Gmail accounts are going for anywhere between $50-250 on Ebay. Check it out for yourself. Since they are not available to the public I know a lot of people want to see what the new email service is all about, but come on. Do you really need to pay for an account that will soon be free?
If anyone has an extra invitation, I wouldn’t mind a Gmail account of my own. 😉 😉
Update: Bill (see comments) gave me a Gmail account!! 😀
The title of a post can be very important. A good title may catch a visitor’s eye and spark their interest to read the post. That reader may like what they read and become a regular visitor. A title relating to the post will rank highly with search engines because the post title is used as the page title and as an H1 HTML tag. If a post ranks high with search engines, it will attract visitors who may be searching for information on a particular topic. This may also lead to an increase in regular readers.
I’m not trying to say that increasing the reader base is the goal, but it is always a plus. As most people with a blog or personal site would agree, we don’t do it to become popular or gain readers. We blog because it gives us a unique place to voice our opinions or work out our thoughts. At the same time, these opinions or thoughts are public information via the web and therefore can stimulate discussion or help someone.
With that said, I’m curious as to how others create the titles for their posts.
Do you create titles that are “Google-friendly”? What I mean by that is the post will turn up when people search for common things. By creating a misleading title, it could cause the opposite of what I discussed above. A post could be ranked higher than it should be. Many people will end up visiting the site just to see what their search turned up. This situation is bad for the Internet.
Should a post title be the first thing that comes to mind or something that has some quality thought? I think that both strategies can be important in different situations. There are many times when a first thought is the best thought, but times when a post deserves a great title.
Do you create a post title before writing the post or after? If you create the post title first, you may try to model the post to match the title, straying from the original intent. A title added after the post is writen should be a better fit.
I usually try to create a catchy title relating to what I write about in the post. My goal is not to rank highly with Google, but I won’t complain if I do rank up there. For some reason the majority of my titles are the first thing I fill in on the post form, but I think I’ll try to change that in the future. I also try to create a title that is a play on words, which is always fun to come up with.
What’s your strategy for creating post titles?
At the end of each month, I post a list of the top 10 keyword combinations (searches) that visitors have used in a search engine to get to my site. It’s not a popularity list, because “poker chip tricks” and every possible way to search for that would dominate my top 10. These are the funniest, weirdest, or craziest searches that have resulted in a visit to my site. The searches listed are exactly as someone typed them into a search engine.
Here’s the list for April 2004…enjoy!
The Digital Pimpress has been MIA for 2 months now. I used to read her blog daily for several reasons:
She was sick and all of the sudden disappeared. There hasn’t been any news on her site since her last post on February 23rd, 2004. At the time she was sick with pneumonia. It was rumored that she was on vacation shortly after that, but still no word from the woman herself.
Does anyone know where she went or what happened?
Come back Alyssa!
Does anyone know where it is? Either I signed up for it a long time ago and forgot which email account I used, or someone else took it so that I couldn’t have it. I’ve had AOL send the password several times over the past few years, but I never get an email in any […]
Very cool tricks done with a pen… Pentrix
I now have an online stalker! Some guy just starts talking to me today on MSN Messenger (I’ll keep his screenname private) after he found my web site. Seemed like a nice guy interested in poker, but then starting asking me personal questions. He was asking things like what I do for a living and where I was from… then all of the sudden he asks me how much money I make and tells me that I don’t have any friends. He then wants to explain my personality to me! I’m like, “WHAT THE FUCK!”
If someone thinks they can explain who I am by reading my website and chatting with me for 5 minutes, what is this world coming to?
To all the psychos out there…go ahead and read my site, but please refrain from contacting me if you can’t act normal. Seriously, what did this guy think he was going to accomplish by writing this stuff to me over IM? It seems he might be the one who needs to find some friends or something better to do with his time.
At the end of each month, I post a list of the top 10 keyword combinations (searches) that visitors have used in a search engine to get to my site. It’s not a popularity list, because “poker chip tricks” and every possible way to search for that would dominate my top 10. These are the funniest, weirdest, or craziest searches that have resulted in a visit to my site. The searches listed are exactly as someone typed them into a search engine.
Here’s the list for March 2004…enjoy!
At the end of each month, I plan to give a list of the top 10 keyword combinations (searches) that visitors have used in a search engine to get to my site. It’s not a popularity list, because “poker chip tricks” and every possible way to search for that would dominate my top 10. These are the funniest, weirdest, or craziest searches that have resulted in a visit to my site. The searches listed are exactly as someone typed them into a search engine.
Here’s the list for February 2004…enjoy!
Over the past few days you may have noticed a few changes to the site. I removed the Shout Outs from the sidebar. I was the only one ever shouting so I figured it wouldn’t be missed. With them gone, the pages should load a little (fraction of a second) quicker. The other change is that I added a little hack next to the date/time of a post. It displays how long ago the post was made, which is useful for any visitors that are in a different time zone. Instead of figuring their offsets from EST to see how long ago a post was made, they can simple read in between the parenthesis.
I’m really happy with the way the site has come together over the past few months. My goal from the start was to keep it simple, but with a lot of functionality. I think I’ve succeeded so far and from the consistent increase in the number of visitors, so must others.
If you have any suggestions or criticisms that might help the site…I’m all ears.
Nick Momrik 