November 3rd, 2009
Last spring I came across Google Insights while I was working at EpikOne as a Web/Graphic Designer for the Spring semester. I used this for one of their projects to research currents trends that were developing among coffee, this was what the company was based around. I was using Google Insights to then gather information on current trends that were developing during a certain period of time and a set geography base for the search. After analyzing the data presented by Google Insights I took notes on the data given then worked that in to a new newsletter that was going to be sent out to a list of subscribers.
Lets cut to the chase, Google Insights can help you create a successful blog post because if you have an idea for a post in mind, send some keywords/phrases to insight. The interface of Google Insights is very simple, the landing page looks as follows:
Here are some basics steps that I take when I want to use Google Insights to writing a successful blog post:
- Think of a new blog post idea/thought to work with
- Write down some keywords/phrases, that visitors might search for
- Enter them in to Google Insights – If you need to add any filters (Area, Timeline, Country, etc)
- The results for your keywords/phrases will be graphed out for you and also a map overlay showing popularity, also showing a graph of Interest over Time
- See which keywords/phrases are doing the best, then work those around your up and coming blog post.
The simple tips above can help your blog post become more successful by analyzing what the current trends are relating to that one topic. Lets say I wanted to write an article about jQuery and AJAX, lets plug these in to Google Insights and see what it returns, below is an image that shows us Top Searches and Rising Searches.
Give this method a try out for yourself. Ponder up a new post idea, think of some keywords, plug them in to Google Insights, blow away, bring on the followers. This has become a common tool in my arsenal for blogging and designing. Great way to check if your blog post is running in to any current trends, that will lead in readers to your blog. Give this a try and see how it goes.
Tags: google, insights, marketing, SEO
Posted in Internet Marketing, SEO | No Comments »
October 21st, 2009
Finally..after months and months and still work to do. I was able to launch the Cat on the Couch Productions website. Which has a much cleaner appearance with new branding, that was a must to have.
The old site was terrible and did nothing but turn potential clients away. I loaded up some jQuery on the new website but am removing alot of the components to increase performance.
If you are using qTip, don’t. It is 44KB packed, which is still incredibly large. They have a lighter weight SimpleTip, that I am switching too, that is less than 10KB.
You can check out the website, but there are still numerous changes to be done, but my thoughts were that it was acceptable and working to launch for now. Then go back and tweak performance, gzip, compress, and CSS sprites.
Work and school studies have been picking and I have been slacking on the blog posts and jquery goods, but there will be more.
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October 7th, 2009
I am switching my syntax highlighting from WP-Syntax to Google Syntax Highlighter. It is installed and working, but for some reason it is parsing my PHP, which is not allowing me to post the code for readers can try out the articles.
I have been doing some searching on Google with little results, but hopefully something will come up.
I recently started working at Commerce Generation in Burlington, VT so pardon for the delay in articles. I have several quick posts with some tips to publish in the next couple of days.
In the mean time sorry for the error in the syntax highlighting.
If you’re in the Northeast, try to stay dry!
Tags: syntax, WordPress
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September 20th, 2009
Another Sunday night is here, which means 8AM classes to start the week. After Football all day, I started working on some design projects, and I stumbled upon this small feature on my Mac. If you activate your desktop Expose and use two fingers you can use as you would use the arrow keys to navigate Expose on Mac OS X.
Not too crazy of a tip, but one I found out, that is pretty neat.
Tags: desktop, expose, mac, navigation, trackpad
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September 14th, 2009
I have been searching for various articles and help to use WordPress to display a page full of your blog posts. I finally found out a source and it is going to be creating a custom page template in WordPress. If you want to read more on creating custom page templates, be sure to check it out.
The basic concept, will go as follows:
- Create a new file and give it a name such as “allposts.php”
- Paste the code below in the “allposts.php”
- Upload the file to your theme directory
- Create a new page in WordPress
- To the right where you see Page Template, select the one you just created
- Save and view the page. You should now be viewing your posts
Code that goes in to the “allposts.php” is below, this is an example from my site. The XHTML can be customized to the theme of your website.
The top section of code is where the name of the page template is defined. This will display on the page editor under the Page Template drop down.
Post by: on with comment(s). located in .
This is a standard way to display your WordPress blog posts on a page using custom page templates, you can alter your query by editing this line:
To read more on the WordPress query_posts(), check out the reading.
Tags: page, posts, template, WordPress
Posted in Blog | No Comments »
Here are some basics steps that I take when I want to use Google Insights to writing a successful blog post: