And more often than not it has cost me money.

Luckily it’s only ever been a few pounds here and there and nothing to cause sleepless nights, but when it happens it riles me. Partly because I’m angry at myself for letting it happen, and partly because I’m angry at the company because the breached clause is not clearly defined on their website, it’s only tucked away in the terms and conditions.

And who reads those?

Well, frankly, you should.

If you don’t know the terms and conditions of a contract and you breach one of the clauses you have no comeback whatsoever. You rely solely on the company’s discretion to give a refund or whatever it is you want. And many flatly refuse and cite their terms and conditions/contract.

Here we go again

The latest company I’ve fallen foul of is AWeber.

Let me say now that what they are doing is not wrong or illegal, but if you don’t know about it it could cost you money. Not a lot, but money nonetheless.

AWeber offer mailing list software/systems on a tiered payment system. The more people you have on your list(s), the more money you pay.

The basic account is $19 per month and for that you can have up to 500 email addresses on your list(s).

You can run as many lists as you like from within an AWeber account. The total number of subscribers for all your lists determines how much you pay. If you have 2,400 subscribers you pay the base rate of $19 per month and an extra $10. If you have 2,501 subscribers you pay the base rate plus $30 per month.

Within an AWeber account there is a table showing all the maiing lists you have and various bits of data related to those lists:

• Number of sign ups today
• Number of sign ups yesterday
• Total subscribed
• Total unsubscibed
• Grand total

When I started using AWeber I foolishly thought the charge to my account was based on the total number in my subscribed column.

It isn’t.

It’s based on the total number of subscribed and unsubscribed.

(Fair enough.)

I’ve used AWeber for a couple of years and have known about this for most of that time (after getting stung in the early days), but last month I slipped into the next payment bracket because I had eight unsubscribes on my lists that I had forgotten to delete before the invoice date.

I was charged the additonal fee and AWeber refused a refund.

Now, I’m not moaning about this (although I did at the time) and I’ve taken steps to make sure it won’t happen again – I’ve deleted hundreds of email addresses from a list I have that is quite large but mostly unresponsive.

Initially I deactivated the list, but knowing what I know I contacted AWeber to ask if the deactivated list still counts towards my total number of subscribers. I had a good idea what the answer was going to be and I wasn’t disappointed.

Deactivating the mailing list does not effect the storage fee pricing. If you wish to be charged less for subscribers, you would have to actually erase subscribers off the list. Even when you deactivate a list we are still storing the subscribers which means they would still be included into the charges. Please let us know if you have any further questions about your account.

After a list is deactivated it is automatically deleted after 30 days.

It’s not about AWeber, it is about you (and me)

This post is not an attack on AWeber, although I think they could give more details about the billing charges within their accounts (“You have XXXX subscribers, your next bill is $XXX”), it’s about the importance of taking personal responsibility for whatever online services you use and managing them properly. Being unaware of a policy is not the problem of the service provider. If you have not read your contract, the terms and conditions or you don’t fully understand company policies, it is up to you to do so or to find out.

Online support these days is usually excellent. Many sites have real-time online chat facilities which are in use 24 hours a day. Failing that there are ticket desks and contact forms to use.

So, after all that, would I recommend AWeber for managing mailing lists? Yes, of course I would. They provide a great service and I can’t see myself leaving any time soon. I just have to make sure I manage my account properly.

Not so with Genesis.

In principle free WordPress themes are great, but they usually need a bit of hacking to make them look and work the way I want them to. For this reason I prefer to use premium themes. For anyone who doesn’t want to get bogged down with the technicalities of WordPress code then a premium theme is definitely the best way to go. Typically they have built-in options to change colours, layout etc from within the admin area.

At the current time my preferred choice of premium WordPress theme/framework is Genesis by StudioPress/Copyblogger – the framework looks good straight out of the box; bolt on one of the many child themes (the one I’m using here is Agency) available and it looks great.

The Genesis Framework for WordPress

If you haven’t before come across the term ‘framework’ in relation to WordPress let me explain…

A framework sits on top of a WordPress installation and usually consists of its own hooks, commands and features based upon the WordPress code.

Child themes then sit on top of the framework to convert the ugly ducking into a beautiful swan.

All StudioPress child themes are based upon the Genesis framework so you can easily change themes if you want to give your site a fresh look. When you first install Genesis you have to set-up global parameters, these are connected to the framework and stay the same no matter which child theme you install.

Some of the parameters are listed below:

Custom Feeds

If you are using Feedburner to manage the RSS feed of your site you can force Genesis to use it to; just enter the Feedburner URI into the appropriate box, then, when you display the RSS feed icon on your site using a Genesis command, it will link to the Feedburner address.

Default Layout

This is a great feature of Genesis. You can set a default layout for your WordPress powered site, but you can also change the layout per post/page. This makes it super easy to experiment with different layouts to see which work best for you. There are six default options available:

Navigation Settings

Custom menus in WordPress are fantastic. They allow you to have full control over which categories and pages appear in your menus, and, if you wish, you can create a menu from a mix of categories and pages.

This is something that is only possible in more recent versions of WordPress.

You can also choose to enable fancy dropdowns and secondary menus should you wish to use them.

When using the Genesis Framework you have to use at least the Primary Navigation Menu. In its default state it has a link to “home” and nothing else until you add some pages and categories. You can also choose to enable one of the extras built into Genesis:

• Today’s date
• RSS feed links (posts and comments)
• Search form
• Twitter link

To set up the Twitter link just enter your username and the text you would like to display. StudioPress doesn’t access your Twitter account, it just links to your page.

Breadcrumbs

If you take a look at the top of this page you will see breadcrumbs navigation: Home > Category > Page Title. I like breadcrumb navigation as it helps with SEO and it helps readers navigate around a site. In Genesis you can choose to have this on or off, and you can choose which pages or sections display breadcrumb menus.

Comments and Trackbacks

Control sitewide comments and trackbacks. Don’t feel obliged to allow comments on your blog or website just because most people say it is a good thing to do. If you are using WordPress to power a niche site then it may be better to switch off comments and not allow them. This function enables to you make that decision at the top-level.

Content Archive

This is good. This is where you design the layout of your archive (category) pages. There are several options available to you – choose to display the post excerpt or the content, include a featured image (and the size of the image) and select the post navigation technique – older/newer, previous/next or numeric.

Personally, I choose to display the excerpt, a small thumbnail (if available) and the display technique is numeric. See an example here.

Header and Footer Scripts

Almost everybody who uses Genesis adds at least a couple of scripts to their installation. It could be Google Analytics, a verification code or something else. These two boxes make it easy to add any scripts you use.

That just about covers the Genesis framework; the basic installation and set-up. Once you have the framework in place it’s time to look for a child theme. Initially I didn’t use a child theme, I left the framework as it is, but it soon becomes bland and uninteresting, even though like minimalist themes.

Custom Child Themes for the Genesis Framework

The basic Genesis Framework theme is good enough to get going, but if you want your site to stand out you should seriously consider buying at least one of the child themes.

A child theme sits on top of WordPress and the Genesis Framework. It’s the icing (frosting) on the cake, and adds all the bells and whistles you expect from a website designed and coded by professionals.

Each child theme is priced at $24.95 or you can buy them all (and every future release) for $299.95 (including the framework). If you are in the business and creating sites for clients then the latter option is definitely worth exploring. If you want a theme for your site, then opt for the single choice.

So far I’ve purchased two StudioPress child themes. On here I’m running Agency and on my how to site I’m running Elle.

Elle is a theme from the Market Place, which is where StudioPress approved designers showcase their work.

I have to say that I’m really happy with both themes.

Widgets

They both use widgets to control the layout of the home page and sidebars (widgets are not available in the framework). For example, the Agency theme makes use of five widgets on the home page:

They are:

• Home Top Left
• Home Top Right
• Home Bottom #1
• Home Bottom #2
• Home Bottom #3

You can place whatever you want into these widgets. You can choose from featured posts/pages (see below) or you can add categories, text or whatever.

For my Home Top Left widget I use an easily configurable Featured Post widget.

This is what it looks like:

As you can see there are plenty of options to choose from so you have a lot of control over what your readers see and how you want to display the content.

The sidebars work in the same way. You can add featured posts or pages, you can add your latest tweets or you can add a user profile.

Why Genesis?

What the Genesis Framework, and at least one child theme gives you, is a fantastic looking and easily configurable site for under $100 that doesn’t require you to mess with any code as everything is set-up through the WordPress admin area.

Compare that to the cost of hiring a professional web designer and waiting for him/her to come up with a concept and go through the build process, and the Genesis Framework really is a no-brainer. Spending a fortune on a fancy dan website is not always cost-effective, especially when you can buy with something just good and have it running on a server in the time it takes to make and drink a coffee.

As well as being built upon a sturdy foundation you get access to the very helpful user forum. The good news is you may never need it unless you choose to develop your own child theme or want to dig deeper into the code. If you do ask a question though you can be confident of quickly receiving an answer and a solution to your problem from one of the experienced forum moderators (and not a forum member).

Another thing to make you aware of is the Simple Hooks plugin. This plugin lets you easily add content (AdSense, adverts or whatever) to certain sections of the page, again.

Final Summary

I’ve used Genesis for a few months now and I really can’t recommend it enough. The framework is fantastic and easy to use and there are plenty of great child themes to choose from. The plans for StudioPress/Genesis look good too; each theme will eventually be recoded to work on mobile devices, seamlessly integrate into bbPress and work with the WooCommerce plugin so you can turn your WordPress powered blog/site into a fully fledged eCommerce site.

The Price List
Genesis framework – $59.95
All child themes – $299.95
Individual child themes – $24.95

I’ve checked some of my own sites and haven’t noticed movement in any of the homes pages (apart from one which has gone from one to zero, but still ranks on the first of Google.co.uk (position four) for the main keyword phrase).

I also noticed that a friends DIY tips site has jumped from two, I think, to four. Which is great. What’s funny though is he has never done any SEO work on the site or sought out backlinks, and the site consistently ranks on the first page of Google for DIY tips. I think this reinforces the old “content is king” mantra and how great content that delivers is vitally important in the battle for traffic. If people come across content that’s worth sharing they will link to it without the need to ask.

The toolbar PageRank update isn’t of much importance, but everyone is still excited when it happens, myself included. What matters most is traffic. And traffic that converts in whatever way you want it to – by signing up for a newsletter, downloading an ebook or even just clicking on ads. And an increase in PageRank doesn’t always mean an increase in traffic.

What about you? Up, down or the same?

Google has finally opened up the doors of Google+ to businesses, brands and organisations. Now it’s possible to create the all important Google+ “page”.

The doors opened for the first time yesterday, but not everyone could enter at that time. I tried and was politely told to try again later.

I did just that and now I’m in.

Setting up a page is simple (easier than Facebook). Just go here or log into your Google+ account and look for the Create a Google+ Page link in the right sidebar.

So far I’ve created a couple of pages just to go through the process.

Once created, you access pages through a drop down menu to the right of your profile pic. When you switch to a page, you automatically use Google+ as the page. To switch back to your personal profile select it from the same drop-down menu.

Google provides a choice of badges (like the one below) to show your site is on Google+, but the URL is still a long and unmemorable jumble of numbers. Hopefully this will change at some point to become more like Facebook’s vanity URL.

So, should you rush out and create a page for each of your websites/blogs? Should you create a page for your business? Surely it would be foolish not too? I know it’s yet another platform to monitor and update, but Google is well-known for favouring its own brands in the search results and, although it’s way too early to tell, why should Google+ be any different?

Or at least that’s the way it seems.

Google is always updating the algorithm. Mostly with minor changes we hardly notice. This year, however, Google has made lots of major changes to the way it ranks the pages in its index.

The Panda updates started in February this year (2011), and were eventually applied to all worldwide English queries (not just English-speaking countries) in April. In August the updates spread globally, and in every language, apart from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

The aim was to rid the SERPs of spammy pages that played the system to rank highly for the sole purpose of generating income.

Many pages Google deemed low value dropped like a stone.

And a lot of businesses in a lot of niches felt the hit and could only watch as literally overnight, there search traffic disappeared.

There was uproar from many who thought there site(s) was a valuable resource and should not be penalised. Google listened and made further changes and released more updates. Website owners, bloggers and the SEO community tried their best to locate the problems and fix the holes in their sites so they could once again feel some Google love…

…and everything settled down…

…but now there is another update to worry about.

In this new update, which Google estimates will affect 35% of all searches, freshness is key.

Direct from the announcement on the official Google blog:

• Recent events or hot topics. For recent events or hot topics that begin trending on the web, you want to find the latest information immediately. Now when you search for current events like [occupy oakland protest], or for the latest news about the [nba lockout], you’ll see more high-quality pages that might only be minutes old. 

• Regularly recurring events. Some events take place on a regularly recurring basis, such as annual conferences like [ICALP] or an event like the [presidential election]. Without specifying with your keywords, it’s implied that you expect to see the most recent event, and not one from 50 years ago. There are also things that recur more frequently, so now when you’re searching for the latest [NFL scores], [dancing with the stars] results or [exxon earnings], you’ll see the latest information. 

• Frequent updates. There are also searches for information that changes often, but isn’t really a hot topic or a recurring event. For example, if you’re researching the [best slr cameras], or you’re in the market for a new car and want [subaru impreza reviews], you probably want the most up to date information. 

There are plenty of cases where results that are a few years old might still be useful for you. [fast tomato sauce recipe] certainly saved me after a call from my wife reminded me I had volunteered to make dinner! On the other hand, when I search for the [49ers score], a result that is a week old might be too old.

Here are a few reasons why guest blogging is beneficial for business owners:

• Increased exposure for your services/products
• A chance to demonstrate your expertise
• Direct access to potential customers in your niche
• Permanent and keyword rich backlinks
• The chance to develop a new online relationship

Guest blogging is a win-win situation – the site owner gets valuable and useful content, the provider gets exposure and backlinks and both parties gain another contact.

What’s important about guest blogging in terms of backlinks is that they are contextual. This means they are not in sidebars or at the bottom of a page; they are actually within the content. This gives the links added strength and increases the chance of clickthroughs.

Creating content and finding a home for that content is probably one of the hardest parts of guest blogging. It takes time to write good copy, find a suitable site that accepts guest posts and contact the site owner to see if they would like to use your article(s).

But don’t be put off; it’s worth the hard work and you could always outsource this part of the process if your time is better spent doing something else.

Guest posting and article marketing have been around for years. They’re not new approaches to promoting a website, but since the latest Google update the rules have changed.

What’s this about a panda farm?

After many complaints by users about the poor quality sites Google was returning in its results pages, Google changed its algorithm and sites that had once ranked highly for tons of keywords now languished in nowheresville.

Google’s goal was to weed out the crap; pages that ranked well for certain keywords and keyword phrases but provided very little useful content to the end-user.

The Panda or Farmer update (each major Google update has a name, this one has two) was rolled out over several months and started in February 2011. Some sites lost 80% or more of their traffic.

This was a controversial move.

But guess what?

People reacted the way Google wanted them to react. Bloggers and website owners deleted poor quality pages and worked hard to improve the pages they kept. Articles became longer and more informed.

As a result of this upheaval article directory sites such as EzineArticles and others have become less popular, even though they have cleaned up their acts by deleting poor quality and spammy content.

This screengrab from Alexa shows the decrease in EzineArticles reach (“estimated percentage of global internet users who visit”) since March 2011.

And this screengrab, which is much more dramatic, shows the increase in popularity during the months building up to the algorithm change and then the sudden drop.

EzineArticles is (at this moment) still one of the top 300 most visited websites in the world.

Less popular article directories haven’t seen such a drastic change in fortune, mostly because they didn’t have so far to fall, but I think people are using them less as they look for more long-term and stable link building opportunities. This is why guest blogging has become even more popular during 2011, and why it will continue for the foreseeable future.

However, like article marketing, guest blogging will one day become a target for Google. I’m still trying to work out how Google will handle this, but one way to try to future-proof your guest posts is to make sure your article is on an on-topic site, it contains links to other pages of reference besides the one you want to promote, and you don’t use an author bio box (that’s a dead give-away). The more like a standard blog post it looks, the better chance it has of surviving a cull.

Should you avoid article directories?

I don’t think you should completely discount them, but I wouldn’t put too much effort using them. Part of their function is to also distribute your articles to other site owners. If said site owners come across your article and think it’s a good fit for their site, then you may generate another link or two when the article is published (if the links are still intact, which, I have found, they’re often not) again.

When it comes to link building I’ve always been a believer of quality over quantity. Which is why I’ve never got into the mass submission of spun articles to hundreds of directories and why I believe one well placed guest post is worth way more than hundreds of copies of basically the same article on hundreds of crappy article directories.

A SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday video recently covered the topic of article marketing. I’d like to wind up this post by inviting you to watch it.

The Rank Tracker plugin tells you which phrases people have used to find your site, the page from your site that is listed in Google for the search phrase used, and the position in the results. And it does all of this in real-time. There’s no waiting for Google Analytics to update or logging into a stats account to see what phrases people are using to find your site.

It’s all there in the WordPress admin area.

I’ve had the plugin installed on a few sites for almost a week and I’ve found it really useful. The idea is to find phrases that a site is ranking quite well for, and then target those phrases to try to improve their rankings.

Watch the video for a full demonstration:

Click here to buy Rank Tracker

As you can see from the video the plugin only records results from a few Google search engines (.ca, .com, .com.au, .co.uk, .de and .ie). And it will only record the results from one of those search engines at any time. But that still provides enough information for you to make changes to your content to target lucrative phrases; such as the ones that convert or make you money.

You can do this by increasing the number of times relevant phrases exist in your content (keyword density), adding or amending header tags (h1, h2 etc), changing the title tag (but not the URL) building links to the pages that are ranking, either from external sources or from your own pages, that contain keywords in the anchor text or by adding some bold, italics or underlines to the keywords you’re chasing.

Variety is the spice of life

I’m always amazed at the amount of variations on a phrase for which a page can rank. Here is a list of some of the phrases people have used during the past few days to find this site:

• blog post title format
• how to handle wordpress comments
• google adsense allowed sites
• wordpress plugins that cause your site to slow down
• wordpress plugins too many slows
• see who you follow and doenst follow you back
• who doesn’t follow me back on twitter
• know who doesn\’t follow you back on twitter
• twitter see who doesn\’t follow you
• how to tell who doesn\’t follow you on twitter
• see who doesn\’t follow you back on twitter
• how many stories will instapaper save in folder
• twitter inactive accounts
• twitter release usernames 2011
• claim abandoned twitter account
• abandoned twitter name june 2011
• contact twitter abandoned username
• how much you earn per click adsense countries
• find out who doesn\’t follow you back on twitter
• who doesn\’t follow me back on twitter
• htaccess comment out a line
• blogger awesome template
• inspiron 1525 +dust
• what to do if social plugin slows down site
• who doesnt follow me back on twitter?
• who follow that doesnt follow you
• how to see who you follow that doesnt follow back
• release all inactive usernames twitter
• how to set up 301 redirect cpanel

One of the most interesting things about the list is the number of words people use in their search phrase. Hardly any of these phrases contain one, two or three words. Most have more. (Although search engines tend to ignore common words such as it, you, the etc.) It also shows that a lot of people are not using Google suggest when searching.

Rank Tracker plugin data

Rank Tracker records several pieces of data – the keywords used, the number of visits your site has had for those keywords, the position your page was ranking, the URL, the PageRank of the page and the date last checked.

If you wish to do so you can export all the data into a spreadsheet, and if you want to, you can set up the plugin so it emails you notification of the keywords used when somebody finds your site through a search engine. This is ideal for smallish sites that don’t get much traffic, but not ideal if you have a busy site.

Personalized Results and False Positives

To test the accuracy of the Rank Tracker plugin data I opened up an incognito window in Google Chrome and searched for phrases the plugin says my sites are ranking well for. It comes close with a lot of the results and gets quite a few dead on, but there are also a few false positives. For example, the plugin will say my site is at number one for such a phrase, yet when I search I’m at position three or four. It may also say that my site is at position four, but when I search I’m at position one.

In a world of personal search and Google trying to second guess what people search for I’m not going to become downbeat about little inaccuracies like this. Instead I am taking the data as a reference point. I’m using the plugin-in as an in-house guide and real-time data collector that helps me track and target the keyword phrases people use to find my sites. I don’t think any tool like this can be 100% accurate all the time.

Bang on the money

Here are a few screenshots of Rank Tracker getting it right.

Is Rank Tracker worth the money?

Rank Tracker costs $27. To me, that’s an investment. You can install it on as many sites as you like and you can use the data it gathers to try to improve rankings. It’s ideal for people running a large network of niche sites (especially if you make use of the email notification), a smaller hub of high content sites or your own business/personal blog. I haven’t had the plugin long enough to test the results over an extended period and to see if the tweaks I make help with rankings and traffic, but I’m sure they will.

What I like most about Rank Tracker is the real-time data captured within the WordPress admin area. I can see what phrases people are using to find my sites and when you see lots of pages listed at number one on Google it gives you a real morale boost, and for the pages that aren’t ranking so well, it shows you where to go to make improvements.

Buy Rank Tracker

Since the launch of the Like button I’ve Liked a lot of the blogs I read or feel the need to follow. There are some blogs I follow only to see what they’re writing about – it’s a good way steal generate ideas, others I follow because I’m genuinely interested in what they publish.

Lost among the noise

I think Facebook is fast becoming the place where new content is first promoted. Whether it’s through some automated system (like RSS Graffiti) or a manual status update.

Because of this, and because my list of Liked sites continues to grow, I’ve noticed my personal Facebook page is mostly full of updates from websites and blogs, and not my Facebook friends. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it keeps me abreast of what’s going on almost in real-time. However, it kind of loses the point of why I joined Facebook.

And the crossover line between work-time and leisure-time becomes increasingly blurry.

Facebook (almost) replaces my RSS reader

For me, Facebook is better than an RSS reader, where it’s easy for new posts to get lost in the crowd, and email updates, which I now find are the slowest way of keeping up to date with new posts.

Problogger is a great example of this. I’ve obviously Liked Darren’s Facebook page and I more often than not click over to read new articles when they’re published and promoted on Facebook, however, if I’d have waited for the email update before reading a new post, I may not have read it until many hours after the publication time.

Why does this matter? Comment links and traffic.

If you use comments to make yourself known in your niche or to generate traffic, it’s best to get in early. If you are one of the first few to leave a comment on a busy site like Problogger, you stand a better chance of getting click-throughs than the guy who leaves the 50th comment.

Facebook is ideal for getting in early.

Facebook profile page clean up

So, my personal Facebook page was too cluttered. I missed updates from my friends and family because they were absorbed by updates from my Liked sites. I decided to remove a lot of the sites I Liked for business purposes from my personal profile.

As I have a Facebook page for this site I decided to Like the business related sites through that. This allows me to separate work and leisure interests and makes my personal page cleaner and my friends’ updates more difficult to miss.

The first step was to Unlike all the pages that post status updates too often and that I consider business related.

How to Unlike a page on Facebook

The Unlike link doesn’t jump out at you when you first land on a Facebook page, but it’s there. Look at the text links at the bottom of the column on the left hand side of the page and you’ll see it.

Out of interest, here is a list of some of the pages I Like on Facebook.

• Blog Engage
• We Build Your Blog
• Mashable
• Firefox
• Smart Passive Income
• Lifehacker
• IMDB
• The Next Web
• My Modern Metropolis
• Small Business Trends
• Search Engine Land
• Web Urbanist
• Freelance Folder
• WebProNews
• Friday Traffic Report
• Blog World and New Media Expo
• Remarkablogger
• E-Junkie
• Michael Gray
• Evernote
• WPMU DEV
• Copyblogger
• WordStream
• Problogger
• Build Rank Profit
• Duct Tape Marketing
• Digital Inspiration
• Hongkiat.com
• Sharon Hurley Hall
• Yaro Starak
• Mark Thompson
• Freelance Switch
• Hootsuite
• Offer Vault
• The Dash Community
• Kikolani

After going through the list and Unliking these pages, I switched Facebook over to use it as my Page – Top right corner > Account > Use Facebook as Page and once again Liked everything on the list, this time as my Page.

Finding the updates feed (when using Facebook as page) isn’t as easy as it should be (is anything on Facebook?). First, click on the Facebook logo, then click on News Feed in the left hand column and the latest updates should appear on the page in the usual way.

This simple change has made a massive difference to the way I use Facebook. I can switch from business to leisure in just a few clicks, and I never lose track of what’s going on with my friends and family.

Status overload and personal page meltdown averted!

Have you ever tried to register a Twitter username only to find out that it’s already taken? It’s pretty grim when that happens, especially when you find out the account has laid dormant for the past three years.

Recently I contacted Twitter to see if there was any possibility of grabbing a username I would like to use. The username is currently suspended. This is part of the reply:

If you’re looking to acquire an inactive username for personal use, please check back in a few months. We’re currently unable to accommodate individual requests for inactive usernames. We may release all inactive usernames in the future, but have not yet set a date for doing so.

Quite a vague response and one that doesn’t fill me with much hope (or does it?).

How many dormant Twitter accounts exist?

It’s hard to find an up-to-date and definitive answer to this question, some say around 80% of all registered accounts are inactive, but these figures are more than a year old.

It didn’t take much effort for me to find a couple of examples of inactive accounts when using TwitterCounter to find people to follow. I searched twice, once for the word ‘manchester’ and the second time for the word ‘blogging’.

As you would expect there are a lot of results. I started going through the list and clicked through to a couple of Twitter profiles that caught my eye. Here’s a couple of random examples:

The last time the accounts were active was 2009. It’s now June 2011!

There is the argument that one day somebody will come back to inactive accounts and start using them, but how likely is that?

Should Twitter release abandoned usernames after a certain length of time?

In my opinion yes it should. Twitter usernames are not like domain names, you can’t choose a .net if the .com is unavailable, although you can obviously choose a variation by adding underscores, numbers or extra letters.

And the fact that a Twitter username is free to register means there is no incentive for any registered owner of a Twitter username to use or give-up a dormant account.

The Twitter inactivity account policy says:

To keep your account active, be sure to log in and Tweet (i.e., post an update) within 6 months of your last update. Accounts may be permanently removed due to prolonged inactivity.

and

Inactivity is based on a combination of tweeting, logging in, and the date an account was created. Please note that you may not be able to tell whether an account is currently inactive, as not all signs of account activity are publicly visible.

Would you like to be notified when a Twitter username becomes available?

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Excellent article on The Next Web – 11 Must Know Tips and Tricks for Twitter

Yesterday, Danny Sullivan published one of the funniest images I’ve seen for ages. It’s a flowchart Danny says (with his tongue in his cheek) Matt Cutts uses when somebody posts “crazy shit about Google”. The flowchart helps Matt decide whether he should debunk the rumour or let it go. The original post and image are here, and if you scroll down the page you’ll see this comment by Matt Cutts – “I totally just made this my desktop wallpaper. ;)”

Fantastic! Who says there is no fun in SEO?!