Life Uncut :: The Life of Bryan Siegel

Bryan's SEO Resume

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Thanks to Todd Cochrane at Geek News Central Podcast for anouncing my need for a job on his podcast. In case you've never listened to Geek News Central I recommend that you check it out. When I was employed, his podcast helped me with my long commute from Riverside to Orange County. He is a great source of Geek News and I highly recommend that you give his podcast a try.

Here is a copy of my resume in case anyone is interested in hiring an unemployed SEO.

Bryan Siegel
Mira Loma, CA 91752
bryansiegel@gmail.com

Search Engine Optimization Professional with Experience

National Directory Service Irvine, CA – 2007 – 2009
Sr. Manager of Search Engine Optimization | SEO Strategist

• Search Engine Optimization – Keyword Market Research related to market search habits devised from server logs and existing website traffic trends. Evaluated existing website architecture, website content and layout to maximize usability and crawl ability in search engines. Created competition reports for target phrases and devised strategy based upon competition and server log data.

• Developed numerous company-wide SEO guidelines
-HTML Coding guidelines
-On Page SEO Factors that influence rankings
-SEO copywriting
-Meta Tag and Title tag guidelines

• SEO Management – Trained and monitored in-house link development and social media optimization.

Advanced Access Anaheim, CA - 2005 – 2007
Search Engine Marketing Specialist | Search Engine Marketing Specialist

• Search Engine Optimization – Evaluated existing website content, architecture and layout to maximize usability and crawl ability in search engines. Responsible for Link development and social website optimization and branding.

• Pay Per Click (SEM) – Responsible setting up and optimizing campaigns in Google (Adwords), Yahoo (Panama), MSN (Adcenter). Created and optimized landing pages for to maximize conversions.

Education

United Education Institute – Computer systems repair, network administration, TCP/IP, MS SQL, Internet Information Services.

Fontana High School – Computers, Math

Technical Skills

Operating Systems
Windows 98, 2000, XP pro, Vista, Windows 7 (beta) Windows 2003 – 2008 standard server, Linux Ubuntu, OpenSUSE

Adobe – (CS, CS2, CS3, CS4) Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Fireworks

Programming Languages
XHTML 1.0, HTML 4.01, CSS, ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, JavaScript, C#, XAML, SQL queries, XML

Beware of Renting homes on Craigslist

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:48:00 +0000

Be Careful of Craigslist home rental Scams

Recently, my wife and I discovered mold in our home. Since we had kids (and the fact the landlord only wanted to fork out money to put bleach on it) we decided to find another place to live. Since I know the web like the back of my hand I decided to search craigslist for rentals in my area. I found allot of good deals and emailed a few, but I recieved a response to one of them that is obviously a scam.

Disclaimer: I do not know 100% whether or not this is definately a scam, but I will try to contact the homeowner and alert the athorities

Okay with all the legal stuff out of the way here is the message,

Craigslist homes for rent scam email

"Hello Dear,

Thanks for the email. I own the House and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer to (West Africa, Nigeria) that makes us to leave the House and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person and God fearing person who can take very good care of the house in our absence.we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the person that will rent it to take it as if it were its own. So for now, We are here in West Africa and will be staying here for the next 4 years in our new House and also with the keys of the House for rent, we try to look for an agent that we can give this documents and the keys before we left but could not find, and we as well do not want our House to be used any how in our absence that is why we took it along with us. I and my Wife came over to Africa for a missionary work, so i hope you will promise us that you will take very good care of the house. So get back to me if you know you could take care of our house or perhaps experience you have in renting home. Hope you are okay with the price of $1000 per month and the security Deposit is $400.Get back to me for the rental application.You can go and view."

Beware of craigslist scams!!! Especially if anyone is living in another country and the price is too good to be true. I plan on contacting the homeowner and updating this post to help other people out there looking for craigslist homes for rental.

Finally a Terminator Movie to be proud of

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:46:00 +0000

Back in 1991 I was about 11. Never before had I experience something as awe inspiring as the Terminator 2 film. The survival of human kind, to the rebelious nature of John Connor to unbelievable CGI. I even waited for the "so called doomsday T3 movie" on August 29, 1997 (the day of the machines take over). When nothing came out I lost hope and thought the T2 movie would be the last of the Terminator saga.

Then Came T3 the mistake

In 2003 Terminator 3 was released. The first time I noticed the movie trailor I experienced a child like excitement and rushed to the movies theatures early for the first showing I could attend. The T3 movie was horrible. So horrible in fact I began to feel betrayed by the Terminator franchise. You revolutionize the movie industry by your amazing graphics, then you release this crap. James Cameron (the creator) must have thought he can pass on anything to make a buck with this one.

Terminator Salvation, the movie that can save the franchise

In case you haven't seen it here is the trailor,

If you are any type of action junkie I hope you're as excited as I am about this.

Funny Underwear gadgets

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Have you ever had a million dollar idea you swear no one has come up with. Like other dream filled days of my life I had one such idea today. Half-jokingly I suggested skid mark proof underwear. While the idea was still in Alpha stage I was convinced my idea was truly original. Come on, skid mark proof underwear who would ever come up with a genius idea like that.

Well... I wasn't the only one with the idea a company called garmentguard (which specializes in underarm sweat protection) has a skid guard called Skid out. While my idea of being the original skid mark guard faded I decided to take this idea and turn it into a few laughs.

While searching around I found another invention (that involved underwear) called security briefs which store your personal belongings in underwear instead of a safe.

How genious!!!

Now is it just me or do all of these underwear inventions use tiddy whities on their website?

SkyFire Mobile Web Browser Review

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 15:13:00 +0000

When I bought my T-Mobile Wing a month ago I was disappointed when I launched the IE mobile web browser for the first time (honestly I almost took the phone back). I couldn't see flash, silverlight and it had a hard time with Ajax. Every big website I visited made me watch tne mobile version, which in my opinion was dull.

After a few searches I came accross Opera 9.5 beta for the mobile phone. It was a huge leap because you can see the whole webpage and focus on a particular area of interest. Keep in mind Opera mobile is in beta and has a few bugs they need to work out. The Opera 9.5 mobile browser on my T-Mobile Wing would display an out of memory error, even though I used a work around that put my cache on my memory card. Every other website I visited crashed the browser and locked up my cell phone a few times.

Then there was SkyFire's mobile web browser

The idea behind SkyFire is to bring the browser from your pc to the mobile phone. You can check out the release video on the Skyfire website. Since that was exactly what I was looking for in a mobile browser I decided to check out YouTube for SkyFire Reviews and sure enough came accross a review of the SkyFire browser on the T-Mobile Wing.

I imediatley signed up for the SkyFire beta 2 preview. The only drawback is that you have to wait. It took me a good 3 weeks to finally recieve the download link via text.

SkyFire beta 2 strengths

The first website I wanted to try was hulu. The browser brought up the whole website within seconds. I had no problem watching videos, on hulu's website. From there I went to Gmail, in which SkyFire showed me the full PC version and not the watered down mobile version. There was no lag and the zoom in and zoom out features beat out Opera hands down.

SkyFire's weaknesses

It was impossible to control the video controls on Youtube and hulu, but the back button can control that. I did experience a lag with the videos which I can live with.

SkyFire Overall

The mobile revolution is here. I have not seen a mobile browser come close to SkyFire and hope the competition steps it up a notch. I was not only impressed by SkyFire, but excited for the future of mobile web browsing as a whole. I've wanted to have my laptop in a cell phone and windows mobile plus the SkyFire browser has accomplished that and then some.

YouTube watch out

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:52:00 +0000

As the Internet gets smarter and Internet speeds get faster my web experience is getting a whole lot better. I remember dial up speeds and the bright colors of Internets past. I remember the first time I saw YouTube and thinking to myself, "this is where things are going to lead." Successful websites are all about the experience and ease of use. There are 2 video websites I visit, when I need a break from my SEO web design business.

FunnyOrDie.com is hands down the great idea of the year. A social funny video site mixed in with a YouTube embed feature leaves me to wonder how long YouTube will stay ahead of the video game. Check Will Ferrell in the most funniest video I've seen on the site so far;

See more Will Ferrell videos at Funny or Die

Hulu.com - Is the legal way of watching T.V. shows and movies. They have a large selection to choose from. I've seen a few videos such as Firefly and The Dresden Files there along with web clips which can be short documentaries of actors or full blown advertisements of shows to come.

Anouncing SourceSurge.com - Search Engine Optimization Web Design

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 20:23:00 +0000

Finally Search Engine Optimization Web Design is here

After long hours and no T.V. I have finally finished my SourceSurge.com website. I had the idea a while back while trying to find Web Designers that know seo. Problem is there is none (at least that I could find). Usually you have either a web designer or SEO (or web designers that claim SEO).

I'm having $500 dollar basic Search Engine Optimization Web Design Specials right now. I've posted this amazing deal (usually a $1,000) that includes,

5 page website
1 month of
initial SEO
pay per click setup
keyword research

If you or anyone you know are interested in Web Design from an SEO you can contact me directly.

Yahoo Ambassador Program CANCELLED

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:57:00 +0000

What this means is PPC Marketing Agencies will no longer have Ambassador accounts. Existing Ambassador account holders can keep what they have and use the logo. Bad news for advertisers.

Here is the official letter;

"Dear Current or Prospective Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador:

The Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador program was specifically developed to help marketers drive sales leads to their clients. For the last four years, Yahoo! has made an effort to enhance the program to provide the greatest added value to our users. After a thorough evaluation of the program, we have decided to discontinue the program.

The Ambassador Program, except for the limited use of the Ambassador Logo as noted below, shall be terminated as of September 30, 2008.

For Prospective Ambassadors
Yahoo! stopped accepting new registrations to be an Ambassador on April 29, 2008. Ambassadors with pending certification have until July 31, 2008 to qualify to become an Ambassador.

If you have registered but not yet obtained certification to be an Ambassador, you have until July 31, 2008 to complete the training and take the test to become eligible to be an Ambassador. Once certified, landing pages will be delivered to new Ambassadors no later than August 31, 2008.

For Current Ambassadors and Prospective Ambassadors Who Become Certified
Ambassador commissions will no longer be earned or paid for any Managed Advertiser Account created on or after July 31, 2008. No Ambassador commission will be earned by an Ambassador or paid by us for any Managed Advertiser Account created on or after July 31, 2008. All Ambassadors that are due payment of an Ambassador commission will be forwarded such payment no later than September 30, 2008.

The Ambassador Logo may Still be Used
Ambassadors may continue to use the logo of the Ambassador Program on their web sites only to exhibit their designation as an Ambassador by Yahoo!. However, all other sales, marketing and promotions relating to the Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador Program must cease effective July 31, 2008.

New Program Terms reflecting the above changes are set forth at
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/ysm/sps/start/overview_ambassador_directory.html, or at such other location as we may designate.

We thank you for your support, dedication and participation in the Ambassador Program, and for your business with Yahoo! Search Marketing. For further information on these changes, please contact us at ambassadors-ysm@yahoo-inc.com.

Sincerely,

Your Partners at Yahoo! Search Marketing"

Tis the day I uninstall Dreamweaver

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:39:00 +0000

Oh Dreamweaver how you served me well. You were there when I built my first website, stayed there with me those long hours while I designed websites, and eventually SEO. It's hard to say goodbye, well.... not really. You were buggy, the WYSIWYG was off most of the time and you don't have adequate asp.net support. I'm moving on to Microsoft Expressions for most of my design.

For those that wish to play around with an easier editor should try Microsoft Expression Web 2. I've been using it for the last few months and noticed that Dreamweaver was just taking up space.

There are a few drawbacks to the new Microsoft Expression web editor I've found which are,

You can include a pipe (|) charactor in the username when you sign into FTP
There isn't any php intellisence
The FTP is really slow
There isn't a manage sites section like in Dreamweaver, it takes you to the folder that you save your files

Here is why I'm switching to Microsoft Expression Web

The editor for Expression Web is easy to use.
It keeps up with today's web standards.
The css everything is bar none the best I've seen.
Great Asp.net support
I can see MasterPages
The interface is not as intimidating (Dreamweaver just looks too busy)
I have the ability to look at websites before I load them to the server with different screen resolutions
And many many more....

My Hero

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:02:00 +0000

I've been developing my first major project for a few weeks now. The details of this project are still kinda hush hush, but I needed to Remotely administer ASP.NET membership websites. I found a nice tool that not only takes care of the administration side but it includes a slick web design template you can use. HeroCoder was only 40 bucks and well worth the months I saved with this project. They give you the source code along with the CSS so that you can edit the template they give you.

I know that when you're learning it's best to do the work yourself, but the additional parts of the project will take me atleast 6 months and provide alot of advanced functionality. Plus I think that I can use this tool for future projects I have stored in my head.

I recommend that you check it out if your into web development or not because this tool makes the daunting task of setting up and admin end and user end easy.

How to improve memory

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Fri, 16 May 2008 21:26:00 +0000

Memory has never been my strong point. It's something I've struggled with all of my life. That problem slowly crept up again my first month of learning asp.net in C#(web development). I listed to .net podcasts in the morning, read C# books at lunch and practiced code at night but for some reason I was not getting it. I even quit drinking so that I could soak in what I was learning (maybe the drinking was the reason it's hard for my to retain things).

After a while I became frustrated because I wasn't wrapping my head around C# so I decided to take a few days to find a better way of learning. I came across an interesting article about memory. I warn you the article is kinda long, but I'll sum up the most important facts about it for you.

What you should know about Memory

"Long-term memory, the Bjorks said, can be characterized by two components, which they named retrieval strength and storage strength. Retrieval strength measures how likely you are to recall something right now, how close it is to the surface of your mind. Storage strength measures how deeply the memory is rooted. "

Pace your self. Instead of cramming you learn best in spaced time intervals. I noticed that if I learn one subject on Monday I should study it again the following Monday, then two weeks later to retain it into memory. Doing so, makes sure what you learned sticks in memory.

After two months of trying this technique I not only wrapped my head around C# but I'm writing algorithms and software. I'm now into the more advanced features of C# such as generics.

Keep in mind this technique might not work for everyone. I tried telling a friend about how he can learn Chinese allot faster by utilizing the memory technique of pacing himself two weeks ago. When I asked him about how he was doing with it, he told me he can't remember.

Sheriffs got my neighbors TWICE!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:50:00 +0000

It all began when I left for work and saw an arrangement of sheriffs, animal control and K-9 units squished together in front of my neighbors home. unfortunately, I didn't get that video but, I did however get one of a gang task force unit and a couple of Sheriffs.

I would have gotten closer to the action but I'm a wimp.

So little time, very little blogging?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:32:00 +0000

I remember a time I could play video games for hours. I had a weekly line-up of regular t.v. shows. I even had time to have hobbies. Well..... I don't have time for that anymore. As the rain poors in sunny California I reflect on the times I had so much free time back in the day, but that's no more. I've filled what little time left a father of 3 and a dog has with grown-up duties (as I like to call them) My new hobbies include;

My new home
My new career goal
My new job

So with the little time I have left I decide to blog

All of us need time away from the everyday routines. I enjoy writing (now) and see myself writing more as time goes on. What drives me is seeing the growth of Life Uncut. I've noticed that I've left some projects unfinished but hey who cares right? It's not like I'm an authority on anything I write about. There is one I do have to finish (when I think about it), but I'm waiting for the chance to have more time to write it because of HIS concerns about the post I'll write about him. You know who you are.

So what the heck am I up to?

I thought having a bigger house was great until I realized I had to paint the beast. I attempted to do a crappy job at painting the kitchen, hoping that my wife would say screw it but that plan blew up in my face. I ended up not only painting but also cleaning the base boards, spray painting one of our 3 fireplaces and cleaning the yard. Once I'm finished I'll make another video so you can see the after of the whole ordeal. Don't worry I'm having a house warming party and you all are invited!!!

I've been creating a few "Hello World" programs in Visual Basic. My favorite so far is a calculator I made that takes your shoe size and pant size and determines how big your junk is. That program had my wife laughing for days cause it always displayed the same thing which was small. That's about all I've learned so far. I'm kinda taking the whole process easy because I'm starting J.C in a few weeks. Yeah you heard me right Bryan's going back to school. I'm enrolling in some web development classes because I'm serious about this stuff and really enjoy it.

Free Web developer ipod downloads

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:15:00 +0000

In order for me to understand the terminology .net developers use and wrap my head around Microsoft's confusing naming schemes I decided to subscribe to a few podcasts. Microsoft doesn't make the learning development easy (even though they have thousands of pages on their msdn.microsoft.com site). In order for me to understand what the heck I was looking for I decided that maybe listening to podcasts over and over again was the answer. I listened vigorously to all I had and settled with a few.

.Net Rocks - is a weekly podcast hosted by Carl Franklin and Richard Cambell. Their podcast helped me find out if I wanted to be a web developer in the first place. After a few shows I got hooked and have been listening to them ever since.

Hanselminutes - is hosted by Scott Hanselman is a .net guy and technology buff. His shows range from asp.net to silverlight, ajax and all web technologies. This guy has my dream job of working for Microsoft and from his about page he's a pretty smart guy.

Both podcasts are great, but I learn better by example which brings me to another one of Carl Franklin's sites dnrtv.com. dnr tv is a good way of seeing code in action. It's not really a place for beginners, but if you want to understand why .net is scalable and the technologies surrounding it, I recommend that you head in head first.

On a side note I've updated my linkedin profile to include asp.net and c#. I've added a few to my list, but I'm not interested in forging connections with people I never met because I used to work with them. This is rude, but I've never been a popular person nor do I wish to be.

Prepare yourself for a side of ranting

I've not been in touch with my blog lately. I haven't forgotten about it but you all know I've been doing the whole .net gig and I'm finally getting a grasp on it, coding and developing applications on my own web server. I've noticed people are following me on Twitter and contacting me through social websites such as facebook. I don't have time for those sites, but I would still like to keep in contact with people I used to talk to. Instead of me going to some website and logging in why don't you IM me at seosiegel@aol.com or you can email me at bryansiegel@gmail.com. That way I will keep in contact.

My New Home

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:36:00 +0000

As of yesterday my wife and I got a new home. I've uploaded a video of my first walk through which I decided to share. There are two advantages to our new home and they are,

1. it only costs us two hundred dollars more a month
2. it's freakin' huge!!!

It has 3 bedrooms, 2 living rooms, 2 bathrooms, and a computer area for yours truly:-)

A windy day in California

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 22:35:00 +0000

I'm testing out my new camera and decided to capture a video of California on a windy day.

Rules of the underground Geek Order

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 08:57:00 +0000

I've never denied the fact I'm a Geek. Even my friend who has a hypnotizing Smile admits it (sorta) in his post about me. I've include a pic of my desktop to show the world that "I'm geek and damb proud of it"! From my collection of Star Trek icons to my Star ship Enterprise Desktop image I have no problem with flaunting my geekiness.

Okay I'm a little over the top but who isn't? I'm flexing my muscles just like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in The Terminator films. What people don't know is that there is a secret order of Geeks. There are rules to this order.

Geek Rule Number 1

You must have seen all Star Wars Films and own at least one lightsaber .

Geek Rule Numero dos

You must like science fiction movies and believe that someday an alien will abduct you.

Rule three is....

You must play video games more often than you work out (yeah right geeks don't work out)

4

If most people don't understand a word you are saying when you speak you're a geek (or have a bad mumbling problem)

You guessed it this is rule 5 and I'll make this the last rule for now

You must have had a hidden crush on Princess Leia one time or another.

And there you have it. If you can follow these 5 rules consider yourself part of the underground Geek club.

FREE iTunes downloads for your iPod

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 03:31:00 +0000

Ever since my Ipod came in my life it has become an essential part of my everyday life. It helps with when I'm stuck in California traffic, sitting for hours at the DMV or taking a dump (you know that you do too). At first I downloaded all my music on my iPod and noticed that I used only a fraction of the honking 160 GB of memory. For those of you who are not computer literate 160 gigs equals to allot of room for crap.

Feelling like a kid again I went to iTunes and downloaded a couple of Star Trek Movies and noticed that I still had allot of room left. At that exact moment I thought to myselft; I have unlimited memory I can download everything just about everything (alright I admit there was beer envolved when I thought of that).

That's when I got into FREE iTunes podcast downloads! Here is a list of my top downloads feel free to share yours.

Geekson.com
Geeks on was my first podcast. Aaron Hendricks, Matt King, Peter Robinson and Uber Geek Don Marshall though different in their own ways fullfill my inner Geek. They talk about an array of topics ranging from Star Trek to Geeks news. After the first episode I was hooked. The guys over at Geeks on definately are worth the listen.

Darkerprojects.com
Darker Projects is a site dedicated to a darker side of audio drama. For the past year I have been captivated by all of their original stories. Eric Busby and his band of talent have put me on the edge of my seat many times along with a few nightmares (okay I'm a wuss). Here are the current masterpieces Darker Projects has in their arsenal. My personal favorites are the Star Trek serious (because I'm a die hard fan) and The Byron Chronicles.

Alive Inside
Autumn
Dark Matter
Far Horizons
Five Minute Fears
Generation 1
Gothik
He-Man
Night Terrors
Sword of Windsor
Tales From The Museum
The Byron Chronicles
The Falcon Banner
Doctor Who
Star Trek: Lost Fontier
Star Trek: The section 31 files

Justin Seeley
Justin Seeley has come out with two of the most informative video blogs to date. Justin's Photoshop and Illustrator tutorials have helped me out allot and provided me with tips I have used on this very blog!

Photoshopquicktips.com

Gradientmesh.com

Terry White
Terry White has a great video podcast about everything Adobe. As director of North America Creative Pro Core Business for Adobe Systems, Inc. (Now that's a job title) Terry is not only my idol but has one of the coolest jobs in the world. You can find Terry with all of his Adobe sweetness over at creativesuitepodcast.com.

Layersmagazine.com
Layers magazine is one of the best sites out there. It offers everything from Photoshop tips to After Effects "how to's". R.C. Concepction and Corey Barker are a great tag team and keep me entertained show after show.

Photoshopusertv.com
The hilarious trio Scott, Matt and Dave provide tips, tricks and industry news for Photoshop along with weekly contests that include a yearly subscription to NAPP (national association of Photoshop Professionals).

X Minus One
X Minus One is an old time Scifi program I enjoy. I believe it's a rebroadcast of a show that was on ABC back in the early to late 50's. Great acting, awesome sound effects and original plots.

Pay Yahoo to get into organic results?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 17:02:00 +0000

I've never been a fan of Yahoo. I've tried using their search engine many times but their results suck. They are great if you're looking for old websites that have little or nothing to do with your topic, but none the less there has been nothing that has excited me.

I've tried their Yahoo 360 pages and their email. While trying to promote Life Uncut, I ran into a service from Yahoo I have overlooked, which is Yahoo Search Submit. I usually don't submit my sites to search engines (I point links to them in order to get indexed) and kicked myself in the head for overlooking this (hey man the Internet is huge) but hey you live and you learn right?

There appears to be two services for Yahoo search submit.

Search submit basic
Search submit Pro

"Search Submit Basic enables you to submit up to 5 URLs per domain for inclusion in non-sponsored search results on Yahoo!, and other portals such as AltaVista and AllTheWeb."

Enjoy fast inclusion and weekly refreshes.

Your web pages will typically appear in search results within 4 days of submission. After that, it's easy to keep your content up-to-date with our 7-day refresh cycle.

Easily track your performance.

Get essential performance reports that provide insights such as how many clicks your URLs have received and what their average ranks are in Yahoo! search results.

Find out how to improve your web site.

Take advantage of our tool that analyzes the meta-tags of your submitted URLs and suggests best practices for optimizing your pages."

Not bad for 45 bucks, but if you know anything about blogs they get indexed quick all you need is one friend to add you to his blog roll and wallah you're in Yahoo and it only took me 4 days.

Why would I want Yahoo to look at my Meta Tags when I can read up on it from my favorite SEO.

Who cares about Altavista and Alltheweb? Does anyone even know they exist anymore? If you're new to the game of SEO, 45 bucks is a steal. There are allot of companies out there that promise results and won't hesitate to charge you thousands of bucks to rank your website, but if the search engine (if Yahoo is the search engine you target) offers advise for 45 bucks a year will not break the bank.

Now let me discuss the Pro version of Yahoo search submit. I'm going to include the main points of pro or you can read the full profile here.

Get more control over your search marketing messages

Be sure your content gets included

Keep your content and marketing messages fresh

Get in-depth marketing insight

Get hands-on assistance

"Search Submit Pro is typically for customers with search marketing budgets of $5,000 per month or more, or advertisers who submit more than 1,000 Web pages to the program."

For a big business this seems like a pretty good deal. One thing though, they charge by the click. But it's not pay per click (no keyword bidding required) the pages you submit are based upon relevancy. OK. How do you measure that when you stated

Be sure your content gets included

"Search Submit Pro lets you include Web pages that might otherwise be excluded from algorithmic search results*. Examples include sites that require cookies or session IDs, sites with Flash content and information stored in content management systems, or sites that aren't well crawled because of Web site design. Search Submit Pro removes the guesswork and lets you decide which content should be included."

For large business's this might be a good business model. The thing is all of this can be accomplished with a little bit of reading blogs that mention SEO. Or you can buy a ebook on howto rank a website in search engines from industry experts. In either case Yahoo is having you pay to be on their search engine. I as a web user like when an advertisement is clearly displayed and not hidden. I tend to trust sites less that try to hide their adds. I use the Internet for information and have no problem with people making money off it, we all have to eat right? But when a search engine that makes money off of other people work in the first place asks you to pay them for ranking off your work in their search engine leaves me a little uneasy. Why not offer the advice for free live Google has done with their webmaster console and the attempt Live.com did to create similar webmaster tools

For those who want to target Yahoo's audience and have no clue about SEO the basic version seems reasonable to me, but since I'm not a fan of Yahoo I can't see the justice in buying something I don't need.

California Traffic

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 05:45:00 +0000

Those native to California are accustomed to traffic. Millions of Californians commute on a daily basis. Most travel 60 miles to and from work and spend 5% (if they are lucky) on gas. The average travel time is 30 minutes.

I am one of those idiots.

I've seen allot on my commute and decided I should start taking pictures to share. So if you see an idiot with a camera who is messing with his ipod at the same time that's me. Flip me off so that I can take a pic and add you here.

This is me trying to get onto the freeway. What I could not capture on film was the fact merging in California should be renamed to "every man (or woman) for himself."

Look at the cars to the right trying to merge onto the same freeway that I am. Who ever thought of merging two completely different freeways at the same point of intersecting a third was a genius.

Here goes some more California Traffic. But there is a bright side. On the last and final trek traffic isn't that bad as you can see below,

Okay car it's cool to get in front of me. Did you notice the lack of a turn signal?

I'm such a good driver. I'm going the speed limit.....Ahh Crap!!! I'm almost out of gas.

I was almost home until I came upon a dog who wanted a ride. I blurred the picture to hide his identity in case he wanted to sue me. For some reason I didn't trust his beady little eyes, so I decided not to give him a ride after all. Besides I came from an hour commute in good ole California Traffic.

Zak's Nice, Smile

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:34:00 +0000

Instead of placing a blogroll of names and letting their sites speak for themselves, I thought I should include why I've added those people who are crazy enough to know me. My first victim on the list is Zak. Fellow SEO, PPC and all around darn fine person JR. (read my bio) Zak enjoys snowboarding, smoking cigarettes and wearing hats (white hats that is). He loves takeing smoke breaks at work (they are exactly 15 minutes exactly man the guy is so punctual it makes me sick) and loves Mac's.

Zak thinks he is a race car driver in his Scion XD. I have never seen anyone get through traffic as fast as him (it might be the fact his car is half the size of a normal car or he has to go pee). What he doesn't relize is my 95 Buick Lesabre will out race his new car any day. I don't want to race him because I'll make the guy feel bad cause he paid 17 grand for the thing and mine cost a case of beer and a couple of food stamps.

Beware of his Nice, Smile it will hypnitize you. I swear the guy smiled once and when I came to my wallet was missing and he was no where to be found. So be careful if you see his lips starting to open on payday, he might take you for everything you got.

Tag Zak. You're it!

Watch out Google, Live.com tried real hard to copy you and FAILED-Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 21:54:00 +0000

Day2 of my review on Live.com's Webmaster Tools returned a different error result I thought that I should share.

On a more positive note Live.com reported on their Webmaster blog that a serious issue with cloaking has been fixed. Anyone familiar with Live knows they are years behind Google and need to catch up in order to compete with the Google God.

Microsoft is moving in the right direction though. What better way to find out what people think, and the problems you receive within your search engine than to communicate with them. I love the honesty Live displays when they mention the fact they cannot provide you with a personal response and direct you to another place. Come on now. I'm taking the time to let you know what's going on with your tools and you shun me away.

"Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback. We appreciate your feedback and use it to help create better services and products. Unfortunately we cannot provide a personal response to your comments. For assistance with a specific problem you are experiencing with your service or product, refer to Help Central."

What ever happened to good customer service? I think it's great they fixed a major problem with cloaking, but what about the webmaster tools they just released? Am I missing something here?

Watch out Google, Live.com tried real hard to copy you and FAILED-Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:11:00 +0000

I noticed today the Live search team anounced (I was shocked they had a blog) that live now has webmaster tools much like Google's Webmaster Tools (same name different search engine). I have been a fan of Google's webmaster tools for some time now mainly because I like to see what links Google see's versus the results from backlinkwatch and would like to admit I was skeptical about Live's release, but curiosity got the best of me and I had to give it a try. Here is what happened.

Live's webmaster Tools Main Console

Not too bad. Live uses the same verification methods Google does. I had no problem adding the meta tag to my blog.

Live has added a robots.txt validator tool

Here was the results when I put in the robots.txt file for this blog.

Line #1: http://bryan-siegel.blogspot.com/robots.txt
Error: 'user-agent' - should be the first tag.
**************************************************
Warning: 'sitemap' - tag isn't specified.
**************************************************

Sorrrryyyy for not specifying the sitemap tag, I'll make sure that I get right on it.

Next, I was onto the fun stuff.... until I broke Live.com

Well, after clicking on my link to access all the link data I broke live's weak attempt to take Google's reigns. Just when I was showing Live a little love they have to break down on me. Once I get this stupid thing going I'll finish my review of Live's webmaster tools.

Gmail adds Color to Labels: Why?

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:54:00 +0000

It looks like Google has done it again. They added color squares next to labels. Ya know I allways wanted to have colored little squares next to my labels, it looks so perty.

If you thought that was it, when you click inside a label the color you added is on your label.

I wish I had a real good reason why adding color to labels helps, but if Google adds it I have to try it cause I'm Google hooked.

My Saturday with Tank

noreply@blogger.com (Bryan Siegel) — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:40:00 +0000

It's not everyday I get to hang out exclusively with my youngest son Logun (my wife is weird and has a thing for weird name spellings). My oldest son Dillyn (another weird spelling) was at his aunt and uncle's house in Hesperia (California that is). My daughter Haileigh (she was sober when she came up with that one) was with my wife, which left me and Logun all alone to do guy crap.

The start of a great morning

The first thing Logun aka Tank and I embarked on was breakfast. Poor kid doesn't have a huge selection to choose from because of the fact he's only 9 months. So his choice of breakfast was good old crap meal mixed with baby formula. The thing is Tank is just like his dad and considers food to be fuel and not a luxury, so within 5 minutes the kid scarfed his oatmeal down and left half of it on his face for desert. I had good old honey nut cheerios and frosted mini wheat's in the same bowl (I only had enough for half a bowl of mini wheat's so I added cheerios to fill the void).

After a cup of coffee and a few cigarettes we sat down to see what was on free T.V. Sitting in front of my inherited (from a family death) 42" Flat Screen Vizio T.V. I watched infomericals and the home shopping network (I'm too cheap to buy cable).

Lunch Time, Top Ramen anyone?

I grew up poor. I was the oldest son of my family which meant I was the man of the family early on. My mom was a single mother trying to make ends meet and we ate poor sometimes, which meant we ate peanut butter and jelly, hot dogs and Top Ramen. Funny thing is I like Top Ramen (if you make it right).

As a grown man I found that I still follow the same habits from when I was a kid. I still pick my nose, think girls have cuties and came close to shitting myself a few times on my hourly commute to work; and of course Top Ramen for lunch.

Tank had Peaches and Peas. He has a little more of a variety for lunch (lucky kid). I always feed him the fruits part of his lunch first, maybe because I'm rebelling against what I was taught as a child which was "to always eat your veggies first". Weird rule, but as a man with a family of my own I feel obligated to teach my kids the opposite of what I have learned. Maybe then they'll grow up right.

After Lunch Tank looked like he was ready to play. I love babies because they are easy to entertain. My favorite thing to do with Tank is dance. I'm no Stevie Wonder but I can sing "Baby Got Back" like no tomorrow. I usually hold Tank by his underarms and his legs do the rest. Most of the time he's bouncing up and down, but on a few occasions I've seen the kid shake his hips. I wouldn't be surprised if the kids takes up dancing like his good old man (or in the club it's called humping with clothes on, that's a story for later on).

After dancing we played hide and seek (or daddy puts his head behind the couch and makes farting noises until you find him). He can't play that game for too long usually because he'll find something around him that takes his attention off me. What can I say the kids easily distracted.

The phone rang....

It was the wife calling. She has to call me from every time she is away. Usually it's 2-3 times to either tell me something or make sure that I'm still breathing. This time she called to see if I was still breathing. That's my wife for you always caring.

My Saturday with tank ended at 4 when the wife came home with Chinese food. My wife feed him (crap meal again), gave him a bath and put him to bed. As I watched my son lay asleep all cozy dreaming of fantasy world far far away (hopefully it wasn't Star Wars Episode 1,2 and 3) I wonder to myself how many opportunities will I have to enjoy a day like this with my youngest (and hopefully my last). Any day you have that involves personal time with one of your children is a day to treasure. I had one of those days and had a great Saturday.