I’m in town giving a presentation to the MCN Nonprofit Technology & Communication Conference. So I’m totally cheating today and am just pointing you to the presentation for tips of the week.
Here’s a Reader’s Digest version that just includes the various links to tools:
http://www.keywordspy.com – to check out popularity of keyword terms
http://www.webconfs.com/search-engine-spider-simulator.php – shows you how a search engine sees your site
http://www.linkpopularity.com – see who links to you
http://getlisted.org – see which local search directories link to you
http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports – see how you rank with search engines
Due to the time difference, we’re back home from the parade and the rest of the festivities. We wisely choose to participate only in events that target the whole family. But I’m using the holiday to cheat today because I don’t have a tip to share so much as I wanted to share one of my favorite sites:
TED: Ideas Worth Sharing: http://www.ted.com/
It’s a collection of videos from TED conferences. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. The presenters speak for about 20 minutes on a huge range of topics – but I have enjoyed all of the ones I’ve seen. They speak about their industry but the idea of creativity and innovation always seem to shine through and I always feel like I learn something useful.
I’ve been a fan for a while but I have a renewed interest after attending a TEDx event at the Science Gallery in Dublin last week. TEDx are independent TED events. I wrote a post on it on our family blog, which may or may not be worth reading – but I will tell you that the presentations were great because the presenters had such a passion for what they did. I know a ton more about basking sharks after the event: http://10qs.wordpress.com/2010/03/14/tedx-dublin/
I ran across these sites today when I was thinking about pictures to use in a blog post. They are databases of free images; there are some restrictions of use – such as no “adult” usage, re-selling or using photos of people to endorse products – but for general use, even commercial use it’s OK to use these pictures:
Stock.Xchng: http://www.sxc.hu
Flickr Creative Commons pictures: http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/?
With Flickr, you have to make sure to search for Creative Commons images, which means you can use them – but there are thousands available. You’ll just want to check to see if there’s an Attribution clause on the photo, which simply simple you should give credit to the photographer.
I think I’ve talked about this amazing tool before but it just came up for me again. The Wayback Machine (http://www.archive.org) keeps older versions of web sites. They don’t keep every web site, but they keep a lot. Also their funding seems precarious so some years they archive more than others. So say you want to find a web site that’s now defunct, visit the Wayback Machine, put in the address and cross your fingers. This works best for older, more popular sites.
If that doesn’t work, you can always try Google’s cache. Do a keyword search for the site in question. If Google has a record of it, it will come up. If the site is gone, clicking on it will not help – but you could try the Cached button found on the search results page, usually under the site description. This works best for newer (or more recently deceased) sites.
I’m always pleased to unveil a new client site. FiberFirst Minnesota is a go-to place for anything related to fiber optics, FTTH and FTTP in Minnesota. We’ll be posting updates on a regular basis. If you have anything you want posted, please let me know.
