To The Face

Indiana School Closings

2009-01-13T07:55:00.000-08:00

There's been some serious snow storms in Indiana these last couple of days. Here are some results for Indiana School Closings.

Everyone Loves Free Games

2009-01-09T15:05:00.000-08:00

Not only is there a ton of traffic coming to the free game download center, but there are tons of new searches being generated, giving us an idea of what games are newly popular. So which games are these exactly?

Well, I'd say its a tie between need for speed, the sims, and grand theft auto.

If you're looking for game torrents - check out this download full game search engine. It favors a bunch of the major torrent sites - torrentz.com , mininova.org , thepiratebay.org , and nowtorrents.com . Those sites are my faves.

Browse Free iPhone Games

2008-12-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

Just built a swicki for free iphone games. There are thousands, so this should help people find the best games for all styles.

Google SearchWiki Makes Bookmarking Less Important

2008-11-21T12:21:00.000-08:00

Yesterday's release of SearchWiki is being highly discussed in the SEO world, and in good reason, as thousands if not tens of thousands of people make a living gaming the SEO system to make their articles and products show up in the top spot for certain search results.

I think its important to note that for right now, individual's votes don't affect anyone else's searches. Sure, Google will be storing this information, and chances are, they may ATTEMPT to include this voting behavior on general web results eventually, but we're a ways off from that point.

For the time being, if you search for a website regularly, you can make sure that that website will always show up as the top result for that query. You no longer need to bookmark a page. You can just vote it up specific to a certain query.

This gives users one more reason to go to Google in the first place. Win Win.

Twitter Blog: OMG, That Was A Big Day

2008-11-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

Whelp, big Twitter usage as reported by their blog

Twitter Blog: OMG, That Was A Big Day

And zero down time, or 'whales' as they call it. Now that's something to celebrate...

These are My Friends

2008-11-04T11:05:00.001-08:00

The following is a gchat conversation I had recently.

William: knock knock
me: who's there?
William: smell mop
me: smell mop who?
William: hahaha

This is awesome.

Tell the World that You Voted via Twitter

2008-11-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Just add the text #votereport in your tweet, and you'll show up on this site that is aggregating votes and user comments.

Pretty cool. The '#...' text is new to me. Interested to try it out more soon.

5 swickis I Use Regularly

2008-11-03T12:53:00.000-08:00

Free Discount Coupons - Ranks the best places to find discount coupons for online retailers such as Amazon.com, Shoes.com, BestBuy.com and much more.

Web Design Resources - Helps me find the best code hacks for my wordpress blog

Belize Travel Information - Helps me plan my trip to Belize.

Repairing and Maintaining Your Home - Identifies small apartment upkeep projects.

Free Online Sports Games - Ranked online sports games for football, basketball, etc.

A Simple Wine Pairing Chart

2008-10-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

Leave it up to my bro to come up with this simple wine pairing chart for varietals and cheese. Its the beginners guide to creating the perfect ensemble at any dinner or cocktail party.

I'd recommend the Reisling and Gouda or the Cab and strong cheddar. Delish.

I'm Never Linking to Tag Pages Again

2008-10-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

I just went from 20-30 SEO visits/day to 0-10 visits/day. I think its because I links on some older posts going to tag pages that no longer exist.

I continue to refine the browsability of yocheckthisjam, I will probably be adding/removing a number of tags. Linking to these tag pages could then create links to non-existent pages. Also, as I am showing a tag cloud in my right column, all tag pages are linked to from all content pages anyways.

I wonder if adding additional links via RSS in the middle column affected my SEO traffic as well. I'm thinking that it didn't help.

I Wish I Had a Dog

2008-10-10T12:38:00.000-07:00

Then, I could dress him up like this:

Here are some more places to find dog hotdog halloween costumes. Relish not included..

Funny Barack Obama Widget

2008-10-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

I've been having way too much fun with the Sprout widget builder tools lately. Here's a widget I made for Barack Obama, that can show your support for the candidate without coming across as too serious.

It also clicks through to the Barack Obama swicki, which should help it get some traffic.

Show Your Love for Cut Copy

2008-10-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

In anticipation of the Cut Copy and Presets show tomorrow, I made a Cut Copy badge that anyone can add to their social network profiles or iGoogle.

I built it with SproutBuilder, which uses the Gigya distribution technology. Looks like you don't need much coding skills to make a widget after all.

I've also set it to link to a post I made a while ago that has the Cut Copy video for Saturdays, so maybe I'll get some traffic from this thing too.

One Wicked Scary Fish

2008-09-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

Alien? Nope, this is the Humpback Anglerfish. And while we're on the topic of bizarre looking sea animals, check out the totally revamped Ocean Animals swicki. You'll find pictures and factoids for all kinds of weird underwater creatures...and some common ones too. But who really cares about those?

Will Ferrell Answers Questions on the Internet

2008-09-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

See more Will Ferrell videos at Funny or Die

This is funnier than the landlord sketch I think.

Find the Best Free Streaming Music on the Web

2008-07-26T14:52:00.001-07:00

Tons of bands are letting bloggers post Mp3 files on their websites. Then, sites like Seeqpod make it easy for users to find and listen to those files.

I just built a swicki that lets a community dig up the best free streaming music. the swicki favors content from music aggregators such elbo.ws or hypem.com as well as a couple niche music blogs.

Turn Your Blog's RSS Feed into a Newsletter

2008-07-25T12:18:00.000-07:00

Just set up feedblitz with my streaming music site, (check it out in the right column). In about 5 minutes, you can turn your blog's RSS feed into an email alert.

I was mostly impressed with how many options I had. I had complete control over design, subscribers, subscribe messages, delivery schedule, and best of all it was all free. Sure, they're going to put a few ads in there, but I think my readers will be able to avoid the ads. For the most part, they don't interfere with the content.

This should be another way to get regular users on my blog.

Make Money with Google Knol

2008-07-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well, Google Knol is finally here, serving up a new way for infopreneurs to make money online and for Google to take even more of their ad revenue.

I wonder how well this will perform as an independent destination. Sure, it should have no problem generating search traffic from, you guessed it, Google, but how many people will go directly to this site to find information. My guess is not many, so it will only get in the way of all of us SEO people, trying to promote our own content within the natural listings.

Still, I'll definitely be writing a few knols, in hopes of linking back to a couple of my sites and swickis. The next question is how soon will I do this. Squidoo's been on my list of article platforms for 6 months now, and I still haven't gotten around to writing anything for them. I've only been active on Hubpages.

For now, I think I'll see a higher ROI with writing for Squidoo and Hubpages, and the launch of Google Knol is only getting in the way of my SEO efforts...for now at least.

For more informatio on making money online, check out some community favorites for making money with hubpages and making money with squidoo.

Snakes on a Search Engine

2008-07-22T16:23:00.000-07:00

If Samuel L worked at a custom search company, he would have none of this. Good thing he doesn't, so I went ahead and made a search portal for information, videos, and photos of snakes.

I think the Anaconda pictures are the craziest, but there are some nice feeding videos as well. Another reason not to let these snakes on a plane.

Dark Knight Deleted Scene - Funny

2008-07-18T09:18:00.001-07:00

Hilarious mashup video from a deleted scene from the Dark Knight. The Joker touches all of us. Good thing Batman is here to save us.

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Twitter Search is a Great Way to Meet New Virtual Friends

2008-07-16T09:13:00.001-07:00

Want to meet people that you'll never actually meet in person? Twitter's new search feature lets you search all conversations that are happening on Twitter. Its a great way to find new people to follow, making better use of this utility.

To get search ideas, check out tweetmeme which surfaces popular conversations and topics of conversations.

Disinclude Tag Pages on Blogs and Get More SEO Traffic

2008-07-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I blocked the tag pages on my music blog from search engines. Why? Each of the tag pages was recording 80+ internal inbound links as opposed to my individual stories that were getting 1-2 inbound links. The tag pages are very dry, so I wanted more SEO traffic to individual stories. Each post on my blog includes streaming music or a music video, so they should generate more repeat and return usage.

I'm already getting direct SEO traffic to my stories now.

AideRSS is Sweeeet ... for the Time Being at Least

2008-07-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

Just added the AideRSS widget to my music blog. It aggregates user comments, bookmarks, and votes across wordpress, digg, and delicious. The widget then shows the posts with the most user activity.

This is a nice change of pace from other widgets that show 'most popular' stories, which are really just stories with the most pageviews. As well all know, there often is not much of direct correlation between pageviews and popularity. Heck, one story could just be really popular with SEO, and it would show up at the top of one of these widgets.

Anyways, for the time being, AideRSS is doing the trick. I just hope that more people come and comment on new stories. Otherwise, I'll have the same 5 stories appearing forever.

Try out the widget for yourself at Aiderss.com

Verifying Blogs with Google Webmaster Tools is Easy

2008-07-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be hard. I didn't want to tamper with my source code because I'm not a coder. I tried uploading HTML files into file manager, but this didn't work because my HTML files were empty.

EASY ALTERNATIVE: Just drop one line of code below "head" in your source code. This is easier than it sounds:

In wordpress, go to 'design' -> 'theme editor' -> 'header'

In blogger, just go to 'layout' -> 'edit html'

Having done this, I can now verify that this post was crawled :)

Not Overly Excited about Yahoo BOSS

2008-07-10T11:57:00.001-07:00

Yes, its very cool that Yahoo is opening up its search feed to developers. Ultimately though they are facing an uphill battle once this feature is out of the novelty phase, for a number of reasons:

-The majority of bloggers and web entrepreneurs are interested in immediate revenue, which this service will not be able to provide as well as other CSE.
-Google already offers a custom search engine with a fully customizable template and fully customizable advertising. Google advertising is also already the most lucrative for web publishers.
-The 'social search' feature, which in my opinion, is the ultimate distinguishing trait, requires widespread adoption of the APIs in order to be effective
-web users (who aren't e-marketingers) are tough to switch over to new web search technologies.

Like many of the other search and discovery novely sites, this may gain some traction with e-marketer/blogger crowd, but in order to be effective, it will need Joe Shmo web user to use the social search feature, which won't happen until bloggers promote their custom search engines, which won't happen until Jo Shmo web user uses the feature, which.... get where I'm going?

If Sharks Could Fly

2008-07-09T13:13:00.001-07:00

I'm Running for President

2008-07-09T13:05:00.001-07:00

So says this news clip

Funny Tampering with Muni Ad

2008-06-30T12:53:00.000-07:00

Someone tampered with the below ad appearing on public transportation vehicle in San Francisco. My guess is that its supposed to read 'submarine'

Tough Life

2008-06-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

How to Get 50 Followers Quickly on Twitter

2008-05-20T10:14:00.000-07:00

Follow these easy steps to build your web presence and generate additional traffic to your site

I started really using Twitter about a week ago, and since, have gotten 50 followers in that time. Why do I want followers in the first place? Twitter offers an additional source of traffic to your site and also lets you build your personal brand as a blogger/writer/web personality.

Step 1: Post 10-20 tweets with a range of a) funny comments b) what you're doing c)links to interesting pages d) comments that express your interests

If a complete stranger is going to follow you, they'll want to see some value add in doing so.

Step 2: Follow 10-20 people. Anyone. I'd recommend following your favorite blogger or news entity, but this part is really up to you. The reason for doing this is to at least give the allusion of being an active Twitter participant. Chances are, you'll find yourself enjoying following these people anyways.

Step 3: Search for your web-savvy friends in the search box at the top of Twitter.com. Chances are, if you're a twitter newbie, you won't find many of your friends here, but this is a good place to start. Your friends are also the most likely to follow you back.

Step 4: Go to tweetscan to search for twitter users by conversation. This is an amazing tool. I'd recommend searching for both topics that interest you as well as specific things that you think you will be talking about. For example, I searched for 'social search' 'silversun pickups' and 'celtics'. Start following anyone that looks interesting from these searches. Chances are, they'll follow you back too, especially if they see you having the same conversations.

Step 5: Repeat step 4 a day later. Don't forget, people aren't on Twitter every day. Searching conversations a day later should help you find new interesting people to follow.

Step 6: Post a link to your twitter account on other social profiles. If you're active on Facebook, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Digg, WineToTheFace, etc, let your friends there find you easily on twitter.

Step 8: Continue adding fun/interesting/entertaining tweets. This will keep people following you.

Following this steps should get you 50 followers in no time. For more traffic, here are some tips for using StumbleUpon . Also, sure, try following me. I'll follow you back.

Any other suggestions?

Get Traffic with StumbleUpon - Things To Do After Creating an Account

2008-05-09T11:36:00.000-07:00

Over the last two months, I’ve generated tens of thousands of visits to my personal web properties from StumbleUpon. Compared to other social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Sphinn, and Mixx, I’d say that StumbleUpon users are more likely to like tools, utilities, and pictures, rather than just good content, breaking stories, and the latest on what Kevin Rose is doing, so for me and my sites, it was worth my time to be very active on StumbleUpon. Let me also take a step back and say that all of the pages that I have stumbled are in no way spammy, and in my opinion, these pages offer a cool, value add to the user, which means that they have a big opportunity to take off virally in the first place.

Download the Toolbar

Downloading the StumbleUpon toolbar is crucial for understanding how StumbleUpon works. Its lets you understand how people get to your site in the first place when using StumbleUpon, and helps you understand why they will often stay on your site for less than a second. More importantly, with the toolbar installed, you can submit new, important content in less than 30 seconds, which in turn will give your stumbleupon profile a higher quality score. More on this in the next couple of tips.

Don’t Friend Random People Just to Friend Them

StumbleUpon has a friend limit of 200 people, so if you friend random people with very little in common with you, chances are, they won’t friend you back, and when you find someone who has more in common with you in the future, you’ll have to go back and remove these friends. Also on this note, in my experience, a one-way stumbleupon friendship is not very valuable for you. The biggest value add in friending someone is in hoping that they will friend you back, in which case, your profile’s quality score will go up.

Be the First to Stumble Good Content

For example, if you submit a breaking story, and 20 people review it and then give it a thumbs up, your quality score will go up. Also, diversifying your submissions across different domains will increase your quality score, and make it less likely that your account will be terminated for submitting only content from one site.

Stumble Profile Pages of People You Like

I mostly do this so that those people see that I gave them a thumbs up, and then they will either friend me or give me a thumbs up. Also, Stumbleupon users will sometimes stumble the tag ‘stumblers’ to find new friends. If you give someone’s profile a thumbs up, you will be helping them get more friends.

Don’t only Stumble Content from One Domain

Your account could be terminated

Friend People Who Have Submitted Content that You Like

If someone submits a site, chances are, they are an active user, and will take notice if you friend them. Also, these types of users tend to have higher quality scores, which means your friendship will have a greater increase on your profile’s quality score.

Get Your Friends to Review Your Page

A thumbs up is good, a review of your page is VERY good. Anyone can review a page that they already ‘liked’ by going to the ‘pages liked’ tab in their profile then clicking on ‘reviews.’

Give Negative Reviews of Bad Pages

Obviously, be careful not to piss off a powerful stumbler, but there are plenty of pages that you can give bad reviews of. To air on the safe side, when giving a bad review, be very descriptive when speaking towards why you don’t like the site. For example, check out my negative review of TripAdvisor.com.

Discover Some Cool Photos and Tag Them with ‘cool’ and ‘photos’

Stumblers love random cool stuff. A cool photo on flickr can be just that. Discover a cool one, and you could suddenly have many friends.

Checklist Complete

Those are some of the bigger things you can do to get more traffic to your sites with StumbleUpon. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to shoot me a message on StumbleUpon. And, of course, feel free to give my profile a thumbs up :)

Finally, for your reference, here are a few pages of mine that have been the most popular with StumbleUpon users:

Wine to the Face Main Page

Beginner Woodworking Projects

Green Home Improvement Ideas Main Page

Motivational Posters

2008-04-26T07:59:00.000-07:00

Wine to the Face Has 60 Members

2008-04-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

Turns out general internet users will in fact join more properties than just Facebook (Look out Mark :) ) Wine to the Face now has 60 members. Its been picking up in traffic lately too. We're focusing on giving people a reason to come back, not just join, so we've added weekly wine tips and reviews. I'm also starting to talk more about different types of music and shows. I figure it can be more than just a wine site and more of a lifestyle site. After all, isn't drinking wine somewhat of a lifestyle statement? It says - "I don't just drink alcohol to get drunk."

First blog post ever

2008-04-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd try out this thing called "Blogging". Hope it goes well.