware, but I highly doubt this is possible anymore.

The exploit logs complete cookie info when I execute it from an Apple computer, but for some reason why I try it on my PC it only logs the IP address, which doesn’t do me much good.

Hmmm….

As I was skimming Aaron Wall’s Seobook.com blog I realized that the entire purpose of SeoBook.com is to promote an SEO book that is marketed towards gullible noobs who want to rank better in google.

As I explain in one of my previous blog posts Breaking The Ranking Barrier achieving good search engine results placements (SERPS) is highly desirable, but quite difficult in a lot of cases, especially for competitive phrases. Unless you are a novice no SEO book will help you rank better for competitive keywords, I can assure you.

But thousands of well meaning webmasters flock to SEObook.com everyday hoping to uncover invaluable, clandestine ‘nuggets’ of SEO information. Since the articles written in SEOBook.com tend to be sparse, vague, and unfulfilling, a lot of readers turn to the SEO Book itself for more answers. And for only $79 the ’solution’ to higher ranking can be yours! Um hum maybe not.

I have never read SEO Book, and I have no reason to. But you may be asking how I am qualified to pillory a book that I have never read. After all, it would be disingenuous to review a movie you didn’t screen. But plain and simple common sense dictates that SEO Book comes up short.

Ask yourself if SEO Book was so effective why would Aaron Wall sell in in the first place? Why not just keep the ’secrets’ to himself and rank for tons of completive, high revenue keywords while everyone else wallows in their ignorance? But as I have elaborated before, ranking isn’t easy and never will be, even for the ‘gurus’. It is much easier to pitch a book  about SEO than actually doing nitty gritty SEO work.
To make matter worse, with thousands of SEO Book customers any information contained in the book as already been disseminated to the masses and is no longer proprietary. It is hard enough for one person to keep a secret; you expect thousands of customers to keep their ‘SEO Book secrets’ to themselves?

In addition, SEO isn’t rocket science nor is it secret. You don’t need to read a huge ebook to learn how to do SEO. SEO is about getting quality inbound links with good anchor text. This information is readily available on almost any webmaster forum since it is so commonplace. Just performing a few google searches will yield an abundance of SEO information for free.

In conclusion run, don’t walk, from SEO book. Use the $79 dollars to buy some quality links instead with will directly help your SEO efforts.

Today I launched coolonlinelayouts.com

For most of the past year the domain had been parked by godaddy.com and I got around to purchasing hosting and uploading all the files. Coolonlinelayouts.com uses an seo-modified free turnkey template. The advantage of the free turnkey template is that is is free and you can use it on unlimited number of sites. Although the free turnkey solution doesn’t have much content it is very convenient.

So far, coolonlinelayouts.com has no traffic but I hope to get around 4,000 uniques a day within a couple months though SEO.

These are the keywords I am targeting first:
Default layouts default myspace layouts Myspace layouts Skinny myspace layouts Emo myspace layouts

Fortunately, coolonlinelayouts.com is an eight month old domain and is already indexed in google, which should make it immune to the sandbox.

Last week I made a slew of Web 2.0 predictions and now I have some economic and financial predictions for the new year.

1. Google stock will close the year above $1,000/share-a 900 percent increase from $100 just four years ago. Google’s growth is absolutely staggering. There is no internet company that can compete with them. Yahoo’s Microsoft and Interactive Corp (ask.com) efforts to compete with Google have largely been failures. Related reading: http://iamned.com/blog/2007/11/05/google-surges-past-700-a-share-without-resistance/

and

http://iamned.com/blog/2007/10/30/google-nears-700-a-share/

2. Baidu, a chinese web portal similar to google will end the year above $800/share from the current price of $390. Internet use in China has EXPLODED in the past five years and Baidu has a robust 60 percent of marketshare followed by Google China, Sina, Netease, and Sohu. Baidu’s earnings have surged over 2,500 percent since going public several years ago.

3. The ‘credit crunch’ and ’liquidity crisis’ will remain isolated probems that only affect commercial banks, investment banks, hedge funds, and mortgage companies. There will be NO spillovers to other sectors.

4. The Dow Jones Industrial Average will end the year above 16,000, a 2,700 point increase. The truth of the matter is the ‘credit crunch’ is not a big deal because it only affects financial companies and revenue and profits for multinationals will continue to rise steadily due to globalization. Exporters and multinationals such as Boeing can take advantage of the cheap US dollar and booming global economy to sell more goods which translates into more growth and higher share price.

5. The technology heavy Nasdaq index will end the year above 3,000 thanks to technology leaders Google, Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, Apple, and Research in Motion. These large cap tech companies have massive global growth and will will continue to do so.

7. The S&P 500 will end the year above 1,700 for the same reasons above, chiefly huge global growth from multinationals. Also, the S&P index average PE ratio is only 18, which is well below the PE ratio during the 1999 dotcom bubble. there is still plenty of upside left.

6. Small cap stocks will continue to underperform because they lack the global exposure of large cap stocks. Small caps can’t take advantage of globalization as easily as larger companies, which is why they underperformed in 2007 and will certainly underform in 2008 as well.

Those are my major economic and finance predictions for 2008. If you have any predictions feel free to contribute.