SEO n00b

AdWords/Digg mashup

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:08:00 +0000

I haven't even done a quick google to see if anyone else has written this up, but I had an idea for automating AdWords content ads on sites that have been Dugg. All you need is a nice little app that polls Digg's API for upcomming stories in whatever category you are interested in. Then a second call to the AdWords API and you can submit a content ad for the site that is about to hit the front page of Digg. This even provides an opportunity to tailor the ad with some well placed variables in your ad text. "Hey Diggers, like articles about %topic%? then check out www.mysite.com."

Digg API

AdWords API

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:33:00 +0000

It is a blog post, so I suppose the rambling is excusable, but the ideas are pretty good. The author starts off describing the largest disaster in software history, cites some reasons he thinks it went wrong and then tangents into another project that went wrong for completely different reasons and sort of pulls it all together at the end.

Even so, there are some good ideas here, both of what to do and what not to do. It doesn't really come down on either side of the RUP /Agile debate per se, but has some nice things to keep in mind for after a project is launched.

The Marketing / Business divide

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:26:00 +0000

I suspect it is a common problem in the business world, when a companies marketing material on the website falls out of date or otherwise inaccurately reflects the actual state of things. I recently found myself fretting that DirectTv's website said that you needed a land-based phone line in order to have their service. In particular it was required for the NFL Sunday Ticket, which was the entire reason I was interested in the service. I googled to see if something like Vonage would work, though I didn't really even want to sign up for that. Many accounts on the web said it wasn't really required, so I called their sales staff. They didn't even know what I was talking about, assured me it wasn't a problem and scheduled the install. The installers never once mentioned the word phone and after an hour climbing around my building I was happily watching what seemed to be a couple thousand channels.

I wonder how much business they have cost themselves on people who just assumed the website was accurate and moved on?

Hotmail no more

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:10:00 +0000

I've been maintaining 2 primary email accounts for a while now. I give my friends my gmail address and everyone else my hotmail. It has worked, but I've become a fan of gmail's interface so I decided to have gmail as the client for both. I had to upgrade my hotmail account ($20 a year) to get POP3 and then configure gmail to pull all my email out of it. It took about a day for it to get all 4k emails. As it was going I set up a bunch of filters so now my friends show up with different tags than my bank accounts etc. It is all great when I'm in gmail, but I have been using a Google homepage widget to notify me of new emails. Problem is it only seems to show whats in the inbox. Anyone know how to display new messages from any folder in a widget? I would settle for a firefox plugin, though I haven't even started to research such a thing.

Can't see the forest...

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:00:00 +0000

I don't always agree with Joel over at Fog Creek, but today he posted a blog article that paints such an obvious picture I'm amazed I never saw it before. I have to admit, realizing HTML is essentially CICS is pretty humbling. I suddenly feel bad for looking down my nose at the mainframe guys.

User Penetration Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:34:00 +0000

Apple has announced their new patented form of automated testing today. Think of it as a mashup of IT strategies that allow you to unexpectedly test backdoor entry methods of a million simultaneous users. The patent makes no mention of a free dinner first.

The Marshmallow Test

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 18:46:00 +0000

Venture beat has a great guest blog today, even if they don't know how to spell marshmallow. I guess the name might be punny, as it discusses delayed gratification. I have been wanting to start a video game company, with a focus on middleware for mmos for quite some time. All the talk of throw something up there and fix it later goes against the grain of my instinct of wanting to really do it right. Obviously there is a line where you will never put anything out if you dont put something out, but I think I still have a ways to go. The good news is I am in the middle of a couple math books and a financial book on running an exchange. One way or another I will know everything I need to run a real time, distributed, massively multi user application. Hopefully it is before quantum computers have made the knowledge obsolete...

Paid Content

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:34:00 +0000

I've seen some other marketplaces for content run by SEO companies. They tended to be very secretive about what was included, and have high up front costs. At the other end of the spectrum is the new Marketplace feature of the site Helium. You can put out a bid for an article, specifying length, price, etc. The community can comment on quality, and if (yes IF) you decide you like the article you can buy and publish it. For $17 - $100, this could be a pretty reasonable way to add content to your site. I have not dug around enough to see if $17 will attract anyone with any real writing talent.

MMO + Life = Creepy?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 21:32:00 +0000

I've certainly advocated using the mechanisms of an MMO to facilitate education, but MyProgress.com is taking things to a whole new level. It is a yuppy, type-A paradise that lets you track your wealth and skills compared to the rest of the world. I don't really see how this could be used productively, with absolutely no built in mechanism to improve your situation, it is simply a reminder that a long lunch just lost you 3 places... hurry up and work harder!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:36:00 +0000

TechStars, like YCombinator is helping launch Web2.0 goodness into the universe. Here is the latest group of startups they are funding. There has been a lot of speculation of a second bubble burst based on the amount of cash VCs are pumping in to the market. I don't think that is the most important aspect to focus on. As you can see from the list, some of these companies have not only a great idea, but also a mechanism for generating revenue. J-Squared Media's offering is not only clever and attractive to Facebook users, but its already extremely profitable. Many of the others are just clones of existing services or what might be considered a feature of a bigger site.

What ever happened to doing a business plan, figuring out your market, how you would monetize and most importantly what makes people want to use it. A good geeky idea of how you can improve one aspect of someone else's offering is not a business.

It's like a Zen koan

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 17:45:00 +0000

Today is a day of quotes, apparently. This one is from Tycho down at Penny Arcade.

"... if you say something stupid, and no one is there to hear it, are you still an idiot?"

Discuss.

Michael Arrington Invents New Word

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:41:00 +0000

A quick Google shows that this post is indeed the first usage of the word 'webtwoohified'. I love it and shall attempt to use it in a sentence today.

It Isn't So Easy After All

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:47:00 +0000

Glenn Kelman wrote a guest blog on Guy Kawasaki's site refuting the idea that in the current environment becoming a Web 2.0 millionaire is as easy as ordering Pizza. It was a really refreshing take on how he stays awake at night worrying, thinks of his company as his child, and why he treats his staff the right way. I started this blog with the premise that everyone else out there seems to have the answers and I don't quite get it. Its nice to see I'm not the only one admitting it.

Lower Your Property Value

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 20:33:00 +0000

Newly upgraded service Streetadvisor lets you tell the world how much your neighborhood sucks. Feel free to complain about your noisy street, annoying neighbors and the hoodlums that hang out down on the corner. You can feel all Web2.0 while you watch your property value plummet!

Feedburner Integration

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 04:08:00 +0000

Looks like the Google aquisition of Feedburner has produced its first integrated feature. I still had to add this blog to my Feedburner account manually, and I still used the 'Chicklet' feature on that site. I was able to switch over the feeds published by Blogger on Blogger for the first time however, which is pretty exciting. That was troublesome in the past. I had to hack into the template and pull out the post feeds. I never did figure out how to switch the comment feeds away from Bogger's Atom. I imagine at some point in the future Feedburner will simply be features of Blogger rather than a seperate site.

pseudo-viral marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:36:00 +0000

I caught a strange looking commercial for NXTube.com while channel flipping. It starred John Cleese and seemed to be golf related (I was actually listening to music and had the TV muted). Looks like they are trying to take advantage of the success of YouTube with a wacky lonelygirl15 ripoff. At least it is more transparent than the PSP crap Sony tried to pass off as real. What is the line that should be drawn between truth in advertising and trying to stay relevant and break through the public's growing "ad blindness". I suppose it is difficult to plaster yourself broadly across any media and have success with a specialized product, but it seems to me that either creating a useful content site (or partnering with an existing one) is far more noble and likely cheaper and more effective.

LinkedIn Answers

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 21:29:00 +0000

In a fashion that typifies this blog so far, I speculate that I use LinkedIn Answers hoping there is some intangible benefit. I think one of the reasons I choose to participate in it is because I actually enjoy being helpful occasionally. It has also been the source of several long running conversations with other members that I did not previously know. Nothing has come of any of them yet, but it still seems more productive than other forums. The people I am interacting with are either trying to do the same kinds of entrepreneurial things I am, or may even be hiring and be impressed with my technical and communication skills. I found myself not logging on as frequently as I had been, so I added the technology category RSS feed to my Google homepage.

Joe's Goals

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:53:00 +0000

I came across a great site called Joe's Goals that lets you create and track your personal goals. It is very simple and has a nice Ajax interface. It is a great way for me to remember that doing a little each day has a large effect cumulatively. I added a "Write a Blog Entry" goal, which made me realize my other blogs are not well suited to daily, small updates. So that is why I created this one. I am not sure why I think it is a good idea to blog every day, or if I will really follow through, but it seems appealing and is recommended by everyone in the blogosphere. Of course that is a bit like a basketball player saying you should play basketball every day I suppose. At any rate, I think it is a good habit to get in, and if people actually start participating with comments then I will have met new people and gained new insights.

Only Kind of Clueless

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Duesing) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:59:00 +0000

The title of the blog is a tiny bit misleading. I more or less understand how to optimize a site for a search engine, how to get listed and the importance of having other sites link back to mine. What I don't really get is how people make a living on things like blogging. How does someone sell their advertising driven small business / Web 2.0 site for hundreds of millions of dollars. I don't understand the role of networking and social sites in the success of these things. I don't doubt the way the world is currently working. My Tech Crunch RSS feed is a daily reminder that the sky is the limit.

So what is the purpose of this site? To explore with me all the weird shit I am trying and to get some feedback from others what their experiences are. Please feel free to contribute, I will gladly link anything interesting you send me. My first nod goes to an old friend with a new business. Check out Paul's venture Clicksharp Marketing for all your SEO needs. Good luck Paul!