SEO; is it worth the $$$?
SEO (search engine optimization) … what the #¤%”? Well for those who don’t know, find the wiki-explanation here, it’s actually worth a read, even if you know what SEO is. You could also take a look at Googles definition here.
Being a Search Engine Optimization Company or SEO Expert is a tough and complicated business? I don’t know. I considered an SEO-expert to be a person who’s looking at a website, and going through a checklist of requirements which needs to be fulfilled, if the site is going to have a chance in the search-rankings.
By closer study, and experience with my own blog, I discovered that it’s not that simple. SEO is a lot more than just fixing some code here an there, adding URLs to exclusive directories, changing the text to feature keywords etc. It’s also about representing your blog, website or community in other places on the web, it’s about analyzing your competitors, and reaching out for new ways to promote ones website.
When I first started this blog (1½ year ago), I didn’t focus on SEO. Therefore, I got lucky when I wrote this post and got a lot of attention for it (compared to the other posts that I’ve written). It’s actually the only thing I’ve done to gain More Web Site Traffic, writing posts I think (some) people like. It hit the Digg frontpage, which gave me 12.000 visitors in 30 minutes, it also made my host suspend my account because of too much traffic…so there is also downsides (if you got the wrong host, now I’m using BlueHost instead).
Anyway…I’m thinking of spending more time on my blog, on quality-posts, linking, networking etc. so I got this idea of hiring a company to deliver the SEO-part, which hopefully will make my blog more visible to people! Then I have time and energy to focus on the posts, instead of the code, other sites etc. aka “all the technical stuff”.
So I want to hear you guys, do you have experiences with Search Engine Optimization Services ? What do they offer? Are they reliable? Is it worth it?
I mean, they must have some knowledge and expertise..
Drop a comment or mail me 
What’s next in social media?
Social media huh? Get an explanation here.
The “Create. Discover. Collect. Share.”-term is widely spread, and we’ve seen that kind of concept a 1000 times in different categories, just to mention a few:
Videos: YouTube, Vimeo, Sclipo
Images: Flickr, Contakme, OuStory
Websites: Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon
Friends: MySpace, Facebook, Virb
And of course we are going to see a lot more of it in the future, hopefully in new exciting flavours (browse through CrunchBase, follow KillerStartups or take a look at the Go2web2.0 directory and you’ll find a lot of strange and sometimes useful concepts)
Beneath, I’ve collected some people who has, in my opinion, interesting assumptions of where we’re going with all this, and I think they’re quite fascinating!
Happy socializing!
Characterize your web application!
What do you do to characterize your web application?
I’m not talking about building a specific service, having a great concept or catching the latest trends. I’m talking about the feeling and character of your web application, what do the users feel and think about it? Does it have any character at all?
One of the things I’ve experienced as a web designer is that, as long as the graphics looks good, it’s cool. But from the time where the designer is done in Photoshop till the actual site is up running, a lot of design decisions is probably made without approval from the designer. Unfortunately, animation and control of forms, effects, buttons etc. is not available in Photoshop yet (THERMO will hopefully solve that problem), so the programmer is left with different design decisions unless he’s told anything else. Therefore (no offense programmers), the right feeling and character of the web application often get lost in the code, so to speak.
Besides all the visual elements, characterization is also about knowing your target audience. Which kind of worldview are they carrying? Are they into rock, fuck and roll? Or are they more the kind of jazz, conversation and chill? If you don’t understand your audience and their worldview, how can you design a useful web application for them?
A woman who practice characterization is Denise Wilton, designer at Moo.com. In this talk, at Future of Web Design London 2007, hosted by Carsonified, she talks shortly about some of the fields of characterization of web applications.
The powerpoint used in the talk is available here in .pdf
Zamzar; convert files on the run
You’ve all been in the situation.
You’re on the run and you got this file which you just have to open, but the computer you’re are sitting in front of doesn’t have the tool(s) to open it with, so… what do you do?
You can excuse yourself, fix a ride home, and convert the file. You can ask if you can have permission to install some programs, which in most cases will put a thought in peoples heads; spyware, virus etc. Or you can use Zamzar!
Zamzar is a rather fast and simple service which lets you convert most fileformats into something else. E.g. yesterday I had this Microsoft Word 2007 Document (.docx) which I had to have in a format which was able to open in Microsoft Word 97 (.doc). So I simply uploaded the file at Zamzar and chose my fileformat, 50 mins later I got the .doc-file I needed. Perfect!
You can convert files up to a 100 mb without creating an account, and you can convert between .gif, .jpg, .ico, .png, .doc, .xls, .ppt, .docx, .xlsx, .pptx, .mp3, .wav, .ogg, .ac3, .avo, .mpg, .mov, .wmv, .ipod, .iphone, .rar, .zip and a lot more! With a basic (7$), pro (16$) or business (49$) account you get even better service.
The service has helped me, and now I’ve spread the word 
Good service = more customers!
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
I just want to wish everyone a merry christmas and a happy new year! Thanks to all the people who has read my blog. I’ve enjoyed the experience it has been so far. Also a special thanks to the people who I’ve discussed different subjects with, after we’ve got to know each other through this blog. Thanks.
May you have a nice time, everything is possible. Remember that
Where I’ve been?
Well, if you’re interested in my life, read on. If not, read it anyway…It might give you some ideas
I’ve been away, on the trip of my life…or the trip of my future I guess? The question “What am I going to do with my life?” has suddenly become much more difficult to answer, but at least I’m aware of that. The last 1-2 months I’ve been thinking of, experimenting with, and exploring the opportunities I have in this (my own) world. What I’m capable of and what I can expect Marc Falk to develop into.
Since I graduated and took some life lessons in the sense of getting some “real” I-don’t-want-to-do-the-rest-of-my-life-jobs, I realized (at my stage) that this is where life begins. It’s now that I have to fight for everything I want. Before, I wasn’t used to that. I was covered by the shield of society and education. As long as you study (in Denmark), you have a future and all is going to be just fine. But when you graduate and the world and your future are the only things in front of you, you suddenly understand that you can do whatever you want with your life. Nothing is random and thoughtless anymore, everything is deep serious and considered carefully.
Everyone (those with insight and life experience) says that if you are enthusiastic enough, you’ll reach your goals. Enthusiastic people have a great balance between themselves and their interests. But who actually knows what they are interested in? Personally I’m confused…I don’t know if I’m interested in Web 2.0, Marketing, Web design, Music Production, Dj’ing etc. because other people find some of the subjects cool or because I, from the bottom of my heart, love those subjects?… I can’t feel my passion at the moment, so I’ve decided to do SOMETHING! To find out if this is what I’m going to do the rest of my life? Actually that’s a narrow-minded mans word; the rest of my life… I believe in change, and you are always able to change your direction in life. So instead I say; I’m going to find out if it’s the mentioned subjects that I’m going to deal with in my life right now. It basically comes down to what I want at the moment, and now it gets confusing. So…back on track.
This blog will from now on mirror a new person, though I don’t think you’ll be able to notice it. I’ll give marcfalk.com a new design, it’ll be online in near future.
What I ask you to? If you’ve read so far, I just want to thank you for your time. I hope you got something out of it and I’ll be pleased to hear from you, whatever it might be, I’m up for the chat
Regards
Marc F
Tout est possible! - Everything is possible!
Perspective (an example)
Do you have perspective? Or are you like all the other fools?…
Don’t get offended, I’m just trying to get your attention and make my point clear
At the moment I’m working my ass off at a cold store. For me, who has just graduated, it’s quite a radical change to go home every morning (night work) with pain in my bag and legs (the last thing I want you to, is to feel sorry and pitty for me…cause that’s not what I want, sorry). I’m working with a bunch of guys who’ve been at a work environment of this quality all their lives. In the breaks, the only thing they talk about is how unfair the world is, and the products we manage in the store.
I don’t know these guys that well (yet), so to break the ice of sadness and narrowness, by throwing some philosophic life questions at them, in my consideration, would be a tough start. A tough start because they seem to be very shielded and prejudiced. Therefore I’ve decided to use this experience only in my own life, so far.
What I’ve learned from this experience can’t be bought for money. The people I’m working with have been slaves of our society for years, and they are the products of a long life in this type of work environment. Therefore I’m glad to see the sadness and narrowness in their eyes everytime I meet at work. Because it tells me that Marc Falk never in his whole life want to end up like that! It motivates me to develop, educate and see other possibilities in my life. In some way it actually scares the hell out of me…I’m thinking: “How on earth are these human beings able to live a normal happy (?) life under these circumstances? Will I ever be in that position?” … Hell no! I’m ready to do whatever it takes not to end up like that!
If I hadn’t had the opportunity to discover this “unknown world”, I hadn’t been afraid of it. I hadn’t been given the perspective of how these peoples’ worlds looked like. I’d still believe that no matter what I did, I would live happily ever after…
Now this is just an example of getting perspective, normally I gain perspective everyday, and so can you. You are able to gain perspective in all kinds of situations! The most important thing is that you notice the development of your perspective. That you notice the difference between you and other people (actually that you listen to and respect them). That you are able to decide whether you want to adobt or filtrate (in a sensible way) other perceptions of the world. Good luck!
- What you see without perspective
- What you see with perspective
The more perspective you have, the wider the world is…
the SMART is smart
This is a post about finding and utilizing a need…
Some weeks ago I went to Hamburg in Germany. I was there for a week, and I enjoyed to see how a society, which in some way is like mine, differently solved problems and obstacles. E.g. it is inspiring for me to see how Germany manage taxes compared to the way we do it in Denmark. In Denmark we pay extremely high taxes compared, and still… Germany is just around the corner (geographically speaking). Germany is a lot bigger though, so… it might not be the best comparison, I apologize for that.
Anyway!
For years parking space has been a problem in capitals and large cities. We all know how it is when you can’t find a place to park, and you’re in a hury. It’s an experience, but when you’ve tried it once, the outcome of it is limited.
They do also have parking-problems in Hamburg. And one thing I noticed when I was there was the amount of SMARTs. The SMART-car itself belongs to the category; microcars. It is tiny, and you can park 3 SMARTs within the space you need to park one normal car; see that’s what I call optimization.
So, the need of the SMART exists…that’s a good thing.
It all began in 1993 when Mercedes-Benz (a german carmaker) decided to study the possibilities of a subcompact car. They teamed up with Swatch Group Ltd. and founded Micro Compact Car AG in 1994. Three years later the SMART was launched in 25 countries, and it was sold in 750.000 copies the first year.
They found a need, and fulfilled it…
Now, I’m not that much into the world of cars. But to me, 750.000 copies in 25 different countries (30.000 cars per country) is nothing! I actually don’t know how the numbers look today (I guess they are increasing!)… but that is not the important thing.
The important thing here is how Mercedes-Benz in 1993, saw the increasing need for a subcompact car, and by that discovery became the first to launch such a unique car in our days; and that brings Mercedes-Benz (and the SMART) to the front.
So, the point of this post?… FIND NEEDS and fulfil them! If people is struggling with a need, they’ll be ready to pay if you got a solution for them. Why not utilize that?
(CREATING a need is, in some cases, a much greater idea, but I will comment that method later on…)
…is amazing!
This is a sequel post to this post, and the world outside is not dangerous but inexhaustible.
I just came home from almost 20 days outside the borders of my home country, Denmark. I’ve been 10 days in Hamburg, Germany; and 10 days in France (mainly Britain). Right now I can’t describe all the feelings that I’m stuffed with, but one thing is for sure, it has been one of the (if not the) most giving vacations in my life!
I’ve seen things, done things, heard things, felt things that I never thought I should. It’s impressive, how many things this world is able to give you, if just you let it.
I don’t think a lot of people care about the world outside their own, and that’s sad. It’s sad to see how people protect their own world while the surrounding world (I believe, in most cases) is better. How can people judge something they haven’t seen and experienced with their own senses?…
Is it right to believe and live by what all the other say? HELL NO! Your risks, your chances, your understanding of the world, your life can only be challenged and experienced by one single person on this planet… (of cause it’s) YOU! Do something about it! Don’t let someone tell you how the world is working, experience by yourself!
I can’t stop thinking of why people settle. It’s because they want to feel safe but, when do people feel safe enough to stay? What makes them think of their home being the safest place to live? Especially when they haven’t tried the alternatives. Of cause you can always count on knowledge and others experiences. Anyone knows that Iraq, these days, isn’t the safest place to live. Or do they?
I mean, the information I have about the situation in Iraq is from the mass media and from friends (who also have been affected by the mass media). I haven’t been there myself, so I really can’t be sure, can I? Today, I live with the conviction that Iraq is the most dangerous place on earth, but in some way, I don’t believe that. I’ve listened to my neighbor (so to speak) who says that Iraq is dangerous, I haven’t felt it myself.
And I think that’s the sad effect of safe secure environments. People tend to believe anything which makes their own environment safer, even when the environment they’re living in is “dangerous”.
(dangerous in the meaning of being narrow-minded)
Explore the world, you’ll only gain by it…
The world outside…
Is it dangerous?
Have you ever heard of these online memorials? Dead people who used to be an active person online. When they die, their traces/profiles on the Internet are commented and visited like never before? No? Well, if I die in the next couple of weeks, I just wanna make sure that…nah, just kiddin’…(so may this thought be the memorial 
)
The next couple of weeks I can’t gurantee that I’ll write frequently because I’m heading to Hamburg in Germany today, and after that Paris in France. I’ll do my best though, to write some relevant posts during this holiday, and I’ll probably include some interesting pictures as well
Anyway, I hope you’re doing fine…May you all have a nice time
Cheers!
Marc F , the one who couldn’t resist
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