Local SEO and Marketing Strategies by Dragonfly

Great Reasons to Register Your Domain Name Early

Duane McLennan — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:45:00 GMT

The price of

domain name registration has come down significantly over the years, and this reallychanges the way you should think about it. You can now purchase domain name registration for $8-$10 from a numberof sources, or you can even get them for less than $5 if you are interested inpurchasing extra services from your domian name regstrar.

You may be thinking about starting a business, or you may have an idea for a web site. In either case, a great domain name is something that you will likely need for either venture to succeed in the current market, where internet usage and sales are starting to overpower the retail business. There are serveral great reasons that you should think about early domain name registration, oreven registering one or more domains that you think you might use in the nearor distant future. Here are a few of them:

Lock in your brand orcompany name:

Many companies and internet start-ups will take several months or even years to get off the ground. During this time there is a chance that someone out there will identify with what you are trying to do, or possibly set up a business in competition. They will be looking for the same type of domain, or exact domain thatyou are for their business. You don't have to use it right away, just register the rights to it, and it's yours. Protecting your brand or potential brand in this way will save you a great deal of frustration down the road!

Domain age isimportant for Search Engine Optimization:

One of the key factors in Search Engine Optimization is the age of the domain. The search engines, like Google and Yahoo! take domain age as a factor in ranking websites in their organic search results, giving higher priority to domains thatare a little older, because it implies that the owners and sites are not"fly by night" factors on the web.

Great domain namesare becoming hard to find:

There is a whole sub-culture that surrounds internet domain name registration, buying, selling and auctions. People who don't even want a domain name are constantly trying to figure out what might be the next big thing in retail, technology or the environment (or anything for that matter), and spend a lot of time and money on figuring these things out and buying up the domains names that would be relevant or desired, so they can later sell them for a profit, making it that much harder to find a domain name for your own endeavor.

So, whether you have just come up with the new solution to global warming, and are seeking the funding to launch your idea, or you need a good domain name for your blog about your pet, the earlier you snap it up, the easier a time you will have when you are ready to launch your idea or product online.

Best of luck, and good hunting!

New Smart Space Application from Dragonfly Net Solutions

Duane McLennan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:08:00 GMT

Just Launched! The new Smart Space application from Dragonfly Net Solutions is a solutions for beginners to host a web site and blog on the internet!

The application puts a web site, blog, social media space and photo album, all in one great package! All you have to do is choose your domain name, add Smart Space, and we do all the technical stuff!

You now have fully functional blog using Quick Blogcast, a web site builder through Website Tonight, an online photo gallery, email and more!

I will be posting more about it in the future, but you can check out our sample page at www.dns-ss.info and see exactly how easy it is to become a presence on the net with your very own domain name.

Check out a video about easy web hosting with Dragonfly Net Solutions here on our social space.

Google Pagerank Explained

Duane McLennan — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:36:52 GMT

Beginners who start the process of developing their skills for SEO will come across a plethora of acronyms and terms that they may not fully understand. Google Pagerank is an important metric to measure both your own site, and the sites of others that you may choose to seek links from, or link to. Pagerank is a numeric value that ranks a web page's importance on the web, in Google's case, it is a ranking out of 10. The importance of Pagerank in Google comes from Google's algorithm for ranking pages in it's orgainc results.

The position you place in the organic results (search results) is directly linked to both the Pagerank of your own site, as well as the Pageranks of other sites that link to your site. It is basically a rank of how important your site is to others on the web, based on how important other sites, who link to your site are. And so on, and so on, and so on. It is often called link juice.

The image below shows how Pagerank can pass from one site to another. Many sites with low Pagerank can build up a site's own Pagerank, as in site "B". But, you can see the higher Pagerank from just one link to site "C" from site "B", passes a lot of link juice, giving site "C" a very high rank.

High Pagerank from others linking to you = High Pagerank for you!

Excellent beginners discussion of Pagerank from SEOmoz.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-What's PageRank Got to do With It? from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

Now that we all know a little about Pagerank, use the tool below to determine yours!

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:

This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

A Little More About Bad Map Results in Google

Duane McLennan — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:39:00 GMT

Now that I have calmed down a little about the Google Map Listings for Winnipeg Florist, I would like to go a little further in the discussion about why I believe this is wrong, and what people can do to effect change in these listings.

The really good news is that I can't seem to duplicate these results any more, as you can see from the link above. I don't know if Google made the change or if we were just experiencing an anomaly in the results. I did confirm the results with several sources, the day I wrote the blog about the bad Google results.

I actually didn't realize it at the time, but I was dealing with 2 separate issues.

1. Google Map Spam in General
2. The Way Google Uses Maps in Search

In this blog, I will discuss the first issue:

1. Google Map Spam in General

Google Maps is one place to search for local businesses, and the results that Google brings back for these searches can be very good, or very poor. Google has laid out several guidelines that you can read about on Mike Blumenthal's blog from Blumenthals.com, called Understanding Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search.

Here is an excerpt from Mike's Posting:

"For the first time Google has made an authoritative statement about keyword stuffing of business title. This type of content should never appear in your business’s title or address fields. The word never indicates that it is a clear and unambiguous reason for being delisted but as I have found in the small business world there already is ambiguity as to naming of businesses. This reality creates a fairly broad area of both discretion for Google and unclearness for small businesses."

This is the link that will take you to Google's Quality Guidelines for Maps.

What I have learned from this exercise, is that Bloomex Inc. has created multiple listings for Google Maps that link to both their actual business name, as well as keyword stuffed listings that include the words flowers and the names of cities they are represented in.

Based on Google's guidelines, they are not allowed to do this:

Quality Guidelines:

The following items outline practices that could result in your business listings being permanently removed from Google Maps. While they cover the most common practices to avoid, Google may respond negatively to other practices not listed here. If you have any question about whether or not a tactic is deceptive, we recommend you stand on the side of caution.

Represent your business exactly as it appears in real life. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.
List information that provides as direct a path to the business as you can. Given the choice, you may want to list individual location phone numbers over a central phone line, official website pages rather than a directory page, and as exact of an address as you can.
Only include listings for businesses that you represent.
Don’t participate in any behavior with the intention or result of listing your business more times than it exists. Service area businesses, for example, should not create a listing for every town they service. Likewise, law firms or doctors should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business’s title or address fields.

I have been informed that there is only one avenue to pursue changes to the content Google provides for these listings, and that patience is a virtue when doing so. That is through the Google Maps Help Group.

Here you can report spam on Google Maps by providing the search results and some background information on your complaint.

To file a spam report with the Google Maps team, please reply to this
thread with the following information:
- Your search terms
- A link to your search results
- A short description of why you believe this is spam
If we don't ask for additional information, you can assume that your
report has been read and is being investigated.

I submitted a spam report for Bloomex Inc. with plenty of information on their spammy nature across Canada, in the Google Maps Results. Their business names are NOT, Bloomex Flowers Winnipeg, Bloomex Flowers Hamilton, etc. I guess we will see what happens.

I hope that I can get some other local florists to post about this issue as well, in the coming days, and really pump up this issue with Google.

Google: Bad Local Results for "Winnipeg Flowers" a Travesty

Duane McLennan — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:59:00 GMT

Continuing to critique Google's results, I did a quick search for Winnipeg Flowers today on Google.ca. The results that were returned are absolutely shocking to me!

Bloomex now gets the sole position on the Google map that is returned. This is an extremely powerful position for them to be in, above the organic results, and it needs to be changed.

Bloomex has only been in business in Winnipeg, since the end of the summer. They chose a location in town that would be beneficial to their local result in Google, and it has worked brilliantly. In my mind, this is a complete and utter travesty. This position will net, what? 40% of the Valentines Day sales for this keyword?

What of the florists in Winnipeg who have been hacking it out in this market for years, eeeking out a living? We are now way beyond partisan politics in the Winnipeg florist business now.

I hope that Winnipeg Florists can band together and generate a voice strong enough, in the face of Google, to get Bloomex removed from these results (or at least demoted), and let the true backbone of Winnipeg, the Mom and Pop or family stores have a chance to succeed.

We will be creating a survey, that will hopefully be well received by all Winnipeg florists, as we band together to make Google listen.

.... Oh yea, this is the result for "Winnipeg Florist". Not so surprising, and equally disturbing. They get the "A" spot!

I guess this is Google's "Welcome to Winnipeg!"

Google's New Responsibility to Provide Value

Duane McLennan — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:04:00 GMT

Anyone who knows anything about the internet knows that Google is the biggest in search, they get over 60% of the search traffic. They have had an extremely good year, making revenue exceeding 5.5 BILLION DOLLARS in Q3 alone. As stated in Google's Investor relations Q3 Report, they have increased their Q3 earnings by 31% over last year. Google is still growing, and with revenues as large as this, and market share this big, it places a much higher level of responsibility on them to have good results.

Wait a minute, isn't that just what they claim, is that they have the best results? They have even gone so far as trying to improve the user's experience by improving landing page quality in the sponsored links, and creating "trust with the user through a positive experience". So, what's the problem?

The problem is, that the average internet user, for whom Google is professing their loyalty, doesn't even know what a sponsored link is!

I have been running pay per click campaigns for almost 5 years. During that time, I have spoken with many friends, family and colleagues about sponsored links; Here is a typical conversation:

"Hey Brad, I run a pay per click advertising campaign for my wife's flower shop, check it out?"
"How do I do that?"
"Just type in "Winnipeg Florist" in Google, you will see us there."
"Oh yea, there it is!" ...CLICK!!!
"HEY, DON'T DO THAT, THAT JUST COST US MONEY!"
(Yea, we just fraudulently clicked ourselves)

A programmer friend of mine sent me an email a couple of weeks ago that said, "I just clicked your advertising". He was talking about SEO with another friend of mine, and used my site as an example, he too didn't realize that when they searched for our business, we come up in both the organic and sponsored results, hence the click. When my other friend told him about what "sponsored results" means, being the good friends they are, they thought it was funny and let me know. The point is, that although anyone who reads this post likely knows about PPC, but the majority of internet users do not.

You may have had your own experiences such as the one above, or you may not have. It is still a reality that there are millions (Hundreds of Millions?) of people that use Google search each day. (I couldn't find a good number by searching, most were questions posed on boards, and the answers most often were,"a lot") How many of those users are experts? 1%? Maybe one tenth of 1%? A millionth? The rest of the people out there put a lot of trust in the results they get, including the sponsored results. Google has made billions of dollars because people don't even know what they are clicking. Of course in a free market, this is just fine, and I don't begrudge them one dollar of it. AdWords has helped me and my wife gain a lot of extra business on the internet. But, there is a point where this system really breaks down.

What if it's your mom surfing the internet? You would want her to find exactly what she is looking for right? What if she was sending flowers across the country to you and your wife, after you just had a baby? Well, now its personal, isn't it? (I will try not to relate this to the flower business too much, but that is what I know)

Now for the good part.

That $100 flower order you mom sent you may have gone something like this:

Your mom actually clicked on an affiliate link for an order forwarding site (Posing as a local florist, with an add that stated "'Your city' Local Florist"), that probably cost her about 5 bucks. Next it went to a wire service, that just cost her another 20 bucks. The remaining $75 made its way to an actual florist, who probably has their own website, but weren't found in the query. Oh, wait, they may have to pay a fee for getting the order. There goes another 3 bucks. Now the florist gets to make and deliver the flowers with the remaining $72. Probably not exactly what mom expected. Had she found the actual florist's web site, she may have actually got $100 worth of product (less delivery) for her $100.

If the sponsored links were so great, she would have found an actual florist in your city.

Is this Google's fault?

You can draw your own conclusions, but of course, I have some of my own.

This type of advertising in any other arena, besides the internet, wouldn't make it a week. Better business bureaus, local consumer advocate groups, even word of mouth would stop it dead in its tracks before it even hit the ground running. For some reason, on the internet, this is considered good business!

One of my favorite bloggers, recently posted a blog called "Who wants to beat Google?". While this was a very compelling article about linking social networking and user preference to search, he missed one key element about the user experience in the quality of the results. VALUE.

Here are some interesting Canadian stats.

(I will use Canada as the example, because other than Greenland and Iceland, our internet usage seems to be the highest in the world, almost 85% of the population. Cold climates?)

From StatsCan
45% of Canadians use the internet to purchase goods and services.
60% of Canadians use the internet for window shopping. (Just behind sports and bill payments...)

There are 33 Million Canadians, 28 Million use the internet.

Lets go back to how many people are internet or PPC experts...enough said there.

So, we have established that a very major portion of the internet is about consumerism. Hence the sponsored links. Let's focus on that, and leave the Wiki-informational stuff for another discussion.

What is someone who is an internet consumer actually looking for?

Cheap Nike shoes from China? The consumer may not even realize it, but What they are really searching for is VALUE, for their dollar. Does Google have a responsibility to provide this value to the consumer? I will say yes. But, I will follow that conclusion up later with a solution for Google, just hold on.

Let's talk a little about Google's improved webmaster guidelines on AdWords for a minute. This relatively new venture is really providing better results isn't it? Sure, when you click on an add for car parts, the site that pops up is actually a site for car parts, but it has nothing to do with value. They have improved the user experience for the consumer by providing a re-direction that is hopefully useful to you, and not just a spammy ad for something else. I really don't know who could afford to advertise for car parts and have a site for diapers, but I guess that was an issue. Even reading Google's new quality rank help topic, you can see that it's really geared towards appeasing the advertiser, not getting better results for the consumer. There are some general guidelines about content and having the ad match the content of the page, but nothing there states anything about whether the site provides value to the consumer.

Fraudulent Google Ads

I have read stats that there are over 20,000 florist web sites in the US alone, many of which have ads associated with them. How many of these actually link to a florist? Your guess is as good as mine. What I do know is that many of these web sites are not actual florists, or are local florists somewhere other than where the site states. How could this happen with the new quality score in place? I have seen several examples where florists in other cities with sites that have the capability to provide wire transfers have created mirror sites with local phone numbers and even local addresses in the cities in question. "Local Winnipeg Florist", states the ad. "Winnipeg Florist", is the name of the site. "204", is the area code of the phone number.

Google has been my favorite, trusted search engine for a long time, and their link told me that I was clicking on a "Local Winnipeg Florist". Why would I have to check the about us page, to find out that they are not actually a local florist, but an order gatherer who is going to take a percentage of my money and send the order to a REAL local Winnipeg florist, through a wire service who is also going to take a percentage of my money?

Isn't this fraudulent advertising? I posed the question about fraudulent advertising to Google through my own AdWords account some time ago, and blogged about it at The Florist Blog. Google's response was, "...no comment...Would you like help with anything else?" I was a little disappointed with the response that day, and didn't really have all that much to say about it.

I would suggest that there should be a governing authority who should be policing this issue, but with all the malicious activity going on on the internet already, what priority would this issue get, and who would have the resources to police this kind of activity? Wait a minute, how about Google?! With Q3 revenue of 5.5 billion dollars, why not put some resources into policing this issue. What a great idea! I can't believe they haven't thought of this! Oh, wait again, there might be a small problem here. These are the very people who are creating Google's revenue that we will be hunting down. That's a terrible idea.

Or is it?

I have been thinking about this issue a lot lately. Google has been fairly steady with their market share for quite some time now, and it doesn't really look like they will be gaining any market share any time soon. In fact, there are continually other entities like Cuil popping up that may just hit the nail on the head, and steal some of that market share from Google. (Not that Cuil is going to do that) During a recession and with everyone seeking to take you down, you have to think outside the box.

The Solution for Google

1. Research the issue. (It may be a bigger problem than even I think)
2. Begin to clean up AdWords. (Start with some obscure lightly trafficked industries to test it out)
3. Go Public.

Number 3 is the kicker. Announce that while there was no clear regulations to do so, Google has taken the initiative to create VALUE for the consumer in their sponsored results. Make it REALLY public! Even go as far as cleaning up the organic results. Tell everyone you just made them better. Actually do it!

I firmly believe that as online spending increases, the dip in revenue from the reduced fraudulent advertising revenue will be offset by the increased traffic and an increase in market share. Watch that 60% rise to above 70% within a year, and force the competitors to follow suit. Google, you have just made a more money, and made a better world for doing it.

While this may not actually be the right solution, I hope that Google will find this blog and take notice. They have the power, and of course;

"With great power, comes great responsibility." - Uncle Ben, Spiderman 1

google

Beware the SEO Scam Artists - Top Google Placement Immediately!

Duane McLennan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 05:18:00 GMT

I had a phone call the other day from a sales person who sounded like they were in a complete panic to sell me,

"Top Placement in the Google Search Results for My Specific Keyword".

For anyone who is reading this that may be in the SEM game, this claim will always raise a few red flags. Those of you who don't know what I am talking about, read on.

The caller told me that it was going to be in my best interest to "grab it now", and that "we can only offer this for a limited time, as my colleagues are on the phone right now with other clients who may steal this keyword from you before you get it".

Now, the keyword isn't really that important, but it is for one of the sites for which I manage both Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC). I wondered, how can they be offering me the top position in Google for this keyword? I wondered, "is this a legitimate claim, and they have spammed this keyword so badly that they got the top position, and now they are offering it to me?". This has to be the best offer ever!

I kept listening to what they had to say out of a morbid sense of curiosity, provided my email address so that I could do a little research on what they are offering, and just enjoy the whole process. I had to know exactly how much this great service would cost me. I found that for a hundred dollar setup fee, and then about 100 dollars a month, I could have the top position in Google for my great keyword.

I managed to get a web site address out of them, and took a quick look. Right there on the first page of their site was a quick video about how it works. They even showed a page from Google and pointed to the top position in Google where I would be listed for my great keyword.

Yes, there it was, they had published something absolutely amazing and truly remarkable.

They could get me top ranking on the first page of Google.... IN THE SPONSORED LINKS!

I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it. They were actually promoting their ability to add you to their Google AdWords campaign and bid as much as possible for the keyword in question to put you in the number one spot on "the Google search results".

So let's get back to the 100 dollar setup fee. They would add, quantity of 1 keyword to a search campaign, with a couple of ads I would imagine. (Nice profit margin) Then, for about 100 bucks a month, I could get place in the top position on Google's sponsored results for my one keyword.

I have it on good authority that the fees for the top position for this single keyword would be around $15 per month. Not a bad profit margin again.

People are allowed to make money, but at least do it by providing a full disclosure about what you are going to do. (Oh, did I mention that you have to sign up for a 1 year contract?)

I have learned a great deal about human nature since getting into the business of online marketing. Most of which it is safe to say, I wish I hadn't.

Enough said.

6 Steps to Beginners Search Engine Management

Duane McLennan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 22:46:00 GMT

Search Engine Management, or "SEM" is defined as the process of building and marketing a web site with the end goal of improving it's position in the search engine results. This process includes a few key techniques:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is the process of building a site that is "search engine friendly". Pages that are optimized for search engines will provide content that is highly relevant to it's targeted keywords and make it more appealing to both the search engines and the users.

Advertising or Pay Per Click (PPC)

Pay Per Click advertising is used within the search engine's results as a way for advertisers to get their website on the first page of the search results on a cost per click basis. This is done in 2 ways, with search results and with content results. The search results return PPC links for a specific search, and content results provide links within sites that contain content relevant to the advertiser's website. You bid on the top spots against other advertisers.

Link Building:

Link building is used to improve both visibility and the apparent quality of your site to the search engines. Having a link to your site on sites that have content highly relevant to the content on your site gives the search engines the impression that your site is more important to that particular topic.

1. Choose the Right Domain Name

Any good website starts with a good domain name. Picking the right domain name that is both easy to remember and related to your site and top keywords is very important. It is also very common to chose a business or organization name for your domain. Your domain name should have a few key characteristics:

- Try to include one or more of your top 5 Top Keywords

- Make your domain unique

- Go for Dot-com domains if possible unless another extension suits your brand

- Make it Easy to Type

- Make it Easy to Remember

- Keep the Domain Name as Short as Possible

- Relate it to your product and/or brand

- Avoid Copyright Infringement

- Avoid Hyphens and Numbers

As you do your research (Point #2), you will find numerous blogs and sites that discuss choosing the right domain names.

2. Do Plenty of Expert Research Before Getting Started

In order to create effective sites for SEO and to get the most out of your PPC dollars, you will need to learn as much as you can about both topics prior to getting started.

The SEM experts online provide literally thousands of websites out there that can tell you all you need to know about SEO. You can learn a lot from what other people have put on the web for free, before moving onto other other avenues. What's right for you may not be what's right for others. Here are a few links to get you started.

www.seobook.com

www.webconfs.com

There are also several references that can be purchased online, but until you really know what you want, I would suggest that you should stick to the free stuff.

3. The Search Engines Themselves Provide a Wealth of Information

Google in particular provides a great deal of information from webmasters on their support site.

www.google.com/support/webmasters/

Reading through these pages will allow you to find some key dos and dont's for search engine optimization. It also introduces you to Google webmaster tools which has been provided for you to track your site's performance with Google and offers helpful hints, specific to your site.

4. Build a Home Page That is Full of Your Top Keywords

One of the most important factors for search engine engine optimization is "Keyword Density". Keyword density is defined as

the amount of times a keyword shows up in the text of your site or home page. This metric is used by the search engines to rank your site's relevance to the keywords input by the user. The more times your top keywords appear on your site, the more relevant your site will seem to the search engines for those keywords. There are several tools on the web that will allow you to check your site's keyword density. Here is a link to a simple one that I have used.

www.webconfs.com/keyword-density-checker.php

5. Go Slow on Pay Per click Advertising

Over the past few years, the top PPC providers have changed the way they look at advertising. Google in particular has added a relevance factor into their algorithms that new gives you a quality score for each keyword you add to your campaign. This quality score takes into account the content of your landing page and the content of your advertisement. This has been done in the hopes that the user is provided with more relevant ads for their keywords. If your site is not highly relevant to the keywords you have chosen, or your advertisement does not appear to be relevant, your minimum bid is raised significantly. This can prove to be somewhat frustrating to the advertisers at first, but once you get going and learn how to manage your ads and bids, you will be able to create relevant ads and reasonable bids for your keywords.

It's best to start slow with PPC advertising. Set yourself a budget and work within that budget. Try a few different landing pages and different ad content to see what happens. Don't get caught up in it if you see a lack of clicks and keep increasing your bid to gain position on your competitors. You should have an idea of what each click will be worth to you; Stay within that range.

6. Link Building

There are several ways to go about link building for your site. Some of them, like paid links are not recommended and the search engines frown on this form of link building. You can use link exchanges to build links to your site, but building a huge cache of links on your site can turn out to be cumbersome and some say that the search engines don't put as much weight on these types of links. The best way to build links is through providing relevant linkable content for your site viewers. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

- Create lists of top 5, top 10 or top 100 somethings that relate to your site content

- Perform surveys relating to your content

- Write and syndicate articles

- Create a blog

- Use Social Networks like Facebook and MySpace to promote your site

Hopefully these few beginners tips to SEM will start you on your way to #1 placement in the search engine results.

Some new domains for sale

Duane McLennan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:28:00 GMT

http://www.celebrityinfosite.com

http://www.newcelebritynews.com

http://www.findagoodlawyer.info

http://www.findagreatlawyer.info

http://www.findingagoodlawyer.info

http://www.findingagoodlawyer.com

http://www.howtofindagoodlawyer.info

http://www.findhydrogenfuel.net

http://www.findhydrogenfuelstation.com

http://www.findhydrogenfuelstation.net

http://www.findhydrogenfuelstations.com

http://www.findhydrogenfuelstations.net

Go Easy on Cuil

Duane McLennan — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:48:00 GMT

I spent the evening searching for a few kind words for Cuil, the latest in search engines trying to grab some of Google's massive market share and sadly, I couldn't find very much positive feedback out there. There are definately some issues with the results at this point, but I maintain hope that they will continue to improve and not fade away.

I did manage to find a few objective articles about Cuil that didn't get too deep into the mud slinging effect and were more informational than anything.

Here are a couple:

<:od>Cuil Not a Google Killer Yet

A new search engine from Ex-Googlers challenges Google

I believe that if Cuil can keep the hype going and continue their press releases as they improve their results, we will see great things coming from this search engine in the future. I am keeping my fingers crossed!

and announcing - cuil! .... whoops!

Duane McLennan — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:25:00 GMT

The release of the fabulous new search engine Cuil, today has been marred by a series of errors and shutdowns! The new search engine claims to have a database of over 120 Billion web sites and a much more content specific result.

It was with great excitement that I logged onto my computer this morning to try out the new search engine Cuil. I do SEO for my finance's Winnipeg Flower shop, Dragonfly Flowers, and for my own Domain Name reseller business, Dragonfly Net Solutions and a new competitor for Google really peaked my interest.

At a time when Google has such a huge market share, and we have been using it religiously for so long, I believe that it's definitely the right time for a new age in search. While Google has become synonymous with the term Internet, a new way of thinking about search is long overdue.

I began my searches this morning around 8:00 AM Central time. Starting with my favorite search, Winnipeg Florist. The result was less than appealing. Cuil told me that there were no results for that search. Doh!
I found it hard to believe that there were no matches for Winnipeg Florist. I then changed my search to just "Florist", thinking that it may be a little too specific for the new search engine.

The results were good! Unfortunately I don't have a screenshot to show the results of the search, but I was able to find some good results for my query. The user interface is also nice. Very refreshing from the usual Google search, blue and white, blue and white.

Trying a few more times throughout the day, I received several more errors, including one about how their servers had overheated and they had shut down the site completely.

Later on, during the day, I decided to try my Winnipeg Florist search again. I did manage to get some good results this time and I did manage to save a screenshot.

"Winnipeg Florist" Search

The interface is nice with a definite Web 2.0 feel to it. I like the images and the layout. You can choose between a 2 or 3 column view which is also nice.

What's really important here is the results! In the number 1 spot... My favorite local florist site. Flowershopnetwork.com. If you read my blogs about finding a local florist you will see that I am a big fan of the flowershop network, because they are one of, if not the best way to find a local florist on the net.

"Local Florist" Search

Again, my favorite local florist website arrives at the top.

These results definitely prove promising for the future. While the few small glitches in the search engine we have seen throughout their first day are a little annoying, I think that people are going to find the results from this search engine much more appealing and definitely more relevant to what they are looking for.

Google's popularity contest, while effective in providing some pretty good results will be overshadowed by purely good content and relevancy. I look forward to the coming weeks, as Cuil starts to gain momentum!

Internet 101: Blogging

Duane McLennan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:07:00 GMT

What is a “blog?”

Blog is a relatively new term originating from the two words: WEB and LOG. It was originally coined by web designers and/or programmers because they were the first ones who used Blogs.

During the advent of blogs, web designers/programmers reserved one part of their website to log down their site updates, upgrades, and short random nothings about themselves on an almost, if not always, daily basis. Eventually these people started posting more and more, liberating themselves from the short logs based on site updates or upgrades etc. The webmasters soon started expounding their thoughts and sharing more of themselves online via their weblog.

Weblogs suddenly became a main part of the website itself. People were actually sharing stuff such as thoughts, conversations, deep reflections, artworks, photographs, music—this is essentially man’s way of establishing a more concrete self in the virtual domain.

Soon enough, the general public caught on with this brilliant, newfound way of self-expression. And since then, the whole idea of blogging, having a blog, or even the term “blog” itself, has never been the same.

Technorati—“a recognized authority on the Live Web”—is currently tracking “112.8 million blogs and 250 million pieces of tagged social media on the web.” That pretty much validates how people in general are social beings; and even in the virtual arena, people still try to find ways and means to connect and share.

So why should you get a blog?

As a new internet user, the plus factor of getting a blog is to establish online identity/presence. As mentioned above, it’s one way to connect and share with people from all over.

Maybe right now, you’re intimidated to blog, because you might not know what to say. Or that you think you seem silly with your thoughts. Or that you’re not really a writer, and as compared to the more experienced blog writers, you don’t really make an impact.

Your “fears” may be valid, but the internet is a place no one really owns per se. And in that light there are really no rules or bounds in blogging, especially when all you really want to do is have a place to establish your identity online and meet new people.

Blogs come in different forms and styles, and unless you plan to win the “Pulitzer Blog Award” (ok, I made that up, but you get the picture), you are completely free to put whatever you want in your blog—provided that of course, you don’t violate the law.

As I was saying, there are different blog types. Most blog users blog for personal functions, where they make their blogs like their online diaries. A personal blog is considered the best way by many to get into the blogging lifestyle. Some get creative enough with their writing and gear their blogs to certain genres such as politics, travel, food, movie reviews, fashion, showbiz, education and news—seriously, the list is endless.

Some internet users don’t really like to blog with words, and instead blog with their art, photographs, sketches, videos, and music. Blogs are literally and virtually a blank canvas for everyone who wishes to engage in this internet-based activity.
The internet is a participatory community; based on its technical beginnings you learn that your computer can’t keep on accessing information without it giving-out information itself (i.e.: TCP/IP exchange). Blogs are one way of contributing to this participatory nature: it gives the internet culture as well as dynamism.

While it’s true that you shouldn’t live your life on and through your computer, blogs (most of the time and should) help you connect to other people. You get to immerse yourself with new perspectives and visions from different individuals. At the same time you are able to interact by giving some comments to the post made. Blogs also help you hone your writing skills and thought-flow process. Other than that, blogs also give you a chance to discover and express your other talents and get creative.

Eventually when you get better at blogging, other opportunities may also open, such as being a world-renown blogger/writing or earning a living through blogging.

Seriously, you never know.

Addition to "Digsby Rocks"

Duane McLennan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:52:00 GMT

I found a great blog on Digsby, "Top 10 Reasons Why Digsby Rocks". This descriptions is very good, and there are some good comments posted as well. Enjoy!

http://beerpla.net/2008/06/14/top-10-reasons-why-digsby-rocks-or-why-you-should-try-digsby-right-now/

We are going to kick it up a notch!

Duane McLennan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:47:00 GMT

Now that we have blogged a few of the basics, (Which we will keep adding to) we want to get into some more of the technical side of the internet, web hosting, domain names, blogs and more.

Stay tuned...

Getting to Know the Internet

Duane McLennan — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 15:44:00 GMT

Now that you’re connected to the internet, everything is virtually accessible and available at the click of your mouse—you can surf the net, connect with family and friends via e-mailing and instant messaging, download music, watch tv, play online games and express yourself among other things.

You’re probably thinking: “Ok, with all the activities out for me to do here, where do I begin?”

The answer is simple: Begin wherever you’re comfortable, and grow with it.
Some people start out with e-mailing, some start with surfing for information about their favorite bands or actors, some are technologically-adventurous enough to download files and applications immediately. While others try to create stuff immediately—Whatever floats your boat, whatever suits your pace—there’s really not one exact online-activity that serves as the be all and by all of internet start-out habits.

Here are some tips though, to discover your internet-activity preferences:

1. Allot specific online times for you to get comfortable with the internet.

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t encourage you to stay up late online and building an internet addiction, but just give yourself some quality internet time where you would be able to get the “feel” of the internet vis-à-vis your computer, doing whatever it is you want. The more comfortable you are with the system, the easier for you to navigate and settle-in the rapidly growing internet landscape.

2. Work with your talents.

I have a good friend who got connected to the internet just a couple of years ago. At first, he was just like you—overwhelmed and lost because of all the activities and possibilities available online. But he decided to work with what he knew best; since he took photographs as a hobby, he decided to post his photographs on his personal website to share with his family and friends. And soon enough, he found purpose with what he did. Not only was he able to share his photographs, but he was able to find another way to express himself as well as hone his talent and skill in photography.

3. Be open to try and learn new things.

Getting familiar with the internet involves a lot of discovery and trial-and-error learning. Back in 1998, when the internet was fairly new to the world, and blog was not even a word, I remember having to write and code my thoughts in notepad with self-taught HTML and upload them on my freely hosted domain at geocities.com. It was through the internet that I learned how to work with HTML and understand most of the computer-related jargon. Eventually, I got better at HTML and other computer skills; in turn I learned how to make better looking websites—all these improvements came through a process of trial and error. I was able to learn my internet preferences and acquire a great chunk of my computer knowledge through a hands-on process. My willingness and openness to learn gave me the opportunity to discover and do something I never thought I would be able to do initially.

With these tips, I hope you’d be able to find your initial niche on the wonderful world wide web. Have fun!

Internet 101: Have you got mail?

Duane McLennan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:24:00 GMT

My aunt is a recent new internet user. She’s honestly almost completely clueless as how to operate computers but she bugged me to get her an email address. When I asked her, “Why do I need to get you an email address, you don’t even know how to start a computer?”

She replied with a smile, in a simple, matter-of-fact manner: “Because the e-mail is the way to go.”

That made me think, thanks to the internet, e-mailing is indeed “the way to go” these days. When you want to establish new connections or even re-connect with old friends, it usually starts out with having an e-mail address and knowing the e-mail address of the person you want to get connected to. And from there, the possibilities are virtually unlimited.

While there is no specific manner to establish internet presence and/or identity, the most accepted way to start your internet life and habit is by acquiring an e-mail address. The e-mail address is the key to your connective identity. Many websites or web applications these days after all, require a valid e-mail address as an identity anchor before one can use or avail of their services.

What is E-mail?
E-mail, the shortened form for Electronic-mail, as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary is, “A system for sending and receiving messages electronically over a computer network, as between personal computers.”

Writing, sending or receiving e-mails follow the same concept as personally hand-writing a letter to someone else faraway, sent via postal service; only that e-mails are electronic and thus speedier. If sending a letter through the postal service takes at least a day to at most months to receive, the waiting time in e-mailing is limited to only a few minutes or maybe even less.

What is an E-mail Address?
An e-mail address is the virtual identification/location wherein which you will be able to send or receive electronic correspondence. An email address is usually made up of 2 parts: your name and the domain name, which is separated by the “@” sign.

yourname@domainname.com

Part 1 @ Part 2

How do I Get Myself an E-mail Address?
An e-mail address is available to virtually anyone who has access to the internet. Usually, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) gives out one or two free e-mail addresses based on their domain name.
- For example, your ISP is, “iNetworks,” your free email address based on your ISP account would be yourname@iNetworks.com.
* ISP-based e-mails depend on the service you subscribed to. If you’re not sure if your subscription provides a free ISP-based e-mail account, you could inquire with your ISP’s customer support to verify.

While ISP-based e-mail accounts are quite secure and dependable, e-mails sent and received here are inaccessible from other computers other than your own, unless your ISP-based email is web-based to begin with.

Another way to get yourself an e-mail address is through web-based e-mail providers. These are sometimes called free mail as e-mails accounts that are web-based are most of the time, free of charge; not to mention accessible from any computer with internet access in any part of the world.

Yahoo.com, Gmail.com, Hotmail.com just to name a few are the popular, free web-based email providers. All you have to do is go to their website (i.e. http://mail.yahoo.com) and sign up for a new account.

You will be asked to provide a username of choice, a password and some relevant personal (such as birth date & country of origin etc) data. You will also be asked to read the terms of service and agree to it before you can complete registration and access their services.

Once you’ve successfully signed up for free mail, you’re ready send and receive e-mails!

Internet 101: How Does the Internet Work?

Duane McLennan — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:06:00 GMT

Hello new user, welcome to the internet!

I’m sure you’ve heard about the internet, as it is arguably, the most current and updated form of information technology. The internet is definitely a means in which people from all over the world can access technology, information, media and communication right at their very own computers.

It seems massive, and technically it really is, but don’t be intimidated by it. It’s actually quite simple to work around with, not to mention convenient.

I’m very sure you have a number of questions. Your first question probably is: How does the internet work?

Although internet users in general don’t really have to go into the details of understanding how it really works (because it works even if you don’t really understand it); it will allow you to be less intimidated and anxious of the system as a new user. You will somehow have a clearer picture of what is really going on.

Do you remember the days when you were 5 and you played “telephone” with your younger sister? And the “telephone” was actually make-shift toy, made out of two plastic cups and a long string that connects the two cups together? You remember how you were so amazed as to how even at one end of the room you can still hear your sister’s voice from the cup, knowing she was on the other corner of the room, and vice versa?

The concept of the internet works somewhat that way. One computer (cup A) communicates to another computer (cup B ) through the internet (the long string). I bet you’re thinking, but isn’t that how a telephone works? Indeed, the idea is very similar since the internet was based on the telephoning concept except that it’s a technological level higher. This time, instead of a person talking to another person, it’s the computers who do the talking.

The internet hosts a plethora of computers with varying sorts of information; to simplify the thought, think of it as an access circle.

When you log onto the internet, your computer joins the access circle along with the other computers connected to the access circle. Once your computer gets in the access circle, it is assigned a unique number or an address—more technically known as the Internet Protocol (IP) address. The IP address is just like your registration/identification number whenever you join organizations.

When you surf, check email or send out information etc., your computer communicates with the other computers in the access circle via the unique IP address that your computer is assigned alongside the pre-programmed controls also known as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). The TCP is mechanism in-charge of breaking down the information from one computer into smaller chunks or packets. The IP is the mechanism in-charge of getting information packets to the requested or ordered destination. The IP/TCP works hand-in-hand addressing, assessing, routing, assembling all the information exchanged from one computer to another. In real life, it’s like having a farmer send in raw vegetables to be cleaned, process and cooked by a chef, vis-à-vis a chef having a farmer to plant and harvest raw vegetables in order to make a meal.

Clearly the internet thrives on a mutual kind of relationship. The internet is all about informational exchange starting from the internet protocols your computer makes to the other computers to the information to input or try to retrieve.

The internet is a simple yet complicated system that has definitely revolutionized how the world works today.

Of course all the TCP/IP works and information exchange wouldn’t be possible without an ISP or an Internet Service Provider. The ISP is what gets you connected to the internet in the first place. Without an ISP, you cannot access or send out information in the internet.

Your ISP could be dial-up, cable or DSL based—your preference could be based on either your need or budget. However, personally, the most important factor to look for when choosing your internet service provider is its reliability in internet service and technical support.

Generally this is how the internet works.

Digsby Rocks!

Duane McLennan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 22:14:00 GMT

My buddy Miguel from RealSoftwareDevelopment.com told me that I just have to get Digsby. This application is awesome! Digsby basically ties all of your email accounts, social networking and Instant Messenger accounts together in one REALLY SLICK application!

So far I've got my Twitter account, Facebook, Myspace and Hotmail accounts linked up through the application. It really does a great job of eliminating the need to be constantly logging into several different applications all the time. You get pop up updates that are not really intrusive, real time tracking of emails and full blow IM! You can also do Twitter and Facebook updates without even opening an internet window!

I would highly recommend this to anyone who does the multitude of application logins at any given time. It's really saving me a great deal of time.

What types of internet hosting are available?

Duane McLennan — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:05:00 GMT

Hosting is typically short for Internet Hosting Sevice. Basically, an internet hosting service will provide computer space that "serves up" your web content to the internet. There are several types of hosting services available to you, some of which are discussed below.

Dedicated Servers:

A dedicated server provides the user with complete control of server usage and software installation, through admin (root) access to the server. Unlike normal hosting plans, which put many customers’ accounts on a single server, a dedicated server grants its user exclusive rights to the server’s bandwidth, memory and storage space; performance will not be affected by traffic and usage patterns of other customers. Dedicated servers are particularly useful for companies and individuals that run very-high-traffic.

Virtual Dedicated Servers:

A virtual dedicated server is the perfect, affordable solution for people that wish to operate multiple Web sites, traffic-intensive Web sites, gaming servers, or simply want unlimited control of their server space through root (admin) access. Highly scalable, virtual dedicated servers offer many of the capabilities and features of dedicated servers but at a much lower price.

Standard Hosting: (Most common hosting solution for beginning web-masters)

Standard hosting is done via servers that will group several clients web sites together on one machine. Each site sits on it's own portion of the server to keep it separate from other sites, and hosting providers will provide the tools required to work with your content. Most reputable providers will attach a list of "freebees" such as email, domain forwarding and other services with their hosting accounts.

For Technorati

Duane McLennan — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:07:00 GMT

<a href="http://technorati.com/claim/hrcq25biip" rel="me">Technorati Profile</a>