Tools

yExplore : Quickly Access Yahoo Site Explorer — yExplore is a Firefox & Flock extension to quickly access Yahoo Site Explorer (you can download yExplore here).

SEO Analysis Tool – This SEO Analysis tool is to help you analyze and measure the ranking potential of your web pages. It doesn’t only analyze the Meta Tags of your pages, rather it tries to use the same spider technology as the search engines spiders them self.

MetaGlossary.com  — Find meaning, not just links.  Now defining over 2,000,000 terms, phrases and acronyms! (Get the FireFox Search Plugin)

Jux2 – Compare Google, Yahoo, and MSN with One Search (I like how they pull this off).

Article

Link Developers And The Link Building Cycle – Better. Stronger. Faster. It’s important to constantly redefine link training techniques (by Todd Malicoat).

Service
BlogBurst – BlogBurst is a syndication service that places your blog content on top-tier online destinations (click here to learn more about BlogBurst).

Blogs
Emily Chang’s E-hub – eHub is a constantly updated resource of web applications, services or sites with a focus on next generation web (web 2.0), social software, blogging, Ajax, Ruby on Rails, location mapping, open source, folksonomy, design and digital media sharing. Learn more…

Go2Web2.net (the blog)

Search Engine Land – Search Engine Land is a new search news blog launching December 11, 2006. Danny Sullivan, along with Chris Sherman and Barry Schwartz, will be providing information about search engine marketing and how search engines work in general, from a searcher’s perspective.

Website
Go2Web2.net (the Website) — All I can say is check it out!

Here is a discussion at search engine watch about what creates success online.  Here is my favorite quote of the discussion:

A few years ago, people regarded forum software as some magic bullet to SEO because several forums ranked very well for competitive terms. But it was not the platform, it was the user-base. The content. The USP.

Another bandwagon people jumped on was the old Link Directory, because they worked well. For a while. That got fixed. But the really special links directories are still doing well - not because of the platform, but because of their editors. The content. The USP.

Article directory? Yawn. Seen a thousand. The engines have seen millions. None succeed because of the platform. For an Article Directory to succeed and stand out from its millions of boring others it won’t be due to the platform. It will be down to the content, the unique, high-quality, fascinating, writers and the strict, focused, reader-focused editors. The content. The USP.

When you hear the old saw that “Content is King”, it doesn’t mean ‘on page copy’. It is nothing to do with word-counts, keyword frequency, or keyword density. It is about supplying with high quality and unbeatable value, the information for which there is a strong demand.

No, wait, this is my favorite quote:

It sounds like you may have something different then, some USP, and so it can work.

The next thing to address is the barrier to competition. Is there anything to stop some other company with more resources from seeing what you start to do, and then copying it - perhaps even managing to launch first/bigger because it has more resources? Is there anything to stop 100 competitors doing that?

Having a unique idea is the first and usually hardest part of the puzzle, but holding onto that idea and being the one to realise its potential is the other, and often more valuable, half.

In fact, they’re both my favorites.  To see why, join the discussion.

Here are some interesting looking posts recently published online:

Landing Pages for SEO at SEOMoz.org

Blog Credibility - Where does it Come from? (just follow the links) at Problogger.net 

A Long List of Competitive Link Searches at SEOMoz.org

Quintura LSI Keyword Research Tool Updated at SEOBook.com

Transcribing Matt Cutts’ Videos: One through Fourteen at PeterTDavis.com

Here are some intersting posts that I found:

1) Want to promote your blog online — here are some really helpful tools!. Highly worth checking out.

2) Another quality post from Stuntdubl.com, this time about gaining trust online. Here are his 12 steps to helping establish trust with your customers.

3) Nice article (by SEOMoz) on social media marketing — even better, nice list of 25 quality social media sites. Check it out here

4) And speaking of lists, here is SEOMoz’s top 50 blogs online. And here is Cartoon Barry’s list.

5) Thinking of videoblogging? Here are the pros and cons.