This is a wise move by Canonical.  Giving their users a legal option for playing their media will encourage more software and companies to also invest in Ubuntu and all Linux media alike.  The announcement doesn’t quite make it clear, but it sounds like the Medibuntu repository will still be available with instructions for Ubuntu users to download similar codecs for free– illegally in many countries.  The adoption of the legal, non-free software will depend largely on how it is marketed inside Ubuntu.  That is, when you try to play an MP3 for the first time, will a dialog prompt you to purchase MP3 support, or offer an easier link to Medibuntu and the ubuntu-restricted-extras package?

One of the reasons that I moved to Ubuntu in the first place was so I could have software I wanted, free and legally.  It’s nice to finally have the option of legal media codecs as well.  What do you think of the announcement?  Will you pay the $40 for most non-free media codecs, or the additional $50 for DVD support?

• A New Year, A New OS
• Get Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron Today!

Level One: Internet Marketing

I generally respond to questions about my job with something along the lines of “I’m in internet marketing and advertising,” and see what happens from there. Often people will already have a glazed look over their eyes, not knowing what internet marketing and advertising even means. If they are familiar with the subject though, often the next question will be “Oh so you do banner ads and popups?” Ughhhh, no I am not that annoying guy that creates banners that let you know that YOU ARE VISITOR NUMBER 1,000,000 CLICK HERE TO CLAIM YOUR PRIZE!

Level Two: Search Engine Marketing

If internet marketing brought on the glazed eyes, moving on to the next level, search engine marketing (or SEM), makes most people look like a deer in the headlights. To most people, search engines are neutral territory. They think there are nothing but natural, worthy results in Google. So when I bring up that my job lies mostly in marketing to search engines people wonder what I could possibly do all day. At this point I explain to them that (gasp!) a number of search results on Google are actually paid advertisements, but my work is to take the unpaid search results and make them even better.

Level Three: Search Engine Optimization

If I get here it is usually a miracle, but I love explaining my job in detail to people. This will be the first time I use the term “Search Engine Optimization” or my real title, Organic Search Specialist. I try to explain in as few words as possible how my job is to make sure the websites for our clients are ranking in the search engines for everything related to their businesses. I go on to talk about how my job is a mixture of art and science. It is an art because the search engines never reveal what they actually look for on web pages, so we never really know what is going to help. The science is in making sure the websites are technically sound, follow web best practices, and adhere to the SEO basics. Generally if someone gets this far they have proven that they are seriously interested in my job, so I talk about my day to day tasks and overarching principles for as long as they will let me. Sometimes I go on for a little too long, but I don’t see that as a flaw.

What I Lack: An Elevator Pitch

I know there are plenty of obscure jobs out there, but I’m not sure many of them need to vet people who ask about their jobs for their aptitude in the field before answering. I’m also pretty sure that there is an easier way to explain exactly what I do in less than 60 seconds, IE and elevator pitch. So, fellow SEOs, what is your elevator pitch? Can you use it on anyone and reasonably expect them to understand what you do for a living, or does this still lead to blank stares and/or playing a game of 20 questions? Leave your suggestions in the comments, as I would love to learn how other folks in the field explain their job to people who simply want to know “What do you do?”

• When SEO Isn’t About Rankings
• Learning SEO: From the Beginning

In this new age of social networking and being able to find just about ANYTHING on the internet (Thanks Al Gore!) it seems like your typical websites like Myspace and Facebook are where you can basically find anyone and their mom, literally.  I have experience with both websites and have watched both grow and deteriorate over time.  I’ve still noticed that I spend the majority of my time on websites like these, and it got me to thinking, “What is it about these websites that make me so attracted to them?”

So after doing some little investigating myself, I’ve realized that the majority of the individuals that use websites like these are the ones that are still in some sort of education system, but are generally above the age of 13 (mainly due to many sites’ user age agreement).

Now with Myspace it started out as a “place for everyone” and because of that it’s become over-populated with anything from Jr. High students talking about how Johnny loves Suzie, but Suzie wants to get with Jack, to comedians, local and professional musicians looking for more fans, all the way up to big corporate businesses trying to promote a new product to the masses in a certain demographic.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing, because you can find literally any product, company, or person on one website, which is amazing.  The thing I don’t like about the site is that because you can find just about anyone or anything on there, the site is VERY cluttered with people, lots of fake accounts and spammers trying to steal your identity and put a virus on your computer.  But you’ll get this with any social network or site that you sign up for, so make sure to take a glance at the privacy settings immediately after you sign up, or after any major change in the website.  I also don’t like how much control a person has over the layout of their own personal page.  It’s nice to have some individuality and everything, but when I’m blinded by the obscure color schemes, and all the “glitter text” splashed all over the page, as well as eight different songs from different bands playing all at the same time, I think it’s officially time to say “that’s too much.”  Now onto Facebook…

Facebook was one of a kind when it first came out.  In its beginning stages, it was an exclusive social networking site for only college students, and you had to have a valid university e-mail address to sign up.  This exclusivity really appealed to the Generation X because we’re very technologically savvy and to have a place that is basically filled with everyone from that generation is exactly what we were looking for, but didn’t know it.  It wasn’t before long that the creators of Facebook saw that their numbers were growing rapidly and decided to open up Facebook just a little bit more, but still make it an exclusive network by making it just high school students who had to be invited onto the website, and then still having college students.  There was a very large uproar when this happened because with this happening, we (the original college students that started using Facebook) knew that it was only a matter of time before they opened up the entire network to anyone, and it would become much like Myspace.

This did of course end up happening and Facebook was no longer the exclusive site for just the educational masses.  Don’t get me wrong, there are still the high school and college aspects of the site, but you don’t need to be invited, or have a valid university e-mail to sign up anymore, but you do need those to join a specific high school or college network.  Since they opened up the website, they’ve added a few features like a “News Feed” that tells you everything that your friends are doing from a status update like “Mindy wants to strip down naked and parade around town” or “Cecilia is bleh homework” to knowing about someone’s relationship status changing from single to complicated.  With all the new changes, there were always uproars from people about the change, and new groups entitled “Bring Back The Old Facebook!!!11!!oneone” but eventually people just got used to the change, and now with the news feed, people have grown to find a new passion in Facebook called “creeping.” Creeping is where someone notices something on their news feed about someone, becomes curious, and views that person’s page and does anything and everything in their power to find out what is going on, without having to actually ask the person in question directly.  I could go on and on about the different changes I have seen and pros and cons, but in the end, sites change, people cope, and the world lives on.

These might seem like scary places and something you might not want to get into, but these aren’t the only social networking sites out there.  There are also many other social networking sites, such as LinkedIn, which are great for building a professional network of people to help get your name and resume out to different people and jobs, much like Monster, or other resume sites.  I hope these little tidbits about each website help you decide whether the social networking craze is a place for you.

• Facebook Wars: Students vs. Faculty
• Browser Review: Flock - The Social Browser

Here’s how it works: BlueProximity will use the bluetooth on your cellphone and computer to pair the two.  The bluetooth signal includes a crude “distance” between the two devices.  When your cellphone goes out of range (in your pocket), BlueProximity will automatically trigger your screensaver and can also lock your screen with a password.  BlueProximity keeps monitoring the distance, and when you come back within range, your computer automatically wakes up without ever having to enter a password.

BlueProximity is availible in the Ubuntu repositories, and is very easy to install and set up:

sudo aptitude install blueproximity

Before you run BlueProximity for the first time, make sure your Bluetooth is set up on your computer, and you have paired your cellphone with your desktop.  You can find general Bluetooth options under System > Preferences > Bluetooth.

When you’re ready to run BlueProximity, you can find it under Applications > Accessories > BlueProximity.  BlueProximity runs in the background, and displays a small icon in the taskbar to show its status.  Click on the icon to configure its settings.

In the “Bluetooth Device” tab, you can choose the cellphone or device to pair with and monitor.

• If you don’t see your cellphone in the list, press “Scan for Devices”.  Make sure your cellphone’s bluetooth is on and discoverable.
• When your device shows up, you can click on it and press “Use Selected Device”.
• You can also select the “RFCOMM Channel”, although the default channel, 7, worked for me.  If you have trouble, you may try “Scan channels on device”.

In the next tab, “Proximity Details”, you set the distance and times to lock and unlock your computer.

• The distance is a numeric value between 0-255 which is a rough range of how far your cellphone is from your computer.  It doesn’t correspond to any specific unit of measure, so you’ll need to test it out to get a feeling for it.
• At the bottom of the tab, “Measured atm” displays the current distance, as well as the minimum and maximum distances that have been detected.  You can use this as a guide.
• The duration corresponds to the number of seconds your cellphone needs to be outside of the distance before your computer will lock.  You may need to use some trial and error to find the right value.
• The “Unlocking” options operate just like the “Locking” options, but opposite.  When your phone is detected within the specified distance for the complete duration, your computer will unlock.

The final preferences tab, “Locking”, controls how BlueProximity will lock and unlock your computer.  It has options for the exact commands which will be invoked, as well as logging options.  Basically, BlueProximity will call gnome-screensaver-command to control the screensaver– turning it on and off appropriately.  For this to work though, you will also need to set up a screensaver.

To check your screensaver settings, go to System > Preferences > Screensaver.

• In the left pane, choose a screensaver to use.  I prefer ElectricSheep.
• The option “Activate screensaver when computer is idle” doesn’t apply to BlueProximity, and BlueProximity will work even without it checked.  This refers to whether you want your screensaver to also turn on after a given period.
• Similarly, the option “Lock screen when screensaver is active” refers to the normal screensaver timeout, and won’t affect BlueProximity.

Once you’ve got BlueProximity and your screensaver configured, everything should be ready to go!  Simply walk away from your computer and watch it automatically fade into your screensaver.  Walk back, and the desktop should automatically wake up.

It’s a pretty fun toy, although not the most useful.  However, for those like myself who tend to walk away from the computer without locking it, you can feel a little better when you have your cellphone in your pocket.

• How-to: Enable Surround Sound on Ubuntu Hardy
• Excel 101: 4 Tricks Everyone Should Know

Since my upgrade to lead Organic Search Specialist at BKV I’ve been involved in a number of new business pitches. The most recent I’m a part of is for a new client who has partnered with one of our existing paid search clients.  They are going through a site overhaul and need some heavy duty SEO work. I’m talking a serious overhaul too; the client has over 400 individual domains. While they are working off a newly created template, it is still a beast to manage.

Because the client was a partner of one of our existing paid search clients, our strategy was to project our traffic and sales growth numbers off of our current client. What we quickly found out, however, was that this was not going to be possible.

After working out the numbers–direct traffic, search traffic, sales, leads, conversions, etc.–the figures we were coming out with were not making any sense. Somehow we had projected that with a decrease in traffic we could almost double their sales leads. Obviously something was wrong.

When the conversion rate matters

When we went back to the raw data, comparing our existing client to their partner they referred our SEO services to, we saw what the real problem was. Our prospective client was driving plenty of traffic, both through paid search and SEO. What they weren’t doing, however, was converting. Their conversion rate was nearly 1/4th that of what we were benchmarking from.

Finding this out early gave us a huge advantage, as now we can plan and project off 2 separate strategies, regular SEO and increasing website conversions. Justifying our costs is going to be even easier than we expected.

How to increase organic conversions

Increasing organic conversions is different than improving paid search conversion rates. Instead of calling out deals, adding starbursts, or using any other regular direct response techniques, converting organic traffic takes finesse. Instead of blasting potential customers with advertising techniques, the conversions need to come naturally. This can mean a number of things, but sometimes it’s the simplest techniques that make the biggest difference.

Keep it above the fold

Whatever your conversion method may be, you need to have access to it above the fold. This means the first section a user sees when they load a page needs to include your phone number, address, email signup, web form, or any combination of the above. The client we are pitching had their phone number above the fold, but it was tiny, gray on black text that screamed “IGNORE ME!”  Also, their main conversion metric, web leads through a contact form, wasn’t even available on the home page. After clicking through 2 whole layers the user would find the form…below the fold!

Lesson learned

Increasing the conversion rate for a client like this is going to be a no-brainer. With a few simple techniques, their sales leads should increase 2-3 times what they expected. But what have I learned from this? Most importantly, I’ve learned that SEO is about much more than title tags, descriptions and alt tags. At the end of the day the job of an SEO is to make your client richer through organic traffic. Whether that means #1 rankings, leveraging social media, or increasing conversion rates, the client will be happy if there is more money in their pocket.

• Defining SEO For the Uninitiated
• Essential Wordpress Plugins

As I sat there on a Friday night, the only logical thing that came to mind to do was to play stupid 2D games with a couple of my closest friends: my brothers.  The time was 9:26 and I was happily downloading a new game just so I could have fun and be sociable.  Granted this is nothing new to me, because I am an avid gamer.  I tend to like the more interactive games such as first person shooters and MMORPG’s .  My favorite first person shooter game(s) are anything in the Half-Life series, mainly Counter Strike, Counter Strike: Source, and Day of Defeat.  For the MMORPG side of gamer life, I have a new addiction to a game called Minions of Mirth (MoM) that my brother downloaded and bought.  For all you people out there that don’t know what MMORPG stands for, it is an acronym for Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.  Games like this include Everquest, Asheron’s Call, Minions of Mirth, Final Fantasy (series), and World of Warcraft (Warcrap in my opinion).

My gaming career goes back quite far; I’m talking back into the first stages of apple computers, back with the computer with green screens, using “floppy disks” that were actually floppy and the size of your average sandwich you’re going to have for lunch.  Granted these games I started out with were all educational and not really for personal amusement, but trust me, it wouldn’t take many more years before I started to find games that I really enjoyed.

As you could probably tell, I was never really one to play games on a game system all day because that just didn’t appeal to me.  I really liked the way a PC felt and played games.  I want to say my gaming really started to emerge once Windows ‘95 came out.  I started out with the cheesy solitaire, minesweeper, and a few games of free cell (even though I still to this day can’t figure out how to play that game).  From there I was introduced to games such as Need For Speed and Doom, and that’s when my career really took off.  I progressed into more strategy based games like Age of Empires, Myst, and Tribes.  From there I moved onto the MMORPG’s and the first person shooters.

After that stage my love for gaming focused more on the first person shooters and the MMORPG’s because I loved the fact that you can interact with people from all around the world who had the same passion as you; to grab a dessert eagle, semi-automatic P-90, 2 flash grenades, an HE grenade, and just storm up the middle to surprise the terrorists and keep them from planting the bomb at bomb site A.  (For those of you who didn’t figure it out, the game described above is Half-Life: Counter Strike).

I don’t really know where my gaming career will lead me next, all I know is right now I feel as if I have a second set of friends that I meet up with every day, all around the world.

• To Wii, or not to Wii? That is the question
• Social Networking: Is it for you?

Installing and setting up the subversion GUI is as simple as three commands.

1. Install the nautilus-script-collection-svn package:
   

   sudo aptitude install nautilus-script-collection-svn

2. Enable the plugin (this is required to access the plugin from nautilus):
   

   nautilus-script-manager enable Subversion

3. Restart Nautilus:
   

   killall nautilus

Afterwards, Nautilus will have a new entry in the context menu when you right click.  You can now access most basic subversion commands without touching a terminal.

The interface isn’t quite as pretty as some Windows clients, such as TortoiseSVN.  However, it is still a nice alternative for users who prefer a GUI and only need basic functionality.  There doesn’t seem to be any support for merges, and other commands will use the default parameters.

• How To: Host a Subversion Repository in Ubuntu Hardy
• How-to: Use Your Ubuntu Computer as a Music Alarm Clock

Tasque is dubbed as “a simple task management app (TODO list) for the Linux Desktop.”  It is a simple program with the ability to integrate with a variety of other task-management services, including RememberTheMilk.  It’s a clean, unobtrusive interface, and it’s exactly what I needed to stay productive.

Tasque is a relatively new program, but has grown substantially since it’s incarnation.  It has been integrated into the latest GNOME desktop, and will be available for Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex, due out in October.  Luckily, there is also a repository which you can add to receive the latest Tasque program in Ubuntu Hardy:

• From the taskbar, navigate to System > Administration > Software Sources
  

• Enter your administrator password when prompted, and in the new window, click on the “Third Party Software” tab
• Click on the “Add…” button, and enter the following line:

  deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/tasque-packagers/ubuntu hardy main

  

• Click on “Add Source”, and then “Close”.  The available software will be updated automatically.

Now that we have the repository set up, we can actually install Tasque.  In a terminal, enter the following command:

sudo aptitude install tasque

After it’s installed, you can run it by navigating to Applications > Office > Tasque.

The first time Tasque is launched, you will need to choose the plugin to use.  Select “Remember the Milk”, and then press “Click Here to Connect”.

A browser launch, and you will need to log in to Remember the Milk and allow Tasque to access your account data.  When you’re finished, return to Tasque and select “Click Here After Authenticating Tasque”.

At this point, your Remember The Milk tasks should be loaded into the Tasque interface, where you can edit existing tasks or add new ones.

You can also assign or change the due date on any of your tasks.

And when you’re finished, you can mark a task as completed.

• Introducing: Pwdhash Sharp 0.8.4
• Keeping Organized with Remember The Milk

• Wordpress Updated
• Frozen Pipes

PS: In case you weren’t following, yes, Kyle does owe me 22.22 beers this vacation.  And yes, I did make my 50 mile goal.  And yes, I am doing the Chicago Half Marathon in September (more on that later).  I’m not really sure what kind of beer it’ll be yet– any suggestions?

• Mountain Man Competition #1: Grow a Beard
• Summer Workout Plan