The Wikipop Blog http://blog.wikipop.net The world according to me Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:00:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 en The Wikipedia guide to SEO http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/the-wikipedia-guide-to-seo/ http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/the-wikipedia-guide-to-seo/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:00:18 +0000 admin http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/the-wikipedia-guide-to-seo/ If you go to Google, you’ll notice that alot of the top results are for Wikipedia.  Based on this, you could model your SEO effort to replicate what Wikipedia does.  For a given topic, here’s what are the key drivers….

1. Related External links - Google Page Rank was built on links that are on pages.  If you could visualize the Google Search Engine, it would look something like the NYC subway system, where the tracks are links between urls.  Now imagine your page is Disneyland, but there’s just a one way street coming in.  Next door is Universal Studios, where it’s not only a great place to visit, but has a lot of great alternate family destinations.  Who should rank higher? For Google, it’s Universal.

2. Non generic external links - It’s not enough to go to Google and copy the first ten links for your keyword.  Google wants you to do their work for them.  They want you to find the best, unique or most authoritative content.  This might be a journal in Nature or some PhD thesis that’s on the web.  When you create your page, imagine it as the gateway to all the best pages on the net.

 3. Content - this is where I think Mahalo gets it wrong.  While they have some content, many times they are just a page of links.  The page should be a sufficient destination and not just a waypoint.  It shouldn’t be Chicago-Ohare airport; it should be Chicago.

4. Updates - ever notice how over time, your static page steadily decreases in rank.  Google expects the page to be organic.  Having minor modifications over time.  This is the nature of a Wikipedia page.

 5. Narrow content - this is where blogs get it wrong.  Blogs tend to be all over the place.  A Wikipedia page always speaks to the topic at hand.

I could probably think of a few more, but it’s coming to slow to the brain. That’ll do for now.

]]> http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/the-wikipedia-guide-to-seo/feed/ Top Movies about or shot in the Valley http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/top-movies-about-or-shot-in-the-valley/ http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/top-movies-about-or-shot-in-the-valley/#comments Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:47:05 +0000 admin http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/top-movies-about-or-shot-in-the-valley/ In anticipation of Adam Carolla’s movie “The Hammer“, I am putting together a list of the top movies about the Valley. Here’s what I’ve got so far.

  1. Paul Thomas Anderson’s San Fernando Trilogy - Boogie Nights, Magnolia (least Valleyish), Punchdrunk Love. Who would ever thought an A-list director would create a trilogy about the Valley.
  2. Karate Kid - my favorite line “Are you from Encino Daniel?”, “Nooo, Reseda”. No respect.
  3. Fast Times at Ridgemont High- pretty iconic. Set in the Sherman Oaks galleria.
  4. Valley Girl - I never saw this so can’t comment. Minus points for not shooting in a mall in the valley.
  5. The 40 Year Old Virgin - the Ebay store is there, next to Versailles, but there’s no electronics store across the way.
  6. Safe -My favorite Todd Haynes movie. Julianne Moore develops an life threatening allergy to modern life. Anybody with breathing problems should avoid this movie.
  7. Bad News Bears - this might be more LA than the Valley
  8. 2 Days in the Valley - great movie
  9. Terminator 2 - the mall scene apparently was a combination of Northridge Fashion Center and Sherman Oaks Galleria. Although the foster parents seemed more Inland Empire.
  10. 44 Minutes - a movie made about the real life shootout in North Hollywood based on the fictional movie Heat
  11. Down in the Valley - another movie I haven’t seen
  12. ET - I always thought this was shot in some Bay Area suburb. There are no Redwood forests in the Valley.
  13. Poltergeist - I’ve been told some of the scenes were shot in my present hometown of Agoura Hills. The cookie cutter housing development depicted in the movie fits the cookie cutter housing in Agoura. The former Indian burial ground not so much. I hope

Thanks to - IMDB for reference.

]]> http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/top-movies-about-or-shot-in-the-valley/feed/ Moving on up http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/moving-on-up/ http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/moving-on-up/#comments Sat, 08 Mar 2008 17:47:33 +0000 admin http://blog.wikipop.net/?p=9 At this moment, I’m awake early with the same thought that I went to sleep with - do I buy a house?  Not just any house, for me and my wife it’s our dream house.  Big backyard.  Pool jacuzzi.  Basketball court!  And that’s just the outside of the house.  But buying it puts us much closer to the edge.  We would have to liquidate half of our assets to bring the loan down.   We would have to take on a strict  financial diet.  The biggest toll would be any chance we have to go on vacation.   Dropping the house would be extremely difficult.  I am the lone individual to make the final decision in a deal that comprises the fortunes of three brokers, a small investor, a young family and our own family.

As of late, I am leaning to go forward with the deal.  My latest feeling is that it might spur me to work harder.  I started this morning by thinking I should push the Wikipop idea to my employer.  It would definitely work for them.  However, they don’t have a history of incubating ideas.  Rather, they buy companies with a proven track record.

Also, last night, the tax cloud finally rained on my parade.  After completing half of the form, I found out I owed double the ludicrous amount I paid last year.  That’s what you get when you have 25k worth of non-withheld contracting fees.

]]> http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/moving-on-up/feed/ Beating the recession - ALK http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/beating-the-recession-alk/ http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/beating-the-recession-alk/#comments Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:31:46 +0000 admin http://blog.wikipop.net/?p=5 One of the stock families that appear to be having success in this “recession” are airline stocks.  The reason being that fears of recession cause the price of oil drop.  Traders anticipate that consumers will do less driving, less of everything.  Airline stock prices currently look like the inverse of the oil prices.  Jet fuel (derived from oil) appears to be the primary component governing airline profitability.  ALK (Alaskan Airlines) is a nice airline stock.  They are regional and based in a growing region, Pacific Northwest. 

]]> http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/beating-the-recession-alk/feed/ Ever hear of James Morrison http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/ever-hear-of-james-morrison/ http://blog.wikipop.net/posts/ever-hear-of-james-morrison/#comments Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:57:49 +0000 admin http://blog.wikipop.net/?p=3 James Morrison

As I (and millions other) watched the end of Wednesday’s American Idol, the music and soulful voice of James Morrison piqued a certain realm of my mind, the one that is related to the search for perfection. My DVR only captured about 10 seconds of Morrison’s ‘Wonderful World’ but it was more than enough. I had two lines of lyrics (”know that it’s a wonderful world but can’t feel it right now”) and a search engine (”Google”) at hand. The search led me to his video where my first impression was, this guy doesn’t look the part. Straggly hair, crooked beak nose, beady eyes, Morrison looks more like a sandwich delivery boy than a soul singer. But as the deep timbre comes out and every note is delivered with a measured soulfulness, that old adage - don’t judge a book by its cover - has met its musical counterpart.
Morrison has a lot going for him right now. He’s got one album with a lead single (You Give me something) that was #1 in the UK. That single also has a beautifully done video. There’s a good chance that his song ‘Wonderful World’ will be this year’s American Idol exit song. I look forward tomorrow to listening to his ‘Undiscovered’ album over and over.

You can listen to his music at Rhapsody - link

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