10 Secret Google Ranking Tips

Shhh...don't tell anyone else.

Here are the super duper secret tips.

Happy, happy, Merry merry

I've been saying for weeks how special I thought it was that Christmas and Chanukah both fell on the same day this year. Call me cheezy, but I just thought that it meant a lot that many of us would be celebrating the kick off of the holiday season on the very same day. I like what that says metaphorically and, aside from the poor Chinese food restaurant owners who were losing their massive Jewish influx on christmas day, the real life "chrissmakuh" just seemed pretty darn cool.

Though I could not recall another time in my life this had happened, little did I know that this was the first time this dual holiday has occurred in 100 years.

Anyway, wishing the happiest of holidays (whichever one you celebrate!) to everyone and their families and a spectacular new year for all.

Hollah for Hannukah!
Merry to the X-mas!

Freestylin with Fido

I really do love our doggie Oliver. I mean, look at those long, gorgeous ears and sweet eyes. In truth, I've sort of become one of those "crazy dog people"--I get nervous about leaving the little guy home alone too much (so we've gotten him a "dog sitter" before), I wouldn't think of feeding him anything but organic, human grade food and the idea of a doggie birthday party sounds...welll, sort of intriguing. Thus, by most standards, that leaves me squarely in the category of a "crazy dog lady." And you know what? I'm ok with that.

But I think this article in the New York Times on freestyle dancing with your pooch takes "crazy" to a whole new level. In fact, I think I'd be most comfortable if we called these people "Krazy dog peeps." The crazy with a "K" somehow feels more appropriate.

When Will You Be Debt Free?

Hopefully you are NOTHING like me and avoid credit card balances like the plague. However, as someone who's been less than steallar at saving and not lucky enough to inheit a trust fund, I confess that at times I resorted to using credit cards when getting my business off the ground. Yes, I've got super duper low rates (even a couple of 0%'s), but I have a couple of balances nonetheless.

CNN has this handy little calculator that lets you see exactly how much longer you are doomed to be paying those shiny plastic little suckers off.

While we're on the topic of getting out of debt, I really loved this budgeting system I came across on Life Hacker the other day.

I've recently begun a quasi budgeting plan and, man, its a major adjustment for me. But I like the ease and simplicity of this system and am going to try to incorporate it.

Mom, if you are reading and care to fill me in on any afore to unmentioned trust funds, please do so immediately.

Drop Send

It's old news already that I'm a hardcore Life Hacker addict, but talk about the universe delivering just when you need it to.

Yesterday, I had to quickly send out some VERY large files (2 Paper Bride product photos) to our PR agency and it was just not working. They were way too big for my email to handle and after 15 minutes of watching my outbox sputter and stall, I decided to go to with Plan B.

I had just that morn read about this fab new site called DropSend.com that allegedly makes sending large files a snippity snap.

I downloaded the software (which took about 3.2 seconds), uploaded my files, and voila! No problemo. It still took a good bit of time to get the files downloaded, but the whole process could not have been easier. And you could see the progression of the file the whole time, which greatly put my mind at ease. Best of all, you can save your files to your account so that you can easily send the same ones out again the next time around.

Best of all, this whole shebang is free. There are options for beefier accounts for those who send out lots of big files, but for those of us that just need to send things out periodically, the free account seems to be just fine.

2005: the List of Lists

I love me some lists.

Reasons I like lists:
1. They are oh so orderly
2. They are a marvelous distraction from virtually any task on my to do list
3. I'm fascinated by other people's opinions of the best songs/movies/blogs etc as I like to compare them to my own and puff myself up when I realize "hey, that was my favorite song/movie/blog of the year too!"
4. You can make lists of lists

Which brings me to this awesome site Fimoculous which has done just that--they have loads of lists of lists, and are updating it every day.

Here's my own contribution:

A List of Shows I'm embarassed to admit in public that I have a season pass for on Tivo:
1. Miss Seventeen
2. Run's House
3. My Fair Brady
4. Starting Over
5. America's Next Top Model
6. The Biggest Loser
7. Making the Band 3
8. Real World/Road Rules Challenge
9. Breaking Bonnaduce (this is actually Greg's not mine, but I *have* watched).
10. Gastineau Girls

I WANT TO TALK TO A FREAKIN' HUMAN BEING! (emphasis mine)

As a new business owner, I seem to spend an increasing amount of time on the phone with customer service reps. Well, on a good day its a customer service rep and on an annoying/frustrating/infuriating/maddening day I spend time on the phone with an automated, breathy woman who seems to record messages for every fortune 500 company. I have named her Ashley.

Some companies make this customer service thing fairly painless (Jet Blue for example ) and others make me want to poke my eyes out with a rusty nail.

Today I happened upon, perhaps, the most useful information I have ever come across in my 14 years of internet surfing--it's a very special List. This is a list worth printing out, cherishing, and building a shrine to. If you have anyone in your life you care about, pass this list along to them. Save it for your grandkids, spraypaint it on the walls of a federal building and bury it in a time capsule.

This is a list of about 100 companies (and trust me, many of us our customers of quite a few of them) and includes a chart of exactly what numbers to press on your phone to get straight through to a real, live, beating heart, human being. It's magical, its super spactacular, it's a dream come true.

Thank you, Paul English. I hope I'm not being too forward by saying that I'm truly, madly, deeply in love with you.

Beginner's Guide to SEO

If you are like me, SEO,or Search Engine Optimization, is something you know a bit about--maybe more than the average Jane but not enough to kick Jane's ass. I want to kick Jane's ass, so I've been trying to read up as much as I can.

I came across this fab, truly comprehensive Beginner's Guide from SEOmoz.com that really breaks it all down into digestible bits.

For the record, SEOmoz is a pretty amazing search engine optimization/marketing company in its own right. They provide a ton of free information (for clients and strangers alike) and even have a section where they recommend other SEO firms because they have more business than they know what to do with. What an awesome, shining example of the fact that giving things away often creates more demand than you know what to do with (hello, music industry? Anyone out there?).

What the font?

For any of you designer/paper peeps out there who have not yet discovered What the Font?!, this site is pretty faboo.

If you've ever looked at a webpage or a brochure and wondered "what font is that?," this is your one-stop-shop. You can paste a url or upload a particular file, hit "enter" and then BING, BAM, BOOM, voila, they identify the font for you. Pretty darn nifty.

I WANT THIS

baaaad

sigh

Stick it to Uncle Sam

The end of the tax year is fast approaching, and MSN (via Lifehacker has a great article on some tips for saving on your taxes before that big sparkly ball comes down.

You've only got 30 days left, so hurry up and start savin'.