Dennis Pallett’s Tech Blog

A great resume

It seems Google is of the sneaky kind.

Just after Microsoft announced their new MSN search, Google upped their official number of index pages to over 8 billion. It seems they have a tendency to do this whenever a rival announces something important.

When Yahoo announced their own search engine last year, Google upped their index as well, to 4 billion (from I think 3 billion). Now they do it again with MSN. Very sneaky, though it seems to do the trick (it gets a lot of attention!). And hey, I’m happy. I just got WAY more pages indexed.

Though MSN doesn’t feel the same way

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As part of the promotion strategy for EZ FAQ’s I’m trying out Link Monkeys.

Instead of spending a lot of time yourself looking for link exchanges, you can let Link Monkeys do all this for you. They’ve got several different packages ranging from $13.00 (50 links, low PR) to $22 (50 links, high PR). Seems pretty cheap, so I’m giving it a go.

I’ve ordered the $13.00 package, because EZ FAQ’s has no PR at all yet. So far I’m still waiting for any actual link exchanges, but a seperate client page has already been setup for me and according to that page 63 other websites have been contacted for a link exchange. Hopefully I’ll be seeing some results soon.

In a week or two I’ll post back about the results. If it works out very well, I’m going to do this for my other websites as well. It’s much easier than searching for hours through Google for a decent link exchange.

I recently came across an excellent post on SitePointForums, made by member stymiee. He outlined the steps to start a new website in a nutshell. To quote the real beef of his post:

The best way to get ranked highly in the search engines is to create and implement a SEO strategy. Acquiring inbound links is just one part of the process. A good strategy would be outlined as such:

Before you launch your site, you should have done the following:
- Optimized your title tags on each page to contain 1 - 3 keywords
- Used appropriate markup where necessary
- Used keywords liberally yet appropriately throughout each page
- Designed the navigational structure of the site to channel PR to main pages (especially the homepage)
- Used Search Engine Friendly URLs (if necessary)
- Created a complete website with plenty of quality content
- Used keywords in your domain and url (http://www.keyword1.com/keyword2/keyword3.html)

Immediately after launching your site you should do the following:
- Submit your site, by hand, to all major search engines
- Submit your site to all free directories (dmoz, yahoo (if applicable), etc..)
- Begin a link building campaign (attempting to get keywords in the reciprocal link anchor text)

Finally, as part of an ongoing strategy:
- Continually update your website will quality content
- Continually seek free and reciprocal links preferably from sites in your genre

Absolutely brilliant, and 100% correct. I think I’m going to print this out, and simply have it next to my computer as a cheat sheet (and to combat my delaying work problem). It’s these posts that really make forums like SitePoint Forums useful!

I often tend to delay work, to the point where I can actually spend several hours doing nothing, even though I’ve got tons to do.

I’ve noticed this for a very long time now, and I’m not sure how to battle this yet. I always have stuff to do when I’m on the computer. My websites are never finished, and I there’s always something that needs to be done. But I still feel bored very often. Whenever I think of something to do, I usually think of some kind of excuse like “that can wait” or “I don’t feel like doing that now”. It’s a really bad habit.

Lately, I’ve been slightly better, and actually gotten things done. When I do get stuff done though, I get a really pleased feeling, especially when I’ve had a really productive day (they are the best!).

One thing I have noticed that breaks up any productiveness is my e-mail program and RSS aggregator. I tend to check my RSS aggregator at least 15 times a day, and my e-mail as well. This is bad. Really bad!

I think from now on I should only check the aggregator twice a day. One time when I start the computer, and one time an hour before I go to bed. No more. The same goes for my e-mail program (unless I’m expecting an important e-mail). This should really help, I hope.

Anyone else experience the same problem? Any useful tips on combating this habit?

Another great website based on a Wiki has launched: ResumeWiki.

I already saw it two weeks ago, as Jeremy Wright, the founder of ResumeWiki, gave a sneak peek to his blog readers. To quote Jeremy’s description of ResumeWiki:

ResumeWiki is a community edited resume centre. You post your profile (goals, etc) and resume the community of peers will give you comments and possible edits. It is about harnessing the power of lots of eyes to help you get your job. It is kind of like Open Source’ing your resume. Less bugs, more potential, less work for the individual (you).

Beyond editing and commenting on your resume, ResumeWiki is also a ResumeWriting and JobHunting resource, with pages like the Recruiting Blogs list, tips on ResumeWriting, JobHunting tips and a ResourceDirectory which includes a list of more than 30 corporate job hunting sites.

Feel free to create a profile on ResumeWiki, and post your own resume. If traffic starts to pick-up, and other people will start commenting on each other’s resumes, I think something really good can come out of this.

I recently mentioned that I was looking for content partners. I have found a few partners, and everything is working out very nicely. The website is coming along, and content is being added by me and my partners.

The basis for this "partnership" (it really isn’t exactly a partnership though) is revenue sharing. Basically, I allow others who write content to add their Google AdSense ID to their profile. Each content item (in my case FAQ’s) has an AdSense advertisement next to the content. If the advertisement is clicked, then the full revenue will go to the author who wrote the content, and not me (the site owner). In addition, I also offer a link back to the author’s website.

It is possible to change these terms to whatever you think is best. For example, DigitalPoint Forums has a 50/50 revenue sharing deal. On every new thread started by you there is a 50% possibility that your AdSense ID is used. Considering there is quite a lot of traffic on those forums, you should be able to make a nice buck, and you don’t even have to do anything extra for it!

I personally think this is a very good website model, and I’m considering using it on a few other websites as well. Revenue sharing was recently mentioned in the Webmaster’s Weekly, and I think it’ll be used more often and in different ways. I’m wondering if this is possible with other ad networks as well? Maybe you can do it with FastClick, BURST! Media, and others as well? Who knows.

In about a month or two I’ll review how it went; if this revenue sharing model is actually working. Pay attention to Paul Scrivens‘ weblog as well. I got the idea from him, and he’s been using
it for a while longer now. And besides, he has an interesting blog!

Have you ever, in the recent years, looked forward to an upgrade from Microsoft? No, I didn’t think so either.

That’s one of Microsoft mistakes. In the past few years, there haven’t been ANY upgrades at all that I’ve been looking forward to. Neowin recently mentioned this and they’re completely right. All the upgrades released by Microsoft are mostly fixes, security patches, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I love those bug fixes and security patches to keep my system up-to-date, but there are no exciting upgrades anymore.

I’m talking about upgrades that add new features to Microsoft software, or Windows. I want new features, and I want to look forward to getting new features. It’s great to hear about new features in FireFox from Mozilla users that use nightly builds. I usually can’t wait to get my hands on a stable version. I can easily wait a few weeks, because I know that new cool stuff is coming. And when it is released, I immediately download it, and talk about it. Spread it. Convince other people to download, and especially talk about the new features!

There is no such hype with Microsoft. No new features. No nothing.

I am looking for a few people to help me add content to EZ FAQ’s.

It currently has little content, and I can only add so many FAQ’s every day (I’m aiming to add at least 5 FAQ’s every day). I’d like a few people to help me with adding FAQ’s.

I won’t pay you, because I have no money available for this website. However, on every FAQ there is an AdSense advertisement (example). On all FAQ’s added by you, YOUR AdSense ID will be used for the advertisement. That means that you’ll get 100% of the money that is made through that AdSense advertisement.

If you write more FAQ’s, you’ll be able to get more money. If you write high-quality FAQ’s, there’s a higher chance people will read it and link to it, which means you’ll probably get more clicks on your AdSense advertisment. I earn NOTHING on your FAQ’s, only on the FAQ’s that I add myself.

There is NO minimum requirement for adding FAQ’s. You can add 1 FAQ each week, or 10 FAQ’s a day. It’s all fine by me.

Adding FAQ’s is very easy, because EZ FAQ’s is powered by a full-blown CMS, with user logins and everything.

I just recently re-launched EZ FAQ’s, so at the moment it has very little traffic. But with some good quality content, and marketing, traffic will most likely increase quick!

If you have any questions, please ask them in the comments. If you are interested, e-mail me.

Any takers? Or is this deal unreasonable (let me know!)?

The Mozilla Foundation is planning on running a full-page ad celebrating the 1.0 release of Firefox, and it needs donations from us, the users! Besides the warm fuzzy feeling you get of donating, your name will also be included in the ad.

I’ve already donated $10 (student discount rate), and I ask all Firefox fans to do the same. Just to get more notice to Firefox.

If you donate through my donation link, I will become a “Community Champion” if I get at least 10 people to donate.

So, what are you waiting for? Start donating!