First Edition Feature: The Open Directory Project

This is our first edition, and as such, I suppose it should contain a bit of background.

What's This NewsLetter All About?

This newsletter, Search Engine Laisha's List, (S.E.L.L.) is about you and search engines. It's about your site attracting attention. It's the insider's look into what the search engines like and do not like. It's about how you can maximize the amount of money you make with your site.

How Will S.E.L.L. Help You?

In order to get the most out of S.E.L.L., it is a good idea for you to read the information on my site, "All I Know About Specific Search Engines." The site delves deeply into the workings of the major search engines, what they want, how they rank submissions, and what they consider spam and other "tricks."

The List is intended to be a more in-depth look than the site. While the site will still be updated regularly, this newsletter will feature a different search engine each month and go into detail about the feature. Additionally, it will include changes in policy, ownership, and rules of submission of major search engines.

Who Is This Laisha Person, Anyway?

When the Web was first invented in the early 1990's, I began designing sites. As the Web grew, it became apparent that in order to be found, a site had to place well in the search engines and directories of the times, InfoSeek, AltaVista, and Yahoo. I began jotting down information about how they indexed sites. Then, more of these indexes began to appear. More notes were jotted.

The site, "All I Know About Specific Search Engines," evolved from the scores of Post-It notes I had plastered to my monitor, desk, wall, and all other surfaces in my office.

One night, in 1997, someone on an email list I belonged to asked a question about submitting to search engines, and that question spurred me to translate all those notes onto website. It started out 1 long page and is currently at about 40 or so pages.

The site now includes tips for positioning your site in major search engines as well as several hundred specialized search engine links and has had steady traffic of more than 200 hits most days for nearly a year.

Recently the site was listed in Yahoo! Internet Life, Dummies Daily, The Chicago Tribune, and the West Palm Beach Post, which generated numerous requests for a newsletter.

I met with one of my close associates, Bill, from WE Concepts, which is a collective of web professionals, and we discussed the possibility of my offering such a newsletter. Bill, as always, came through with a great plan for doing it, and here we are.

Your suggestions as to what YOU want to see here are more than welcome. This newsletter is for you, and you should have a say in what we delve into.

And if you have an article you would like to submit, please feel free to do so. Email to articles@laisha.com.

Ask The Expert

In the next couple of months, we hope to put together a column of questions from our subscribers. If you have a particular submission problem or question about any of the search engines, please submit them to expert@laisha.com, and we will pick some of them out and address them in the column.

Still Frustrated? Need More Help?

Feel free to contact us if you still have questions. We will be happy to answer them for you.

If you no longer want to receive this newsletter from us, simply reply to this message with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.