Not too long ago, I introduced the idea of creating a megasite using publicly available datasets.  In this article, we’ll discuss how we can use US zip codes to create a 40,000 page megasite instantly.

(You can pick up your copy of the zip codes data set here: http://federalgovernmentzipcodes.us/.)

So, how does it work?  […]

Last week, I took the results from the first 21 days of my live SEO case study, analyzed it, and compiled everything (data + analysis) into a book, 21K in 21 Days.  This is another free guide, which you can download here.

Here is some of what you will find in the book:

• Day-by-day update log — so you can see indexing growth rates and plateaus

• Detailed analytics — screenshots taken from Google Analytics

• Key insights

• Site architecture/design

• SEO strategy

I think many people may find the “Key insights” section the most interesting part of the book, because I highlight insights that counter conventional “wisdom” about Internet Marketing.  So, I’ve reproduced most of that section below here (for those too lazy to download the book). […]

Wikipedia is such a great source of information.  Though originally controversial as a source of legitimate information, it has becoming increasingly accepted as a reliable source.  In fact, in my day job of business consulting for companies (including Fortune 50 organizations), Wikipedia is one of the first places I check when conducting research.

However, if you have a website, and would like to automate the process of pulling data from Wikipedia, it’s not a simple task.  You will need a very sophisticated scraper.  Wouldn’t it be convenient if you could just query Wikipedia like a database?

Well, it seems like you actually can… with the help of DBpedia. […]

This is my first live case study.  In this case study, I will build and grow an autoscale, autopilot, value-add site from scratch.  The purpose of this case study is to demonstrate techniques in real time.  With the exception of coding the initial site (these activities are tabulated under day 0), everything is done in real time, including domain registration.

The subject of this case study will be a a niche jobs search site, built off the Indeed API.  Indeed.com is an established jobs search engine of US-based job opportunities.  They have a publishers program with an API that allows our site to pull the job results.  For job seekers that click through to Indeed, we will also get paid as a publisher.  A nice added bonus, eh?

Our niche job search site will focus on clerical jobs.  Within clerical jobs, we have 3 sections: 1 for accounting jobs, 1 for bookkeeping jobs, and 1 for auditing jobs.

Now, how does the autoscale work?

First, upon launch, the site will have 300,000 pages.  Note, this does not mean all 300K pages will be indexed by Google.  It only means a Googlebot will find 300K unique pages across our site.  Here’s how I came up with that estimate. […]

So, you want to autoscale your site.  Now what?

A great and easy way to autoscale is to leverage another site’s API. What’s an API, you ask?  An API, or application program interface, is, as defined by Wikipedia, a particular set of rules and specifications that a software program can follow to access and make use of the services and resources provided by another particular software program that implements that API.  Okay, now let’s translate that into English.  An API is a tool that big sites (e.g. Google, Wikipedia, eBay, Amazon) create to allow other sites (i.e. think your site) to easily access their data.

Here are some examples.  Amazon and eBay affiliate sites all use APIs provided by Amazon and eBay.  That’s how they are able to extract all the product info they need for their own spin-off sites.  This is also how sites integrate Google Maps–by leveraging the Google Maps API.

Now, how does this help you autoscale?

An API is the doorway between your site and your site’s content.  This means you essentially don’t need to create any data yourself, because all the data you need is already created for you.  You just need to go through the API (i.e. the doorway) to get the data being requested by your site’s visitor.  […]

Before you continue, take a look at this blog post by Bob Cringely. It’s titled Parrot Secrets and tells a story of a guy making over $400,000 a year selling ebooks about parrot training.

http://www.cringely.com/2009/03/parrot-secrets/

Done?  Don’t cheat and skip ahead. 🙂

Now, let’s tie the brilliance of selling a digital book to our autoscale, autopilot, value-add model.  […]