1) If it’s not your core competency, outsource it.

There are so many different components that go into making a great website: artwork, photography, copy writing, front-end development, back-end development, SEO campaigns, PPC campaigns, Content-Management Systems, payment gateways, plumbing - okay thankfully not that last one but you get the point.  The truth is that unless you’re a fortune 500 company with bottomless pockets, you’ll only be able to excel at one or two of these.  For the rest, outsourcing can and should be your best friend.

In our case, we needed to convert PSD to HTML and figured we should do it in-house, since we could.  Before too long (thankfully) we realized the CSS was way over our heads and had to find external help to get it done.  We went with PSDtoHTMLCSS.com, which was also based in Montreal, and managed getting everything perfectly coded in no time for a fraction of the cost.  In fact we liked the service so much we’ve since joined forces!

Outsourcing has blown up over the past decade because it allows you to get things done better, faster, cheaper.  If you’re not able to do something at one (or all three) of these levels, outsource it.

2) NEVER leave the testing up to your clients.

Over the course of the past year, we’ve gotten into the habit of giving our clients early access to their web development projects and then relying on them to communicate any bugs, deficiencies, or usability issues as we go about finishing the project. The reason for this was that we figured we’d kill two birds with one stone by reducing testing costs (time spent by client instead of in-house) while improving client experience (more time for revisions and more early input).

While this has worked quite well at times, lately it has turned a couple of projects into inefficient time drainers that result in massive scope creep. This happens because if a given client is allowed to test out a site while it is still in development, one of two things will happen:

A. Client sees all kinds of things that don’t look right or don’t work right and bombards the developer with changes to things the developer was already well aware of and was planning to change anyway. This results in wasted time spent communicating and extra frustration on both ends.

B. Client tells the developer that everything is great even though they haven’t even looked at the project in progress. Developer is then led to believe that certain aspects of the site are perfect. When the client finally does take a look much later on, they inevitably find things they want changed at which point the developer is forced to either revisit closed components of the project or to tell the client “no” - which leads time wasted and extra frustration.

The best way to avoid each of the above is by getting very clear instructions from the client at the outset and then completing development AND internal testing BEFORE moving on to the client revision stage. This doesn’t mean you can’t give access to your client during development - in fact I would say you should. Just make it crystal clear that client revisions will not be addressed until the internal testing phase of the project is completed.

3) Set your own standards - and stick to them.

Whenever developing a site for a third-party client, you’re likely to encounter a situation where you’re forced to choose between a complex option that your client may not even realize is beneficial and a simpler option that will be easier for yourself to implement and will initially be fine with the client. Whenever this happens, ALWAYS choose the best solution for the client - even if it means you will blow your budget on the project.

The truth is that even if the client doesn’t realize there and then that they need something, they eventually will. And when they do, they will also realize you skimped on the job. Don’t let that happen. In many cases, the difference can be repeat business from your client and all their references versus never hearing from them or anyone that knows them again. It’s that simple.

4) Set your client expectations at a reasonable level.

This is basic Service Provider 101 - but especially true in a field as mysterious and misunderstood as web development, where most clients have no clue what they are getting into and how to tell whether they got a great deal or ripped off. It goes something like this:

Say you have two clients that want a basic 5 page informational website with a working contact form and they have a budget of $1000 to make this happen.

You tell client A: “Not a problem at all, we’ll build you the site, give you unlimited revisions, a full money-back guarantee, and even throw in some on-page SEO optimization at no extra cost.” You then build the site as promised, but the client revisions turn out to be so extensive that your budget is blown and you’re eventually forced to cut the revisions short. Furthermore, as a result, you deliver late and do a rush job on the on-page optimization that you wish you hadn’t thrown in.

You tell client B: “We can do the site, but it won’t be easy. You’ll have to trust our judgement when it comes to design and layout. You’ll be encouraged to provide input, but be prepared for us to charge extra if your revisions are so extensive that they force us to blow our budget.” You then build the site on time as promised, cut the revisions short in order to stay within budget, and throw in some on-page optimization at no extra cost.

Which client do you think will be happier? Notice that in both cases, the client is getting the exact same thing. Where client A was expecting the sun and the moon, he just got a website after a lot of heart ache. Meanwhile, even though client B was merely expecting a functional website, he ended up getting the sun and the moon.

Under-promise + Over-deliver = Happy Clients + Happy Developers

5) Never assume that any open source product - even if popular - is bug-free out of the box.

We love open source software and products. The entire open source community is, in my humble opinion, the future of all information-based activity - be it research, software, journalism, even product design. This is why we always encourage our clients to go open source when it comes to any programming-related issues.

That said, it’s important to realize that any open-source product, even those that are well established with thousands of collaborators, are still imperfect at best. We recently built two sites using open-source products as a base in order to save time and budget. In both cases, we ended up spending more time fixing bugs within the out-of-the-box software then had we built the entire thing from scratch ourselves! This does not mean you shouldn’t use open-source products when developing sites, but it does mean you should plan for bugs inherent in the software that need to be fixed for the end-product to be finished.

In case you’re wondering, the products we had issues with are Virtuemart and Elgg. Both solid products with lots of support. But like they say, nothing in life is free!

6) Educating your clients is just as important as developing a quality site.

Anyone that owns and operates a semi-successful website knows that in order for it to gain traffic that converts, it has to be constantly updated, reviewed, tested, linked and massaged or else it gets left in the dust. Anyone that has developed a website for a third party knows that many people have no idea just how much effort is required to make even the best idea work at all. It’s up the the web developer to bridge this gap.

Whenever we take on a project, we always try to make this as clear as possible to the client BEFORE embarking into any work whatsoever. What we haven’t always done well, though, is properly educate our clients during the development process and, most importantly, after hand-off.

We recently came into a situation where we had built a social network that allows for users to add, move, and remove dashboard widgets, similar to how Facebook works. Little did we know that our client had no idea what a widget was or why his site needed them. Once he understood what we had accomplished, he liked it - but getting there took a lot of explaining on our part - and frustration on his part. This could have easily been averted had we been crystal clear with him at the outset as to what we were trying to accomplish with the widgets.

The most important aspect of this lesson is the post hand-off education. It takes a LOT to get a website from launch to success. Often, clients can feel overwhelmed once they start to realize just how little they know about marketing their website post-launch. In order to better prepare our clients and give them the best chance of succeeding, we’re now providing them with a tailor-made (by yours truly) Starters Kit. It explains some basic explanations of how to read analytics, strategies of how to get their website populated with quality traffic, and links to resources that they should read and understand if they are serious about making the site work. In most cases, not providing this type of information is like selling a car to someone without a driver’s license - it looks great, but they have no idea how to use it.

1. Nobody loves .org - except for everybody.

The .net and .info endings continue to maintain their position ahead of .org. We all know .com to be the most valuable and popular (76% of sales last year), but I continue to remain completely baffled as to why buyers are purchasing .net and .info over .org. While I can think of a slew of extremely popular .org domains, including Craigslist.org and Wikipedia.org, I can’t think of a single .net or .info superstar. I personally love .org - I think it automatically conveys greater trust to the visitor and - contrary to popular belief - it is NOT restricted to non-profit organizations (just “encouraged”). In fact, here’s an excerpt straight from the .org registry:

.ORG always has been — and will continue to be — an open and unrestricted domain. Anyone is allowed to register and use .ORG domain names.

In fact, one of the greatest online marketing firms in the business has even gone ahead and placed their domain as a .org - considering they charge as much as $1000/hour, I’m pretty sure they don’t qualify as a not-for-profit organization.

The only logical explanation I can think of for the greater volume in sales of .net and .info TLDs is that maybe - and this is a stretch - owners of .org domains aren’t as eager to sell them. But I’m guessing the main reason is simply that domain buyers are just not that into .org … yet. If you’re looking to purchase some domains as an investment, .org should definitely not be overlooked as they continue to appear undervalued.

2. Total domain sales appear to be reaching their peak.

From 2004 through 2007, Sedo’s Total domain sales grew by 59%, 40%, and 37%, respectively. Last year, sales grew by only 8%. With the crisis in full swing this year, you can bet that figure will be in the negative by the end of the year. But will it stay there?

3. The average sales prices for global TLDs dropped a LOT across the board.

Straight from the report:

The average sales price has decreased for nearly all gTLD’s in 2008,

starting with .com (-50%), .net (-18%), .org (-36%), .biz (-30%) and .info (-23%).

These are HUGE drops in price. I would attribute much of it to the ever-growing choices domain buyers have when it comes to gTLD’s (remember when it was .com, .net, .org, and that’s it?). With more and more countries opening up their registries to the general public, these options are only continuing to dilute the value of premium gTLDs. Expect these prices to drop further over the coming year.

4. ccTLD’s are where it’s at.

Country-specific TLD’s (like .ca here in Canada) appear much healthier than the gTLD’s. From the same report:

The average sales prices for the .de, .at, .fr and .us have

increased while the average sales prices of the .es, .co.uk and .eu have decreased.

Considering the overall downward trend in the industry, it’s clear that these modest increases signify a major advantage to ccTLD’s. Add to that the fact that Sedo’s highest priced domain sale involved a ccTLD for the first time ever (kredit.de sold for $1,176,672), and there is little doubt that ccTLD’s are coming on very strong.

I’ve thought for a while now that this would happen since it just makes sense. Because they are so much more localized, ccTLD’s tend to instill more trust in the visitors, which in turn leads to better performing websites.

Conclusion:

If you’re looking to invest in domain names, proceed with caution. The industry is still very young and highly unpredictable as a rule of thumb. It’s entirely possible that domains continue to lose their value over the next little while - at least until the economy picks back up. That said, if you absolutely must jump in, I would take a good look at ccTLD’s as they can be had at a fraction of the cost and are most likely to increase in value as countries continue to increase their internet penetration.

If you’re looking to purchase a domain for a website you plan on developing, however, this is a great time to buy. Due to the decrease in sales activity and sales price, you can get some great premium domains at a fraction of their cost just 1 year ago.

Being a development shop, we’ve recently purchased a few domains for upcoming internal projects at prices that were far lower than we expected to pay. These include HollywoodAgent.com, Barranquilla.org (large coastal city in Columbia), and Auto.com.es. In each of those cases, we were able to aquire the domains at costs that were much less than half what we expected to pay. Since we’re developing those sites, the ROI won’t be a problem to cover. If we were looking to resell them, however, we’d be in for a long battle.

If you happen to own an Iphone, head over to the App Store and download iSteam. It’s free. Play around and see what it can do. It’ll take about 30 seconds to understand the FULL breadth of functionality. Another 30 seconds to get bored of it. Maybe you’ll use it once or twice to impress friends. Before long you’ll delete it to make room for something else.

iSteam could be the most useless application I’ve ever seen, Iphone or anything else. It places virtual steam on your screen when you blow into your microphone. That’s it. Yet the creators of this negligeable blip in the space-time continuum have pocketed over $100,000 from it. WTF?

Here’s another one: iFart. The free version makes a fart noise when you touch the screen. The paid version allows you to have variations of fart noises and other extremely useful features. As for the developer? He was pocketing a cool $10,000 - per day.

With stories like these popping up on a weekly basis, it’s no wonder everyone and their grandmother has jumped on the Iphone app goldrush bandwagon. The question is, are these things really that easy to make money with?

For starters, consider the sheer number of Apps in the store. Last November, the store surpassed the 10,000 app milestone. By the end of the first year (this coming July) it’s predicted there will be 25,000 apps in the store.

How about users? According to Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter numbers, almost 7 million iPhones were sold for the quarter. Latest total figure is at 13 million iPhones sold in 51 countries.

At the time of that report, there were 5500 apps in the app store, which had been downloaded 200 million times - those numbers are misleading, though, because the vast majority of those downloads are obviously free. Nonetheless, according to those numbers, there are about 2364 users per app in the App Store. By my calculations, that would suggest that by the 1 year anniversary of the App Store, that ratio will be 1120 (28 million phones / 25000 apps).

In other words, if you were to develop an app and sell it for the average price of $3 and have it downloaded and paid for by the average number of users per app, you’d generate $3360. However, since Apple takes 30% of revenues from apps sold in the store, that number would actually drop to $2352.

That’s significant in that it means that apps are being generated at a ratio greater than new iPhone owners.

It’s also fiscally frightening when you consider that the cost of an iPhone app can run anywhere from $10,000 to $150,000 to produce.

Of course, the vast majority of Apps are either a hit or a miss. Lucky for us, Joel Comm, the genius who came up with the iFart App, has generously provided his day-to-day sales stats for the app, which recently hit #1 in the store. Here are the numbers for his first 10 days:

12/12 - 75 units - #70 entertainment
12/13 - 296 units - #16 entertainment
12/14 - 841 units - #76 overall, #8 entertainment
12/15 - 1510 units - #39 overall, #5 entertainment
12/16 - 1797 units - #22 overall, #3 entertainment
12/17 - 2836 units - #15 overall, #3 entertainment
12/18 - 3086 units - #10 overall, #3 entertainment
12/19 - 3117 units - #9 overall, #2 entertainment
12/20 - 5497 units, - #4 overall, #2 entertainment
12/21 - 9760 units - #2 overall, #1 entertainment
12/22 - 13274 units - #1 overall

As you can see, the balloon effect is remarkable. In the span of 10 days, Joel generated $42,000 and pocketed almost $30,000 of that. Great work if you can get it!

It would be interesting to see what his numbers were on Christmas and up to today. According to the App Store’s listings, the app is currently placed #26, which would mean about 1500 sales per day.

In other words, if you hit a homerun in the App Store, you’re laughing. But how difficult is it to hit a homerun? Based on the same set of numbers, we can see that #76 overall generated about 850 sales in a day. Out of 10,000 apps, that’s still well within the top 1% of all apps.

Considering these figures, I think it’s safe to assume that if you’re not in the top 10% (top 1000 to 2000 apps), you just won’t be pulling in enough sales to justify the development costs. Of course there are exceptions to this - for instance if you develop an app that sells well for $34.99 to a very niched crowd that finds it very useful - but for the most part this should be a safe rule to follow.

Not surprisingly, there are lots of app developers that have been disapointed after expecting the cash registers to flow. Some find it too difficult to hit a homerun app, while others are just not accepted into the store to begin with.

Here’s the good news: If you’re confident your app can generate the interest, there are great reasons for you to go ahead and develop, not the least of which is the need for minimal marketing. It seems most app sales are generated from eager iPhone users exploring the app store. Furthermore, from a developer’s perspective, the app store platform is a godsend.

For these reasons we’ve made the decision to start focusing some of our resources on iPhone App development. If you’re thinking about doing the same, I would say proceed with caution, but definitely proceed. The gold rush should be going on for a while longer!

Some big names are involved in the event, including Jaques Demers and the Legends of Hockey team, which will be playing against one of the delegations on Saturday night of the festival.

The weekend will feature 10 different hockey events:

• Ice hockey
• Pond Hockey
• Cosom Hockey
• Ball Hockey
• Outdoor Shoe Hockey
• Table Hockey round robin
• Electronic Hockey (PS3 - NHL 2009)
• Field Hockey
• Underwater Hockey
• Hockey Quiz

Anyone can sign up to play in any event of their choosing.  So even if you can’t skate (like me) you’re still sure to find something you’ll enjoy.

Believe it or not, this is the first and only hockey festival of its kind on the planet, which is why they are already expecting quite a slew of international participants.

What sets this apart from other similar sporting festivals is that the entire weekend is setup as a competition between delegations.  Each delegation is made of 30 to 40 players and run by a General Manager, not unlike an NHL team.

To make this possible, we equiped the website with a GM’s Office that allows GMs to log in and build up their delegations by drafting available players that have signed up for the festival.  The site also includes a slew of informational sections, corporate sections, and a totally customized Content Management System that allows non-technical administrators to edit content on the fly.

Ya, we’re stoked about it!  We worked our butts off to get it up on time and running smooth, so let us know what you think.

For more info on the FIH or to sign yourself up while there is still availability, just skate on over to www.fih10.com

See you at the festival!

I don’t say this lightly, but think about what he’s done.  This man has risen from modest beginnings outside the establishment to become the single most powerful man on the planet.

In a country that has been founded and run by (relatively) conservative rich white Anglo-Saxon males for 300 years, a man of Kenyan decent and color has risen to the highest office.  That’s like a Pakistani becoming the British prime minister!  It’s like a Filipino rising to the top of the power ladder … in Japan!

In a country that is currently at war with Muslims in a fight that started as a way to catch an enemy by the name of Hussein, a guy that spent part of his youth in Indonesia (the largest Muslim country in the world) and with “Hussein” as his middle name has become Commander-in-Chief.

In a country where, in many states, a 7 year-old Barack Obama wouldn’t have been allowed on the same bus or in the same diner as a poor, dirty white man - he is now the leader of each and every one of those white men - in each and every one of those states!  That’s like a drunk bum walking into the nicest restaurant in town, getting the keys to the front door and being told “it’s yours now.”  Up until last Tuesday, it just couldn’t happen.  Now it’s as real as the screen you’re reading.

“Okay so it’s big,” you might be saying, “but the Greatest Political Accomplishment in History? Come oooon!”

The Greatest.  In History.

For starters, you remember Martin Luther King of “I have a dream” fame?  Yeah, this IS the dream.  Diddo for Malcom X and Muhammad Ali.  I mean, Muhammad Ali was (and may even still be) the most recognizable face on the entire planet not 20 years ago - THIS IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN THAT!

How about Abe Lincoln abolishing slavery?  That was definitely huge, but now a once-slave IS Abe Lincoln!

The end of World War II?  Monumental … but now a Jew is RUNNING the Third Reich!  Think about that.  Running the whole damn thing that tried to ruin him for so long … and without a shred of violence.

Ghengis Kahn creating an empire that covered most of modern day Asia?  Barack’s empire covers most of the globe … and he didn’t have to kill and maim half the continent to get it.  Same can be said for Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte, the list goes on…

Make no mistake: no matter where you live today, barring the end of civilization as we know it, your great-great-great-great-great-grand kids will know Barack Obama’s name, recognize his face, and probably study him in school.  How could they not?  He accomplished the greatest political feat in history.  His face already belongs on Mount Rushmore - and he isn’t even president yet!

And you know how he did it?  The internet.  Damn I love this industry - but more on that in another post.

On this Remembrance Day, I salute and admire the man.  How he goes to sleep at night without having incessant nightmares of him and his family  being assassinated, I will never know.

Barring that type of disaster, the next 4 years should be downright fascinating.  A man who already accomplished one of the greatest feats in history - a peaceful, insightful, fiercely intelligent man - now has 4 years to show the world what he can do as it’s leader.  My money says he will do as good a job as any that has stood in his shoes.

What do you think?  If you asked me, it’s a ridiculous sum for tax payers to be dishing out for what a select few at the Montreal Metropolitan Community deem appropriate for our city.  

That’s roughly 17 cents per citizen in the city.   How exactly does this help us?  According to the MMC, it provides ”a branding that will clearly and cohesively present the metropolitan region’s features on the international scene.”  

Despite the logo’s approval rating of 5%, Le Devoir reports that the 82 mayors of the MMC municipalities claim the new logo allows them to ”speak with a sole voice internationally so as to have more impact.”

Can you spell c-o-r-r-u-p-t-i-o-n?

Here’s an idea:

How about not wasting tax dollars on something that could have been crowdsourced for a tenth of the cost - while producing a result that would be well-liked by the majority?

Hmmmm … more to follow!

I promised myself (and everyone else in the company) that I wouldn’t use this blog to shamelessly self promote.  But we’ve been working with a company by the name of Unomobi that has just released a ridiculously useful service and - here’s the kicker - it’s totally free.

In a nutshell, Unomobi has developed a way for anyone in North America to recieve all of their emails as a text message on their cell phone.  Now, admittedly, this email push service is not totally new, but I’m quite sure the this type of service has never been offered at no cost to the end-user. 

To take advantage of the service, just visit www.MyInboxNow.com and follow the directions when signing up.  Within a couple of minutes, you’ll be receiving text messages each time someone sends you an email.  

You can actually setup more than one account with the same phone number, which is really useful if you hate going back and forth between gmail, yahoo, hotmail, and work accounts.  They also have a bunch text message commands that allow you reply to emails via SMS and even download and view documents.

Best of all, the whole thing is ad supported, so you’ll never have to pay a dime. 

If you asked me, the service has HUGE potential around the world - especially in developing markets where very few people have smart phones but everyone is text messaging.  

Only problem I see with this is that it may have a short shelf life now that the iPhone has truly brought the web to our pant pockets.  

Would love to hear your thoughts about the service…

BUT….

The real solution to this problem will clearly only be resolved when Google finally starts including the ability to either import Add-Ons (ideal) or for developers to start creating their own.  I’m personally shocked that they haven’t already included this since they will lose a lot of the momentum they have garnered from the impressive performance.

HOWEVER … you have not made it this far down this post for nothing.  I am dedicating this post (and open thread) to make-shift solutions to any sorely missed add-ons.  

That said, here are three that I’ve just figured out:

Spell Check:  

The spell-check is built-in to Chrome - okay that was easy.

Managing Bookmarks in Google Chrome

For starters, you can import your bookmarks from any other browser at any time with Google Chrome (and they even remain in the same order and folders).  Of course, this does me no good since I’ve been using Foxmarks to manage my bookmarks AND RSS feeds.  HOWEVER, I have figured out a pretty good solution.

1. In Firefox, install the GMarks add-on.
2. Using GMarks, synchronize all of your Firefox bookmarks with Google Bookmarks.
3. In Chrome, open a tab with your Google Bookmarks and save any Chrome bookmarks in there.
4. For greater bookmark functionality, use Google Notebook
5. For even greater ease of use, I recommend embedding your bookmarks directly into your iGoogle page.

*Once this is done, I highly recommend uninstalling GMarks since it overrides the very useful bookmarking system used in Firefox 3.  

RSS Feeds in Google Chrome  

Tragically, there is still no auto-recognize feature for RSS feeds and they are definitely not available in the toolbar.  This, to me, is the worst thing about Chrome right now, though I’m confident Google will be addressing it very shortly.  However, there is a simple web-based solution to this, assuming you have all your bookmarks in Google Bookmarks:

1. Sign up to Google Reader
2. At the bottom left of the screen you will notice “Manage Subscriptions”
3. Click “Import/Export”
4. Follow the directions to import your feeds into Google Reader.
5. Voila!  Chrome RSS feeds - well, not exactly, but at least they are now just a tab away.
6. Again, I recommend embedding your Google Reader feeds into your iGoogle home page to have everything in one tab.

Firefox search bar in Chrome:

I love the ability to change the search engine on the fly in the firefox search bar.   This is actually possible in Chrome as well:

1. Hit the Customize Google Chrome button at the top right of Chrome (the wrench).
2. Select Options.
3. In Basics, you can manage the default search engine.

UPDATE:

I’m the guy that uses FAR too MANY plug-ins and that has at least 4 toolbars showing at all times.  Here’s a screenshot of my regular Firefox toolbars:

So when I installed Google Chrome the other day, naturally one of the first things I did was try to install my beloved Firefox Add-Ons.  

At first I noticed that Chrome automatically imports all your bookmarks from any other installed browser of your choice.  Good sign!  My bookmarks folders were even laid out across the bookmarks toolbar folder in exactly the same order:

I quickly noticed, though, that my RSS feeds - which are normally organized within these folders - were no where to be found.  

So what about those Add-Ons?  Well, I have good news and bad news.

The Good:

Chrome comes equipped with a ton of Chrome plug-ins, pre-installed.  That makes it more user-frendly off the bat than Firefox and basically results in a truly “plug and play” experience upon installation.

Additionally, at any time you can import your bookmarks and settings from any other browser installed on your PC.

The bad:

For starters, there is no Google Toolbar.  Yes the address bar works just like a search bar, but if you’re looking for all those extra gadgets the Google Toolbar provides - like PageRank Checker and AutoFill - fawget about it!

Most importantly, there is as yet no ability to import or download third party Firefox Add-Ons.  Personally I love the Alexa toolbar, can’t work much without SEO for Fireox, and rely on Foxmarks to keep all my RSS feeds in line across PCs (it’s brilliant).  

Aside from the utter lack of add-on capabilities, I have to say that Chrome is far ahead of the competition.  It is sleeker, cleaner, more intuitive, and much … MUCH faster than any other browser I’ve ever seen.  It seems to use about a quarter of the CPU compared to other browsers.  Additionally, it’s got some really cool features such as incognito browsing and customizable application shortcuts.

All this to say … I love my add-ons but DAMN I LOVE CHROME!  What to do…

Read my upcoming post for how to get Firefox add-ons in Chrome - really.

How do I know this?  Well, for one, it’s no secret Google has frowned upon anyone selling or buying links for years.   But it appears that lately they have really stepped up the attack on paid links by  in the PageRank department.

Word on the street is that Google has already begun the shift from text links to social bookmarking and networking sites like Digg and Facebook.  Google actually has it’s own (terribly marketed) link sharing service called Google Bookmarks.  How much you wanna bet bookmarking a site in that service leads to better organic search result improvement than most text links?

All this to say SEO is a game that is almost not worth short changing anymore.  My advice on how to rank well is (and probably always will be ) this:

Become the best damn site out there on your chosen topic.

Plain and simple.  All search engines are trying to present their users with the most relevant content for their querries.  So if you want to rank well and NEVER have to worry about changing policies and algorithms that will always be out of your hands, just produce the best content.  Search Engines will be scrambling to make sure you are on top of their organic results.

Of course, easier said than done.  Then again, still easier than reverse engineering algorithms that change at the whim of people you’ve never met!