Search Engine Optimization has become such an important subject of late, it has now become the thing that can make or break a business who's primary source of income is from the Internet. However the problem with this model is that too many times Google appears to be sitting right in the middle of it. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against Google I think it a great search engine, however the problem is that Google has a bit of a monopoly on search.

Your potential customer needs to find a product, you sell this product and you would like that customer to purchase that product from you and not your competitor (that's how you make money). The problem is your customer has an obstacle course to get to you unless they have been to you before and you have provided them with a good service and price to make them come back. The obstacle course in most cases is the one thing the user knows best for finding things on the Internet its in grained in most of us and for some of us its even set our home page on our browser. You guessed it, its Google!

Google is that bridge in most cases between you and that potential customer, it doesn't happen all the time sometimes your customer uses another directory or search provider such as Yahoo or they see an advert or are directed by a social networking site. But other than that if you are an online business Google is your most important gateway it is something you have to respect it is that one important thing that if you get it wrong could ruin your online business. Google and search engines in general present a constant race that never ends, to stay on its front page for that gold search term that a customer is going to use to find you.

As you can understand if you get your SEO wrong, your whole deck of cards falls flat, its such a critical thing key to your success. The problem that adds to this problem is that Google doesn't always get it right, I often see sites at the top of Google for a key term that should never be there in the first place. Google like email also suffers from spam, this is caused by people who have found ways of cheating the search engine ranking system, the real truth is that not everyone can be on the first page of Google. So of course this gave birth to the SEO industry because if there is a way to making money people will find a way to use it to the best of it ability. SEO in many instances can be thought of as a black and secretive art, some parts of it is quite legitimate while other parts of it are rather shadier. There are companies and individuals out there that will offer you you Search Engine Optimization services, they all have there own little secrets to getting your site higher up in the Google rankings. However those who do not have the money to spend on these organizations try to pickup tutorials from the various sites on the Internet. Of course they will tell you all the basics about getting sites like yours to link to yours, to create easy to read web content with some of your keywords carefully included etc etc. However there are many many more methods out there that are not mentioned and any SEO guru worth their salt will keep these secrets that earn them their bread butter if everyone knew them then everyone would be trying them and the Search engines would cancel them out or everyone would be on the same level playing field again.

As you can see it all gets pretty interesting, I just hope that social networking sites will help to provide a healthy balance to Google. While Google is a great search service it needs a good competitor to keep balance in this industry, its never good to have any one company with a monopoly over an industry and competition is only healthy.

Interesting article on my friend owens blog about social networking

The other day I was in a computer store and heard two old ladies as they were busy looking at computers.

"Oh look at this Margay, this one looks nice"
"Oh yes that is a rather large screen Ingrid my screen is a lot smaller," said Margery.
"So will I be able to write my letters on this one?" asked Ingrid.
"Oh yes, look," said Margery who is quite a whiz with the mouse and selects MS Word "Yes this one will do"
"What happens to my letters when I turn it off?" asks Ingrid.
"Oh you have to save them first I buy disks they are very cheap," says Margery.
Ingrid nods very impressed with Margery's wealth of knowledge.

I walk over to the machine after they have left with a bemused look on my face seeing its the most powerful machine in the store with a 200 gig hard disk. What makes me smile is these old ladies were going to buy a top of the range PC as a glorified word processor. I wonder how many times this exact conversation takes place, how many grannies out there are sitting at home with some of the most powerful PC's with all the latest software all for writing letters. I wonder how many of them are saved from buying these really expensive PC's by their knowledgeable grandsons?

Its a pretty dark day for Virgin Media Customers who suddenly stopped receiving Sky TV Channels last night. I have heard all kinds of complaints from annoyed work colleagues who have had cable TV for some time now before it even became Virgin Media.

The above brings back memories when I used to be an ITV Digital subscriber, I had bought an ITV Digital package because I was unable to get Sky and I also couldn't get cable at the time. ITV Digital was perfect no dish just a normal aerial. Then all of a sudden they started to go bust and Sky pulled all of their TV channels, now one thing I couldn't understand and maybe I don't understand how these sharing of channels work. But don't these commercial TV channels make their money via adverts placed on these channels? So surely the more platforms you can get your channels broadcasted on the more viewers you get and the more advertising revenue, or am I missing something?

In my opinion Sky has a very competitive advantage, they have bought all the rights to the top shows such as Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Bones, Battlestar Galactica, Lost and 24.  Virgin will probably be hard pressed to fill the gap left by this lack of programming and do not show a single Sky channel in their lineup while Freeview the free digital service, offer Sky Three and Sky News and Sky Sports News.

The whole contaminated fuel fiasco has reached a whole new level since I blogged about it yesterday according to the news there may be traces of silicon in the fuel that may have caused the cars to break down.

The strange thing is, is that I have heard some odd things about how fuel companies work. Apparently many of them share fuel from the same depot and add their own supplements to it when it is placed into their tankers.

My major question as both the super markets who appear to be the source of this issue and are denying it is their fuel. Is who is going to end up with this massive bill for all these broken cars? I really wouldn't want to be one of those two supermarkets right now.

They've killed off Dr Carson Beckett (played by Paul McGillion) from StarGate Atlantis!

He and Dr Rodney McKay were one of the most hilarious comedy duo's I have seen on TV in a long time. I will really miss the way they made me laugh and hopefully his replacement will provide just as much laughter in the future.

Having just seen an article on the BBC web site about contaminated fuel (only in Ethanol based fuel it seems)  it got me thinking about a news entry I had seen about issues with ethanol in the USA and Australia.

There seemed to be some rather odd things happening with Ethanol lately where certain cars appear to be having issues with it. Some of the oddest things about Ethanol is all of the major news sites don't appear to say much about it. Although there are a few sites which raise the question or talk about it such as the following.

Ethanol damage to engines confirmed

Ethanol fuel damage on boats

When I am referring to the problems with Ethanol I am talking about when it is mixed with petroleum. Very very strange....

While going to Somerset, I discovered the Town of Street! Well I never thought they would end up naming a Town after me!

It always amazes me how so many people still fall for online scams. I suppose the Internet being so vast and with thousands of new users everyday there is bound to be fresh meat for the scammers. 

Sometimes I wish when people are first introduced to the Internet that they are made aware of scams. One of the most popular of these scams is the Nigerian 419 Pen Scams or better known as an Advanced fee fraud scam . These scams have been going on for a long time and basically work on the basis of getting you to pay some money up front to help them get some money stuck in a back account in some third world country to be released and you guessed it there is always a corrupt official that needs to be bribed with your money. Now there is a group of people who bait these type of scammers and they have one of the most hilarious web sites I have ever seen 419 Eater.

Some golden rules to remember when working out if something is a scam

1. If it sounds too good to be true it probably is
2. If you have been offered a work from home opportunity be wary of web sites that ask for money up front.
3. If you are on a web site that claims not to be like any of the other get rich quick scheme web sites they probably are.
4. If you are on a web site that claims to have the secret to getting rich quickly with hardly doing anything in most cases they will have a very long what I call "Sales Piece" about how this secret changed their life until they eventually ask for money or ask for your contact details.
5. In most cases their secret to getting rich which they will divulge to you is actually a web site just like theirs, you pay them $50 (or what ever the amount is) and you get a site just like them to lure in someone else and it starts all over again. This is in fact a pyramid scheme  which effectively is a non sustainable business model and in most countries this is illegal . It relies on people bringing more and more people into the scam to keep it going. These kind of schemes have been responsible in the past for destroying small economies.
6. How long has the site been around? You can often check this by looking at the WayBackMachine, who else has talked about this site? Google the site and see what others have said about it.
7. If the scheme is genuine the person running it won't mind you asking them many questions. After all you are the investor you have something they want - your money.

Put the following note with your credit card

"WAIT! Is this an Internet SCAM?"

The more people we can stop being scammed the less people there are for the scammers

This little device only cost me £32 off Amazon market place and has moved my digital music from the domain of my laptop with headphones and iPod to my living room.

Finally I can play music off my server upstairs (geeks have many of these at home) and have it beamed down wirelessly to my surround sound system downstairs for everyone to listen to. Now not everyone thinks sharing my music collection with the rest of the house is a great idea but thats for another blog posting. 

The device in question is a Logitech Wireless Music System. One end of this device(the transmitter) is attached to the source of the sound (such as your computer) the other is (shown in the picture) is plugged into your sound system be it a stero, surround sound system or simple speakers. The transmitter is so small and compact it can even be plugged directly into your iPod. In a future blog post I will show you how to remotely control iTunes from a website created in ASP.NET 2.0.

Introducing one of my favourite USB powered devices the USB powered Rocket Launcher!

I have had countless amounts of fun with this little device especially when using my webcams at home to take targets shot at the wife over terminal services!

However the USB powered rocket launcher has a number one enemy introducing "felis moggy" or better know as the comon household moggy!

Willow! The destroyer of all electical devices including USB powered rocket launchers

This is one of four of our cats and the second most evil cat in the pride. Destroyer of all furniture and thief of any unattended ham!

I know what you must be thinking, why not shoot Willow with the USB powered rocket launcher? The truth is I have never been able to target willow with the launcher she knows how it sounds and at many times when I have shot a rocket from this launcher she has intercepted it mid air! She seems to relish it being on and treats it like some sort of sport catching the rockets as they are launched....urrrghhhh!

I set my wife up with a blog quite some time ago, but its only recently she got the blogging bug and has started to blog brought about probably by speaking to some of my friends who did it every day. My wife was quite intersted in informing people who may be interested in Laser eye surgery about her experience with it and all the things you shoudld expect. I went with her when she had her lazer eye surgery and I must say there were some uncertain moments on my part, I wasn't at all happy that she was having both eyes done at the same time. But at the end it all worked out in the end, please remeber if you are accompaniyng someone who has lazer eye surgery that they will completely rely on you in getting them home they will have next to no vision because of the bright light outside until the their eyes have come around. Anyway read the article if you are interested in having lazer eye surgery.

Hi!

I'm not new to the blogging community, I've been blogging every now and again on my work blog however I felt the need for a blog that wasn't very closely coupled to work related subjects. If you can understand its a bit odd blogging about sky diving on a work related blog if it has nothing to do with your line of work, not that I go sky diving I just thought I would mention it to make my out of work activities sound cool!