Things that bug me

Steve Gray — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 13:16:00 GMT

My friend Corey and I used to have a running complaint called 'things that bug me'. I don't see Corey so much any more - so I'll just share this with you.

(ahem)

Things that bug me:

Overly cheerful Starbucks employees
People that respond to emails or IMs with one word. (now I have to stop what I'm doing to read 'OK' or 'Thanks')
Baseball stadiums that sell salad
People that buy salads at baseball games (ok, that should only be one... but it really bugs me)
Pelple that send an email that says 'call me'. Dude, I'm a programmer. I sit here all day. Instead of making me read your email, just dial my number.

I'll keep filling this in. Maybe it'll be therepudic. Maybe they'll read it out loud at my trial and ask me if I remember writing it. You never know.

To SEO or not SEO

Steve Gray — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 13:28:00 GMT

I get involved in quite a few Search Engine Optimization discussions around town. While I'm far from an expert, I do know a little.

Here's a recent discussion:

Steve:

We received the following email recently. Your thoughts?

First: Mxxx
Last: Rxxxxx
Address: 3389 xxx xxxxx
City: Lxxxxxxxx
State: GA
Zip: 3xxx
Email: exxxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Phone: 7xx xxx xxxx
Info:

I was searching for websites using “Tampa Exterminators" search terms and came across your site yourpestco.com . I see that you're ranked 2 on page 9 .

I'm not sure if you're aware of why you're ranked here but more importantly how easily this can be corrected.

There's no reason you can't have a first page ranking for these search terms based on your site structure and content. You have a very nice site.

You need significantly more one-way anchor text backlinks. If you're interested I can help you with this...

I'm talking about getting you ranked for ALL your keywords. Adding new backlinks on a steady and consistent basis from high quality websites is what produces the rankings you are looking for.

The right kind of links are very critical in getting top ranking....and I can hand deliver these quality links to you.

My partners and I own 1000's of websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.

I didn't send this email out to thousands of people but I am currently reaching out to a list of your "keyword competitors" as well. But your site looks like it is setup to monetize targeted website traffic and yours is the type of site I like to work with.

I have your contact info as::866-433-7039 . Is it ok if I give you a call?

I have a very simple way to prove that what I do works and I remove all the risk for you. Nothing beats seeing the results with your own eyes.

Is it ok if I give you a call? I would love to pursue this further over the phone with you so you can learn a little bit more about how we can deliver the kind of website profits you are looking for.

Sincerely,

Mxxx Rxxxxx

P.S - If the tables were turned and somebody I didn't know came to me with a proposition, even one that was appealing, I would be hesitant because I would be wondering - what's the catch?

What does this guy know that I don't?

But then I would think he might know something that I don't know.
He does have thousands of high PR websites, he does have hundreds of thousands of pages indexed and ranking in Google Yahoo and MSN. Sites that can deliver the quality anchor text back links I need to get top rankings.

And he is offering to turn-key top rankings for me...on all my keywords. Even keywords I'm not currently competing for. Keywords that will produce traffic that's potentially worth tens or even hundreds of thousands dollars.

I emailed you because it’s a win-win for both of us. Think of it this way...Who wouldn't be interested in buying money at a discount?

Because that's what I'll be able to do offer you...Money at a discount. You pay me a little and your website pays you back a bunch.

Is it Ok to give you a call?

Reply:

This guy doesn’t exactly compete with me. I’m a web host and web site designer, he’s a ‘Search Engine Optimizer’ (SEO)

SEOs do a couple of things:
• They make changes to your web pages to make them more attractive to the search engines.
• The create ‘backlinks’ (links from other sites to yours) so that the search engines think you’re more important.

Sounds to me like he’s offering to create backlinks. I worry about that approach, the search engines know that people like him exist and have techniques to make this less valuable, possibly even detrimental to your search results

Go to http://www.futurbusiness.com/ and hit ctrl + f. This will open up a ‘find’ window. Search for 4Penny. This guy put a link to my site on his page for some unknown reason. Probably someone like this guy here.

My advice:
There is no pain in talking to someone that says they can increase your search engine ratings. BUT – keep them at arms length. Be very wary of how much money you give them, and get a deliverable – what they do has to be MEASURABLE. In other word, if I said that for $50 I’d make ‘your life better’, that’s not measurable. If I said that I’d move you from page 9 to page 2 in two months, that’s measurable.

I haven’t figured out how to do that, so be wary. Some of these guys are OK, some just take your money and run.

BTW – he said that he searched on ‘Tampa Exterminators’. Of course you’re on page 9. You’re not in Tampa.

Subsonic Timeout Expired error

Steve Gray — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:11:00 GMT

Here's the technique that I use to increase the command timeout property in a Subsonic request:

Dim sp As SubSonic.StoredProcedure


sp = myProj.SPs.myStoredProcName(myParam)
sp.CommandTimeout = 500
sp.Execute()