The Word on The Web

I dabble in SEO. That is to say that I do my own SEO for my own websites. It's hard. I entered an SEO contest earlier this year figuring if I finished in the top 10, it would be a good advertisement for my SEO services. Well, I finished 4th after spending 3 months in the top 3, pretty darned good for an novice SEO dabbler, but it taught me a lot. I know what good SEO is and I know what to look for and I know that I don't want to do it - at least not full time. I much prefer to stick to my web design and logos. So now I give out a little free advice now and again, help people once and a while when the spirit moves me but SEO is nit picky, it's stressful, and it's time consuming - I have to admire anyone who has the stamina to take it on.

Someone who has that stamina is JP Richards who owns and runs Toronto SEO Company. I recently met JP and asked him about his SEO evaluation offer.

JP offers a free SEO site evaluation. That in itself attracted my interest. SEO evaluation isn't an easy process so I wondered how complete this analysis actually was. Have a question - ask. I asked JP what kind of information was included in his evaluation and this is what I learned;

For your hard earned nothing (read free) you get...

• An evaluation and list of Existing Incoming Links as well as an analysis of the corresponding anchor text,
• Existing Meta Tag Overview and keyword analysis including a Top 3 Keyword Competitive Analysis.
• You also get an 8 point "on page ranking check",
• a list of concerns, target keyword research and suggestions, on page and off page suggestions and more.

The SEO evaluation I read was complete, nothing left to the imagination, no stone left unturned. JP Richards is a Google™ Qualified Adwords Professional & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultant and it shows.

If you're looking for a SEO service, I'd recommend contacting JP, visiting his SEO Company and looking into his services. If nothing else, do the site evaluation - I guarantee that once you see it, you'll be impressed.

Not all web directories are created equal. In fact, with free directory software available, they are almost a dime a dozen.

Submitting to directories can be time consuming and can nibble away at your wallet at the same time so, do your research and save your time and energy by submitting to directories that are in for the long haul and are self improving.

CBravo Directory gives a great list of reasons why you should submit to this seo friendly directory and they are good guidelines to follow when looking for directories to list your site.

CBravo boasts a great life line (they've been around for a year and a half), they tell you about their backlinks, their on site optimization (including sitemap submission to yahoo and google) among other reasons you should submit your site to CBravo.

CBravo is reasonably priced and your listing will benefit from their on site SEO.  Definitely a web directory worth a look

Recently I've seen a couple of articles on the relationship between the location of your web host and how well you rank on certain locale specific search engines.

For instance, if you are a Canadian company looking to sell your product in Canada, you might do well to have your site hosted with a Canadian hosting company. It appears that search engines such as google.ca use the location of the server to indicate relevance on their searches.

Recently I entered an SEO contest and did quite well, spending most of the contest in the top 3 in google.com. However, even though I am a Canadian, and I mentioned the location and even did a blog entry on my contest site about being Canadian, I did not rank in the top 10 on google.ca presumably because of my choice of web hosts.

Canada web hosting can be hard to find though and often times even though you find a Canadian company offering hosting with servers in Canada, you are still billed in U.S. funds and the rates are not terribly reasonable.

I located PrimeHost.ca and found that they not only bill in Canadian funds, accept various payment methods, and have online ordering, their rates are reasonable as well.

Definitely worth a mention.

Dragtimes.com is an automotive drag racing resource that maintains a database consisting of over 9,300 1/4 mile drag racing timeslips for fast cars and fast motorcycles. A horsepower calculator is offered to provide horsepower estimates that are calculated from the car’s trap speed, 1/4 mile ET and weight in pounds. Many records also contain dyno graphs that show horsepower and torque numbers for many of the fast cars as well as all performance related modifications to the vehicle.

Every month one of the drag racing submissions is featured on the main page of DragTimes.com as an outcome of users voting for their preferred fast cars. There are pictures, quarter mile times and drag racing videos for many of the submissions that can be searched through by car make and model. Since all records are reviewed to uphold the website’s integrity, DragTimes.com serves as a superb resource to research what other fast cars are running around corner or across the world.

The following is a hydroponics and grow lights introduction covering the basics of the systems and methods commonly used for growing plants using hydroponics based systems. Our hope is to give you enough information to get you started with evaluating the different systems and with choosing the right one for you.



Hydroponics systems include: Nutrient Film Technique (NFT); Drip (or Top) Watering; Aeroponic; Cloning; and Ebb & Flow (flood & drain) methods. Fundamentally, all systems feature a reservoir and some type of container for the plant(s) to grow in, such as pots, trays, etc. What separates them is how the nutrient mixture is delivered to the roots.



Media-based systems use some form of growing media or plant nutrients, which provide support for the roots. There is a greater selection of media-based systems to choose from to accommodate diverse plants and plant sizes. Water culture systems can be used either with or without growing media. These systems, however, require regular attention since growth rates are high. Abundant and high-quality fresh water and electricity must be readily available. Also, rapidly growing plants need to be maintained. Vines call for trellising and fruit and flowers must be harvested in a timely manner. Some common water culture systems are raft nutrient film practice and aeroponics.



There are three primary grow lights choices; Metal Halide, High Pressure Sodium (HPS), and fluorescent. Fluorescent grow lights gives off little heat, lower light output and are primarily used to start seedlings and cuttings. New T8 and T5 higher output systems are now offered that produce enough lumens to grow various plants to maturity. Metal Halide grow lights are green/blue/violet-oriented in the spectrum depending upon the Kelvin temperature, and is the superlative light when natural light is not available and particularly during the vegetative growth stages. High Pressure Sodium grow lights are red/orange-oriented in the spectrum and the superlative lamp for secondary or supplemental lighting and promotes budding, flowering and fruiting.