10 Ways All Employees Can Contribute to Link Building

While there are many aspects to SEO and getting your website to appear in the search engines, in the end it comes down to building links. The article below suggest 10 straight forward ways how people in your organization can participate in this process to benefit the exposure of your website in the search engines which should lead to more traffic.

10 Ways All Employees Can Contribute to Link Building | Search Engine Journal
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/10-ways-all-employees-can-contribute-to-link-building/19147/

It’s not a hidden secret that link building is an essential part of SEO, but how you go about building links can make a huge difference in your organic visibility. Having your company buy into the fact that actively building links to your site can help your bottom line can help make your efforts a lot easier. Instead of having an in-house SEO or marketing department focused on link building, why not leverage the power of the entire company and have everyone contribute.

(via Instapaper)

 

Sent from GuruBob’s ipPad

 

 

Blink – Malcolm Gladwell

I’ve long been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell and his books such as The Tipping Point, Outliers and What The Dog Saw so it was inevitable that at some time I would get around to reading his book Blink which I have just finished reading using the Kindle App on the Apple iPad.

While in many of his other books Gladwell focuses more on the external world and forces us to challenge our assumptions, Blink is focussed internally and more specifically on how are brains work both consciously and subconsciously. Blink is a fascinating read as by the end I had much greater respect for the importance of snap judgements and hunches as Gladwell throughly exposes why those are usually founded on a much stronger platform than we might suppose.

As in all his books the examples he uses to prove his points are fascinating and certainly kept me engaged throughout.

Our minds are wonderful and mysterious but Gladwell manages to offer just that little bit of insight that makes it seem understandable why we do the things we do.

I highly recommended Malcolm Gladwells books, they make compelling reading.

GuruBob

iPad/iPhone App of the Week: Air Video

Every now and then an App or website comes along that solves perfectly a need you have but that you didn’t know a solution existed for.

And for me that App is Air Video…

You see I have an extensive collection of movies stored on an external hard drive…far to many to add to iTunes and in any case, most are in .avi format which iTunes doesn’t like.

To watch those videos I have to copy them to the machine where I want to watch them usually via a memory stick or a network transfer and play using an application like the VLC player.

And then along comes the iPad and of course I’m thinking, well, I want to watch those videos on the iPad but I don’t want to have to convert them to an iTunes compatible format and sync to the iPad every time I want to watch a particular movie.

What to do, what to do…

Then I see a brief tweet by Don McAllister from Screencasts online saying that there is an iPad version of Air video.

And I’m thinking…could this solve my problem?

And amazingly, it did. I CAN’T believe this app has existed for the iPhone for ages and now there is an iPad version and it works PERFECTLY and I DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT IT!

After having downloaded the app to the iPhone or iPad and installed a software application on the computer where the videos are stored (and identified folders containing the videos) you simply navigate to the server on the iPad (or iPhone) in the Air Video App, select the video and hit play (for videos in an Apple friendly format like .mp4). For videos in a non-Apple friendly format you select play with live conversion and the server will convert the file before streaming to your device on-the-fly.

And it works and it is beautiful and I can watch my videos on my iPhone or iPad wherever I want to be.

I can’t recommend this App highly enough if, like me, you have lots of videos you don’t want to sync to your mobile devices via iTunes.

I don’t think I can suggest any improvements at all. The App works perfectly right from installation.

Kudos to the developers.

Guru Bob

ps now if only there were a version of Air Video I could run on my laptop…hint hint.

GuruBob.co and Moving A WordPress Blog

My main blog used to be hosted on the domain gurubobsblog.com. Recently, however, I was approached by the domain register for the soon to be released .co domain to participate as a co-founder and relocate my blog onto a .co domain.

And so http://www.gurubob.co/ was born and the post at the link below explains my reasons for re-location and some information about the .co domain opportunity.

GuruBobsBlog.com has moved to GuruBob.co

Moving to the new domain involved moving a WordPress Blog which cause a certain amount of trepidation but didn’t turn out to be quite as bad as I thought. I’ve recently published a post on the steps involved in moving a WordPress Blog and some of the issues and solutions I experienced.

Moving a WordPress Blog

For those that haven’t checked out my main blog it is the home of my online publishing in relation to the Thirty Day Challenge and on other subjects of interest such as SEO, Internet marketing in general and NLP. Take a look if you have any interest in those subjects.

It is as it is.

GuruBob

Untitled

Just finished listening to Seth Godins book Linchpin as an audiobook on my iPhone. It’s all about how to become indispensable in your life either as an employee, a business owner or whatever.

As Seth points out, becoming indispensable is not easy and is usually entirely the responsibility of the individual rather than the organisation within which the individual is practising or offering their skills and output.

I did find the book strangely motivating and Seth does cover in some detail the characteristics that define and indispensable person. I was also intrigued by the fact the Set defines a linchpin as being artistic and their output as art.

While I do consider myself as a linchpin, I have always thought of myself as a Scientist and scientific in the way I go about my work.  Now, it seems I can legitimately call myself an artist…at least if Seth Godins definition has any merit.

Click here to find Linchpin on Amazon

It is as it is.

GuruBob

iPad Crack – News and Reviews

Well…the day has nearly arrived when the Apple iPad is about to go on general availability in the US.  The tech forums and feeds abound with stories not only about the iPad itself (generally the reviews are good to excellent) but also about the myriad of iPad apps that are either about to be released or due to arrive very soon.

My favourite story was the interview of Steve Jobs by Stephen Fry in Time magazine but I also enjoyed the iPad video analysis by Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times.

On the app front, the landscape is changing so fast it’s hard to keep up but Gizmodo has published a good list of essential iPad apps.

For myself, I will be vicariously watching the adventures or Paul Colligan and Ed Dale as they undertake Operation iPad. It is a very exciting time rioght now in Tech and I can’t wait to get my hands on an iPad and begin to intergrate it into my daily life.

It is as it is.

GuruBob

The Hurt Locker and the Academy Awards

Well, the Academy Awards have come and gone and the film that took out the major awards (Best Film and Best Director) went to the previously little known – The Hurt Locker.

I had seen this film some time ago, it having been talked about extensively by Mark Kermode from BBC Five Live’s movie podcast. I enjoyed it immensely as I do like war films and there have been only a few really good films about the Iraq war.

The Hurt Locker is a character study focussing on a bomb disposal team and reveals in a group of people living on the edge how important personality and integrity are to the survival of the group. Of course this is a group of men in war time so the testosterone level is high which makes the direction all the more masterful given that this film was directed by a women – Kathryn Bigelow. Her Best Director gong was a just reward.

While I think The Hurt Locker is a very good film, I’m not sure it was the best film of the year and the filmgoing audience supports that. In America it only took $20,000,000 at the box office prior to The Oscar’s and in some countries it looked as though it would be a straight to DVD film before the Oscar Buzz happened.

My personal favourite for Best Picture and Best Director was Inglourious Basterds (and Quentin Tarantino) but it didn’t have the momentum at this time of the year as it did when it was released. Avatar took out the awards it should have (Visual effects and art direction) but just being the highest grossing film ever doesn’t give it a lock on the awards. Avatar is a must see for the ground breaking cinematography and effects. Time will tell if it’s 3D wizardry marks the shake-up in the movie industry that some are suggesting.

I’ve put a trailer for The Hurt Locker below if you haven’t seen it yet.

It is as it is.

GuruBob

What is this thing called Google Buzz?

For many of you Gmail users out there, you will have seen a new facility offered to you over the last week called Google Buzz. I’ve been trying to get my head around where Buzz will ‘fit’ and I’ve already seen some good things and some bad.

Basically, Google Buzz allows you to share updates, photos, videos, and more to people who wish to follow you. You can therefore start conversations about the things you find interesting.

On the one hand it has some of the features and utility of Twitter + Facebook + Friendfeed and on the other it is somewhat intrusive and overwhelming. In communicating to the people that follow you (these will be other people who have Gmail accounts), you are not restricted by the 140 character limit that Twitter has. Your followers can then comment on your Buzz which you and your followers will see thereby initiating a conversation about the things you share.

The extent of comments can be very irritating such as on a typical Mashable post where there can be over 100 comments which leads to a great deal of ‘noise’ in your Buzz page.  One thing I will say about Google is that they have been responding to early negative comments about Buzz and making rapid changes to the Buzz functionality consistent with the negative feedback.

The management of comments and the issue of auto following within Buzz are early examples of this.

While it is too early to say, for those people that are using Buzz, it seems to be facilitating a great deal more user comment and feedback than other social services.  This maybe due to it’s newness but it is a characteristic I will be monitoring going forward.

I don’t have too much more to say at this stage but look forward to really seeing how it is going to fit within my own social media and networking strategy. I think it could be a keeper but I don’t think it will replace services like Twitter and Facebook.

Mashable have also written extensively about Google Buzz over the last week including a great post below:

Google Buzz has completely changed the game:  Here’s How

It is as it is.

GuruBob

 

iPhone App Of The Week: Facebook

I’m not sure that Facebook is one of my favorite sites, I do have a Facebook account but I would put it into the category of a necessary evil.

I just find the web interface so complex and irritating. Which is why I love the Facebook iPhone app so much. It is simple, clean, quite fast and easy to navigate and a lot of the web functions seems to be available from the app.

So if Facebook is your thing and you have an iPhone. Checkout the Facebook app. It’s another free app and a must have if you spend any length of time in your Facebook account.

It is…as it is.

Guru Bob

Movie Of The Week – Departures

Having written previously about the wonderful “Let The Right One In” I was amazed to find out it didn’t win the Academy Award for best foreign film in 2009. In fact it lost out to a wonderful Japanese film called Departures.

It took me ages to actually get around to watch Departures but recently I did.  I was amazed to read that this film took over $60 million dollars at the Japanese box office but only a paltry $1.5 Million in the US and probably another Million dollars elsewhere.  This is criminal really, as it is a wonderful film and deserved to have a much bigger audience outside Japan. I guess cinema audiences just won’t go out to watch a sub-titled film.

Departures (Okuribito) 2008

The basic plot line is about a devoted cellist who loses his job when the Orchestra he works for disbands. He ends up applying for what he thinks is a job in a travel agency but ends up being a job as an encoffineer which is a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. Everybody in his life hates the fact he has taken this job but as time passes, he begins to take considerable pride in his work as he perfects the art of “Nokanshi,” acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living.

I have to say I was profoundly moved by this film. The scenes showing the main character preparing the bodies to go into the coffin, often in the presence of the deceased family were incredibly respectful and emotional and shows the incredible respect the Japanese have for the dead. I read somewhere that over 95% of Japanese are cremated after death.

As Adam and Matty would say over on filmspotting.net, it got a little ‘dusty’ several times. Despite the subject matter this excellent drama doesn’t get bogged down by melodrama and manages to offer a different perspective of death and the profession of a “casketer”.This would be close to my favorite film of the last 12 months second only to Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards.

I highly recommend you take a look at this wonderful film.

It is…as it is.

GuruBob