Sparky v. Sprinklers
Slowly but surely, our puppy is learning to enjoy water and playing with water. His current hobby is attacking the sprinklers while they’re active in the backyard.
Archive for August, 2008
Blog Recap, A Day Late
I was busy with more pressing matters last night: ranking players for the upcoming fantasy football draft I’m taking part in with a bunch of marketing friends. So the blog recap is 24 hours late, but no less filled with quality material — starting with a 5-part series I did on local blogging.
HyperlocalBlogger.com
- Hyperlocal Blogging: Successes and Failures So Far
- Marketing A Hyperlocal Blog
- Content Development for Our Hyperlocal Blogs
- Setting Up a Hyperlocal Blog (or Four)
- Planning A Hyperlocal Blog Strategy
- Starting a Hyperlocal Blog: The Series
Small Business Search Marketing
- Two Days Left to Get SBMU Discount
- MSN’s Local Listings Center = Down
- What does Google do with all that click-thru data?
- Guide to Hyperlocal Blogging
- Need Copywriting Help? Add Karon’s Blog to Your Reading List
- How to Increase PPC Success on the Content Network
@U2 Blog
U2Diary.com
Richland Real Estate Blog
- Richland’s Long-Range City Plan: 7 Focus Areas
- Hanford’s B Reactor Named a National Historic Landmark
Kennewick Real Estate Blog
- Scenes from the Benton-Franklin County Fair
- Kennewick Business Roundup
- Canyon Lakes: 4.5 Stars from Golf Digest
West Richland Real Estate Blog
Wow. I was a blogging machine over the last week, wasn’t I?
SEO Geek? Moi?
If the shirt fits, wear it. And this one certainly does. No denying I’m an SEO Geek.
Thanks to Adam Audette for letting me express my inner SEO Geek in new ways.
(you can click the image to see the bigger version at Flickr)
Such a Handsome Fellow
No, not me, but thanks for thinking that.
I mean Sparky, our 4-month-old, soon-to-lose-his-manhood, doesn’t-like-cameras-in-his-face puppy. Shot this one a week or two ago, along with some funny video of him having a hissy fit because I kept putting the camera close to him. Such a shy little thing he is…..
Apple Customer Service FTW
I have a pretty big credit on my account with the iTunes Music Store. Cari’s been wanting to buy music lately, so I suggested she tell me the songs she wants, and I’ll use my credit to “gift” the songs to her. That’s where I buy the song, but she gets to download it.
We did that last week, but a couple days later I noticed a charge from Apple on my debit card. So, after searching the online help and not finding an answer that satisfied me, I sent this email to customer service:
I have a credit of nearly $40 in my iTunes store account. On August 19, I gifted a song to my wife (order #__________). I believe the $1.07 was deducted from my credit balance AND also billed to my credit card. Can you explain why this happened, and can you please fix it?
I’d like all gifted music to be billed against my store credit.
Thanks.
Matt McGee
The next day, John replied back to tell me that the gifted song was only charged to my credit card, not to both the card and my store credit. He also explained that gifted songs can’t be bought against existing store credit, only against the credit card on file. Then he said this:
Matt, as a small way to show Apple appreciation for your doing business with us, I have issued five song credits to your iTunes Store account. You can use these to buy the individual songs of your choice from the iTunes Store.
How sweet is that? Ask a simple question, get a simple answer … and five free songs. Nice job, Apple.
Flight Attendants Getting Feisty
When I fly, it never fails: I always end up right near the loser who thinks the “Please turn off all electronic devices now” warning doesn’t apply to him. On one of my flights last week, the guy right in front of me kept talking on his cell phone for about three minutes — loudly, in a foreign language — after the crew asked for phones to be put away.
Then, on a different flight, as the flight attendant was walking down the aisle to check that everyone’s ready to go, I heard her say this in a loud, pointed tone of voice:
“No, you’re not turning it off. You’re sending a text. I’m not an idiot. Now please turn it off.”
Ha! Good for her, I say. I can’t stand the dopes who think the rules don’t apply to them.
The Week In Blogging
I was on the road a couple days this week, but a late dash of mad blogging helped me get caught up. Seriously, I think I just finished writing about five blog posts on various McGee Inc. blog properties.
Hyperlocal Blogger
- Copywriting for Hyperlocal Blogs
- Where’s the Hyperlocal Content?
- 8 Wordpress Plugins for Hyperlocal Bloggers
- Sunday Night Maintenance…
Richland Real Estate Blog
Pasco Real Estate Blog
West Richland Real Estate Blog
@U2 Blog
Small Business Search Marketing
- Local Search at SES San Jose
- What Does the FTC Have to do with Local Search?
- Real Estate Marketing 2.0
If you happen to be a U2 fan, check out that post above about winning some free CDs. Giveaway deadline isn’t until next Tuesday.
I Started a New Blog This Week (Weekly Recap)
… and that means even more links in the weekly blogging recap. Well, it means more links as long as I can keep all the blogs going strong. So far, so good. Did a lot of late-night writing this past week. I’ll start with the new one:
Hyperlocal Blogger
- Speaking of Local Blogging Competition…
- Mainstream Media Jumping on Local Blogging Bandwagon
- Miriam Ellis: 5 Tips for Hyperlocal Bloggers
- Outside.in’s Guide to Local Blogging
- Our Four Hyperlocal Blogs
- Hyperlocal Blogging in the New York Times
- Welcome to HyperlocalBlogger.com
U2Diary.com
Richland Real Estate Blog
- “A theme park next to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant”
- Final Hanford Reach Management Plan Complete
- Richland Parks on the Chopping Block
Kennewick Real Estate Blog
Pasco Real Estate Blog
Small Business Search Marketing
- SES Session Preview
- SBS Flashback: August 2007
- You Have Great Content, But Are You Promoting It?
- GroupThink: Impact of the Economy on You or Your Clients
- Introducing HyperlocalBlogger.com
Now that’s what I call a productive week of blogging!
Four Flickr Photos Found in the Wild
Is this the first time one of my U2 pictures has been picked up somewhere? I think so. I have “U2″ as a Google (and Yahoo) news alert, and it was very strange to click through to this Wired story and see my own flippin’ photo used as the illustration!
Meanwhile, Wired has so much real estate from its header down to the actual content, that I have to shrink the whole image down to this mini version. It looks much better in actual size.
And here are some other folks happily using my Flickr pix:
- Sarah Bradley found one of my favorite pix, a dandelion at night, and used it on her Serendipity blog.
- Rachel Sawyer found my photo of the Apple campus and used it in an article about high-tech company headquarters.
- Charmian Christie used my baseball-in-the-grass photo on her “Christie’s Corner” blog. That photo has to be one of the most used in my Flickr photostream. It must come up pretty early when you search for baseball photos or something.
