internet: Understanding Web Traffic - Part 3 - 02/06/07 03:02 PM
As promised, this is the final installment on my series about understanding web traffic. In my first post about understanding web traffic last August, I started off with the basics and discussed the differences between a hit and a session. In part two, I delved into referring urls and keyword analysis and the different software you can use to obtain that information.
For the last segment, I'm going to concentrate on one of the most important things to track: 1st time unique visitors. As you probably guessed, these are visitors that have never visited your site before. Why are they so … (18 comments)

internet: MLX Professional - 12/08/06 12:58 PM
Today when Jacqui was signing into the Las Vegas MLS access site, she got a pleasant surprise.  A free upgrade to mlx professional. Basically its a customizable 3rd level domain off of the main site. You get to pick your site "name", so after several attempts I finally found one I liked. I wanted Las Vegas real estate, which I finally got a combination of. There are roughly half a dozen different templates you can choose from.
The site allows you to add your own text on the "home" page of the site and automatically pulls your listing data from the mls … (6 comments)

internet: Open Realty - 10/14/06 11:54 AM
For those of you with custom sites, if you aren't using this program yet you probably should. Open-realty is an open source program, meaning you can install it free of charge. It’s written in php, and allows you to add an unlimited number of fields to listings, different types, upload multiple pictures or a virtual tour with minimal hassle. You can specify which fields are searchable and you can implement a sign up feature to allow visitors to signup as a member, save searches and get email notifications when new properties are added that match their saved search criteria. The design … (13 comments)

internet: How secure is your MLS? - 10/14/06 07:27 AM
Today Jacqui received yet another solicitation to upgrade to mlx pro. Personally I have never been comfortable with the idea of having our entire client base listed out on the net. Its one of the reasons that Jacqui never upgraded to Top Producer 7 (along with the fact that v6 was very buggy and expensive).  I also wondered what kind of increased security MLS sites have received in the last few years. Just surfing the net I've seen news stories of several MLS sites across the country that have been hacked. Most of the time the hackers are doing it for the … (3 comments)

internet: Attack of the Clones! - 10/13/06 04:56 AM
Its inevitable. When ever there is something new and successful on the internet, someone is going to copy it in at least some way. The site is homeValuationsCanada.com, a cross Canada site that give homeowners appraisals of their home, just like Zillow. Unlike Zillow, the site sticks primarily to online home appraisals and charges a fee.  The site even touts "Why $300+ for an intrusive physical appraisal when you can get an automated one for a 10th of the price?"  The site covers the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Nova Scotia.
Now, I don't see how in the world that will work … (6 comments)

internet: Can you Digg it? - 10/08/06 01:12 PM
For those you that love Digg, they've launched a another site http://diggriver.com/ made exclusively for small screen web surfers.  So if you are surfing the net on your cell phone or hand held, you can still get your daily dose of digg.  Internet surfing for cell's and such was going to be the next big thing, but really hasn't taken off as expected. I'm sure sites like mapquest and such do get quite a bit of web traffic from small mobile devices, but it seem most web surfers wait until they can get a wifi hookup for their laptop.
Has anyone put up a site designed … (3 comments)

internet: Greeting Card Virus - 09/30/06 01:13 PM
I'm sure everyone has received an electronic greeting card from someone.  There are tons of sites that allow you to send a "card" free, as well as attach a electronic gift card to it to various electronic and brick and mortar retailers.  Unfortunately, there is a new virus making the rounds that comes disguised as one of these cards. However, they are easy to spot if you know where to look. The email comes claiming to be from a family member or loved one but doesn't list the name of the sender.  They all have a link to click to view … (6 comments)

internet: eBay Scam - 08/23/06 08:50 PM
For those of you that buy stuff on ebay, I thought I would share this.  My dad had been looking at this Fuji Camera acution for the last couple weeks http://search.ebay.com/fuji-finepix-s3_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQcatrefZC6QQfromZR10QQcatrefZC6QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQfsopZ1QQfsooZ1   for fake eBay auctions for S3 camera.  They are easy to spot because the auctions start  for under $50 dollars.  When you look at these auctions you will find a email address to contact them before bidding on the auction.  This is a scam to have you send them money by Western Union to an address outside the US.  If you send them $900 right away they will give you two lenses or something like … (4 comments)

internet: Understanding web traffic - 08/18/06 08:03 AM
For those you that are relatively new to the workings of a website, there are lot of terms you may be unfamiliar with. One of the questions raised in the comments on my Active Rain traffic post, was what is a session.  In practical terms, a session is a visit from a web surfer that actual spends time on your website.  Web traffic is divided up into hits, sessions, returning users and unique or first time visitors.
So first lets break it down. You will see advertising on web portals claiming x number of hits per month or day, blah blah … (5 comments)

internet: Traffic from Active Rain - 08/17/06 09:22 PM
I was looking through my weblogs earlier today.  As I suspected, quite a large chunk of my web traffic is coming from google for out main keyword phrase, Las Vegas Real Estate.  Search engines deliver roughly 90% of the traffic to our site, with the remaining 10% divided up among a variety of other sites.  As far as directories go, very few provide any traffic at all. We have been listed in yahoo's directory for years and have received minimal traffic at best.  For those of you thinking about plunking down $300 per year, think again.
I was however, pleasantly surprised … (9 comments)

internet: Free Online Tools - 08/10/06 03:40 PM
As part of my SEO tutorial, I thought I would put up some of my favorite sites for free SEO tools.  This list is by no means complete; I've picked out my top five sites because quite a few offer the same or similar tools:
widexl the link is the meta tag analyzer.  They also have a nice backlink checker as well.
webconfs this tool allows you to see how a search engine sees your website.  They also have a TON of other cool stuff.
nichebot allows you to track/check any keywords you want.
seochat this tool will auto generator meta tags for you.  Even though google ignores them, … (4 comments)

internet: Stop Bad Ware - 08/04/06 12:20 PM
I stumbled across this site, Stopbadware.org.  The site is dedicated to preventing web surfers from going to sites that may install malicious code or steal your private information, etc. Its been kind of lurking in the shadows until Google announced that it is partnering with them and will display a warning on any site that they have tagged as 'bad'.
My question is that once these sites have been identified as malicious, why doesn't google simply remove them from their index?
-Charles
… (1 comments)