Learning from our vacation. We learned many things while on our recent trip. We'll start tomorrow with some discussion on our Bellboy, then finish up the week with some notes on our trip to Build a Bear. Next week we'll continue the series. Also hopefully we'll have some nice photos to post as well.

Ok we made it back from vacation - now we need another one :o). Swamped with work and lots more but I will tell you that I did learn some things while on vacation. More details on that when the dust settles down, hopefully by tomorrow.

We made it to our vacation destination. It took us about 12 hours of driving, but we drove at night (which to me is much easier for the kids, wife and me :o)). Everyone slept well (except for me of course :o). Our condo is really nice, right on the beach. We've had a great time the last several days with playing in the ocean, pools, sand etc. My daughter is definitely impressed with it. One big goof on my part is that my digital camera uses floppy disks and my laptop doesn't have a floppy disk port soooo... this will be my last post till I get back. Then should have some pictures up.

Enjoy your week and we'll see you Monday.

Couple of good stories today. One thing I believe that we'll be starting our vacation a little early - we won't be posting tomorrow (Friday), but we will be posting (hopefully) Saturday from the beach.. and then post a diary of things we're doing and hopefully some nice pictures as well.

The new service pack from Microsoft changes a lot of things - maybe even how a computer views your site. Make sure you take a little time and check out how it will effect you (before the patch is released).

Click here for details.

A nice tutorial on understanding your web stats. Details can be found here.

Continuing where we left off yesterday - we're reviewing the lastest search conference and a review / article that you can find here.

Link Building -

1. Create good content so folks will link to you without having to ask. An example would be if you sell things you use for fly fishing - create a page (s) on how to do things related to that - how to tie, find good places to fish, equipment review, etc.

2. Stay away from bad links - guestbooks, farms, forums.

3. From Googles mouth - thematic incoming links from authority sites carry more weight than on-page optimization. hmm that is a mouth full. Off page optimization is now more important than on-page.

4. Don't hoard all the page rank - link out to other sites that are relavent to yours.

More tomorrow.

First an excellent article on how people search and where you may be wanting to spend more of your time, money and efforts.

http://www.clickz.com/experts/search/results/article.php/3366951

Now to start dissecting this article a bit.

The first thing concerns promoting country specific site. Make sure -

a) You have a domain with the proper extension (ie .uk).
b) Make sure that your site speaks the language.
c) Host your site in the country / region your promoting - in this case the uk.

On search engine friendly design - the checklist follows -

• Easy to read
• Easy to navigate
• Easy to find
• Consistent in layout and design
• Quick to download

I would also add the following.
- make sure you have a site map with links from each page and to all the pages.
- add new content consistently.

Writing for Search Engines -

Focus on Keyword Phrases.
Limit it to 2 or 3 a page.
250 - 300 words of text.
Target density 1.5-2%

I've said it before one of the "best" ways to find your "target" density is to check the top ten competitors and get an average number. Then work on achieving that number.

More tomorrow.

Hopefully everyone had a great weekend. On occassion I have a brain storm, we plan on doing a project during a trip next week to Myrtle beach - we'll give me more details later. One note we will be posting next week - but just to tell you about the fun things we'll be doing. So this week will be a little short. Tues, Weds, and Thursday we'll be dissecting that post with some things from the last search engine conference.

See you tomorrow.

It's been a weird week for me. Hopefully next week we'll have a bit more activity. Then the week after that hopefully will be full of vacation pictures :o).

Your homework for the weekend will be to read this great post on the Search Engine Conference. Next week we'll work on dissecting it.

Here's the URL - hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Step 1 in promoting a blog ( my personal opinion of course ) is to submit it to blog directories. There is an excellent list of possible directories on google. Click here for details.

So we'll work on submitting to the directories.

Till tomorrow,
have a great day!

Hope everyone had a great weekend - this week we'll be wondering through the process of blog promotion. A tough task at times.

My favorite president also passed away this past weekend. A man that talked his walk - something that is difficult to find these days.

We had a wild and wooly weekend here. It was the first time I can remember that I say 8 counties with tornado warnings at the same time. We also had a bunch of flash flooding and rain, which we didn't really need any more of. Hopefully by next week we'll have everything cleaned up and be able to do some real blogging again. Till then hopefully everyone remains safe, and dry!!

Tim

Old posts.

First to cristen the new blog we'll add some recent comments from other blogs. Sometimes it's hard to find a home :o)

AUTHOR: Tim Hamblin
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Included below are posts from a previous blog - enjoy!! To save time we just cut and pasted - if you want some links that aren't listed send me a note.

And so it begins... again.
April 1, 2004
Our latest foray into the world of blogs starts again today. We're not exactly sure what direction this will take us, so if you have any comments that you want to make to help guide us along the way that will be much appreciated. Till next time you can check out the archives of our first blogging adventures by checking them out here.

This weeks promotion plan
April 5, 2004
Hopefully you had a wonderful weekend. It has been nice but chilly here. In fact they gave some frost and freeze warnings for today and tomorrow. I guess it's a good thing that we don't have anything planted yet.
The promotion world recently has been turned upside down with many of the new changes. This week we'll focus on Yahoo's changes and our take on what you should and shouldn't do with these new changes. The one thing I can say is that things will change, so you can either adapt or be left in the dust.
If you haven't been taking some money out of your profits for advertising then now is the time to start thinking about doing it. Tomorrow we'll give you an overview of the Yahoo changes. Till then take care.

Yahoo Changes
April 6, 2004
Today we'll give you some links to Yahoo's recent changes. Tomorrow we'll discuss these changes and give you some ideas on what to do with them.
Yahoo takes on Page Rank from Google.
http://news.com.com/2110-1038_3-5177182.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news
You can check your Yahoo rank here -
http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/webrank/
The new tool bar is in beta and currently they aren't accepting any new beta canidates.
Yahoo changes how they rank sites and now uses their own algo's.
http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5160710.html
Yahoo now offers paid submit / inclusion. We'll talk quite a bit about this later on.
http://submit.search.yahoo.com

Some details - Click Here
Till tomorrow - stay safe.

Yahoo - How to Promote
by blitzblog at 05:37AM (PDT) on April 7, 2004 | Permanent Link
So how do you promote the New Yahoo. We've listed several possible positions you may be in now and what to do.

Your site - is listed well on the Yahoo search.
Congrats. I would do nothing. Do continue to monitor things more closely, but if your site looks good on Yahoo now - don't rock the boat.

Your site - was listed well in the old Yahoo (Google), but is now not listed well within the rankings (ie not on the first couple of pages).
First review your log files and compare the differences in traffic. From our research on our promotion clients, we've found that Yahoo and Google while different now aren't much different. Sites that were on the first page of the SERPs on the old Yahoo, usually are listed well in the new. So if you aren't, first check your Google listing and make sure that it hasn't slipped. If the Google listing hasn't slipped then my suggestion would be to wait a bit.

Your site - wasn't listed in the old or new Yahoo.
We need to first get the spyders to find your new site. My suggestion would be to work on getting some links - instead of using the free search submit tool.

So should you pay for the new inclusion -
Unless you have tried everything and still can't get your site listed, then do it. Just remember that you will be paying for every click.
Till tomorrow take care.

Should have knocked on wood more...
by blitzblog at 01:30PM (PDT) on April 9, 2004 | Permanent Link

The title says it all - several computer snafoos have us busier than usual doing things we don't like ( can you say reinstalling xp ). Anyway hope by Monday to have things back in gear.
Till then hope everyone enjoys the holiday weekend. I'm going to try to at least enjoy some of it :o)
Tim

The tax man cometh...
by blitzblog at 05:20AM (PDT) on April 12, 2004 | Permanent Link
Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. We had a wonderful time. Spent more time working that I would have liked but the snafu from last week threw a wrench into things. Tomorrow we'll work on resuming where we left off last week talking about Yahoo changes and what you need to do about them.
Did you get your taxes done? How did you do? I owe, but that is a good thing, because that means we were blessed with business last year. We actually increased our sales by about 10 %, but we decreased the cost of business by about 25%.
Enjoy your Monday!

Yahoo Resources
April 13, 2004

So where you can you find more information on how to tweak your site. My suggestion would be to learn from one of the many forums on the net. Some of the most useful ones are found below. When finding tips, make sure that you browse around first to ensure that it is viable information.
I Help You's Yahoo Forum
Cre8asite
Web Master World
High Rankings - you'll have to dig a bit here. The quickest way is to search for Yahoo within the forum.
Tomorrow and Thursday we'll work on gleaning some of the most useful tidbits from those forums.
It's Soggy here so till tomorrow stay dry.

Yahoo Forum Help - Part 1
on April 14, 2004

Finally it has stopped raining... and started snowing!! Is this April?? By the weekend it is supposed to be 80.
Today we've included some of the discussion on Yahoo's new algo. Enjoy.

1. A great thread from Webmaster World - remember to remove the wheat from the chaff.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/1950.htm
2. A nice thread on whether Yahoo likes sites listed in DMOZ.
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=7546&
3. How to tweak a Yahoo Store.
http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=6509
More tomorrow.

Yahoo Forum Help - Part 2
April 15, 2004
Some more help from the forums to optimize Google.

14 pages of questions and answers on Yahoo.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/1914.htm

Answers to questions - from a Yahoo Rep - including some answers on Site Match.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/1914.htm

How close are Google's and Yahoo's Algo?
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/2063.htm

Tomorrow we'll have some news and notes from this week.

News Wrap
April 16, 2004

TGIF - hopefully you have some fun things planned for the weekend. Todays note may include somethings that you missed.
RSS is pretty hot these days. Here is a place where you can learn more.
A9 - a new search engine from Amazon.http://a9.com/
Good info, extra links, discuss, can be found here.
I am a news junky - I got this in the email this week. Nice news site with tons of options.http://www.topix.net
If you like basketball the NBA tournament starts Saturday.http://www.nba.com/ 4 Games are scheduled for Saturday on ESPN.
Next week we'll talk some about Google. Till Monday have a wonderful weekend.
Tim

This week
April 19, 2004

Hopefully everyone had a wonderfule weekend. This week we're going to be talking about what's going on with Google.
Tues - Google changes part 1.
Weds - Google changes part 2.
Thurs - Google Rumors.
Friday - Week in review.
The week of April 26th we'll be talking about the algo changes.

Whoops
April 21, 2004

Ended up being totally swamped yesterday (but no complaints, swamped is good). Some of that has meandered into today as well, so hopefully by tomorrow things have settled down a little.
Tomorrow we'll talk about some of the Google changes. Friday we'll do the weeks wrap up then next week we'll work on getting down to the nitty gritty on all things Google.

Organizing Tips
April 22, 2004

One of the great things about a blog is the ability to change my mind... so today we're going to talk a little about organization.

I belong to a wonderful group of small biz folks that's been around almost as long as I've been in business ( 5 years ). This past week we talked a little about organization and with Celia's permission I've included her blurb on organizing below.

Well JodyRay, this may be a case of the blind leading the blind....but I'll try. I'm not known for my filing skills, but since I've been re-doing mine recently and a wonderfully slow day is giving me some time to think, a tiny shred of wisdom may evolve! I don't have the same kinds of categories as you, but some ideas might be transferrable.

First lesson I learned, after only about 25 years of filing: Whatever it takes, avoid working with overcrowded file drawers. It discourages regular
filing, and encourages procrastination which leads to stacks which take forever to wade thru. I love the colored hanging files, used sparingly to divide sections in the drawer...or to hold frequently-used files that you need to find and grab quickly. I also like the colored 'manilla' files that go *inside* the hanging files.

My most recent "orders file" revision works great. It's my favorite file! I moved it to my most accessible file drawer, which is the top drawer of a metal 3-drawer lateral file cabinet. I simply allocate 1 hanging file for each day, and rotate them as the files empty out. Each order and related paperwork is clipped together, and all orders placed that day go into that day's file after processing, until all aspects of the order are completed. (Then they go into a not-as-manageable location, filed
according to State!). I don't actually label these daily order folders, since they become 'rotating' folders as the days pass, orders get completed, and the files get emptied....and new orders require a new folder. But for temp labels for other stuff, I sometimes just use a post-it note. For my business, I usually have about 10-15 days worth of active orders at any given time. I have separate colored hanging files for custom-print orders and for backorders. This system also helps identify potential problems, because if an order remains in the file longer than normal, it's easily spotted so I can check into it.

I used to keep all my tax stuff in separate folders (Fed, State, Unemployment, Sales Tax etc.) ...and since I've always been told this stuff should *never* be thrown away, those folders were getting rather large. So
I set up an archive section at the hard-to-reach back of the drawer for everything thru 2002, so I rarely have to touch that part. Since I have some taxes that are done monthly, some quarterly, and some annually, I set up files accordingly. Taxes-Monthly, Taxes-Quarterly, Taxes-Annual. So, when I do any given set of taxes, I only have to pull out one file (to review and see how I did stuff last time, cause I never can remember!).

If you have, or can possibly have, different file cabinets for different kinds of things, that helps a ton. The more diversified the subjects, the farther apart they are in my office. It helps me separate my 'worlds' when wearing different hats.

In 2003 we dedicated the full year to focused brainstorming' as we worked, each of us making notes of ideas to streamline our systems and processes
involving order taking, processing, paper-pushing, filing, or anything related to the office processes. Even our vendors contributed ideas! We put most all of the ideas into practice as we went, and were amazed how some of the smallest changes made some of the biggest differences. Our new systems aren't perfect...but WOW, what a difference they've made! It's amazing how even small changes can pave the way for more efficiency. My ultimate goal is to let QuickBooks reconcile my bank statement....Not sure if I'll
successfully arrive at that point, but I'm getting close!

Celia Thomas
Wholesale Gift Packaging Supplies for U.S. Retailers, Organizations, Businesses and Artisans
Phone: 800-486-5783, 9-5 Central Time, Mon-Fri
www.macpaper.com
---- Online Catalog! Bulk, Wholesale Gift Packaging Supplies
www.macpaper.com/giftwrap-gallery-entrance.html
Huge Selection of Counter Roll Giftwraps...Hundreds of Selections!

Couple of things I'd like to add.
1. Daily I put in sales / expenses into Quicken.
2. On Saturday morning I pay the bills and add anything I might have forgotten during the week. This past tax season it only took me about half an hour to gather all the figures I needed to create my tax return.
3. Don't forget to backup whatever data / program you use at least weekly.

Random Thoughts
April 23, 2004

It's Friday !!!!
Some news and notes from the past week -
Netscape to make a comeback?? details >>
Some of you may have heard news this past week that the internet is vulnerable... is it? An opposing point of view. details >>
Before it starts GMail (Google's answer to hotmail / yahoo mail) has ruffled some feathers. A California lawmaker is looking to can it before it starts. details >>
My grass is getting pretty high so I guess sometime this weekend I'll have to mow it, I'll let you know if I find any buried treasure.
Have a great weekend.

Monday... Monday
April 26, 2004

Hope everyone had a great weekend.
We're going to be talking quite a bit about Google this week. Do you think Google will do their IPO this week. Many folks do. You can find some more info here. Also who gets rich?
I don't think they will go public this week... of course I've been wrong before and will definitely be wrong again.
Tomorrow we'll take about some of the Google changes.

Changes to Google AdWords
April 27, 2004

We'll spend this Tuesday talking a little about AdWords changes. AdWords is the pay per click advertising that appears on Google's Search results.

Some of the most recent changes can be found at the following link -
http://adsense.sitesell.com/

Note this tells the story from a prospective advertisers (those who make money from the clicks) point of view, but is important for those who want traffic as well.

Major recent changes -
Recently they changed so that ads shown were somewhat different than they were before. The big thing to remember, especially if you notice some changes in your numbers is to track your ROI more frequently. If you aren't tracking your ROI then make sure to check out one of our recent ezine articles.
http://www.blitzpromotions.com/blitz215.htm

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The "New" blog is now live - we'll be working the next few days on getting things squared away and should start full force by next week. We will do a IPO wrap up with some useful links later today.
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AUTHOR: Tim Hamblin
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They did it - below are a few links on some details you may not be aware of.

Some nice info on optimizing for the new Google can be found here.

Some excellent info on Googles current financial situation.

News of the IPO filing.


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Hopefully everyone had a great Mother's Day. We grilled steaks and I must say that they were very yummy!

I think what helped the most was that I seared the steaks first - on high for about a minute on each side. Then turned the heat down to about 3/4ths and heated them for 2-3 minutes. Then took them off the grill. I did preheat the grill for about five minutes on high. Like I said before they turned out great.

This week we're going to be continuing our discussion on Google. We're going to start with an overview tomorrow.

Till then,
take care.
Tim
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Google has been doing a lot of new things recently -

1. G-mail - an excellent review and pictures of Gmail can be found here.

2. The IPO - more news can be found here. That is actually a site that collects news feeds about the Google IPO.

3. They've overhauled Blogger. More info here.

Also something of interest - the teen behind the Sasser worm is nailed.
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DATE: 05/12/2004 06:25:27 AM
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Today we'll be talking a little about some places to get some good Google information. Remember to seperate the wheat from the chaff.

These are forums so you can post questions - best thing to remember before you post is to do a search.

I Help You - Google forum

Cre8asite Forums

Webmaster World - Google forums
NOTE: To get the good stuff on this forum you need to register (which requires you to pay a fee).

Jim World Google Forums

Till tomorrow,
Have a good one.




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We interupt the regularly scheduled blogs for some Google updates...

New Adword changes -

Local targeting

New Image Ads

What do you think this means - your comments are welcome.

Tomorrow we'll talk about news.

Have a great day.


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Good morning - are you awake yet????

Starting early here today so I can spend some time today with my daughter. School is winding down for her and she is excited (and I must say, so is her dad :o)).

Now on to some of the happeneings from last week.

Figure out what's on people's minds by checking out the Lycos 50 - the top 50 searches on the net.
http://50.lycos.com/

Google Groups changes - playing catchup - Google changes their groups... to be perfectly honest, I didn't even know they had groups?? Details Here.

Google gets a Blog. Many rumors on this one - you can find it here. It seems they already edited an earlier post. Are they already bowing to corporate stuff... only time will tell.

Have a great weekend.
Tim


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This week we're going to change gears a bit from our regularly scheduled program.

We're going to work on promoting our blog a bit - then we'll continue where we left off.

Today we're going to work on doing some research and then present it as we promote the blog this week. Currently we're getting about a hit a day which really stinks :o). So the goal for now is to increase it to ten. Hopefully we can do that by the end of this month... we'll see!!

Being from the Bluegrass state, I really love horses. If you missed the race on Saturday, it was really awesome. And what about Smarty Jones. Saying that he won would be an understatement. He ruled!!

Till tomorrow.
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First apologies for no post yesterday and this one will be short.

Yesterday was my birthday - yipee - also Lisa and I went to our daughters field day (thanks for the SPF 45). I got up early - 3am - worked late afterwords - 10pm but still didn't manage to find time to cram in a post. Today is her last day of school so this post will be short as well. The good news is now I have my secretary for the Summe :o).

Now some notes -

CNN dumps Google and gets Yahooed - more

Some excellent notes / discussion on Yahoo's paid inclusion. Find it here.

Back to our regularly scheduled program (maybe) tomorrow.
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First step in starting any new project is to research the subject. Sometimes that step can take a long time. This time it took only a few moments - we found this page with a ton of links on the subject.

That page is here -

Tomorrow we'll start exploring them.
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Currently we're getting a hit or two a day from the blog. So the only way to go is up :o)

We're going to check out the link Finding Readers - part 1 from the list.

Link to Others - that is one we'll work on later but is definitely be a goal.
Blog Comments - we'll work on that as well in the link process.

Also entered the blog in Technorati - ie claimed my blog.

You can find Technorati here.

More next week. Till then have a wonderful weekend.

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Hopefully everyone had a wonderful weekend. This week we'll work on continuing to promote the blog.

Till then here's another blog you can review for some up to date news from the search engine world.
Click Here.
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