turnkey business blog

Posting Using Dragon Dictation From IPhone

March 18th, 2012

So I’m doing a test using a dictation device from an iPhone and after the dictation I’m going to just copy paste this into the WordPress editor.

I noticed that the iPhone app for Dragon NaturallySpeaking was free so I thought I would give it a try. Just wondering if it’s easy to dictate a post, and then copy the content, and then paste it into the editor for quick mobile post.

Apparently it works!

Just testing to see if this dictation device works after a limited amount of time, because I noticed that on the last dictation it cut me off and started processing before I had a chance to finish properly.

So I am trying one more time to see if this will work, because it would be nice to make some posts on my WordPress blogs using my iPhone.

So far this recording is lasting much longer and it looks like maybe/////

Ok – it cut me off right at the forward slashes, so yeah……it’s limited.

Dealing With Used Domains

February 4th, 2012

Had to deal with a “used domain” this morning. Was working with a new domain for Real Estate in the City of Calgary, and unfortunately the original domain (realtorsincalgary.org) had been used by someone else, and they had dumped it. Probably a crap site they were trying to use, and then gave up – unfortunately they damaged the domain in Google’s eyes for who-knows-how-long?

So you can’t take a change with this kind of thing. Start fresh and move on with a “virgin domain” that has NEVER been registered.

So the trick is to always check first if the domain you want to buy has been used in the past. You never want to start a site with a domain that has been “compromised” by some shifty-eyed twirp(s). All the work that goes into a good site, can be tossed in the bin, so have to check. I check to see if a domain has been used in the past over at Domaintools.com. I have an account over there, but was so used to never finding past registrars, I stopped checking – never again. Especially if you are working on a new site for a client.

Luckily in this case, I have a headstart on the project, and I managed to save all of the content from the .ORG domain, and started fresh over on the .BIZ domain using all of the content that I had already created. Hopefully Google didn’t cache anything – don’t think they did.

So I went back to the initial launch post and changed the URLs for the links to the site, and fixed the issue. Next time Google’s bot(s) come-a-looking they will see the reference to the virgin .BIZ domain. Pain in the butt – always check first!

So the new site is all started and we’ll launch one more time for good measure. The site now at RealtorsInCalgary.biz and we should be OK going forward.

The Rant

You know – I don’t get it. Why do people around the world think that they are getting ahead by using and abusing a domain name. Scamming is never going to get you anywhere. The big search engines are way to smart (in the long run) to except garbage domains, so why waste your time. It’s more fun to write your own clean and fresh material and try and develop a web-property that is useful to users and adds value to the Internet. No wonder Google is so harsh with wacking crap domains these days. They can’t take any chances with “soiled” domains.

 

New Real Estate Site for Calgary

February 3rd, 2012

So a new customer over at Calgary SEO Specialists just the root core of their new domain launched today. In the very early stages, but enough content to get the idea of where it is going. The name of the site is RealtorsInCalgary.biz and it’s all about buying and selling real estate in Calgary.

The idea of the site is that Larry (founder) will do business from the site, but he is going to join in the discussion regarding the different communities and neighbourhoods of Calgary. Trying to create a sense of community, and not just a sense of “profit” – you should be able to do both in today’s dynamic Internet and all this social-media craze.

The gang over at CSEOS (SEO services in the City of Calgary) is trying to develop something a little bit different as far as Calgary-based real estate domains go. There is a serious amount of competition in the “buying and selling of homes” in any major Canadian city, and of course Calgary is no different whatsoever. However, not many sites have a strong sense of community. Eventually the Realtors In Calgary site will have a forum on it, to further bolster the “sense of community” aspect of the domain.

These early stages of web property development are always exciting, and then comes the reality. Allot of hard work and patience comes next when you realize you are going to have “write your way to the top”. That’s one of the things I like about CSEOS – they know who wins the war for the top of the search engine results – hard, hard work – write, write, write. Unless your site is like a Facebook launch, where the content is getting created at break-neck speed by an entire University (Harvard in their case), you are going to have to have a staff of good writers hustling to get things going out of the gate.

So you can see that it’s going to be a bit of a gong show these days. Will be doing some writing for CSEOS customers and I will be doing some WordPress coding work for a client in California, and doing some other stuff for friends and family. And I thought I was going to have to do LESS as I got further along in my work-at-home career – good thing I love making blog posts!

So I think that is it for now my faithful droogs – off to work for me (well, a walk with my wife and dog first – beautiful day here today)

Terry

 

Launching of New Business Model + Portable Toilet Rental Company

February 1st, 2012

Hello again fellow “druggies”. Just stopping by promote another friend who started off a business web site in Calgary. Their company rents out portable toilets to construction companies and such in the Southern Alberta, and allot in the Calgary area proper.

Interesting business because they rent out the units to companies that don’t want to use those crappy, plastic, porta-poddy things. They’re really smelly and disgusting for sure. I dread even having to use those porta-poddy (crap buckets) – I mean, I “hold it in” when “I have to go” for a long, long time. I will practically have an accident before stepping into one of those filthy disease traps.

So this bathrooms are high end, with a mens and ladies private toilets, sinks, mirrors, hand dryers, etc. These units are really amazing, and I sat in one and looked around when they got delivery of their first one. All shiny and new – the stainless steel checker-plating makes you feel like you stepped into a Get-Smart episode from the sixties, or perhaps a Dr. Who episode from over in England.

Very clean, and comfortable, and they are rated for minus 40 degrees. They use heat tape for the waste storage tanks, and they have electric heat inside as well for the users.

There are 110 volt connections on the side of the unit and sewer connections.

All units are completely portable and have crane hooks on top for putting on the roof a high-rise. All for the health and safey of workers.

NOW, you probably think they cost more for the contractors and builders than the cheap plastic porta-poddy units. Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Wrong. After you take in all money considerations, these units end up saving the company money.

You can check out their new site to see all of this for yourself – their site is called portabletoiletrentalcalgary.com and is was just launched today. Blog is cool too, I have to admit.

So we will be adding more information on the go here to this site and watch how their online presence increases over the weeks, month, and years.

Good show guys!

BlueHost Hosting Review

January 26th, 2012

So I finally found a host (knocking on wood) that so far has really fast servers and databases. I have tried MochaHost, GoDaddy, Website Source, IX Hosting, Hostgator, TDM Hosting, and the list goes on. (these are NOT affiliate links).

Some really bad hosts in that list, but I would rather focus on the best hosting companies in that list.

The best hosting company I have ever used up to about three months ago was Hostgator, and the reason has been their lack of downtime, ease of Cpanel use, and speed of servers. All my blogs loaded faster on Hostgator servers than any before. GoDaddy was pretty bad and had way too much downtime.

Enter BlueHost – The Review

So I have seen many webmasters on forums saying that they are happy with their BlueHost account(s), and my opinion was,

“Sure….happy today, and web site down or loading like a tractor tomorrow.”

Well I finally got frustrated with an important domain that was having yet another black-out for a WHOLE day, and we lost around $70 dollars in income thanks to the downtime. I was really annoyed, and had enough of GoDaddy already, but I didn’t want to do all the hosting transfer hassle (which I have done TOO many times). Got transferring WordPress blogs from one host to another down tight now, but I just didn’t want the hassle – rather be writing more content.

ANYWAY – I tried BlueHost and the speed of the servers and my page loads doubled! I thought that maybe it was just because I was accessing my blog at the right time of the week and the right time of the day. I’ve seen other hosts perform wonderfully one day and then the next day horribly. So the jury was still out.

So it’s been three months now since I’ve been hosting that domain on BlueHost and the speed has held strong. Not only that, my unique visitors and page loads went up about 15% to 20% – that is huge for this site, and now it is earning more money each and every day. THAT is how important a good host is.

So that is my review on BlueHost – worthy.

Launching SEO Company

January 26th, 2012

So I had a fun day yesterday working from 6:30 am until now (20 minutes after midnight). I was building the Satellite Site for of a new search engine optimization company in Calgary (yes, I’m “involved” with the company). I partnered with two associates, and with the help of my wife and my brother-in-law (critical), we have started up – just scratching the surface.

The name of the company is Calgary SEO Specialists and we’re really excited to finally get serious and provide a clean build SEO company in Southern Alberta – it’s about time. Been working the search engines hard for so long – now I want to reach out and start helping out our local businesses a little bit (for a price of course).

Competing for search engine placement in Canada is a breeze. Normally with my loan blogs, where I compete in the USA I have to fight my way to the top of over 100 million search results to get any traffic. In Canada, even for competitive products and services, there is FAR less competition.

Adsense Income Dropping

One of the reasons I decided to make some money from another income stream is because Adsense has been tanking slowly for six months now, and we’re not taking the chance - getting caught sitting here dumbfounded if the rug gets pulled out from underneath us. We are not the only ones either – whenever you want watch people complain about Adsense earnings, you can find it over at Webmaster world.

I have seen dips in Adsense earnings many, many times before, but the dips are falling deeper lately, and with all of the constant algorithm changes in Google search, we HAVE to make our Adsense income only one stream of income amongst many streams. In fact, that is what Google tells publishers all the time – don’t rely on Adsense as your only household income.

In the years since we lost the Bing/Yahoo! PPC traffic (Adsense Arbitrage), we had to dive hard back into writing great content in order to stay working at home, and not working for the man again. It’s been a ton of work.

Our total Adsense income per day on pure natural traffic, in January was $127-$133. This January the average is $95.

Not good my friends – not good. Thank god we have CJ commissions to fill up the losses in Adsense.

The Adsense game is a great one when you are on top, and freaky in the low traffic months, and with the Adsense smart pricing going on, it’s getting harder and harder to justify sitting back and watch Adsense income levels dropping, and not do anything about it.

I will always keep Adsense on our blogs and hopefully the Adsense program will always be around, but it’s time to move on for a more secure financial future. This is why I got involved with Mel and Betty on the CalgarySEOSpecialists.com site. We can create a solid income going forward and Adsense can even crash and burn – won’t make a huge difference in the long run.

We have one SEO client who has been with us since 2005 and he has been very happy with the service we provide. Now that is a secure income. A steady check from a real customer you are actually helping, and in turn helping his wife, kids, and family. Now that I don’t mind working hard for.

Don’t get me wrong. A good, clean web site or blog with fresh content, and clean navigation will always garnish steady traffic from Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Later,

Terry

 

 

Secret to Getting High Quality Inbound Links

May 18th, 2011

We’ve recently improved ALL of our search engine rankings on our business domains and blogs. It’s a little gray-hat secret that we are using exclusively now, and I can explain more at the bottom of this post. But first, I should do a little catching up.

Well it’s been awhile and “no posting” here at Zulit.com as I have been working hard buying content, writing content, creating offers, etc. Business is booming this month as we are heading into the busy season for many of our niche sites and blogs.

Total Adsense income growing every week it seems so perhaps Google is getting generous again. Seen some other webmaster saying the same thing as well.

So the autoblogs are still ticking along, the authority blogs are doing really well of course, and we have had a real uptick on Commissions made through CJ merchants. Never thought I would see the day when we would be making more money from affiliate commissions then Adsense, but that day is now upon us.

It’s been a real wild ride since we lost our PPC traffic from Yahoo! and Bing last November, but with some hard work we have managed to get our traffic levels up almost as high with natural organic search engine traffic. A TON OF writing and buying content from good writers too. It’s really paid off.

We have another little secret we have been using for getting high quality inbound links too. It’s a little trick that our biggest competitors are using, and if you want to know more about it just email me at terryzulit@gmail.com – we are offering the same service for others now too.