Signing off on his popular small business blog, Rob May runs down the ten most important things he’s learned in his five years of blogging about all things business.

We offer them here as a tool to give today’s up-and-coming entrepreneurs quick access to knowledge it took an industry veteran years of hard work to arrive at. If you like what you see, check out the original article here.

10. Luck Matters. … Talent and hard work will put you in a good position, but to get to the upper echelons of success, I think most of us need some good luck and timing.

9. Touchy Feely vs. Analytical. … It is soooo much easier to be successful in a business with good economics, even if you make some mistakes, than in an industry with lousy economics but a hip fun workplace. For entrepreneurs, I think the key approach should be to look for opportunities in markets where the economics are changing.

8. Beware of the Hype. … I have a love-hate relationship with PR. I realize it is important to stay “top of mind,” but at the same time, it is so contrived and artificial most of the time that I hate to be a part of it. The lesson here is that when you see someone sitting on a panel at a conference, when you see them get an article published in a magazine or newspaper, when you see them cited as an industry leader, that doesn’t really mean you should listen to them or that they have any idea what they are talking about. Do your own research and ask them tough questions. Don’t base your awe of them on their aphorisms.

7. It is Always Easy to See What You Want to See. It took me almost 2 years to find a financial partner for my first business. Then a few months into it, I realized the margins would never be what I wanted them to be. Dozens of people told me why it wouldn’t work (lousy industry economics, primarily) but I didn’t listen. It was sexy and cool, and I wanted to be sexy and cool to. I saw what I wanted to see. I didn’t listen. …

6. Do Stuff. I used to plan and talk, plan and talk, plan and talk. I’m not criticizing planning or talking… they can be beneficial, but now I prefer to do something instead of talking. Your plans will probably be wrong on anything that is new, so you may as well just start doing. Doing stuff gives you a better “feel” for a business than all the planning in the world. …

5. Failure Doesn’t Really Matter. … Many “failures” are only temporary setbacks, and if you don’t let them scare you and demoralize you, they can be turned into wins. … Failure is almost always a great learning experience.

4. Find Your People. … Spend your time finding investors who are looking for ideas like yours instead of convincing investors who don’t care that they should listen to you. Spend time finding employees who believe in what you are doing instead of convincing potential hires that they should want to come work for you. Spend time searching for a customer who needs and wants what you have, instead of trying to convince someone who doesn’t that they should want it. …

3. Revenge is a Waste of Time and Energy. Business can lead to situations that make you angry and make you want to go crush an ex-employee, ex-customer, competitor, or whoever. While spite may be a good motivator, revenge is typically a lousy use of resources. Blow it off. Take the high road. …

2. Help Others Reach Their Goals. … Everyone has dreams and if you can help them reach those dreams, most of them will go to the ends of the earth to help you out down the road. When skilled employees are ready to move on, don’t be mad, be happy for them. When customers have outgrown you and need a different type of provider, help them find what they need, don’t be angry at them. Don’t be one of those people who only takes and takes in a relationship. Be a giver, even if other people call you a sucker. In the long run, you will be better off.

1. Relationships, relationships, relationships. The single biggest thing that I have learned is that relationships matter. People like to work with people they trust. Five years ago, I thought I would be a successful entrepreneur some day because I would hole up in my house and read all kinds of technology and business books and play with lots of software and then have some breakthrough insight that would shake up the world on its own. Now I think if I am ever highly successful, it will be because a bunch of people helped me get there. …

Though just ten years old, Google is now absolutely the biggest player in the world of Internet commerce — which makes it one of the world’s most significant companies, period. (It recently became Silicon Valley’s most valuable company, no small feat.)

But it’s real accomplishment comes from the fact that it’s now a household name, known to hundreds of millions of people who may not even understand what role it plays as a company. The Google search engine is an absolute phenomenon; it not only completely dominates its industry, but plays a huge role in everyday life.

With that in mind, today we picked up a blog from HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog on the best ways to search Google. This advice may be directed more at the average consumer than the online businesperson, but it works both ways. And, it’s always a good idea to know how people use Google, when that’s the main source of your advertising. So, without further delay, here are “12 Quick Tips To Search Google Like An Expert:”

If you’re like me, you probably use Google many times a day. But, chances are, unless you are a technology geek, you probably still use Google in its simplest form. If your current use of Google is limited to typing a few words in, and changing your query until you find what you’re looking for, then I’m here to tell you that there’s a better way – and it’s not hard to learn. On the other hand, if you are a technology geek, and can use Google like the best of them already, then I suggest you bookmark this article of Google search tips. You’ll then have the tips on hand when you are ready to pull your hair out in frustration when watching a neophyte repeatedly type in basic queries in a desperate attempt to find something. …

1. Explicit Phrase: Lets say you are looking for content about internet marketing. Instead of just typing internet marketing into the Google search box, you will likely be better off searching explicitly for the phrase. To do this, simply enclose the search phrase within double quotes.

2. Exclude Words: Lets say you want to search for content about internet marketing, but you want to exclude any results that contain the term advertising. To do this, simply use the “-” sign in front of the word you want to exclude.

3. Site Specific Search: Often, you want to search a specific website for content that matches a certain phrase. Even if the site doesn’t support a built-in search feature, you can use Google to search the site for your term. Simply use the “site:somesite.com” modifier.

4. Similar Words and Synonyms: Let’s say you are want to include a word in your search, but want to include results that contain similar words or synonyms. To do this, use the “~” in front of the word.

5. Specific Document Types: If you’re looking to find results that are of a specific type, you can use the modifier “filetype:”. For example, you might want to find only PowerPoint presentations related to internet marketing.

6. This OR That: By default, when you do a search, Google will include all the terms specified in the search. If you are looking for any one of one or more terms to match, then you can use the OR operator. (Note: The OR has to be capitalized).

If the first half of this list sounds good, click here to check out the list in its entirety.

Today we share with you a recent article from the E-Commerce Times that outlines five “easy” steps to get your online business a good foot-hold in the all-important search engines.

Writes Brandon Leibowitz, “There are ways of achieving top rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. that are kept secret. In the following article you will learn how to take advantage of these tips and gain more traffic to your site than you could ever imagine. Here’s an easy-to-follow guide to achieving top search engine rankings.”

1. Choose Your Keywords Carefully

… To start our keyword research we need to utilize some very useful tools. The first Web site viewed should be Google Keywords, which is a free tool that displays the amount of searches and competition for specific keywords. It also allows you to find more specific keywords that can better describe your site.

A better tool would be to purchase some type of software such as Word Tracker, which offers detailed information about keywords. Unfortunately Word Tracker is not free, but there are other services that are.

2. Find a Niche Market

This cannot be stressed enough, as it is much harder to receive top search engine rankings for a new site than an established site. A new site will have to fight among Web sites that have established high search engine rankings.

… For example, let’s say you have a Web site geared toward weight loss. You would not use the keyword “weight loss” because it has too much competition. You can use one of the keyword tools to find suggestions of related keywords that you will be able to compete against. You may find the keyword “weight loss surgery” or “weight loss techniques.” These phrases are much better keywords than generic terms like “weight loss.” …

3. View Competitors’ Source Code

It is important to view potential competitors’ source code to see if they have efficiently performed on page search engine optimization. To do this on your browser, click “view” and then click on the “source” option as displayed.

This will bring up a page with all the HTML (hypertext markup language) code on it. You do not need to be an expert with HTML to understand what we are looking for. We need to see if our competitor’s Web site is properly optimized. We look to see if they are using their keywords in the header tags, the title tags, and the image alt tags. These should all be located near the top of the source code. …

4. Keyword Placement

After you have selected a few keywords to use, we want to combine the ones that have like terms. … For the title tag, the fewer the keywords used, the better the search engines will rank your page …

5. Homepage Organization

We want the search engines to notice your keywords and index you according to those keywords. In order to do this, you should start your body and end your body with your keywords. This gives the search engine spider information that your page is highly relevant to your keywords. …

This is just the tip of the iceberg; the article itself goes into much more detail about optimizing your SEO techniques. Check it out here, and let us know what you think in the comments section, below.

Today’s Washington Post tell us that the recent Comcast controversy may have succeeded in finally prodding the FCC to take definitive action regarding the net neutrality issue:

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission yesterday sharply questioned Internet service providers who control consumers’ Web access over their networks, and suggested the agency could intervene against the practice.

Kevin J. Martin made his remarks at an unusual off-site hearing to address complaints that cable provider Comcast restricts the flow of content — such as video and music clips — through file-sharing service BitTorrent. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet and a proponent of so-called net neutrality rules barring online traffic controls, offered opening remarks. “While carriers will assert the need to manage networks in their current state of evolution, we need to remember that Internet freedoms are most properly thought of as consumer-centric,” he said.

The hearing, held at Harvard University, pit Comcast and DSL provider Verizon against legal scholars and public interest advocates who have pushed for open-Internet rules.

… “These are very significant issues, and we don’t take those allegations lightly,” Martin said in opening remarks. “The commission is ready, willing and able to step in and correct any practices that are ongoing today.”

Industry watchers said the chairman’s comments were his strongest yet against the carriers. The prospect of punishment for those who violate the FCC’s 2005 policy statement safeguarding net neutrality could pave the way for legislative action, some analysts said. With the backing of Martin, a Republican, the FCC’s two Democratic commissioners — both supporters of net neutrality — would have the majority.

So, does this mean that action is imminent, or is it simply political-flavored posturing? There’s no way to tell for sure at this point, but it does seem like this issue is regaining some momentum in the public sector. Whatever happens (or doesn’t happen), we’ll keep you informed here at the Aplus.Net Blog.

The original article has many more details; click here to check it out.

A few years ago, we at Aplus.Net introduced to the web hosting world a new way to approach building an online business. Our Five Pillars of Online Success took all the dozens of factors that go into creating and maintaining a successful website and categorized them into one simple system.

In the excitement of all the big changes that our company has gone through over the past year, we haven’t given the Five Pillars concept the attention it deserves. However, after revisiting the idea in a 2006 TopHosts article, we want to share it again with all of you.

From the article:

Pillar 1. Design and Develop an Effective, Professional Website
From content and image management to interaction and navigation tools, Aplus.Net can provide every service and tool needed to easily build an effective website. What’s more, they also have the ability to put clients’ sites in the hands of experienced, in-house professionals seasoned in creating effective and attractive web pages. Many competitors choose to outsource this vital function, and risk harming themselves and their customers when that chain of communication breaks down. After all, one simple mistake in the layout or logic of a website and customers will be quick to move on to the competition.

Pillar 2. Driving Traffic, Getting Attention
The importance of driving traffic to your site cannot be overestimated, for obvious reasons: The more people you reach, the more your customer base grows. And the best way to drive traffic is through search engine optimization. If your website is to be truly successful, you must dominate the search engine results in your market—both the “real” results (natural results that depend on the relevancy of your site to the keywords being searched for) and the paid results (search engine placement that’s specifically paid for). To this end, Aplus.Net offers a stunning variety of eTraffic and search engine tools, from the simple to the Google-customized, and can offer advice on which will work best for any given website.

Pillar 3. Sell, Sell, Sell: Engage Customers with Effective Sales Tools
After ensuring that your site is easy to find, the next step is to make sure that nothing prevents a straightforward, satisfying, and informed purchase for your visitors. Aplus.Net can help build consumer confidence with “Customer Getters” (Live Chat, Push-to-Talk), “Customer Keepers” (online forms and mailing lists), and eCommerce Tools (such as shopping carts and links to well-known sellers like Amazon and eBay).

Pillar 4. Analyze and Improve: Keeping Your Site at the Top
Imagine being able to track the physical movements of your customers—what store they went to before yours, which one they’ll visit next, and which one earns their money. Traditional marketing formats like print media and TV can’t offer this kind of tracking power. The Internet, however, can. From visitor profile tools to Web Analytics, Aplus.Net offers plenty of alternatives for those businesses that can’t or won’t hire a $100k marketing director to analyze customer buying patterns.

Pillar 5. Protect Your Site: Ensuring Safety for Your Customers
With identity theft and online scams at a sharp increase, consumers are becoming more and more wary of the Internet as a safe place to do business. So, Aplus.Net’s last and arguably most important category is dedicated to one simple, essential, and unavoidable fact: Visitors must feel safe and secure about your website, or they won’t purchase through it. A quality hosting company will provide awareness of and access to the many certifying organizations (such as SSL) that exist to promote online security, as well as tools to protect business identity, protect against spam, make credit card transactions safe, and much more.

Please feel free to visit the “Five Pillars” section of our website whenever you need a refresher on these ideas. Thanks for reading!