Holistic Web Development with SEO as a Topping

Running a fowl of copyright law

Running a fowl of copyright law

I sell bird toys – on the face of it it shouldn’t be that hard. Under the hood it’s hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.

We’ve had a retail facility burn to the ground. We’ve had another retail facility flood with sewer water because of improper plumbing practices.

We’ve had another facility where the landlord blocked our loading dock with several thousand boxes of documents for months – the loading dock was the only reason we took the space to begin with.

(more…)

Continue Reading Running a fowl of copyright law
Patent trolls the scam that just keeps on taking.

Patent trolls the scam that just keeps on taking.

A while back we received a letter from an attorney asking us to take down 4 images from our website on behalf of their client whose products we were no longer selling.

I’m busy and we have 75,000 images on the site. I did not know nor care what this lawyer was talking about and I kept asking them to tell me which 4 images to remove. 

Weeks later I get an email with the URLs of the four images – we removed them – I thought that ended things.

(more…)

Continue Reading Patent trolls the scam that just keeps on taking.
A personal warning to 3000 LinkedIn connections from mitchr

A personal warning to 3000 LinkedIn connections from mitchr

I really don’t give a RA (rats ass) about grammar – Look at what texting has done to the English language and tell me the English language of the 21st century looks anything like that of the 20th century.

this for Mitchell J Katz

Senior Public Affairs Specialist at Federal Trade Commission – Commented, 10 days ago

“Apparently, you don’t check for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors, however. Period at the end of a sentence, anyone?”

(more…)

Continue Reading A personal warning to 3000 LinkedIn connections from mitchr
When merchant processing goes sideways – expect it

When merchant processing goes sideways – expect it

LinkedIn has gotten boring and uninformative.

All the supposed  SEO and eCommerce groups have become as tepid as a lukewarm single bag decaffeinated cup of green tea. “Content is king” – backlinks – due date hasn’t changed in a decade.

I’ll be coming at you like a cup of coffee with five-hour energy replacing cream – be ready to grab on.

All merchant processors are scum-sucking thieves.

In 14 years I’ve gone through 18 merchant processors – at one time I ran 110 websites mostly affiliate stuff but I needed to take money on the web in 2004 – so this is what I’ve learned over 12 years. Not once have I had a good experience.

(more…)

Continue Reading When merchant processing goes sideways – expect it
How did CyberSource place a hold on funding with out a completed merchant application while not even being the merchant processor of record?

How did CyberSource place a hold on funding with out a completed merchant application while not even being the merchant processor of record?

I have been communicating with

Michael B.

Underwriting Department

Authorize.Net

P.O. Box 947

American Fork, UT 84003-0947

Tel 888-317-6935 x1

underwriting@authorize.net | http://www.visa.com

(more…)

Continue Reading How did CyberSource place a hold on funding with out a completed merchant application while not even being the merchant processor of record?
Why this merchant processor is making an angry old white guy angrier

Why this merchant processor is making an angry old white guy angrier

I blogged about how cybersource used a shell game to keep MY money out of MY bank for weeks

In the 14 years we’ve been processing credit cards we’ve had a little over 20 merchant processors and a half a dozen gateways I’ll explain the difference in a moment.

The gateways aren’t too bad except when they stop working and I’ve suffered through days of broken gateways which is why we always have a redundant gateway in place should the current system break..

(more…)

Continue Reading Why this merchant processor is making an angry old white guy angrier
I’m 65 & want to become a social media influencer – what are my chances?

I’m 65 & want to become a social media influencer – what are my chances?

I’ve been examining latest trend in social media – they call it “influencer marketing”. I just read a post on LinkedIn asking for lists of “influencers”. A plethora of responses recommended this list and that list.

Not surprisingly my reply ran against the grain:

Correlation does not imply causation – everyone is assuming  a big list from an “influencer” implies an endless source of influential content – just for you – right? – and what’s the half life of an influencer? anyone remember Mari Smith or Jon Loomer way back in 2012?

(more…)

Continue Reading I’m 65 & want to become a social media influencer – what are my chances?
Leaving a search provider can be harder than leaving Las Vegas

Leaving a search provider can be harder than leaving Las Vegas

I’d like to start out with an observation – If groups are so popular on LinkedIn why is there so much apathy?

One of my e-commerce groups (I’m in more than a dozen e-commerce and social media groups) has 323,000+ members and yet you won’t see 12 replies in the first 30 posts – just sayin’.

I am not a conversion rate expert but I have been running e-commerce websites for 17 years (as of 2019) and developed a sizable knowledge base watching the millions of visitors flow across my sites (along with the data).

(more…)

Continue Reading Leaving a search provider can be harder than leaving Las Vegas
I’m declaring myself THE influencer for caged bird keeper’s on the Internet.

I’m declaring myself THE influencer for caged bird keeper’s on the Internet.

(no one else wanted the gig)

If you follow digital trends as I do, it’s impossible to not recognize “the next big thing in marketing” called influencer marketing something that’s actually been around since 1940. 

(more…)

Continue Reading I’m declaring myself THE influencer for caged bird keeper’s on the Internet.
Why the Yoast SEO readability score is a bunch of cow dung.

Why the Yoast SEO readability score is a bunch of cow dung.

Here’s how I know.

I’ve been blogging for 10 years. I’m no Ernest Hemingway but I’m reasonably articulate and have several hundred thousand social media followers.

When I started seeing poor readability scores I began to test. I posted one Nobel prize winner’s article – an article written by three veteran reporters in the Washington Post and one article from a well-respected reporter with the Huffington Post.

(more…)

Continue Reading Why the Yoast SEO readability score is a bunch of cow dung.