Word Frequency Counter for SEO
Posted on January 14, 2008
Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation | Leave a Comment
Need to count the occurrence of individual words in a paragraph of text? Or perhaps analyse your keyword data and find out how many times a particular keyword was used to send you organic traffic? Here is a simple, free online tool for counting word frequency that I found useful for the latter purpose.
Under Construction
Posted on January 14, 2008
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Now That I Know How to Do It, I’m Gonna Stop Doing It
Posted on November 1, 2007
Filed Under Domains | 1 Comment
Blogging here, that is. I have grave concerns for the long term future of this blog. The original goal for the site was to learn how to use a blog. I feel like I can do that now. The secondary goal was to see how well I could rank this domain for my name which is just a bit of fun.
Excuse No.1 - Spread Too Thin
I’ve felt pressured by wanting to update regularly without really being into it, which has for the most part seen me post a bunch of shit just to make it seem like the blog gets updated. Right now, I’m too busy with my job to develop any blogs other than the one I’m already working on and I really want to see that one do well.
Excuse No.2 - No Exit Strategy
If I did have time for a personal project I’d rather build something I could sell later, which is always hard to do with a self titled domain. Joe O’Brien is a very common Irish name so there’s always a chance some other Joe might want the dot com enough to buy it, though, I doubt very much that I’ll ever sell it.
Grizzly Alternatives
The thought had crossed my mind to take the whole blog out into the back paddock for a bullet, and 301 redirecting all the pages to www.joeobrien.com to see if I had more luck ranking for my name that way. I’ve since reconsidered and will keep the blog alive, if only to build the odd link to it and watch it age.
Get ‘em
I will post once a month to this blog just so there’s no gaps in the archives. I won’t promise to make them good but there’s always a slim chance they will be. I may get back into blogging here later on down the track but for now I’m going to focus on the job at hand.
P.S. I just noticed now that I turned 27 an hour ago 
Aaron Wall’s IM Mindmap - Low Quality, Printable Version
Posted on October 1, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Aaron Wall has made a very nice internet marketing mind map, covering just about everything he knows about online marketing, which is a hell of a lot.
It seems a few people, myself included, are having trouble printing out the original PDF version so I did a bit of hack work and made a word doc that can be printed out onto just over 3 pages.
I lost a fair bit of quality copying it over so I hope somebody does a better job soon. I’ll update this post if and when that happens.
Until then, Right click here and save as to download a low quality, printable version of Aaron Wall’s IM Mindmap. Filesize is ~0.9mb (i didn’t optimise any images.. just cut and paste into Word). Enjoy.
Domain Names: $8 Today… $1800 in Legal Fees Tomorrow?
Posted on September 9, 2007
Filed Under Domains, Search Engine Marketing | 2 Comments
Ever been in a situation where you’re scouting for domain names closely related or very similar to your own brand or company name? You probably already know how cheap domain names are. GoDaddy + coupon code can get you .com’s at very affordable rates… especially if you’re buying in bulk!
Domain Name Trademark Infringements
Did you also know that contesting the rights to ownership of a domain name can lead to a massive legal bill for you… whilst whoever registered the infringing domain can do nothing (or put up a half hearted fight), concede the domain and get off scot free in most cases?
The last time I checked out how much it would cost to contest a domain name (specifically a .co.nz) it was $1800 NZ. That’s assuming mediation cannot produce an agreeable outcome for you. This price tag also assumes that the person who registered your domain name does not put up a fight nor does it account for the time and effort required to pursue such an issue. The $1800 mentioned here is just what it costs to get an “expert” out of bed to make a ruling on your case!
In most situations it will be obvious as to whether or not the defendant can justify their use of the name. If the odds are against the infringing registrant they’ll probably do nothing and concede the domain name at minimal cost and effort. Pay $8 for a domain name, do nothing and lose it… isn’t that how unappealing domain names get dropped, anyway?
If your opponent truly deserves to concede the domain yet wants to contest for one of the following reasons (outside of having legitimate grounds for appeal):
- holding the name out of spite,
- hoping you’ll be discouraged enough to cease action, or
- simply stalling you by dragging the investigation out to the maximum legal limit…
…they can go to varying degrees of effort to lodge a defense. The overseeing “expert” may or may not go through the motions of investigating elaborate cock and bull reasons for why the defendant has a legal and/or moral right to use of the name. Therefore, it may or may not be worth going to some effort to defend a sinking ship if it delays the inevitable outcome and cause added loss to the prosecuting party, i.e. You. From an 80/20 perspective they could submit a half arsed defense and still expect it to jam up the system for long enough to cause the aforementioned grief.
As long as you’ve done your homework and built a solid case then you’ll be able to breeze through their arguments and win without too much drama. It’ll cost you a little more time but more importantly it’ll cost you $1800 to pay for the expert’s time so in effect you’ll be purchasing a domain name for $1800 that someone else (possibly a jerk) paid $8 for.
If you’re running a serious business with serious brand equity then splashing out a few hundred or thousand dollars to protect your online identity shouldn’t be a huge issue for you. If you’re a malevolent prick then you’ll be delighted to know this is a cheap way to impede your competitor’s online branding efforts and potentially cost them thousands later on down the track.
How to be a Jerk
Depending on your industry it should be relatively easy to rank for any keyword phrase a competitor decides to brand one of their products with. This is especially true if you have a stronger domain and access to a greater understanding of SEO and Social Media Marketing.
Optimize for Competitors Product Terms
You might decide to cleverly weave the words into the text of an existing page or perhaps build a new page optimised solely for that term. If you wanted to, you could go to the extreme measure of registering domain names or free accounts at various blogging platforms and grinding out half arsed spam sites on them OR add a layer of quality and linkability to them and eventually 301 them to your main site or any page you wanted to boost the rank for.
Negative SEO
Consider building the strength of incidental competitors (i.e. pages that rank for the terms purely by coincidence and are non-competitive to your commercial interests) so you can crowd your competition out of the SERPs. If you wanted to go to the effort and expense, it wouldn’t be that hard (or expensive) to pwn the top 30 or 50 rankings ahead of your enemy, assuming it’s not already a competitive term and they’re not as good at playing internet as you.
Don’t Be a Jerk
Remember that spite begets spite and you’re better off focussing on marketing activities that will strengthen your brand rather than invite retaliation and leave you and/or your brand looking like a jerk.
Fearful Of Outbound Linking? Don't Be a FOOL
Posted on September 4, 2007
Filed Under Search Engine Marketing | 4 Comments
I was writing an email to one of my network partners today and as I was requesting a link I noticed her website did not have a single outbound link on it. I started thinking about terms to describe a situation where a webmaster / web marketer is so greedy with links that they won’t link out to anyone, regardless of relevance to their site or their visitors. Link Paranoia or Link Greed were the first two to spring to mind but then my brain threw an acroymn at me:
Fear of Outbound Links or FOOL
I searched Google for Fear of Outbound Links +FOOL and didn’t find squat on the first page so I’m claiming it. Anybody got a problem with that?
There’s a 7 O'Clock in the Morning?!
Posted on August 30, 2007
Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
For as long as I can remember I’ve never been an early riser (by choice, anyway). I’ve always had a tendency to be a bit of a night owl and this was reinforced by my routine whilst studying at university, especially in my final year (2005).
I either had to work at the bottleshop or attend a lecture or tutorial every single day of the week but none of my obligations were scheduled for before 4pm (except on Sundays where I usually had to work the opening shift). As a result I became accustomed to waking up around 11am, doing some push-ups/weights for 30 minutes or so and then having breakfast. I would then crank up my stereo, safe in the knowledge that most of my neighbours would be safely at work, and do some homework (or not!!). I would cook up lunch around 2pm, get my bits together and head off to work or uni at 3pm or 4pm.
I would get home around 10pm or 11pm every night unless I went out with friends. Once at home I would do push-ups/weights for 30 minutes or so and then cook up some dinner, perhaps watch an hour of TV and then settle into my comfy camping chair out on the balcony and either study or doodle in my notepad til 2am or 3am. I was keeping something of a vampire schedule but at least I was getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night and it was a workable routine.
Since graduating uni and commencing full time work in early 2006 I’ve struggled to shift my body clock into alignment with the rest of the 9-5 rat racers. I’m still staying up late which makes for a struggle trying to drag my carcass off the mattress in the morning.
The reason I’m writing all this is that today I came across a blog with the unambiguous title of How to Wake Up Early which is essentially a collection of tips for becoming an early riser. The site has 31 tips so far and are as follows:
Tip #1. To Wake Up Early, Go To Bed Early
Tip #2. Go To Bed And Get Up At The Same Time Every Day
Tip #3. Give A Promise To Wake Up Early
Tip #4. It Takes 3 Weeks To Make A Habit
Tip #5. Let The Music Wake You Up
Tip #6. Take A Nap In The Afternoon
Tip #7. Sleep With Fresh Air
Tip #8. Ask Someone Who Wakes Up Early To Wake You Up
Tip #9. Create A Reward System For Yourself
Tip #10. Do Not Eat Before Going To Bed
Tip #11. Have Important Things Planned For The Morning
Tip #12. Use Multiple Alarm Clocks
Tip #13. Start Slowly But Start Now
Tip #14. Practice Waking Up
Tip #15. Put Yourself Under Time Pressure
Tip #16. GTD For Early Risers - Create A Morning Ritual
Tip #17. Avoid Alcohol, Tobacco And Caffeine
Tip #18. Wake Up Tricks Of The Trade (Video)
Tip #19. Put Your Alarm Clock Far Enough From Your Bed
Tip #20. Wake Up From The Inside
Tip #21. Weekend Lie-In Does Not Make Up For Long Hours. Beware The Consequences.
Tip #22. Start Your Morning With A Puzzle
Tip #23. How to Wake Up Early by Creating Right Associations
Tip #24. Track Your Early Wake Up Progress
Tip #25. Use Wake Up Call Services
Tip #26. Understand Sleep Mechanics
Tip #27. Advertise Your Early Wake Up Habit
Tip #28. Do Not Go To Bed If You Do Not Feel Sleepy
Tip #29. Wake Up And Smile!
Tip #30. Outrun Your Thoughts
Tip #31. Invest in Your Early Wake Up Habit
Whilst a lot of it will be common sense to a lot of people, that’s obviously not who the blog is intended for. This blog is intended for people like me who are sick of waking up feeling like shit every morning and may have forgotten their good habits. Although I haven’t the time to read them all properly right now, it is definitely an area I want to improve and will be checking out when I get home tonight.
How To Wake Up Early - Self-improvement site for early risers - how to sleep well, wake up early and what to do then.
Creating Very Little Value For Anybody
Posted on August 29, 2007
Filed Under Search Engine Marketing | Leave a Comment
If you’re bored then maybe you could read this article and learn how to “Whip Up a Yahoo! Mashup Using PHP”.
I want to read it at some point but right now I think it would explode my head.
I’d rather read about link baiting and work through a list of link building tactics instead.
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