November 6, 2008 – 1:36 pm
After squeezing my smiley faced stress ball half to death this morning - I had a web ex to attend and the lag was a wee bit annoying. Anyway for the first time I think I thought I’d post something about what I’ve been messing about with lately rather than the usual ephemera.
WordTracker
We’ve been using WordTracker in the SEO team for quite a while now - purely because I’d have killed someone if I had to wait any longer on getting data from Overture (how often can one system timeout in a day - go to Overture and have a shot). Wordtracker is a great way to get mass results quickly for your keyword research. Allows for pretty acute modelling and when the data is fed into some of our systems we can get really accurate models for campaign performance over the longer term. That said getting a good long tail model is kinda hard. But help is at hand - esp for bloggers. There is now a wordtracker lab where you can find questions asked in search engines about products - so if you blog at a corporate level, are an affiliate or just want more traffic get these questions in your posts and away you go. See what people are asking about in relation to SEO.
CoreMetrics
I’ve spent about four hours this week being trained in CoreMetrics by Colby Hanks so we can get even better results than before on our online marketing efforts for Peacocks.co.uk (I was going to load that link with keywords but for once thought better of it!). As ever with these WebEx things it was a hell of a lot to take in at one time but well worthwhile. Have already found some nice little nuggets for the SEO guys to ladle into and get some more sales. Watch out ASOS we’re coming to get you!
Google Analytics
After whining about the fact that I didnt have access to some of the nice new functions in Google Analytics that I’d seen videos of on youTube and read about online I was finally given them in my control panel. The new reporting options and the ability to switch between tailored views has really helped me get a better understanding of who’s buying & who’s browsing - and getting a far larger understanding of modelling intent from keywords so we can tailor onsite content to match the psychology of the user. Further to that some of it just looks cool, (always useful with analytics as some of it can be pages of stats - nothing like little coloured dots changing size and color to improve things).
As a quick aside here’s some links that folks may find interesting that’ve came in my RSS digest this week:
- Eric Ward talks about link building
- Some companies just don’t get SEO
- Google Stops Hiring - is this the new indicator of economic performance?
October 31, 2008 – 3:54 pm
As part of our annual calendar @ Equator Halloween stands out as one of the days when things generally end up a bit messy. Everyone gets dressed up - paying a fine to charity if they do not indulge in the costume merriment et al.
Here is this years team shot - and yes its Scotland and its perishing
October 16, 2008 – 2:14 pm
Everyone has guilty little pleasures (please tell me they do - it’ll make me feel better). Anyway I know everyone has songs they really like - but never admit to. by the way of brinkmanship I thought I’d show you mine if you show me yours was the best way to go. As an aside this is 100% truthful and is not intended to be ironic, post modern or any of those big words that people hide behind.
Read More »
October 16, 2008 – 12:38 pm
Below are links to the bookmark pages within del.icio.us (I know its now delicious.com but I prefer the old skool version - kinda like Lynns note taking)
- PalinAsPresident.com - Political Satire of what would happen in Sarah Palin was president of the United states. Is kinda funny.
- John McCain is Your Jalopy - Nope I’ve no idea WTF this means but it did make me laugh
- Big List of Obama Jokes - I thought I better provide some balance in a BBC stylee
- Watchmen Stuff - God I love that comic book
Right thats enough delicious.com/del.icio.us stuff for today. Toodles
October 9, 2008 – 11:38 am
The world’s gone mad. To sell houses some folk in Glasgow are trying to sell flats (Studio flat starting at about £115K) with websites. OK this aint bad until till you see their flash movie -> http://www.gh2o.co.uk/love-story.
FFS I can tell you that if gh20 is populated with prostitute and frequented by sailors who booked through an escort agency they may not be able to maintain these prices. Even if they do the wonderful scam used by many house builders of offering to pay the deposit!
Sex sells - but sometimes as with all marketing sex just becomes absurd and funny. And to add insult to injury someone I know has been writing stuff to advertise it (they will be getting seriously reprimanded the next time I see them).
The view of sex from Heaven
- Bethany : Sex is a joke in Heaven?
- The Voice of God : The way I understand it, it’s mostly a joke down here, too.
Pinched from Dogma by Kevin Smith
September 10, 2008 – 5:27 pm
After having started to receive pain in the proverbial calls from people trying to get me to go to Orange for my mobile phone - it’s always Orange they’re trying to sell me. No matter which company calls me they always want me to go to Orange!
Anyway I decided to remove my number from these lists - as its getting pretty daft. One company has a habit of calling and when you answer they hang up. you call them back and eventually they try to sell you a new mobile!!! So I ended up paying for a call to them to tell them top leave me alone : I didn’t know they were trying to sell me a phone when I called (hope that makes sense).
Does anyone know how I can get these idiots to stop as they are damaging my happiness
August 29, 2008 – 5:07 pm
I know that diets are about woman taking control of their own bodies and losing weight because they want to. I’m damn sure its got a shed load to do with the pictures they see everywhere and the pressure they feel from all areas of the media and society.
Duly I am probably talking out of turn but I think Kate Spicer looked far cuter before her diet than after it. She looks nothing like her alleged 39 years.
Before diet on left and after diet on the right. She is far hotter in the before pic.
August 28, 2008 – 3:39 pm
Yet another study done by idiots. Have they visited Falkirk and seen how happy people are? Everyone got laid off from BP a few years ago - that made us happy. Beers bloody expensive - that makes us happy. Out football team were getting better but Yogi’s OAP policy is killing us just now (although I could be off kilter as we have played both halves of the old firm in the first three games of the season). Falkirk is a dormir ville (inhabited by people who work elsewhere and come back to sleep - me included). Our council is rubbish - you should see the rubbish outside our flat awaiting the mystical ’special uplift’. Its grey and rains all the time due to our proximity to the Ochil hills.
That said we do enjoy getting drunk, have some of the highest levels of violence in the UK and more. So if you are a buckfast swilling ex-boxer with a penchant for damp weather and a football team on a downward trajectory why not come and live in Falkirk. you’ll be happy…
See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7584321.stm for more daft info
August 28, 2008 – 12:01 pm
Just found out that you can download, for free, the 2 Many DJs remix of ‘Hey Boy, Hey Girl’ in MP3 format. If you fancy it click here.
I always preferred SoulWax to 2 Many DJs - did see them DJ down at ‘Death Disco’ @ the Arches and they rocked but as they didnt play the Imperial March from Star Wars on their KeyTar wasn’t half as much fun. That said I do remember I was only drinking alcohol based upon colour at the time and I was on a ‘pink’ evening which involved far too many alcopops and vodka with Cranberry juice.
August 22, 2008 – 12:58 pm
Best image of the week goes to Facking Cants with the below image:
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