Micro-blogging Tips

Micro-blogging has hit mainstream, but not everyone has adapted to it. For example, Twitter only allows you to “tweet”, or message,  up to 140 characters. This isn’t much room to tell the world about your recent adventure to Las Vegas or the new product your company is about to introduce. For those of you are are used to article writing or blogging this is a significant change.

With a few tips and a little practice, you can meet the the challenge of getting a message across is such a small amount of characters. Here are a couple of tips to fit your “tweet” into 140 characters:

• User characters. You should start using “&” for the word “and”, # for number or %, or use = creatively.
• Contractions are your friend! Instead of using “it is”, use “it’s”, or “will not” use “won’t”.
• Shorten your URL’s. A long URL can use up far too many precious characters. Use websites like http://bit.ly/ to shorten your URLs.
• Only when absolutely necessary use common texting abbreviations. Use “2″ instead of “to”, or “brb” for “be right back”.  Be warned! These work, but look very unprofessional.

What other tips do you have for getting your message out to the world in under 140 characters? Post them below and happy “tweeting”!

Global Google Search Results

Many people don’t realize that when they search Google, they’re receiving different data than people who live in other places around the country. Different data centers are updated at different times, meaning search results can change depending on where queries are pointing to.

To check results in the various data centers, use Google Datacenter Search.

Henrie Media attending BlogWorld 2010

Henrie Media will be attending the 2010 BlogWorld Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 14-16, 2010 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Join us at the World’s Largest New Media event and learn about Content Creation, Distribution and Monetization strategies, step-by-step techniques and bleeding-edge tools from the most successful Bloggers, Podcasters, Social Media Pro’s, Internet TV and Radio Content Generators and New Media Marketing Pro’s! From the premier educational sessions at the Social Media Business Summit and BlogWorld Conference, to the resource-rich New Media Expo, to Amazing Networking events…it’s One economical trip, One weekend, One Big Show!

Break sentence between words

This is a useful script for anybody who wishes to get the beginning of a string up to the word break before $num of characters. Usually the use of substr will break half way through a word and leave things looking a little untidy on your site. This little function allows you to set the maximum length of the string, then it returns all the whole words before it. If the supplied string is shorter than the maximum length, the whole string is returned.

<?php

/**
*
* @break a string at the end of the last word
* before $maxlength chars
*
* @param string $string
*
* @param int $maxlength
*
* @return string
*
*/
function wordbreak($string, $maxlength)
{
$string = substr($string, 0, $maxlength);
return substr($string, 0, strrpos($string, ” ”));
}

/*** example usage ***/
$string = ’Kyle was hoping to be finished before he left on his vacation to Hawaii! He also wanted to make sure the dog was fed, the house was clean and the lawn was mowed’;

echo wordbreak($string, 50).’ …’;

?>

Customer Service Keeps Customers

Successful companies provide proactive customer service. Proactive customers service leads to increased business and loyalty. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

Check, check again and re-check
Customers appreciate it when a sales representative takes a minute to check on an item they’ve asked for. It lets them know they’re being listened to and cared for.

Go the extra mile
Average service is about meeting the customer’s expectations. Great customer service is exceeding it. Give your customers more than they expect, and they’ll return to do business with you.

Take the initiative
Offer several solutions to the customer’s predicament. If one doesn’t work, make sure you have multiple avenues to resolve their problems. This way, the customer knows you are trying your best to help them, and in the future will not hesitate to buy from you, since they’ll know whatever problem they have, you’ll be able to fix it.

Show the current weather on your website

Many times it is neat to display the current temperature on your website, and there are a lot of different ways to go about this. I’d like to show you the easiest way to display the temperature on your site using XML from the National Weather Service (NOAA) and simple XML commands in PHP.

Get Started

To get started, you will need to find weather data. The National Weather Service offers this data in free XML feeds, which you can find at http://www.weather.gov/xml/current_obs/. To get started, select an XML feed you’d like to use. I’m using a Salt Lake City, Utah, ID feed, which looks like:

http://www.weather.gov/xml/current_obs/KSLC.xml

You will is this URL in the PHP code to get your location’s current temperature.

The Code

To get the data we want from the XML feed, we will be using the simplexml_load_file() function. This will, essentially, parse the XML for us, making it ready to use as text online. Here is the code you will need:

<?php
// Load the XML
$xml_slc = simplexml_load_file(‘http://www.weather.gov/xml/current_obs/KSLC.xml’);
// Get the current temperature
$slc_temp = $xml_slc->temp_f;
//echo $slc_temp.”&deg; F”;
?>

The output you get should be something similar to 64°. It’s that easy and and it’s FREE! Enjoy!

Use multiple lines with document.write()

I often get the question if it’s possible to use document.write() in JavaScript to output multiple likes instread of having to put – document.write(‘ – at the beginning of every line and – ‘); – at the end. The answer is Yes. Here is how -

document.write(
‘line1′
+’line2′
+’line3′
)

OR -

document.write(
‘line1′ + ‘\n’
+’line2′ + ‘\n’
+’line3′ + ‘\n’
)

..or use a single string -

document.write(
‘line1\
line2\
line3′
)

JavaScript is a little funny, so make sure you test! Hope this helps!

Henrie Media attending LeadsCon 2010

Henrie Media Inc. will be attending this years LeadsCon. LeadsCon is the preeminent conference dedicated to increasing the effectiveness of those operating in the online lead generation industry. LeadsCon provides a unique and collaborative environment designed for networking and sharing. Meet the people, gather the knowledge, and get the tools to gain the edge in the ever evolving online lead generation space.

February 23-24, 2010 at The Mirage Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. http://www.leadscon.com/

32 Search Engine Optimization Tips

1. Repeat information throughout your page. Make sure your title tag, meta content, headers, and content all match up.
2. Have a strong text to code ratio. If 95% of your page is made up of code the search engines are going to have a harder time reading the content.
3. Add keywords to your page names. A page with the name of purina_dog_treats.html is more likely to boost search results than treats.html.
4. Bold keywords in your content. Many search engines give more relevance to bolded terms.
5. Don’t create a Flash website. Maybe someday in the future search engines will be able to make sense of Flash, but for now, you won’t get ranked under more than one page if you build your entire site in Flash.
6. Promote your website on blogs, forums, and other websites you webmaster. Backlinks are important for seo, but traffic can be too. If your link is in a relevant place and it draws a steady stream of traffic, search engines will give it more relevance.
7. Make sure you use your keywords in your alt tags. But avoid keyword stuffing.
8. Practice only ethical seo. Unethical seo practices could get your site banned from Google.
9. Use <h1>, <h2> etc. in your headers. Search engines place more relevance on header tags.
10. More content is typically better. A page with more content will have a better text to code ratio meaning the search engines won’t have to wade through as much code. This also allows for more opportunities to use your relevant keywords.
11. Make sure to research your keywords. Choosing keywords that merely represent the company or services your website offers isn’t always the best route to take. Instead, look for relevant search strings and alter your content to reflect what is actually being searched. For example, if your company sells all sorts of posters and frames, but gold framed posters are getting a high search volume, target those keywords instead of being general.
12. Put some thought into your description meta. This is the text that people will typically see on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). If the description is not enticing or relevant, users will not click.
13. Track which pages get hits and find out what is working. Using software like Visitorville lets you see very detailed statistics about which pages are getting hit and what site directed them there. If you are getting a lot of traffic from a certain keyword, considering writing more content for that term.
14. Avoid using text colors that are similar to their background colors. Google may interpret your text as being cloaked- meaning a possibility that you will be taken off of their list. Contrasting text is not only search engine friendly, you will be doing a service to your readers.
15. Move away from tables in your designs. Tables create code bloat which makes it more difficult for search engines to find the relevant content on your page. Use css positioning whenever possible.
16. Install Firefox developer toolbar and poke around competitor sites that have high ranking. If you want to compete with the big companies, find out what they’re doing right and try to emulate them. Seo techniques aren’t copyrighted.
17. Pay a blogger to review your website.Not only will you get backlinked, you may also generate some decent traffic.
18. Target appropriate backlinks. Quality backlinks are great for your site’s organic relevance and will also drive traffic.
19. Create a facebook, myspace or moli page for your site. All of these are indexed by Google.
20. Add keywords to your image names. Sometimes people will find your site on a Google images search. Image names will also be read by search engines and give the page more relevance.
21. Create a text document called robots.txt in the site root.
22. A frequently updated sitemap is vital. Whether you use an xml or html sitemap, it’s important that search engines can easily find every page that you want indexed. Make sure to update the sitemap every time you add a new page.
23. Create a 404 page. In some cases you will have to fight against Internet Explorer which likes to hijack your 404 functionality, so Google a tutorial if you’re having trouble. 404 pages are an excellent way to capture any misspelled links or broken anchors that would anger your users and throw off search engines.
24. Use external styles and javascript.Don’t clutter your page with in-line styles or heavy handed javascript statements. This is more code that search engines have to wade through to get to your content.
25. Don’t add too many conditions to dynamic urls. A url of only one or two conditions will do much better on the SERPs than a url with 5 conditions (all other things being equal).
26. Rewrite dynamic urls if possible. It’s an advanced technique- but if you have access to a knowledgeable developer it is advantageous to rewrite dynamic urls to contain keywords from the page content.
27. Submit your site to DMOZ. But don’t hold your breath. DMOZ chooses which sites they want to add to their directory- and the waiting list is typically very long. It’s worth it to submit to their list- but definitely not essential.
28. Clean up your code. Programs like Visual Studio and Dreamweaver allow you to automatically clean up your code for readability. This will help you trim the fat and eliminate as much code as possible.
29. Don’t duplicate content in your site. Search engines are looking for unique content that can only be found on any given page. If you duplicate large portions of content from one page to another you will be creating competition within your own site for top ranking on the SERPs.
30. Write a blog. Many webmasters, seo specialists, etc. have created blogs that they update 2-3 times a week. The more popular the blog gets, the more value the backlinks you’ve created will be to the search engines.
31. Create a Youtube channel. If you don’t have video content relating to your website, buy a webcam and start filming some. Even if your videos are only moderately successful, they can provide a fair amount of regular traffic to your site- as well as provide backlinks.
32. Create microsites.Many companies have created microsites that have gimmicks in them such as flash games- and backlinked to their main website. This not only produced more interest in the company services and products, but improved seo results.

Google Adsense, not for the entrepreneur

I have recently found out, from personal experience, that Google does not like the entrepreneur and they especially hate someone who follows proper development standards to use Adsense.  Let me explain. Recently I applied for membership in Google’s Adsense and was approved. I was looking forward to making a few bucks each month from Adsense. I put up my links, checked everything to make sure it was working and then began to watch the stats. After the first three days I made a whopping $3.60! I was on my way … until it happened … I was suspended from Adsense.

Confused and very irritated, I read the email that Google sent telling me that I MAY have been suspended due to click fraud. What? Are you kidding me! Google aledges that I tried to create revenue by clicking on the links that displayed on my website. This was totally not true! In fact, there was no clicks from my website. The only thing I can figure is that they saw a lot of impressions from the same IP address. The reasons for all of the impressions was because we follow a simple rule of development, we test our code before and after deployment.  With this testing, from the same IP address, Google MAY have decided that I was a threat to their system.

I tried to explain my situation to Google via their disabled account reinstatement form. They say they will contact you in the next 7 days about reinstatement or they won’t. They tell you they may let you know if your account is reinstated or maybe they won’t. They don’t guarantee anything – and they delivered! No response, no one to talk to, no way to find out what happened!  Google is so big they don’t care about the entrepreneur just trying to make a little extra money.

What happened to customer service? What happened to communication? What happened to simple courtesy? I guess if you are an Internet giant making money hand over fist, none of this matters. So this is my salute to Google – the global giant that hates entrepreneurs. Keep crushing us down so you can keep growing bigger.