Posts

When not to outsource 17th January 2013 10:49 AM

lol how would you like of the best employees in the world (overkill perhaps) working for you, only to find out he's paying someone else to do his work for them while he surfs the net all day?

Take a look at this post from sky news.

“An American computer programmer has been caught outsourcing his own work to a company in China. The scam came to light only when the man's employer became suspicious about repeated remote logins to its server from the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang. The story is related in a blog posted by Andrew Valentine, a computer forensic investigator at Verizon Business, a US-based communications firm.”

what next?

Thanks for this post:

Thanks from: Big Ray...

Horsemeat burgers anyone? Tescos says sorry 17th January 2013 10:33 AM

It would seem that sorry wasn't good enough. (From sky news)

“The UK food watchdog is considering whether legal action should be taken against companies at the centre of the scandal over horsemeat found in beef burgers.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it would consult relevant local authorities and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) before making a decision to take action.”

Horsemeat burgers anyone? Tescos says sorry 17th January 2013 5:53 AM

But then how would you know the minced beef you're using is actually beef?

This is kinda why I enjoy the friendship I have with my butcher. There are areas in the former Transkei where you go to butchers and ask for beef, and you end up getting horse meat, so while I lived there I was contemplating becoming a vegetarian for a while lol.

There is a restaurant/diner cafe around these parts that is not allowed to serve pies. At all. Let's just say that they took Sweeney Todd a little too seriously, but kept the wild feline population under control all in one broad stroke.

You get all sorts here though from people eating things like Crocodile, Snake, even dang mopani worms (shivers), and ostrich, and to be honest, the only thing I would eat from that list is ostrich. I mean I don't even eat escargot.

What Are You Listening To Now? 17th January 2013 5:46 AM

If you tossed a stone somewhere in SA, you'd probably hit a Kim Wilde fan

I did actually

, going to make a super list in a bit to listen to but will mix it up with new stuff

Somehow I feel like listening to Alannah Miles this morning as well - 'tis going to be interesting. lol.

Dire Straits - Telegraph Road My ultimate favorite song. Other than that, 'tis a mix of Joan Jet, REM and Pat Benatar

Horsemeat burgers anyone? Tescos says sorry 16th January 2013 10:55 AM

wrote a similar post (now removed) to this one a few minutes ago. I'm still shocked though. its making me question stores here, and there isn't a tescos near us.

Thanks for this post:

Thanks from: Steve.Richardson

Go mobile or not - 'when' is the question 16th January 2013 10:52 AM

Another good post (albeit a little old - from November) from searchengineland gives insight into when it would be a good idea to go mobile and build your mobile site.

“When is it time to consider taking things one step further, you can look to your analytics data for indicators. The data can then tell you if it

Matched Search Queries and Adwords. 16th January 2013 10:49 AM

This post from searchengineland details the difference between a matched search query report and and Adwords keyword detail report, and also gives a few reasons why these two reports cannot be interchangeable. As well as a few pros and Cons for both these reports.

The blog post was written to answer a question posed about the two reports.

“The inquirer was interested in the benefits or drawbacks to both reports, also asking if they were interchangeable. I figured this was a great question to answer in the Search & Analytics field, so I

Community building techniques 16th January 2013 10:32 AM

I know, more from seomoz, but I couldn't resist this one.

“Building community is about building awareness, and that involves a cohesive blend of many crucial components, including SEO, content, and social media marketing.

If you want to effectively use social media to grow your company, then you have to build a community around it. At the heart of building community is sharing and providing something of value.”

Sound interesting so far? The rest of the blog post is here and I think it is definitely worth the read.

Would you add/remove anything to these tips?

Thanks for this post:

Thanks from: Eva

Do you have a viral checklist for your content? 16th January 2013 10:27 AM

“

Did you sufficiently cover the topic? Is it long enough?
Does the content inspire a high-energy emotion like awe, anger, or anxiety?
Did your tone convey emotion?
Is it practically useful?
Is it interesting?
Is it surprising?
Does the author have fame/credibility?
If it’s supposed to be funny, is it actually funny? Are you sure your friends aren't just being nice? ”

I found this on the Moz (again), but gives you pretty good guidelines about writing excellent content for your site/blog etc. you'll have to read the rest of the post here to find out what the numbers in brackets are about though.

Are your own guidelines similar when writing? or Do you just write until the creativity is drained from you? I'd love to know your thoughts.

A case study on Anchor Texting - Post Penguin 16th January 2013 10:18 AM

Yep, tis about the infamous Google updates again, but I found a blog post at SEOMoz that took a close look at anchor text and just how good they are now that these updates are running loose on the net.

“If sites that have over-optimized anchors lost traffic due to the update, it seems to make sense that sites can move up with relatively few (or without any) anchored links. I wanted to test that idea and decided that it was time for a good, old fashioned case study.

Instead of trying to sound cool and acting like I designed a super professional case study, I'll just tell you how it really happened. I simply wanted to know if I could take a brand new domain (with no links obviously), and get it to rank for a decently competitive term, in an oft-spammed niche by getting links (mostly non-exact match keyword anchored) from relevant pages of relevant sites.”

So, the million dollar question is what do you think of the study?