What Questions Should I Ask MSN?
I was actually surprised that I was invited to the Searchification event MSN is throwing tomorrow because I haven’t been much of a Live Search supporter over the last year or so. As someone who was involved in the early stages of the MSN project (even before the original Search Champs) I ended up being very disappointed in the project because IMO, the product should be much better at this stage in the game.
My initial feeling about tomorrow’s event is that it’s going to be an attempt to “shine shit.” We’re going to see a bunch of new bells and whistles that are going to be bolted onto the top of a platform that just doesn’t work very well. (In terms of algorithmic relevance). I’m hoping that I’m wrong and I’m going to be blown away, but I just don’t think that’s realistic.
Regardless, one of the qualities I do admire about the MSN team is their ability to take hard, constructive criticism. I’m sure we’re going to get a decent amount of time to let the questions fly, so I’m curious what questions you would ask if you were attending? I have a couple issues I’m looking forward to venting about, but I’d love to add a few more.
Fell free to post your questions in the comments, and I’ll try and post the answers they give me when I get back.
Today’s Rockstar Show – SEO Vanity Contest Hints
Todd and I just finished recording today’s SEO Rockstar show. (We had planned on doing a live show, but we are both heading out today to attend MSN’s Searchifcation event).
The show will be broadcast today at 4:00 pm PST. At the end of the show, we spent some time giving out some good hints for some of the tougher plates from my SEO Vanity Contest. So if you are one of the people who decided not to submit answers because you didn’t think you knew enough of them, you might want to give the show a listen.
Looking for a Steady WordPress Designer
We’ve been doing a ton of custom WordPress development lately. Right now, I have 5 or 6 projects sitting on my desk that need custom themes, and several more coming up next month. If you are a CSS/XHTML Guru who can handle cranking out 10-15 custom designs for us on a monthly basis, give me a shout. Please include a link to a portfolio and a per theme rate for that type of volume.
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Bodog Moves Again
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about the SEO challenges Bodog faced when they woke up one morning and discovered all their domains have been seized. Since that post, Bodog managed to not only reclaim most of their brand specific SERPS, they also have been able to maintain and overall traffic level to the new site that was actually higher than before the domains were seized.
So now the question is, can they accomplish all that again?
Calvin Ayre announced today that Bodog is moving again; this time, to the permanent domain bodoglife.com. While it is certainly a better sounding domain than newbodog.com, it isn’t going to make the process of regaining their SEO glory any easier. Now, all those links that they got over the last couple of weeks are going to have to be redirected to a brand new domain. And that’s going to happen right at the point that those links started generating some traction. Going down that path could ultimately be worse than completely starting from scratch.
It’s going to be interesting watching how Google reacts and how long it takes them to come back. I wonder if they’ve thought of posting odds on the amount of time that will pass before their rankings are restored? That might be something that would generate a few links. 
The SEO Vanity Contest - Win 2 free passes to PubCon!
I’m not sure how it is in other states, but in California vanity license plates are huge. Just spend one afternoon driving through SoCal and you’ll know what I mean. You almost always end up spending the time you are stuck in traffic trying to decipher the clever custom license plate on the car in front of you.
Both Barbara and I have vanity plates on our cars, and both are Internet related. But I’ve never really like Barbara’s. At first glance it’s kinda cute, but it’s also very dorky. So, last Friday, I decided I was going to buy her a new one.
One of the cool features of the California DMV’s website is the fact that you can type in what you want and it will not only tell you whether or not the plate is available, it will also generate an example of what the actual plate will look like. I’m not sure why I was so fascinated with the tool, but I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with an unregistered plate for all of my friends. (And even some other people I can’t stand).
After the master list was created, I realized I had wasted a shitload of time on it, so I thought that the best thing to do would be to turn it into a contest. After all, I just moved my blog from a 10 year old domain to a brand new domain so I need some new links.
The goal of the contest is to identify as many of the potential plate owners as possible. Each correct answer is worth 1 point, and the bonus plate at the end is worth 5.
The lucky winner (which we’ll announce on September 28th) will win two free PubCon passes, plus an all expense paid night out on the strip with yours truly. (we’re going to party Rockstar style)
Click Here to view the plates and submit your answers