Out of the Mouth of Matt Cutts

Matt says that marketers should not worry about the order of keywords in an URL. He said keywords in the URL helps some. He suggests keeping the number of keywords in a URL to a minimum of 4 or 5.

In the ever changing world of search engine marketing, it is never easy to determine what is necessary, what is optional and what is excess baggage.

I am researching easily understood information on SEM and SEO, which I will bring back here for us to think about.

If you have a source to share, please leave a comment.

Tags: seo, sem, matt cutts, video, keywords in url

Google's Got Your Back?

Behavioral targeting, I mean, interest-based advertising has everyone wondering what privacy remains to us as we browse the Internet. In the short video below, Shuman Ghosemajumder explains how Google displays interest-based advertising, how cookies work, and demonstrates how to edit your ads preferences or opt out of interest-based ads.



If you want to skip the video, go to the G@@gle ad preference site located at www.google.com/ads/preferences.

I did and received this message, which gladdened my heart:

Cookies are disabled
Your browser's cookies seem to be disabled. Ads Preferences will not work until you enable cookies in your browser.

Call me old-fashioned, but I do not trust any conglomerate to protect my privacy. Remember, it is not paranoia if they're really out to get you.

Tags: privacy, google, interest based ads, how cookies work, ad preferences

Tax Time

I hate doing taxes. I have downloaded my history from PayPal, grabbed my 1099-MISCs and started organizing information, but my heart is just not into it. I sit here, thinking of anything but calling up the tax program and inputting my data.

I even thought about applying for an extension, but that will just put off the inevitable. Also, it costs money to file an extension. If you owe money, they will charge interest on the amount from April 15.

Maybe I should just NOT file a return? Then I can play stupid when I am asked why I did not. "Oh, I thought after you turned 55 you did not have to file taxes" or "I thought we did away with taxes" or "I have to pay self-employment taxes?" This worked so well for some of President Obama's appointees. How can you NOT know to file taxes?

I think that if we file a tax return, unlike many politicos, we should get a bonus. Not a AIG bonus, but maybe $100 bonus? What do you think?

Tags: taxes, filelater, tax return, taxpayer bonus, i hate taxes

Laptot Is Big Hit With Husband

Acer Laptot

My husband Michael had a laptop but our son's Pit Bull stepped on it and broke the wireless connection and keyboard. Michael used a dial-up Internet connection for over a year. For Valentine's Day, I purchased him a netbook--or laptot as I call it. I thought he had suffered enough for leaving the laptop out where the dog could step on it. LOL!

I was not sure if Michael would like the small screen and keyboard, but it was all we could really afford. Not to worry. He loves it! I see him with the laptot on his chest, watching old movies he found on the Internet and he always gives me a big smile.

If you have been curious about these small, inexpensive laptots, go to a store and try one. I think you will be amazed. The keyboard is a little small, but you get used to it or hook up a full sized keyboard. The picture on the small screen is crystal clear.

We went to BestBuy tonight so I could get a cell phone and we saw a man standing in front of the display of netbooks. Michael stopped to tell him about the netbook. I just stood back and smiled.

Tags: laptot, netbook, acer mini-computer

Hulu Moving Up on YouTube

Hulu's first attempt to market itself to the general public was highly successful. Their Super Bowl ad (below) fueled a 33 percent surge in traffic in February.

Hulu Now No. 2 Online-Video Site, Behind YouTube

With 309 million video views, shot Hulu ahead of Yahoo and MySpace. Unique viewers were also up 31% to 9.5 million . . .

NBC Universal and News Corp. used their TV content to launch Hulu. Now, Hulu has 130+ deals with other networks and studios.

Hulu added a social networking component, Hulu Friends, which allows users to see what their friends are watching, and make recommendations.

It is good to see something positive in the world of advertising for a change. With this auspicious beginning, Hulu may pass YouTube.

Tags: hulu, superbowl ad, nbc universal, news corp, youtube

Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine

Stephen Wolfram talks of his new search engine on Wolfram Blog : Wolfram|Alpha Is Coming! Forget the semantic web, tagged content, and human-guided search engine results. Wolfram Alpha is a computational knowledge engine that submits real world data, in all disciplines and fields, to proprietary algorithms and processes that makes the data immediately computable.

Users will be able to explore knowledge, data and their relationships. The answers may be presented as questions, diagrams, graphs or links to other related questions and sources. No longer will you be faced with search engine results that contain the terms in your query or that might answer your question. The work will be done and answer(s) given by the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine.

In May of 2009, when Wolfram Alpha goes live, you will be able to ask a question in natural language. The search engine will compute an answer for you. If there is more than one answer, the alternatives will be computed as well.

Tip of the Hat to: MediaPost Publications

Tags: wolfram alpha, computational knowledge engine, stephen wolfram, google killer

Tell Governors to Get Out of the Way

One part of the stimulus package provides money for states to extend unemployment benefits.

However, these six Republican governors:

• Bobby Jindal (LA)
• Bob Riley (AL)
• Mark Sanford (SC)
• Rick Perry (TX)
• Sarah Palin (AK)
• Haley Barbour (MS)

want to block this assistance from reaching the people. They think that by turning down the funds, they are hurting President Obama. All six governors have threatened to turn down these funds.

http://colorofchange.org/govs/?id=2001-335189

If withholding benefits from the needy is not enough, there is an ugly thread of racism running through this issue. Black unemployment is at least twice that of white unemployment in all six states. In Louisiana and Mississippi, the unemployment rate among black people approaches three times the rate of white unemployment.

Four of these governors will be presidential contenders in 2012. I believe, they are already toadying up to party officials and grabbing media attention instead of governing their states for the next four years. Tell these Republican governors to stop putting their political interests above the good of all the people they supposedly represent.

http://colorofchange.org/govs/?id=2001-335189

Tags: republican governors, economic discrimination, take action

February 2009 Top Entrecard Droppers

These are the top droppers on Cooladzine for Marketers this month. I appreciate their patronage and hope they enjoy my blog as much as I do their blog when I reciprocate drops.

ThemeLib
All blogspot templates
All contests
Online Social Networking
Speak Wealth Now!
Personal & Professional Development Center
BloggerRap
Article Marketing Methods
Learning How To Make Money Online
Doing Business

Tags: top entrecard droppers, reciprocal droppers

Top Ten Resources to Understand Web Analytics

This is a timely bit of information on web analytics. I plan to read and take notes and hopefully, learn something that has escaped me from the past several years. In 2000, I attended a web conference in Austin and talked with a man who was the seo guru for Yahoo! Through talking with him, I learned what to do, like use metatags; and what not to do, like use hidden text for keywords.

I have always used analytics packages, sometimes as many as three on each website, just to see what I can find out. I know the basics, my visitors, if they are unique or return visitors, who refers them to my site, in what part of the world they live, demographics, screen resolution, operating system, what pages they visited and how long they were on the site.


My favorite thing to do is to backtrack a person who leaves a really nasty comment on my site under an anonymous name and leave them a g-rated, but scathing reply on their blog about flaming and anonymity.

I take my thrills where I can find them. . . LOL


Tip of the Hat to: Mind Comet