Hard luck chaps in losing 2-0 to Barca in the Champions League Final!
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Transformers comic: The Beast Within
As you probably know I’m something of a Transformers fan. I have countless Transformers toys, run several Transformers websites, have contributed to Transformers DVDs and even attended the 2007 premiere of Michael Bay’s Transformers.
You get the picture, I like Transformers.
Back in 2004 I wrote a two part story for a Transformers comic which was published by Metrodome and given away with their Transformers DVD boxsets. The comic was called ‘The Beast Within Part 1’ and ‘The Beast Within Part 2: Consequences’. I only wrote the script, it was illustrated by the amazingly talented Dylan Gibson, who has gone on to a good career as an illustrator.
The comic was met with mixed reviews (at best) with some Transformers fans and websites being very critical. This one cites the fact that it was published as an error… wankers.
Anyhow, this week I found two YouTube videos from a guy who reviews Transformers toys, reviewing the comics. Incredibly he’s actually quite impressed with the comics, as you can see in the two videos below where he talks you through the storyline and gives his opinion on them.
Just thought I’d share this, it’s nice to get positive reviews.
The Beast Within Part 1 Review
Anti CSA website causing some problems for the CSA
My problems with the Child Support Agency are well documented, as are a great many people’s problems I guess. Because my efforts to get them to admit their mistakes proved fruitless, even when they posted someone else’s bank details to me, I set up the anti-CSA website CSAHell.com.
This website was created to allow people who are having trouble with the Child Support Agency to voice their problems to the world and maybe get some advice on how to deal with it.
On the website you can read emails we have received from non resident parents and parents with care who have given up hope on trying to get the CSA to do their job properly. The website also features my famed YouTube videos of phone calls I have had with the CSA.
Now, how has this impacted?
Firstly, anyone looking for the ‘child support agency’ who Google’s ‘child support agency’ is able to see my legendary CSA video on the front page of Google, as you can see here.
The video has received almost 10,000 views at time of writing this, and will receive a lot more over the coming weeks and months. The ‘administrative error’ the hapless Ryan admits to on the phone is hilarious, and very damning for the CSA.
But what of people looking for ‘CSA Complaints’? Well, I have that one sewn up in spades. Not one, but TWO websites on the front page of Google, csahell.com and mrdaz.com.
There’s no escaping for the CSA. We’re here to stay and we’re only getting stronger.
If you’ve been screwed over by them, have your say at csahell.com and tell the world your story. It will be heard, by a LOT of people.
Google News full of spam
This week I wrote about Google News and the benefits of being included in Google News, however I have noticed a great many sites that are listed that don’t deserve to be listed, either through offering poor quality content, duplicate content or content hidden behind login pages.
For example, this week I was looking for some news on business travel for a particular website and found the website for airflights.co.uk listed in Google News. The article listed seemed very suspicious so I ran it through Copyscape and found that sure enough, it was taken from an article directory.
The article published on airflights.co.uk was this one, published on May 19th. This article was copied from this website, which published the article on May 15th.
Not strictly against the rules of the article site, but certainly against Google’s TOS. You can’t duplicate content from other websites and expect to rank for it. However, not only have airflights.co.uk duplicated content, they managed to get that content listed with Google News, which is ridiculous. Does this mean that Google’s news service is going to become full of duplicate content and spam results?
It shouldn’t as Google News has a manual review process in order to gain entry, so anything like this really should flagged up. Checking Copyscape is one of the first things I do when I look at a website for SEO, so you’d think Google would be on top of that, wouldn’t you?
Even so I filed a spam report for Google, so hopefully they’ll do something about it, but history shows that spam reports filed to Google don’t necessarily have much impact.
We’ll see if this one gets anywhere as I’ll be monitoring Google News for airflights.co.uk to see if their duplicate content continues to get indexed as news, when it isn’t.
Sex tips for cancer sufferers
I know this sounds like I’m about to write one of my usual ‘very bad taste’ posts, but this is actually genuine. Macmillan Cancer Support has released figures that show cancer can have a negative affect on people’s sex lives, and as such have launched a website to aid people in this regard, so I wanted to share it heare.
Stuart Danskin from Macmillan stated:
“Cancer can leave a lasting impact on a person long after treatment ends. People usually think of the hair loss and other side effects of cancer, but often it is how it affects a person’s feelings about themselves that can be most distressing. It can leave people’s confidence shattered, body image low, and make it psychologically or physically difficult to have sex at all.
This video on sex tips should throw some light on the subject.
Michael Jackson concerts delayed
I just received a very scary text from my nephew stating how the first few dates of Michael Jackson’s concert this summer have been postponed until March 2010. This was most alarming as I have VIP tickets for the opening night on July 8th!
Luckily he wasn’t quite right. The dates on the 1oth, 12th and 14th of July have been moved to 2010, but the opening concert on July 8th has been rescheduled to July 13th, which is still the first night.
The details of the date changes are as follows:
8 July – moved to 13 July, 2009
10 July – moved to 1 March, 2010
12 July – moved to 3 March, 2010
14 July – moved to 6 March, 2010
Good job I hadn’t booked any travel arrangements or accommodation yet either!
Why getting into Google News is important
Google News is Google’s own news delivery service offering up-to-date information from trustworthy news sites. You can see the tab for the ‘news’ link at the top of Google when you make a search, and sometimes news is displayed on the front of Google when you search.
Now, getting into Google News is very tough. There are a lot of requirements to meet, both technical and in terms of quality of your content, but the advantages of getting into Google News are vast.
For example, if you’re in Google News you’ll find you’ll receive huge boosts of traffic whenever you write a new post, especially if that post is particularly topical. You’ll also receive hundreds and thousands of free back links from sites that subscribe to Google News, which of course vastly aids your SEO.
Here’s an example of one of my sites which is in Google News, TheTransformers.Net. Yesterday a post was written about the new Transformers movie, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen. The post spoke of new photos that had been released, one of which featuring Megan Fox. For those who don’t know, Megan is a particularly searched for lady on the Internet, and my post on TheTrasnformers.Net landed itself a top place listing in Google’s organic search (via Universal Search) when the story broke, as can be seen here.
Naturally, being listed at the top of Google for a search on Megan Fox brought a wave of traffic to the site, as you can see from the stats below for May 19th.
Plus, any sites that feature Google news feeds looking for information on Megan Fox (of which there are many) also featured links to TheTransformers.Net, which helps its organic search rankings.
So you see, getting into Google News is great for your SEO and really boosts your rankings and traffic.
Incidentally, MrDaz.com isn’t in Google News, nor will it ever be… it’s not quite the site they’re looking for. Is yours?
My new sofa from CSL
After my complaint against DFS some time ago, I swore I’d never used them again. True enough, when I needed to order a new sofa for my new house I went everywhere EXCEPT DFS, and finally settled on this one from CSL. It’s a damn fine sofa, and I’ve even bought the ‘cuddler’ chair to go with it, which is a chair big enough for two (or someone and a dog) to sit in, and it swivels!
It should be arriving on Wednesday, after I was assured I would get a phone call tomorrow to confirm the delivery. Can CSL do any better than DFS, or will they be as bad? Only time will tell, and so will I 😉
