Growing up is optional

Tell me something interesting that I don’t know, or link to a cool website I haven’t seen (I always want to learn new stuff) and you can have one (of 4).

The first 4 comments with something original win.

UPDATE: Gmail seems to be giving out invites willy-nilly. There will be more than 4 going.

Richard asked about number1 Google phrases.

It’s not something I’ve put a huge effort into recently. I have all of the work I need. I don’t need to promote myself.

Back in 1999 when I built my first website for my wife’s small business, (It was better then than it is now), I managed to get it to number 1 on Altavista for the word ‘childrenswear‘. This did bring quite a bit of traffic to the site. However, back then I was a newbie that didn’t think about my users, who would be searching for ‘kids clothes’. (If only I knew then what I know now…) I did manage to get it (briefly) to #1 on Google and Yahoo! for ‘childrenswear’, although I think the best combined result was 3rd on all 3 at once.

Jump forward 5 years: the ‘If you build it they will come’ way of thinking is long gone (it was gone in 1999 too, most didn’t recognise it though). First-move advantage is not as great as it was in the 90s. The big players have the pseudo-commodities market sewn up. This is the age of the niche.

It does you no good to jocky for position with the term ‘website’: there are too many others. What you need to do to get search rank is specialise (or buy it).

Richard has obviously chosen a niche and it appears to be working. There is probably only a small proportion of people out there that would use the search terms for which he is #1. The great thing is that anyone that does search for those terms is going to come across excellent content (which is why Google is so good).

So, which terms am I number 1 for?

• Joseph Lindsay - my name, and this domain
• just like everybody else - also the title of a great song by the band formally known as Shihad, now known as Pacifier (which is also the title of one of their best)

I did hold the #1 spot for the term “Specialist Generalist” which is what I am; I specialise in knowing a bit about everything. Unfortunately that means that I’m not an expert in any one field, the downside (and benefits) of which has been discussed before

So I don’t have a niche. Therefore, I’m not number 1.

UPDATE: I’m also number 1 for the phrase “bmx for everybody”. Two posts about BMXs on the homepage and I’m there. I wonder how long it will take to drop once they move of the homepage?

The Rasterbator is one of the coolest online tools I have seen. You upload an image which it then pixelates and lets you turn into massive posters. Very cool. [via]

My Red Cell are cool. What I’ve heard reminds me of old Flying Nun bands (sort of The Clean and The Verlaines) but a bit punk and they’re not kiwis. (album review - I haven’t heard it all)

One of the great things about surfing, sailing and water sports in general is that you learn to pick wind gusts by watching the surface.

Today is the first time I have used that skill while driving. The rain was so hard and wind so strong that I could pick the wind gusts before they hit the car from the water on the surface of the road. Going the other way, it was quite unusual to be driving up hill at 80km/h and watch the spray from our wheels get blown past us.

It’s cold.

In the 17 years I have lived here I have seen snow on the foothills just west of here twice until yesterday.

I haven’t felt this cold is so long. Fat is under-rated. Before Christmas 2003 I decided that I needed to lose some weight. I lost over 15kg (32lbs), but now I feel the cold.

I used to surf all year around, even when the water got below 12°C. I used to wear just a business shirt to and from work year round.

I haven’t been surfing since March (although cold isn’t the only factor). I now wear a singlet, business shirt, woollen jersey and jacket to and from work.

Roll on summer

I got WinXP SP2 this week using bittorrent. The problem that I have though is that my ISP charges more for international traffic than local (NZ) traffic. Does anyone know a good P2P client that you can allow downloads from xome IP blocks and not others? Does anyone know what NZ’s IP address range is?

Richard has posted a cool way put your blog on the map

Now you can find me here.

By changing the parameters of the URL to your location and title you can put you blog on the map too.