In today’s world of template run websites the change is relatively easy to make.  There are many different CMS Systems and blogs.  The most common is WordPress and perhaps the easiest to change without an advanced knowledge of code. To edit the footer in WordPress:

From the admin panel select Appearance -> Editor -> Footer -> Change Copyright Year -> Update File

* Copyright image from Business Image

Over the past few months I have been honing my development skills in addition to getting back in to politics.  As I have indicated before… Once upon a time I worked in Politics.  I have been both a volunteer, activist, and professional in politics for the last 8 years.  Due to unforeseen circumstances related to the current state of the economy I decided it best to pursue using my degree and experience to join on the bandwagon.

I have taken a job on the ground in Oakland County, Michigan on the outskirts of Detroit working for a non-profit organization that shares similar values to me and most importantly the same goal.  After the election is over, November 4th, I will be back in the market pursuing a job as a regular person.  Aren’t we all just regular?  No, or at least a few months ago I didn’t think so.  I had convinced myself somehow that I was special.  In that  last few years I have worked hard and some how imagined myself  to be someone I am not.  In reality my illusion was allowing me to get away from what matters most.  Happiness. After years of working for even higher profile figures than me gave me hopes and dreams to be them.  After spending a summer with my parents taught me that it was all an illusion.  After spending months drifting about my parents house I came to the realization,  “I am regular!“  In fact I want to be regular.

As I came out of my daze I blew a couple interviews, unintentionally just did bad, and realized I love SEO and the challenge to the constantly changing SEO Universe.  But my place in the SEO community is low on to totum poll.  Sure I could rise to the top of the SEO community but that would bring very little to me.  So after this election is complete I will be back in SEO only part-time.  I am going to follow my instinct and go for a regular job with stability and most importantly with benefits.  I will continue to blog for personal fun and work with clients on a part-time basis.  Focusing on smaller numbers of clients will give me the ability to help create the perfect plan all the while not neglecting what is important to me.  I have two personal choices ahead of me.  1.  Return home and hope to get a good paying rewarding job (thinking something in construction or mill work). 2. Move back to DC and work my way up in government or the non-profit world.

The full-time life in SEO consulting is a bit to much stress in combination of high profile jobs is what drove me into the fog and ultimate burn out.  I want a full time job that at the end of the day or week I can look at and be proud of.  Weather that justification comes from hard work on an issue of championing a piece of legislation or helping family farmers navigate the rigors of Washington.  Being able to take a pile of dirt and create something like build a new Eco friendly power plant or make steel pipe that is helping end the dependency on foreign oil.  I want to be able to fulfill a quote may dad says very frequently “When they put me down in the ground. People will say there goes somebody that made a difference”.

How will SEO and your SEO business going to fit into that?  The same way I originally intended for it to be. I am going to put it back in the hobby category and part-time employment.  I am not ending SEO I am just not going to do as much as I was.

In my break I did lots of work on the growing area of Content Management systems and new technology using Adobe Flex.  Those article are sure to come at some point.  So stay tuned for updates.  I am adding an e-mail subscription via feedburner so that it can be delivered to your e-mail.  I have been writing on my personal blog lately about politics and other things.  Just so much going on in the world that needs my attention!

Humane Society Legislative Fund is a social welfare organization incorporated under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. HSLF works to pass animal protection laws at the state and federal level, to educate the public about animal protection issues, and to support humane candidates for office.

In this case I am heading up their team in Michigan’s Congressional District 9.  One of the most highly contested and closest races in the country.  To be asked to spear head this operation is very much a privilege and an honor.

As you know from previous posts I am a big supporter of non-profits and charities.  So instead of sharing a link for charity how about dropping them a donation.  It helps secure more than just your pets and wildlife it protects human rights also.  They are just as concerned with our well being as any other organization.  They are currently in the fight for changing the current state of affairs.  No other politically affiliated organization needs your help more.  Please donate $10 or more.  If you can’t give money try giving them a link and a spot in one of your post.

I have been using Firefox exclusively for a couple years now and the last release really crushed my dedication. I hope that FireFox has the bugs worked out and is chugging along. So far so good for me. It may still be a little bit heavy on the memory usage still but it wouldn’t be firefox any other way. Also my most used plugins aren’t compatible but believe they are shortly behind and anticipating their update.

So check it out and download yours today.

My most revet post have been off topic and I hope to return to my regular post soon but I wanted to take a minute to tell you about my dad.

My dad is fantastic. He is my hero. My father is the epitome of what a father should be. He has been there for me even before my consciousness was present. When I was born my dad got laid off in part because of the situation President Reagan caused. He was laid off for more than two years. That wasn’t going to stop him from providing for my family. My dad worked every odd job he possibly could. He even started a bust business with some fellow family that he ended up getting screwed in. He always made sure there was food on the table and his family had the best money could provide. He is the type of person that likes to do the work and doesn’t need recognition for it. He views it as his duty. Don’t tell him he did a good job. It is what a father is supposed to do. He is no Hollywood dad as those characters aren’t half the person he is.

He taught me values, built my character, and contributed to the person I am today. He instilled hard work values into me as he is as a union laborer. The rough hands from years of swinging hammers and fixing mechanices were really soft. Soft in the sense that his heart shined through when he touches, comforts, and consules you. His soft and careing demeanor have transfered to me. I hope one day the values I learned from you can one day transfer to my family. I hope to grow and become half the man you are. Dad, you are an incredible human being. A shining example of what a father is supposed to be. I love you and lok forward to the years ahead.

Dad,

As I grow older I realize that one day I may not get to always have you. I can’t imagine a world that we don’t coexsist in. As you know, I only know 1 on of my grandfathers that died almost 16 years ago now. I hope that my children get to learn from you what I have. If not rest assured that that the character you helped me grow to be will shine through. Again, Dad I love you with all of my heart.

Your son,

Chris Estes

A while back I posted about twitter and how I was beginning to use it. As many plans with social media, I failed on my initial trial.

So what makes me a Troll? I always have the nifty Twhirl* twitter console/application open. I never update about what I am doing as I don’t think people are interested in what I am doing. I wish I was as entertaining as these characters. Brian Wallace post about everything, eating popcorn, going to the grocery store, and I bet he twitters in the Tub. Jennifer Laycock talks about what she is reading constantly. How can she be reading if she is Twittering? Kalena Jordan’s “bitch of the day” or latest ranting about who is messing with her in Australia are just out right entertaining. Then theres Matt Cutts’s posting about something that might as well be written in a secret hidden language only Nicolas Gage in Disney’s National Treasure can read.

My life isn’t interesting. I troll around the internet and read about others interesting lives. I haven’t found the greatest utility in Twitter but it is ever entertaining. It is like having a webcam view into the daily lives of ordinary people. The great thing I like about it is that spammers have not yet invaded me. Some of the basics of Twitter allow me to view only the people I want to anyway so I don’t have to worry about them.

So yes when I am on my computer my Twhirl app is open and I am watching you. I might not update often but you better believe I am lurking around.

* Twhirl is an application built around Adobe’s Air. For those of you who don’t know about Air yet you will. I have been watching Adobe Air for some time and super excited about the possibilities. It does have quite a few SEO problems but hey that makes life fun.

WordPress is attractive for most people because of its cost. It’s Free! Being free and widely distributed makes it vulnerable to security breeches. Due to the constantly evolving risk for security vulnerabilities also means the constant stream of updates. With every update and tightening security means new code being inserted into your database and templates. With every update means new bugs. New bugs means more updates. Checking for updates has become part of my daily routine. The constant updating is time lost. The time isn’t so much the issue as the constant customization of code and re-customization of code. Every plugin and update brings in hours of coding. Why is that a problem? I’m not a programmer. I’m not a developer.

WordPress is an open source technology that is created by the community at-large. That means that some of the worlds best programmers and developers donate their time for only recognition in return. By the same token that means some of the worst 3rd rate programmers/developers are donating their time also. In most cases I am willing to bet that most of them are mediocre or at least inexperienced. I understand why so many of them would be willing to devote a considerable amount of time. For the great exposure and widespread visibility. Hasn’t everyone done that? As many of as rely upon wordpress being the best and with so many second rate people working the forums and code sections. I think a professional CMS system maybe in many of our futures. If a lot of money is on the line, 15 year old kids programming maybe effective but in most cases they lack the experience to develop for business.

I use WordPress for most all the site I own. Once upon a time the system worked for me flawlessly or atleast I remember it working that way. I have nothing but problems with it now. The constant change in plugins and updates has left a few of my sites riddled with errors or code that I did not intend to be there. On one of my website there is a plugin that is generating a commented out code that is being run by some backend function that pings another server which is leaching my post and publishing it as there own. I wouldn’t mind so much if they wanted to recive a ping when their plugin is being used but not for scrapping my content. I am tempted to run a local script that just constant pings and injects code into their server. But that is just vindictive. So instead I spend the time learning what they wrote and cutting out the parts I don’t need or ones transmitting to other sources I don’t trust. I put lots of time into my website and to keep it functioning correctly at peak performance in the back end so that the front end is nice clean and jumpin. But instead for a post to go out I spend 30 min writing and another hour fixing bugs. If you are a begining user you probably have no clue what most of the functions are going on in your application. Some of them could be hurting you.

Most day’s I like WordPress, but today I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. The bugs the incompadibilty of the free templates and plugins is killing me. I have hit a cross roads with them. I am considering a totally different CMS system, Now to find one that I can have control over and only uses the plugin and code that I want to appear. WordPress without plugins is vitrually nothing but a journal, For some sites that works. For me it does not. The paid CMS systems cost a lot and I am not willing to pay for one.

If you know of any good CMS systems around that would be worth while feel free to share them. I have tested droopal it just doen’t work for me. I have Ideas on how to create the perfect fail proof CMS System. That would be part re-inventing the wheel and someone willing to do it for free. So It looks like I may be with WordPress until my wish magically comes true.

Content Managment Systems are meant to make life easier. For me WordPress makes it worse. If it doesn’t get better I might just go back to hand filling php templates by hand. Though time consuming and defeats the usability of the greast sections of the Admin section. So because there is no easy answer to the CMS solution I will just have to learn to love wordpress again.

Back in December there was a lot of talk about Sam’s Club offering SEO and SEM services. I haven’t seen a follow up on the service and wonder how the service is working out. I have not seen or heard of a business actually using the service.

Over at Search Engine Journal they discuss “Sam’s Club Search Marketing: Good or Bad for the Industry?” I haven’t seen a follow up since the rumblings started. I would like to get a hold of a solid review of the service. Let me know if you can review it objectively and show proof of the service.

The post, entitled “Status Quo Blogging”, was about standard status quo blogging post. It is by far not a landmark post and serves as a working example of status quo blogging.

To read the post visit Social Desire, the blog “devoted to everything Social Media and Web 2.0.” You can view the post directly at “Status Quo Blogging“.

Then on her post she requested it again on her blog which you can read about on Social Desire. I submitted a guest post which if it makes it through the vigorous filters of Shanna you should see it soon. Stay tunned for the announcement of my guest blog post helping out a friend.

Around the first of this year I made a charity post and since I am in the feel of donating to an organization I would like to do another one here on the end of this post.

My charity of choice for this post is the American Sleep Apnea Association. The American Sleep Apnea Association is the only non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public about sleep apnea and to serving people with this common disorder.

The American Sleep Apnea Association is dedicated to reducing injury, disability, and death from sleep apnea and to enhancing the well-being of those affected by this common disorder. The ASAA promotes education and awareness, the ASAA A.W.A.K.E. Network of voluntary mutual support groups, research, and continuous improvement in care.

From the ASAA Website

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. In central sleep apnea, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe. Mixed apnea, as the name implies, is a combination of the two. With each apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people with sleep apnea in order for them to resume breathing, but consequently sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality.

Sleep apnea is very common, as common as adult diabetes, and affects more than twelve million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health. Risk factors include being male, overweight, and over the age of forty, but sleep apnea can strike anyone at any age, even children. Yet still because of the lack of awareness by the public and healthcare professionals, the vast majority remain undiagnosed and therefore untreated, despite the fact that this serious disorder can have significant consequences.

Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency, and headaches. Moreover, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle crashes. Fortunately, sleep apnea can be diagnosed and treated. Several treatment options exist, and research into additional options continues.

Example:

My favorite local restaurant, Campbells Field, located miles from anything that resembles modern civilization. I even tried looking them up in the phone book and could not find them. This quaint little restaurant has excellent food and for cheap and situated next a great view of a local working airport. They have T-shirts and sponsor local little league baseball teams. They have a marketing plan that is based solely on word of mouth. Over the past few years I have put reviews and resources out to help promote them out of the kindness of my heart for the community.

The fact they don’t have a website or being listed in the phone book is hurting their growth.

In my opinion every business needs a website at least helping promote themselves locally. No matter the business having a website is simple. With the abundance of hosting providers that provide free domains and hosting for only $3.99 a month. Once you sign up they even give you automated tools to build a website. With about 30 minutes of work you can have a webpage that will bring you business that will pay for the cost within a few customers.

The host I use 1and1.com has several plans that are economical and are great for a first website. You don’t need a fancy designer or expensive web team. Most of these services make it “so easy even a caveman can do it.” Click the banners or use the domain search form to see if your company name is available. Even if you don’t want to create a webpage it is wise to purchase your companies domain name. You don’t want someone using your name.

5 free Domains with Select Hosting Plans. Get yours

Here is a recommendation to all small business owners no matter what you do. Buy your domain name setup a few page website no matter what it looks like. Put information about your services and how to contact you. A link back to my website will help raise the style, class, and look for your website.

One thing to remember though about having a website is a direct reflection on your business. So take that extra step create the website. If you feel that it is necessary barter with an employee, family member, friend to help you. The idea is to save on cost until it proves to you that you will get a return on your investment. The more time and money you spend on the design, development, and promotion of the website will get you a larger return on investment.

Promoting your new website can be time consuming but with all the social media outlets it has become easier. If you don’t promote it then don’t expect a large return on your investment. Having a page with links to it means it will promote itself naturally and require little input from you.

So Purchase your web address set it up on a basic hosting plan that has automated web building tools and you will be on your way into the future. Check out 1and1.com as they have the entry level plans I recommend.

If you have questions about setting up your first webpage don’t hesitate to contact me.

I’ve always meant to do a post to say that search engine optimization (SEO) is not spam and that Google doesn’t hate SEO, but I never seem to get around to it. This presentation gave me a chance to slip those facts into the minds of several thousand tech-savvy folks.

This is first omission or at least direct omission I can remember from a Google Employee of the nature. Matt said this in a keynote presentation.

You can read Matt’s complete story on his blog along with seeing the video here.

SEO by Chris only practices White Hat SEO practices within the realm of standard Webmaster Guidelines.

Read the complete article here.

Social-networking sites work to turn users into profits

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO — It is the burning question in tech circles, and Mike Murphy answers it before it is completed.
“I hear it every time I’m on a (tech) panel,” Murphy, Facebook’s vice president of media sales, says with a wry smile.

STORY: Social networks vs. TV networks

He’s referring to the inevitable question on when Facebook and other social-networking sites will turn their steep market valuations into mounds of currency. (Invariably, Murphy answers that Facebook has a long list of major advertisers.)

Facebook, MySpace and other social-networking sites have been the rage of the tech industry for more than a year. Following investments by Microsoft and News Corp., the companies are valued in the billions of dollars and are considered blueprints for how to build a website. Yet a deeper question lingers: How are they going to consistently produce profits to match their soaring valuations?

It is a parlor game that has Silicon Valley buzzing. With online ad spending booming into a nearly $50 billion market this year, there is plenty of money to be had. Big-name advertisers are drooling over millions of young, affluent consumers who are spending more time on their online profiles than in front of TV and movie screens. They are particularly smitten with the prospect of tailoring ads to people’s specific interests.

But Google commands a sizable chunk of the market — especially in the USA — leaving dozens of social-networking sites to scramble for a piece of the advertising pie. Plus, there is the ticklish task of sites and advertisers pitching products without trampling the privacy of consumers.

Short of striking it rich with online ads or creating a new revenue stream, how can so many sites leverage their vast audiences? In many respects, it is the same query that dogged portal companies in the mid-1990s and search engines in the early ’90s. Some were sold. Some went public. Some went belly up.

The ongoing challenge is to concoct a potion — be it through banner ads, premium subscriptions or licensing agreements — that no one has perfected. Facebook, crown jewel of the field, is valued at $15 billion but barely turns a profit.

“You can’t have a $15 billion market valuation based on advertising alone,” says Bill Eager, co-founder of bSocial Networks, a maker of software that helps social-networking users market to each other. “It’s the single most-asked question in this field.”

Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li has pondered the next stage for social networks. She envisions the ubiquitous sites will, in five to 10 years, “be like air: They will be anywhere and everywhere we need and want them to be.”

Eager estimates there will be as many as 250,000 sites that call themselves social networks within a year, compared with about 850 today. “Everyone will reposition their site to take advantage of this phenomenon. It happened before with portals.”

To get there, though, there is that little matter of making money. “Facebook’s real problem isn’t privacy, it’s monetization,” says Dave McClure, a start-up adviser and angel investor in Silicon Valley. “It’s not too early to worry about how Facebook makes money.”

Murphy and other Facebook executives are well aware of that concern. “Advertisers follow people,” says Sheryl Sandberg, a former Google executive who recently was named Facebook’s chief operating officer. “We have 70 million active members. Once you have engaged users, the revenue will follow in that order.”

I have often discounted the long term impact of social media. In the short term social media can be leveraged to your benefit. The verdict is still out on the long term effect.

Give me some feedback. This came off the shelf template from a free service. I preserved all the links if you want to go hunting for them.

Tell me what you think.

The three primary Meta Tags for SEO and the others have little or no bearing for search engines due to past abuse or overuse.

1. Title – <title>The name of your page should go here</title>
2. Description – <meta name=“description” content=“The description of the content should be contained withing these quotation marks” />
3. Keywords (less relevant in recent but may or may not be read by search engines so should be used with less focus) – <meta name=“keyword” content=“keyword1, keyphrase2, keyword 3″ />

By putting these between the head tags in the html source code give significant help to Search Engines. Using these tags should describe the page. A page about cooking oil should look like these:

1. <title>Cooking Oil proper disposal</title>
2. <meta name=“description” content=“Cooking oil disposial done correctly is environmentally safe and has the least damage to our environment” />
3. <meta name=“keyword” content=“vegetable oil corn oil olive oil disposal” />

In the past there has been debate about whether to use commas or not in the keyword meta tag since they aren’t really all that important don’t get caught up in the debate. Do what ever flows or isn’t included in the other tags. Spend more time SEO copywriting the page than on the Keyword Meta Tag.

Meta tags are not required for display in a browser. Meta tags are invisible to the eye or at least relatively. You can see meta tags by right clicking a page and viewing it’s source. They are typically near the top of the page. So what makes Meta Tags important to Search Engine Optimization? The content in meta tags are displayed in Search Engine Results.

Displays:

In the case when meta tags aren’t used, search engines typically generate the description used in search results from text on page. For the obvious reason pages that don’t have the description meta tags don’t typically perform well.

Using the meta tags properly will come in another post later that you will be able to find over at Birmingham SEO.

This might be a day or so late but it appears Google has done a Toolbar Page Rank Update. This is great to hear as this blog moved up from a page rank 1 to 2. I am sure in the next couple of days there will be more Google Smack Down talk and chatter about Nofollow. Stay tuned for more updates on Page Rank updates as it is always a fun time!

I did notice this one post from our friend Kimberly over at yicrosoftdirectorygirl.com. Congratulations!

Last night and today I launched a new website, when I should have been packing. The site is still under construction and will be fleshed out in the next few weeks to come. The site will be owned and operated as part of SEO by Chris showcasing Birmingham, AL Search Engine Optimization Service. More information will be coming soon about the status of the new venture.

In tradition with the last few post about my journey here is a music video I found on Google Video Search.

Goodbye New York from yizzle on Vimeo.

I read an article the other day about a “Student Twittering his way out of jail“. I have been hearing all the rave reviews about Twitter. I have had an account for a few months but never used it. Since I am going to be moving and I have a Twitter iPhone application setup now I will try it during the move. Check out my updates and follow me along my journey back to Alabama. Follow Chris on Twitter.

Pardon the actual video footage. I couldn’t find a good video to go along with the video. Taylor Hicks is from Alabama just like me. Enjoy!

A few days ago I posed a question to a respected friend in the SEO community, Kalena Jordan. Kalena heads up the Search Engine College and as an old timer in the industry earns more than just my respect.

I asked:

Hi Kalena

This may be a little off your normal topics… But, you always seem to have such a well thought out view that I want to know your opinion of SEO Standards?

What do you really think about the idea? Good and bad?

Adios
Chris

You can see her response on the Ask Kalena Question and Answer Blog.

I still have not formed an opinion on Search Engine Standards and probably will not until I see a first draft of the proposed standards in front of the governing body. My only thought is what happens if the anti-internet regulation people get involved or even the pro? I wonder what kind of political mess that would turn into?

The story isn’t about internet marketing as much as it is about recruiting to the Priesthood. If you want to read the article, go here.

After reading the article I had to see their website. I somewhat expected a Microsoft Word Style website from 1995 (not much better than mine). At first click I found a very powerful Flash Page. Somebody really did a great job on creating their website. It is neat, clean, and well laid out. One thing that surprised me – it didn’t look very “Churchy.” A good bit of thought went into it and it paid off.

As to the NYPriest.com SEO… There are very few Search Engine friendly elements and though they have a solid page rank could do considerably better. It looks like they have a $1million marketing plan without a complete online marketing campaign.

The experiments

I am going to run an experiment testing sitemap.xml and hanging pages. This will not be a flawless test but it will help me prove my assumptions.

I have been telling clients that if you add a url to an XML sitemap that it will be discovered. Why do I say this? Often times due to different varying factors search engines have a hard time finding pages inside of dynamic content pages. This test is not going to be about accessibility or how content is delivered. The SEO Experiement is only about sitemap files.

The test is going to be limited to hard coding the url into an xml sitemap and see if it can be found. My assumption will not be a solution to linking or standard url structure.

We already know that Google, Yahoo, and MSN will index urls similar to http://www.domain.com/?=123. We also know that pages with session id’s are usually not indexed because of the session variables. What I am trying to prove is that a url listed in an XML sitemap will be found by Google, Yahoo, and MSN without back links and only submitted through the different search engine webmaster tools .

How I am going to do this test is by creating a unique page that is not linked by any other pages and add it to its very own xml sitemap to be discovered. Once I created the pages I will add the sitemap to the webmaster tools section of each search engine. I am going to create another page and add it to a urllist.txt (an old protocol used by Yahoo. In the xml Sitemap I am going to put in 1 page only that is free floating and see how long it takes to get indexed by each search engine. In the urllist.txt file I am going to add another page and see if it is indexed.

Assumptions/problems/and forecast – Hypothesis

The file will be picked up in Yahoo and cached much fast than Google with xml sitemap file. The urllist.txt file will probably not be found on MSN which will be one problem. The other problem with MSN is they don’t yet have a way to add multiple sitemap files through their portal, even though they read robots.txt. The files from the urllist.txt will be picked up first by Yahoo and Google will follow.

Scope

2 html pages

1 sitemap.xml page

1 urllist.txt page

Result

To be continued

Because I don’t want to spoil the experiment I won’t give the specifics locations of the files or exactly how I am going to do it. The experiment could take 1 day or 2 weeks. For now we will see. Stay tuned for the results and summary. More experiments are coming.