[alexander13]

June you make some great points about staying calm and how far ahead of the competition you are if you're a newbie just starting in 30dc. "7 days to SEO expert" is not an ebook (that I'm aware of) and don't buy it if it is. SEO has its own jargon and nuances which can take years to master and Eric has been in the SEO game for 8 years now. I have the benefit of being on his team and can attest to his extremely high advanced knowledge of SEO.

I would consider myself intermediate level skill because I've been studying SEO for over 5 years but only done a small amount of work in the field since I'm a copywriter and enjoy doing that. I asked him what his main evaluation factors were and I believe that was his motivation for this post.

Bookmark this thread in your delicious account (or your local computer hard drive through your browser if you're old school). You will want to refer back to it after the challenge is over and these terms are second nature to you.

I asked via pm a couple questions about DMOZ and Yahoo. I've included my response here (with fees for the services redacted due to 30dc rules, pm me if you want to know the cost to get these links):

[DMOZ and Yahoo are the 2 web directories Google respects the most. This gives you the most link power and weight meaning they contribute greatly to increasing your rankings in google.

Yahoo costs an annual fee for their power link. This is the easiest to get because for the most part when you pay they put you in their directory (the yahoo team does review your site for quality, non-porn, etc AND they make no guarantees you'll be included but the people I've talked to who had a working site and paid the fee did get included getting the power backlink).

DMOZ is even more greatly weighted by google but almost impossible to get into. It's a volunteer human review directory meaning it takes months (if ever) for your site to be EVEN BE looked at by an editor.

It's also believed to be harder to get into. They have a huge backlog of sites to look at. So unless you know an editor it's tough sledding.

botw.org is another old and respected directory. They have 2 fee options a yearly plan or a 1-time fee plan.

When you have a money site (making money) i'd advise getting these power links because they do help your rankings.

They make no guarantees either but follow their terms and you should get in. Hold off on paying the fees to any of these directories until you know you have a winning market/keyword and are making money WITH YOUR MAIN SITE.

No need to pay for something you're going to abandon or are unsure of the profitability. Don't spend money until you have to or are confident it will benefit you.]