His most recent post How To Get Links by Darren Rowse and I Agree is about, well, how to get links! Basically, this post focuses on 301 redirects and the “family of brands” concept (yanno, where you go on a site and at the bottom they have links to all their related sites). Very good post with good information, but I’d recommend checking out the rest of his posts on backlinks since there’s a lot more to quality link juice than just what’s in this post!

Anyway, the point of this post is that he said something that struck me as rather funny in his Darren Rowse backlinks post.

…I call this “content pruning” and it is based on John Chapter 15 of the Bible believe it or not. I will do a full posting on this in the future as it is very important when you want to build and sell a site for $30,000.

Emphasis mine.

This cracked me up that anyone would base any element of SEO on a portion of the New Testment. However, the devotional that I’ve been reading ironically (is that the right word?) had John 15:1-8 as that day’s reading. Oh yes, God is a joker.

OK, so what is John 15 about? Well, the first part of the chapter is the “I am the vine, you are the branches bit. If you’re not familiar with the Bible, the exact words of verses 1 and 2 are:

¹ “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away;^[a] and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Bwahahahaha! Seriously! Who knew the Bible could teach you SEO? (For those who aren’t into making money online, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it just means a way of making your content attractive to Google.)

In other words- if you have a crappy site that isn’t pulling its own weight, cut it off. Sell it, let the domain run out, scrap it and start over. If you have a site that IS doing well, edit the content, change the anchor links, edit tags, and so on, so that your site will perform better.

Ok, so I’m amused by the dumbest things.

Now, I also wanted to send out some linky love to another great internet marketer. She wrote a review of Brian Clark’s Scribe SEO uh… for lack of a better word, plug in. While she doesn’t call it a scam, she does declare it a waste of time and money. The product is aimed at SEO newbies, yet the price starts at $27 a month, for what amounts to a digital post it note. SEO newbies aren’t going to be making enough money to cover the cost of the plug in, and the plug in is totally unnecessary for anyone who knows enough about SEO to make back the monthly fees.

Still, I’d recommend going over and reading her review, because Brian Clark shows up and makes a total pig’s snout out of himself in the comments. It’s quite amusing. Bad publicity, but funny.

Hubs and I are sick of renting. Sick of having to call in the maintenance guy to fix the crappy equipment that comes with the place, sick of the horribly drafty doors and windows, the literally hollow baseboards and trim (I kid you not, what wethought was solid wood was in fact rotted out leaving the form of the original wood in the paint so that it looked totally normal until we accidentally pushed too hard on it and it caved in), the mysterious leak from somewhere around the tub that leaks through the ceiling in the kitchen and INTO the ceiling light’s cover. The kitchen faucet that can only be turned off by pushing down on the center of the thing rather than the actual handle, and now we just had to have a part replaced in one of the toilets to stop the jackhammer noise that woke me from a dead sleep 2 hours after I went to bed after a long day. I’ve already talked (at length) about the neighbors, and now the CO2 alarm goes off every time I make chicken or turkey broth.  I’d mention more, but I don’t like to complain. (insert tongue into cheek here)

So hubs and I found a cute little end of unit townhome in an awesome location. New community, immaculate exterior and yard, ditto for all the neighbors. Only problem is that it was a 2 bedroom 1 bath, and for all of its shortcomings, our current home is 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath plus an additional toilet (weird set up). So, we sat on it for a few days, unsure whether we should apply for a mortgage, set up a viewing, etc. A few days later, we looked at the listing again and it was under agreement.

No big deal. We really liked the house from the outside, but really? were we ready?

We’re still not sure. But after this weekend’s incident with the jackhammering toilet, we’re a little more ready than we were. My friend wrote a post on waterproofing basement walls which is a good reminder that not all is rosy in the home owning world. I would hope that a home we buy would be in better condition than this place, but at least the fix is free when you rent!

In the meantime, my internet marketing income as well as the posts like the one just before this is starting to creep up. It’s not enough to make the difference between home ownership and renting yet, but it’s getting closer. I just need to keep hammering away at my sites, and eventually we should be able to start looking at homes that are in the slums and actually have all the amenities we require. I hope.

In one case, my favorite MMO blogger posted his first video ever- and it so happens to be his 7 year old daughter (cute) hand feeding a red fox. Apparently they made the mistake of feeding a wolf once, and ended up with one as a pet for 15 years, and still haven’t learned their lesson. And since my married name ends in “Fox”, I’ve been a little obsessive about them for the past few years. And this one is beautiful- fluffy, gorgeous fur, and barely even skittish! The video is a bit long, but if you like foxes as much as I do, it’s worth watching. And if you don’t like foxes as much as I do, it’s still pretty cool to see a fox eat right out of a little girl’s hand! So, if you’ve ever wondered what do foxes eat, follow the link to watch the video. It looks like a hamburger patty to me.

Secondly, a good friend of mine who lives in Toronto (I just realized that 2 of the 3 people I’m posting about here are Canadians… Hm… maybe I should consider moving up north?) just had a horrific time with a local business (Crystal Bath at 2839 Kingston Road, Toronto) over her order for a bathroom vanity (Toronto). This is downright horrible customer service, and apparently the company did a lousy job on the remodel as well. Follow either link for more information on this story.

And lastly, Allyn Hanes’ beer review blog is live! He talks about beer in an entertaining way, doesn’t get all snooty about it (in fact, the regular joke is about people who sniff beer before drinking it- he’ll often sniff his and then say “smells like beer!”), and really describes the beer in a way that someone who isn’t already a connoisseur can understand. I don’t even drink beer, but I love watching his review videos, because not only is he fun to watch, but his background in landscaping gives him tons of info to pull from when describing a flavor. For example, in his review of Moylander’s India Pale Ale (he reviews several IPA beers), he mentions how people refer to a “piney” flavor. Since he’s a landscaper by trade, he was able to explain that what people were tasting was actually kind of a cedar mulch and arborvitae in the beer.

Since I’m no fan of hops, IPA’s are definitely not down my alley, but I was fascinated to find out that flavors in beer can be as complex as they are in a good wine. And Allyn presents it all as the next door neighbor chatting over the fence and offering you a cold one. (BTW, a good friend of mine modified Allyn’s theme- so if you love it and want to hire him, he comments there as “Forest” or you can ask me for his info).

I’m not sure what’s been going on for the past few days, but lately I’ve been meeting more and more publishing industry pros and aspiring novelists on Twitter. And along with that comes the influx of linkage.

Ok, so the single most important website for an aspiring novelist is Miss Snark. That’s a given. If you’ve never read this viciously wonderful agent, you need to. Go back to the very first post and read all the way up to her last (she’s hung up her stilettos for good) post. Take notes. Bookmark the Crapometer for when you’re getting ready to query. Read through it again. Take more notes. Follow all instructions and consider all advice. Just do it. Besides, it’s fun!

Now, Miss Snark I’ve known about for years, and have read almost every post on her site. However, #QueryFail is brand new. And it’s not a site; it’s a hashtag. In other words, it’s a stream of tweets from Twitter that are all on one subject, specially marked out using a hashtag. You don’t need to be a member of Twitter to read #QueryFail, but you do need an account if you want to respond to any of them.

What QueryFail is, is a day set aside by agent Colleen Lindsay for all Twitter savvy agents and editors to vent their query frustrations in the form of a 140 character tweet. Many of the tweets are actual lines from queries that the agent/editor rejected such as “Like my protagonist, I definitely could be described as overachiever, and I naturally have hair like Lady Godiva.”, “My book is about a friendship based upon mutual vomiting practices in high school.”, and my favorite- “This book is The Notebook meets The Lord of the Rings.”

You’ll need to scroll through several days of tweets about #queryfail if you choose to follow the above link to access it, but there’s a downloadable file of the actual QueryFail tweets from the actual day at that link.  The agents are planning to make this a regular thing, but no schedule has been set. And by the way? #QueryFail even got attention from The Guardian. No joke! There’s also a #novelfail, but I haven’t had much time to check into that.

And the third page that you may want to consider, is a 25 point list of why your fiction is being passed over, courtesy of Andromeda Spaceways. It’s funny, but not hilarious. Dirty, but not filthy. But all in all, a pretty good list.

You see, this here is my personal blog. I also have a personal Disney blog, and a professional Disney blog. What with being sick and a little too obsessed with things like… *cough* playing games online *cough*…

So anyway… Some of my Diz posts will be here- the ones of the more personal “me and hubby” type, some will be on the personal Diz blog  “So, when Test Track broke down and we had to climb down the stairs…”, and some will be on my Disney Travel Tips blog.  Such as these three:

StormStruck at Epcot will blow your house down!

Review of Downtown Disney’s T-Rex Cafe includes a video by moi, as well as piccies. Also featuring the largest and most delicious dessert you will ever see.

And my take on American Idol Experience’s soft opening.

I’ll try and keep ya’ll updated when I post good stuff elsewhere. 

I read through the entire Hollywood Nobody series. I read Tuck (Not due out till January or February). I re-read the Katie Parker series. And now I’m re-reading the MissMatch/ReMatch/MatchPoint series. Yes, YA does an unstable mind good.

I’m also hard at work on my holistic nutrition blog, my sushi blog, my help the economy blog… Um… And I keep MEANING to work on my local site. Yanno what I mean? I just never get around to that one.

And since I told hubs that I was going to work on my novel tonight, I can’t write a good long post! In case you didn’t guess, I didn’t finish NaNo. Not even close. And I really just don’t think I want to freelance professionally. So I’m working hard on my own sites, and plan to get back into crafting and noveling again. Wish me luck! Prayers accepted too.

You see, there’s this new company called YouData. They believe that advertising can be done better. After all, these companies are paying webmasters to show their ads, even though the demographic may not be right. And we, the people, are being shown ads that are totally irrelevant to our needs. And what do we get out of the deal? Nothing.

So YouData got to work and figured out a system that works for everybody.

1.) The Consumer: You sign up for YouData/MeFile, input things like your age, marital status, gender, children, etc. YouData has a widget on their site (you can also download it straight to your desktop) that you can load up with ads (assuming there are some available to you). These ads will have a specific amount that companies are willing to pay you to look at their ads. Right now, I’m getting about $0.05 just for seeing the ad on the widget, and about $0.15 for clicking through. I’ve earned over $6 in less than a week (it shows less because of part 2) just by viewing ads.

It’s not much money, but how often do you earn $1 in less than 5 minutes? I do it when I realize that I’m procrastinating. I figure, if I’m just faffing about, I might as well get paid for it! Plus, I discovered a really cool product this way (soap nuts- dried fruit that actually cleans your laundry. Totally weird, but cool, and natural).

2.) The Webmaster: You know how with AdSense you can’t tell people to click your ads? Well, with YouData, you’re SUPPOSED to. See, the ad viewer is only being served ads that suit their demographics. It’s the same ads that they’d get from their own widget on the website or desktop. The difference is, you’re asking them to view the ads on your site… and split the profits.

You know how you go through and click your friends’ ads just because you like them, or because they offered useful information, but you feel a bit guilty because you know someone, somewhere, is paying for that click? Not with YouData. That’s simply how the ads work. And, you can choose to donate all, or none of the cost of viewing the ad (and everywhere in between) to the person who runs the website.

They’re still testing the blog widgets, so if you want one on your own site, you’ll have to email their support- but using the widgets is fine with just your basic YouData account.

3.) The Advertiser: Advertisers of products are just trying to get their products in front of the eyeballs of their demographic. With the MeFile, they can pick and choose who to offer advertising to. Instead of paying $0.25 a click to just anyone, they can pick and choose, getting the most bang for their buck. Marketing to parents of an infant? No longer do they pay to have a 13 year old boy who hasn’t even had his first girlfriend go clicking through their ads. Targeted marketing. What’s not to love?

YouData doesn’t have an affiliate program. In fact, they’re anti-cookie and anti-tracking, so they probably won’t accept affiliate marketing ads either. But because of the option to share profits with a site owner, you can still get something out of telling people about their service. Tres cool, non?

Oh, and did I mention that they pay every Friday by PayPal? Hardly any wait for getting paid- it’s awesome.

Anyway, he has a bunch of links at the bottom of the post that go to other authors and their introduction to the agenting/publishing world.

Just thought some of you might be interested, but if not, fine. I’ll be all alone. Just like Donkey in Shrek.

My dear friend CJ wrote a post over at her blog on why writers should never be left alone- in book stores and office supply stores, at least.

Anyone else sharing the addiction to pens, notebooks, paper clips, hole punches, etc should head on over and commiserate.

I’ve been curious about Flip video cameras ever since Deb NG posted her first Flip video. I’ve wanted a Flip video camera ever since Alan at Affiliate Confession won one and posted his first Flip video.

And now, two contests announced on the same day, both giving away Flip video cameras. Ya think I’m entering? Good. I think so too.

What are the prizes? Well, Alan is giving away a Nintendo DS Lite and two games that he won in another contest. Market Leverage is giving away a Flip Mino (which is apparently their top model of Flip- sounds good to me!). I so want one of these. Just think how much easier I could update my craft blog, My Town Monday posts, and work on my Disney World sites?

And Vat 19 has issues. Their contribution to the prize pack is a USB powered missile launcher (intended to barrage co-workers, but my co-workers would just steal it or break it), and a banana bunker (clear plastic shell that fits around the banana so it doesn’t get squished- ideal for picnics and work lunches). Somehow, I think this portion of the prize pack is most appropriate to Wolf.

The contest runs through June 25, and Alan will pick the winner at noon (he’s east coast, so keep that in mind if you’re a procrastinator). To enter, all you have to do is drop him a comment at the contest post, and write up a post, complete with links, about the contest (and include the URL in your comment).