SEO in The Desert - The Web Optimist of Palm Springs

Web Optimist Quick Tips Used in SEO Mentor Podcast

SEO May 9th, 2008

SEO PodcastI just found out that Garrett Pierson used my article 55 Quick S E O Tips That Even Your Mother Would Love in a recent S E O Mentor Podcast #3 - S E O Tips & News podcast and blog post.

Head on over and take a listen.

Thanks Garrett!

Remember, there’s still time to check out 55 Quick S E O Tips over at Search Engine Journal and Sphinn it!


  

Popularity: 3% [?]

Free eBook: 65 Quick SEO Tips Even Your Mother Would Love

Free SEO eBooks May 7th, 2008

65 SEO Tips Even Mom Could Cook WithI recently did a guest post over at Search Engine Journal titled 55 Quick S E O Tips Even Your Mother Would Love which had a very positive response. I got lots of great comments and Sphinns (If you haven’t given it a Sphinn, feel free to).

So, being someone who believes in sharing knowledge, I decided to add an expanded version (10 bonus tips) of this article to my free eBook section. As time goes on, like with the previously released S E O 101: The eBook , this one will be updated from time to time. Who knows, it might become 200 or 1000 tips before it’s over.

Anyway, feel free to download the 65 Quick S E O Tips Even Your Mother Would Love PDF file.

Enjoy!

Thanks again to Loren and gang over at Search Engine Journal for using my piece!


  

Popularity: 5% [?]

Yahoo & Real Estate: Is the Property Value Inflated?

News May 4th, 2008

Did search giant Yahoo make a mistake rejecting Microsoft?Watching the Microsoft attempt at acquiring Yahoo over the past few weeks reminds me a lot of a real estate transaction. You know, an offer is made and either countered or ignored and the waiting game starts. The buyer wants to get the best deal possible on the property while the seller hopes for either more money from the buyer or a better offer from someone else.

In this case, Microsoft made an initial offer of $31 per share, which Yahoo! felt was too low. After waiting to see if Yahoo! would cave, we saw evidence last Friday that there might be a deal in the works, so the Yahoo! stock price rose 7% to $28.67 on Friday, still below what Microsoft initially offered. Microsoft went up to $33 per share, a nice chunk of change for Yahoo! investors, but gave it up on Saturday because Yahoo! still thinks it is worth something more like $38 per share.

I’m no stock market expert, but it will be interesting to see where Yahoo!’s stock price is on Monday. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that 7% disappear and more.

Two questions:

  1. If Yahoo! is worth so much, why the recent layoff of hundreds of employees?

  2. If Yahoo! if so valuable, why is it giving up on its Panama pay per click system in favor of a partnership with rival Google? Panama is one of the things that would make the company more valuable.

I highly suspect a lot of Yahoo! shareholders will be pissed off at the collapse of a deal and that there will be lawsuits filed against the company for not taking care of its investors.

As an SEO, I rather like having three major players in the search engine market. That gives at least some small competition for Google.

But, I see Yahoo!’s holding firm on price in this market akin to a home seller in California holding firm for the price he could have gotten two years ago. It ain’t gonna happen any time soon, so keep on paying the mortgage or take a good offer.

Yahoo! didn’t take the good offer. So, apparently Mr. Yang and company have an inflated concept of the value of a company that has been trying to compete with Google for years and just keeps losing ground.

Don’t get me wrong. I really like Yahoo!, but they might have missed a one-time opportunity for a sale. Let’s just hope they can make that mortgage payment now that the noise of a possible takeover is past them and they can concentrate on what they do - search.

Of course, if Yahoo! stock does drop quite a bit, I’m sure Microsoft will answer the phone if Yahoo! calls.

;-)

 


  

Popularity: 8% [?]

Living With My iPhone

Reviews April 30th, 2008

Living with the iPhoneI’ve had my iPhone for a few months now and it has seen lots of use. I’ve carried it in my pocket everywhere I go, including on almost daily three-mile walks where it doubles as an iPod. It served as my pocket journalist and photographer at SMX West and it has been my personal and business telephone (no more land line for me).

So, here are some of my observations for this amazing little communications device. You might also want to read my initial iPhone review or watch the iPhone review video.

For those of you who think that Apple products don’t know what the three-fingered-salute (that we Windows users have become so accustomed to) is, think again. The iPhone has locked up on me several times over the past few months. This really surprised me the first time, but the iPhone is, after all, a computer.

To do a hard boot to get the phone working again, there is a two-fingered salute. You press the sleep button at the top right of the phone and then the home button at the bottom for a few seconds. The iPhone will reboot and get back to business. One thing to keep in mind is that when the iPhone locks up, it keeps draining the battery. Mine apparently locked up after I ended a call one day and I didn’t notice until I got home a couple of hours later. I rebooted and found my battery almost dead. Read the rest of this entry »


  

Popularity: 15% [?]

GoLive Goes Dead

News April 28th, 2008

Adobe GoLive is deadAdobe has announced the demise of GoLive, the web authoring software used by many web developers over the years.

I, for one, found it confusing, hard to use and, at least in the version I tried when I took over as the web site marketing manager at the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Authority several years ago, a code bloat wizard. Whatever I worked on seemed to get full of code that I, as an SEO, felt was just in the way. But, as I mentioned, I only tried that one version.

Adobe took over Macromedia, the maker of Dreamweaver, my personal favorite, in 2005, which meant the company was marketing competing products until now.

I know there are lots of GoLive aficionados out there who are sorry to see it go, but Adobe is offering upgrades to Dreamweaver for registered GoLive customers for $199.


  

Popularity: 11% [?]


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