Creating Multiple Sites – Pointing to Main Domain

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Here’s another question I see time and time again on the SEO forums:

“Should I create multiple small (one page) sites focused on a single keyword and then point them to my main domain?”

Here’s why this is largely a waste of time:

When you build a new site it starts at zero. Zero content, zero backlinks, zero visitors & zero reputation.

Therefore for every new site you build for a keyphrase you’ll have to build dedicated backlinks, content and promotion strategies for each site.

If you build 10 new sites then you’re creating 10 times the amount of work than simply creating a dedicated, keyword focused page on your existing site.

Don’t forget, if you’ve done it right you’re existing site will already be indexed, established, have some good backlinks and be getting spidered regularly.

Don’t waste your time with small keyword focused sites, just create a new page on your existing site and optimise that well!

Tags: micro sites, micro websites, multiple sites, single domain

Pingomatic browser button for Firefox

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Wouldn’t it be great if you could ping a page instantly as soon as you land on it. Well now you can.

Pingomatic is a multi-service ping engine that basically informs various bots (including Google) that the page is new or has recently been updated. Therefore the spiders will rush to the page in an attempt to index it as quickly as possibly.

This method doesn’t require any browser addons or additional software.

Here’s the code if you want to see the workings of it (Text File Download as Blogger doesn’t like embedding live code).

Alternatively you can simply drag this to your Firefox Toolbar and everything will be setup and ready to go –> Ping This Page

Tags: firefox, pingomatic

Create iPhone Ringtones Free – Using only iTunes!

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1. Right click on the song you are going to make into a ringtone and select “Get Info”.
2. Go to the options tab and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and input the time you want your ringer to start/stop. The ringtone must be 30 seconds or less. Click OK when you’re done.
3. Right click on your newly “clipped” song and select “Convert Selection to AAC.” The song will be re-encoded using the start and stop times determined (If your menu item does not read “Convert Selection to AAC” and reads “Convert Slection to MP3? (or some other format) please go to iTunes > Preferences > Advanced > Importing and change the “Import Using” drop down menu to “AAC Encoder”).
4. After the song is done encoding navigate to your iTunes Music folder, locate your song, and drag it to your desktop. After the song is on your desktop go back to iTunes and delete the clipped version from you iTunes library (It won’t delete it from your desktop, it will only remove it from iTunes).
5. Go back the song on your desktop and right click on your song and chose “Get info.” Go to the name and extension section and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r (or you can just change the extension right from your desktop)
6. After the extension is changed simply double click on the file to add it to your iTunes library under the ringtones section. Sync your phone with iTunes and you’re done!

Remember to go back into iTunes and un-check your custom start and stop times for the original version of the song.

This tip works with all versions of iPhone including the 3GS

Tags: how to, iphone ringtones, itunes, tutorial

How To: Add the Facebook Like button to Joomla pages

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Here’s a quick guide on how to add the Facebook ‘Like’ button to Joomla pages complete with dynamic URLs.

First you’ll need a plugin that allows use of PHP code in Joomla. I’ve used this free one.

Activate the module and use the following code (Link to text file – Blogger doesn’t allow live php / Iframe code):

Choose your desired module position (I used banner in the screenshot above) and voila!

Tags: facebook, facebook like button, joomla, joomla cms

Formula One Twitter Accounts

Excel Download

I have to confess, I am an F1 nut. Prior to this season I could half understand someone not being interested in Formula one. Especially in the days where Michael Schumacher won everything & there was (it has been argued) little point in the other competitors even showing up.

Not so nowadays. This season sees the two previous world champions (Jenson Button & Lewis Hamilton) battling head-to-head in the same team. Not to mention the other previous world champions in Alonso & of course Schumacher.

There’s also the small matter of top flight drivers in Vettel, Webber, Massa & Rosberg.

The new teams this year (Mercedes [previously Brawn], Lotus, Hispania & Virgin) are providing their own battle amongst themselves for the crown of best of the new constructors. Hulkenberg is driving his socks off and is tipped by many to be a star in the making having won most (all?) of his GP2 races prior to his entrance into F1.

Anyway, now we get to the real point of this post …. As I am an avid Twitter user, I have compiled a list of must-follow Twitter accounts for the drivers, teams, principals & key Journalists so you can follow them minute by minute as this fantastic season unfolds.

Drivers	Twitter Account	Team
Mark Webber	http://twitter.com/AussieGrit	Red Bull
Sebastian Vettel		Red Bull
Rubens Barrichello	http://twitter.com/rubarrichello	Williams
Nico Hulkenberg	http://twitter.com/NicoHulkenberg	Williams
Lucas di Grassi	http://twitter.com/lucasdigrassi	Virgin
Timo Glock	http://twitter.com/realtimoglock	Virgin
Jaime Alguersuari	http://twitter.com/JAIMEALGUERSUAR	Torro Rosso
Sebastien Buemi		Torro Rosso
Robert Kubica		Renault
Vitaly Petrov		Renault
Michael Schumacher		Mercedes
Nico Rosberg	http://twitter.com/nico_rosberg	Mercedes
Jenson Button	http://twitter.com/The_Real_JB	Mclaren
Lewis Hamilton		Mclaren
Heikki Kovalainen	http://twitter.com/H_Kovalainen	Lotus
Jarno Trulli		Lotus
Karun Chandok	http://twitter.com/karunchandhok	Hispania
Bruno Senna	http://twitter.com/bsenna	Hispania
Adrian Sutil		Force India
Vitantonio Liuzzi		Force India
Felipe Massa	http://twitter.com/Forza_Felipe	Ferrari
Fernando Alonso		Ferrari
Pedro De la Rosa		BMW Sauber
Kamui Kobayashi		BMW Sauber
Andy Soucek	http://twitter.com/ASoucek	Virgin Test & Reserve Driver

Teams / Key Personnel
Renault	http://twitter.com/rf1paddockpass
Ferrari	http://twitter.com/InsideFerrari
Hispania
Lotus	http://twitter.com/MyLotusRacing
Force India	http://twitter.com/clubforce
BMW Sauber
Mercedes	http://twitter.com/OfficialMGP
Mclaren	http://twitter.com/TheFifthDriver
Virgin	http://twitter.com/VirginRacing
Red Bull	http://twitter.com/redbullf1spy
Torro Rosso	http://twitter.com/tororossospy
Williams	http://twitter.com/WilliamsF1Team
Mike Gascoyne	http://twitter.com/MikeGascoyne	Lotus Chief Technical Officer
Tony Fernandes	http://twitter.com/tonyfernandes	Lotus F1 Team Principal

Commentators / Organisations
Jake Humphrey	http://twitter.com/jakehumphreyf1	BBC F1 Presenter
James Allen	http://twitter.com/Jamesallenonf1	ITV / F1 Pundit
David Croft	http://twitter.com/CroftyF1	BBC 5-Live F1 Commentator
Sarah Holt	http://twitter.com/sarahholtf1	BBC Sport Online F1 Correspondant
Jonathan Legard	http://twitter.com/legardj	BBC F1 Commentator
Ted Kravitz	http://twitter.com/tedkravitz	BBC F1 Pit Lane Reporter
Lee McKenzie	http://twitter.com/LeeMcKenzieF1	BBC F1 Presenter
ITV F1 Twitter	http://twitter.com/ITVF1
BBC Radio 5 Live F1	http://twitter.com/5LiveF1

Previous F1 Drivers
Kimi Raikkonen	http://twitter.com/Kimi_Raikkonen
Jacques Villeneuve	http://twitter.com/27villeneuve
Nelson Piquet (Jr)	http://twitter.com/NelsonPiquet
Enrique Bernoldi	http://twitter.com/ebernoldi
Luciano Burti	http://twitter.com/LucianoBurti
Robert Doornbos	http://twitter.com/bobbydracing
Romain Grosjean	http://twitter.com/rgrosjean
Perry McCarthy	http://twitter.com/Original_Stig
Juan Pablo Montoya	http://twitter.com/jpmontoya
Tiff Needell	http://twitter.com/tiff_tv
Max Papis	http://twitter.com/maxpapis
Antonio Pizzonia	http://twitter.com/AntonioPizzonia
Scott Speed	http://twitter.com/scottspeed
Justin Wilson	http://twitter.com/justinwilson22
Alex Yoong	http://twitter.com/alexyoong
Sir Stirling Moss	http://twitter.com/stirlingmosscom

F1 Journalists / Bloggers
Alan Baldwin	http://twitter.com/alanbaldwinf1	Reuters Formula One correspondent.
Andrew Benson	http://twitter.com/andrewbensonf1	BBC Sport Online F1 editor
Ian Burrows	http://twitter.com/ipburrows	Commercial Director F1
Emma Buxton	http://twitter.com/EmBuxton	F1 PR Consultant
Will Buxton	http://twitter.com/willbuxton	USA Speed Channel Pit Lane Reporter
Adam Cooper	http://twitter.com/adamcooperf1	F1 Journalist / Blogger
Steve Dawson	http://twitter.com/Gulasahi	ESPN / Star Sports Journalist
Mark Glendenning	http://twitter.com/m_glendenning	Autosport Deputy F1 Editor
Maurice Hamilton	http://twitter.com/MauriceHamilton	BBC 5 Live F1 Commentator / Blogger
Holly Samos	http://twitter.com/hollysamos

Excel Spreadsheet Download

Here’s an single Excel spreadsheet for easy distribution (feel free to distribute to anyone & everyone you know).

Update (20/05/10): Williams Team now have a Twitter account after Claire Williams accidentally deleted her Twitter account. Updated David Croft description.

Have you got any other must-follow F1 accounts? Leave me a comment!

Tags: f1, formula one, twitter

I spend alot of time helping on website design & SEO forums. The number of people I come across who are making fundamental mistakes in attempting to market their websites is astounding.

However it is also absolutely understandable.

What is the first thing you want to see once your website is online? Visitors & Good Stats

Here is an actual forum post that I’ve just replied to:

The Question

“I am a newbie and please forgive my ignorance. Yesterday I have seen NP$ STORE at namepros.com…here we have to click on some links provided by namepros and as a result namepros awards us NP$ through which we can buy traffic for our website….Only thing which I liked about it is this service is for FREE. I don’t have money to buy traffic for my site…Are there any other sites which can offer me such kind of services? Currently I am working on back links but I desperately need some traffic for my sites…Please help”

Yes, it’s a little bit confusing so I’ll explain the gist of this:

NamePro’s provide a list of sites that he must click through to & after a certain number of views he earns NamePro Dollars which can in turn be used to buy traffic to his own site.

Here’s the problem with this system:

1. He wants free traffic. He obviously doesn’t see his own time as worth anything if he’s willing to spend X hours clicking other people’s links.

2. I am willing to bet my left arm that he didn’t buy anything or even particularly look at these sites…. therefore wasn’t his visit worthless apart from to bump up the receiving sites statistics?

My Reply

OK how about this….

I’ll give you 100,000 visitors for free.

Let me explain why this is useless:

Traffic to your website must be targeted, that is it must be looking for what you’re selling or offering.

So if you’re site is dealing in office chairs, 100,000 visitors who aren’t looking for office chairs but in fact are looking for Indian curry recipes is a complete waste of time.

Did you buy anything from those websites you clicked on? Did you sign up to their newsletters? If not, what good were you to them apart from making their stats look good? Exactly the same thing will happen to your site.

That’s the reason SEO exists. To get your site onto the first page of Google for search terms that will drive targeted traffic towards your website.

So, don’t even bother with thinking like this. Learn SEO (or ask a professional) and start getting traffic that might actually help your site instead of just make your stats look good.

Got an SEO question, want to know more about who I am & what I do? Drop me a comment & I’ll be happy to help!

Tags: free traffic, newbies, search engine optimisation, seo

Is the iPad pointless?

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I hate Apple. Not because of their products but because of the reaction to their products that everyone seems to have.

It’s Apple, everyone’s got one, I must have one because they’re clearly brilliant.

Perhaps it’s because I’m immersed in technology every day but I cannot see the reasoning for this logic at all. I will buy something if I know it’s good and it’s worth the money, not because everyone else has one.

Despite my reservations, I recently bought an iPhone.

It’s brilliant. The design & functionality has clearly been thought through thoroughly and it really is an excellent piece of equipment once you’ve loaded your favourite apps. It combines a phone, mini computer (to all intents and purposes), email, browser & iPod … therefore I don’t have to shell out extra for an MP3 player.

However one thing really makes me wonder about the iPad’s future … it’s easy to type on the touch screen but will never be as easy, comfortable or quick as a traditional keyboard.

Why then would people pay the same price for a touch screen device that doesn’t have Wifi on it’s base models?

Surely you’d be much better off buying a netbook (although personally I’d always plump for a laptop & put up with the extra bulk).

The Wifi / 3G iPad has been announced but no firm release date as yet …. this version will inevitably be more expensive and yet in my opinion just as pointless.

The only reason I can fathom for anybody buying an iPad is brand loyalty … which brings me back to my initial issue with Apple.

Am I wrong, have I missed the point? Will you be buying one or even have one on pre-order now?

Please educate me on your logic & who knows? Perhaps I’ll change my stubborn mind … I certainly have about the iPhone.

Tags: apple, ipad

10 Tips for Getting more Youtube Views

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Since Google began putting youtube videos directly into their search results it has become more important than ever to leverage the power and userbase of youtube to gain more traffic & views to your videos and therefore hopefully to your website.

Your videos should act as an information resource giving the users relevant, honest information & advice … this builds trust in your service / product / brand & encourages visitors to head across to your main website.

Here are my top 10 tips on how to get more Youtube video views

1. Place good keywords in your video title (eg. Iphone App Review not My thoughts on my friend’s Iphone application).
2. Place the keywords & a link to your site or original article above the “view more” arrows in the video description.
3. Use relevant tags for your videos (eg. iphone app application review reviews not my thoughts on friends iphone application).
4. Correctly categorise your videos.
5. Try posting your video as a video response to another (related) popular video.
6. Ratings – Try to get as many 5 star ratings as possible … higher rated videos will be pushed up the Youtube results & therefore receive more views.
7. Your videos are as important as any other content on your site. Blog about them, Tweet them, share them on social networks & create a buzz.
8. Build links to your videos, just like any other content on your site.
9. Link to your site from your video itself, either at the end or throughout in a corner…. make sure it’s not obscuring content or is annoying though … your video is an information resource not a sales pitch.
10. Don’t just rely on Youtube. There are hundreds of video sharing sites but concentrate on the main ones: Youtube, Vimeo, DailyMotion

Got a tip you’d like to share? Want to know something in particular? Comment below & let me know!

Tags: search engine optimisation, seo, social networking, video optimisation, youtube

How To Get More (100) Results from Google instead of 10

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Quick & easy tutorial here but it’s useful for those new to search engines (and those of us who need to see more results by default) & should act as a reference to the rest.

If you want / need to see 100 results for your queries instead of the default 10. There are two methods.

I prefer the second method for no other reason than I can change it more easily on the fly.

Method 1

• Go to Google.
• Click Advanced Search.
• Under the Results per page: heading choose your number (10, 20, 30, 50 or 100).

Method 2

• Go to google and perform a search.
• Highlight the link in the address bar & add &num=100 on the end.

Top Tip: This will work with any number up to 100 results


&num=27 = This will show the top 27 results.
&num=94 = This will show the top 94 results.
&num=54 = This will show the top 54 results.

Tags: google results, google serps, search engine optimisation, seo

Ever wanted to swap one of your Blogger blogs between the google accounts and couldn’t figure out how? It’s easy!

• Sign in to Blogger.com and from your Dashboard find the blog you wish to transfer.

• Go to Settings > Permissions.

• Add a new user by email address.

• Sign in to the new users email account and click the activation link that Blogger sends.

• Accept the invitation to become an author with the new email address.
• SIGN OUT of Blogger and RESIGN IN with the OLD ACCOUNT.
• Again, find the Settings > Permissions tab for the blog.
• You should see the following, click ‘Grant admin privileges’.

• After you do this, both email accounts will have a ‘Remove’ option beside them.

• Remove the ORIGINAL email account.

Now just sign out of the old account & into the new account & the new email will be the sole author of the blog. Obviously, if you want to leave both authors, just skip the final step.

Tags: blogger, swap blogs