Archive for the ‘Virtual Business Resources’ Category

Google PageRank

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Google PageRank imageI am sharing this Google pagerank checker because until about 4 or 5 months ago, I didn’t really understand the whole Google pagerank numbering system.

I thought if you had a page rank of 1, that meant you were number 1! However, that isn’t how it works. If you have a pagerank of 1, that’s 1 out of 10! Being 1 out of 10 isn’t as exciting as being number one right?

Use this nifty tool to see what your business or personal website’s Google pagerank is.

Check Page Rank of any web site pages instantly:
This free page rank checking tool is powered by Page Rank Checker service

Even if you are only one out of ten, that isn’t so bad. I am a number 1! See? Check PageRank

It just means we have some work to do. :)

Wired Magazine Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web really gives you some good info on how the whole Google Algorithm/Ranking system works.

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Mr Tweet Error Message

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

So, last night I was checking out Mr. Tweet & I got this error:
Mr. Tweet  Error

LOL! I was so entertained by it, I wasn’t even annoyed that it didn’t load my page right away! (It fixed itself soon after.) But HAD to share! :)

full view on twitpic: http://www.twitpic.com/13rgt4

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Fun with Photos

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

In class, we were assigned to find an image editor for a website project, and if we couldn’t find one then we are to use Microsoft paint. (Ew.)

Well, I already had two websites lunapic and picnik I previously posted about that are online photo editors where you could do all kinds of nifty edits and special effects.

I decided to look up other free online/no download editors and I found two more fun sites for profile pics and what not.

Be on the cover of a magazine!



fakemagazinecover.com

Upload your photo and play with the Photo Trix.


fototrix.com

Photo Trix aren’t just for kids. :D Even grownups can have fun with these photo special effects.

These could be fun for

  • Facebook
  • Myspace
  • Twitter Avatars
  • Blogs
  • Websites
  • Fansites

Just thought I’d share. Have fun!

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Find It Quicker

Friday, January 22nd, 2010
save ur time

Learn these search engine “tricks”, and you’ll save yourself some time! These shortcuts work on almost any search engine, but they definitely work for Google. This information is helpful for market research, office calculations, personal and people searches, file searches and website backlink lookups.

Filter Searches

For words that have multiple meanings read the following short article: narrow-down your search results.

Perform Calculations

Read this next linked short article for a better way to perform calculations in the Google search field

Specialized Search Tips

Click here for more great Google search tips from Jenny Gallaher including:

  • Tracking flights
  • Locating packages
  • Movie showing times
  • Finding files (e.g. PDF’s, Excel spreadsheets or even PowerPoint presentations)

and more! Jenny wrote the preceding articles; and kept them short, sweet, and to the point. I like how she never rambles. She’s one of the best time saving VA for sure!

BackLink Search Tips

Find how many websites are linking back to your website.

On Google search for:
[links:www.yourdomain.com]

On Bing & Yahoo search for:
links: www.yourdomain.com

This will simply give you more accurate results than simple doing a search on www.yourdomain.com.

Happy Searching!

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Invite Me Too! (once.)

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Whoever wrote this post about what they think of fan pages reminded me of an issue with

  • fan pages
  • webinars
  • friending and adding requests
  • and other fun social media activism campaigns.

The issue?

Forgetting who you’ve already invited, suggested, mentioned, or proposed to!

I am sad to say that I am guilty of this. As I was first setting up fan pages and started social media activism, I wasn’t documenting who I had already  “hit up” to join! This is BAD. Learn from my mistake, which luckily didn’t cost me any friends or anything, but I am sure I invited or suggested to my site to my friends more than once . :{ Sorry guys, I love you all for being so wonderfully patient!

Anyways, I deemed this inspiration worthy of a post and a mention and a warning.

Your friends and partners are all great people, and I am sure they are very supportive of you. However, when it comes to business:

“You can and should ask for their support once. If they are interested in joining, they will. When you ask repeatedly, that’s called nagging. “

To prevent myself from being a nag, I now keep lists of people I invite to any new event now. I make sure that whenever I send an auto invite, the invite once is checked. Now that I have more business associates online, I try to keep my friends out of it. (Except when I think it’s REALLY cool!)

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Social Media’s Real Power

Monday, January 4th, 2010

I was browsing some websites during lunch today, and I happened across Chris Brogan’s newest blog post called: Soul of a New Business. Of course, Chris had some great incite on building new business. He has become quite the success story because of tools like social media and then writing an inspiring book about it called “Trust Agents” along with his partner in crime, Julien Smith.

It never ceases to amaze me how social networking really can make or break a business! These days, it’s all about reputation. So, if you are a new business, how do you compete? I found Chris’s business soul is a set of questions to ask yourself important to share. And I will at the bottom of this post. However, before that, I want to share a simple, yet most profound statement, from one of his commenters, Natalie of Stark Media. She said,

Social media has done a great job of revealing which businesses prove helpful.

Simple right? Well, sometimes you “know” something without every really communicating it effectively. And you know what? I can’t think of a better way to say this. In a nutshell, this is what makes social media really powerful. Even if you are a brand new business with no reputation, social media will give you the opportunity to actually be helpful. It’s the best way of advertisement there is!

Anyone can buy air time or ads in the yellow pages and say: “Hey! I can make your life better!” Right? Social media, when used correctly, will PROVE you are awesome.

Now, for Chris’s List of Business Soul Set of Questions to Ask Yourself:

  • Would I want my mother or spouse to be marketed to the way I am marketing my business?
  • Are the products I am selling something I’d give to my family?
  • Are better/easier/more helpful ways of doing what I’m doing?
  • Am I approaching my business relationships in a balanced way, or am I just sitting here chomping at the bit to sell ? (People can tell the difference.)
  • At what price are my products and services worth?
  • Am I giving real value? or am I  just selling?

I changed this list into first person and put it in a bullet list, but you will find them and thousands of helpful tips for social networking and “how this human business” at ChrisBrogan.com.

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Moving Wordpress

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Move Wordpress from a subdirectory to website root

This example should work for any Wordpress deployment, this article describes how to move Wordpress on IIS 7 using ASP.Net

Benefits

  • Move Wordpress
  • Preserve old links and permalinks
  • Preserve old images and uploads in posts and pages
  • Notify crawls of change with HTTP Response 301 Moved Permanently

This configuration will allow you to move Wordpress to a different directory within your site and maintain you old links, permalinks, images, and uploads. All of the content will move with Wordpress, this will just setup redirects to the new location. Each time an old link is used a HTTP Response 301 will be issued, this will help update search engines and backlinks. Custom HTTP Response 404 handling will be used to issue the HTTP Response 301.

Steps

  • Setup HTTP Response 301 Moved Permanently using ASP.Net (default.aspx)
  • Modify HTTP Response 404 Not Found handling using IIS 7 (web.config)
  • Modify rewrite rule to exclude old path using IIS 7 (web.config)
  • Update Wordpress settings in database using MySQL
  • Update Wordpress posts in database using MySQL

HTTP Response 301 Moved Permanently using ASP.Net
example default.aspx

<%@Page Language=”VB” %>
<%@Import Namespace=”System.Uri” %>
<%@Import Namespace=”System.Web” %>

<script runat=”server”>

Sub Page_Load(sender As Object, e As System.EventArgs)

Dim sUrl As System.String = HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl

Dim bChange As System.Boolean
bChange = False

If sUrl.IndexOf(“?404;”) > 0 Then
sUrl = sUrl.SubString(sUrl.IndexOf(“?404;”) + 5)
sUrl = sUrl.SubString(sUrl.IndexOf(“//”) + 2)
sUrl = sUrl.SubString(sUrl.IndexOf(“/”) + 1)
Else
sUrl = “”
End If

If sUrl.IndexOf(“blog/”) = 0 Then
sUrl = sUrl.SubString(5)
End If

Response.Status = “301 Moved Permanently”
Response.AddHeader(“Location”, “http://www.domain.com/” & sUrl)

End Sub

</script>

Web Server/IIS updates
example web.config


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?/>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<httpErrors>
...
<error statusCode="404" subStatusCode="-1" prefixLanguageFilePath="" path="/default.aspx" responseMode="ExecuteURL" />
...
</httpErrors>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name="WordPress" stopProcessing="true">
<match url="/*" ignoreCase="true" />
<conditions>
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
<add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" pattern="blog/*" matchType="Pattern" negate="true" />
</conditions>
<action type="Rewrite" url="/index.php" />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

Wordpress updates
example MySQL synax


/* Update Wordpress siteurl attribute */
update database_name.wp_options set option_value='http://www.domain.com' where option_name='siteurl';

/* Update Wordpress home attribute */
update database_name.wp_options set option_value=’http://www.domain.com’ where option_name=’home’;

/* Update Wordpress upload_path atribute, this is a local path */
update database_name.wp_options set option_value=’C:\\Inetpub\\website\\wp-content\\uploads’ where option_name=’upload_path’;

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Finding My Center

Friday, January 1st, 2010

Freeing Up Resources

I am finally consolidating all of my randomness and some of my test blogs to darkbluesun.com. This site needed an overhaul for New Years. Now that I work at Virtual IT Assistants, I can use darkbluesun for my “everything else” posts. It’s good to have my personal space back! In the process, I have freed up the following sites and simply added a few more categories to my blog.

Blogger

  • socialcomplex.blogspot.com
  • talkshowwisdom.blogspot.com
  • hayleegirl.blogspot.com

Google Sites

  • sites.google.com/site/businessparallel
  • sites.google.com/site/socialnetiquette
  • sites.google.com/site/workfamilyparallel

(Note * Google sites are difficult to find names that aren’t taken.)

Webnode

  • sybil.webnode.com

WordPress

  • backwardthinking.wordpress.com
  • hindsightblind.wordpress.com
  • xtremebaking.wordpress.com (I am keeping my mom’s blog at xtremebaking.blogspot.com)
  • socialcomplex.wordpress.com

Why did I have so many all over the place? Darkbluesun was the site I used for consulting. As you can guess I had to keep as much none business content off of it as possible. This year, my new year’s resolution: “To find my center, and stay focused!” LOL, it’s gonna be a good one!

I am so excited that this new format also allowed me to bring in all my girlie games!

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Blog with wpToGo

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

image

Testing wpToGo a WordPress blogging app for Android. Don’t blog & drive! :)

post moved from virtualitassistant.wordpress.com

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Ping.fm

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Delivering this message to my entire network with Ping.FM . . . I can see how this’d be handy sometimes.

post moved from virtualitassistant.wordpress.com

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