What Kind of Dad would I be if I didn't brag about my kids once in a while, in a public forum? I'll start with my youngest; Levi.  At the risk of embarrassing him, he is a kid who is as modest as he is talented, and at the risk of sitting all my readers down and water boarding them with a two hour slide show of the middle school talent show, here goes:

http://levilionelleland.blogspot.com/

Check out this website I am putting together for him. Right now, it features some of his artwork. He has a bunch more that still need to be posted. We are working on that. Feel free to take any of this work as an avatar. I think the "peeps" water color makes an excellent twitter profile pic. Eventually, I'll get these set up for an easy one click transfer, but until then you'll have to figure it out.

His "Tribesman" designs are an original concept. I like the look of these. These would make a great avatar as well, or a logo for a line of clothes. His other stuff is inspired by Tim Burton. Levi is a huge fan, and knows quite a bit about Mr. Burton's work and career, He looks up to him very much. Johnny Depp is his favorite actor...Levi can do a pretty good impression of him from Pirates of the Caribbean. He does the "Why kill them when you could just let them get married and be miserable for the rest of their lives" spiel. It's a goof.

Levi is also an excellent piano player. He has some music videos on YouTube that I want to re-do and post on this blog I'm putting together for him. He has an excellent instructor that is taking full advantage of Levi's "motivated to learn and practice" disposition, and he is shaping him into one of his best students. Thanks Tim! Check out Tim Anderson's Web site:

http://www.freewebs.com/trippleforte/

Tim was recently teaching Levi about intellectual property. Levi was working at his own rendition of Ave Maria. It turns out that this "church song" has become popular with the video game crowd as it is featured in the game: Hit Man. Tim explained that he can do anything he wants with that song because it is "public domain" meaning that no one owns or controls the rights to use or perform this material.

This is important stuff to know. I have a lot to learn about it myself. For instance, the pictures you see on Levi's blog are all original. Even the ones of Jack Skellington that are not hand drawn are photos that Levi took using a model. He went online and found a really cool, professional pose-able model of Jack Skellington with interchangeable heads. It cost him over $80.00 of birthday cash.

Some of his hand drawn pictures are from Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He did an awesome one of Keith Ledger as the Joker...Another great pic with avatar potential. The question is: Is Levi violating any copy right laws by creating and posting these? Even though he is giving them away for free? What if he made money from them, e.g. made prints and sold them, or posted them as avatars for free on his blog where he also got a little AdSense revenue.

Anyone having any knowledge on this, and willing to school us, would be greatly appreciated!Just use the comments to tell us what's what. Okay, slide show over. Now, let me show you my stamp collection!

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My Blog is a complete mess. It's embarrassing really. I wish it were never born! This kind of attitude could lead to loading a hollow point into the wheel gun, putting it to the roof of the mouth, and pulling the "delete" button. Nah, that's the easy way out! I'm going to get this cleaned up. 

My first approach will be this: From now on I'm going to compose my factoids right here, then, copy and paste them to my Factoidz.com account...Starting with this one. This post is going to be a hodge-podge. I want to talk about a few new discoveries I've made this weekend; Lizzer and Tiny. Sounds like the names of a couple Hobbits, but these are tools for blogging. Tiny comes in handy for tweeting on twitter. Twitter is a rediscovery I want to talk about in this post. First Lizzer:

Share Links and Media On-The-Fly With Lizzer « Demo Girl

A beautiful thing. Every factoider knows that while writing, searching is required. With this awesome application, you can search, find, preview and insert your links without even leaving the place you are writing. All with just a few clicks. It's seamless. You can insert photo's from flickr, videos from, where else, YouTube, and links and content from Google and Yahoo. It's easy.

How do I know that it's easy? Because I'm a bit thick between the ears when it comes to fiddling with new applications. I've only discovered this one two days ago, and already I can make it do my bidding. That's how I inserted the Lizzer Demo Girl link above. No problem. If I can get it to work in a couple trys, after watching one quick demo video, it's easy for anyone. Trust me.

Now Twitter:

from flickr

Here is a growing phenom, that I think is a huge life hack improvement to the Internet. It's a tool that helps writers and content producers in many ways, three ways that I want to mention specifically:

1) It is a very efficient, streamlined way to communicate. It seems a bit confusing at first. That's why after discovering it, I abandoned it, and now, just this weekend in fact, I rediscovered it and am now using it as the powerful tool that it is designed to be. My only words of caution: Do NOT get addicted! For many, not me, yet, it can be like crack. Twitter is a great thing, but remember, the only difference between poison and medicine is the dose. If one gets addicted, it defeats the purpose of having a way to bounce around all the vital correspondence required of a writer in cyberspace in an efficient way, and quickly get back to the novel -or the factoid.

2) It trains you, as a blogger, to convey an idea or thought in as few words as possible. Maybe this isn't a required skill set for a print writer, but here online, people read fast. Don't write slow. I know, "slowly" don't sweat my grammar, Mr. Toast (ya jerk) http://www.theblogofinnocence.com/ 

Read that post for some good advice on how to deal with the occasional jerk that poses as a writing critic with nothing constructive to offer, and doesn't realize that negative opinions are like assholes...Everybody has one, and they all stink. Keep it concealed and don't let it double for your mouth. 

3) Because for some reason it takes many more words to criticizeand condemn than to praise and support, you will find a very friendly atmosphere at Twitter. Many people who are into the same thing are all out to help and encourage each other. Same as what we're used to here at Factoidz.com. In addition to the "followers" that you have here, Twitter followers can do wonders for reading and spreading your Factoidz content. Search "Factoidz" from Twitter, and you'll find tons of people who are doing this. I've recently added myself to those ranks, and am now kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I've found quite a few of my peeps here at Factoidz on twitter by using the "find people" tool they offer...I did that all day yesterday! I'll make it easy for those of you looking for me there, here I am, let's follow each other:

http://twitter.com/kdelik

Last ingredient in this hodge podge casserole: Tiny URL 

http://www.tiny.cc/

This little tool is essential for tweeting. Because you are only allowed 140 characters to get your point across, sometimes posting a URL a.k.a. link, can eat up a huge portion of that letter count. Simply put, and as simple to figure out how to use, Tiny will shrink a link. Check it out and see what you think. If you have no luck then you must be a dink. That's my opinion, doesn't it stink?

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Here is a sample of a run-down that we can do on your Website to point out strengths and weaknesses:

Website Analysis:

A website grade of 86/100 for www.factoidz.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than 86% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.

The website www.factoidz.com ranks 121,131 of the 895,686 websites that have been ranked so far.

The software is constantly being upgraded and the algorithm enhanced. The number of potential recommendations provided by the tool is also increasing frequently. Please check back often.

I. On-Page SEO

On-Page SEO is the process of placing your selected keywords in the right places on your web pages. On-page SEO involves changing page titles, headings, content, and URLs to improve search engine rankings.

A. Metadata

Metadata tags allow you to tell the search engines what your web page is about.

Page Title:	Factoidz | bite-sized knowledge
Meta Description:	Connecting point for experts and people seeking knowledge. Publish your knowledge and answer questions to generate a ranking in your field of expertise. Ask questions and search our database of factual guides, articles, and answers for the information you're seeking.
Meta Keywords:	experts,knowledge,discussion,advice,social,topics,experttags,tags,expert,qu estions,q&a,community

 

Meta Description is too long

Your meta description should be no more than 150 characters, your current meta description is 268 characters.

High Number Of Meta Keywords

The web page has 12 keywords in its metadata.

We believe that though the search engines don't weigh keywords as heavily as they used to, they're still important to get right. By using a high number of keywords, it is possible that you are diluting the effect of your most important keywords. We would suggest keeping the keywords to 10 or less. Currently, this page has keywords in its metadata.

Font Tags Found in HTML

We found some HTML font tags on this page. While this is not a critical issue, you should use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to separate your website's content from its appearance.

B. Heading Summary

Similar to how newspapers and magazines use headings and sub-headings to help readers, websites can use special tags in their HTML. These tags not only help human readers read the content, they also help search engine spiders better understand the content on a page and what is most important. It is generally a good idea to use heading tags to help signal to the search engines, what the web page is about.

No Headings Found

C. Image Summary

Images are a great way to enhance a website from a user's perspective. However, it is important to note that search engine crawlers cannot really "see" images. So, if you have lots of images that contain textual content within the image itself, this content will not be seen by the crawlers.

HTML helps address this issue by providing a way to specify the textual content for an image using the "alt" attribute. The alt attribute allows web pages to assign specific text as the "alternative" content for images for those that cannot view the images themselves. This can be search engine crawlers or text-only web browsers.

Total images found: 13.

URL	Alt Text	Repeat
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/images/rss.jpg	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/wp-content/themes/gabtheme ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/expert/avatars/maleah.png? ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/expert/avatars/misterwizar ...	Missing	1
http://factoidz.com/expert/avatars/mandasparkl ...	Missing	1
http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-effps-q1jv ...	Quantcast	1

D. Interior Page Analysis: 3 Pages Processed

We looked at a few other pages on your website to see how well they are optimized. This sort of interior page analysis can reveal exciting opportunities for you to target specific keywords or visitors. You can then create landing pages optimized towards converting those visitors into customers.

Page	Keywords	Description
http://factoidz.com/create-account.php	-- missing --	-- missing --
http://factoidz.com/sign-in.php?redirect_to=/	-- missing --	-- missing --
Factoidz | bite-sized knowledge	experts,knowledge,discussion,advice,social,top ...	Connecting point for experts and people seekin ...

II. Off-Page SEO

Off-Page SEO includes all the things you do to promote your website outside the design of the website itself. Getting more inbound links to your site, registering with directories relevant to your industry, and getting more pages into the search engine indexes are all parts of Off-Page SEO.

A. Domain Info

Most experts agree that you should register your domain for a long time, because search engines factor domain "stability" when looking at your pages.

Domain Age:	9 months, 8 days
Time To Expiration:	2 months, 21 days

The domain for this website is set to expire in less than a year (2 months, 21 days ).
We would suggest renewing this domain with your registrar. Google and other search engines may penalize websites with domains that are set to expire soon. The reason for this is that many spam sites are often registered for short periods of time. Most registrars support paying upfront for several years and the cost is usually only about $10-$20 per year, so it is generally worth it.

B. Google PageRank: 3

"Google PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves important weigh more heavily and help to make other pages important." - From Google

C. Google Indexed Pages: 61

This number is the approximate number of pages on www.factoidz.com that have been stored in the Google index. The Google web crawler will visit the website periodically and look for new content for its index. Generally, the more pages your site has within the Google cache, the better.

D. Last Google Crawl Date: April 12, 2009 @ 07:57 AM (GMT)

Google will periodically crawl websites looking for new and updated content. In general, you want Google to crawl your site as often as possible, so your new content shows up in Google search results immediately.

E. Traffic Rank: Top 0.41 %

Alexa is an online service that measures traffic for millions of sites on the Internet in a similar way to Nielsen television show ratings.

Your website has an Alexa rank of 115,370 which is in the top 0.41 % of all websites.

F. Inbound Links: 806

One of the most important measures for a website is how many other sites link to it. The more links the better. Having links to your website from authoritative resources on the Internet helps you rank higher in search engines since these links are an indication that your website is trustworthy and contains good content.

G. DMOZ Directory: No Entry Found

factoidz is not listed in DMOZ.

DMOZ, The Open Directory Project, is the largest and most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.

H. Yahoo! Directory: No Entry Found

factoidz is not listed in the Yahoo! Directory.

The Yahoo! Directory is a web directory which rivals the DMOZ Open Directory Project in size. We recommend that every business have a listing in the Yahoo! Directory.

I. ZoomInfo: No Entry Found

factoidz is not listed in the ZoomInfo directory.

ZoomInfo is a business directory and search engine, with profiles on more than 37 million people and 3.5 million companies.

III. Blogosphere

Blogging makes sense from a marketing perspective. You'll be leveraging the shift from outbound to inbound marketing and interacting with your customers in new ways. A blog lets you meet your customers more directly than sending out brochures or an email campaign. It changes your website from a brochure that most people look at once to something that people interact with and come back to.

A. Blog Analysis

Blogging is a great way to reach your target audience with your thoughts, opinions, and offerings on relevant topics.

Blog Found

Blog URL:http://factoidz.com/best-blogs-and-other-resou ...

B. Blog Ranking: Top 0.19 %

Technorati is a popular blog directory service. It measures the popularity of a given blog as compared to all other sites that have been submitted to its system.

This blog currently has a Technorati rank of 133,852, which puts it in the top 0.19% of blogs tracked by Technorati.

IV. Social Mediasphere

Making sure that your company has an extensive web presence outside of your own website is important. It increases the chances that your prospects will find your company when they are online since there are more web pages that contain information about your company.

A. del.icio.us bookmarks: 14

del.icio.us is a web-based bookmarking site. Delicious users save their bookmarks on the website so they can access them from any browser. A website that has many users bookmarking it is generally popular and will get more traffic.

B. Digg.com Submission Summary

Digg is a social media site where anyone can submit articles, and viewers can vote for articles they like. Very popular articles can make it to the front page of Digg, resulting in more traffic to your website.

The website www.factoidz.com has 313 articles submitted to digg.com. These articles received a total of 212 diggs (votes) and 0 of these articles made it to the front page of digg.com.

V. Converting Qualified Visitors to Leads

Visitors to your site are nice, but you probably want to convert qualified, interested visitors into actual customers. There are a number of ways to increase your conversion efficiency, turning more qualified visitors into prospects, leads, and eventually customers.

A. RSS Feed: Found

An RSS feed was detected in this web page. The feed link was correctly setup so that it can be auto-detected by feed readers and contemporary browsers. The feed URL for this site is feeds/all.php

BlogLines, a leading RSS reader, reports about 0 subscribers to the feed through their system. This is usually a small fraction of the total subscribers to the feed.

 

B. Score Summary

Section	www.factoidz.com
Website Grade	86
Google Page Rank	3
Google Indexed Pages	61
Traffic Rank	115,370
Blog Rank	133,852
Inbound Links	806
del.icio.us Bookmarks	14

 

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How to get the late fees waived on your Countrywide mortgage.

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