Beer Truck, originally uploaded by destinetics.

An impressive use of Photoshop…. or is it real?

Real or not it’s making me thirsty!

                              

One of the most important part of SEO is undoubtedly Link Building. Onsite SEO can only get your so far in the Search Engines and a good understanding of Link Building is a must if you want to get highly ranked in the Search Engine Result Pages or SERPS.

The other day I came across this handy Professional SEO Link Building Services and Strategies Chart from ProspectMX.

You can download the full size chart at the ProspectMX Website for free. You can also order a printed poster version for $30 from their website.

The link building strategy diagram breaks down link building into 5 main
categories:

• Link Bait
• Social Communities
• Paid/Traded Links
• Cherry Picking Links
• Content Submissions

Each category is then broken down further. It’s a nice, simple representation of what link building is all about in 2008. The chart will also be updated as things change in the world of link building.

                              

There are a lot of people using shared web hosting. When you use shared hosting you share a web server with many other websites. Each user has their own section which keeps their files private from all the other users.

Shared hosting is often the cheapest option. This is the reason most people choose it. However, there are a number of reasons why a dedicated hosting service is important if you are serious about developing a successful website.

Dedicated web hosting is where the user leases an entire web server. It is not shared with any other users and this gives the user total control of the server. The user can make all the decisions about what hardware or operating system to use.

So how do you know if you need a dedicated web server?

Does your site currently use or plan to use a lot of bandwidth?

Dedicated server bandwidth is often considerably higher than with shared hosting. If you are getting a lot of traffic it can end up costing you a fortune with a shared server if you go over your allocated bandwidth.

Is your current site losing customers and potential sales because of poor server performance?

The problem with shared hosting packages is that every site on the server is competing for resources. If there are a number of sites hosted on the server with large amounts of traffic performance on your site may suffer, especially during peak hours. If your customer is waiting for more than 8 seconds for the page to load, chances are you’ve already lost his business.

Is your current website changing? Does your shared hosting package have everything your new site needs?

Often when users decide to replace their existing site with a new one it becomes clear that the existing hosting package doesn’t meet the necessary requirements to run the new site, software package or script. It can be difficult to get a shared server upgraded to meet these requirements. With a dedicated server such upgrades are generally much easier because the server is completely under your control.

Is your website located in a bad neighourhood?

The problem with a lot of shared hosting is that you rarely know who you are sharing the server with. Do you know any of the other websites on your shared server? Because all the websites on a shared server have the same IP address it is possible for your site to become associated with bad websites that share the server and their bad reputation can affect your business!

Do you have enough storage capacity?

If your site is storing a lot of data a dedicated hosting service can provide more disk space and bandwidth than a shared hosting account. Share servers have to balance resources between many users and websites. With a dedicated server the resources are all yours!

Do you need a managed server?

Many shared hosting services are unmanaged. This can cause problems, especially if there are server problems. Can your business afford website downtime? If it’s not managed then it’s up to you to report a problem. How long before you notice your site isn’t loading? 1 hour? 2 hours? 8 hours? Server downtime = damaged reputation = less sales. A managed, dedicated server is the best option.

How is your shared hosting company customer service?

Customer service is probably one of the most important factors you should consider after server uptime. If you have a question or a problem you want the best advice and friendly, helpful staff to assist you. But guess what? Customer service with shared hosting packages is frequently poor. You get what you pay for and dedicated hosting is no exception. Dedicated server = dedicated customer support.

Do you need more than one domain?

Sometimes shared hosting companies only allow one domain name or charge extra for multiple domains. A dedicated hosting account will allow you to host unlimited domains.

If you’re thinking about switching from shared hosting to a dedicated server there really are a lot of good packages out there. If you need reliability, unlimited resources, excellent customer support and everything else that comes with a shared server, isn’t it time you switched?

                              

I haven’t used the word “brilliant” since the early 90’s but today I found this. Simply Brilliant!!!

I’m off to buy a Mac and a copy of “Again & Again” by The Bird and The Bee.

                              

RANT ALERT… RANT ALERT…

I’m about to have a rather lengthy rant about PayPal. If you’d rather see a picture of a cute puppy instead of hear me complaning please click here.

Still here? Okay I shall rant away…

I’m not usually one to complain but recent events in dealing with PayPal have me concerned. Be prepared for a grim tale of phishing, phantom subscriptions and customer support so bad it nearly made a grown man weep…

I have been dealing with PayPal for quite a long time and most of that time it’s been a pleasant relationship. I’ve experienced the occasional problem here and there but nothing that really made me mad or think twice about using them. I was happy with PayPal…

However, recently there have been a number of warning signs which I simply can’t ignore any longer.

My first issue is an increasing number of fraudulent transactions taking place on PayPal. I’ve been selling a mix of physical and downloadable products for a number of years now. In the past six months I’ve been hit with more fraudulent transactions than I can remember. Most of which appear to have been the result of phished accounts.

If this isn’t bad enough, PayPal seem to be having some prolonged technical problems. I recently started getting a large number of e-mails telling me that my bank account has been added successfully. The problem is that I haven’t added a bank account for well over six months.

Calling PayPal to tell them of the problem was a frustrating experience. I was eventually told that they were aware of the problem and that it was being dealt with. Six days later I’m still getting the same e-mails.

And all this brings me to the latest and final straw…

I occasionally sign up for a free trial with a particular merchant. They regularly offer their products and services on a free trial basis. I like to see what I’m getting before I shell out $97 a month, so the free trial is a good idea.

Most of the time I cancel before the free trial ends and therefore don’t get billed. If I like the product or service I keep the subscription active, if not I cancel. This is usually a simple matter in PayPal of finding the subscription and cancelling it.

However, about a week ago I signed up for a free trial but something went wrong. I got the usual e-mail from PayPal telling me I had successfully subscribed. I happily went off to check out the new product on offer as I normally do. Everything was fine until I checked my PayPal later that evening.

For some reason there was no record of the transaction. For every previous free trial there had always been a transaction of $0.00 and a subscription created. I checked my subscriptions and there was no subscription either. So it looked like there had been no transaction and no subscription created.

The problem is that I had been redirected to the merchant and was able to access the product in question and I also got a confirmation e-mail from PayPal. There was just no record of this in my PayPal account.

After making more than a dozen phone calls to PayPal over the period of a week I’m really still no wiser about exactly what is going on. At first I was told there was no transaction or subscription because it was a free trial with a $0.00 value and that I would have to cancel with the company instead.

I then pointed out that the previous trials had shown up on my account and so that could not be true. I however agreed to contact the company and try to cancel at that end.

I went to the merchant’s website, logged in and clicked on the cancel button. I was immediately taken to PayPal from the cancel link to log in and cancel from within my PayPal account!

Needless to say that didn’t work. So I then submitted a support ticket to the merchant and after a few days was told…

“PayPal is having some temporary technical problem and merchants do not have a cancellation button so we cannot cancel from our side.”

Essentially they were having the same problem as me and recommended I cancel the subscription from my end!!!

So apparently nobody can cancel the subscription. I can’t because I can’t see the transaction or subscription on my PayPal account. The merchant can’t cancel for the same reason. And PayPal say they can’t cancel it either! To quote PayPal…

“The subscriptions are just hanging there”

And this is not an isolated incident. I’ve been told by PayPal that this has affected a whole group of subscriptions. I’ve been assured by PayPal that I won’t be charged and that the subscriptions aren’t active, but if that is true then why did I get an e-mail stating that the subscription was successful and that I would be billed if I didn’t cancel?

I’m about to remove all my credit cards and bank information from PayPal because to be quite honest. I think they’ve lost the plot!

It’s hardly reassuring to know that there are subscriptions floating around in PayPal’s system somewhere that nobody, PayPal included, have any control over.

Just remember if you have to deal with PayPal that the following applies…

“PayPal is not classified as a bank in the United States”

Enough said for now… but watch this space to see if I get charged for a subscription that I can’t cancel.

                              

Flock is a new web browser built on the Mozilla Firefox codebase. It specializes in providing social networking and other web 2.0 features. Flock integrates social networking and media services including YouTube, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Blogger and more.

When you log into any of the supported services Flock activates these services automatically. Flock contains functionality that advises when friends have updated their profile, uploaded photos or other published items relevant to the user. Flock allows media sharing via drag and drop, photo uploading, and a built-in blog editor for posting from anywhere on the web.

The Flock browser is available as a free download, and supports Mac, PC and Linux platforms. Flock 1.0 was reviewed by CNet as Best Mac Software of 2007. Harry McCracken from PC World said Flock is his “New Favorite Web Browser”.

With the discontiunuation of the Netscape browser by AOL. Firefox and Flock are being recommended as alternative browsers. AOL recommended the Flock browser to it’s userbase of Netscape users in March 2008.

Flock has announced recently that they have had nearly 3 million downloads and an 135% percent increase in active users in the first two months of 2008.

You can download Flock for free at Flock.com.

                              

Share, bookmark and e-mail web pages quickly without leaving your browser!

Shareaholic is a Firefox add-on that makes it easy for you to submit the web page you’re on to your favorite sharing or bookmarking service, including: digg, del.icio.us, facebook, friendfeed, google bookmarks, magnolia, mixx, reddit, stumbleupon, tumblr and twitter.

You also have the option to e-mail the web page directly to a friend.

Quickly evaluate web page popularity.

Shareaholic also lets you know how many times the web page you’re on has been dugg or saved to del.icio.us!

                              

RockYou.com allows you to create your own slideshows and add music, video, themes, movie posters and more. You can add your slideshow to sites like MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, Hi5 and many more easily!

Here’s a slideshow I threw together in a few minutes just to give you an idea…

If the music is annoying you just click the speaker on the bottom left corner.

RockYou.com also has many other cool tools including PhotoFX, Avatars, FunNotes, GlitterText, Countdown, Horoscopes, Corkboard, Voicemail, ShoutOuts, Games and more!

                              

There are more and more specialized social networking sites popping up every day. I’m noticing more and more sites like MySpace and Facebook but centered around a particular topic or niche appearing each week.

After playing Guitar Hero with some friends recently I was told about a new Rock Music community called TimeToRock.net which has only been around a month or so but is already creating a lot of intrest with rock music fans (and people who play Guitar Hero!).

Users can signup for free and do just about everything including…

• Upload avatars, images, audio and video files to share with other users
• Make a custom profile page with backgrounds, colors etc much like MySpace
• Make blog posts
• Take part in the forum
• Add and search for friends
• Chat with friends, leave messages and much more!

There is so much going on with this site it but it is very easy to use. It looks like a great place to hang out if you like any kind of rock music, old or new! Actually even if you don’t like rock music it still looks like a lot of fun!

There are two levels of membership to the site. Standard and Gold. The standard membership is intended to be free, the gold normally costs $20 and offers unlimited uploads and other advantages.

All new members are currently being upgraded to Gold for free. I understand that the first 1000 new members will be upgrade to Gold for free, so this is your chance to get a free Gold membership on one of the hottest new social networking sites!

Take a look at this great new Online Rock Community and get yourself a free account! There is also a feature to tell your friends, so it’s easy to get all your friends on there!