Sebbie on the Webbie

Archive for the ‘internet’ Category

We all love Facebook, and a lot of us like Twitter, and now there’s the next one – I believe; FriedEggs.com. It’s kind of a combination of the two, and also updates both of the above if you wish it to.

Compared to Facebook

If you’re like me, you like to limit who sees your Facebook, but it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t have anything public to say. That is where Twitter or FriedEggs would come in. If you want to address a larger audience and get followers that are not your personal friends, this is it.

Compared to  Twitter

You will have more room to write, should you need it, and you can add multi media straigth into your message, kind of like on Facebook. You can also comment on a… an Egg? directly, or just “like it” just like on Facebook.

Compared to Both

You get a front page list of the latest eggs with and without photos/videos. I really truly miss this feature on both Twitter and Facebook, but the Eggs has it. I really like Fried Eggs as an addition or link to both Facebook and Twitter.

Follow my eggs. XD

As bloggers, we’re constantly being told that we should be keeping a keen eye on our Google Page rank as well as Alexa ranking. While it is very fulfilling to see your site ranks go up, there’s more to the story than that. As you know, both of these ranks compare your site to Every Single Website On The Web. It is hard to even comprehend how many websites that is. Even if you knew the exact number of different websites on the planet, it would still be hard to understand. It’s like knowing that Australia is a bloody big country, but you don’t really get HOW BIG until you fly over it and realise that just because you just passed Darwin doesn’t mean you’ll be home in Hobart any time soon.

It would be a lot better if there was a way to compare your site’s popularity In Your Niche, but there isn’t, at the moment anyway. That is to say that your site’s influence where it counts has little to do with your page ranks. I must give my husband’s blog as an example. He writes a blog for people who use exergaming in professional health and fitness purposes. Professional exergamers, that is. (I bet you didn’t even know there were such thing as a professional exergamer!) His blog, Exergaming Australia has a modest page rank of 2 (oh, he’s gone up!) and his Alexa ranking is around 4,600,000. Not too impressive if you just look at the numbers. However, everyone who is anyone in the field of exergaming knows who he is and what he does and his influence in the field is world wide and instant. When you google “exergaming” his blog comes up as the second result, right after Wikipedia and Nintendo Wii doesn’t even make the first page! This is because his niche is so small, that even though EVERYONE of any importance knows him, the vast majority of the web is quite unaware of what a brilliant blog he runs.

On the other hand, I run a Barbie community site, as you know, with a page rank of 4 and Alexa ranking of about 476,000, which is pretty impressive for any site, BUT, I make no money (or very little) and the English speaking world is pretty much unaware that my site exists. Put “Barbie” on Google and you won’t see my site anywhere near the top of the results, I quit searching after page 6. And that is because there are a gazillion Barbie sites out there, collectors, articles written about the doll and so forth and so forth, and not even refining the search to “Barbie community” help me much. Yes, I am bad at SEO, but my husband there is even worse.

I checked a few Barbie-sites that I know of and who are very well known amongst collectors, to see how they rank. I kicked their butt so bad, I couldn’t find an unofficial Barbie-site (non-Mattel) that would have had better rankings than I have, not even my biggest direct competitor. How much good does the rankings do for me? Not much, other than I get to pat myself in the back for beating the other sites in the numbers game, but that’s it.

So what to do? Make sure you introduce yourself to all the right people and get the word out. Do the best you can do to produce high quality content and people who do find your site may spread the word where it counts. Focusing on your page ranks is not going to bring your fame and fortune they are there just to report to you how much you’ve improved, not where you should be.

Does that make sense to you?

Related Blogs

• Web Video – Boost Google Page Rank | Technical News
• Reviewwave: Helping you Rank Higher on Google Pagerank | seosite.co.tv
• Google Pagerank Calculation | TechJaws.com
• Google Pagerank Update Schedule for 2010 | Faust! something is geeky!
• What is Page Rank and How Does It Work? | web-marketing-blog
• Does listing your name in whois do better for Google page rank …
• 7 Pagerank Secrets | SEO and Home Business
• Link Popularity and PageRank (PR) misconceptions | C7M
• Google Pagerank Is Directly Related To The Quantity & Quality Of …
• goodnewsforall.com-Internet Marketing News » Beneficial Niche …
• How To Find Success As A Niche Marketing Super Affiliate …
• How to Succeed in Niche Marketing | Niche Marketing Sites
• Page Rank Variables As Your SEO Campaign | Delirium Propaganda
• What is the fastest way to gain rank in a search engine in a …
• Link Building – How It Helps Your Page Ranking | Web Traffic Secrets
• SEO Ranking | How To WordPress

If you are a parent, you might be interested to know, if you don’t already, that there are web browsers specially made for kids. (Web browser is the thing you watch web pages with, like Internet Explorer.) There are several, and as a childless by choice person I haven’t tried them, but you should! These browsers are designed to filter out inappropriate content to make the web a safer environment for your kid.

From a content producers point of view, I find it sometimes tiring having to watch my words so that kids won’t get bad influences. It’s good to know, that these products exist, and that it’s really up to the parent to utilise them and not just complain about the smut around the web. (I do enjoy my smut as in content not suitable for kids, so I like to have that option open. I also sometimes send out inappropriate content, like swearing, and whilst it might not be a lady like thing to do, I still consider it my right – and your right is to filter it out if you like.)

In addition to web browsers, there are filters that can filter the content on normal browsers. However, if I was a parent, I would get the browser, as many are brightly coloured fun looking things, that will probably be the preferred option for a kid if he or she has one available, so even if you forgot to turn your filter on after a long night at the computer… The kid would still choose to go with his own special browser.

So there’s the tip, see what’s available.

As for you who are producing adult content on your websites, have a look at this website, which will help you to self label your site to be suitable for adult audience only. Amongst other things, the filters and kids browsers look for these tags, and having one on your site will make their task easier.

As a collector, I of course follow the keyword “Barbie” on Twitter. The last few weeks it’s been all about the freshly released Computer Engineer Barbie. Naturally, as the web is full of geeks, they are impressed by the new release, but at the same time hesitant to believe it would have any significant impact on children’s minds. Their concern makes me smile.

A friend of mine had the Astronault Barbie of 1985. We thought she was the most beautiful Barbie ever made, but I don’t think she ever got to the space. My fashion model Barbie, officially named Magic Moves Barbie from the same year did one session of modelling straight out of the box in Christmas ’85, but that was the last of it. After that, she did a lot more camping than modelling. I loved that doll, but not for what was written on her box.

I think, in that regard, the Computer Engineer Barbie has a lot more chances to actually get to practise her occupation than many of her earlier name sakes did. I doubt it very much that the Presidential Candidate Barbie was campaigning much in kids plays, or that Becky the Para Olympian Barbie stayed in her wheelchair for much longer than five minutes at a time. Computer Engineering doesn’t have to take away from the play, it can actually add to it. Even though the focus of the play might be dating and doing exciting stuff, I can easily see the Computer Engineer actually popping in for some work while she’s busy with the other parts of her life. The reason being, that a lot of kids have computer engineer -parents, so they know what the heck it is about!

I don’t know about you, but I love this doll, and I’m so getting one as soon as I can get my hands on one. Even though I am 33 now, and have been obsessed with Barbie my whole life, this one is the closest to being my kind of a girl – right out of the box.

Related Blogs

• Playing House With the Drapers: The Mad Men Barbie Collection …
• “Mad Men” Barbie Dolls
• Mad Men inspires new Barbie line
• The Volokh Conspiracy » Blog Archive » “Black Barbie Sold for Less …
• Mad Men – Barbie Dolls – Coming Soon | Geekosystem
• Barbie, computer engineer « Women & Mozilla
• Mattel's Newest Doll: Computer Engineer Barbie | Open The Dialogue
• Opinion: Why Computer Engineer Barbie is Good for Women in Tech |
• Introducing Computer Engineer Barbie! Barbie Unveils Her 125th …
• How relevant is computer engineer Barbie? – Veronica Belmont
• Mattel To Make “Mad Men” Barbies | GirlsTalkinSmack.com …
• Mattel To Produce 'Mad Men' Barbie Collectible Dolls | YouBentMyWookie
• Mattel Releases Biologically Inaccurate “Mad Men” Doll Set …

I am also experimenting with the social browser Flock. I host my own WordPress installation, and it seems I can blog straight from the browser without logging into the administration area of my blog. That’s pretty cool, huh? This looks fairly interesting to me… Shiny!

If you are serious about your online presence or otherwise just everywhere and want people to recognise you outside your normal circles, avatar is the best way to do this. Online world relies heavily on written word and images. Images, I think we all agree, draw our attention more efficiently than text. This means, that when people are reading your words, they won’t necessarily spend time memorising your name but they will probably at least take a glance at your avatar. In addition, your user name might not be always available for every website you want to join, but your avatar will be. That is why you should have a bit of a think about your avatar. What do you want people to remember you by? There are some types of avatars that tend to give a negative impression of you at first glance:

Baby photo on man’s avatar. Probably the last time any woman told him he was cute.

Baby photo on woman’s avatar. A stay at home mother who has nothing else to talk about apart from her kids. (Probably uses a screen name such as “MomOf2″.)

Just the eye. Seeks a deep contact with people while trying to remain anonymous and appear soulful. Kind of works but is quite unoriginal and thus utterly forgettable.

Popular cartoon character – A male who is trying the “boyish charm” angle although it has never worked for anyone. We’ve seen enough of Vinnie the Pooh and friends already! Original cartoon characters by the man/woman behind the avatar, such as Tony’s are encouraged though!

Disproportioned photo - An avatar of a casual Internet user who hasn’t yet found the delights of Photoshopping. (Has uploaded a photo straight from the camera, without shaping it into a square first.)

Logo – impersonal. Is here to sell me something.

The vast majority of people prefer the picture of a person in an avatar over a logo or other graphic. People want to speak to people. If your avatar is listed amongst several others (like recent visitors list), the likelihood that you’ll get a click is higher if it’s your face in there. But, sometimes you need to put that logo up there. Another thing is, that if you’re using your photo, it gets boring after a while, and intolerable to you when you get a better photo of yourself. But the problem arises, that people get confused if you change your avatar. They won’t remember who you are for a while, until you say something really characteristic to yourself. I believe I found a solution to both of these problems. You are not likely to change your logo too often, right? So why not use that together with your photograph?

Here are some of my recent avatars:

See what I mean? There are elements in the avatar that stay constant while I get bored with the rest of it – me. :p This of course requires some Photoshop skills, but nothing too complicated. What do you think? If you decide to give it a go, please post a comment after uploading your new avatar to SezWho, or to Gravatar if you don’t use SezWho. (SezWho will override Gravatar on my blog.)