October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween From Aaron Cook Dot Com!

I'd like to wish everyone a very safe and happy Halloween! And for those of you who are in the spooky spirit of things, here's a special Halloween game for you to play. Try not to get ripped (or is that R.I.P.ed) apart by the evil zombies!!! Mwah ha ha.


And now for something completely different...

Why Pets Hate Halloween - Part II
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

October 30, 2007

Why Pets Hate Halloween - Part I

I think the images pretty much speak for themselves. LOL. Though, I will note that I notice there to be an extreme lack of cats present in these Halloween pet photos. Quite simply, cats will not stand for this kind of nonsense! :P

Anyway, here's the answer to why pets hate Halloween...

Why Pets Hate Halloween - Part I


For part II of Why Pets Hate Halloween, go here. Lots more photos of pets dressed up in Halloween costumes. Poor little fellas.

The Rhett & Link Halloweenkast

Here's an entertaining video of the comedy duo Rhett & Link wherein they discuss trick-or-treating "harvesting" candy, and which costumes are acceptable to wear when you're out celebrating the harvest season.

They also do a great bit on the Internet phenomenon known as ghost-riding (a.k.a. "ghost-riding the whip" and "ghostin'"). But in true Rhett & Link comedy style, they do it with a rather funny little twist. :)

Rhett & Link Halloweenkast


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October 28, 2007

Super Link Sunday - Batch #6

Super Link Sunday - Batch #6

Listen to the audio commentary!

Hello and welcome to the sixth edition of Super Link Sunday!

Super Link Sunday is where I take the time to give out some well-deserved link love by featuring some of the more noteworthy posts, blogs and bloggers I came across during the week.

But First...Some Happy Birthday Wishes!

I'd like to take the time to wish my dad a very happy Happy Birthday! Yep, my dad turned 60 years young today! Love you, Dad! :)

To see some really cool pics of where I grew up, and of the countless sunflowers and cosmos he planted in front of our house this summer, check out out this post:

Pictures From Home - The Perfect Cheerer-upper!

And now, back to our regularly-scheduled programing...

Super Link Sunday All-stars

Impressive would be an understatement - "Every so often I love to scour the web looking for new music from artists I’ve never heard of. Believe it or not I’m not always looking for metal either. Years ago I used to play a lot of acoustic and classical guitar, so naturally one of my loves is acoustic guitar. Today I stumbled onto one of the most impressive acoustic guitarists..."

How You Can Test Everything On Your Blog - "Test Everything! does exactly what it says. Going from site to site in an endless effort to check things about your blog is a thing of the past...There are quite a few CSS and HTML validators to choose from. SEO tools abound too..."

Why leveraged income is the best kind - "I read a lot of 'make money online' blogs. I appreciate them all, as I have learned quite a bit about how to blog. But, when it comes to making money I almost feel a little sorry for some of them...Even “successful” bloggers who have hundreds or even thousands subscribers seem to be very proud of earning a couple hundred dollars from adsense. Personally I just can’t get my mind around the concept of getting paid only once to advertise somebody else’s..."

45 Best Freeware Design Programs - "In a previous post I gave you a list of 85+ Free Killer Resources Every Designer Should Know, which had a great response. Now, in the same line, I have smashed 45 Freeware Design Programs among literally thousands and thousands. It was a great quest, and it was worth it. No, it won’t replace your..."

Leave A Comment Get Some Link Love

'Tis true! As part of Super Link Sunday, every single person who leaves a comment here on my blog will get some special link love in the upcoming week's SLS post. Btw, thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments!

Here are this week's awesome commentators, listed in alphabetical order:

Andrew, AntiBarbie, Bobby, Dave, Erina, Hernan, Kristina, Mark, Mike, Muse, Opal, Oscar, Tish, Todd, Tom, Ty, Valentin

*If you left a comment here this week and I didn't list you, please let me know!

The Link Love Wild Card

In Super Link Sunday - Batch #3 I introduced the Link Love Wild Card. This is where I randomly pick a blog and "hand" out some link love. And since it's totally at random, it'll most likely be a blog I've not come across before.

So let's deal the cards, shall we? This week's Link Love Wild Card is:

VirusHead - VirusHead is a blog written by Dr. Heidi (a.k.a. VirusHead). According to her about section, VirusHead is a blog where, "a humanities Ph.D. posts on viral themes, politics, religion, culture, and daily life."

Though I've not yet had the time to thoroughly explore Heidi's blog (as the Link Love Wild Card is chosen totally at random), VirusHead looks to be a pretty interesting place. In fact, and as far as I'm concerned, any blog that uses the description, "Mutating bits of contagious discourse, because language is a virus," must be, at the very least, interesting!

So be sure to drop by Heidi's blog and say hello!

The Link Love Loser Award

Also recently new to Super Link Sunday is the Link Love Loser Award. This is an award that I reserve specifically for bloggers whom I can't stand, really hate and totally despise - but of course, only on Opposite Day! ;)

Lasts week's Link Love Loser Award recipient was the, "Nothing worth reading. Nothing worth seeing. Nothing but a vast collection of, 'I'd rather chew glass than read this mindless drivel' drivel" blog of Valentin.

This week's famed Link Love Loser Award goes to:

MeAndMyDrum - OK, so where do I start on this one?! Sheesh. First of all, just check out the blog's name...MeAndMyDrum. Yeah, and this from a guy that got all over Valentin last week for not being able to afford an "e" at the end of his name.

Yeah, you should talk, Mark! You can't even afford SPACES for your blog's name! Never mind the fact that you only have ONE freakin' drum! Any decent blogger would have at least one extra drum on hand in case the drum head broke! Not to mention other important drumming components like, say: symbols, hi-hats, tom-toms, a kick pedal, a throne, etc.

But nooo, not you! It's just YOU and YOUR DRUM!

Honestly, I'd like to spend more time on this one, but I simply don't have the time to devote waste on these ONE-man, ONE-drum bands anymore. Those days passed long ago...back when I learned how to use a telephone and ask people, "Hey, how much for that drum kit?"

Collective Applause

So let's all give a big, rhythmic round of applause for this week's Link Love Loser Award winner! And be sure to leave a comment to let Mark know how much you truly hate his blob...I mean, blog....On Opposite Day! ;)

Also...don't forget to Stumble (and/or Digg) this post! -Especially if you were mentioned in it! Stumbling and Digging any post that links to your blog means more traffic for you! :)

October 27, 2007

Google PageRank Update - Aaron Cook Dot Com Moves Up!

As most people know, Google recently completed its PageRank update (finally). And I'm happy to report that Aaron Cook Dot Com now has a PageRank of 4. Happy times!

Actually, this blog used to have a PR of 3, but when I moved it over to the aaroncook.com domain name back in April, its PageRank of course reverted back to 0, which is where it's been for the last several months. So it's definitely good to be back up there!

---> Btw, here's an easy way to check and monitor your PageRank, as well as numerous other things relating to your site.

Google Exerts Its Mighty Power

Google seems to have laid the smackdown on some of the big sites and blogs by dropping their PageRank for various, speculated reasons. But thankfully, a lot of the smaller blogs I read have faired much better. Their PageRanks have either remained the same or have increased.

So congratulations guys and gals! 'Tis further proof that following Google's webmaster guidelines is important.

Congrats To My Fellow Bloggers

Here's a list of some of my wonderful blogging buddies who've either seen their PageRanks increased, or at the very least, retained the same PageRank as they had before:

Bloghound: PR of 2
Brown Thoughts: PR of 3
Bush Mackel: PR of 4
Christy's Coffee Break: PR of 4
Five 4 All: PR of 3
Into The Inkpot: PR of 3
Jesse Blogs It All: PR of 4
MeAndMyDrum: PR of 4
Ordinary Folk: PR of 4
Pink Internet Marketing: PR of 3
Revellian: PR of 4
The Kat House: PR of 4
XANADU: PR of 3

Well done, folks! Keep up your awesome blogging!

October 26, 2007

Multiple Ways To Increase Your AdSense Earnings - Part I

Like most bloggers out there, I've been monitoring the performance of my AdSense ads like a hawk...like a hawk with nonlinear laser vision, and the unlimited super power ability to make money where other feathered "tweeties" have fallen into a vast and ever-deadly tailspin. Yowsers!

OK, so enough with the colorful word play. For this blog post I'm simply outlining the different ways in which I was able to triple my AdSense earnings for the last three months in a row. Granted, I'm not making a fortune with AdSense, but it's still a nice additional stream of income for this blog.

Increased AdSense Earnings

All in all, I was able to increase my overall AdSense earnings by about 320%. My AdSense CTR (Click-through Rate) increased by about 197%, and my earnings "per click" more than doubled.

Important: Do not share your actual AdSense click-through rates, or other statistical information relating to your site performance with anyone, as it's against section 7 of Google's Terms & Conditions to do so. You can disclose the amount of Google’s gross payments to you, but no other actual statistics can be disclosed. So please, play it safe, my friends!

AdSense Ad Placement

One of the easiest and most effective ways to increase your AdSense earnings is to place your AdSense ads in locations that will yield the best CTR (Click-through Rate). While the best ad placement varies from page to page and from website to website, there are a few things that pretty much remain a constant:

1. Keep your pages looking clean, uncluttered and inviting. Common sense, I know, but you'd be surprised how many people still seem to forget about this when it comes to filling thier webspace with ads.

2. Place your AdSense ads above the fold (on the upper half of a page). Yes, you can also place your ads below the fold (on the bottom half of a page), but AdSense ads placed above the fold tend to have a much higher CTR, simply because more people see them there.

3. Be sure to place your AdSense ads near rich website content. Ads that are place near rich site content and navigational aids tend to perform much better than those that are not - simply because readers are focussed on that specific area of a page. Again, the more people that see your ads, the better chance you have of getting click-throughs for those ads.

For short articles and blog posts, place your AdSense ads above your content, as CTR tends to be the highest there.

For long articles and blog posts, CTR tends to be highest when ads are placed near the middle or the end of your content. This is because, as readers are reading and engaged in your content, they're also on the lookout for more information and resources on the subject matter at hand.

AdSense Ad Appearance

If your website's text color is black, set the AdSense ad unit URL (not the ad unit title) and the ad unit text color to black. In most cases, ads will perform much better this way. Dark gray is also another good option.

As for the ad's overall appearance, there are three basic ways to go about it:
  • Blend
  • Compliment
  • Contrast
Utilizing any of these three strategies can greatly help to reduce "ad blindness" (the tendency for readers to ignore anything that's not truly part of your site's content) and therefore, increase your overall CTR and AdSense earnings.


Blend - To blend your AdSense ads with your website's design, simply make the background and borders of your ads the same color as the background of your webpage where the ad is placed.

If you need help matching the colors, then be sure to check out Color Schemer, which allows you match HTML colors with the simple click of a button.

If your website has a white background, and you don't want to spend a whole lot of time choosing ad colors, Google recommends that you use the pre-designed Open Air palette. Since I've never personally used it, I can't honestly vouch for it. BUT, I do know that when it comes to maximizing AdSense revenue, Google obviously knows better than anyone else!

Compliment - To compliment your site with your AdSense ad's appearance, simply use the colors that already exist on your site. Just don't match the background and borders of the ads exactly with the colors of the location where the ads are located.

Contrast -To contrast the appearance of your AdSense ads with that of your website, simply choose colors that stand out against the background of your site.

Google recommends "contrasting" only for sites that have a dark background. Further, they suggest using a color palette with white background, white borders and blue titles.

If your site has a lot of repeat readers, it also helps to switch things up a bit from time to time in order to further reduce ad blindness and to maintain the highest possible CTR. So every once in a while, change the colors of your AdSense ads, as well as their location on your site.

Maximizing Your Ad Space

You can maximize your website's ad space by placing multiple AdSense ads on your webpages. Google allows up to three AdSense ad units to be displayed on each webpage, a maximum of two Google AdSense for search boxes per page, up to three link units per page, and up to three AdSense referral units per page.

According to Google, "Multiple ad units can help optimize your performance by leveraging our large inventory of ads." The best way to measure the overall effect and performance of multiple ad units is to constantly monitor and examine the impact on your overall earnings. Having multiple AdSense ad units per page may prove successful for:

  • Pages with lots of text (like blogs), wherein users scroll down the page.
  • Forums or message boards, particularly within threads.
  • Pages where only small ad formats (like the 125 x125 button) will fit.
Hot tip for maximizing multiple ad units: This AdSense tip comes straight from Google:

"Make sure that the ad unit with the best placement on the page is the ad unit that appears first in your HTML code. This will help ensure that your prime ad real estate is occupied by the ads that place highest in the auction and will generate the most revenue for you"

Note: If you have a Google Adsense for search search box implemented on your blog or website, be sure that you've set it to open the search results on Google in a new browser window. This way, you won't lose your visitors whenever they do a Google search from your website.

To set your Google AdSense for search search box this way, make sure that you've selected the "Open results on Google in a new window" option when setting up the AdSense for search search box on your site.

Monitor Your Keyword Density

When it comes to increasing your AdSense earnings, I cannot say enough about monitoring your keyword density. Paying attention to your keywords and your keyword density is absolutely crucial if you want to make the most amount of money per click from the AdSense ads that appear on your site.

What is keyword density? Quite simply, keyword density is the percentage of words on a webpage that match a specified set of keywords. When it comes to AdSense, advertisers "bid" on keywords for their advertising campaigns. By "bidding" they set the amount that they're willing to pay "per click" for a specific keyword or keywords.

Some keywords cost/pay very little per click, and some keywords cost/pay a lot per click. By monitoring which keywords you use in your website content, you can effectively increase your AdSense earnings quite easily.

Be sure to check out my post entitled, Increase AdSense Earnings - Monitor Keyword Density, and further, be absolutely sure that you add the Keyword Density and Prominence Tool to your online marketing arsenal.

Filtering Your AdSense Ads

Google AdSense allows you to filter the AdSense ads that appear on your website via their Competitive Ad Filter. You can use this option to filter (stop) ads from your competitors from appearing on your site. You can also use this ad filter option to filter ads from the sites you don't like or approve of.

BUT, you can also be smart and creative with it and use the Competitive Ad Filter to block advertisers who tend to advertise with less-competitive, lower-paying keywords. How? Simple. Just use the Google Adwords Keywords Tool to discover which keywords are the least competitive (which means they'll pay less per click) and work from there.

Block Those Filthy MFA Sites

You'll want to be absolutely sure that you use the Competitive Ad Filter to block out any MFA (Made For AdSense) sites that could be showing up in the AdSense ads on your site.

What are MFA sites? MFA sites are sites that have almost no content, whatsoever. The only reason they exist is to make money off of Google AdSense and other online ad programs. And they totally suck! Why? Because they'll cost you a lot of money in AdSense earnings simply because they offer an extremely low cost per click (LCPC) payout.

For example, if you've ever noticed AdSense earnings in your account that were around 1 to 3 cents per click, then there's a good chance that those clicks were from an MFA site.

Bottom line, MFA site owners are nothing more than no-good, rogue advertisers, capitalizing on keyword arbitrage. They will steal your web traffic and cost you a lot of money in the long run!

How can you block MFA sites? Thankfully, the answer is easy. One of the best tools I've come across for blocking MFA sites is AdsBlackList. The AdsBlackList site will help you reduce the amount of MFA and LCPC sites that appear in your Adsense ads by providing you with a list known MFA sites that you can filter out. So use it!

I cannot stress this enough. Use AdsBlackList in conjunction with Google's Competitive Ad Filter and you'll be able to increase your monthly AdSense earnings much easier than you think.

Bottom line, why to lose your site visitors for 1¢ per click when you could do it for 50¢ or more a click instead?!

Sharing And Syndicating Your Content

When it comes to syndicating your content, one of the easiest ways to make more money with AdSense is by NOT syndicating your content in full. Why? Well, think of it this way...If people can read everything in their newsreaders, why would they visit your website..where your ads are? Chances are, and as most online polls show, they will not.

The answer? Simple. Set your site feed to offer only a short summary of your content, and direct your feed subscribers to your website for the rest of your post. Trust me, it works. Plus, it'll not only increase your AdSense earnings, it'll also increase your Alexa rank as well, because more of your subscribers will actually visit your site to read your blog posts in full.

The how to: If you use FeedBurner for your site feed:
  • Sign in to your FeedBurner account.
  • Select your site feed.
  • Click on the "Optimize" tab.
  • Click on the "Summary Burner" link.
  • Set the parameters to your liking, and click Save.
Personally, I recommend setting the "Maximum length" field to at least 500 characters. This way, it gives your readers a decent summary of your content, without giving away the farm.

Note: One thing to keep in mind is that not everyone likes to use a feed reader. Beyond that, most people don't even know what a feed reader is in the first place. Yes, it's true!

So be sure that you offer your content for subscription via other online formats as well. It can only be of benefit to you. My personal favorite, and one that I highly recommend is FeedBlitz.

FeedBlitz not only helps you to increase your blog readership, it also allows you to monetize your FeedBlitz subscription page with your very own AdSense code! 'Tis true! You simply enter your Google AdSense publisher ID number, and in turn, you'll get credit for every click of the AdSense ads that are displayed on your FeedBlitz subscription page. Very cool.

I've been using FeedBlitz for several months now, and am thoroughly pleased with it. If you haven't tried it yet, then I suggest you give it a go, for it can only help to widen your audience of regular readers and site visitors. And for those that don't use feed readers, it's the perfect alternative.

Anyway, this marks the end of this blog post. Thanks again for reading! :)

PS: I'm not a "self-proclaimed" AdSense expert. So, if you have any AdSense tips and tricks that have worked well for you, please be sure to comment and share them with all of us! Trust me, we'll love you for it!:)

October 23, 2007

An Easy Way To Check And Monitor Your PageRank™

I was doing a little surfing over the weekend and nearly got attacked by a shark! It looked to be a great white, and by my estimation, it was around 5 meters (17 feet) in length. Yikes!

Okay, so that's not really entirely true. Now, I was indeed surfing...but there was no shark. In fact, there wasn't any water, either. Yes, you guessed it! I was surfing the Internet, not the mighty ocean waves.

Anyway, while I was surfing I came across a pretty neat site called SmartPageRank, which allows you to very quickly check your Google PageRank™. It also gives you some other useful information about your blog or website as well.


SmartPageRank is really simple to use. When you run a domain name through the PageRank analysis tool, it'll give you the following (and very useful) information about your site:

PageRank Analysis

This section gives you your actual Google PageRank. It also gives you the option to get PageRank updates via email, so whenever your PageRank changes, you'll know about it right away.


As you can see, since Google hasn't done their PageRank update in a long time, I'm still sitting at a big, fat goose egg! I used to have a Google PageRank of 3, but when I moved this blog over to the aaroncook.com domain name back in April, I of course lost that PageRank.

Age Of Domain

The second section tells you when and how long ago a domain name was registered - right down to the number of days.


I do notice that this only provides the date information on a domain based on its current registrant. For example, the aaroncook.com domain name had actually been online for many years before I was finally able to snag it.

Site Traffic

The third section gives you a live look your site traffic according to Alexa. This section provides you with an Alexa Traffic History Graph and also links that traffic graph right to the Alexa page for your site. Pretty cool.


Web Directories

The fourth section simply lets you know whether or not your website is listed in DMOZ or the Yahoo! Directory. So far, every blog I checked on wasn't listed in either of them, with the exceptions being Darren Rowse of Problogger and Matt Cutts.


Btw, what's up with Matt's site traffic? Yikes, talk about a steady decline. I guess he's been too busy lately working at Google as head of their Webspam team and traveling around the country giving talks on white hat SEO to keep up with his blog like he used to.

Backlinks

The backlinks section is a really neat and useful section. Basically, it lists the total number of webpages that link to your domain.


And SmartPageRank's new Backlinks Analyzer is really cool. It lists all the sites and individual webpages that link to you, along with their PageRank. To see it in action, you can get a live look at the Backlinks Analyzer for my blog right here.

Indexed Pages

The indexed pages section gives you a look at the current number of pages of your website that are indexed in the major search engines: Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AltaVista and AllTheWeb.


You'll notice that the totals will vary greatly from search engine to search engine. This is because the figures shown represent the number of links that are crawled by each search engine (which varies because of the difference in size of their databases).


Website Value

This section gives you a calculation of the estimated monetary value of a website.


As stated by SmartPageRank, "This value is represents the approximate value of the website entered. Of course, this value does NOT include the worth of the company behind the website but rather is an estimated value of the website itself. Some of these valuation factors include: PageRank, traffic, backlinks, age of the domain, directory listings, and other items not shown in the summary above."

I think it's more for fun than anything else. So I decided to have a little fun with it and run some of my favorite blogs through the PageRank analyzer just to see where we all landed. Here are the results, listed in alphabetical order:

Aaron Cook Dot Com: $1,604
Brown Thoughts: $542
Bush Mackel: $1,929 (jerk) :P
Five 4 All: $407
MeAndMyDrum: $1,521
Ordinary Folk: $1,032
Revellian: $1,405

Anyway, I really like the SmartPageRank site and will continue to monitor my blog's PR, backlinks and indexed pages with it.

UPDATE: (Oct. 26th) Google just completed their PageRank update and I'm happy to report that Aaron Cook Dot Com™ has moved up to a PR of 4. Happy times!

October 21, 2007

Super Link Sunday - Batch #5

Super Link Sunday - Batch #5

Listen to the audio commentary!

Hello and welcome to the fifth edition of Super Link Sunday!

Super Link Sunday is where I take the time to give out some well-deserved link love by featuring some of the more noteworthy posts, blogs and bloggers I came across during the week.

So with no further ado, here are this week's very noteworthy bloggers...

Super Link Sunday All-stars

The Blogging For Friendship Writing Project - Bobby started a really neat (and positive) community writing project. The rules are very simple - write a blog post promoting goodness and friendship in the blogosphere. Definitely worth a look-see. And make sure to participate!

Google Dropping Toolbar PageRank Manually For Selling Links - Courtney Tuttle has an excellent post discussing Google's dropping of peoples' PageRank - allegedly because they are/were selling text links on their sites. Courtney's post isn't new from this week, but it's definitely worth a mention in case you missed it.

More Food For Thought With Google And PR - My good buddy Bush Mackel (batch #4's Link Love Loser Award winner) also has a very excellent post on the Google PR and paid text links situation. Bush's post is actually how I came across Courtney's post, so he of course gets featured here as well.

The Control Movie - Danielle is helping to get the word out about Control, a movie about the British post-punk era and Joy Division, the English punk rock band. So I'm doing my part here to help her help get the word out. :P

Leave A Comment - Get Some Link Love!

That's right! As part of Super Link Sunday, every person who leaves a comment here on my blog will get some special link love in the upcoming week's SLS post. Thank you all for your wonderful comments!

Here are this week's (and last week's since the SLS post was postponed) awesome commentators, ranked in order by the number of comments given:

Oscar (12), Bobby (7), Erina (7), Mark (7), Tish (5), Jesse (4), Sally no link (4), Tom (4), Danielle (3), AntiBarbie (2), Bush (2), Hernan (2), KSHIPPYCHIC (2), Mike (2), Speedcat Hollydale (2), Suadref (2), Valentin (2), 45n5 (1), Andrew K. (1), Andrew M. (1), Bucky (1), Christy (1), Julie (1), Tim no link (1), WildCatsThree (1)

*If you left a comment here this week and I didn't list you, please let me know!

The Link Love Wild Card

In Super Link Sunday - Batch #3 I introduced the Link Love Wild Card. This is where I randomly pick a blog and "hand" out some link love. And since it's totally random, it'll most likely be a blog I've not come across before.

So let's deal the cards, shall we? This week's Link Love Wild Card is:

XANADU - XANADU is a rather interesting blog written by Muse. Who is Muse? Well, according to her profile she was, "born in a small little igloo at the north pole. Growing up the elves never took a liking to me so I was banished to the working world."

Like I said...rather interesting. She also has another blog entitled Mia - Confessions of a Ninja Warrior Cat. According to the blog, Mia is a phenomenal creature and part of a secret underground society in quest for world domination. Mia loves belly rubs, chasing bugs, making biscuits in her master's hair at 5:00 AM and climbing things she shouldn't.

So be sure to visit her Muse's blogs and say hello! :)

The Link Love Loser Award!

Also recently new to Super Link Sunday is the Link Love Loser Award. This is an award I reserve specifically for bloggers whom I can't stand, really hate and totally despise - but only on Opposite Day! ;)

Lasts week's Link Love Loser Award recipient was the, "utterly pathetic and totally devoid of anything pertinent or useful" blog of Bush Mackel. This week's famed Link Love Loser Award goes to:

Valentin of Five 4 All - Why Valentin? OMG, where do I start?! First of all, this guy doesn't even live in the United States! He lives in Bucharest, Romania. Yes, Romania. And he has the nerve to visit my blog (which IS in the United States) and leave witty comments on it. And you know what? I have yet to even see his passport!

Yeah, this joker thinks he can just traipse all over the Internet, going wherever he damn well pleases, without so much as showing a single form of proper identification! Jeez, where are the cops when you need 'em?!

As for Valentin's blog...well let's just say you should do yourself a favor and NEVER go there. Nothing worth reading. Nothing worth seeing. Nothing but a vast collection of, "I'd rather chew glass than read this mindless drivel" drivel. Trust me. He really oughta change its name from Five 4 All to Zero 4 Everyone!

So let's all give a big round of applause for this week's Link Love Loser Award winner! And be sure to leave a comment here to let Valentin how much you truly hate his blob...I mean, blog. On Opposite Day! :)

Also...don't forget to Stumble (and/or Digg) this post! -Especially if you were mentioned in it! Stumbling and Digging any post that links to your blog means more traffic for you! :)

October 19, 2007

Will It Blend? - Chuck Norris!

Since Saturday night's alright for fighting (at least according to Bernie Taupin and Elton John), I declare that Friday night's alright for blending! Well, blending and fighting, that is. At least in this case, anyway. So let's get on with it!

Here's the latest Will It Blend? video. It stars Tom Dickson, Chuck Norris (sorta) and several "bad guys".

So...will Chuck Norris be defeated by the bad guys? Will Chuck Norris blend? Or will he deliver a few smashing roundhouse kicks and come out totally unscathed? Well, just watch and see...

Will It Blend? - Chuck Norris


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October 17, 2007

My Blog Wears A Halloween Costume!

Since it's mid-October, and getting closer and closer to Halloween, I figured I'd have a little fun and dress this blog up a bit for the occasion. So, for the rest of the month of October, Aaron Cook Dot Com will be wearing its very own Halloween costume!

For the "costume" I added a neat, little flying bat cursor, and an animated background image of an expanding ring of fire. Spooky and cool...all at the same time!

Yeah, and who said you couldn't make a Blogger blog look cool!

Other Blogs With The Halloween Spirit

But I'm not the only one featuring a Halloween theme on my blog! Here are a few other bloggers I know of who've gotten into the Halloween spirit by updating their original blog themes with some sort of Halloween blog theme...

MeAndMyDrum - Mark got into the Halloween spirit early and added his Halloween header back in September on the 30th. He was definitely off to a spooky start, recognizing that the time for ghoulish fun was fast-approaching!

Pink Internet Marketing - Danielle added a touch of Halloween fun to her Pink Internet Marketing blog with a new header image, courtesy of our good friend Hernan. Love it Danielle! And as always, great work Hernan!

Ordinary Folk - Mike (my favorite web comic cartoonist) also Octoberized his blog...by replacing the "o" in "folk" with a pumpkin. His approach is the most minimalistic of the three, and reminds me of how Google and Yahoo! dress up their sites for special occasions.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the Halloween spirit these bloggers have added to their blogs. Be sure to leave a comment and let me/them know what you think!

UPDATE: Be sure to check out Erina's blog as she just added a very cool Halloween theme to it! :)

October 14, 2007

Super Link Sunday Post Coming Soon

I just wanted to let everyone know that due to some personal issues the Super Link Sunday post and the audio commentary will be a bit delayed, and probably won't go live until tomorrow.

But in the meantime, here's some silly entertainment for you:

Ever see a country gal shoot up a wall with a massive potato gun? If not, then you're in luck! In this video Jessica shows us just how to load and shoot a twin-barrel, double-taser potato gun. Yes, you read that right. Twin-barrel...double-taser.

Wow, I honestly didn't know that people put that much work and thought into their potato guns!

Twin Barrel Double Taser Potato Gun


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October 18th update: Since it's already mid-week, this week's Super Link Sunday post will be rolled over and combined with the October 21st Super Link Sunday post. So it'll be a Super SUPER Link Sunday blog post. Yes, in deedy! :)

October 13, 2007

Getting BIG Luv From BlogsWeLuv

If there's one thing that truly makes blogging worth it, it's when others take the time to let you know how much they appreciate your blog, and all of the hard work you put into it. And that's just what happened to me here the other day.

While I was busily replying to comments I came across one from my good friend Tish giving me the heads up that I had been featured on the BlogsWeLuv blog. Woo hoo!

To my surprise, Mark from MeAndMyDrum had taken the time to write a review of this little place here we like to call Aaron Cook Dot Com™. And wow, what a review it is! I mean, just read it and you'll see. What a totally awesome writeup, Mark! You are too kind in your words. And I am truly, truly honored.


I honestly don't know what to say other than...THANK YOU! And in the immortal words of Wayne and Garth, "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"

October 10, 2007

White Hat SEO Tips For Bloggers - Part 2

Yesterday I posted the first part of the White Hat SEO Tips For Bloggers lecture given by Matt Cutts at the WordCamp 2007 conference in San Francisco, California. And as promised, here's the second and final part of the lecture.

Like the first video, this one is also about thirty-five minutes in length, so you might want to grab yourself a cup of coffee, or a beer, or a glass of milk and some cookies or something before getting fully into it. :)

In the video Matt covers such things as: getting link bait, AdSense section targeting, Google Analytics, the Google webmaster console, hacker prevention and more.

White Hat SEO Tips For Bloggers - Part 2


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October 9, 2007

White Hat SEO Tips For Bloggers - Part 1

Here is the first half of the lecture given by Matt Cutts at the WordCamp 2007 conference in San Francisco, California a short while back. His lecture was on white hat SEO tips for bloggers and is pretty informative. In addition, it's also quite entertaining.

Who's Matt Cutts? In short, Matt works for Google. He started working for Google back in January of 2000 as a software engineer and is currently a senior engineer and the head of Google's Webspam team. So when it comes to SEO, improving search engine rankings and Google, he definitely knows his stuff.

The video does cut off at the very end, but don't worry - I'll get part two up sometime tomorrow. So grab yourself a snack, sit back and enjoy the video!

White Hat SEO Tips For Bloggers - Part 1


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October 7, 2007

Super Link Sunday - Batch #4

Super Link Sunday - Batch #4

Listen to the audio commentary!

Hello and welcome to the fourth edition of Super Link Sunday!

Super Link Sunday is where I take the time to give out some well-deserved link love by featuring some of the more noteworthy posts and blogs I came across during the week.

I certainly love doing it and it's lots of fun, too. So with no further ado, here are this week's noteworthy bloggers...

Super Link Sunday All-stars

Your Rage Doesn't Scare Me - I've been reading Erina Heart's blog recently and have found it to be quite enjoyable. I came across her blog on Mike's blog and am very glad I did. This post of hers is excellent, and definitely portrays her limitless talents as a writer.

So prepare yourself to be transfixed by her wordcraft, and the boundless imagery that nestles itself within.

Blogosphere-wide Funny Comments Awards - From one of my favorite bloggers, and one of the funniest guys out there, comes this awesome twist on link love. Got a funny comment? With any luck at all, Valentin (and his alien friend, 77/Aa-873#b3) will find it and use it in his next Blogoshpere-wide Funny Comments Awards post.

How To Make A PHP Widget - Ever wondered how you can make a widget for your blog that other bloggers can put on their blogs? Then just take a look at Mark's post on how to make a PHP widget for your blog. He covers the entire process from start to finish. Well done Mark!

Vaal Whispers - Our good friend Jess has finally returned home from her trip which took her from Cape Town to Johannesburg and back again. Welcome back Jesse! :)

She's got some pics up now, along with a quick breakdown of the whole adventure. So be sure to stop by and welcome her back.

Leave A Comment - Get Some Link Love!

That's right! As part of Super Link Sunday I give link love to every person who leaves a comment here on my blog. Thank you all for your wonderful comments!

Here are this week's awesome commentators, ranked in order by the number of comments given:

Bobby (10), Mark (7), Mariuca (5), Valentin (5), Mike (4), Bush (3), Hernan (3), Mikael (3), Rod (2), Tish (2), Amanda (1), Andrew (1), Blogging Mix (1), iRonnie (1), Janice (1), Jesse (1), Stealth (1), Tim (1) no link, Tom (1)

*If you left a comment here this week and I didn't list you, please let me know!

The Link Love Wild Card

Last week I introduced the Link Love Wild Card. This is where I randomly pick a blog and "hand" out some link love. And since it's totally random it'll most likely be a blog I haven't come across before.

So let's deal the cards, shall we? This week's Link Love Wild Card is:

KSHIPPYCHIC - KSHIPPYCHIC is a blog by Rebecca Bridges. Rebecca is from Kansas - and according to her Blogger profile she's a, "Tye-Dyed Chicken Fried, Nascar Lovin, Bipolar Fruit!" Hey, she sounds pretty interesting already!

Rebecca also has two other blogs worth a look - A Purple Shade of Black and Rebecca Bridges Photography. Beautiful photos Rebecca! You've got a really nice portfolio going there.

The Link Love Loser Award!

Also new to Super Link Sunday last week was the Link Love Loser Award. This is an award I reserve specifically for bloggers whom I can't stand, really hate or totally despise - but only on Opposite Day. ;)

Lasts week's recipient was Bobby of Revellian. This week's Link Love Loser Award goes to:

Bush Mackel - Why Bush? First of all, because he had the gall to leave the following comment on my blog regarding last week's Link Love Loser Award: "Ha ha ha. Opposite day needs to make a comeback. Maybe I'll try that at work... Hope you had a good weekend Aaron!"

Shameful, simply shameful. How dare he agree with me about Opposite Day. And how dare he wish me a good weekend! I simply will not tolerate such brash, disrespectful behavior!

But the main reason Bush wins the LLL Award this week is because his blog is utterly pathetic and totally devoid of anything pertinent or useful - on Opposite Day. In fact, it's such a tedious and empty read that I strongly suggest you ignore it's existence entirely - on Opposite Day.

Trust me, this guy doesn't know his ass from third base. And with such misguided, amateurish posts like Cut the Fat (Part 3 - Shape Up Your Blogging) and When to Close Up Shop, his blog is obviously nothing but an empty vessel into which nothing good is poured - on Opposite Day.

But on every other day Bush's blog is fun, fun fun. So congrats Bush! You're a loser - on Opposite Day! :P

Anyway, thanks again everyone for reading...and for listening! You mean the world to me!

October 5, 2007

Friday Fun Canceled - Wal-Mart Sucks Instead

Well, I had originally planned to post a funny video here since it's Friday and Fridays are for fun, but that was until I came across this story:

Man Not Moving In Wal-Mart Standoff

"Once the dynamite goes in the ground, it's staying there."

Hmmm, then that would make Wal-Mart guilty of willing indifference (requiring not an intent to harm, but a failure to act appropriately in light of a known or obvious risk).

Story Update...

So what did Wal-Mart do? What every large corporation seemingly loves to do these days...they took the poor guy and his family to court. And now a judge has ordered him off of his OWN property!

Just before noon on Thursday a Marion County sheriff’s deputy served David and Penny McCarty with a civil summons on behalf of Wal-Mart and a restraining order from their own property.

A restraining order from your own property? Wow, isn't that nice. Is is just me or does this country get more and more full of shit every?!

Anyway, maybe later I'll post the funny stuff I had originally intended to post for Friday Fun. That is, if my blood pressure goes down. :P But right now I'm steaming. I normally don't rant on here (in fact, this is the only other time I have), but when it comes to stuff like this I have very little patience. And I just can't sit idly by and keep my mouth shut about it either.

October 3, 2007

One Of The Very First Beer Commercials

Well, after some patience and hard work I was finally able to get my hands on this clip so I could share it online with everyone. Hope you enjoy it!

Beer Commercials - My, how times have changed!

It's always interesting to see how advertising has changed over the years, and especially, over the decades. Take this Labatt's beer commercial as an example. This is one of the very first beer commercials ever put on television. As you can see, it's quite tame by today's standards, and definitely leaves a whole lot more to the imagination.

But even so, they're still alluding to sex and good times by mere use of the product. I think it's particularly funny how, as soon as he pours the beer, an attractive woman suddenly appears right out of thin air. Now, I've drank Labatt's beer before, but I know that's never happened to me! Then again, maybe I was just in the wrong restaurant at the time. Or maybe I just didn't drink enough of it! Hmmm. :P

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this nice little piece of pure, classic Canadiana. And remember...When you have a Labatt's, you have an adventure!

Early Labatt's Beer Commercial


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