I had someone write me in a panic the other day. They had just switched their Web site between servers, only to watch their search traffic plummet from Google. In the week after they switched, they went from about 150 unique visitors from Google to just 20. What was the problem?

I went through a quick checklist with the site’s owner, checking to see if he may have been penalized by Google or if there was a problem with his site. Did he start selling links on his site, or was his site hacked? No, so a penalty was unlikely. Did he delete or change the links to his content? No, so errors weren’t the cause. So the only explanation left was the mythical Google sandbox effect.

Web developers are in disagreement as to whether the sandbox actually exists, and it has never been confirmed or denied by Google. I’m a firm believer in the sandbox effect’s existence, at least for certain sites. What is it and how can you escape it? Read on.

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In the early days of your blog, you may feel like Sam Brownback during the 2008 primaries: perpetually speaking to an empty room.

For a business, the Internet can be a brutal place. And businesses that blog are businesses that put themselves in the center of the storm. Blogs take a while to mature, and along the way, every business blogger will deal with languishing in obscurity, cutting criticism, and a lack of motivation. Here’s a guide to handling the growing pains along the way, but keep this in mind too: the payoff is worth it. Those bloggers that can weather the rough, early days, will be rewarded with a collection of strong content that attracts new readers, promotes discussion and feedback, improves search engine ranking and ultimately generates new business.

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