Won the SEO challenge

Found out yesterday that I have won the SEO challenge #1 organised by the WangCyber forum.

The objective of the contest was to reach the highest ranking possible on Yahoo and Google search engines results for the phrase melayu boleh using legal SEO methods.

I didn't think I could win because I entered the contest quite late. However, my post Melayu Boleh went straight up to #4 on Google 2 days after I published it. Subsequently, the day after that, it disappeared completely from the results pages. It was a roller coaster ride with my position going up and down. I even went up to #2 on Google.

On Yahoo, it took quite a bit of time but slowly but steadily climbed up to the 5th position. It's actually at #4 today. I guess this is due to the different ways search engines spider websites.

How did I do it?

I have some advantages over the other participants which gave me that extra edge:

1. I have been blogging for a little over 3 years now and my page rank is quite high - between 4 and 5. Any post I write is automatically ranked higher.
2. My blog is in English. A lot of the other participants' blogs are in Bahasa Malaysia and thus, their reach is quite limited.
3. I have been doing this professionally for quite sometime now.

As many of my regulars know, I had started a project called the "Melayu Boleh project" that asked people to help me to get on top of the search engine results, by linking to my post.

And a lot of people did link back to the post.

You can do what ever you want but if people don't link back to you, your site won't go up on the results page or if it's up, won't stay there for long.

Thanks to Mohd. Suhaimy, netpreneur and founder of the Wangcyber forum for running this contest (I will contact you soon) and Eches for informing me about the contest. He came third in the contest.

Tags: Melayu boleh Malay SEO

Get rid of that offending tie

I support the Belisi Take off that Tie Campaign.

Several years ago, there was this popular fashion fad - to wear ties with cartoon characters on them. I am glad I didn't get into that. Have still seen some people wearing Micky Mouse and Donald Duck ties to office. They think it's funny and that they are trying to put some fun into office attire. Well, as I have always said, "it's a matter of taste" but definitely not good taste, in my humble opinion.

Other ties which I find offending don't have cartoon characters on them but they are of dreadful garish colours that make you almost blind when you look at them.

If you want to see what a really nice tie should look like, then check out the range of Belisi ties.

Harry Potter out in July

J. K. Rowling has announced on her official site that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7),” the last and 7th installment in the Harry Potter series will be released on the 21st of July this year.

Rowling "admitted she felt an 'incredible sense of achievement' upon completion of the series, but couldn't help feeling despair at the same time." Source - andPOP.

The book is already on the best-seller lists at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

Related posts:
- Harry Potter news

Tags: Books Harry Potter Rowling

Video Spokesperson

Was going through this online registration form website, when I happened to chance upon their demo from page.

What caught my attention was a special feature whereby their video spokesperson, called 'Connie' pops up on the lower right corner of the site and gives a friendly welcome. She then proceeds to explain their service and then guide us to the next step of the registration process.

According to their tests, this feature, when added to the registration forms of their test group, increased registrations by 11%.

The presence of Connie definitely gives a more personalised and special feel to the site. She sounds quite friendly and her appearance is quite nice. I guess people naturally respond better to a person rather than an animated character. Of course, it could be a different story if the targeted visitors are children.

I would expect more people to sign up with this feature as compared to a normal one for the above reasons. I also like the fact that the image disappears after the introduction. Having it remain in the background might be annoying - like Microsoft's animated paper clips.

I see a lot of potential uses in other websites including online stores.Maybe there could be a 'virtual cashier' to help you with your checkout.

Definitely a Great idea. I give it the thumbs up.

Sponsored

Please revert to my old url

Some time back I had signed up for a free domain name ahoklah.co.nr, which redirected to my blog.

At that time it seemed like a very good idea. I had wanted this blog to be different and not just another blogspot blog but didn't want to move to a paid hosting with a domain name and all the hassle associated with it. I even signed comments with the new url. Some of my friends changed the url of links to my blog, to the new one.

A very bad idea, as I later found out. It simply diluted my link rankings.

I would like to request everyone who links to me using the url (http://ahoklah.co.nr) to revert back to the old one (http://ok-lah.blogspot.com).

Thanks.

Top 10 mobile phones

Leading online leader in one-stop comparison shopping for cell phones and wireless phone plans, Wirefly announces the Top 10 cell phones of 2006

Sponsored

The list of phones:
1. Cingular Wireless RAZR by Motorola (in various colors)

2. T-Mobile RAZR (in various colors)
3. Verizon Wireless RAZR (in various colors)
4. Cingular Sony Ericsson z520a/z525a video phones
5. T-Mobile Motorola v360
6. Verizon Wireless Motorola v276
7. Sprint Nextel Motorola i850
8. Sprint Nextel Motorola i710
9. Cingular Motorola v220
10. T-Mobile Samsung T309

This list was developed based on customer orders. As expected, the #1 on the list is the Motorola RAZR.

This phone is a winner because of it's stylish looks and unique colours, and amazing technical features. The fact that this phone had a name rather than a number may have something to do with it's success, but that's my opinion.

One thing strange about this list that I immediately noticed, is that there is not a single Nokia phone model on the list.

Melayu Boleh project update

It's one more day to go before the Wangcyber forum's "Melayu boleh SEO Challenge" ends and 18 days after I started my Melayu Boleh project.

It's been an interesting experience and I learnt a few new things. My blog post went up to 4th position in Google search results just 2 days after I wrote it. Then it disappeared altogether for a few days.

It was at 2nd position for several days before it came down. Right now, my post is:
- #7 in Google
- #5 in Yahoo
- #4 on Altavista
- On 7th results page on MSN

That's pretty good, don't you think so?

Tags: Melayu boleh Malay SEO