:Clear Skin Blog

This is something I’ve noticed for a while, but a recent thread at SEOchat makes the situation all the more clear. Now, I’m bound to be a little biased due to the fact that Acne Vitamins is currently displaying all the classic sandbox factors (ranking very well in MSN and Yahoo, not using any underhanded techniques such as cloaking or doorway pages, etc.), and has been doing so for the last 8 months while I’m forced to pay for all my Google traffic via adwords. Naturally, I would like to see the sandbox go away about now, but I must admit that Google’s results are still generally better than MSN’s and Yahoo’s for most of my searches.

The problem I see with the current system is that the fact of the sandbox makes it that much more difficult not to engage in the kind of link strategies Google deems to be unnatural, such as reciprocal linking or buying text links. This is because, while newer sites (meaning basically any site less than a year old) are systematically kept out of Google results via the sandbox filter, the webmasters of these sites are forced to find other means of generating traffic for those first 12 months. Now, both MSN and Yahoo have no such time-penalty for new sites, but place a lot of emphasis on backlinks. They do not seem to share Google’s strict policy against reciprocal linking and buying links (doing this is often a quick way to the top of these engines). As such, with no means of ranking in Google, it only makes sense that webmasters would do everything they can to perform well in the other search engines. Of course, Google looks down on this and may very well penalize such sites for the very things that allow them to compete in the other engines.

Is there no better way to stop spam than creating a situation that encourages it? Not everyone can afford to have their website sit in obscurity for a year while waiting to be deemed worthy to rank without handicaps in Google. The policy at present may be fine in a world where Google dominates the search engine market, as they can afford to basically tell site owners: “Ignore what works in the other engines, they only bring a fraction of the visitors we do. We drive the traffic, we make the rules.” However, I expect that in the near future other search engines may well take away a lot of that market share (keep an eye on MSN with the upcoming Internet Explorer 7 - an MSN search bar will come built-in), and at that point Google’s current policies may come back to bite them.

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Acne-Vitamins will be implementing a new product line in the near future, and one of the additional ingredients that will be joining vitamin B5 will be Biotin. It’s common to hear people on message boards recommend that B5 users also supplement regularly with Biotin in order to lessen the chances of side-effects, and while in most cases this is not really necessary (b5 is extremely safe on its own), there are definitely some benefits to adding Biotin to the mix. Vitamin B5 and Biotin actually work together to release energy from the breakdown of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins for numerous functions throughout the body. While B5 has a powerful effect on improving the quality of your skin, Biotin has shown similar effects in promoting healthy hair and nails.

We already recommend a daily multivitamin, so why should we add Biotin directly to the formula? Basically, because a multivitamin may not supply enough Biotin for regular vitamin B5 users. The reason for this is that B5 and Biotin are absorbed by the same receptor molecules in your body. That means that they are in competition. However, vitamin B5 has a twofold advantage in that the receptor molecules have a higher affinity to B5, and it is present in higher quantities (your body does require more B5 than Biotin, but not necessarily the amounts needed to fight acne). With these factors combined, it only makes sense that Biotin be included in our formula. In fact, we will have the highest amount of Biotin in any B5-for-acne treatment. It will still be low enough that it will not interfere with B5 absorption, but you will definitely get a surplus of Biotin in your diet, which will help balance with the higher levels of B5 (and is also totally safe, as Biotin is also water-soluble and non-toxic). So All-in-1 will now cure both acne and baldness! Ok, well maybe it won’t be quite that amazing, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some users notice fuller, healthier hair.

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Yes, I’m still working on Blog-Links.org. Hopefully the site will be up in a week or two (meh, probably two…). It’s actually a very simple site (I want it to be clean and no-frills), but I’ve just been too busy with Acne Vitamins lately to make much progress. Blog Links is something that I think could help a lot of casual bloggers get more traffic by sharing readership, as well as increasing their search engine relevance by building up more backlinks. I’ve never gone about launching a forum before, so I just need to do a little more experimentation before I toss the site up on the net (I also need to write a few more static html pages for the top level of the site). It will be powered by PhpBB, since it’s free and easily customizable, and I will have to set up the code to be as SEO-friendly as possible. I do NOT want this to be something that steals away my time from further working on Acne-Vitamins (I should really start writing some clear skin articles…), so I hope to be able set this site up, launch it, and then just let it go mostly on autopilot. If it actually develops an active base of users, I’m sure I will be able to get some help modding the forums. I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

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