Succinct but true!

No further comment necessary….

Edit

Peter (Sire’s) comment below got me thinking….

Google is not God?

Well, as a budding Internet Marketer, you sure could have fooled me. If you’re involved in any type of online endeavors just think of how many times in an average day that you think about Google, or how Google will touch you.

Let’s look at yesterday for me…

I was penning some articles for Operation Cobra. The sole purpose of these articles was so Google would reward me with a back link for a page on a website of mine,  which of course would elevate my pages’s rankings in Google, so Google would send me more traffic.

In order to get the article to be viewed favorably in Google’s eyes, I had to do some research on the right keywords to use, so of course I consulted the Google Keyword Tool. I popped into the Google Traffic Estimator to verify I had the right keywords. I used Google’s gmail to send an article to an outsourcing contact to get re written, so I’d have further opportunities to get more back links for Google to crawl.

I spent 20 minutes in the Pond (which is btw the absolute best $10/month I’ve ever spent on any resource) and read threads on SEO optimization so Google would love ya, how Google punted people from their Google Adsense program, how Google’s Panda algorithm update decimated entire sites & people’s income, how people were seeing the “Google dance” when they were trying to rank sites in Googles’s index, or even how they got sent into the Google Sandbox when they inadvertently pissed Google off. There’s post after post of talk about Google did this, Google wants that, Google upgrades/downgrades, and barely a mention of Bing or Yahoo.

A further 10 minutes was spent checking traffic stats in the Google Analytic’s program (it should have been 5 minutes but Google keep changing the damn thing & I can never find what I’m looking for), and switched over to the Google Chrome browser when I wanted to do an Incognito search on, you guessed it Google!

I got a note from Market Samurai saying they were down for a day or two, as Google had changed something in the way they access the Google Keyword data that drives their software.

I installed the Offline Google App in Google Chrome so I could work on Google Gmail while I was in the plane on an upcoming trip down under.

And that was before morning coffee….

Oh my god, that’s a lot of instances of Google.

Next I’ll be saying “Oh my Google!”

Thanks  SEObyJennifer.com for this free rank checking tool

One of the neat things about spending time it this Internet Marketing world is you kind of “evolve” over time. Heaven knows I have!

I recently had the pleasure of visiting what has to be my favorite Canadian city; Vancouver, in beautiful British Columbia. I often stay near English Bay, a neat little beach area tucked between the soaring high rises of the “West End” and the pride of all Vancouverites; Stanley Park. It’s an amazing haven in the midst of the big city chaos, and a place to relax from the daily guest article submitting I do.

From the http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/ website

Stanley Park is recognized around the globe as one of the great parks of the world! Vancouver’s first park and one of the city’s main tourist attractions, Stanley Park is an evergreen oasis of 400 hectares (1,000 acres) close to the downtown core. Its natural west coast atmosphere offering a back drop of majestic cedar, hemlock and fir trees embraces visitors and transports them to an environment rich in tranquility. The park abounds in wildlife and its features appeal to the naturalist, the plant lover or one who would do nothing more than relax in beautiful surroundings. There is always something happening in the park

Strolling the seawall

One of the great features of Stanley Park is the “seawall”, a delightful 22km paved path that circles the entire park, and is enjoyed by tourists and local alike.  One of my great pleasures on each West End visit is rising early and spending an enjoyable hour walking the wall, savouring the damp, tangy salt air (quite a contrast from the dry, Prairie air I’m used to) and taking in the sights of a dozen or so grain freighters at anchor in the harbour, maybe catching a glimpse of a family of Canadian Geese padding the shoreline, or if I’m really lucky, seeing a Cruise Liner slowly idling into port. It’s a real nice way to start your day, except for one thing….

Where are all the smiles?

Each morning I’d pass dozens of fellow walkers, joggers, roller bladers, & cyclists all getting their exercise. On this last trip, I observed just how focussed everyone was on their task at hand, and  they would  jog right past you, and without a glance my way it seemed.

I come from a small town, where I know probably 50% of the residents, and to me it’s incomprehensible to walk by a fellow human being without acknowledging them with a smile, or a nod even.  But not here, it seemed no one acknowledged my existence, and I recall thinking what a surly bunch they were on the coast.

The more I walked, the more I got thinking; I wonder what those people are thinking of ME as I walked by them. You see I was so focussed on deciding everyone was a snob out here, that I wasn’t doing much in the way of attracting smiles myself. Maybe I was the snob?

Getting Social

I decided to try an experiment. Rather than walking by and waiting for the other guy to acknowledge me, I’d turn it around; I would give everyone a resounding hello and flash them a glimpse of my pearly whites.

It was amazing.  Of the next ten people I passed, nine responded with a nod or a smile. Only one gave me a look like I should go back to the Prairies (but I think he was tourist!)

Next ten, I kept my eyes front & center, and not a soul said a word. Then the next group got a cheery “Good Morning” & to a person they all smiled & waved.

Making the effort, reaching out

It occurred to me that walking the seawall is not unlike operating a website or a blog. If you lurk behind your internet connection,  you’ll never be”meeting” people in the outside cyber world. However, if you make the effort to reach out, smile a little, simply say Hi in passing, you’ll be amazed at how many people reciprocate.
Just like on the seawall…

Some people do this very well. Adrienne Smith, for example will flash you a “cyber smile” as big as the one on her website profile pic. All you have to do is acknowledge her & I guarantee you will be treated to a resounding response.

Just like on the seawall….

But lurk around behind your screen, studying stats, building your back links or what have you, without ever taking the time to reach out and simply say Hi, and you’ll be spending your days wondering why everyone is stolling on by and never even noticing you.

Just like on the seawall….

Why don’t you stop by ten bloggers and flash them a big Hi. It’s not hard. Here’s a list of CommentLuv Enabled blogs that’ll help you out, courtesy of  Ana at TrafficGeneration Cafe

Like I was on the seawall that day, you’ll be amazed at the response when you initiate something! Get Social!

I’m sure you’ve seen that the Premium Version of the great Plugin ComLuv has been installed on Rocket Rider.

ComLuv really is a great way to boost your exposure through both commenting and accepting comments, not to mention about the best anti spam trap system I’ve seen, – the G.A.S.P. function built into it.

However, it seems there’s always some one out there looking to game the system!

But you’re doing it all wrong dude

I’ve noticed one persistent person commenting on various posts, and each comment is reasonably decent, obviously the person has read the post, and (though there’s certainly nothing wrong with that), equally obvious that English is not their first language.

The website url listed with the comment is a very legitimate looking site, all about used cars, and as I always visit the sites of those commenting to see if I can reciprocate in some way, I saw no problems.

However, one of the greatest features on ComLuv is it’s ability to read the feed of the listed website and return the last ten posts, one of which the person commenting can choose from, and it displays under the comment.

Great! They get an extra link, courtesy of ComLuv and my wide open “do follow” blog.

However, after seeing 4-5 comments from the same person, I studied the website and posts a little more carefully. It seems though the listed website was about cars, the posts were about anything but. In fact I couldn’t even determine what they were about as  they were written in Hebrew!

For all I know they could have been about little blue pills or something else I definitely don’t want to have my blog associated with!

How did they do that?

A little digging shows that the feed for the used cars site was indeed showing posts from entirely different websites. So ComLuv was correctly delivering what it was meant to, but it appeared someone was deliberately trying to game the system by using a fairly benign site as the anchor, but had somehow injected  different websites into it’s feed.

How did they do that? I really don’t care…

I’m not smart enough to figure out what they’re up to, but a couple of things I am smart enough to do.

• Read the comments
• check the included url
• check the appended “recently posted” link
• decide which button to hit, “approve” or “delete”

You see this is my blog, and ownership gives me a certain privilege, the privilege of being “the boss”.

Do yourself a favor, find another blog to spam!

btw, all your comments are now deleted, I think the boss did it!

I understand how important it is to “brand” yourself, and how having a consistant “face” out there on the interent is. You know, when blog commenting, writing guest posts, virtually any time you post content that you want your “brand” to be associated with.

I’ve always considered a simple pic of myself would be the best, and have been using a consistant one for quite a while. However, I have noticed that some folk are using a pic of something other than their face, but “different” enough  that it’d be recognizable instantly.

On our last vacation I was lying on a beach at Sarasota, FL, and snapped a shot of the crystal white sand, along with the beach cabanas, and rolling surf. Trouble was I took it from a prone position, and wouldn’t you know it, my size 11 feet, along with my best flip flops appeared front row & center! Kinda spoiled a nice photo….

Or did it?

A little cropping and I have a pic that appeals to me, especially as it brings back memories of a great holiday. It seems to me the “feet” would make it somewhat memorable, maybe more memorable than a headshot of plain old me.

Trouble is, I’m not sure if it’ll appeal to others, and if it would serve to be a unique association to myself and Rocket Rider. Maybe if it was incorporated in a yet to be done header image?

I’d love to get your advice in the comment section below.

A Guest Post contributed by Mitz Pantic.

The website hosting company you chose will manage your public image in front of the nearly two billion people currently on the Internet. Despite that, most people spend less on website hosting in a month than they spend on coffee in a day—so it’s only prudent to take steps to protect your online reputation.

How Website Hosting Goes Bad

Even the best companies can fail, especially in the highly-competitive website hosting market. Modern super-cheap website hosting reminds me of living on a friend’s couch—you need to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.

Backups are the most important preparation you can make—you are making backups, I hope—but there are several other easy steps you can take that will ease any transition you need to make.

Don’t Lock In Your Domain Name

Most people just getting started with website hosting buy their hosting and domain from the same provider, but this is a rookie mistake.

Your domain name is your brand; your website hosting company is your landlord. Giving your landlord control over your brand ties your fortunes together—if your website hosting company goes out of business, you might never get your domain name back.

But if you manage your domain name from a third-party service, you can always move your website should your website hosting provider go out of business. Even if they don’t go out of business, you can move your website without telling them until it’s a done deal.

Closely related to managing your own domain name is managing your own DNS using the same third-party that manages your domain name. Don’t hand DNS control of your domain name over to your website hosting company unless you must, otherwise it could take up to week to move your site to a new server.

Make Your Own Backups

I’m glad to see that most website hosting companies today offer free automated backups, but I also keep my own independent backups. This is one thing I love about WordPress—backups are easy. The ease of WordPress backups are one reason I help people find WordPress website hosting deals on WordPressWebsiteHost.com.

But even if you don’t use WordPress, you need to be vigilant about backups. Active sites should be backed up at least once a week.

You should also try to restore from your backups every once in a while to make sure that they’re complete. This may sound complicated, but you can combine it with a bit of research:

Go to a new hosting company in which you’re interested. Make sure they have a money-back guarantee and sign up. Then try restoring your site to a temporary URL (web address). See if everything works and try out the new service. If you like it more than the old service, go ahead and switch. If you like the old service more, just request your money back from the new service.

Staying prepared is easy and it will certainly let you sleep better at night than naively trusting your website hosting company.

Finding a WordPress website hosting company you can trust can be a daunting task, especially if it is your first time at building a website from scratch.

Or should the title be how NOT to change hosting!

You see, for years now I’ve been blithely paying two separate  hosting companies fairly significant monthly fees for having a VPS on each.

Why VPS’s? Well, back in the day of those horrible MFA mass generated websites…come on, we all tried them…we were all taught VPS’s with multiple IP’s etc, and spread everything around. Well, I’ve long since left the low road, and now operate strictly on the high road, and have long known that I didn’t need them anymore, but frankly it was just easier to leave things be.

Easier maybe, but certainly expensive, and definitely overkill.

When the Dream becomes a Nightmare

What bought about the need to change was observing that whenever I hit “publish” on Rocket Rider, all my sites on the one host would be down for anywhere between 15 – 30 minutes. This despite having been advised by my host to “buy more capacity” a couple of times, and yet the problem persisted . All my sites were slow to load as well. Seems like this host wasn’t the “Dream” I thought it was!

I was discussing this with a fellow proponent of developing guest articles, who got me to check his site out, and holy smokes did it ever load fast. He introduced me to his host, WhateverComputes, actually  a Canadian company, operating from my neighbouring province, Saskatchewan, that appeared to have everything I needed, and all on a simple shared hosting plan, that was certainly competitively priced. Being local was a plus, as was having real live people on the end of a phone, vs. online “chats” that the others offered.

Long story short, I studied up a little on how to change hosting, and bought a yearly package.

Then the fun began….

I had forgotten just how many sites I had accumulated over the years, & stupidly thought, I’ll just do this myself over a weekend.  I knew I should be posting a job on Elance or such, but naively thought I was pretty savvy, and the job would be  a piece of cake! No sense spending the time setting up an outsourcing project, and I’d likely save $50 -$100 by doing it myself.

On my very first transfer, this blog, I ran into trouble. It seems I understood a whole lot less about databases, effects of caches left by certain plugins etc., than I thought, and within hours was pleading with my new host for assistance. Despite being offered great advice, it was beyond me, and I enlisted their expertise to finish the task.

The transfer was tricky even for them, and I learned quickly that the hourly rates of tech help in Canada is a whole lot different than what you’d pay on Elance!

Fast forward to today, two full weeks since I started this “weekend project”, countless hours of frustration and I’ve almost got all my sites from the one host up, so about half way to the finish line. I soon discovered that it was easy to setup a blog when you are doing one at a time, but it’s an entirely different story when you have a dozen to move.

• Which data base goes where?
• What name servers have you changed?
• What was the password for that config file?
• How come that plugin has corrupted everything?

The pity of it all is I KNEW BETTER! I can actually recall James Martell saying something like:

If you can’t do it in 15 minutes, then take 15 minutes to post a project on Elance or the like.

Awesome advice. I should have listened!

One positive out of all this though, is I have a whole new comprehension of how to change hosting, but it sure didn’t come easily!

A Guest Article by Matt Fuller…

The meteoric rise of social media first started out as no more than a personal communication tool. Myspace, Hi5 and Friendster were all about friendships and dating. Nowadays though, social media has become an integral marketing weapon.

As an online marketer, it’s your job to interact and provoke fun, bold and intelligent leadership via updates on the various social networking platforms. However, it’s crucial not to abuse this interaction and ruin your online reputation. Nobody wants to associate with an online social media stalker.

For example: What happens when a consumer tweets in favour about one of your competitors products or services. Would you openly rubbish your competitor in favour of a more superior product or service offered by your organization? Of course not.

And what if this same consumer was to make mention that he/she was searching for a brand-new high-end tennis racket for a serious amateur, and your organization happened  to sell such a product that was a great fit? Sure, go ahead and reply via Twitter to include a link teaser to your website. Or, you could forward the Tweet to your sales department. However, until such point as this consumer shares their personal contact details with you or connects with you directly, don’t become a social media stalker and continue to Tweet that person.

Nobody likes the hard-sell by pushy sales people, and hard-sell ploys via Twitter will just make people feel as though they are being stalked by your organization. Here’s a few tips on how you can still achieve great sales without coming across like a social media stalker.

Don’t be pushy, be helpful
Keep active and participate with the topics within your groups and followers on Twitter and LinkedIn. Offer expert solutions for your niche. This way, you can introduce yourself to those who are reaching out for help. You could start a new topic or forum thread to gain further input from other experts. By offering genuine solutions and alternatives to real people, you’ll start to gain the respect of real people. And when someone tells others about the help you’ve offered, this is when you start to become an industry authority, and people will potentially come to you to seek advice about which products and services are best, thus converting sales for your organization, not to mention credibility.

Think about other people
Rather than constantly promoting your own sales pages, share with your followers other relevant information, trends and news within your industry. Post links to blogs that are well written as a way to further provoke interactions. If you only promote your own services every now and then, people will then start listening. Too much self-promotion is seen as spam thus ignored. And for whatever reason you do decide to contact someone to show them a special offer, chances are, this hot prospect will look back at your previous updates to establish if your activity comes across as no more than sell sell sell and self-serving rather than a genuine industry professional. Your online reputation is everything.

For me personally, I own a portfolio of online dating sites and relationships websites. In such a crowded and saturated online market, it’s paramount for my organization to connect with my groups and followers in a legitimate and forth-right manner. I even go so far as to promote my competitors online dating sites when they offer something news-worthy within the singles and dating scene. Perhaps an upcoming dating contest or quiz, or an annual singles event – if it’s interesting or well written, I’ll tell people about it.

So, forget about too much self-promotion, start interacting. Establish yourself as an industry leader and social media gun. Never publicly complain about clients or abuse competitors. Don’t try to be too funny with your updates, the context of a joke is often mis-read.

Feed your audience with the answers they seek, and watch your sales and website traffic climb!

Matt Fuller is a webmaster and author for various online dating sites in Australia. Matt also writes about leading news stories relating to social media, dating advice and free dating websites reviews.

A Guest Post….

Even the Amish know that technology is cool.  Technology has brought the modern world smart phones; rapid transportation; HD televisions; longer lives; trash compactors; and a vacuum that cleans your floors while you sit on the couch with your e-Reader.  But technology is not all roses and gum drops and kittens.

Or maybe it is – kittens poop, roses have thorns, gum drops stick to your teeth, and technology has a dark side too.  Listed below are several ways that technology can be harmful to humans.

Opening Remarks

Technology can be harmful to humans on an individual or on a global scale.  The consequences can vary from dire to moderately irritating.  In recent months we have seen technology play an interesting role in stock market trading.  The use of algorithms and automated stock strategies has helped send the market on a wild ride of ups and downs.  Those swings can wipe out a retirement and cost jobs.

But on the all-encompassing scale of things, stock market fluctuations are probably not that big a deal.  The market seems to be capable of correcting itself, those automated strategies will probably improve, and future disturbances will not be debilitating.  What we are concerned about in this article is the stuff that is really going to harm people, from societal upheaval to devastating cataclysm.

Can Technology Be Too Efficient?

If you live in the right town, your visit to the supermarket is becoming a whole lot more fun.  Stride right in the front door, grab some bags and the gun that shoots product barcodes, and you’re off and away in a world of lasers, personalized deals, and automated checkout lines.

Next door you are pumped you brought your smart phone, because you just paid for your retail item by waving your phone past a machine that recorded the payment, no checkout personnel required.  And when you fill up the gas tank on the way home, you can hardly remember the last time you had to deal with an actual living, breathing, human.

This is remarkable technological advancement, but at what price?

Technology is taking the place of human employment all over the country and the world.  This is all to the benefit of the consumer, who no longer has to support hourly wages or health benefits every time they buy an apple.  But what is the overall cost to society?

If enough jobs are absorbed by these technologies, and there is not sufficient work elsewhere, unemployment will rise.  Additional government services will be required.  And just maybe, society will become unstable.  Unemployment and lack of opportunity can lead to unrest and civil disturbance.  All of a sudden, technological good has become technological tragedy.

Pollution and Toxics

Cars belch a sour mixture of pollutants into the air, from sulfur to particulate matter.  Power plants spew mercury and discharge toxic ash and residuals into landfills or worse.  A nuclear meltdown has threatened the health and safety of the Japanese.  Global warming threatens to melt Greenland and turn Canada into the Riviera.

Pollutants and toxins are everywhere, from plastic water bottles to energy production to painting your home.  Toxics legislation was enacted in the 1970s when we simply did not know much about those toxins.  If a chemical is not known to be harmful, the government will not act.  In the meantime, toxic chemicals may support jobs, economic growth, and robust cancer wards.

The government has taken steps to protect people from what we know is the worst that pollutants and chemicals can do.  But it is what we do not yet know that may kill us.

War

What about nuclear weapons used in war?  That poor country can testify to the great devastation that advances in technology can produce.  The Cold War has warmed and two great Superpowers are no longer at each other’s throats, but China and Russia and other states seem to have at least some potential of taking back up the Soviet Union’s fallen flag.

Meanwhile, rogue states are always a nuclear concern.  Iraq and Libya have fallen.  In the Middle East and elsewhere the internet and availability of information has helped topple cruel and unpredictable dictators.  But North Korea and others still lurk as nuclear threats.

And what about the next great killing technology?  Nuclear weapons certainly seem to be the greatest threat to human life that we know of, capable of destroying humanity if used in sufficient numbers.  But what if some other disastrous innovation awaits its invention?  Can we trust people with the power to level civilizations?

Robots Attack!

Even if you think we can trust people with that technology, there is no guarantee that robots will do as we tell them.  As science
fiction writers have told us for decades, the potential for catastrophic evil exists within every automated construct.  If it only takes the push of a button for that nuclear missile to launch, might that button be pushed, not by you or me, but by a robot named CXDY-3?

After all, if humans are imperfect, it stands to reason that our creations will be imperfect too.  And there’s no telling how that imperfection will manifest itself.  Maybe a jagged line in the seam where we’d programmed for a straight one.  Maybe a misplaced comma in the next great robot-written novel.  Or maybe, just maybe, all-out robotic war.

Technology plays a very big role in our lives nowadays. It makes everything easier including finding people’s personal details with the use of the best background check service. However, it can also result to some serious situations. Too much information that is being shared online has led to increased number of identity theft cases.