So you’ve created your website, now all you have to is launch it and just sit back and let the hordes of traffic come to you………right? Wrong just because you slapped a few pages together doesn’t mean your website is ready for the world. There are some very important things to do before you launch your website to give it the best possible chance. Using a pre-launch checklist before you launch your website is your opportunity to fix any problems and add any last minute changes before that all important launch. In this post I’ll give you a list of what to do before you launch your website...........

Yesterday Webstarts.com suffered a major crash resulting in the entire system going down for over 24 hours. That’s why if you tried to visit this site yesterday you couldn’t go on. Fortunately everything appears to be up and running again. Webstarts found and CEO Adam Barger issued this apology on FaceBook..................

One of the biggest challenges when starting a new blog or website is deciding what the topic of your site is going to be about. You also want to take into consideration what people are looking for online. If you’re stuck on an idea for your site here are the 10 most popular topics that are searched for online besides porn of course and the rough percentage of traffic each one gets.

It’s a safe bet that if anyone from a potential employer to coworkers, to that girl down the street you asked out on a date will type your name into a search engine. As we become more connected with the internet and social media every day, this has become a common theme. A 2009 study by Microsoft revealed that around 80% of hiring managers in the United States searched for a candidate online and around 70% of that group didn’t hire the person they searched because of what they found online............ Fast forward to the recent riot here in Vancouver and you can see why your online reputation holds so much weight. Rioters and those who decide it would be a smart idea to get their picture beside a burning police car are now finding themselves being fired from their jobs, while the pictures they posted on Facebook have been circulated to the police. It’s an extreme example of how your online reputation can be damaged, but it drives home the importance a good online reputation.

To bug in or to bug out that is the question. Nobody can argue that being prepared in case of an emergency or disaster is a bad thing. If your like myself and live in an area that’s prone to natural disasters (in my case earthquakes) you would be very stupid not to have some level of preparation. For many this means having a bug out bag packed with all the survival goodies one could ever want and ready to go at all times. Again I think it’s a very smart idea and I have one myself. But just because you have a bug out bag, doesn’t mean bugging out is your only option when the SHTF...............

Traffic, if you have a website or a blog you want to get website traffic and as much of it as possible. It doesn’t matter if your site is to make money, to connect with others, for a business, or display your love for all things kittens, if you’re a site owner you want traffic. So how do you go about getting website traffic? Here is a list I put together of 100 different things you can do to get traffic to your website. These aren’t in any particular order of importance and not all of them will work for each site the same way. Some sites will have better results with some of these options then others..................

Recently I’ve been looking around at different web hosting sites, offline, and online website builders to make a new website. While there are lots of really good website builders such as Yola, I wanted to go the free route or at least as free as possible............ Not being an HTML expert I wanted to find something that was relatively easy to use, that’s when I was told about 000webhost. What they offer is not only free hosting, but a free domain name and website builder all in one, sounds pretty good right? At least that’s what I thought until I tried their service.

Regardless of your niche and what you use your website or blog for, SEO plays a huge role in getting your site noticed online. SEO though isn’t just optimizing your site by using some tricks and writing lots of content. There are also lots of free seo tools available online you can use to where your website stands, and what needs to be fixed or improved. Here is a list of 20 of what I think are some of the best free seo tools available.............

There’s an old saying “Opinions are like assholes, everybody has one” This couldn’t be more true of all the Battle Los Angeles reviews I’ve seen online. It’s seems to be a mix of positive acclaim, comparing it to Independence day, and comments like this one made by Robert Ebert on his website “Battle Los Angeles is noisy, violent, ugly and stupid, it’s manufacture is a reflection of appalling cynicism on the part of it’s makers” Well that’s nice Mr. Ebert, but then who really cares what you have to say since you think movies like the Assaination of Richard Nixon is a great movie. So with all that out there I thought I’d throw my own review into the mix.................. Now if you haven’t seen Battle Los Angeles it’s nothing like Independence Day, which in my opinion went way over the top with American pride. Hey nothing wrong with being American but the rest of the world doesn’t need it shoved in its face. This movie closer to Saving Private Ryan, but with aliens instead of Nazi’s.

I like using Yahoo Answers, it’s an easy way to get the word out about your site and build some good back links in the process. I’ve noticed in increase in really stupid questions in the last little while though. And while there have always been people who ask the obvious, or ask questions that make you want to reach through your computer screen and strangle them. Lately it seems to be ever second question. Perhaps it’s because it’s summer, maybe it’s something in the water who knows..........

If you haven’t heard Google is set to launch a new social network, otherwise known as Google Plus or Google+ depending on who you talk to. Like the new Google plus 1 button, Google is trying to get into the social network scene currently dominated by Facebook. Google’s new social network will be available on all its products thanks to a completely re-designed navigation bar........... Google’s new social network will share some very similar features to its biggest rival with a similar notification system and its stream which will have a look and feel very close to Facebook’s news feed. This will allow its users to share photos, videos, and links to their contacts pretty much the same way, and with the recent plus 1 button you’ll be able to rate content much like you would “like” content on Facebook.

Guest blogging or guest posting depending on how you call it is another way you can spread the word about your site by attracting visitors you might not normally get. If done right it’ll not only build good relationships with other sites but can drive that every so sought after targeted traffic to your site. The problem is getting it right, all too often guest posts are nothing but a long winded advertisement for their site that offers nothing of any real value. A spammy guest post won’t do you any good other then give your site a bad reputation. Here are some tips to be a successful guest blogger............

Nobody likes a slow internet browser; frankly it’s a royal pain in the ass. We have better things to do then sitting around waiting for a page to load only to stair at a blank page. When it comes to slow internet browsers Internet Explorer has a history of being slow and clunky even with the best connection possible. Even their latest update Internet Explorer 9 is still much slower then browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox............

Google is ramping out their new social network Google Plus and allowing more invites. This is an attempt at Google to dominate the social networking scene currently controlled by Facebook. If you don’t have an invite to Google Plus yet and would like one, you’re in luck and I can hook you up.

Back in February the powers that be at Google released an update to Google Panda. What is Google Panda? It’s an algorithm designed to combat spam sites, link farms, scraped, content, and all the other junk floating around on the internet these days. Think of it as a second flush to get rid of those nasty bits of poop left in the toilet bowl if you will. It uses a very sensitive set of guidelines to separate and filter websites and blogs and helps quality sites get the rankings and traffic they deserve. This is nothing new as all the big search engines have some type of filter system, what is new is how sensitive or depending on the site how vicious it can be....... Right now it appears that Google Panda is only in the U.S, plans are being made to launch it globally but when it happens nobody seems to know, my guess is probably very soon. This also has an effect on sites based outside the United States that have a large percentage of its traffic from that country. If your not sure if your website has been “panda slapped” there’s a post I found on Wordtracker that goes into detail about how to find out through Google Analytics which you can check out.

The internet is buzzing with talk about Google plus. Go onto sites like Yahoo Answers and people are constantly asking for an invite onto this new social network. So it’s no surprise that there is a growing number of scammers looking to make a fast buck. There’s also a good deal of misinformation about Google plus. Hopefully this post will squash a few of them and give you a little better picture of this new site, and how to avoid some of the scams surrounding it..........

It’s no secret that having great content on your site is the corner stone to getting visitors and keeping them interested. But what happens when you can’t come up with any ideas? It can be frustrating trying to come up with something you hope your visitors will like on a regular schedule if your mind is blank. Fortunate there are lots of places to find content ideas for your website. Here is a list of 11 places to look for website content ideas..................

If your currently running or thinking of running ads on Facebook, don’t advertise your Google plus account. It looks like Facebook has a hate on for Google plus, I can’t really blame them considering it’s their biggest competition and I think Facebook is getting more then a little worried about losing their number 1 spot in the social network scene.......

I get scam emails all the time, all claiming that I have untold riches waiting for me. All I need to do is fill out a simple form with either my credit card or social security information or simply send them a cheque to “release my money” It’s hard to imagine that anyone would buy into these scams, but they wouldn’t keep doing them if there wasn’t some poor sucker out there buying into it.

With all the talk about Google and their new social network Google Plus, (Or Google+) it looks like there could soon be a new player to what appears to be a rapidly growing social network feud. Recently either by accident or on purpose Microsoft unveiled a new site called Tulalip. Personally I don’t think this was by accident, rather a clever way at generating some buzz..............

Everyone who knows anything about SEO (Search engine optimization) can’t stress enough the importance of trying to increase traffic to your website by ranking well in the search engines. I mean let’s face it if your site isn’t optimized your not going to get very much traffic, and those dreams of getting all the people in the world to visit your site isn’t going to happen. But while SEO is important to your site, there’s something else you should be doing as well and that’s SMO............

Falling down is the tale of Bill Foster (played by Michael Douglas) a.k.a D-FENS which is his license plate. A guy who isn’t having a very good time. He lost his wife, his home, his daughter, and his job at a defence plant.............

Making money online, it seems every day more people are looking ways to make money online either to boost their income as a secondary source of income, or as a full time job. But if you’re relatively new to this how do you make money online? I put together a list of 20 different ways you can make money on the internet. I’ve broken these down into two groups, ways you can make money without a website or blog, and ways you can with a website. These ideas aren’t listed in any order of importance as some of them will work better for you then others.

Maybe you’re new to SEO and you’re not really sure what to do. Perhaps you own a business and need your name out there fast, or you just don‘t have the time and need the extra help to get your website out there to the world. Whatever the reason you’ve decided to go with an SEO company or consultant. When choosing an SEO consultant there are a lot of things you need to look into before you spend anything. Here’s a list of 6 things you need to look at before choosing an SEO consultant or company....................

I was doing some browsing and stumbled across someone asking about bullet points. These are the little black dots that you can put in front of your text to help form a list

Having a slow internet connection is a pain in the ass. I hate waiting for pages that seem to take forever to load, videos that constantly buffer, and browsers that fail because it takes too long to open a web page. It’s frustrating and I have better things to do just like you, then sitting around losing my mind because my internet speed is slower then the second coming of Christ. So I put together a list of 10 things you can do to speed up your internet...............

YouTube is one of the most important marketing tools out there when it comes to getting the message out about your business or your website. It’s currently the second most used search engine behind Google (which owns YouTube by the way) and is the biggest video sharing site in the world. Like it or hate it having videos on YouTube is a good way to promote what you have. But just having videos isn’t enough to get a tonne of traffic; you need to know how to optimize your YouTube channel and videos to get more traffic......................

Looks like the powers that be at Google are launching yet another free web tool you can use to help boost your sites performance. Google page speed is Google’s latest free tool, it’s purpose……well simply put it helps make your web pages load faster.........

So your website loads slower then old people Fu%@ing. Nobody likes a slow website, not the search bots, and especially not people who will leave rather then wait for a page that takes forever to load, let’s be honest our attention span is getting shorter all the time. On top of that Google’s recent Panda update looks at a sites load time to determine where it’s going to site in search results, either way you look at it your website loading time is a big deal............ So how do you speed up your website loading time? Here’s a list of 10 tips for optimizing your website to load faster.........

One of the cornerstones of an effective SEO campaign is keyword research. Picking the right keyword phrase can mean the difference between your site being found, or having your site or having it drowned out because the keyword phrase you chose has too much competition, costs too much. Or worse is too obscure and no one will ever find it. To do effective keyword research you need a keyword research tool, it’s as simple as that................

By now you’re probably very familiar with Google , Google’s latest attempt at getting into the whole social network scene. But what kind of affect will Google and their 1 button have when it comes to SEO?......

The recent Google Panda update was like a slap in the face for many website owners. Many became complacent thanks in part to link farms, article spinning or other forms of mass publishing a truck load of content at once. Because the Panda update recognized a lot of these as spam or lower quality content many sites were hit hard. Some losing more then 50% of their traffic overnight regardless if the site was legit or not..................

A little while ago I asked if anyone wanted to an invite to Google , the latest attempt by Google to get into the social network scene. Because Google is still in a beta stage invites can only be done through email by a current member inviting someone............

Outbound linking it seems to go against the grain to get your site noticed. You’ve probably heard over and over again about the importance of having high quality back links pointing to your site, these links help boost your search ranking, page rank, and hopefully get you some more traffic. Outbound linking you would think would be the opposite of that. It turns out though that outbound links are good for you. Having quality outbound links can have some big benefits to your website or blog...................

If you use some type of analytics to monitor your websites performance you’ve probably seen its bounce rate. So what is bounce rate exactly? It can be defined in a couple of different ways; it can either be an indicator to the number of visitors who view only one page of your site and leave. Or the number of visitors who leave your site after a short amount of time (usually only a couple of seconds)............

Google Adsense it’s usually the first place people go who want to monetize their websites and blogs with the hope those Adsense earnings will net them some big cash. Normally these ads will be matched to your site based on the content and browsing history of the people visiting your site. The goal is to tailor make ads that will hopefully be appealing for people to click on......................

It doesn’t matter what website you’re looking at, every site online has something that naturally catches your attention. It could be a picture, a graphic, a video, there will be something that naturally stands out and gets your attention. If you’re looking at turning your website into a source of revenue you want your ads or products displayed in such a way that they grab your visitor’s attention. There are two ways you can go about doing this, the wrong way which is to force your ads on people which will drive them away from your site. Or using heat maps to attract your visitors to them without forcing them..........

Back in the day if you wanted your website or blog to get indexed fast by the search engines, you would submit it to website directories. Are they still worth submitting to today? For the most part yes. Submitting your site to website directories can still be an effective way at building back links that’ll help you rank higher in search results and should be part of your overall SEO strategy. This is especially true for new websites and blogs were getting back links from other webmasters can be difficult..........................

Knowing how to start a fire without matches is an important skill you need to know. Personally I recommend you never venture into the woods be it a camping or hiking trip without a means to start a fire, such as a magnesium fire starter, or wind and waterproof matches. That being said, in a disaster or emergency situation you might not have access to those emergency supplies you have stored in your bug out bag or emergency survival kit.......................

The other day while going through my analytics I noticed a referral hit from a blog I’d never heard about. Often when I get referrals from sites I’ve never heard of I like to check them out to see what their about. What I found though was a blog that was copying word for word some of my older posts...............

Before Facebook was king of social networking was MySpace. The last few years haven’t been good to the once giant social network, dropping to an estimated 70 million active users. The site itself has transformed from a personal hub of social activity to nothing short of an advertising billboard and virtually forgotten as a relic of the early 2000’s...............

I like making videos on Youtube, its fun. And while I’m far from being a pro I learn new tricks with each new video. One of the things I’ve learned from trial and error is what songs work and what doesn’t. Sure it doesn’t really matter if your videos are only for a hobby or just to show something off. However if your looking to get your name out there, get your videos popular, and not have people leave after 10 seconds then understanding what songs work and don’t is important.........

Craigslist it’s not just a site to sell crappy used furniture, look for work, and view personals, it can also be a good place to advertise your website or promote your blog. Even though Craigslist has a lot of spam blockers and restrictions, a well written optimized ad can help give your site a boost of traffic. This is especially important for business sites looking to expand on generating local traffic.............

Awhile ago I decided I wanted to create a new website, one covering different topics from this one. Sure I could create one from scratch using HTML code, but I frankly lack the time and patience to sit down and fully understand how it works, it’s just not practical for me right now. So I decided to check out some of the various online website builders currently available. One particular website builder that I came across was a site called Snappages (http://www.snappages.com is the URL if you want to check it out for yourself)................

The game Dead Island, a game set on a fictional tropical island where you get to kill zombies hasn’t had very much luck with its recent release. Those who’ve purchased the game on Steam downloaded an incorrect build of the game full of bugs and glitches. On top of that most couldn’t connect online to play multiplayer.............

For those eagerly waiting for the first half of the first half of the Mincraft adventure update, the wait is finally over. And no I’m not talking about some buggy pre release that is a pain in the ass to properly install that’s been out for just over a week prior. As of Sept 14 it’s available to the masses who are looking to feed their “minecrack” addiction........... Because of the recent changes I figured it was time for an updated Minecraft review covering some of the recent changes. This is not a complete review on the 1.8 adventure update, just what I’ve seen and experienced in the game so far to give you an idea what to expect..........

Say what you want about Fallout New Vegas with its glitch problems it’s a hard game to not get addicted to. When it comes to post apocalyptic RPG/ shooter games, Fallout is the best out there. Like its predecessor Fallout 3, New Vegas has additional downloadable content to enhance the overall story and make the game more enjoyable…..well I can’t say that Honest Hearts made the game more enjoyable with its thick religious overtones that felt more preachy then back story..................

Until now Facebook users haven’t had a lot of say or control over what they see in their news feeds. That’s all changed recently as Facebook launched a new subscribe button for its profile pages. This new feature allows Facebook to provide even more publicly available content for its users..................

With November being scheduled as the “official” release of Minecraft the team at Mojang are hard at work putting together Minecraft’s 1.9 update. This is possibly the last update before the release and like the 1.8 adventure update will be packed full of new features, crafting recipes and other stuff. Details at this point are scarce, but from the information that’s out there here are some of the things that could be included in the new 1.9 update..........

Wondering when Minecraft’s 1.9 update is coming out, very soon. Very soon as in how long it takes to download the pre release just released today. Or if you prefer to wait for a non buggy version like 1.8 it should be out in a few days once the team at Mojang get player feedback to fix potential bugs...........