Jay Gaulard Blog

Google Pagerank Update Underway

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

Just in case you haven’t noticed your Google Pagerank lately, it is currently being updated as I type.

I was typing the last post in this blog a few minutes ago and noticed that it now has a Pagerank of 2. That’s twice of what it was at 1. The reason it’s only a 2 is because I have relatively few links to the blog and the domain name is very young. Some of my other sites picked up a few points.

Good luck and let me know if your site gained any PR.

Buying and Selling Domain Names

Friday, March 21st, 2008

The more I look around, the more I learn that the domain name business is big business.

As I told you yesterday, I am trying to scoop up a bunch of different extensions for the domains I already have. It’s working out pretty well, but I have hit a little bump. I already bought up most of the available ones and now I have to enter the market of second (or third) hand domains. That is when it gets expensive.

Let me give you a little example…a guy called me a few years ago to offer a .com domain that he was selling. This was a hot name and he was looking for $50,000 for it. I almost started laughing when he told me that. I think I offered him $300 and went off and did something else. As it turns out, I am kicking myself. I have a feeling I am going to be seeing this domain in action soon because someone out in Las Vegas just purchased it at auction for $135,000. Why was, or is, it worth so much? Well, it was first registered in 1996, so it has some age. Also, it rolls off the tongue extremely easily and is two very powerful keywords. It’s also quite descriptive. Those things alone give it a lot of value. I talked to the seller last night and he mentioned that he does have another .com for sale that I would be interested in. He wants $50,000 for it. This one is definitely not worth what the other one was, but it does give me pause. Honestly, if you can get a well known .com that was born back in 1996, $50,000 is not too much. You do need to do a little research first.

Yesterday, I put a bunch of bids in for multiple .com and .net addresses. I did receive an email back telling me I could buy a .net for $2,688. I am going to have the name appraised today to see if it has been blacklisted or anything like that. I believe it was first registered back in 2002, which isn’t bad.

What’s the benefit of purchasing a used domain name? The answer is Google. Google likes “aged” domains. You can set up a site and not have to wait for Google’s aging filter to do its thing. Also, there may be links to the domain already. So basically, if you get a used domain, you could set up a site and have it indexed very quickly to start making money fast.

I am going to buy a few more today and then call it quits for a while. The guy I spoke to last night is also looking for $50,000 for a little known extension that will become very popular. This is for the same domain as I was talking about above.

What I do know is this…if I buy a bunch of these names now and sit on them for a few years and let them age, I can send them to auction and sell them for some $$$. From what I have been learning, I do have quite an investment already. Just remember…if you are going to get into this, you need to buy domains that people will actually want in a few years. I am not sure how many people would be interested in jaygaulard.com. There are also huge price variations with what the name consists of, like one word, two words, hyphens, etc…

Mayflower Inn, Washington, CT

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008

Laura and I decided to get in the car and visit Washington, CT yesterday. What was the destination? Well, no less than the Mayflower Inn & Spa in Washington, CT.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, my mother purchased a gift certificate for us a few years ago for the Mayflower Inn. If memory serves me correctly, we used it for a Valentine’s Day dinner, but I may be wrong. It was either that or New Year’s Eve. Anyway, we drove there at night and (even at night) really liked the area. We decided that it needed to be visited during the day.

Now, please let me explain…I am sure we have all heard of New England. Sure, we have heard of it, but have we ever really seen it? What we learned yesterday was that be merely driving through Connecticut and Massachusetts really doesn’t count for visiting New England. There is a little corner of Connecticut that, if visited, you can easily imagine some English dude sitting on a log with one of those white wigs on. That is what Washington, CT is like. You can also throw in Bridgewater too. They are both like that. There are more white houses that are over 100 years old than you know what to do with. Needless to say, they are really cool towns. Pricey towns, I’m sure. What really struck us both yesterday, was the fact that we weren’t able to locate one messy property or piece of junk. The whole entire area was extremely clean, which made us feel very nice inside.

One of the things that really aggravates me is the lack of pictures and videos on the internet. Even on Google Earth, people would rather post videos of their kid’s first birthday party, instead of videos of main st. in the town the video is attached to. When I visit town websites, I expect to see some sort of photo gallery or even a walking tour. You would be amazed at how few websites actually offer these features.

Since we visited the Inn yesterday and I happen to own a regular digital camera and a video camera, we decided to use them. I took all the photos and Laura took half the video. These are all just of the Inn and not the town. We’ll get to that. Enjoy!!!

It may look cold, but it was actually the first time this year that I actually felt a warm breeze. It was about 50 degrees outside. This is a photo of the path up to the bush maze, going towards the spa.

These are both of one of the places you can stay if you decide to check in.

This is a photo of the main building that we ate lunch in.

Here is a photo of the outdoor pool and the pool house. We decided against going for a dip.

These are all photos of the spa building.

This is my favorite part of the whole place. I just love the Rhododendrons and huge trees.

Ok, time for some video…

Going With the Flow, Abandoned Wonders, Voicemail and Web Design

Thursday, February 28th, 2008

12 Practical Steps for Learning to Go With the Flow

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.

7 Abandoned Wonders of the European Union

The rich stories of individual European nations can be read in part through the amazing abandoned buildings found across the continent. It is truly remarkable how intact some of these structures are even after centuries. From Finland to France, Belgium to Denmark and Poland to England here are seven amazing abandonments from all over Europe.

Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail

Google has made an announcement that could help hundreds of homeless people in San Francisco get back on their feet. Every single homeless person in the city will be given a life-long phone number and voicemail.

9 Signs You Shouldn’t Hire THAT Web Designer

Funny article about 9 signs that tell you to avoid that clueless web designer.

Are They Watching You Online?

When surfing the Internet you probably take your anonymity for granted, most of us do.

Advertising, Google, the Web and Click Throughs

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

Who Will Control Advertising on the Web?

Exactly how are companies going to make money on the social web? The path to the next generation of online advertising does indeed remain murky, but two new deals may provide a little light.

Google Experimental Search with Digg Style voting

Straight from google experimental labs, they’re experimenting on search engine ranking which can be influenced by users via a “vote” (sort of like digg).

Overhaul of net addresses begins

The first big steps on the road to overhauling the net’s core addressing system have been taken. On Monday the master address books for the net are being updated to include records prepared in a new format known as IP version 6. Widespread use of this format will end the shortage of addresses that sites can be given.

How Big Is the Web? 155,583,825 Sites - Report

A January Netcraft survey estimates that there were last month 155,583,825 WEB SITES ON THE INTERNET.

Improving your click through rate with Creative Search Marketing

Consumers are becoming more savvy in the way they search online, great targeting isnt enough to get their attention relevance of ad creative is now the driving factor in click through rate.

Cars, Google, Flirting and Sleep

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

75 Tips to Keep Your Car in Top-Notch Condition

‘Don’t fill up if you see the tanker’ - If you happen to see a gasoline tanker filling the tanks at your local gas station, come back another day or go to a different station. As the station’s underground tanks are being filled, the turbulence can stir up sediment. Sediment in your gas can clog fuel filters and fuel injectors…

Google to Host Terabytes of Open-Source Science Data

(Google people) are providing a 3TB drive array (Linux RAID5). The array is provided in “suitcase” and shipped to anyone who wants to send they data to Google. Anyone interested gives Google the file tree, and they SLURP the data off the drive. I believe they can extend this to a larger array (my memory says 20TB).

Why We Flirt

And before you claim, whether single or married, that you never flirt, bear in mind that it’s not just talk we’re dealing with here. It’s gestures, stance, eye movement. We’re biologically and culturally programmed to flirt.

The Science of Sleep (why scientists are still in the dark)

We spend a third of our lives asleep, yet no one really knows why. We do know that people simply don’t perform as well when they don’t sleep enough…

Wikipedia goes video

Wikimedia is partnering with the collaborative video service Kaltura to start rolling out video to Wikimedia sites. Right now, the feature is available on the WikiEducator demo site, which is not affiliated with Wikimedia. But eventually we’ll start to see collaborative video hitting Wikipedia as well.

Googling, Global Warming, Adobe and Colbert

Friday, January 18th, 2008

The “Google generation” not so hot at Googling, after all

A new UK report on the habits of the “Google Generation” finds that kids born since 1993 aren’t quite the Internet super-sleuths they’re sometimes made out to be. For instance, are teens better with technology than older adults? Perhaps, but they also “tend to use much simpler applications and fewer facilities than many imagine.”

Nobel Winner Speech Canceled Over Global Warming Controversy

A climate scientist’s speech to high school students was canceled because members of the rural community were concerned the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s message on climate change would be “anti-agriculture,” the superintendent said Thursday.

Adobe Flash Tutorials - Best of

This article provides hand-picked professional Flash tutorials which can enrich your design skills and improve the quality of your works. Most sources can serve as the entry point for further tutorials.

Colbert Portrait Hanging in the National Portrait Gallery

Video and still photo of Stephen Colbert’s portrait hanging above the 2nd floor bathroom in the National Portrait Galley in Washington, D.C.

Texas Is Biggest Carbon Polluter in United States

Everything’s bigger in Texas — Big pickup trucks, Big SUVs, Big carbon footprint. Texans’ fondness for large, manly vehicles (plus 19 coal-burning power plants) has helped make the Lone Star State the biggest carbon polluter in the nation.

Google PageRank Update - January 2008

Saturday, January 12th, 2008

I was sitting here last night, when I noticed that my new blog here finally had a Google PageRank. I was pretty happy about that, but there was one tiny problem. The PageRank is a 1.

Remember back when I told you that I switched this blog over to a new domain name? Well, back then, this blog (on the old domain) had a PageRank of 5. I did a simple 301 redirect for the entire blog in the .htaccess file, pointing it to this new domain. I figured that the nice PageRank I had earned over the years would follow me to this new domain. Guess not.

I did notice that the Gaulard.com domain still has a PageRank of 5. That’s weird, because all there is over there are a few static pages that never change. So what’s all this about the size of a website, the frequency of updates, etc…? I know of a very specific factor that heavily affects PageRank, but am not ready to share it just yet. I am still doing some research.

I took a look around all my sites. They all pretty much stayed the same, except for one. That one dropped a point, which is disappointing. I looked at a few blogs I know of. One got hit pretty hard and lost 3 points. Man, is this PageRank update about hitting blogs?

Network Solutions, Adobe Photoshop, Profy and Google

Friday, January 11th, 2008

Network Solutions defends frontrunning-to stop frontrunners

Network Solutions has been heavily criticized for its new policy that automatically registers domains to itself once a user searches for it. The company has now responded, saying that the policy is a “security measure” meant to protect customers from real domain frontrunners.

Adobe Photoshop Tutorials - Best Of

An overview of professional step-by-step tutorials which can enrich your design skills and improve the quality of your works.

Social Blogging Platform Profy Launches in Alpha

Today, we get a new blogging platform from Russian/San Francisco startup Profy.

Google Processing Over 20 Petabytes of Data Per Day

Google currently processes over 20 petabytes of data per day through an average of 100,000 MapReduce jobs spread across its massive computing clusters.

Understanding Search Engine Penalties

Why is your celebrity blog being penalized? Find out here…

Monetizing, Apple, Firefox and Open Formats

Friday, December 21st, 2007

101 Ways to Monetize Your Blog (Without Irritating Readers)

Blogging is big business these days, with some bloggers reporting six-figure or even million-dollar incomes. There are a number of ways that these bloggers earn such large paychecks, and the best know how to do it in a way that won’t scare off readers. Check out 101 ways that you can earn money from your blog.

Apple has sold 5 million iPhones

Apple has sold 5 million iPhones, according to 9 to 5 Mac, an Apple rumor site. At the iPhone’s launch, Steve Jobs set a public goal of selling 10 million iPhones — next year. With the iPhone only on sale for six months, that means Apple’s already selling its sleek smartphones at 2008 speed.

Firefox 3.0 Beta 2 Is A Win For Linux

Mozilla has released the latest beta of Firefox 3 today, and the Linux efforts behind it are starting to show even more. This release, being a beta, is surprisingly stable. Here’s the killer that makes this beta release amazing: true GTK support.

Norway mandates use of open formats: HTML, ODF and PDF

Government, state and regional agencies, authorities and services may also publish in other formats, but they must always publish in one of these formats. The decree is retroactive, and by 2014 all documents published prior to this decree must have been converted and made available in one of the three formats.

10 great Web site designs/redesigns of 2007

We pick 10 of our favorite site designs and redesigns of 2007.

8 Bold Predictions on Google’s Next Moves

There’s little doubt that Google Inc. is indeed king of online media. In August 2007 alone, Google captured 57% of worldwide market share among search engines, with more than 37 billion search inquiries. Not surprisingly, this dominance has led to endless rumors about where Google is headed next?