There are two computers, one is a dell inspiron e1705 that is hooked up to the flat screen monitor on the left. There is a wireless keyword and a razer mouse (for any of you gamers out there you know you want it). 

The desktop is a total custom build. Without giving away too much detail about it I can tell you a couple of things. For starters you have to have the 64 bit version of vista to run 8 gigs of ram. There is an Nvidia Geforce 880 GTX which is a 750mb video card. That video card is water cooled. There is 500 gigs of storage and 2 32 gig raptor drives (bring on the speed).

The tower weights almost 60 pounds (crazy huh?). The front has 4 fans to cool the CPU 5 other fans through the rest of the tower. The desktop runs duel monitors which is great for working J.

What do you guys think? I would love feedback.     

It was a real great turnout, head over to my flickr page to see al of the photos from the event, I am just going to put up a couple here on the site. The professionals in the crowd did a great job in asking some really good questions that I thought I would touch on a couple of them in this blog post. So without further a due here are some of the topics discussed last night.

Do I need a Google Sitemap to rank well? �?? Answer is No

This was a great question as many people are unaware that you don�??t have to have a Google sitemap to rank well. As a matter of fact the Google sitemap doesn�??t affect your rankings is anyway. All it does is allow Google to find and index your pages quicker than having to go out and manually find the pages.

If you want more information about how to use sitemaps you can visit sitemaps.org. That should help you get started.

Being #1 in Google is the end all be all �?? Answer is No

Being number one in Google is still the main focus of many business owners. The feeling is if they are not number one, well then the campaign wasn�??t a success. This is a mentality that everyone needs to move away from. Especially as Google has rolled out with personalized search, which basically will showcase different results to each user based on their past browser history. Head over to Bruce Clay�??s blog and read more and the Personal Search Revolution, if you want to learn more about how it affects you.

Real things that your clients should be focused on, would be:

How much traffic am I getting each month?

Is this traffic high quality traffic or low quality?

How well is my site converting?

Is the traffic I am acquiring converting?

- If not why?

These are the issues that should be important to the success of an online marketing campaign. You can use you r analytics to find out all this information. If you are in need of more information about analytics and what it can do for you, Rand over at SEOMOZ did a post about Tracking data essential to search marketing campaigns.

Can my web designer / web master do SEO Cheaper? �?? Answer is No

Many companies feel that their web designer / webmaster should have all the answers and be able to effectively optimize / market their website. This of course is not true, the analogy I like to give is this:

�??If I need to have surgery to repair a tendon in my knee, I am going to go to knee specialist. I wouldn�??t go to a brain surgeon.�??

The same holds true on the web. Building an effective web property is a team sport. One person can�??t be a master at everything. So, to answer the question, I feel that a web designer can�??t do SEO cheaper because of the fact that they wouldn�??t be as effective as someone who Optimizes / Markets web properties for a living. In the end you end up stretching the web designer too thin and their less effective at their own job.

These were just a couple of the questions that were asked last night. If anyone has other questions or even comments about these three please feel free to let me know.

]]> http://redhandstudios.com/hey-everyone-sorry-for-the-lack-of-posts.html/feed http://redhandstudios.com/has-the-influx-of-social-based-sites-hit-critical-mass.html http://redhandstudios.com/has-the-influx-of-social-based-sites-hit-critical-mass.html#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:13:15 +0000 Darrell Long social communitiessocial media http://redhandstudios.com/has-the-influx-of-social-based-sites-hit-critical-mass.html Over the course of the past year or so, social media based sites have exploded and taken over what was then known as the internet. Social based sites took the power away from major conglomerates and placed it within the hands of the individual. The time has finally come where the individual has an opinion that can�??t be ignored. In 2007, 38% of all people used some form of social network and that percentage is suppose to double in 2008.

Last week I had the pleasure to make the Social Networking Conference held in Miami Beach Fl, which I will go into more detail about very soon. The reason I reference this is due to the amount of individuals whose main concern was that there are too many social based sites and it�??s saturating the market place.  It is true there is a massive growth in the number of social based sites. You can see a pretty detailed list of social and web 2.0 based sites at go2web20.net. I currently haven�??t seen the bottom of the list yet, but I am trying.

The interesting thing to note here is many of these social based sites are becoming very niche. The day of Digg and Facebook knockoffs are coming to a close, and as time goes on these social based sites will have a very specific subject matter. What does this mean? It means the amount of people actively involved in these communities will be much smaller but the involvement level will rise. 

To answer the question I purposed at the beginning of this article. Has the influx of social based sites hit critical mass? The answer is no but, the time of newly developed general social based sites has. The sites that make it will have understood the need to be more focused and provide their users with someone that will add some real utility to their online experience. 

Email Title: Unauthorized Activity                  

Email Address: bankofamerica@google.com

Your Online Banking is Blocked

Because of unusual number of invalid login attempts on you account, we had to believe that, their might be some security problem on you account.

So we have decided to put an extra verification process to ensure your identity and your account security.

Please click on continue to the verification process and ensure your account security. It is all about your security.

            Thank you.

            Continue To Online Banking ( This was the link)

            © 2007 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved  

By clicking this link you and filling out any information you will be sending you account information out to be used against you.

I love it how the people who cooked up this scheme know there unsuspecting victims will click the link even though there are big tells that this is not bank of America.

Let�??s examine the big tells shall we?

1.  If my account had unauthorized activity the bank would definitely call me not email me.

2. The email address it was sent by is not a bank of America email.

3. The URL it was directing too is not a bank of America email.

The point I am trying to make is to be careful what you read online and how you conduct your finical accounts online.

My only comments to the article would that with many firms, more so with larger firms they tends to be have a �??cookie cutter strategy�?? which is used for each and every client versus evaluating what the client really needs and developing a strategy which will work. I call this method the �??herding of the sheep�??. We all know that no two clients have the same goals so why would you use the same strategy for both? It�??s just a really bad disservice to the client and in the end gives the rest of us a bad rap.

Let�??s take a look at what dictionary.com says the definition of optimize is shall we? The term optimize says and I quote:

1. To make as effective, perfect, or useful as possible.

2. To make the best of.

3. Computers. to write or rewrite (the instructions in a program) so as to maximize efficiency and speed in retrieval, storage, or execution.

4. Mathematics. to determine the maximum or minimum values of (a specified function that is subject to certain constraints).

If we use the logic of thinking that many in the search engine optimization world have, to over optimize is to make something over useful? No what that this is called is simply Spamdexing.

What is spamdexing you say? Spamdexing is the practice of deceptively modifying web pages to increase the chance of them being placed close to the beginning of search engine results, or to influence the category to which the page is assigned in a dishonest manner. ~Wikipedia

My advice would be to make sure your following best practices when it comes to optimizing your pages for natural search and to always keep your main focus to enriching your visitors experience first.

• URL

• RSS Feed URL

Once you sign up it will ask you to apply a piece of java script to your site. This java script is a widget which appears on your page and scans the content of your web page. It will then try to match the content with other relevant blog articles recently submitted on other blogs.

Once everything is setup and ready to go, you will start receiving traffic to your blog! The big question is well how does this work? What Blog Rush does is track how many unique visitors your blog has per day. Let�??s say for this example it�??s 1500. The system will then showcase your recent posts on other blogs which have the system setup 1500 times.

Blog Rush also adds referrals into the mix by allows you to reap the benefits of having someone setup a blog Rush account which you referred. So let�??s say your buddy Todd saw the Blog Rush widget on your blog and decided to click the �??Add your posts �?? for Free�?? button. You will now not only receive traffic from your unique visitors but also Todd�??s.

I think this could definitely be a great possible way to bring in free qualified traffic to your blog. Since the widget is in java script the text links will not be seen by the search engines (Google should then give their blessing). The only question that I have at this point is how well Blog Rush is going to catch on within the blogging community. The success of Blog Rush depends mainly on many bloggers incorporating the widget into their blog. It will definitely be interesting to see how the plays out.

The olden golden days of the Internet are over. The shortcuts we all used to take in order to get artificial SEO results are now not only frowned upon, but considered to be highly unethical. Negative impacts from outdated and improper SEO practices can result in dramatically lowered organic rankings to even being dropped from the search engines entirely.

A practice area around SEO is emerging and many webmasters should consider consulting with a colleague engaged in this specialty, rather than attempting to become the master of all.

Search engine ranking algorithms contain some 200 variables and over 5% of those algorithms change on a weekly basis. How much extra time do you have Mr. Webmaster?

Check out our top ten worst search engine optimization techniques. Find out if you are a blessing or a curse to your websites SEO viability and organic rankings:

TOP TEN OUTDATED SEO PRACTICES

Bad Practice One - Keyword Stuffing �?? defined as stuffing an extreme amount of the same keyword throughout the web page. This would include putting the same keywords in your keyword Meta tag over and over again, using the same keyword within the content so much it loses all since of credibility and seems to be redundant.

Bad Practice Two - Cloaking - A technique in which the content presented to the search engine spiders is different from that presented to the users�?? browser. Cloaking is often used as a spam technique, to try to trick the search engines into giving the relevant site a higher ranking. This could ultimately be used to trick search engine users into visiting a site based on the search engine result pages (SERPS). For this, the search engines have deemed cloaking to be a deceptive technique and have ruled it a violation of their guidelines.

Bad Practice Three - Elongated URL�??s �?? The length of a URL is a factor when determining your placement organically. Using URL�??s which pass too many variables or extremely long can have a negative impact. In some cases, can prevent the search engine spiders from effectively crawling the particular page. Be sure to keep the URL�??s short and to the point, but more importantly using the primary key phrase for the page within the URL. As a rule of thumb, you should be able to identify the main point of any web page just by viewing the URL for the page.

Bad Practice Four - Aggressive Link Building - Building high quality and relevant links is a very great way of increasing the amount of exposure your website receives. It�??s when you are building link for the sole purpose of achieving higher organic rankings is where you will find yourself in trouble. The search engines don�??t want you building links for the sole purpose of rankings. You want to build links in a naturally occurring fashion. For example, if your website has been active for 2 years and has a total of 50 inbound links, then the next month you�??re up to 4,000, something�??s wrong. The engines are going to pick up on this and you can be looking at a potential ban from the engines.

Bad Practice Five - Improper Re-directs �?? Redirecting one page to another can be a process which can have negative effects on your organic rankings. This can be prevented by ensuring the proper re-directs are in place. There are many redirects which can be used, however the only search engine friendly re-direct is a 301 re-direct. A 301 re-direct is a permanent re-direct from one page to the other, so this tells the search engines to re-assign the traction acquired for the old page to the new page. Any other form of re-direct will result in no transfer in weight and could actually cause duplicate content issues to appear.

Bad Practice Six - Page Title Abuse �?? The title of a web page plays a major role in determining how the page is going to be placed organically. Stay away from creating page titles which are extremely long or the same throughout the website. The page title should typically consist of 5 �?? 7 words with the primary key phrase for the page present and preferably towards the beginning of the page title. Stay away from starting your page titles off with your company name as the space can be more productively used to showcase the theme of the page. If you wish to have your company name within the page title, place it at the end of the title. The reason for this is the search engines read page titles in a linear fashion, so the most important part of the page title is at the beginning.

Bad Practice Seven - Frame Sets �?? Using frames to display multiple web pages within one on browser window can cause serious issues with having each of the web pages crawled by the search engines. In many cases the crawlers will only index one of the pages, leaving other out of the index. This would mean that the content which is housed within the other web pages will not be seen by the search engines.

Bad Practice Eight - Code Bloat �?? Lets start by defining what code bloat actually is. It�??s the amount of code it takes to build a web page. Now there are a couple reasons why this plays an important role in the organic success of your web page. There are over 200 known factors to determine where a web page gets placed organically; one of those factors is what�??s known as the �??Code to Content Ratio�??.

This would mean the search engines look at how much code it takes to build the page versus how much content resides on the page. The less amount of code you have the better. One way to reduce the amount of code would be to look at places where you can reference code from external files such as Java script or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

Bad Practice Nine - Hindering Navigation �?? The navigation of your website plays a tremendous role in the success of your website for your organic search efforts. It is crucial that the search engines be able to understand and find all the pages of your website. Technologies such as Java script and Flash can hinder the search engine spiders from effectively finding the pages throughout your website.

Bad Practice Ten �?? Hidden Text�?? Content on a web page is one of the most crucial factors when it comes to having that particular page being found for the key phrases you wish. One outdated and unethical technique is to develop content for the sole purpose of manipulating organic search listings which was hidden to the visitor but seen by the search engines. Most of the time this was achieved by ensuring the content was the same color as the background of the page, or by allowing the font size to be so small you visitor was unable to see it.

The most dangerous course of action you can take would be to properly implement the wrong strategy. Be sure to fully understand how your website is being built to ensure it doesn�??t have a negative impact on your organic rankings.

Introduction to link building

There are a number of link building strategies, each tactic requiring different efforts and providing different results. The effort and effectiveness of link building strategies depends on the value you provide during the link building process. One of the most efficient ways to provide value is to create quality content.

Quality content for link building

Develop quality content by:

�?� Developing educational, entertaining or interesting articles on your site or blog.

�?� Offering quality articles for publication to established industries, newsletters or informational websites within your given industry.

�?� Taking part in the community by posts commentary on blog sites within your industry.

�?� Issuing monthly or quarterly press releases, about newsworthy events in your company.

�?� Participating in established industry forums.

�?� Elaborating on key services or products you offer.

�?� Offer resources on products or services within your website.

Though the list isn�??t huge, it doesn�??t mean the results are as small. You simply need to create a lot of quality content, interesting to your readers. If you publish it on your site, you�??ll be recognized as a quality resource. If you offer it for publication, you�??ll be viewed upon as an industry expert. Press releases above all allow you to spread the word about your content as well.

The benefits of quality content link building is that you attract targeted audience to your website, position yourself as an expert in the field and obtain natural, relevant links. Of course, this course of action requires some work, but it is well worth it.

As a rule of thumb, a good way to build links is to forget you are building links and to start building relationships with your peers, customers, vendors, affiliates, industry journal editors and journalists. This will keep you focused on providing value and you�??ll simply get traffic and links as a bonus for getting known in the field, which may be worthwhile, as reputation is one of the most valuable assets on the Web.