Coolest Blogs on the internet

Blogging seems to be a major part of SEO these days so I thought I would list my favorite blogs in order of how useful I found them.

1. Wordpress: This is hands-down the best blogging platform on the internet. Pages seem to get listed in Google straight away! If you need a blog, go for a Wordpress blog. Site Popularity in Alexa - 18
   
2. Blogger/Blogspot: Great Blog with plenty of extra features. I found it came up second best compared to Wordpress though. Site Popularity in Alexa - 5
   
3. Tumblr: This would have been number 2, but over the last two years it has become quite slow. Site Popularity in Alexa - 45
   
4. Posterous: Great concept. You can update your blog be sending an email. However, the search engines seem to ignore it. Site Popularity in Alexa - 472
   
5. Live Journal: Good for SEO but a little limited in what you can do with it. Site Popularity in Alexa - 81
   
6. Typepad: Too early to tell. After three days my first post is still not listed in Google, very limited in what you can do. Site Popularity in Alexa - 201
   

Not happy Jan!!! (Dux Hot Water)

I don't normally come here to vent, but I just got off the phone to a nice lady from Dux, who informs me that my Dux SUNPRO Gas 305 Solar Water Heater that seems to have a burnt out thermostat is no longer covered by warranty.

The original thermostat was replaced under warranty mid December 2008 after being in our new house for a year.

Ok, so we got a few years out of it, but should they burn out so frequently?

My girlfriend rang the plumber that Dux put us on to and was told that they should definitely NOT need to be replaced that often and that the unit has a computer which possibly could be also faulty as it synchronizes the solar and gas power.

I spoke to someone at Dux and they were very polite and keep their cool, even while dealing with this difficult customer. After I got around to explaining what the plumber said, and how I disappointed I was. When they replaced the first thermostat, the computer should have also been checked or replaced?

That's when I got a reaction from the lady! She became quite angry that the plumber said this. She claims the information was inaccurate and that he shouldn't have said that.

Hmm, he probably is more qualified to answer that than some lady from the Dux complaints line!

Later I got a call back. They had to ring this plumber and find out what he told me which apparently I got the story completely wrong as HE is PAID by Dux to give biased views of Dux hot water services, so he would never make up some story about a magically syncing computer that may or may not exist!

Anyone else have issues with Dux? Post them below. Or on one of the other sites full of disillusioned customers!

1. Dux Hot Water
   
2. Dux Hot Water Problems

If you are a representative of Dux, I would be happy for a response, however, I wouldn't expect one!

Coolest Guy in Melbourne for SEO

Wow! It has been a while since my last post on a two week challenge to become the "Coolest guy in Australia". I managed to crack the first page holding positions 7, 8 and 9, with minimal effort!
I have learned quite a lot from my search engine experiments which has lead me to quite a lot of SEO gigs around Australia.
Unfortunately it hasn't given me much time to blog as often as I would like to, but I love the challenge of taking on a new SEO project and getting results.
I am currently, between other projects, working on promoting three websites for a party planning company in Melbourne. There is a good spread of competition, but I know the odds are in my favour, thanks to a secret weapon I have. Can't give away too much just yet, but once I achieve number one rankings for the clients keywords I will post an update. But for now here are the sites I am working with:

• Melbourne Venues
• Melbourne Function Rooms
• Christmas Party Venues

Can't wait for winter to be over! The Coolest guy on Google, is currently also the Coldest guy on Google! ;)

Coolest guy in Australia (update)

Well, it's day 2 into my two week challenge and things seem to be going well.

I am currently on page three of Google for the search term "Coolest guy in Australia" (minus the quotes"). Not bad for a day, but I am looking for real results!

One thing that was missed in my previous post, is that Google LOVES keywords in the URL. Unfortunately blogspot ran out of room and cut Australia off the end of the URL! So this post is a bit of an addition to the first one with some cool tips for rating high in the search engines.

Having broken down keywords in the URL rates highly in Google, so it is no wonder why most SEO software for content management systems use URL re-writing to change something like www.website.com/index.php?post=213 to the title, such as www.website.com/index/coolest-guy-in-australia.html.

This is a good way to get around if you don't have a domain name with the keywords you are trying to promote. Sure it helps .... it helps a lot! But it's not the end of the world if you cant secure that keyword rich domain.

If you couldn't get www.coolestguyinaustralia.com, you could always get another name and set up some pages with these keywords e.g. www.otherdomain.com/coolest-guy-in-australia.html

Coolest Heading in Australia?

WTF? That heading doesn't even make sense? The point of this lesson, is that Google also LOVES Heading tags. Headings to Google weigh more in the Google formula than if that sentence was without the heading tags.

So, to wrap it up for the day. To get a well placed page in Google:

• Keywords in URL
• Keywords in Heading tags
  

All the best, from your future coolest guy in Australia, Jezhug ;)

the NEW Coolest guy in Australia (Me!)

Setting myself a mini challenge. Not content with holding positions one, two and three for the natural search term "Coolest guy on Google". I now am setting myself a two week challenge to become the "Coolest guy in Australia".

I really feel that your old pal Jezhug can achieve this. How? Well Google already knows I am the coolest, but I forgot to tell the number one search engine that I am also Australian. Therefore by default I should be crowned the coolest guy in Australia also.

I am just going to rely on three techniques and allow two weeks to see if I am successful.

1. Use of Blogspot labels, e.g. Coolest, guy, Google ..... Oh and of course Jezhug!
2. 10 of the best "Coolest guy in Australia" backlinks I can find.
3. A cool picture of the flag for Australia with good use of IMG ALT tags with the keywords ..... well you get the gist!

The Coolest Guy in the World

I just found this video at ColledgeHumor from a Google search and thought ..... I have to get a post up about this vid. This guy isn't just a great skater, he seems to be the coolest at every trick in the book.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

I decided to run a test. The results may surprise you.

The below graph is a screenshot in Alexa of the top two results for the natural Google search term of "Coolest Guy in the World". Number one is my arch-nemesis "Brad Fallon" (nah, not really, he is a really cool guy and well deserved of that number one spot). The second was the CollegeHumor website with the awesome video.

While Brads site generates high traffic it is barely a blip on the radar (that slight bump between Oct 12 and Oct 19) in comparison to CollegeHumor.

It just goes to show, you don't need massive traffic to be the number one on Google for your given search terms. You just need grab a good SEO book and build up a growing list of backlinks. Relevance will beat high traffic any day.

I know it's a bit like comparing apples from oranges as most of the traffic from CollegeHumor comes from many different sources. e.g. coming from a completely unrelated link and finding the video from the site.

But what would be more beneficial to your site? Higher rankings in the search engines or more actual traffic? For example, what if I was to leave a comment under the Coolest guy in the World video saying "That was awesome! Kind of reminds me of this video ** insert obvious link to my own site with embedded YouTube clip here **".

That comment could potentially send thousands of new visitors from a high traffic site to your own.

All is fair in love and Search Engine Optimization, so find that balance of getting to the top of Google (plus the other search engines) AND getting the traffic to your site from other sources.

Remember, you may be number one on Google today but you may not be there tomorrow ;)

Re-writing the book of cool!

Well, it's been about a month since my last blog post. I have been busy working with some great clients on improving their online presence.

Thought it was time to do a quick Google search to see if Google has dumped me yet.

In Australia today it is the famous Melbourne Cup, got a place bet with "Crime Scene" who came second. Shame it didn't come in first as it had 40:1 odds!

..... Oh, sorry. Went off track there for a while, but what I was trying to explain was why Google's logo has all of the pretty hats! Now when I first started this experiment, their were no predictive results from Google. That was why I decided to go for these exact keywords. Now it shows 412,000 results.The results speak for themselves. This blog is ranked number one for the search term "Coolest Guy on Google". Coming in second is the Facebook group I set up for the Coolest Guy on Google. And in third place .... yes, me again. My Hubpage for the Coolest Guy on Google.

I believe one of the contributing factors to my success is due to my Twitter account which has a backlink to this blog. For someone who is as anti-social as myself, I have really taken to all forms of social media like a duck to water.

this has probably made me even less sociable, opting to send messages via Facebook rather than visiting them in person.

I am addicted to finding new apps and widgets to expand my social profiles. Do a Google search for "jezhug" and you will see what I mean. 1,700 results at the time of this posting! But they all serve a purpose. Everyone of them has a backlink to this blog or some other site I am promoting.

The "jezhug" Google search is a great back linking example. Why? Because jezhug is not a word. It is simply a unique nickname I picked for myself for internet use. All links with the word "jezhug" were created by me or are byproducts of my excessive internet use!

Any of the sites listed on page one are GOLD! I have set up many links, the good ones rise to the top of the search engines while the weaker ones slowly move down the list.

These page one sites are great backlinks, and if you don't set up profiles at these sites with a link to your own site, then be prepared to hand over your search engine listing spot to to someone that will ;)