Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the new kid on the web development block. People with SEO skill sets help to build and market your website so that it gets high search engine rankings and maximum traffic; after all, traffic = conversions = profits.

Apogee Search, one of the world’s largest Search Engine Optimization firms, has lots of great resources on their site for both new and seasoned SEO professionals. One of my favourite resources is their very in-depth Search Engine Marketing Glossary. The glossary introduces SEO-specific terms - both technical (301 redirect, alt tag, etc) and non-technical (link farm, keyword density). This portion of the site is extensive, highlighting a few terms that even I’ve never heard of (and SEO is one of my day jobs)! (more…)

It’s a familiar scenario, at least in our household - we find a fantastic airline fare online and are shocked to find that, once taxes and surcharges are added, the price has doubled, or more. Well, let’s say we were once shocked; now it’s a normal way of life and something we come to expect.

But why should a £1 cheap fare have £50 in taxes? What, exactly, are they taxing?

Most airlines don’t tell you, or they don’t make it obvious where the charges come from. But U.S. Airways’ website does. (more…)

Plastic surgeons are one of the few groups of professionals who can, nearly across the board, afford to have an awesome website for their business. So while we’ve all seen sub-standard, FrontPage-crafted sites for mom and pop shops, B&Bs, and other family establishments, there’s no excuse for plastic surgeons.

Here are five features that are essential for a great plastic surgery website, using Dr. Philip Miller (rhinoplasty Manhattan New York) and his excellent website as an example. Follow along on his first-class site as we go through the list. (more…)

Despite having lots of experience in sales and marketing and therefore knowing exactly how things work, I’ve been stuck in the marketing machine for years. For the past decade, I’ve been purchasing “whitening” toothpastes - the foaming crystals, the blue strips of cleanliness, added ingredients, this and that - and I continue, to this day, to do so, knowing full well that it’s never made a bit of difference for my teeth.

I don’t even entertain the possibility that the whitening toothpaste has canceled anything out - i.e. that I’d be much worse without it. I know I wouldn’t. Moreso, I’m not your average adult; I don’t drink a lot of coffee, I don’t smoke, and sugar is probably my only weakness. So, why the crutch? (more…)

Okay, you’ve decided to spring for those 34DD breasts you’ve always wanted, or maybe you’ve lost a lot of weight and are in need of a tummy tuck to remove loose skin. With so many plastic surgeons out there, how do you find a good one?

Let’s say, for example, that you want to find a cosmetic surgeon in Los Angeles. Google brings back over a million results! What now? (more…)

Yoga is the neo-yuppie craze that’s found its way into mainstream American gyms - and homes - over the past several years. It’s got a certain social status attached to it now; you can almost picture the big name celebrities going to their yoga and pilates classes, right? Unfortunately, this leads to a public perception that yoga isn’t for everyone, which couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hatha yoga - the most popular - is marketed by gyms as a fitness routine and one of the less cerebral forms on offer. You don’t need to assemble an altar to practice it; you just need to buy a mat and some really cool yoga pants. (more…)

FOXNews published a health article in January titled “Plastic Surgery Regret on the Rise, Fueling ‘Revision’ Practices”. In typical Fox fashion, the article was rather alarmist. The blurb featured one plastic surgery horror story from a woman who was unhappy after two nose jobs, followed by a quote from respected surgeon Andrew Jacono stating that 1 in 3 surgical procedures is a revision.

Can this be right? Or is there a better explanation for all the revisions going on in American operating rooms?

Here are three practical reasons we propose that may explain the “1 in 3″ statistic - and only one of them is a fear mongering idea: (more…)

Blogging passed silently into the mainstream years ago, showing us the wonderment that is a cryptic Rosie O’Donnell poem or the company messages of a big name CEO. Everybody blogs now; even my computer-confused mom has a LiveJournal account.

Need further proof? Here are a few of the strangest bloggers we’ve come across to prove that Everybody Blogs.

• The much-maligned United States Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) blogs.

• A dead World War I soldier blogs.

• Scottish police dogs in training blog (in first person!). A few of them, actually.

• Iranian president (and American adversary) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blogs.

I’ve worked for many companies, from a large subsidiary of Viacom to a suburban mom-and-pop retail shop. The jobs were all sales oriented, to an extent, and relied on relationships with customers to keep the business afloat. Yet strangely, the one thing all of these businesses - the large and the small - had in common was that we never used a CRM.

Why the aversion? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are great for organising sales information. For example, look at Flightdeck CRM. Their website spells out quite plainly exactly what you can do with a CRM; everything from lead sheets to contact management is fair game. Yet the businesses I’ve worked with have used a variety of other methods to accomplish these goals, from good ole pen and paper to massive Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that were just begging to be corrupted.

So what’s out there in the land of business management software systems? I like the Flightdeck CRM, and their website for that matter. The language on the site does require a certain degree of understanding of business management, but that’s par for the course - you’re talking about high-spec company software here. But what’s great is, although there’s some jargon, the site has a very matter-of-fact approach to their sales pitch. The menus are clearly laid out (and colourful!) in a “Tell me this” way (”Tell me why Flightdeck is different”, “Tell me how Flightdeck can help me”, etc). Plain English is a wonderful thing. (more…)

A fourth grader from Montana has coined a mnemonic for the 11 planets of the solar system. If you thought there were 9 - or 8, or 12, or whatever it was last week - this memory trick may help you remember all of the planet’s names.

The student, Maryn Smith, won a National Geographic Society contest for her mnemonic, which will now be featured in a book and turned into a song by Lisa Loeb (of 1990s “Stay” fame).

The winning phrase? “My Very Exciting Magic Carpet Just Sailed Under Nine Palace Elephants” for Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Eris.

The only downside is that Smith’s mnemonic invention will in all likelihood be rendered useless sometime in the near future, as the planetary shuffle and disagreements about what makes a planet continue.

At least we can revel in the fact that 10-year-olds aren’t nearly as cynical as adults… yet.