Top SEM and SEO Tips    

Jquery Save to Excel II

September 12, 2011 – 1:24 am

Slightly more advanced version of my previous script. This script handles if the table doesn’t have an ID which was a problem previously. It also paves the way for multiple export options including Excel, HTML and PDF – whatever your server can handle.

This code is slightly different to previous code as it will add the export buttons to all tables on the page that do not have a class of ‘noExcel’. Run this script from your jQuery ready() function. A simpler version of this code is available at http://www.topsemtips.com/2008/11/save-html-table-to-excel-using-jquery/:

var RandomIDToUse = 1000;
function AddActionsToTable(  )
{
$(" table:not(.noExcel)").each( function(i){
var TableID = this.id ;

if ( $(this).data('ToolBarAdded') === undefined) {
$(this).data('ToolBarAdded',1);
var TableName = this.id ;
if ( this.id == '' || this.id === undefined ){
TableName = "MyRandomID" + RandomIDToUse ;
$(this).attr('id',TableName);
RandomIDToUse++ ;
}
var FormID = 'form' + TableName ;
var SavetoID = 'saveto' + TableName ;
var DataToDisplayName = "datatodisplay" + TableName ;
var SaveToDisk =
"<div class='TableToolBar'>" +
"<form action='/reports/SaveData/SaveToExcel.php' method='post' target='_blank' id='" + FormID + "'" +
"onsubmit='$(\".DataToDisplay\", this ).val( $(\"<div>\").append( $(\"#" + TableName + "\").eq(0).clone() ).html() )'>" +
"<input type='hidden' id='" + DataToDisplayName + "' name='DataToDisplay' class='DataToDisplay' />" +
"<input type='hidden' id='" + SavetoID + "' name='SaveTo' val='' />" +
"</form>" +
"<input  type='image' src='/images/icons/page_excel.png' width='16' height='16' alt='Save to Excel' title='Save to Excel'" +
" onclick='$(\"input:checked\").attr(\"checked\",true); $(\"#" + SavetoID + "\").val(\"Excel\"); $(\"#" + FormID + "\").submit();' />" +
"  " +
"<input  type='image' src='/images/icons/doc_table.png' width='16' height='16' alt='Save to HTML' title='Save to HTML'" +
" onclick='$(\"input:checked\").attr(\"checked\",true); $(\"#" + SavetoID + "\").val(\"HTML\"); $(\"#" + FormID + "\").submit();' />" +
"  " +
"<input  type='image' src='/images/icons/doc_pdf.png' width='16' height='16' alt='Save to PDF' title='Save to PDF'" +
" onclick='$(\"input:checked\").attr(\"checked\",true); $(\"#" + SavetoID + "\").val(\"PDF\"); $(\"#" + FormID + "\").submit();' />" +
"</div>" ;
$(this).after( SaveToDisk ) ;
}
} ) ;

}

PHP Processes Getting Killed

September 12, 2011 – 12:41 am

This one took a while to suss out.

Symptoms are:

  • Database connections idle for long periods of time.
  • Processes start and then stop intermittently.
  • Processes report ‘Killed’ when you run them.
  • Running ‘dmesg’ from the command line shows the OMM process was called.

If this is happening to you you need to check your logs to see if the OMM (out of memory manager) is getting called. To check this run ‘dmesg’ from a Unix command line and look for the term ‘OMM’. The OM process kicks in when there is not enough memory to satisfy memory requests (malloc) that the system has already OKed. his is a particular problem on Linux as it will optimistically over allocate memory without regard to whether there is any actually available. The OMM process has this horrible habit of killing random processes until there is enough memory available. The processes killed are always user processes but are totally unrelated to whatever caused the memory issue in the first place.

There is a solution though. The solution is embedded in later versions of Linux and its a method to control the overallocation of memory allowed so that the OMM process is not called, instead the process that requested the memory is killed with a segmentation fault instead. It still means some process dies however its better than a random act of killing.

The solution was in the post killing the OOM killer – setting the two vm. variables in sysctl.conf stopped the OMM process kicking in and killing random processes. Looking at the ‘dmseg’ instead of OMM calls I now see seg faults. There is still a problem with overallocation of memory but now the process that requested the memory is killed rather than a random process.

My setting for the sysctl.conf file

vm.overcommit_ratio = 80

vm.overcommit_memory = 2

Which is working fine on an Amazon EC2 instance.


Qriocity is too expensive

July 10, 2011 – 10:52 am

So I got a new Sony Blu Ray over the weekend and was setting it up when prompted to set up Qriocity.  Qriocity is a streaming movies service. I thought this will be nice, rather than having to wait for the movies to arrive from Netflix or go down to the local RedBox or Blockbuster Express I will be able to stream the latest releases. So I setup my account, put in my credit card, link my account to my Blu Ray player and go to look at the movies. $3.99 for a movie in SD – WTF! and $5.99 if I want HD.

Whomever is running Qriocity needs to have a reality check – that is ridiculous! Have you been to your local supermarket and seen Redbox yet? $1 per movie is a more realistic figure, given you don’t have any physical locations, machines to install or repair, any discs to repair and replace your price should be LOWER than Redbox, not 4 times higher.

So I went to the Qriocity  website to let them know about this pricing faux pas and there is no easy way to let them know how I feel – so I’ve posted it here.
Sony – get your head out of your a** and make this service a reasonable price or I’m sticking to Netflix and Redbox.


1 Hour To Great Results with Sycara

June 15, 2011 – 7:23 pm

The Sycara SEO tool is great for quick site audits and the results for the time invested are outstanding. The steps for a quick one hour audit are:

  1. Login to your Sycara account.
  2. Add your site to the Sycara system using the ‘Add Site’ menu option – supply the site name and site URL and hit save.
  3. When the ‘Next Steps’ options appear click ‘Visit Site Dashboard’
  4. Gather your list of top keywords and turn them in a CSV format on one line i.e. diamond watch, gold ring.
  5. Under ‘Site Settings’ -> ‘Map Keywords’ click the down arrow on the blue bar and select ‘Add Keywords’ – cut and paste your CSV keyword string here.
  6. To the left of each keyword click the down arrow and ‘Best Page’ option and select a URL to map this keyword to.
  7. From the menu bar select ‘Reports’ -> ‘Report Scheduler’
  8. Click the ‘Create Report’ button, select ‘Keyword Ranking’ and click the ‘Run’ button.
  9. Click the ‘Create Report’ button, select ‘Site Audit’ and click the ‘Run’ button.
  10. Click the ‘Create Report’ button, select ‘SEO Optimization’ and click the ‘Run’ button.

The reports will be complete in about 15 minutes… have a coffee while you wait…

Go to ‘Reports’ -> ‘Report History’

  1. When the ranking report arrives check your site’s rankings – this is your baseline.
  2. When the Site Audit Report is available, click the report and scan down it – any time you see any numbers in the ‘Alert’ or ‘High’ columns click the number and view the recommendations. Correct all the Alerts and as many highs as you can.
  3. When the SEO Optimization Report is available, click the report and scan down it – any time you see any numbers in the ‘Alert’ or ‘High’ columns click the number and view the recommendations. Correct all the Alerts and as many highs as you can.
  4. If you have time left from the one hour allocated correct as many normal issues as you can too.

If this is work destined for another person to implement:

  1. Open up Word or the equivalent.
  2. Screen capture the ranking report and paste into the Word Document.
    For each Keyword add a headline with the keyword – URL combination.
    For each issue in the site audit cut and paste the text into the word document.
    For each issue in the SEO optimization report cut and paste the text into the word document.
  3. For non-keyword mapped URL issues shown in the site audit add these under a section called ‘Other Pages’

All completed in around 30 minutes.

It is recommended these reports are scheduled every two weeks to fully optimize your site in the organic search results.


Make More Money by Performing Keyword Research

June 6, 2011 – 5:19 pm

By Karon Thackston © 2011, All Rights Reserved

Whether you’re a virtual assistant, copywriter, web design pro or search engine optimizer, keyword research is a useful and necessary service you can add to your lineup to make more money.

Anyone with a website or blog who aims to rank high in the search engines can benefit from professional-quality keyword research.

Why Would Others Pay You to Perform Keyword Research?

Because, as a trained professional, you will gather and evaluate data and make confident decisions. You won’t be an amateur who doesn’t understand the finer points of this craft and guesses at which terms are best to use where.

The issue lies in the fact that most people *think* they know how to conduct keyword research.  Either that or they believe it solely depends on search counts.  But because they haven’t been trained and they don’t stay on top of the latest developments, they aren’t aware of the little things that can make a huge difference.

For instance, did you know that Wordtracker presents annual search counts?  Most people believe they deliver daily counts.

They did, years ago, but their website states (in several places) that the search totals displayed on their site are for a 365-day period.  Just imagine if you incorrectly think you’re comparing daily Wordtracker results with monthly Google results?  You’re research is going to be seriously flawed.

An Ongoing Source of Revenue

Conducting keyword research is not a one-time event.  New products and services are coming out all the time.  New ways to describe things are constantly developing. For instance, “search engine copywriting” has gotten several new names over the past few years.  You now hear it called “SEO content writing” or “keyword optimization writing” among other things.

If search engine writers wanted to attract traffic from every possible source, they would need to continually research new keywords to optimize their website pages for.  The same is true for every other industry.  Here’s another example.

There are major differences sometimes in what keywords a company uses and which ones customers use.  A client of mine manufacturers those big inflatable advertising balloons that are shaped like soda bottles or giant products.  The company called these “cold-air inflatables” or other industry-related terms.

Their customers, however, used phrases like “giant advertising balloons” and so forth.

As you can see, there are numerous reasons your clients would need repeated keyword research, meaning you have an ongoing source of revenue IF you learn to do it right.

Is Keyword Research That Hard to Do?

Not when you know how :)   The problem is, most people don’t take the time or spend the money to get professional training.  If you aren’t shown the right way to conduct keyword research, you will almost certainly hang a hard left turn that takes you down the wrong path.  If your research doesn’t produce results for your clients, you’ve wasted your time as well as your clients’ time and money.

Here’s what I recommend.  It’s an ebook I wrote called “Demystifying Keyword Research.” No, don’t worry… it’s not a $100+ complicated ebook that will take you 6 months to read.  In fact, it’s not for sale at all.  But I will GIVE you a FREE copy.

Included in this ebook is everything you need to know to conduct professional-level keyword research, choose the best search terms for various web pages and more.  It’s a mere 25 pages long, but don’t worry: I didn’t skimp on any of the information you need to know.  I just took out all the fluff and boiled down the good stuff into an easy-to-understand, quick-read format.

How do you get your copy of Karon’s free keyword research guide?

Simply click to this page now

http://www.copywritingcourse.com/keywordreport.html and start creating a new and profitable source of income for your business.


Who Invited MySpace?

May 27, 2011 – 12:26 am


How to Clean a Washing Machine

May 10, 2011 – 11:21 am

Turn washer to highest level and hottest temperature. With nothing in the drum but water, put two cups of bleach in and let the washer lid sit open allowing the hot water and bleach clean the drum. After letting that mixture sit for awhile close the lid and let the cycle go all the way through to the end.

Once the cycle is complete, start it over again at the highest level and hottest temperature and add the two cups of white vinegar into the water. Again let that sit for awhile with the lid open. After letting it sit, close the lid and allow for the cycle to finish.

If you can, remove the fabric softener dispenser and bleach dispenser from the machine and scrub them. Remove the agitator from the drum and clean the inside of that too. Once all that is finished, re-do the two steps of bleach and vinegar again. Your washer should be completely clean after that.

My suggestion is that you DO NOT use fabric softener in your loads. Instead replace it with a cup of white vinegar, or nothing at all.

When you go to dry your laundry DO NOT use dryer sheets because they are a fire hazard and also produce a film in your dryer allowing lint to adhere to the inside increasing your chances of having a fire.

Also I suggest that you have a chimney sweep come and clean out your lint trap that goes from the dryer to the outside of the house. This improves the dryers ability to dry your laundry and decrease the chance of a fire.

By doing all these things your laundry will come out cleaner and smell better than you ever imagined.


Human side of dentistry

May 2, 2011 – 3:20 pm

Otto talks about reacting with fear at the dentist. http://www.geniuscoaching.com/gc/2011/05/may-2-2011-visiting-my-dentist/


Why Are We Allergic to So Many Foods?

April 30, 2011 – 2:02 pm

Interesting video:


Small Business Owners: Are You Making These 3 Deadly Website Copywriting Mistakes?

April 28, 2011 – 9:13 pm

By Karon Thackston © 2010, All Rights Reserved

It’s a common question.  “What copywriting mistakes should I avoid?”  There are many, but the 3 I chose might surprise you.

Why?  Because while these can potentially cause the greatest amount of damage they are not ones most copywriters talk about.

Why?  Because these aren’t the “sexy” copywriting mistakes.  They aren’t the quick-fix aspects. They require thinking and judgment and… <gasp!>… work!  However, they are the ones that – when implemented correctly – can drastically boost the performance of your copy and content whether that be a blog post, article, web page, email or other forms of text.

Copywriting Mistake #1 – Writing Without a Plan

Regardless of what you write, you’ll get better results if you perform due diligence with a little prior planning.  In fact, if you go through the planning phase of copywriting, chances are the copy will all but write itself.  How so?

Because research allows you the opportunity to get to know your target customer, organize your thoughts, outline features, benefits and end results, get your creative juices flowing, and much more. It also allows you to overcome what might otherwise become copywriting mistakes.

Take this article, for instance.  When I started, I didn’t just lay fingers to keyboard and begin rambling on.  I thought about the topic I’d like to approach.  I looked into keyphrases that might be a good fit. (For this piece, I chose “copywriting mistakes” and “copywriting mistake.”)

Then, I gave some thought about what – specifically – I’d like to accomplish in the article.  What, precisely, did I want to communicate to you?  Those became the “3 copywriting mistakes”

mentioned in the headline as well as the outline for my writing.

All that was left to do was fill in the blanks.

The same applies to writing website copy.  When you follow a process for outlining features, benefits and end results, researching keywords, and creating a skeleton of what the page should accomplish, it all falls into place much easier.

Copywriting Mistake #2 – Writing About Your Company/Product Instead of To Your Site Visitor

One of my biggest pet peeves – and one of the most common copywriting mistakes I see – is ignoring your site visitors.

Indulge me for a minute as I climb on my soapbox.

If someone walked into your office, shook your hand and asked how you could help them, you would not immediately begin to rattle off everything you believed to be a strong point about your product or company.  No.  What would you do?  You’d start getting to know the customer.

You would ask questions.  You would find out what their problems/challenges are.  You’d get details on specifically what they want to do/accomplish and then you would address their exact issues.

Instead of “we do this and we do that and our company… let us help… we, we, us, us, our, our, our…blah, blah, blah” you would speak to the customer who is seated in front of you.  Instead of “we-ing all over yourself,” you’d say something like this:

“Mr. Smith, you can get to where you want to go. It’s not as hard as you think.  You can improve the image others have of your company and help reinforce your brand with a system that offers 3 important advantages.  First, you’ll find that ____________________________….”  You get the idea.

Does that mean you can never use “us” or “we” or “our?”

Certainly not!  But keep it to a minimum.  I’d venture to guess you should you those words less than 10% of the time.  After all, it’s not about you… it’s about the ones who have the money:  your customers.

Copywriting Mistake #3 – Thinking Copywriting Only Happens on Your Web Page

If you plan to write search engine optimized copy, you’ll have to understand that your copy actually begins in the search engine results pages (SERPs).  The title tag and the META description tag create a little advertisement for you in Yahoo!, Google, Bing and the other engines.

Let’s say a surfer types in “black cowboy boots” (for example).

The very first exposure that customer has to your web page is what they find in the SERPs. Which of these tag sets grabs your attention?

Black Cowboy Boots – Black Cowboy Boots

Black cowboy boots are manufactured by all of the major cowboy boot makers. This most popular boot comes in various styles depending on your needs.

Black Cowboy Boots – Free Shipping and Return Shipping Buy cowboy boots with a price guarantee and top rated customer service. You can compare multiple … Dan Post Boots Eel Cowboy – Black (Men’s) $249.95 …

Western Spurs, Tshirts, Western Wear, Art, Posters Black Cowboy Boot with Spurs keychains • Black Cowboy Boot with Spurs Key Chain by White_Wedding. praying cowboy pet clothing • praying cowboy dog shirt …

I don’t know about you, but I’d be clicking that free shipping one with the price guarantee!

You have to write your title tag and META description tag as an advertisement. Tell the surfer why they should click to your page as opposed to the other 10,000 in the SERPs. What’s in it for them if they click to you?

So, now you know.  And now that you know, you can avoid making the 3 most deadly copywriting mistakes small business owners make.

Are you looking to revamp or build a small business website but aren’t sure where to start? Karon’s book Effective Websites for Small Businesses helps you work with professional to make it happen. Learn more at http://www.EffectiveWebsitesForSmallBusinesses.com.