Archive for October, 2008
SEO contest hotting up
The potential title of ‘Ireland’s greatest SEO’ is attracting a lot of interest from people. With over a month to go, here are just some of the sites i’ve come across so far that (as far as i understand) have obeyed the rules…
- bluejumperinirish.com
- taskdrop.com
- mybluejumper.com
- greybandit.com
- bluejumper.net
- bluejumpernews.com – your favourite geansai gorm site
- personinireland.com
There are a lot of sites with ‘geansai gorm’ in the url – which isn’t allowed. Most of those are subdomains or directories though from free hosts – technically does that count as a ‘new domain’ or a valid one? I don’t know – a grey area perhaps.
Anyway, i can definitely take that lot above at the minute 
My bluejumpernews.com isn’t indexed at the minute, but expect to see it in google shortly and rise steadily. I’ve spent a good chunk of today working on it and optimizing it for google and picked up a few nice tips in the process. The code is still a bit bloated and not really something i fancy tackling but i’ll do a bit more homework on that and see if it matters much – i suspect not.
BlueJumperInIrish.com is in the lead at the minute and off to a flying start. Really simple blog, not much padding, proper permalink structure, loads of content so far, clever domain name, stingy on the outgoing links
Not surprising really, as it’s blackdog’s baby 
No matter what happens, it’s gonna be a fight to the finish and whoever wins it will have worked for it As per usual i’ll keep you guys updated on all of this.
You know that SEO contest i was talking about a couple of days ago? Well i’ve been busy working on a new site for it called Geansai Gorm News (bluejumpernews.com).
I’ve found a nice theme, stripped it down a bit and i’m slowly beginning to optimize it for google. Unlike a lot of the sites that i suspect will be taking part in this, i’m hoping to keep this one going and turn it in to a novelty / WTF? type blog.
Geansai Gorm News will feature random news about anyone wearing a ‘geansai gorm‘ (blue jumper). Check out the about Geansai Gorm page for more I’ve got all of November to play with this one and hopefully i’ll be able to turn it in to a top 3 site by the deadline.
I’m not sure who else is entering this, but i’ve seen plenty of buzz around forums and blogs so i’m sure there’ll be plenty of interest. I’ll be happy with a top 3 finish as this is my first ever SEO competition, but then again, there’s no reason why i can’t fend off the rest for no.1 spot 
It will be a lot of work – that’s the problem, but i’ll do my best to keep it going for as long as possible!
I stumbled upon this picture today and had to blog about it;
Found it on digg.com and it’s from cagle.com – direct link here.
I think it sums up exactly where things are at the minute in the US election. Obama seems to be pulling further and further away from McCain and i’m delighted to see that.
Obama is good for the world in general, not just America. It suggests America regret electing Bush and now want they’re precious cash sowed on american soil, not blown to pieces at will in Iraq and beyond 
I still think this day swung it in Obama’s favour. It was an obvious attack on Obama by McCain and it backfired big time.
Maybe but that’s a question i’ll be able to answer shortly. I’ve just heard about an SEO competition which i’m definitely entering – i let far too many of these competitions pass me by and it’s about time i got stuck in.
I have until December 1st at 3pm to rank no.1 on google.ie for the phrase: geansai gorm. To all my international readers, that translates as ‘blue jumper’.
Here are the rules (taken from mulley.net);
- Entries open to all Irish individuals and Irish businesses.
- Search is to be performed on google.ie. Without Pages From Ireland selected, with personalisation off and from an Irish IP address.
- The domain to rank must be a new domain. Must not contain the keywords in the domain name at all and no ccTLD domains are to be used.
- Only want the homepage to rank, not other non-useful pages.
- 301 redirects are not permitted.
- Keywords as gaeilge instead of english but copy can be in English
Fair enough, it means we’re all on a level playing field. I’ve just over 5 weeks until D Day so i’ll have to act quickly and get the thinking cap on. As the rules state, this has to be a brand new site. The reward at the end of it all, will be to see where i’m at against the rest in terms of SEO.
I have managed to topple wikipedia & government sites with theleavingcert.com in the past without any real ‘deliberate’ SEO work so it’ll be interesting to see how i get on with this. 5 weeks isn’t much time though for me… i guess the good thing about that is that everyone else is in the same boat.
Let the games begin
Image by fensterbme via Flickr
As if to rub salt in the wounds of the competition for our video project at college, i’ve begun mastering the art of multi-camera angles in premier pro – just because i can
This is really cool as it allows me to edit video like pro. If i have more than two camera angles of the same scene, i can flick between the two as i want – allowing me to get the best shots possible and also keep the viewer interested as one camera, not moving, is extremely boring to watch.
Multi-angle scenes look really professional and although it’s more work for me, it looks great for the finished product. So for a 90 second clip, i’m just after flicking back and forth between cameras about 30 times.
Still no demo’s yet though, this is being kept under wraps until completion. Once it is fully complete, i have about a month’s worth of blog posts and tutorials lined up for you guys though!
Had i been able to get a green screen, professional camcorder equipment and tripods… wireless mics etc… this may actually have passed as a professional production
