Reviewing Shimon Sandler, SEO Consultant
February 11, 2008
When a company wants to make it big in their industry, one of the areas they sometimes overlook is their web presence. Spending lots of money on marketing is one way to get exposure, but to be called up in search engine results by one’s audience is the sweet spot they dream of.
Shimon Sandler is an SEO consultant who can help them find that sweet spot.
Shimon who?
After working with two successful agencies, Did-it.com and DigitalGrit, Shimon Sandler struck out on his own as an SEO consultant where he applies his marketing knowledge to help companies zero in on what they need to know and do to achieve online results they’re looking for.
He’s worked with such clients as Kohl’s Department Stores, a variety of Loreal brands, Wendy’s Restaurants, US Army, and Intel Corporation. Articles he has written have been highlighted on several websites and is a columnist for Mediapost.
What can Shimon do for you?
In addition to the content, I usually look for the following things in a site to help me evaluate whether the owner knows what he’s talking about. The number of RSS subscriptions can be a telltale sign of credibility, and with 908 subscribers as of this writing, I’d say Shimon’s pretty credible.
The site’s layout is another hot point of mine. Shimon’s site passes my test on that because all you need to know is neatly laid out in the left nav and organized by categories.
And speaking of categories, there are quite a few: Adsense, Black Hat SEO, Domaining, Email Marketing, Keyword Analysis, Mobile Search, and on and on.
Did you notice that reference to “Black Hat SEO”? That’s not something I would have expected on an SEO consultant’s site given the controversy surrounding the topic. However, I like that he’s included it because it tells me he knows the “dont’s” of the industry. Knowing that is as important as knowing the “do’s”.
If I were to hire a consultant to help me increase my chances of getting noticed in the SERPs, I’d expect that consultant to not only tell me what to do, but when I’m headed down the wrong path as well. I don’t want that consultant to just take my money because I “heard on the Net that it was a good idea to blend text into the background color” or whatever. No, my money would go to someone who can help me protect my interests and Shimon strikes me as someone who would do that.
What else does his site have?
From novice to seasoned bloggers, all could benefit from the tools they’d find on Shimon’s site. Naturally, most are SEO-oriented, but you can find others that will help you validate your site/blog, find broken links, and count characters. (One tool that caught my eye was Mr. Ploppy’s Internet Marketing Tools. You’ll have to check it out yourself.)
Don’t you hate it when you go to a store’s site and they don’t tell you something as simple as their hours? Or a restaurant’s site that doesn’t tell you what they have on their menu? Well, it must bother Shimon as well because he tells you on his site what it is he’ll do for you, so you don’t have to call him up and and worry about some sales pitch. He lays it out there for you to decide, which I’m sure has the side benefit of allowing him to focus more on his current clients until you decide to become one yourself.
All in all, I like what Shimon has done with his site. It’s informative and neatly organized. I recommend paying this SEO consultant a visit.
This has been a sponsored review.
| 2.8 |
Written by 
Mark · Filed Under Reviews | 7 Comments
Reviewing Domaining Manifesto
January 25, 2008
I just finished reading Domaining Manifesto: Domain Name Secrets Exposed by John Motson, and I gotta tell you: I’m armed for bear!
John runs the blog DNXpert which is a regular read of mine. It focuses on domains and the industry. What he writes on his blog is useful already, but I think he really out did himself on his book. It’s full of great tips and resources enabling you to procure the domain(s) of your dreams while protecting yourself from scam artists.
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Written by Mark · Filed Under Reviews | 12 Comments
Reviewing Blogger Proof Workout
January 23, 2008
Let’s face it — being a blogger is not going to give us six-pack abs, pecs of glory, not even biceps the size of baseballs. Besides being a time drain, there’s no physical movement, unless you count getting up to go to the fridge and grab a soda or something.
Israel, a.k.a. Fat Man Unleashed, has written a short and very enjoyable book designed to get us into shape. It’s called Blogger Proof Work.
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Written by Mark · Filed Under Reviews | 10 Comments
A New Theme For A New Year
January 21, 2008
What a busy month it has been so far! I’ve been spending most of my time behind the scenes here at MAMD working on my new theme. It’s one of the premium magazine themes designed by Brian Gardner. His Revolution series caught my eye not too long ago and comes in four flavors: News, Sports, Technology, and Magazine. The theme I chose is the News theme. I’m pretty excited about this next level I’ve taken my blog to and I hope you feel the same.
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Written by Mark · Filed Under Blogging, Reviews | 26 Comments
Wow-Pen: The Mouse That Acts Like A Pen
January 16, 2008
This past week and a half has been very busy for me, which is why I haven’t had much time blogging. One of the things that has kept me busy is the laptop I purchased. I’ve been spending time configuring it and getting it “just so”. 
Since I plan on using this laptop a lot, I wanted to get a good mouse because I don’t like the track pad — as neat as they are, they’ll never replace the mouse for me. I finally decided on buying the Wow-Pen ECO.
Actually, I didn’t have any idea this the Wow-Pen existed until I saw it on the shelf. Its unique shape caught my eye. As I looked over this optically driven mouse I thought I’d give it a try. I was, after all, looking for something different like a vertical mouse anyway.
As you can see, it’s meant to be held like a pen. If you were to lay it on its back, it would be about the same length as a regular mouse.
It has left- and right-click buttons that are placed vertically. To the right of these buttons is the scroll wheel. Of all its other features, if it didn’t have this, I would not have bought it. I gotta have my scroll wheel!
What I like about it:
- It keeps me from having to rest my wrist on the table like I would if I were to use a mouse.
- It feels pretty comfortable in my hand (more on this later).
- The scroll wheel.
- Stores easily.
- It’s optical.
What I dislike about it:
- It’s too light. It takes some getting used to, but I think adding some weight to it while keeping its size would definitely improve the overall user experience. For the first few days I used it, I kept having to focus controlling with my hands what could have been controlled by weight, if that makes sense. In other words, if you’ve ever driven a car with very sensitive power-steering, you’d know you have to compensate with smaller movements. It’s the same with this thing except without the power-steering.
- I mentioned the comfort above. It doesn’t fit my hand exactly the way I’d like it to, but it’s something I’ve worked around.
- I wish it were wireless.
- The buttons are just a little shy of giving you that solid “click” feel.
It comes in four different colors and can be used on Mac and PC. At a cost of $40, it averages out to what most other mice cost. After you train your hand that this is just a different type of mouse, you’ll get the hang of it.
They have another model that’s wireless and rechargeable. Plus, its RF receiver doubles as a flash drive. That’s a pretty neat combination.
| 2.8 |
Written by Mark · Filed Under Reviews | 17 Comments
More Than Screen Capture: ACA Capture Pro
December 5, 2007
ACA Capture Pro is a screen capture utility that is packed with features. You can capture images you find on the web, scrolling web pages, menus, even DirextX, Direct3D, and video player screens. This thing has got it all!
Image Capturing
Granted, there are a lot of choices out there when it comes to screen capturing utilities, but this one is different by far. You have your choice of capturing an entire window, a region of it, or capture part of your screen within a polygon or ellipitcal shape. But what I found remarkable is the fact that you can add to the region your capturing.
For example, let’s say you want to capture the upper left corner of your browser’s window right now AND the lower right corner without all the stuff in between. You can do that by dragging the selection rectangle in the first area, then pressing the “+” key and select the other area. Want more areas? No problem, just keeping adding to your heart’s content.
What you get is something like this:
Before (entire image)
After (only portions selected, but in the same session)
Menu Capturing
If you’ve ever tried capturing a menu as part of your overall screen capture, then you may know just how difficult it is. But with ACA Capture Pro, it’s a breeze. What’s more, you can capture independent of the surrounding area.
Fixed Selection
Now this is pretty cool. Sometimes when I want to capture just a fixed area of the screen, I usually have to capture more than I need, then take it into a program to edit it to the size I need. But with this utility I can configure it to only capture the size I’m interested in. Just enter the width and height, click OK, then move the box to where you want to capture and you’re done.
This can be useful when you want to fit an image into your blog that’s a specific width — a real time saver!
Video Capture
Sometimes it’s necessary to provide a visual demonstration of something rather than just describing it in words. With ACA Capture Pro you can capture the movements you make on your screen. You can even include sound.
A fully functional FREE trial can be downloaded and used for 30 days. After that, the software becomes locked. But to unlock it won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Right now, they’re offering it for $39.95. Considering all the features it comes with and comparing it to other higher priced alternatives, that’s a pretty good deal.
| 2.8 |
Written by Mark · Filed Under Reviews | 9 Comments
