I don’t know how to put this lightly so I will just come out and say it. Something has changed in the SEO Blogosphere and I don’t think it’s been a change for the better.

Like many of you in the search community, I subscribe to quite a few blogs related to our industry. Countless times a day I open up my iGoogle and scan dozens of feeds for something worthwhile. It’s a habit I’ve been doing for a few years and something I’ve become accustomed to as part of my work day.

Since a couple weeks ago I’ve found myself becoming more and more disturbed over the growing number of tabloid blog posts showing up in my RSS reader. It seems like the “in” thing to do now is out hype or outdo the next guy with blog titles that do not relate to the content as well as promote articles that are not even relevant to anything but shameless self promotion.

Since the SMX conference people have been very outspoken about their experiences with Social Media Marketing. Just when I thought the chatter could not get any louder it seems like so many are now on a Social Media kick. The past couple of weeks my iGoogle has been displaying nothing but posts with “Top Ten This” and “Chicken Little” headlines in which their sole intentions are to obviously get Sphinned, Digged or Stumbled Upon.

I don’t blame anyone for doing this, especially since the reported results seem so promising. However, I would think these tactics would prove more fruitful results if these bloggers focus their efforts on less suspecting, less “socially aware” industries.

I am sorry but I just do not understand why Genarlow Wilson is not pissed off at the world. Every time I see this guy on the news he is acting as if to let bygones be bygones. The guy was 17 and he hooked up with a 15-year-old girl and consensually had oral sex with her at a 2003 New Years Eve party. He was convicted to 10 years in prison for aggravated child molestation.

He has now served two of those 10 years and he has been released.

If memory serves when I was 17 years old I was in the 11^th grade & I was 15 in the 10^th grade. In the 11^th grade the odds of hooking up with a 10^th grader were more likely than not.

What I find astonishing is the fact multiple plea deals were offered to Gernarlow in exchange for time off, but the deals would have left him with zero prospects of having any type of normal life. If he pled guilty (to such a horrendously asinine charge) he would have been placed on a “list” which is shared by real child molesters and sexual deviants. If he agreed to any deal, he would have been branded for life.

I am pleased to hear he stuck to his principles and did not bargain with the prosecutors and I think Gernalow did the right thing by not admitting to fault. But if the shoe was on the other foot I would be kicking up a shit storm as soon as I was released from prison.

I am not sure what pisses me off more, the prosecuting attorneys, the judges and the jury of his peers who found him guilty or the fact he is so nice about the whole thing during his interviews.

Videos of Genarlow Wilson

I hope Jerry Alonzy does not take this post personally but after reading about this retired Boeing engineer in a recent USA Today article I thought I’d point something out.

Both of his websites, smpstech.com & Natural Handyman.com are ugly! And when I say ugly, I mean 1995 ugly.

That’s not stopping Jerry Alonzy from making $120,000 a year from the ads he places on his sites.

So what’s the trick? How is Jerry making this much money?

Screw Usability, it worked for myspace.

Just browse his sites and see how his ads are placed. Check out the use of the “navigation” bar which is really Google ads. Notice the placement of the 2 block ads running down the left site of the page.

I’ve seen this approach work with quite a few friends who earn all their income from adsense.

Just make sure your content is unique and make sure your ads are placed in the most common clicked areas on a website and you can make money with adsense.

Side note: It’s nice to see another friend mentioned in a major publication. Jennifer Slegg (JenSense) was cited in this article.

I’m continuously being asked what life is like with a newborn. So I thought I would share with everyone what our schedule has been these past 30 days.

4:30 – 5:00 AM: Its feeding time – We climb out of bed, make our way down the stairs to the kitchen to heat up a bottle for the baby. The baby is crying loud enough to wake up the next city. Its a race to get the bottle to her as fast as we can. The bottle can’t be too hot or too cold.

5:00 AM – 6:00 AM: Baby screams her little head off because she needs to be burped. Poor little thing can’t seem to get her burps out. Daddy moves her into an optimal position for a good burp but then the baby spits up half her meal all over dad. (Abby does not discriminate; she hurls her meals on mommy many-many times)

6:00 – 6:15 AM: Change diapers and clothes & then rock baby to sleep while watching early morning CNN.

6:15 – 9:00 AM: Mom and dad try to go back to sleep.

9:00AM – 1:00 PM: Baby wakes us up again but daddy sneaks out to the home office pretending he does not hear a crying baby thus leaving mommy to handle the baby. After mom feeds, changes and rocks the baby to sleep mom stick her head in office and gives daddy the “look”. Daddy now works in shame and fear for his life for the next few hours.

1:00 - 1:30 PM: Daddy needs to change the babies diaper while mom cleans up and has some alone time. As soon as daddy takes the babies diaper off she pisses, spits and poops all over dad.

1:30 – 2:30 PM: Baby made room for more food after crapping on daddy. She screams at the top of her lungs and won’t quiet down till a bottle is place in her mouth. We quickly warm up a bottle and feed the baby. We change the diapers again and rock baby to sleep.

2:30 – 5:30 PM: Baby sleeps; daddy gets to go play on the Internet again. (Returning to 15 incoming IM’s from friends asking for their articles to be Digged & Sphinned ).

5:30 – 6:30 PM: Cabin fever starts to set in. We take a stroll around the neighborhood to get some fresh air. The public is receptive to the new baby and we gracefully listen to unsolicited baby advice from complete stranger who approach us on the street. Yes, we know rum was used in the past to help babies sleep!

6:30 – 7:00 PM: We cook dinner for ourselves. We sit down to eat the hot meal but as timing has it, the baby begins to cry. While one of us heats a bottle of milk, the other raps up dinner to prevent the cats from nibbling on it.

7:00 – 8:15 PM: We feed, rock and clean up after the baby. Dad thinks he sees a smile on the baby and screams “Honey, Abby just smiled at me” then the baby proceeds to simultaneously burp, spit up warm milk & crap all over him. To be immediately followed by a horrendous oder wafting up. “Never mind dear, the Princess of Poop just exploded! Can you get me a towel?”

8:15 – 10:00 PM: Baby is down; we might get lucky and watch our DVR copy of Grays Anatomy & the Office. Unfortunately we have to pause 50 times to check on the baby as she screams in her sleep. It’s Gas.

10:00 PM – 11:00 PM: It’s feeding time again, but this time for everyone. Late night snack for mommy and daddy while we power feed the baby.

11:00 PM – 12:00 AM: Mellow music is playing on the TV while we wind down. We rock the baby to sleep.

12:00 AM – 1:00 AM: Baby wakes up and screams her little head off. She wants ?????. We have no clue what she wants so we feed, burp, change her diaper, swaddle and rock her back to sleep.

1:00 AM – 4:30 AM: Mommy & daddy tries to sleep but now the cats want attention and they start to meow and dig at the carpet. In almost a deep sleep Daddy searches the floor to find his nearest shoe and pelts the first cat he sees with it.

Greg has launched a private initiative supporting quality blogs who have altruistically turned off their “No Follow” tags.

Help Greg and company build an updated Do Follow OPML listing of worthy bloggers who continually contribute to the Internet by writing fresh original content. Those who use their blogs as a vehicle for selling text link ads or MFRB’s need not apply.

Part 2 of Avinash Kaushik presentation which he goes over several lessons he has learned over the years doing Analytics.

His first rule is the 10/90 Rule. If you had $100 to spend on a web analytics implementation, you should spend $10 on the cost of “analytics tool & professional services” and spend $90 on the required investment in “intelligent resources/analysts”.

Installing analytics reporting and reviewing those reports is not the same as analysis. You got to analyze and interpret the data. Take advantage of multivariate tools.

Analytics Evangelist for Google and Blogger of Occam’s Razor, Avinash Kaushik makes a solid point for people who are new to web analytics. Do not focus on Averages.

I’ve been watching these newly released videos by Google Conversion University

GCU is part of the Google Analytics program:

“Learn about marketing and content optimization and read web analytics tips from industry experts at Conversion University, the Google Analytics companion site.”

These videos are part of a test pilot training program by Google. Introduction by Brett Crosby. Run Time: 22:37

Sphinn it Here

I just want to make a quick shout out to some very cool people who were mentioned in Forbes “Digg This Headline, For Googles’s Sake”

Brent Csutoras

Cameron Olthuis

Neil Patel

Tamar Weinberg

Chris Winfield

With all the recent tabloid garbage floating around the SEM blogosphere it is refreshing to see some positive reporting.