Rob Dumouchel

Well at Least They Dropped the Blue Background

2008-08-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ok so a while ago Yahoo sent out an e-mail about the impending opening up of Yahoo Buzz. It was pretty horrible if you ask me. As a follow up they followed half of my advice... they used a white background much nicer on the eyes. Unfortunately they forgot to change the text color. Doh! So below is a screen cap of what I got in my e-mail... smooth

And just to prove that yes indeed a huge internet company is this bad at e-mail...

If you're going to do a major e-mail like this send yourself a couple test copies to different e-mail addresses to avoid looking like a tool. Especially if you happen to own the most visited web site on earth, people kinda expect you to be good at the internetz.

Warning: This Will Get Stuck in Your Head

2008-08-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

natalie portman's shaved head - sophisticated side ponytail from thatgo on Vimeo.

This has been in my head for days now... you can check out more of their stuff at myspace.com/natalieportmansshavedhead.

Best.SERP.Ever

2008-08-12T12:04:00.000-07:00

So I've been getting some traffic for the phrase "What Scares Chuck Norris" and I thought it was pretty funny. Now I've started to pop up as the number one result for it. I realize that this does nothing for me and it is of next to no value, but it makes me happy on the inside.

Best Sing-a-Long Night Ever

2008-08-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Reminder: Don’t start fights in a bar full of MMA Fighters

2008-08-01T00:26:00.000-07:00

I finally saw the episode of Tapout where they were in SLO for Scott Lighty and Glover Teixeira fights. I crossed paths with their film crew back in January at Bull's Tavern... here's my Myspace blog from that night when I got home

So there I was right... me, Larry and Brian are sitting in Bulls, one of SLO's finest drinking establishment (you can tell by the smell of urine when you walk by it during the day), and they're shall we say slightly inebriated. This is exacerbated by the fact that the show Tapout is filming in the bar (it's an ok weird show about the MMA clothing company) and there's some fighters working the bar instead of bartenders. Larry is shooting his mouth off at a camera man to pay attention to us even though we're not chicks and we don't have anything interesting to say. The camera guy seems bored of chasing the 3 girls in the bar around and points the camera at us. Larry and B start flashing west side gang sides like any good hick from the valley and talking about eggs and bacon because you know why not? And then 3 loud bangs against the wall in the bathroom... invariably we lose our camera man. So there's 3 guys beating the crap out of each other in the can, naturally the best way to solve this is with professional fighters. They leave the bar and drag out each guy. The first one out had the distinction of being choked out which I thought was pretty fun for everybody except him. Eyes closed legs shaking, he lost his first semi-pro bout by rear naked choke... oops. The other guys were dragged out and tossed onto the sidewalk. Disaster averted, SLOPD showed up 15 minutes later and stayed for like 45 minutes to just kick it because, you know, something happened a while ago.

Anyways as a reminder to yourself, if there's a bunch of dudes with cauliflower ear in the bar and cameras, do yourself a favor and don't get in a fight because it is never cool to be put to sleep and crap you pants infront of a studio audience.

How You Know a Video is Old

2008-07-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

I think the videos for the business class I'm taking are a little out of date... $0.85 gas... anyone remember that?

Plaid Nation Visits SLOCAMA

2008-07-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

The guys from Plaid came to visit us at SLOCAMA today. They're traveling down the west coast in a sweet plaid van and making stops to demonstrate and talk about social media. You can follow their tour online at PlaidNation.com or follow them on twitter @plaid.

Plaid Nation Tour - July 29, 2008 from Plaid Nation on Vimeo.

Zero Per Gallon Stickers!!!

2008-07-10T20:54:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share... I got my stickers and a sweet patch from Zero Per Gallon. I haven't figured out quite what to do with all of them but I knew one was going to end up right there on my rear fender :)

Not that I want to provoke the 6000 pound death machines that line my commute... but it doesn't take a Suburban to move one person from one side of the mall to the other. I'll admit my vehicle isn't particularly small but I've only driven it about 4 times since the first of June.

The fun part about ordering from Zero Per Gallon is that it is incredibly Goat free. Have no doubt about it, there will never be any goat-age in their fine products. Not that I am particularly worried about the presence of goat in my purchases, but I appreciate the effort put forth.

Don't tell them that I consort with goats!

I Would Expect Better E-mail From Yahoo

2008-07-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

What the hell is this...

Don't get me wrong, I'm excited that Yahoo Buzz is thinking about letting in more publishers but this e-mail is horrible. It's a good reminder of what not to do to those on your e-mail newsletter list. There's a huge gap between the top and where the words start, plus it's barely legible. That blue mixed with light, thin, white letters is making my eyes bleed. If they wanted to keep up the general brand appearance they could have used a white background with the text in the darker Purple from the logo. Easily readable, matches the branding efforts, everyone's happy. All I'm saying is that if you're one of the biggest internet companies in the world you should be able to put together a halfway decent mass e-mail.

Let’s Go Ride a Bike... Commuting Tips

2008-06-29T02:09:00.000-07:00

I’ve always made an effort to get to work either by foot or by bike... and recently I’ve had a little company on my commute. I’ve been seeing more people on the sidewalks and more bikes cruising Grand Avenue. This makes me very happy on the inside. Apparently $4.65 a gallon is enough to get some other people in town out of their cars and onto their bikes.

Now that commuter biking is turning into the cool thing to do I figured I would impart a little advice to my new two wheeled friends.

Find Yourself a Bike!

Ok, so that’s kind of a given. But seriously do you have a bike already or do you need to go out and buy one? Think about your needs and do a little research. Think about comfort, the distance you’re going to go, the terrain you’ll be riding on and other factors. There is an insane number of different types of bikes out there, make sure you find one that fits your needs before you plunk down the cash for one. (If you’re going to buy a new ride make sure it has the commuter bike modifications from a little later in this post already on it!)

My bike is a 1996ish Giant Mountain Bike that I have been slowly updating a part at a time. Not that I don’t lust after a newer bike... I have at least 5 different bikes picked out in my head that I am in severe danger of buying... but this bike has treated me pretty well over the years. Plus I think it is too ugly to steal which is a definite bonus.

Tune Up Your Bike, Trust Me

If you’re dusting off a 15 year old bike that hasn’t seen the light of day in a lot of years the first order of business is making sure your bike is going to be up to the task. Take your bike to a good bike mechanic and shell out a few bucks for a tune up. And before you start bitching about spending $30 on a bike tune up... remember that it takes $125 to fill up an SUV and it’s not going to get any better anytime soon.

I’ve been riding my bike pretty consistently, but I finally took my bike in for a long overdue tune up and a little bit of a face lift this last week. I’m useless with a wrench and prefer to leave these things in the hands of professionals. Plus after an afternoon in the shop it feels like a whole new bike. Totally worth the dough.

Commuter Bike Modifications

Now chances are the bike you have isn’t really commuter friendly. Most people either have some kind of over muscled mountain bike or an incredibly expensive road bike purchased with the best of intentions that never really worked out. These can be made much more commuter friendly with just a few easy modifications.

Write these down: Fenders, Rear Rack, Panniers, Smooth Tires, Chain Guard and front and rear lights... You want all that stuff.

Fenders

Rear Rack

Panniers

Smooth Tires

Chain Guard

Lights

Plan Your Route

Make sure you think out how you’re going to go to work. Take into account hills, traffic, and the availability of bike lanes. I ride one way to the office and a different way home to take advantage of local geography. I also only make right hand turns which are a lot easier than left hand turns in traffic. Another thing you may want to do is try out your commute on a day off to make sure you can get that far! Riding a bike is pretty easy, but if it’s been a while you might want to work up to it!

Be Safe and Know the Rules of the Road

This just in – you are a car. Try to keep that in mind. You need to follow the same rules as if you were driving you car. Stop signs apply to you, signal when you turn, and stay off the sidewalk!!! The sidewalk can be tempting but it is a great place to get hit by a car. Drivers don’t pay any attention to sidewalks, they’re looking for other cars so the best place for you to be is in the street. The other big automotive danger is getting doored. Beware the suddenly flung open car door, it is not good for your health. Otherwise keep your eyes open, listen to the traffic around you, wear bright colors, and make sure you have lights on at night.

Have Fun

My favorite part about bike commuting is that it’s fun. It helps wake me up in the morning and it’s a good stress reliever on the way home in the evening. If you live close enough to work to make this a feasible solution I recommend you give it a shot. It will make you happier and healthier and save you a ton of money in the process.

Leave Twitter Alone! C'mon He's Stressed Out Guys

2008-05-20T13:46:00.001-07:00

Poor little Twitter looks like it's getting too big for its britches. It's stressed out :( poor guy... Somebody toss him a Xanax

Holy Schnikes... $4.05 a Gallon

2008-05-20T08:49:00.000-07:00

Wow... so it finally happened, 4 bucks a gallon. Luckily, now that my class in Lompoc is done, I basically don't need to drive almost at all. It looks like all those shoes in my According to My Shoes I am Quite the Leader Article plus the other 20 pairs of Vans I have are going to come in handy!

The United Countries of Baseball

2008-05-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

This map popped up in my RSS reader yesterday (I saw it on ffffound.com but it comes via Strange Maps) and I think it's really kind of interesting. There is something uniquely American about the unwavering acceptance of the home team and blind hatred of the opposition.

Back in September I was at a Cubs game at Wrigley field during the run up to the playoffs (sooo close... haha). Wrigley is a cool ball field but I wouldn't classify it as friendly. The stadium was packed and I feared for the lives of the only two suckers that showed up wearing Cincinnati Red's jerseys. As far as decision making goes that wasn't so smart. My home team allegiance lies with the Brewers (who also blew it at the end of the season), but I left that information at home in Milwaukee. Again though, there's no real reason for me to like the Brewers other than the fact that I grew up in Wisconsin and any team that races sausages is all right by me.

A disturbingly funny reiteration of my point

Anyways, I digress. Feel free to soak in the geography and argue amongst yourselves. I'll get you started: Do that many people actually like the White Sox, or did they just need to make their territory big enough for the logo? Discuss :)

Smug Pug

2008-05-10T17:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know why this makes me so happy, but I just had to share

picture via ApartmentTherapy.com

What Can’t You Sell with Adwords?

2008-05-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

So at this point we all know that Google is the all knowing, all powerful deity of the search universe. Getting into Google’s good graces organically requires months or even years of devout webmaster efforts, and the following a strict rule set (thou shalt not buy links, and whatnot) to find your way to SERP nirvana. But as it turns out, whenever there is money involved there is a shortcut. You can take out your wallet and skip to the front of the line with Adwords. Unfortunately there are some items Google just won’t let you get away with selling via Adwords. If you want to sell a teen porn, ninja star, cocaine, fake Louis Vuitton, and firework gift basket you’re going to have to stick with SEO. BTW if you know where to get one of those my birthday is coming up next month… ;-)

So what exactly can’t you sell on Adwords? There always seems to be a lot of mystery and disagreement on what you can and can’t do so I decided to compile a list of items prohibited from Adwords. In a nut shell if it’s illegal, unethical, or fun you might just be out of luck.

You Can’t Sell Illegal Items with Adwords

Shocking I know. Also if I may point out, if you’re selling this stuff online at all you’re retarded. They’ll never catch me now that I’ve posted my address and phone number online along with the fact I like to break the law for profit… oh wait… The following items are not only totally illegal but also prohibited from being sold via Adwords:

Drugs & Drug Paraphernalia
No selling weed, crack, meth, magic mushrooms, LSD, or any other mind-bending substances via PPC. If you want to sell that stuff you’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way… out of a windowless van over by the high school. You also can’t sell bongs, glass pipes, and other getting high accessories. Well except for black lights, those are still ok.
Fake Documents
No fake driver’s licenses, social security cards, diplomas, immigration papers, etc.
Steroids
Who really wants to go to jail for selling stuff online that gives you back-ne and shrivels your balls anyways
Hate Groups
If you want to promote your KKK website, or anything that has a “Death to [nation, race, ethnicity]” in it you’re going to have to stick with word of mouth, sorry.
Counterfeit Designer Goods
No fake purses, jeans, leather goods, shirts, shoes, etc. Plus not only is it illegal to buy your girlfriend a fake Coach bag online, she can tell the difference and you’ll wish you had just done it right the first time!
Hookers
You really shouldn’t bother trying with this one, that’s what Craigslist is for… and it’s free!

If it’s Fun Yet Age Restricted or Illegal in Most States, You Can’t Sell it with Adwords

Things that are age restricted, have a tendency to cause moral outrage, or have the possibility of poking an eye out are generally prohibited from Adwords. Be advised this one has some grey areas to it.

Gambling
No promotion of casinos or online gambling is permitted. You also can’t promote sports books, lotteries, bingo, poker, gambling software, gambling tutorials, gambling eBooks, gambling affiliate sites, and even play for fun gambling sites. You’re going to go with SEO, link spamming and traditional media to get the word out for casino sites.
Porn (sometimes)
This one is tricky; you can promote porn with Adwords. However there are a lot of off limits areas and you have to be very careful with your keyword strategy. You must stick with very specific queries that would only bring up adult results, and I would recommend phrase and exact matches here.
So what porn topics are banned? Anything to do with kids, teen pornography (even if the models are 18+ and the site is legal), anything denoting youth (school girl, etc), and non-consensual material or implied non-consensual material. I’m going to guess there’s more that’s banned that Google would prefer to not spell out.
Certain Weapons
Guns, bullets, parts of guns, switchblades, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles are a no-go. You can however promote more utilitarian knives like hunting knives and pocket knives. I also found ads for swords. So despite being dangerous weapons I guess they figured they’re too big an awkward to actually be used effectively for hurting anybody other than yourself playing medieval knight in your mom’s basement.
Tobacco
Cigarettes, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, snus, cigars, and anything else full of nicotine that will make you smell bad and slowly kill you is prohibited from Adwords
Alcohol (except wine and champagne)
WTF right? This one blows my mind a little… no beer, no hard alcohol, but wine and champagne is cool. This just strikes me as a little stupid. I guess since a fine Pinot Noir is classier than an 18 pack of Natty Ice it doesn’t need to play by the same rules.
Fireworks
If it was in the previous paragraph you can’t promote it. In all fairness you can’t really ship fireworks anyways; the post office gets a little skittish about explosive packages.

No Cheating!

If an item is unethical or gives you an unfair advantage, chances are it’s prohibited from Adwords

Academic Cheating Services
This includes test taking services, paper writing services, and anything else that is academically dishonest
Drug Test Cheating Services
You can’t sell “cleansing” teas or your little brother’s clean urine with Adwords, sorry.
Illegal Traffic Devices
Rule of thumb: if you would hide it as fast as you can when you get pulled over, you can’t promote it with Adwords. This includes radar jammers, plate blockers and traffic signal changers. Radar detectors are ok however.
Miracle Cures
This doesn’t cover miracle weight loss pills so much as a magic pill that may virtually cure AIDS and Cancer… unless you ask the FDA who might have some slight disagreements with your claims. While we’re talking drugs and pills, prescription drugs are allowed –if- you are an Adwords approved pharmacy.

Prohibited Scams, Tech, and Marketing Items

There are a lot of scams out there that Google has isolated to be dropped from the Adwords programs. Also any software of services that have an adverse effect on Google or its search results are not allowed either.

Scams, Phishing, Data entry affiliate sites, e-Gold, Dialers
If it’s a known scam do yourself a favor and don’t waste your time.
Bulk Marketing (E-mail Spam) Products
If you have a great e-mail list of thousands of e-mails you scraped from sites around the web you can’t promote with Adwords.
Hacking & Cracking
You can’t promote sites that teach you to illegally access software, servers, websites, cell phones, unlock copyright protection, descramble cable, and anything else illegal and hacker-y.
Automated Ad Clicking
Adwords rule number 1, don’t mess with Google’s wallet! Automated ad clicking is a good way to get your Adwords and Adsense accounts shut down in a hurry… oh and they have a word for this - fraud
Made For Adsense (MFA) Sites
Honestly I’m not sure how enforceable this one is, but it’s on the books for good measure.
Copyrighted Material You Don’t Own
So you just burned 500 unauthorized copies of a DVD you bought and you want to sell them? You’re going to have to set up a card table on the sidewalk because Adwords won’t allow it.
Webmaster Guidelines Violations
Don’t openly promote with a Google service services to screw with Google, not smart my friend.

Phew, that’s a lot of prohibited stuff… I hope this was educational for you all. Remember if you can’t bring it on an airplane, do it in front of a police officer, or tell your mom about it you probably can’t use Adwords to promote it.

*note: all prohibited items are from a U.S. point of view!

Reddit Error Message, Turns Out it's My Fault

2008-05-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Since I seem to be collecting them, here's Reddit's error screen, try not to take it personal.

If You Like Searching and Hate Reading...

2008-04-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

I came across a new search engine yesterday called SearchMe that takes a more visual approach to search. Personally I think it's very cool to see the results and be able to flip through them iPod-style.

Using SearchMe is pretty easy, drop your query in the search box and then if applicable you can choose the appropriate category.

Above I used my last name and you can see I had the choice of dentists, painters, actors, religiousy folks, and advertising. Because my modus operandi here happens to be strategic web based narcissism I clicked on Advertising & Marketing.

This brought me to a screen full of screen shot results for Dumouchel as it relates to Advertising and Marketing. You can see my LinkedIn Profile, my Yahoo Search Ambassador page, and the Systems & Marketing Solutions web site amongst other results. You can flip between results using the arrows at the bottom of the results page.

SearchMe has some basic setting for you to play with as well. You can block adult results, choose night or day color schemes, and choose to either open your selections in the same window or a new one.

The thing I want to find out is if they are pulling their own results or if they are piggybacking off of another engine. The results I pulled for various queries that I follow didn't match what I typically see in the big 3. Plus it doesn't have robdumouchel.com indexed at all just yet.

I think we're going to see a lot more visual search in the future, and I'm kind of excited to see it develop. I know some big corporations like AT&T are exploring the space (they're calling it POGO), but I'm rooting for a break out little guy.

Even Google has been adding visual elements to their SERPs. First it was maps and videos, and now today I found that the result for my LinkedIn profile has my profile picture beside it. I hear they're going to do this with Facebook too.

I'm really interested to see how this progresses and if it pulls any mainstream attention. I think as a society Americans would prefer to not read stuff if at all possible, so Visual Search has a lot of potential.

Rob’s Recommended Reading of the… um Last 2 weeks or so

2008-04-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

I’ve been a busy boy the last couple weeks with new clients coming online and the end of my semester at school rapidly approaching. I’ve been keeping a list of good stuff for you guys, it just hasn’t exactly made its way to the interweb until just now.

Does This Campaign Make My Ad Group Look Fat? An exploration of how Adwords is kind of like a Psycho girlfriend and what you can do to cope. I wrote this for my Adwords Monster Blog, it's been floating around the office for a month while we tried to figure out if it would be funny to people that aren't us. I think it's awesome personally :)

12 Reputations Every Company Should Monitor Online Some good tips from Andy Beal who will probably visit my website now that I mentioned him. Hi Andy! He gets into some things you might not have thought to monitor like key executives and PR people.

10 Reasons Why Everyone Should Love PPC I thought this was a great take on the upside to PPC. I really like the control you have over the medium, the ability to split test easily, and the ability to start and stop at will.

The True Cost of SEO I have to try to explain to somebody at least once a week that SEO is not free. The traffic is free, but what is your time worth? How much do you have to pay an SEO to get you started? How much did your web guy charge you to implement changes? That stuff costs money even if the clicks don’t!

Study Shows Targeted Ads Make Users Uneasy There they go again proving things that don’t need to be proved. Of course people feel a little weird when they stop and think about it. But if an ad is properly targeted a user shouldn’t notice it.

Best Practices When Moving Your Site (by Google) Google’s Webmaster Central Blog gives out some pointers on moving a site to a new domain without nuking your rankings.

Where are all the Google Data Centers? I’m such a cool guy I found you a map!

21 Reasons Why Twitter is Bullshit I’ve come to like Twitter, but I’ll admit at least 2/3 of this is basically true. I’m personally having problems with number 17: “Just ‘cos you work on the internet, and Twitter happens to be on the internet, does not mean Twitter is work.”

While I’m talking about Twitter, Check out this Video with the Twitter Founders. Notice towards the end when asked about monetization there is a 4 minute diversion about being a global resource first and the money will follow or some crap. They did however launch Twitter Japan with an ad block in it. Sign of things to come that actually turn a profit?

6 Ways That Bloggers are Like Rappers Pure genius :) Can’t wait to see Shoemoney on Cribs, he better have a Lambo or at least a Rolls.

The Web 2.0 Site Screw You Coefficient You didn’t know we did math here did you? A fun explanation of how unpopular features that might make money get implemented into websites.

Do You Have My Stapler? I didn’t realize Milton was on LinkedIn  And by the looks of things, his LinkedIn question drummed up at least 24 leads in regards to the whereabouts of his stapler.

Danish PM Finds Running Partners on Facebook How cool is that? Honestly. It’s stuff like that that makes me want to move back to Scandinavia.

You Walk Wrong! As somebody that logs 20-30 miles a week on foot this was really interesting to me. Plus it explains a lot of the weird aches and pains I get in my knees and hips. If I could walk around barefoot and not be looked at like a crazy person I’d be all about it. I would still buy shoes out of force of habit though. The Vivo Barefoot shoes they shout out in the article are kind of interesting to me, but I don’t think I would part with $150 for shoes that are barely shoes.

According to My Shoes, I am Quite the Leader

2008-04-10T22:04:00.000-07:00

Just to prove that you can prove anything you want scientifically, as it turns out buying shoes is a sign of a leader. (Always buying sneakers? It’s the sign of a leader) According to the article:

“Got a passion for buying sneakers? It could be a good sign, with a poll finding that people who buy three pairs of sneakers or more a year are far more likely to be a leadership type than other people.”

So if you buy more than three pairs of sneakers a year you are 61 percent more likely to have the qualities of a modern leader. The qualities of a modern leader turn out to be pretty awesome. You get to have ideas, vision, and a style that is both inclusive and decisive. What does that even mean? Oh yeah, nothing. Honestly who comes up with these studies? This just in… candy found to be delicious.

So I wonder what it means when you buy 3 pairs of shoes at time with a frequence. I have a thing for classic Vans slip-ons, I buy tons of them. Every month or so I cruise the Van's Outlet and scoop up all the weirdest size 11's they have. (BTW If you have unique tastes and live near a Vans Outlet you can score great shoes for between $10-20 instead of the usual $45-60.) Luckily being a full time internet professional I can show up to a meeting in pink shoes with bats on them and it's ok.

Anyways, I digress… so what kind of leader do these make me?

I'm going to go ahead and say and awesome one.

If you'd like to buy me some new shoes (11's) to feed my leadershipy-ness, you can do so here.

Twitter's Error Message... Honestly What's Going On?

2008-04-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

I've been playing with Twitter a little bit, I've given in to the SEO peer pressure. I figured all the cool kids are doing it so I guess I should too.

Anyways I always figured Twitter was a happy, friendly, fluffy website. I mean it's called Twitter, you tweet there. But their error page troubles me a little bit. I mean honestly did the bird go rogue and destroy their robot? That red eyeball is kinda creepy man. It's got a demon robot sort of vibe going on... I'm just saying.

Rob's Recommended Reading of the Week

2008-04-05T17:09:00.000-07:00

Here's this weeks best posts and stories from around the web according to my favorite source, me.

Ten things you didn't know about Facebook. A guest post by Jesse Stay on Guy Kawasaki's blog.

Expanded Broad Match Speaks German Now Too? Scheiße! An article I wrote for my Adword Monster blog earlier this week.

Guide to optimizing PDF's for search engines

Microsoft on determining Search Engine Spam from Email Spam. It's kind of a no brainer when you think about it.

How to mail a brick to junk mailers with their own envelopes. If it isn't mail fraud somehow, it's genius.

You Want SEO Standards? Well, Here Ya Go! Recently everyone has been all bent out of shape over how one sets standards to an industry that basically has no rules. I think this sets the matter straight :)

The Ten Worst Job Interview Questions Ever. My favorite interview question ever: "Where does your boss think you are right now?" asked at 2:30 on a Tuesday. (It was my "Saturday" btw)

Married Soldiers Now Allowed To Live Together In Iraq. This just makes me happy on the inside. Soldiers, especially soldiers with families, get messed with so much that it's nice to see the Army doing something good for all the separated overextended folks out there.

Google Algorithm Exposed! Holy crap!

Since somebody obviously didn't get the message last week, Don't mess with the internets!

Aaron Wall's new Rank Checker, cool tool for quickly checking your position in the SERP's.

It's Cool the CIA uses Google too, hopefully they don't start using YouTube and Twitter.

Mountain Man Probably Scares Chuck Norris, Luckily He Wants to be My Friend

2008-04-04T18:42:00.000-07:00

This week I got a friend request from a guy nicknamed “Mountain Man,” who also happens to be my Myspace Friend Request of the Week. Sounds pretty illustrious, hey? He stood out for two obvious reasons 1) he’s a dude 2) He looks like a ripped homeless person that is either an unemployed shoe-bomber or a roadie for Matisyahu.

Normally when I get a friend request and I can’t figure out a good reason as to why we should be connected I deny, but with this I was far too curious to miss out on what Myspace greatness might be waiting for me… Oh and my best guess as to how I got friended – the Adword Monster is 8’11” with a bodybuilder body type.

Once I got to the page and started fishing around, the guy is actually really interesting. He works out alone in his garage and does crazy person stuff like eat whole eggs. Whole as in white, yolk, and shell. He gained internet fame on a bodybuilder forum as a breakout personality. It looks like he’s trying to spin some of that notoriety into marketing momentum for himself, his band, and his ideas. He’s done a good job of harnessing accidental internet niche fame and making it work for him.

If you get a chance, check out a full interview with Mountain Man on BodyBuilding.com and his Myspace page.

Oh and I added him btw. Partially because he’s interesting, but mainly because he scares the hell out of me! Would you tell that guy no?

And finally for your viewing pleasure… the right(?) way to eat an egg.

Best Website Error Message Ever

2008-04-03T19:23:00.000-07:00

I was cruising iStockPhoto today for some images to make a mailer for one of my websites and as it is prone to doing it died on me. But as a consolation prize it gave me the best error message ever.

10 Obscure Rob Facts

2008-04-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

As a general rule I refuse to participate in the furtherance of chain-letter-esque e-mails and bulletins. But I recently got one that my special lady friend made me do and it actually turned out pretty interesting. I did however resist and refused to "tag" 10 other friends to continue the propagation of the horribleness that is a chain bulletin.

10 Odd, remarkable, possibly true, useless facts about me:

Swedish Teen magazine

Finance Minister of Sweden

Rob's Recommended Reading of the Week

2008-03-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

In the course of the week I probably read somewhere around eleventy billion articles on Internet Marketing, business, and all kinds of other stuff. Here's some of this week's better articles...

Being Facebook friends does not make you friends in real life. Or so says a British Judge. See also Mashable's Reaction to the judgement, and why Exes should never see your Facebook Account.

The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years. "According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950."

How to Use PPC to Capitalize on Unexpected Offline PR I think this is a very smart article, it really shows how fast action and creativity can help beat raw fiscal ability and slow moving corporations.

Facebook Pages & Local Search Engine Optimization Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide shows off a pretty slick way of using an RSS application to place followed links back to your website on your Facebook profile.

I Hate the Advertising Bait-and-Switch. This is a good one from SEOmoz about just giving the people what they want. Personally I think that is one of the most important factors of success in building an ad, delivering what you promised.

Can Google Stop the Brain Drain? There has been a highly publicized movement of Googlers back into the wild. They are popping up in start ups all over the place and some are moving into other web giants like Facebook.

Watch South Park for free online! Every episode is now available *legally* for you to watch on demand.

Can a Swimsuit be too good?

California utility to turn roofs into solar power plants. I really don't see why this type of thing isn't more prevalent.

Reminder, don't mess with the Internets