Circumventing Google's SEO Tricks; Bad or Good Idea?

If you need to ask this question, you should hire someone to do your on page search engine optimization and really all other forms of online marketing.

Retail e-Commerce has a great article up on doing this and how to avoid being sent into oblivion on Google's search results.  They reference the recent issue that J.C. Penney had with using "black hat SEO techniques".

Hit the jump for both the article and also another describing in depth what happened with J.C. Penney.

New Grad Life has a good article up on their blog about using social media to get a job.  Some great points in there about personal branding and capitalizing on existing networks.

Link is after the break, give it a read!

14 Days of Metallica: Day 14

The final day of the series is reserved my favorite Metallica song of all time.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 13

Nearing the end (and the beginning, of the concert!), Day 13 and the final Day 14 feature two of my favorite Metallica songs.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 12

Much better, Hi-Res version here.

Nothing needs to be said about this.  I know it's a cover, but Metallica took an awesome Irish drinking song, and turned it into an awesome metal Irish drinking song.

Hit the jump for my favorite part.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 11

In what I consider a throwback (at least cinematographically... is that even a word? [EDIT: It IS!]) to the band's first video, One, Day 11 hosts All Nightmare Long.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 10

The first song from the double digits goes to quite possibly my favorite video from the band.  I remember watching the premiere when it was first released in jaw-dropping awe, not able to wait for the rest.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 9

Day 9 is the home of a song that's off an often chastised album; Reload.  I still don't understand why so many people hated this (these, including Load) albums.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 8

Day 8 goes to what turned out to be one of the few love songs from the band; Nothing Else Matters

Betcha didn't know that did you? Hit the jump for the story behind it.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 7

Now that I'm back on schedule, day 7 goes to one of the band's most legendary intros.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 6

Ok, so summer finally arrived in Newfoundland.  I am a bartender, and on sunny days, the deck gets busy.  I worked 38 hours in 3 days and literally did not have time to turn my computer.  Then I had to drive 4 hours to meet with my girlfriend and other singer to record a song (I'll link a video when it is edited and uploaded!).  Now I've finally grabbed a second to myself, at home while my girlfriend is getting ready to watch a movie in bed.

Now, enough apologies... Day 6 (which should have been posted a few days ago) goes to...

14 Days of Metallica: Day 5

Fuel.

ONLY the S&M version.  The original does not exist in my mind anymore.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 4

An amazing metal trilogy spanning almost 20 years, all three Unforgiven make it to the list.

The first reversed the usual style of prior ballads the band had released.  Instead of a soft, melodic verse and heavy chorus, it had the opposite.  Although slower, it definitely had one of the heaviest chord progressions on the Black Album.  It's a story about a child being punished, locked in a windowless room, carving one into the stone wall until he is an old man, once he finally succeeds, he dies.  Favorite lyrics have to be "The old man then prepares, to die regretfully, that old man here is me".

Hit the jump for UN2 and UN3.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 3

Day 3 to a fan favorite, Master of Puppets.

I have 42 different versions of this song, be it studio, live, acoustic, covers or otherwise, I could listen to a different version of this song for an uninterupted 4.5 hours.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 2

Day 2 goes to Enter Sandman.

Hit the jump for some interesting facts about the song.

14 Days of Metallica: Day 1

Going to see Metallica on July 14th, which is in 14 days, with Steve Tilley.

Every day I will post a Metallica song, some information about it, and my favorite parts.

Day 1 goes to, fittingly enough, One.

Embracing Social Media for Customer Service

With not only the emerging popularity of social media itself since 2009, but also the emergence of companies using social media to field customer service complaints more effectively and efficiently, I have found myself increasingly upset when companies I want to interact with DON'T have a social media presence.

Something that has never been a part of the business plan for companies has now become a must have, and if they don't, it's more than just a zero, it's a negative.

#TigerBloodIntern | Round 4: Top 50?

I just got an email from Internships.com about my #TigerBloodIntern application and whether or not I made it to the next round.

After 17 days since the deadline for Round 3, and a full month since Round 1, the email read...

#TigerBloodIntern | Today's the day we find out!

Internships.com said that they would be announcing the top 50 to move on to Round 4 in the #TigerBloodIntern search.

I'll keep you updated through twitter, facebook and here.

Sorry for the quick post, back to studying for final exams... yay.


My video can be viewed after the jump.

Tangled

With the indefinite hiatus of That's What She Said, myself and my two singers have decided to continue on with the success we had as a trio in the O'Reilly's Open Mic competition (click for video) last fall. We came 2nd out of 120 and made it through the quarter finals, the semi finals to the finals.

Our name is Tangled... and maybe one day we'll share the story of why that name is so fitting, and how it came about.

We'll be playing more than TWSS played and more often as well.  We even have a gig in the works right now for The Brimstone in a few weeks.

Hit the jump for links to our Facebook fan page and twitter accounts.

#TigerBloodIntern | Video Killed the Radio Star?

Well, it should be interesting to see where this goes.

Thanks to Dave Winsor for the promo!

#TigerBloodIntern | Another Radio Interview!

Click for bigger image.

Interview on VOCM Nightline tonight about my #TigerBloodIntern video!

You can listen to it here!

Catch up on my other #TigerBloodIntern media coverage here.

Hit the jump to see the tweet!

Radio Interview for #TigerBloodIntern Video on 97.5 K-ROCK!

So last night, much to my delight, I got a tweet from local radio station, 97.5 K-ROCK about my #TigerBloodIntern video and the competition as well.

Tweet from local radio station.

Turns out they wanted to have me on the show.

Social Media Explained: INFOGRAPHIC

Finally, someone has explained social media networks for us!

#TigerBlood Intern - Round 3

Charlie Sheen's #Fastball

For any of you that are following me on Twitter or are friends on Facebook, you may already know that I entered in the #TigerBloodIntern search to be an intern on @CharlieSheen's social media team.  I didn't make too much fuss over doing so, because I thought the rest of the world did as well.  Turns out, a lot of his followers did, with 74,000 applicants in Round 1.  This was eventually whittled down through Round 2 to the current round that just finished, which had 250 people still in the running.

Stop the Meter on Your Internet Use!

Recently there's been proposals that would bring our current pricing strategy for Internet use to an end, and would charge users per kilobyte.  This means it would work out to be more money out of our wallets.

The Canadian government needs to step in on this.  Sign the petition below from OpenMedia and make our voices heard.





Also, find them on Facebook and Twitter as well.

2000 Pageviews!

RDBlog just hit 2000 pageviews!  Not bad for 4 months, especially seeing as 2 of those months went without any posts and only now am I settling into a regular schedule!

Thanks guys!  Keep coming back and I'll keep pumping out content!

Metal Monday!

This is the first installment of Metal Mondays!  I'll share music from all different sub-genres of metal, but also some hard rock as well, to help you expand your musical repertoire.  Some you'll like, some you won't.

As it's the first Metal Monday (and our band, TWSS is covering it for our next show... shhh it's a secret!), I'm leading off with what has possibly been the song with the most iconic solo in metal.

Zombie Apocalypse Sunday!

Here's the first installment of Zombie Apocalypse Sundays!

Quick post, rehearsal tonight with That's What She Said followed by a late game of hockey brings a very late night.

MemeDay Wednesday!

The first installment in MemeDay Wednesday here at RDBlog!

I'm going to break it down in different sections and instead of giving you one cool internet meme every Wednesday, I'll give you a bunch of different types!  You'll get a lolcat, a demotivational, a graph, a troll, a dino comic and a photobomb!

The trolling pic is for all my friends studying abroad in Malaysia!  And the photobomb is your's truly and my girlfriend while we were bartending at the Republic of Doyle Season 2 Premiere last week!

New Blogging Schedule/Hashtags

Alright, now that I have some more free time this term, along with the fact that I'm taking an Internet Marketing course, I've developed a new blogging schedule.  I'll still blog randomly as well, but I'm going to stick to a weekly schedule with different themes for different days.  I may add some in the future, but as of right now I have my weekends free.

Twitter hashtags are included :)

#RDBlog - Rain Drizzle Blog
#ZombieNews - Zombie Apocalypse Sundays
#MetalMondays - Metal (and other hard rock) Mondays
#TKTuesdays - Twisted Knickers Tuesdays
#MemeDay - Internet Meme Wednesdays


Starting tomorrow, with my first MemeDay Wednesday!