To summarise the thread it is a “feature” of all LCD televisions, along with the problems they have showing detail in dark scenes and displaying fast paced action. Perhaps the good old CRT still had some life left in it, which I guess Samsung new when they developed their HD CRT television – It is a shame it had so many problems. However with new displays based on LED technology round the corner these problems will ultimately disappear – the question is when and how much will they cost?

Related Post

• February 9, 2009 -- Banding on Sony Bravia (1)
• November 7, 2009 -- 8bit or 10bit HD LCD Panels (2)
• December 20, 2008 -- My new Sony KDL-40V3000U HD LCD TV (1)

Getting Your Copy

Both the Advanced Link Manager and the Advanced Web Ranking  programs can be downloaded from  www.advancedlinkmanager.com.   The package includes all three version of the programme – standard, professional and enterprise.  This will be a review of the standard version.

Installation

Hats off to Caphyon for providing Linux, Mac and Windows versions of the software.  We have only tried the Windows version installed on a Windows 7 Ultimate laptop and the installation was straightforward and fully compatible with the latest version of windows.  The installation took less than five minutes after the download had completed.

The Results

1.       Advance Link Manager

Once the application loads all you need to do, if you skip the tutorial, is click on Project then new project.  Enter the domain name you want to work with and select the search engines you want to check.  The application seems to have every search engine you have ever heard of and some that you haven’t.  This may be overkill as most people in the UK will only be interested in Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Once you have done that click run and the application does it’s magic.  I ran it on a site that is about 2 years old with a lot of content and a lot of links – it took about an hour for the task to complete.

So what do you get.   One of the most powerful features is the ability to identify new link sources and to send link request e-mails from the application and track the responses.  This tool can be used as a very powerful competitor analysis tool allowing you to identify and replicate a competitor’s link profile.

One feature that I really like is the link development graph which shows how your link profile develop and grow over time.

It also has a useful broken link checker to find links on your site that are not working.  This is probably in the nice to have category, but it is a nice addition to the package.

2.       Advanced Web Ranking
Again all you need to do with this application is click on new project.  This time you have to select the search engines – sensibly only Google, Bing and Yahoo are selected by default.  However, it is possible to add more search engines – again they have included practically every search engine that you have heard of then some including the new Google caffeine.  One word of caution the default search engines are the US versions, if you are based outside the US you should change to your local versions of Google, Yahoo and Bing.

You then have to add your keywords and there is a nice integration with Google suggest right there in the application itself.

Finally,  enter your domain names yours and your competitors, which is a nice feature, and click OK.  You are then promoted to give your project a name and your rankings are checked.

The results are comprehensive to say the least and you can cut the data in a number of different ways using the built in reports.  These include: Visibility Reports, Keyword Research Tool Reports, Search Engine Ranking Reports and Keyword Ranks.  If you are doing creating these on behalf of a customer there is a built in FTP client in the professional version that allows you to upload them to a web server for your customers to view online.

Overall

These tools are a must have for anybody that is serious about SEO and value their time and doesn’t want to spend an inordinate amount of time doing low level SEO tasks and manually monitoring and recording results.   In terms of cost the tools represent excellent value for money.    The standard version of Advanced Web Ranking and Advance Link Manager is only $99 and this is a great way to try out both tools if the 30 day free trial does not provide you long enough to trial them.  However,   the best value for money option is to go for the bundle to get both standard versions for $149 – saving $51.   If you use these tools in earnest you will probably soon outgrow the standard versions fairly quickly and it is advisable to review the feature comparison charts for both Advanced Web Ranking and Advanced Link Manager.  The price for the professional version of both programs starts at $199 and both can be bought as a bundle for $299.  The enterprise version starts at $399 and is $599 for both applications bought together.

Find out more about both products on the Caphyon website.

Related Post

• May 2, 2008 -- SEO 102: Article Marketing (8)
• March 6, 2008 -- SEO 101: Headings (0)
• March 6, 2008 -- SEO 101: Meta Keywords and Descriptions (6)

1. The remote control has to be pointed directly at the IR receiver. I
am hoping that this is just the batteries, but I haven’t got round to
checking this yet.
2. Gradients have a discernible banding, which I think may be because it
is 8bit rather than a 10bit panel. This is something that I am going to
investigate.
3. I was watching Superman Returns the other day, which is quite a dark
film, and it really showed up the poor definition in the dark scenes.

It is really important that you have the right setting for your LCD TV.

Related Post

• December 19, 2009 -- The trouble with LCD televisions (1)
• February 9, 2009 -- Banding on Sony Bravia (1)
• December 20, 2008 -- My new Sony KDL-40V3000U HD LCD TV (1)

Sony Bravia KDL-40V3000U

Or is this normal for an LCD TV? Or is it because it is 8bit

I am really starting to wonder whether this LCD technology is upto the job.  Hopefully the new LED TVs will fair better.

Related Post

• December 19, 2009 -- The trouble with LCD televisions (1)
• November 7, 2009 -- 8bit or 10bit HD LCD Panels (2)
• December 20, 2008 -- My new Sony KDL-40V3000U HD LCD TV (1)

I had my heart set on the Sony KDL-40V3000U after seeing it online in Argos and John Lewis for £999 with a Playstation 3 included, but was really disappointed to find that both had sold out and would not be getting any more stock. How many did they actually have I wonder?

Anyway, a couple of weeks later I saw the same deal in the Sony shop in the Trafford Centre in Manchester and went for it albeit £100 more expensive; plus I also agreed to buy a £40 HDMI cable. I later found out from colleagues that this was a complete waste of money as you can get a HDMI cable for £10 and as it is a digital connection it either works or it doesn’t (at least I didn’t go for the £60 one).

Despite all this I have been completely gobsmacked by the television, and amazed how my old Sony 28″ CRT suddenly looked like an antique.  If I were buying one again I would be looking at LED TVs instead.

Related Post

• December 19, 2009 -- The trouble with LCD televisions (1)
• November 7, 2009 -- 8bit or 10bit HD LCD Panels (2)
• February 9, 2009 -- Banding on Sony Bravia (1)

Online readers are not tucked up in bed reading your website with a nice cup of hot chocolate with all the time in the world. They are:

• Annoyed
  On-line readers are often annoyed by the struggle to find the information they need. There are confusing menus, distracting adverts and weird layouts.
• Uncomfortable
  They may also be uncomfortable with tired eyes from staring at the screen for too long or trying to access the web on their phone.
• In a hurry
  Web readers are often in a hurry with a few minutes snatched during a lunch break, for example, to find the information that they need to know.
• Confused
  The people visiting your site are often confused as they do not know where they are. They may not have arrived at your home page and followed the journey you planned for them. They could have popped up absolutely anywhere.

How to Write Online

To address the problem outlined above you need to consider the following when writing for the web:

• Appropriate Headings and Summaries
  These must accurately reflect the content and include the either the key message or a summary of the article.
• Use Plain English
  Your sentences should be short, jargon free with a simple structure. For example:

“It would be appreciated if all those who choose to comment on this post would be create a Gravatar for themselves.”

Compared to

“Commenters please create an avatar using Gravatar“

• Gain Credibility and Trust
  Your readers are sceptical as they know that anyone can create a web site in a matter of minutes. You need to build credibility and trust with your audience.
  1. Provide the author’s name and information about the author
  2. Make sure there is real address, e-mail address and phone number
  3. Write material that is factually correct.
  4. Use all the tips in this guide.
  5. Every single page needs to tell the reader who owns the website and what the purpose of the page is. Remember a visitor may pop up anywhere on a web site and will not always start from the home page.

  You also need to consider other areas that are nothing to do with writing. These include the site design, layout and ease of navigation.

• Help Skim Readers
  The majority of reader will skim a page first. If you have an article which is three hundred words of dense text, then the chances are they will hit the back button. Remember your site is just one click away from the rest of the web. To help skim readers you should provide clear headings, summaries, break up the text into paragraphs with meaningful subheadings and use link formatting that stands out.
• Search Engines
  To help people searching the web you should write unique content and restrict each page to a specific topic. This will help the search engines to categorise your page and help the searcher find what they expected. Content is an important aspect of search engine optimisation.
• Accessible Content
  Accessibility is about making your website available for any reader regardless of their abilities, disabilities or the device they are using to access your site. Not everybody is using that latest version of Internet Explore and not everyone has 20:20 vision. This is quite a big area which I will cover later, but from a writing perspective you should check that your pages look OK in a variety of different web browsers with a variety of different window sizes.
• What Next
  On many pages you will just expect a reader to read the content, but what then. Think about what might be an appropriate next action. Suggest some more pages to read, suggest they buy a product or service, fill in a form, or perhaps make a comment. If you liked this article or have anything to add, leave a comment below : )

Related Post

• No Related Post

Networking is essentially making friends for mutual success and like in the real world there are some people who are cheats and exploit these relationships without giving much back – luckily it is usually quite easy to spot people like this.

I would recommend finding a forum in your sector and joining it, but think about what you want to get out of it and what you can give back. For UK webmasters I would recommend a webmaster forum that I am a member of UKWebmasterWorld and of course this blog is a community too with six (wow) members. Be warned, dropping a comment on a forum or a blog with the sole purpose of prompting you or your site and never visiting again is “cheating” and a form of spam, remember to give something back.

Of course there are now the social networks that support your real world networks and bridge the gap between the real and the avirtual, the two bigs ones in the UK are facebook.com and linkedin.com

Related Post

• May 17, 2008 -- SEO 102: Social Networking (5)

A typical web directory, created using one of the dozen or so directory scripts on the market, usually contain various categories and sub-categories. The sites are listed in a category or sub category, in alphabetically order, sometimes on a first come first served basis. Some directories are based on a theme or a niche.

Most directory themes or niches seem to have been exhausted, leading to the emergence of a new kind of directory: bid for position directory. The idea behind bid for position is quite simple, the more money you bid for your site listing, the higher your site is listed, the top ten or so highest bidders are even listed on the homepage of the directory.

This is a dramatic departure from the first come first serve basis of the traditional directory, where you pay a flat fee for your site listing but you cannot influence how highly your site is listed. Bidding directories still use categories to determine where your site is listed, but the more you bid for your listing, the higher your site is listed on the category you choose.

Gradually, the bidding directory has gain prominence in the directory market, carving out a unique niche for itself on the Internet. There are now several thousands examples of bidding directories online, mostly powered by one of the leading bidding directory scripts on the market. The most widely used is a free PHP based bid directory script called Link Bid Script. Link Bid Script is search engine friendly out of the box, It is free to download, install and use. It comes with extensive support including free installation. Link Bid Script is supported via its support forum where you can register and post your support enquiries.

If you every decide to be a part of an evolving established Internet fad of starting a bidding directory, Link Bid Script could be your vehicle, you can download it free of charge from the bidding directory script download page.

Related Post

• No Related Post

Anyway, this is  his Digg site, notice all the links to his other social network  sites – Facebook, Flickr, Myspace etc.  Should be easy enough to copy.

Related Post

• June 8, 2008 -- Networking for Success (2)

Adwords is an extremely effective way to market your web site online and get immediate results and it only costs £5 to get started. However, care needs to be taken as it is possible to blow an enormous amount of cash if you are a newbie and configure your campaigns incorrectly – you have been warned.

This short guide will provide you with ten top tips for managing your Google Adwords campaign.

1. Set a daily budget, this is a safety valve and will stop your campaign costing you a small fortune. Start small say £10 per day.
2. Remember you have to bid for position, so set a cost per click that gets you above the fold i.e. in the top 5 otherwise you will get very few clicks.
   
3. Measure conversion rates. The Adwords system provides a small piece of code that you can put on your website to measure conversions and will give you a cost per conversion.  It is even better if you can work out the value of a conversion. You can also integrate this with Google Analytics, but that is the subject of another post me thinks.
4. Target Long Tail keywords. According to the Adwords system it will cost you £3-£6 to get your site in the top three for “Home Information Packs” and several visitors per day, but this search “cheap home information packs” will be much cheaper per click, more targeted and will convert better if it is applicable to you. The volume of searches and traffic will be much lower though (too low for Google to provide useful data), the other thing to consider is the geographic terms such as “Home Information Packs Bolton”
5. Optimise your titles and your descriptions. You should create multiple ads for each keyword you are bidding on. Click through rates improve by including the keyword in the title, description and the URL as these are highlighted when the search results are changed. You can automate this by using this curly brackets in the title and descriptions to return the search term e.g. try {KeyWord: Home Information Packs} as the title.
   
6. Optimise your landing page. Many people do not realise that Google monitor the relevance of the landing page. For example, if you are bidding on the keyword “Home Information Packs” and the landing page is about Energy Performance Certificates you are going to pay more per click for a given position. This might involve the creation of specially written landing pages.
7. More advanced users may want to experiment with a/b testing.  This allows you to set multiple landing pages and compare which converts visitors to customers the best.
   
8. Use the Adwords data to feed into your organic search engine results.  If a keyword is converting well for Adwords start optimisting your web site for these words to improve your organic rankings and to reduce the cost per click – remember point 5.
   
9. Apply the your knowledge to alternative contextual advertising systems such as Overture, MSN, Mirago and Miva. (I have found the conversion rates for the last two to be poor)
10. A significant number of clicks will be fraudulent clicks, so consider installing click fraud monitoring scripts. I have managed to get money back from Google using these scripts.
11. Try to calculate a value for each conversion and adjust your budgets accordingly. E.g. If you are making £100 and spending your £10 daily budget by lunchtime, consider increasing it.
12. Monitor at a keyword level and adjust your bids accordingly. Consider removing poor performing keywords.
13. Compare conversion rates between the content network ads and the Google search results ads.
14. Some will create a whole site excluded from the orangic results just for adwords traffic as it makes it easier to measure conversion.  These kinds of sites would use different e-mail addresses and different phone numbers to faciliate this.
    

Good luck – let me know how yo get on.

Related Post

• No Related Post