Just a quick programming note, I am working on rebuilding YourSearchAdvisor.com from the ground up. The funny thing is, it won’t look very different than it does now unless you look at the source code. The old version of the site was built primarily on nested HTML tables and a little CSS. The new version will attempt to eliminate as many of the tables as possible and position everything using valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional code and CSS styles.

Why would I fix something that ain’t broke?

1. I knew I could do it better.
2. Nested tables aren’t good for search engine accessibility.
3. Simple changes to the header and footer required updating every single page. Now I can control all of those elements from one file.
4. The new structure is a much stronger foundation to build upon.

Which brings me to my next point. Once the code update is complete, I will be much more dramatically overhauling the content. I’ve had this site up for a little over a year and I want to make it more of a resource than a brochure. Practice what you preach, right?

I’d love any feedback you have: good, bad, or indifferent. Notice anything out of place or broken? Please contact me and I’ll fix it right away. Content suggestions are also welcome.

Your Search Advisor is now a Mac shop. All one of us. Well, two if you count Zach the intern who still owns a cooler Mac than his boss. I must be paying him too much, which is hard to comprehend because he works for free. Sucker.

Until yesterday, I ran nearly every facet of my business from a well-worn 3-year old HP Pavilion DV5000. She was a great little workhorse. Like most workhorses though, she steadily and unknowingly worked herself to the point of failure and had to be put down. Her battery, power source and AC adapter would get so hot I can only refer to it as “going nuclear”. It actually melted the internal workings of the AC adapter. Yes, I smelled smoke and my first reaction was “Hallelujah”. I had been waiting for it to kick the bucket and knew it was only a matter of time.

Within a day I had broken all emotional ties and didn’t even wait for the signed death certificate before shopping around for a newer, sleeker MacBook. I picked up a mid-range white model at the Apple Store in Briarwood Mall and I’m now in the process of transferring all the files, music, photos, and games from the old system to the new. I borrowed an AC adapter to revive the HP just long enough to dump everything on my external hard drive and re-image the hard disk with a fresh install of Windows XP. This baby ain’t done yet. She’s got eBay written all over her.

My new MacBook and I (I’m taking name suggestions, btw) are still solidly in the honeymoon phase, but I can already tell we have some serious issues to work through if we are going to survive the inevitable buyer’s remorse. For instance, the HP had faithfully stored dozens of passwords for me so I wouldn’t have to remember them each time I wanted to log into my favorite web apps. So now I’m locked out of a few until I take the time to reset each one. And I had PC versions of Photoshop, MS Office, and several other borrowed expensive software suites that will now have to be downloaded again replaced. I’m sure I’ll be able to shed my emotional baggage before too long.

So, MacFolk, I ask you to leave a comment with one or two of your favorite Mac programs that I can’t live without. I already know I need VMWare Fusion, Windows XP (I can’t work without some Windows-only software), TextMate, and a few others. What else would you recommend?

I finally got around to diagnosing and fixing the “Previous Entries” and “Next Entries” broken links on my blog’s Wordpress 2.5 platform. Since the very first post on this blog, the next_posts_link() and previous_posts_link() functions were not working as advertised and I didn’t know why. It has been on my list of bugs to fix for quite some time, so I finally devoted a little time this morning to silence the little nagging to-do item.

If you have an SEO-friendly Wordpress blog you might have changed the permalink structure to create more human-readable URLs for each post. For example, the default Wordpress post permalink is www.yourblog.com/?p=123, where 123 is the unique ID for that particular post. There are many plugins that allow you to create keyword-rich URLs that rewrite the p=123 into something like www.yourblog.com/your-sample-post/. Rewriting the permalinks for your blog posts could inadvertently disrupt other static URLs in your Wordpress platform, such as the www.yourblog.com/page/2/ and www.yourblog.com/page/3/ pages that are accessed via the “Previous Entries” and “Next Entries” links. These pages hold your older posts that have been bumped off of the first page of your blog.

It’s a simple fix for a common problem. Within the Settings of your Wordpress dashboard, click on the Permalink Redirect tab. Within the Permanent Redirect Manager, include the following line in the “Paths to be skipped” box:

/page/*

This tells your site not to try to rewrite any URLs in the /page/ directory. The * is a “wildcard” that basically means “anything”. You can substitute other directory paths in there that you don’t manage with the permalink redirect plugin that you may be using.

Hope this is helpful, and that it helps you check one more thing off of your to-do list.

I’ve never recorded or been a part of a podcast before, but Derek and Ross from Ingenex Digital just posted a podcast (23 30 minutes) that covers social media, search engine optimization and online marketing. The focus was on educating traditionally-minded senior executives about the challenges and opportunities that await in the online world. Derek interviewed me about several topics that are timely and relevant to companies of all sizes as they size up the internet marketing challenge.

Give it a listen and let me know what you think. Thanks again to Ingenex Digital for starting a great podcast series and including me in one of the initial sessions. Leave them a comment as well and suggest future topics and experts that they can include.

Several weeks ago a bunch of loosely connected marketing professionals in Ann Arbor started meeting for lunch on Wednesdays at Eastern Flame on South Ashley (map). The group draws from a wide range of disciplines and anybody is welcome, whether you are a hard core marketer or just want to learn a little more about the trade in a casual setting.

LA2M (pronounced “Lamb”, not “Lame”) typically draws anywhere from 6 to 15 participants, each with a unique viewpoint on the week’s theme. Previous discussions have revolved around blogging for business, wikis, outsourcing, marketing challenges, and how to land large clients. Several of the discussions have resulted in further collaboration between two people or companies, which benefits the local economy by keeping more marketing and advertising dollars in Southeast Michigan.

Why is this important? For one, it helps tear down the walls between competing firms. Additionally, since the participants come from all fields and backgrounds, many of the silos between various marketing functions are removed. This small group model works well for seeking advice on actual cases or theoretical situations.

For more information, check out any of these resources:

ConnectAnnArbor blog

LA2M Facebook Group