There is just something about this guys music that is compelling to me - his hooks and melodies stick in my head - I hope they do the same for you (in a good way).

Enjoy!

I find myself reminiscing about Growing up in the 1970s & 1980s when things seemed much simpler, when things made much more sense, like stuff costing what it should.

We were not as manipulated to purchase and taken advantage of by pseudo pricing structures. Try to use your powers of recall, can you remember any sort of item which was marketed back then with the “craftiness” that Sony uses for the PS3 or Apple & AT&T use for the iPhone, or what Google will undoubtedly do with their mobile phone when it is eventually released sometime in the next 30 years…

It was a time when the free market decided what things should cost, not what some PR firm imagined the cost should be – case in point, diesel fuel – it is easier to refine and actually costs less at every point along the supply chain.

Back in the 1980s, it was your cheapest option for fuel – but today… well, today, is another story. Some ‘Brianiac’ somewhere has decided that smaller diesel fuel vehicles like the Loremo (to be released in Europe sometime in 2009 and in the U.S. probably in 2010) get such good mileage that we consumers should be manipulated into paying more per gallon for diesel than the unleaded fuels which cost much more to produce and even pollute worse than the cleaner burning diesel.

When will the insanity stop?

This Loremo (Low Resistance Mobile) vehicle is a really neat idea – I was reading about it on MSN today. This new car is estimated to get between 130 and 150 miles per gallon (mpg). The way the design engineers have come up with this amazing mileage performance in a 4 seat sporty looking coupe was to go “old school” – they improved engine efficiency, lowered the weight of the vehicle dramatically and worked to reduce as much drag as possible.

What I dig the most about this vehicle is that it is planned to enter the European market at about $15,000 Euros, which translates to about US$22,000 – a much less expensive alternative to the $80,000 Fisker Automotive plug-in hybrid or even the $8,900 premium above what a normal SUV would cost for a vehicle featuring a AFS Trinity Extreme Hybrid SUV.

These are exciting times to live in, even with the massive amounts of manipulation we find ourselves being forced to swallow every day. I am encouraged that with these sorts of vehicles on the horizon, maybe they provide a glimpse of one way to get out of the marketing manipulation we find ourselves in by creating technologies which will provide the ability to normal folks like us to depend less on the things we are being forced to purchase in order to exist in our modern world.

Well let’s face it, as much as Google has made things great as far as easily monetizing blogs and other content websites, they have also really done a lot to make sure that blogging is never boring. Stay with me here…

Without the infamous “Google Slap” where would the excitement be?

They keep the drama coming - and without a doubt they have the power to put companies out of business. For example, the Text Link Ads Drama…

Admittedly, Text Link Ads (TLA) will not go under because I stop using them. However, I have noticed a few other larger websites and blogs moving in the direction of purging the TLA code (which I find unfortunate, but who am I to question the Almighty decisions of the “big G”?)

Since Google is apparently unable to use an <if> <then> statement in their algorithm to simply exclude ranking/authority credit for these standardized snippets of code used specifically for TLA and has instead decided to implement their “slap” for the bloggers, who are apparently straight from the Pit of Hell for wanting to monetize their blogs in this fashion. It is “Check” and then “Mate” with me having to tip my king… I have been forced “by the slap” to stop using TLA - my “thousands” of subscribers will note that I have removed the TLA banner and have removed their widget from the site.

I can only hope that someday, after spending enough time in Google Purgatory I will be allowed to re-join the “saved” masses and once again enjoy a PageRank3 *sighs*

Oh, wait… that is another drama - PageRank doesn’t matter any more… right?…

*sarcastic* riiiiiiiight

Mark from 45n5.com is up to no good!

He started a new concept which seems to be taking off… A very simple advertising network where you can purchase affordable ads for your business, blog, or really anything you would like to advertise. You can also make money by displaying a little widget he has designed to show ads on any site you wish.

ShowYourAdHere.com is just starting out, and I am both a Publisher & Advertiser on this service. After having used it for a day or so, there are some things which I have noticed that I would like to see rolled out sooner than later:

Publisher List

1. Better Control of Layout - A way to prevent the wrong size ad from displaying and breaking my layout - I believe this could be solved by some simple style tags included in the code snippet
2. Advertisement Preapproval Feature - A way to approve or decline advertising before it is displayed - To be fair, Mark is working on figuring this out, but also to be fair, this would probably not cost a lot of money to implement if he hired a php developer to get it done
3. Site Screenshot Upload - Right now, we have to wait for Alexa to update the thumbnail. The solution to this is also very easily accomplished via php - You can check against MIME type and then use a quick thumbnail application to reduce and scale any type / size of image to less than 5k. Mark, if you read this and are interested, I can put you in touch with somebody who can make this happen for you very quickly.
4. Affiliate Program - It would be nice maybe something similar to BlogRush - If somebody clicks on my ShowYourAdHere.com widget and becomes an advertiser/publisher, I would like to get a piece of the action too - This would be a win win win - Mark’s network would grow more quickly; As the network grows, more and higher quality sites to advertise on would become available; and we could all *share the wealth*

Advertiser List

1. Search Features - We need to have a way to search for the size and type of ads which are still available on the network. It would be great to see a drop down box to select the category of site we are interested in advertising on and then to search for the ad type and sizes which are available in that category.
2. Ad Editing Capability - Right now, it looks to me like you only have one shot to upload the ad during your advertising period. If you want to make changes to the code or link (to insert an analytic or better looking affiliate forwarded link) you have to cancel the ad and buy a new one… we should be able to edit the ad any time during the campaign.
3. Future Scheduling of Ads on a particular Publisher - I think this feature would benefit both the Publisher and the Advertiser. Right now, if somebody purchases all of the ad space available for a given time period if you look at the site in the Marketplace, all you get is a “sold out” message. It would be great to have the opportunity to “schedule” future ad periods out past the current advertiser’s window. This would allow both the Publisher the ability to see future revenue and plan around it and would allow Advertisers the ability to get onto sites without having to “luck out” and be there on the day the ad space becomes available. This is a complicated feature, as there would have to be a limit on the amount of future ads which were allowed to be scheduled to give the Publisher the opportunity to adjust rates, but that could be something which is set in the Publisher Control Panel.

I’m looking forward to the new features and functionality Mark will create on ShowYourAdHere.com!

Bill and the team at Microsoft must be asking themselves, what will it cost to dominate Google? Their strategy to take over Yahoo! in order to rival Google may be flawed, but it is a strong move nonetheless.

According to various news organizations on the Internet, it was reported today that Yahoo! had rejected Microsoft’s original bid of approximately $31/share which was made last week. According to a BBC article, there are rumors that Yahoo! would be unlikely to accept anything less than $40/share, a 109% premium of what Yahoo! stock was trading for the day before the offer was made.

We will see where this all leads - This is like buying a house, I’m sure Microsoft will counter and Yahoo! will reconsider, if the government does not step in, we may see a deal firmed up in the next 4 to 6 weeks (that is a total guess - but how long can these things take, really?)

Mark from 45n5 is thinking about rebranding his site. He is asking for ideas in this post called, surprisingly enough, “Rebranding 45n5”

Head on over there and give him some good ideas. My comment on his thread was this:

@Mark - Here is the thing my $.02 get away from the describing thing… and make sure that your tag has a call to action.

Or, use a clever take on a pop culture saying from either the 70s 80s or 90s, for example:
“Ladies & Gentlemen, Marketing Scams Have Left The Building”
“Gag Me With An eBook”
“Free Your Mind and The Marketing Will Follow”
“Damnit Mark(substituted for Jim), I’m A Marketer, Not A Miracle Worker!”
“Taurens Rule! eBooks Don’t”

Whatever… obviously you come up with your own thing, but I would stay away from a “newspaper” sounding title. But, that is just my opinion - Remember, I have never been accused of being the smartest stick in the drawer - so you may want to think long and hard before you listen to me *grins* Hey! How about that one?
“45n5 - Not The Sharpest Marketing Stick In The Drawer - But Getting There!”

Ah well - good luck

I really dig videos like this. Basically a really cool thing that a couple of friends can do and have a blast doing it. Thanks for sharing this video guys! Hope you all enjoy it

Because I took such an extended sabbatical, I have had a lot to update on the site. Recently, I have been working my way through my Blogroll. I didn’t realize that Kumiko’s Cash Quest had been sold last year. I visited it and found the site in a great deal of disarray. Some of Kumiko’s original articles are still there, but I was very disappointed to see that the quality of the site had diminished so rapidly. Apparently, a company called iEntry has purchased the site, their gate page seems to come in at about a PR4 and according to my Alexa widget, their gate is ranked 8,726. You can find this on their About Us page:

The iEntry Network consists of the best business-to-business web search engine, several targeted “niche engines” and email newsletters reaching over 6,000,000 unique opt-in subscribers. Total newsletter delivery is over 50 million emails per month.

Comments appear to have completely dried up at Cashquest, you will notice that I am not including any links to either iEntry or Cashquests in this article. Right now, I do not believe that either of these sites will continue to add value to the reader and subscriber base we are currently building at Bloglyne.com - Now, I could be wrong about iEntry and I am open to hearing your comments. But for now, Cashquests will be removed from our Blogroll and we will also be removing a post we made last year reviewing her site - I wish Kumiko the best - she really had something going there, I’m sorry to see “Kumiko’s Cashquests” has gone the way of the dinosaurs.

This is the first article written from the new Windows Live Writer interface from Microsoft’s Messenger.  Not sure what will happen with this tool, but I will run some experiments and keep you all updated.  If Bloglyne disappears in the next couple of days, you will know that it exploded because of this *grins*

Check out the video below for a review of the beta.

Mark from 45n5 recently published an article & video on his blog 45n5 called “The Best SEO Advice You Will Ever Hear” and while I agree that he eventually got to one good tidbit of advice, in my opinion, I believe there are quite a few who would agree that his title was a bit over-reaching.

First what I agree with…

I like Mark’s 45n5 site and what he does there – and, it goes without saying (but I will) I like his name, in my opinion a person cannot have a better name than Mark.

“Build traffic like Google didn’t exist” – The Holy Grail of SEO Advice according to Mark

I think the “spirit” of what he is saying can be found in the final line of his video - “Build traffic like Google didn’t exist” – I take nothing new from this – there is no love lost between Mark and Google, which is part of his charm.

I find this statement to be good and true advice. I believe that everybody who uses the Internet whether a consumer or publisher, could benefit from this if the idea was genuinely taken to heart.

I found it disappointing, though, to be listening to a lot of irrelevant, flawed and generally misinformed ideas to get to the one nugget at the end this video. Through most of the video it looked to me like Mark had either confused or simply lumped a great deal of things together and called them SEO and I also found myself wondering what effect this sort of broad stroke “advice” can have on the newbie…

The items which I view very differently than Mark:

“(SEO)…puts you in a really passive state.”
“(You do this, you do that)…and sit there for a few weeks…”
“Your odds are better playing the lottery than making a ton of money with SEO.”
“SEO is a lazy person(‘)s game” – This line is not used in the video, but is written in the supporting text for the video.

In my opinion, Search Engine Optimization is not for lazy persons, nor is it a game; it is not passive, not even a little bit…

It takes a lot of hard work and planning to actively and consistently improve the effectiveness of an Internet presence. In fact, this planning can be very daunting and the learning curve steep, especially for individuals. Often, though, for consumers and those that wear “white hats” many good things come from these efforts, such as, Internet specification compliance, valuable new content, and collections of similar resources with easy to find references among just a few of the “fruits” of Search Engine Optimization. Not to mention being rewarded with higher organic rankings the longer and more consistently we pursue these efforts.

If we take Mark’s “advice” from this article at face value, it feels like we should ignore these things simply because they are part of SEO.

I read recently on the InsureMe Affiliate Blog that the “Yahoo! ranking algorithm … is a stickler for clean code” and considers “clean code” as an indication of well organized and easily readable content which it then uses along with many other factors to determine how well sites are ranked when somebody performs a search using Yahoo!…

Follow me here… if the Yahoo! algo considers clean code when determining how to rank sites, and we work hard to create spec compliant clean code, couldn’t this be considered SEO??? Should we follow Mark’s advice and ignore this because it can be considered SEO, or is it okay in this case because Yahoo! is not Google?

Speaking of Yahoo! SEO is not a Google ONLY idea. Believe it or not, there are other search engines out there. To ignore that most folks who are looking for something on the Internet usually start at a search engine or directory would be a HUGE mistake.

There is nothing wrong with asking the question, “why am I not on that first page of… Google, MSN, Yahoo!, AltaVista, DMOZ, etc. In fact, much of my SEO starts with long term questions about how I can create enough value to eventually be listed in a directory like DMOZ or Wikipedia. Even more relevant is a side comment made by Paul Bourque in one of his recent Uber Affiliate video postings, where he describes seeing stats decrease because a competitor ranks above him. I feel one way to approach dealing with this sort of thing is to ask, “Why did that competitor rank above me?” And off I would go into SEO research and improve land.

Mark seems to exclude SEO from the “active” marketing loop. From the comments in his video it looks like he believes that in order to get “real live people” to link to your content, or site, or marketing program, you need to let them know it is there through some sort networking or running around keeping yourself busy.

For some reason, Mark believes that SEO requires weeks of inactivity to wait and see what will happen. This couldn’t be further from the truth in the way that I pursue improving my search optimizations. For example, if I am not researching keywords, I may be looking for other sites to either link to or to try and get links from, I may be looking at what widgets or applications I can add to increase value to my subscribers and draw new readers to my sites, which are all elements of SEO.

I believe that one of the many methods to let people know that your content is there would be to work hard at optimizing your site and content for the engines that provide search services to consumers and Internet users in order to make them easier to discover. When your content can be found, more people benefit from it and will link to it – which will make it easier to find, which may continue to add value to other people who, in turn, may decide to link to it, and so on, and so on, and so on… in this way SEO and networking are a bit like the chicken and the egg - both have to be present for each to exist.

Ultimately, I think Mark was well intentioned in his advice, I guess, I would amend Mark’s article to say:

Do not allow yourself to be consumed solely by SEO, remember it is only one tool to be used in conjunction with others, like, high quality, new and relevant content, and some well thought out marketing ideas including networking, and perhaps even a product or two for the purpose of enhancing your consumers experience and developing a larger network so that you can put more of that wonderful green stuff in your pockets and in turn buy your kids more Wheaties.