Only Network

I’m working on a new theme for my tech blog and I’m really enjoying doing stuff with WordPress. It’s really great how most of the work I do online can be done from anywhere in the world. I can be sitting at home, locked up in one of those reno hotels or even on a cruise in the middle of the Atlantic. All you need is a computer, an internet connection and Bob’s your uncle.

Anyway .. you should see it on my blog in a few days It’s awsome I tell ya.

Ever wake up in the morning, look at a website and go: “I really don’t like that”. That’s what happened this morning; I really think that this website needs a new Wordpress theme as I really don’t like it any more. It shouldn’t be a big deal; the nice thing about WordPress is that it does an excellent job of seperating content from presentation so users can change themes without losing any of their content.

Thinking about it, I might go with one that has some nice scenery, maybe something like the Outer Banks or maybe a photo from the Isle of Man. I used such a photo on my technology blog and I’m really happy with how that turned out. Back to the drawing board methinks.

I wrote a great post on AskOwen about how to find Keywords for your Website, using a website called HowRank. Let’s say for example, we want to find alternative keywords for the term: job descriptions. Using Keyword Rocket, I get the following list based on what people are searching for:

• job descriptions uk
• job descriptions dol
• job descriptions writing
• job descriptions human resource
• job descriptions us
• job descriptions in canada
• job descriptions for executive assistant
• job descriptions alberta
• job descriptions customer service rep
• job descriptions for bartender

OK, some of those may not be what you’re looking for, but you need to sift through it and find the ones that apply to what you’re after. Great trick for your SEO arsenal.

It’s seems like everyone and his dog seem to be watching the Olympics this year. Now I don’t know if it’s just that I am more conscious about what’s happening in the media or whether it’s the network of friends and acquaintances around me, but I’m hearing a lot more about what’s going on and what’s happening.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great thing. It’s a great way to improve social cohesiveness with everyone supporting their country and getting behind the boys, but personally, I like to make it a bit more interesting. And there’s where bet365 Casino’s Going For Gold campaign comes in. Here’s the press release I came across:

As the world gathers for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Casino at bet365 is marking this great occasion with their own incredible £50,000 Going For Gold promotion.

Over the course of the Olympic Games there are 20 exciting Going for Gold events taking place at bet365 where players can compete for both cash prizes and medals. The more medals that you win, the higher up the leaderboard you are placed and greater your chance of winning the top prizes.

In each event, the top 100 players will each win a medal. The first 15 players will receive a Gold medal, the next 35 players will win a Silver medal and the next 50 will be rewarded with a Bronze medal. At the end of the competition, players will be awarded cash prizes according to their final position on the leaderboard and their status in the bet365 VIP Royalty Scheme.

“We’re aiming to emulate the spirit and excitement of the Olympic Games with this promotion” explains Tom Galanis, Casino Marketing Manager at bet365. “Here anyone from many nations is welcome to participate and compete for the glory of victory. Everyone has a chance of winning a medal plus the opportunity to win one of our great cash prizes.”

As well as the Going For Gold promotion which runs from the 9th to the 24th of August, there are many other reasons to visit the Casino at bet365. These include progressive jackpots on the slots worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, the thrill of live dealer Blackjack and Roulette, an excellent Royalty Scheme and a wealth of information to help improve your game.

So whether you’re Going for Gold this August or just want to experience heart pounding fun at one of the best casinos on the internet, remember that there’s always something for everyone in the Casino at bet365.

Now that sounds interesting. It’s an interesting promotion that ties into the spirit of the Olympic Games and capitalises on the excitement that they generate. I don’t know if you’ve ever played at an online casino before, but the great thing about being online is that the games you play are only limited by the imagination of the person or company who’s behind them.

So what are you waiting for? Are you Going For Gold?

I must admit, I am a bit of a gadget freak, so it’s pretty hard deciding which is my favourite. But right up there at the top has to be my mobile phone. It has GPS, Wifi and runs a real operating system that lets me load up any software I like. Ok, it’s no iPhone, but it does the job.

I know you guys have different favourites, from cars to tactical gear; but what I’d really like to know is, which is your favourite?

Do you have an online routine? I mean, a set of sites you visit first thing in the morning, or a sequence of different sites you always check out? I must admit I do (how boring). When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is log onto my savings accounts and credit card company, just to make sure everything is ticking over the way I want it to. I also check my email straight away.

I also have a list of message boards I visit in sequence, and to do this, I have them laid out on my bookmark bar, just so that I can zoom from one to the other very quickly.

Do you have an online routine?

I love the Internet. You can find any information you want, look up anyone you want and buy anything you want. You can even use it to buy a bus if you feel so inclined. Yup, I came across a website called Carpenter Bus that lets you do just that. They sell, repair and rent all types of buses and have a huge inventory for you to browse through. Looking for a bus? Check them out.

How cool is this. Import Advantage is a company that specialises in pop up tv solutions that can be placed in a wall unit, at the foot of a bed or anywhere else you might want. Look how cool this is.

Before:

After

I so would like to get one of these. Not because I love gadgets, well, yes, partly for that reason, but also I love the effect and it’s a great use of space.

I’ve just been playing with an interesting service called TweetWhatYouEat to try and keep a Food Diary. The way it works is simple. Every time you eat something, you send a Tweet through Twitter to their website which collects all the different things you’ve eaten and shows you a calorie count at the end of the day. I’m currently trying to keep my intake at around 1500 calories a day, and this is perfect as all I need is a running total.

It’s a great example of a hosted service and I particularly like the way it uses a Twitter-based interface for you to send information to it. So, if you’re bored using the Internet to check out diet pill reviews, check out my TweetWhatYouEat Diary

I’ve been getting some really weird spam on my personal blog over the last few days. I’m used to all the spam about pharmaceuticals, treatments for acne and even adult websites, but this spam had none of that. It just consists of chunks of text which seems to be taken out of a book somewhere, no links, no URLs, nothing. Some of them just seem to consist of random words. Here’s one for example:

extrapoint expreserve exotospore
explicable etc/showfh exchequers
fLhashstat fBftpusers esimilarly
estatesman escalating fastidious

How strange is that? Seen anything weird today?