When you use your iPhone one of the things that really sucks is the speaker volume, it barely audible unless you are in a completely quiet room. The griffin air curve makes it loud enough that it’s actually useable

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Griffin AirCurve Demonstration

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I’m a big fan of the remote desktop I use it all the time to run scripts without having to log in/out on multiple computers. Check it out for yourself at MaxiVista.com.

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Looking at Windows MaxiVista

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For me one of the main limitations of a laptop based office/lifestyle is battery life. Manufacturers advertise battery life spans of 3, 4, and 5 hours or more. However what they don’t tell you is these times have very very little to do with real use conditions. Now I imagine there are people who use their computers without wifi or a Verizon card constantly on. They also don’t run multiple applications like iTunes, Firefox, and Photoshop all day kicking the CPU utilization up fairly high. I don’t know any of these people but I’m sure they exist.

I have a Toshiba Tecra M7 tablet PC, according to reviews I should be getting 3 hours of laptop battery life. In reality I usually get about 90 to 120 minutes. If I dim the brightness down and turn off both cards I can eek out almost to 180 minutes. The design of my laptop doesn’t give me the flexibility of a high capacity battery. So while I’m not tied to desk, I am tied to a power outlet.

A few weeks ago while reading a Web Worker Daily blog post I came across the Electrovaya Power Pad which in reality is an external laptop battery. They have several different models the Power Pad 95, Power Pad 130, Power Pad 160 and Power Pad 300. The real difference is the estimated battery life of the units. This effects the size and color and case. I went with the Power Pad 95 which comes in a ridiculous silly looking baby boy powder blue casing. When you order this unit you will need to specify your laptop model so you get the proper connections, but more about that later.

Checking out the directions, which were a little rough on the translation, the correct way to use the unit is to chain it in between the laptop power cord and laptop. So your laptop power cord connects to the Electrovaya power cord. The Electrovaya power cord splits with one end connecting to the power pad and one end connecting into your laptop. I mentioned above that you needed to specify your laptop model when ordering, the Electrovaya power cord has interchangeable tips so it’s compatible with a wide variety of laptops. When you are in “charging” mode the display will give you a charging message with a % of charge. When you are in “discharge” mode they recommend you use the Electrovaya first draining it completely before switching to your laptop battery, instead of waiting for your laptop battery to run out before connecting power pad. When the unit gets down to under 10% the LED display starts flashing, giving you some warning it’s going to run out.

Enough theory let’s talk about actual usage. Before leaving for Pubcon I had some presentations to finish, some proposals to get out the door, and some client deliverables. I was running Firefox, iTunes, PowerPoint and Photoshop, on wifi. Using a stopwatch I timed my battery life and got 1:22 before the critical battery warning message came up. After a full overnight recharge I tried the Electrovaya unit with the laptop battery and got 4:55 before the critical battery warning came on. So subtracting my original 1:22 of laptop battery the Electrovaya gave me an additional 3:35 of life top use.

So what did I like even though I got the basic unit and it had a retail price of $200 I got almost 5 hours of non tethered power, which for me is totally worth it. The power meter was reasonably accurate, and you can fully charge the unit in about 4 hours.

What didn’t I like, for one the color the baby blue color, I’m going to end up snickering it up like a web 2.0 silicon valley start up veteran. The display gives a digital readout of charge. Once you get over 90% it seems a bit hit or miss getting it up to 100% no matter how long you leave it plugged in.

More of an annoyance than a fault was my experience with customer service. When my initial unit arrived they tips were not the right size. I sent off an email to customer service. The new tips arrived 3 days later but there was no email letting me know it was coming or they got it. So A+ for doing me the right thing D- for not letting me know what they were doing. On the consumer end there’s no difference from an email languishing unanswered in an unchecked email inbox or and email that was taken care of just not responded to.

If you are the kind of person who is looking for longer laptop usage without being tethered to an outlet it’s a product I can recommend. While it’s not cheap if you get a more productivity or billable hours out of those extra hours it should definitely pay for itself in short order.

For more details check http://www.epowerpad.com/

Disclaimer:
The previous review was not compensated or paid for in any way. To be clear I paid the full price on my own credit card.

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This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Electrovaya Power Pad External Battery Review

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Recently I started working two projects where I needed to hire some bloggers. After exhausting my friends network (I’m in ur address book stealin’ ur contacts) I was still short people. So I turned to the paid job listings boards Craigslist and ProBlogger Job Board.

Both services were fairly easy to use and similar in cost (Craigslist $75 Problogger $50). The biggest differences in implementation was Craigslist is sectioned by region. Craigslist has lots of regions, however each one would cost me $75 to advertise in, since that wasn’t economically feasible I chose NY and San Francisco.

I started getting responses from both websites almost immediately. Once 24 hours had gone by I started evaluating the applications, and the results were pretty clear. The job applications I got from ProBlogger were consistently higher quality than the ones from Craigslist. The applicants had more experience and were better qualified. At the end of the process, 6 of the 7 bloggers I hired came from the Problogger Job Board.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

ProBlogger Job Board vs Craigslist

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The following is a sponsored review of SEO Spyglass

I remember when I was first getting started in SEO one of things I looked for was tools to make getting data easier. Back in those days things were played a lot closer to the vest, a friend either gave you something or you had to shell out top dollar to get a program developed for you. Two things have happened since them, hiring your own programmer has gotten a lot cheaper/easier (getting a good programmer is still hit or miss though) and people are selling their tools at prices that are well within the new/budget conscious SEO’s price range.

SEO Spyglass is basically a backlink analyzer with lots of bells and whistles that let you analyze your competitors site. There is a 5 minute video tutorial that is actually pretty good, if you are seriously evaluating it it’s worth watching and can help you get up to speed quicker.

I ran the program on my site which has a pretty large amount of backlink data, and was on a slower connection so it did take a little while to complete. I elected to use the backlink data from Yahoo which generally speaking is the most accurate (Google intentionally obscures backlink data and MSN is really on another planet sometimes).

The first thing noticed is something a real lot of backlink analyzers have a problem with, Yahoo reports “no followed” links. I haven’t seen a commercial program that accounts for that, but as an SEO it’s something you need to be aware of and factor into your analysis.

You can click on the columns and sort any by any of common factors such as PR, anchor text, alexa ranks and so on. You can also filter with several common factors like “blogs”, “home page”, “domain rank” or create your own. One thing that does appear to be missing is the ability to export the data into a CSV or other spreadsheet friendly format.

IMHO the data you get out of the analysis tab is more useful, for example here the anchor text tab

Other analysis tabs include things like “keywords”, “anchor url”, “webpage PR”, “domain PR”, “domain”, “IP address” , “DMOZ listed sites”, Yahoo directory sites” and recip links. Looking at some of the data I did see some things that looked a little off, for example looking at the anchor URL tab I know there are deep pages that have more links than the report is showing. I think the problem lies more with how Yahoo is giving the data and not how the program is analyzing it

Again the ability to export this data and create a matrix is a feature I would think would be really helpful. Another feature which would be helpful the ability to compare two domains and show the differences. For example knowing domain A has 42% of it’s anchor text as “blue widgets” where domain B has 87% of it’s anchor text as “blue widgets” would be helpful. Another feature I’d like to see would be the ability to use a proxy server. I looked at the SEO blueprint report and it looked like an attempt to create a site audit using the data from the link scan. I’m not sure I agree with or recommend some of the tips listed there. In fact I’d probably recommend ignoring it and dropping it as a feature, IMHO it’s not something that can/should be automated. If you want to add value a 10-15 page SEO basics manual would be more helpful.

This program is really best suited for begining or intermediate SEO’s who are learning the ropes and don’t have the budget to hire a programmer to develop a custom program. SEO Spyglass is free to try but the ability to save data is restricted unless you upgrade to the pro version. At $87 it’s a reasonable enough price. Adding the export feature IMHO would really make this program/data a lot more useable and something I seriously hope they consider adding.

The preceding has been a sponsored review using the ReviewMe service. If you are interested in having me review your product please visit my listing. I don’t accept all review offers, only those related to search, SEO, technology, or marketing. I also review all sites before accepting as I am somewhat picky.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Sponsored Review SEO Spyglass

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The following is a sponsored review of ZacJohnson.com

This is actually my first review of a “single person” blog so I was a bit apprehensive about doing it, but after looking around I decided to give it a go. I don’t actually know Zac Johnson and haven’t heard his name mentioned in the past, but I know lots of other affiliates who stay under the radar with a low profile and make a lot of cash, so it’s not uncommon.

Zac’s blog focuses on affiliate products and networks and that’s where I think it has the most value. For example I found the posts Make Money with Affiliate Fuel, New eBay Affiliate Payout Structure, Make Money with Jim Cramer Update, and Why Do Affiliate Networks Let Super Affiliates Leave much more interesting, and would think narrowing down the focus would make it much appealing. I’m not a big fan of “secondary SEO news blogs” and think the blog as whole would improve staying away from those types of stories and focused more on affiliate posts.

This blog is also fairly new, March 2007 as far as I can tell. Something I think that would add a lot of value is reviewing some basic library type posts, things like “how to evaluate a market for money making potential”, “things to look for in good/bad affiliate programs”, or “top X mistakes newbie affiliates make that cost them money” would be helpful.

At the top of every page was this header

I think adding a link to my top/best/favorite posts would also be helpful (especially if you are looking for reviews, wink wink nudge nudge). Looking at the Zac’s Aproved Money Makers list I’d like a little more info if possible. I don’t have a problem with him using and aff link, but I do want a little more info if he’s getting a cut, something simple like ‘how to use azoogle reporting system to make more money’ would be an idea.

As I said this is a fairly new blog, so it’s hard to say if it will still be around, and be providing any value a year from now. Then again there’s probably room for another A-List affiliate blogger aside from John Chow. So if you are an affiliate it’s worth taking a look at especially since he’s starting an affiliate program review in the next few days.

The preceding has been a sponsored review using the ReviewMe service. If you are interested in having me review your product please visit my listing. I don’t accept all review offers, only those related to search, SEO, technology, or marketing. I also review all sites before accepting as I am somewhat picky.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Sponsored Review ZacJohnson.com

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One of the highlights of my trip to SES in New York last week was going out to dinner with Todd, Jonah, Greg, Barbara, Dax to Esca and having dinner with the REAL Dave Pasternack.

We had a great table right in the main dining room. Amazingly Dave Pasternack was sitting at the next table talking with one of the other patrons that night. He was nice enough to take pictures with all us and found the story of why we were there pretty amusing (oh and frog boy I’d stay away if I were you). He even sent us a free appetizer.

Todd had the great idea to go with the tasting menu, which was absolutely the right choice. If you’ve never been to a five star restaurant and ordered a tasting menu I have to tell you it’s an amazing experience. The entire night an army of waiters descend on your table bringing you the most amazing food and wine you could possibly imagine. I’m a big fan of seafood, so I have to confess I was in absolute heaven.

There were thins slices of halibut, and swordfish, that were seasoned to perfection, some were salty, some were sweet, some had a hint of citrus, but they were amazingly flavor packed. We had oysters that were the size of my hand, the waiter told us the name which I forget, but he also said they were the rolls royce of oysters. We had this steamed clam dish that was out of this world. One of the interesting surprises was the Spaghetti Neri or black pasta. The pasta is made by mixing the pasta with a bit of squid ink which gives it it’s black color. It had a little spicy kick to it but not enough that it was over the top, it was perfect to grab hold of your taste buds and make you take notice. They brought out 7 different desserts each more amazing than the next.

So to Dave Pasternack and all of the staff of Esca I have to say thank you sir for giving me the best meal of my life. If you’re thinking of going make reservations today, I can promise you that you won’t forget it.

Here’s a link to some other reviews
ESCA and Chef Dave Pasternack

Tags: davepasternack, dave+pasternack, esca, nyc, dinner, restaurants

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Esca Review – Dinner with Dave Pasternack

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The following post is a sponsored review for Younanimous.com

When I got the description for Younanimous.com I thought hey cool let’s see what this is:

Younanimous is a social search engine, adding in the best from all worlds with a very dynamic and very unique way of searching.

However when I got there I was a little disappointed to learn it was a meta search engine that aggregates the click behavior of users into it’s algorithm. While I like their premise About aftervote – The social search engine

Ever find sites that never have the info you want, but are always at the top of the serps? Yes, we are looking at you Experts-Exchange.com… Well, now you can blacklist pages or entire domains from showing up in your listings, No more crap! And say goodbye to spam. With a “Spam!” Tag, you can help eliminate bogus results from the serps one spam site at a time.

I do however disagree with the logic, or at least the way I understand the implementation (I completely agree about sites like experts-exchange being cloaking spammers and getting a free ride in Google).

Let’s look at an actual SERP:

Basically the engine is looking at Google, Yahoo, and MSN SERP’s and using the power of those search engines to determine their rankings. The logic being if you rank well in all three, you are a quality site not just one who caters to a bias any particular engine may have. You’ll see the individual rankings from the individual engines on the left hand side. You get the alexa rank and page rank all in one spot, so if you’re paranoid about toolbar or plugins phoning home this may be a plus for you. Not sure how the social bookmark plugins help but, but hey if it’s lets you say your social or web 2.0 then why not.

Ok looking at the “plus” and “minus” buttons that’s where I have a problem. As I understand it the more people use the “minus” key the more it affects everyone’s results, which IMHO has the potential to be very bad. If this engine were to attain critical mass and a large userbase, this is a potentially dangerous “feature”. Now since the page is rendered in Ajax (ugh) they may say it’s more “immune to clickfraud (see Are Ajax Applications Immune to Clickbots) however it is something I’d watch for, and remember I still predict we’ll see an Ajax based SERP from Google in the next 10 months. If it were me I’d make decisions like that only affect each individual users results, and not aggregated them into the community as a whole, then again I’m not a big fan of personalization at all, so take that from where it comes.

I was really interested in taking a look at the video search but that’s only in “alpha” testing right now, so maybe I’ll come back in a few months and take a look. One really nice feature is in the “my settings” where you can control, experiment and “fiddle” with sliders to emphasize/de-emphasize certain factors. That’s a really cool feature for power users.

Is this a product I’d use every day or as my primary search engine, no, I’m too concerned about the influence click tracking would have on SERPs. However I do think it’s a nice auxiliary research tool if you’re evaluating a new keyword space or one you aren’t too familiar with.

The preceding has been a sponsored review using the ReviewMe service. If you are interested in having me review your product please visit

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Sponsored Review Younanimous.com

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So after reading Rae’s review of Merchant Circle, I headed on over and checked out the SERP for Merchant Circle and what I saw wasn’t pretty …

Now of course the amusing thing is looking at the homepage the first thing they mention is “managing your reputation”

Umm what’s with mini fonts in a nearly blendable gray down at the bottom? Are your usability skillz as bad as your reputation management or are you hoping I won’t see that? Are you trying to convince me you’re stupid or hoping that I am?

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Merchant Circle Has Reputation Management Issue

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The following is paid review of AdWatcher.com a new program designed to help you manage, track, and analyze CPC campaigns.

AdWatcher comes from the people who publish Search Marketing Standard. I was supplied a test account just to expedite the review so I wouldn’t have to wait several days to accumulate data. After logging in I was confronted with the reality that the program relied heavily on AJAX and Javascript, have I mentioned how much I hate AJAX and Javascript in the past 24 hours?!?! Ok back on track, The program has a lot of reports but I’m just going to look at the PPC in more detail.

One thing that was kind of confusing is words over the icons didn’t pop up in Firefox (they did in IE) so I had to guess my way through

For people who aren’t really sure what to track or how to set up tracking, the program creates the landing page URL’s for you. It also allows you to track conversions down to the keyword level. Sure Google lets you do the same thing, but not everyone is thrilled about giving all that info to Google. It also helps you do A/B testing and figure out which version is doing better. Another feature that probably going to interest a lot of people is click fraud tracking.

For people who don’t have the know how, expertise, or time to devote to this this is very helpful bit of data. As you can see from the screen shot it can be printed or exported to a CSV file for more in depth analysis or for inclusion in a email to your advertising sales representative. I don’t believe all they hype about click fraud in the 30-50% range, but I can tell you with first hand experience it does happen, and if you don’t watch, protect and fight for it you’re just throwing money away.

This program has a lot of other features I’m not covering like organic results and financial reports, however they do get covered in the training video (which could use an audio track, hint, hint). Who is this program best suited for? People who are very new or don’t have a lot of experience working with PPC will get the most out of this program. It may be a little intimidating with the amount of data but it can help shorten the learning curve and get you on track for profitability quicker. The program would also be a nice addition for mid level people who could use it to become more efficient. Adding more keywords and getting more profit out of them is always a good thing. Being able to understand what’s happening without having to develop or support systems yourself can be an attractive option for single person shops or small firms. Larger more experienced firms will probably have their own tools and not get much value from this system. The program would also be a nice asset for companies who sell their own products/services but aren’t in the SEM industry. If they want to manage their PPC in house and not rely on an outside vendor again it’s a nice tool to have.

The program comes with a free 30 day trial, after that it’s $30-$80 per month to run depending on the number of clicks you’re getting. If you opt for longer term deals you get a 15-25% savings. If this sounds like something you might be interested in taking a look at head on over to AdWatcher.com

Disclaimer
The preceding post has been a paid review. If you are interested in having a product, software or website reviewed head over to ReviewMe.com. I only review products which are search industry or computer related, and I do reject reviews for products I don’t feel would be interesting or of value to my readers.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Adwatcher.com – Review

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