My Life

My Site Went To PR 0 And Is Now Back to PR3 And What This Meant To My Daily Hits

September 15, 2010, by 6 comments

A month or so ago this blog incurred some sort of penalty that reduced my Toolbar Pagerank to zero.

This coincided with my joining BC and the paranoid’ inner child assumes this had something to do with the break from my previous company, but also could have had something to do with my adding BC links to the site and removing links to other sites that i was no longer working on.

Up until now I hadn’t made a big deal of this, instead I spent my time looking through my site with GoogleVision™ to see if there was anything else a miss.

Today my TBPR is back (3) and I thought it about time I came out of the closet regarding my pagerank 0 episode.

You may be interested to know that during my penalty my traffic stayed the same and the spam comments kept coming which just goes to show that the Toolbar Pagerank metric aint worth shit (pardon my French). SO if you have a Pagerank Penalty, look to your metrics and not the little green bar we know and love.

Stolen Samsung Laptop in Halifax (Red)

August 30, 2010, by No comments yet

Friday morning I woke to find that my car had been broken into and amongst some other things such as my sat-nav, cagoule and ‘Glastonbury’ sunglasses the dirty Ba#@rds stole my laptop.

If anyone in Halifax (UK) gets approached to buy a red Samsung laptop like the one shown below please let me know (of if you see it in cash-converters or some place like that)

Not had a good weekend.

p.s. if its still in a black laptop bag check the pocket for a brown stripy woolly hat.

Sick!

August 26, 2010, by No comments yet

Today I will mostly be being ill. I think my immune system has finally given up and I’ve got a cold which I originally thought was hey fever :(

Because I am a man I will be making a big deal out of this (cue dying swan routine).

I’m still in work tho’ so will make it my mission to infect as many people as possible… just call me typhoid marky.

Funniest thing i’ve heard all day

August 17, 2010, by 1 comment

Just reading a thread on the design forum qbn.com about a guy whos just had someone send in a CV and samples of work for a job – with the images being lifted from the guys own KROP portfolio.

When attempting to justify whats happened BuddaHat added:

He was just doing some R&D in preparation for his application…

In this case, R&D = Rob & Duplicate.

Lolz

I’m a Costco Convert

July 29, 2010, by 5 comments

I’ve just been taken to Costco in Leeds and OH MY GOD I can’t wait to go back on my own.

It costs something like £35 for a card but when you consider that a 1l bottle of Jack Daniels is usually £30 in the regular supermarkets and only £20 in Costco, I think I’ll make that money back in no time. Not only is the booze cheap but theyve got fresh food, electronics, designer clothes and furniture (of varying quality). It was totally not what I had expected from watching American TV… It was better!

Now SEO Manager at BC a Leeds Based SEO Company

July 6, 2010, by 2 comments

I’m proud to announce that as of the 19th July 2010 I will be taking up the position of SEO Manager for the award winning Leeds based creative studio and SEO Company, BC.

I’m really looking forwards to the change of pace and getting back to being part of a close-knit team, dealing with a large number of clients across multiple industries.

What attracted me to BC was their openness, impressive client list and passion for SEO which reminded me of the days when I owned my own studio.

I hope to add my own blend of innovation, dedication and ferocious thirst for success which, fingers crosses, should help the business achieve even greater success.

So brace yourself Leeds, here I come :)

PHP Training Courses in Leeds

June 15, 2010, by 4 comments

I’ve been here for over a year now and thought I’d push my luck with the boss and ask if I could get some training to further my knowledge. Originally I thought about some SEO training with Aaron Wall, but at £600 a month and my (no doubt) considerable knowledge and experience in SEO, I was hesitant to spend so much when I know i’ll just end up sifting through the course notes looking for a golden grain of insight that in all reality isn’t there… instead, thanks to a suggestion by the boss I’m getting some training in PHP which could come in handy as I’m constantly frustrated with our existing systems and would love to jump in and fix the issues and make improvements (not that the nice people at Bronco aren’t helpful – its just I know these are quick things to fix if you know what you’re looking at).

I searched nationwide looking for in-office, remote study and local in-person training and finally settled with NTI in Leeds. To be honest the clincher was the 60% Government funded reduction in the original £600 fee for the three day course bringing it down to a much more Yorkshire man friendly £240.

The course uses the Open Source ZEND application suite and is called ZEND PHP I: Foundation.

I’m booked in for the 7th July over at their facilities in Leeds which could be the filler for the hole in my ‘universal’ online marketing and design skillset.

…next stop, WORLD DOMINATION MWAHAHAHAHA!

SEO Leeds

June 11, 2010, by 18 comments

Why are people putting all of their effort into becoming #1 for SEO Leeds? I remember a post by Dave Naylor saying to an upstart who was gaming their way to the #1 spot for UK SEO (Daves throw-away term) that in terms of traffic and conversions its a non starter.

A couple of Leeds based SEO agencies are plugging away at the term… but for what?

Ive added the term SEO Leeds into the title of the blog and i hold a top 5 spot and the traffic is under 50 unique hits per month… I don’t get it.

Website Helps You Decide Who To Vote For in the 2010 UK Elections

May 5, 2010, by No comments yet

Heres a great idea. A website that lets you identify who you should vote for by letting you examine the policies of each party without knowing what policies match what party.

So if you’re s floating voter or worse someone who still thinks Labour should continue their reign then give this a try, you might be surprised:

voteforpolicies.org.uk

For the record I’m voting Lib Dem this year.

Happy St George’s Day

April 23, 2010, by 1 comment

Its weird to think that before the 18th Century, St George’s day held a status equal to that of Christmas. It’s just a shame that in modern times St Patrick’s day gets more celebrated (possibly due to the vast amounts of Guinness consumed). Lets make St George’s Day 2010 one to remember and for once, be proud to be British.

Happy St George’s Day

Mark