Day to Day - A Lifestyle blog set in ghettorific Long Beach

A Beginning SEO/Link Building Reading List

amandarecord — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 06:40:23 +0000

Occasionally I’ll get people messaging with questions about how to get into SEO or more specifically Link Building (define) work. One of my favorite things about web marketing is the transparency within it’s professionals as to what worked for them. I started Link Building on my own before I really knew what Link Building was. I just had a client that needed link building services so I started reading up on what I would need to do for that project. Below are some good SEO starting point readings that I’ve come across in the past year of my SEO work. Apologies to my non-techie friends that could care less about the content in this post!

SEO books that I own & use
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin
Building Findable Websites by Aaron Walter
The Art of SEO by Eric Enge

Understanding the Big Picture Articles
Beginner’s Guide to SEO, Chapter 7 Linkbuilding by SEOMoz
Search Engine Ranking Factors 2011
Link Anatomy: Understanding the Value of a Link
30 Link Building Link Baiting Techniques that Work in 2011
Link for People Not Search Engines
Finding Link Opportunities with Advanced Search Queries
How to Train a Link Builder

Outreach Tip Articles
If you remember nothing else then just keep it conversational and don’t sound like a robot.*
9 Ways to Improve Your Infographic Pitches to Blogs & Websites, yes this is for infographic outreach but he gives tips that can be applied to outreach for any campaign really.
Content-based Link Building for Outreach, written by the lovely Justin Briggs.
A Linkbuilder’s Gmail Productivity Setup (with Outreach Emails from 4 Industry Linkbuilders

Tools
RavenTools – If I could have only 1 from this list then it would be RT.
BuzzStream
Tout App - simply put this is a email templatizer that lends some of the features from eMail Marketing to regular emails. The paid version lets you save templates, schedule emails to send at optimal times and see performance (opens, clicks) for emails that you’ve sent.
Boomerang for Gmail – let’s you schedule emails from your inbox. I really LOVE scheduling emails as sometimes with my School schedule I end up working at odd hours.
Ontolo
Open Site Explorer – enter in a competitor’s website url and see what other sites are linking to them.
Hootsuite – As far as I’m concerned there’s no other option for managing a Twitter account. I’ve been using Hootsuite for years and love it.
30+ More Tools to Automate Your Link Building
79 Link Building Resources – 2011 Edition

Work Stuff – Business Card Infographic

amandarecord — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:21:27 +0000

Those of you that know me in real life know that early on (in my work life) I got thrown in eMail Marketing and lived & breathed that for a couple years. For a little over a year now I’ve switched gears and found myself doing SEO (define) work; mostly blogger outreach campaigns.

But I would say that my first love is still eMail Marketing. I just loved being involved (in-house positions vs. working at an SEO agency) in every step of creating the messaging and product offering to the customer. Plus as with all things online you can see (via analytics/software tools) exactly how people are interacting with what you send them. I geeked out on that a bit, being able to see what parts of a email people clicked on or what subject line got a higher open rate. The biggest reason that I’ve found myself staying in SEO vs. going back to eMail is just that there’s so more flexibility with SEO. I need that flexibility right now while I’m finishing School.

Below is a infographic that I got to be involved in creating for one of our clients. The whole creative/development process was alot of fun and reminded me of my former job focus where it was so important to be detail oriented. Also there are so many parts of the creation process that require ‘thinking’ versus just clicking on ‘submit link’ buttons. You might have to be in SEO to get that joke. The response (from those that we’ve shared the infographic with) so far has been really positive too; making it all the more rewarding for myself.

Created by BusinessCards.com

2012 Resolutions

amandarecord — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 06:28:16 +0000

I’ve never been someone that makes resolutions. Instead I just make a ‘working’ goal list in the notes app on my iPhone but what the heck… I’m joining in on the nonsense this year.

1. Drink more water
2. Keep up with my educational plan for graduating on-time. This one is going to be hard!
3. Eat better
4. Start learning a foreign language. My school schedule might conflict with this one.
5. Work up to cycling the San Gabriel Trail to Culver City
6. Not eating burgers or pizza for 1 month (starting now)
7. Buy art or paint pieces for my new place
8. Make some friends in Long Beach
9. Get Belia to start skyping so I watch the baby tummy progress.
10. Keep interesting work projects
11. Stop biting my nails
12. Read more non-textbooks

I had already started #6 (2 weeks ago) but I felt like death all day today and a burger from Innout was the only thing that seemed worthy of soaking up all the alcohol residue that lined my stomach. Ugh, I only drink in excess 2 days (my birthday and NYE) out of the year and I’m glad those days have now passed; I’m not very good at it.

2011 was a really great year for me. The best I’ve had possibly ever. I’m really happy to be at the place where I’m at in my life, with the friends (geographically scattered of course) that I’ve made and so many long term goals within reach. I feel like I’ve really come into my own and am really excited for what’s to come.

Song of the Day- Avril 14th with Szjerdene by Aphex Twin

amandarecord — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:12:01 +0000

I came across this video that includes a song from Aphex Twin that I listen to reguarly. This video or film is really well done. At first I thought it was really sweet and I was gonna post it on one of my friends facebook (she’s pregnant) but now I don’t want to freak her (or any of the other twenty pregnant women that I know) out. You’ll see.

28th birthday weekend

amandarecord — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:29:57 +0000

I spent Friday night with Erin and crew in Mission Viejo. Erin was my neighbor growing up in Orange County and her mom has the same birthday as me! So I crashed her mom’s holiday exchange/birthday eve party. Which meant I got to see my momma on birthday! Though I didn’t think to take a photo with her. :/

Erin and her friends apparently got this same brew the night before. The Bartender was like ‘Who’s ordering my Alesmith? Oh you guys are back.’. I believe the makers are based in San Diego. It was pretty good and yeah I’m still claiming that I’m not a beer drinker.

I wasn’t feeling so hot the next morning (for obvious reasons). An acai bowl from Banzai Bowl was the ONLY thing that I wanted. The one below is Maui Sunrise but I’m considering going with Shark’s Cove (plus coconut shreds) in the future.

On Saturday (12/3, actual birthday!) I went to Congregation Ale House with friends. This is my favorite place in Long Beach! I am obsessed with their sour cream, sweet chili pepper dipping sauce. Plus I needed an excuse to wear this new dress from Dahlia.

On Sunday some of my family drove up from Orange County to take me out to dinner and my Aunt Ruthie did this….

I have walked past this bike rack countless times and never once did this action occur to me as an option. Anyways, overall a great weekend! I’m excited for the next year. I feel like things are going in the direction that I need them to.

Song of the Day – Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart

amandarecord — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 07:54:40 +0000

I saw these guys at FYF Fest back in August and THIS song filled my heart so that I thought it would burst. The video makes me a little seasick but it’s still pretty awesome! It’s exactly what they were like live and the girl reminds me of Debbie Harry.

Jackie and Kevin – Acrylic Portrait

amandarecord — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 01:22:04 +0000

This acrylic painting took me way longer to do than I originally thought it would. Pretty early on the thought occurred to me that maybe Jackie and Kevin wouldn’t want to keep a painting of Kevin choking Jackie? The photo that this portrait is based off of was taken at my going away party in San Diego (notice Whistlestop’s vibrant green hued walls in the background). Well I really like that photo and I thought it was sketched out halfway decent. So worst case scenario I get to keep this and I can paint them something else that is ‘nicer’ that Jackie won’t have to hide when her abuela comes over.

I intended to give this to Jackie for her birthday but missed that deadline by a long shot. I’m sorry Jackie! Kevin’s face alone took 2 weeks. Regular painting takes so much longer than watercolor does and I’m so impatient. I’m a little nervous since 2 people know that I’ve been working on this little project but neither one of those people are Kevin or Jackie :/.

Well guys like I said if you don’t want this one I would LOVE to keep it and paint you a ‘nice’ portrait. I was going to send this home with Lauren (I pick her up tomorrow am from LAX) but I’m probably going to work on Kevin’s hand a little more. Maybe I’ll bring this down with me around the 17th when I’m in town for my holiday work party? It almost killed me not posting work-in-progress pics on Instagram like I normally do.

The original

Bianca looks crazy. Haha

Song of the day – Pillow Talk by Wild Child

amandarecord — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:46:00 +0000

One of my favorite all time movies is Pillow Talk with Doris Day and Rock Hudson. I’ve watched it countless times and still have the DVD. This is a pretty big deal since I only own like 15 DVD’s. I also have a Doris Day record from when I still had my record player. Maybe I took to this song for sentimental reasons or maybe it’s just awesome. You decide.

The Song

The Film

Binki Shapiro – A Study

amandarecord — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:46:05 +0000

This past Friday I got the overwhelming feeling of needing to paint… something, anything. Luckily Aaron Brothers was having a huge sale so I stocked up on some canvases. I started on a portrait of one of my friends and her boyfriend. I can’t give too many details on that until I give it to her. On the off chance that she checks this thing.

Which got me thinking about what I would want to paint for myself. I got a really big canvas for a piece of my sister that I’m going to start on. But that one is going to take a really long time for a number of different reasons so I’d like something easier done beforehand. Anyways I’m thinking the piece of my sister, Heather will go in the living room and then I’d like to paint another one either for the bedroom or above my desk. I usually paint people that I know. But I thought it might be cool if tried painting someone that I don’t know: enter Binki.

She’s the singer in Little Joy. Her voice and the presence that she has in photos exudes a sense easy going-ness. She just seems at peace. My favorite photos of her are with her bandmate/boyfriend Fabrizio Moretti. I think if I pick a photo of the two of them that it will go in the bedroom and if I just go with Binki solo then the desk it is.

Solo

I think I’m favoring this one or the one below. It would be cool if I tried to use those blue tones in the hair.

With Fab

Let me know which way you think I should go!

Ethie

amandarecord — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:27:30 +0000

I noticed today that I’ve been getting some traffic from people searching for my best friend, Ethan. Understandably, I then did the same thing and came across a cool video that one of our mutual friends made of Ethan’s 28th birthday trip to Disneyland. I’m not there but check it out anyways!