A crockpot of ideas...

Interesting javascript image action

2007-05-10T00:31:00.000-04:00

First get a page with a lot of image thumbnails, or use this as an example:

http://flickr.com/photos/johnwebber/sets/72157594472707570/

...then (in place of the url) paste the following into the address bar and hit Go!

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI=document.images; DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5; DIS.top=Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5}R++}setInterval('A()',5); void(0);

...pretty cool eh?!

Amazing photography

2007-05-06T22:49:00.001-04:00

…take a minute to check out this guys work: http://www.officialstupid.com/ …amazing stuff!

My Hacky Sack Website

2007-05-03T08:32:00.000-04:00

Back in 1999 I started a small company called Dragonfly Footbags. I have been selling footbags (hacky sacks) through the site since then. Please take a minute to have a look at the site, remember how much fun hacky sack was?? Well it's coming back in a big way, there is now a World Championships everywhere and tons of competitions around the US and the world.

So head over, take a look and buy yourself a hacky sack today!

SEO Test Update

2006-10-08T13:28:00.000-04:00

Indiana Website Design - Google Search
Currently position #5, site has been reindexed by Google

SEO Test Update

2006-10-05T09:10:00.000-04:00

Indiana Website Design

...still position #10...and still waiting for G to reindex the new content on the site. I got a few more incoming links yesterday so when those get indexed our ranking should hop up a few spots...

SEO Test Update

2006-10-02T00:48:00.000-04:00

From unlisted to the first page (#10 - Oct 2, 12:44AM) on Google in 4 short days. Now we just have to wait a few weeks for it to bounce around and then calm down a bit.

SEO Test Update

2006-09-30T02:18:00.000-04:00

10/01 UPDATE - #23

Google search for "Indiana Website Design" and Interlink is #44

A little SEO test...

2006-09-29T09:58:00.000-04:00

Ok, here's the deal. Our company (Interlink) offers Search Engine Optimization services to our customers. So I figure if we charge people for this, we better be pretty good at it. So i'm putting us (primarily myself) to the test.

I am going to just pick one keyword that I know other local companies have optimized for. Why local companies? Most of our SEO is done for local clients, in fact all of it is. So when going after SEO business, we are competing mainly with other local companies.

So here is the keyword: Indiana Website Design

Ya I know it's 3 words, but remember what i said before, I "know" that other local companies have optimized for this word. Do a quick Google search for it and you will notice that our website is not even listed, our local competitors are on the first page.

Optimization started yesterday, i'll keep the blog updated on the progress. I may also post occassional updates on the actual steps I take to improve ranking.

PS. Any links to www.il2k.net with the keywords "Indiana Website Design" would be much appreciated :) We all know the power of the people

Google Adwords Targetting

2006-09-29T09:53:00.000-04:00

Here is a one page article I wrote on my methods for targetting Google Adwords. If you target your ads, you get a higher CTR because the ads are more relevant to users, and Google rewards you with a lower CPC. Keep in mind that this is a simplified article, it is something I send directly to clients so it is a clear and easy read.

Article Excerpt:
"We want to be sure that the money you spend on internet advertising is well spent. We have developed this simple process that enables us to deliver highly targeted ads to your potential customers."

Article Link: Google Adwords Targetting Process

Review - Google Webmaster Tools

2006-09-28T08:51:00.000-04:00

I make use of Google Webmaster Tools almost every single day. It makes management, submission and tracking of website positioning much easier. I used to daily review all the sites I manage to ensure their listings were still good and G was still able to crawl them. I still have to manually check Yahoo and MSN but these tools help automate the Google bit.

If you are not familiar with them, here is a quick walkthrough. Obviously you need a Google Account to do any of this.

1. Add Site. Enter your URL and click Go.
2. Verify Site. I like to use the HTML file option, just upload a randomly named HTML file and Google checks for its existence to verify you own the website.
3. Diagnostics. I am able to quickly see any major crawl or indexing errors with my site. I also like to set my Preferred Domain to www.domain.com. This ensures consistency across all of my sites.

The Statistics Tab
This section is by far the most useful. Google has recently updated this and the data it shows me saves a ton of keyword ranking research time. The first page I see shows top search queries and top search query clicks. But I get that from my Enquisite SE tracking software, the real valuable information here is the Google ranking.

When I send a client their monthly SEO report, they get a listing of their top 10 keywords and their Google/Yahoo/MSN position for each keyword. This Google tool gives me a quick easy way to find the ranking for my top 20 keywords right away!

Crawl Stats and Page Analysis are also useful to look through occassionally. Crawl Stats gives me PageRank info and Page Analysis gives me the most common words in my sites content and in external links to my site.

Sitemaps
I try to submit a sitemap for all websites that I manage. I have had a few issues with some sites making my crawler loop forever. I currently use this free tool to create my sitemaps: http://enarion.net/google/

In Conclusion
Most of these tools are readily available somewhere else on the web or included with some SEO software package. But Google is free, gives me a clean interface, and lets me easily manage all of my sites in one place. Free, easy, centralized. Im hooked.

2006-09-27T15:56:00.000-04:00

This blog will be where I write my ideas, observations and learnings from my day to day job of internet marketing. I work for Interlink Companies (www.il2k.net) doing Project Management, Interface Design, some Web Sales, and Internet Marketing.

In 2001 I started Dreamscapes Media (www.dreamscapes.biz) doing web design. From 2001-2004 I got my A+ and CCNA certifications and in August 2004 I started iTech Resources (www.itechresources.com) doing computer and network support. In May 2006 I sold out to Interlink. Now I work for The Man but it is actually really nice. I don't have to do any more accounting or mess with all the day to day business hassle.

Here is one of my recent credentials: