Blog | Jason Palmer, CPA, CITP

WordPress and ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization

June 25, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

When writing an article, the author usually has a target audience in mind and members of that audience are human, and therein lies the problem. Along the lines of a reverse “Turing Test”, we need to optimize our content not only for readability by humans but also by search engines as we never know if the reader is going to be human or machine. Furthermore, the language of search when people are using a search engine is somewhat different than that which we use colloquially. The ultimate test of the correct keywords to focus on is those which are the most popular search terms entered by billions of people every day.

This is where the ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin, comes in to help. ScribeSEO helps you find the keywords that are used when people are looking for the kind of content you are providing. Then, it analyzes the writing style of your post and makes suggestions on how to make minor changes so that the Search Engines enjoy reading it too. Finally, ScribeSEO provides link building tools so that you can build back links from other sites as well as cross-link content within your own site and identify other sites that might want to promote your content as well.

ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin analysis covers a number of areas to create the SEO Score:

First, it looks at the Title of your site: number of characters, number of words, primary keywords and do those keywords appear at the beginning of the title?

Second, it looks at the Site Description: again number of characters, primary keywords and do those keywords appear at the beginning of the title?

Finally, the Body, for number of words, keyword density, number of hyper-links, are these hyper-links towards the beginning, and the Flesch Reading Ease Score for the “readability” of your article.

The person who originally told me about ScribeSEO tried to prepare me for my first automated analysis by saying that writing optimized content for the Search Engines might take some time to master and get used to. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I analyzed my first organically written article and received a 100% on the SEO score by ScribeSEO. (Office Applications in the Cloud – Google Apps for Business and Office365, click here to read.)

You mileage may vary but realistically, ScribeSEO gives you plenty of feedback on your article so that it is pretty easy to make the subtle changes to optimize for Search Engine readability. Candidly, many of my posts score over 90% consistently with the only shortcoming being keyword density or positioning of the hyper-links to referenced content. (This is probably due to my preference of using the noun instead of a pronoun which eliminates ambiguity and enhances readability.) Only my most technical of posts, the ones that are predominately “tech notes,” score lower.

Another great feature is the suggestion of Tags for your articles as well as a full discussion of SEO Best Practices which provides a number of guidelines and tips so that you can start to learn to optimize your writing style. It also displays a proforma “Search Engine Results Page” showing what the result of someone searching for your content might see in the results listings of a search. Lastly, ScribeSEO provides heavy analysis of current keywords, suggestions on how to change keywords in the article to be more prominent, and alternative keyword suggestions for maximum impact.

ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin has a number of affordable pricing plans and various discounts are available.

Learn more about ScribeSEO Search Engine Optimization Plugin at:
– http://www.scribeseo.com

Footnote: ScribeSEO analyzed and rated this post at 100% “Search Engine Optimized.”

WordPress, Anti-WebSpam, and the Akismet Plugin

June 24, 2012 By Jason Palmer 1 Comment

One of the great things about WordPress is the ability to get immediate feedback. Readers can leave comments on individual entries, and through Trackback or Pingback can comment on their own sites as well.

Imagine how excited I was to see that within hours of my first official WordPress post on my newly launched site, I had a comment. In fact, on a fairly consistent basis, within hours of most of my posts, I had received comments. Wow! Is this Internet thing great or what? What is it they say, “If you publish it, they will come?”

And come they did, but “they” were BOTS (Computer Programs acting like people) and not actual people. This weekend Google honored what would have been the 100^th Birthday of the famed British mathematician, Alan Turing (born June 23^rd, 1912). (See the Google Doodle here.) His invention of the “Turing Test”, which is designed to test if a human can tell if the responses received from a series of asked questions are from another human or if they are programmed responses from a computer, was the inspiration for today’s article. The true purpose of this test described in a 1950 paper was to answer the question, “Can Machines Think?” (Entitled, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence”, click here for background)

At first glance, many of the comments received seemed perfectly legitimate. Sentence structure and grammar were correct and contextually relevant. On closer examination, even though the comments were complimentary in nature, they were also very generic and could have been written about any post. Other clues that the comments were not sent by humans, but by machines, were that the sending email addresses were mostly made up of random characters and all from free email services. The final clue was the link provided by the purported author of the comment. (When you make a comment on a WordPress Site, you enter your name, email address, and optionally, a link back to your own site.) None of the links went to legitimate sites. Some went to sites that offered fraudulent software license keys at extreme discounts, others were to doorway pages setup strictly to generate revenue from Google Adword impressions, and some went to discount offers for well know pharmaceutical sold through questionable channels.

WordPress has a number of features to make sure that only legitimate comments appear on your site. The first and most powerful is that all comments can be moderated by the Administrator. On the WordPress Dashboard, a little message cloud appears showing the number of comments awaiting approval by the Administrator. If you have a low traffic site, moderating the comments manually and without the assistance of a WordPress Anti-WebSpam Plugin may be sufficient.

However, if you would a little help from technology inspired by Alan Turing, you can let a “machine” determine if the comment is from a human or another machine. This is where the Akismet Anti-WebSpam plugin can help. Akismet provides a monthly subscription service for commercial sites (free for personal sites) that applies hundreds of tests to each comment and returns an up or down answer to the question: Is this comment WebSpam? The result of the Akismet tests properly tag the comment and place it in the correct Comment Queue for your further review giving you a head start on your comment moderation tasks.

The Akismet Plugin is installed by default with every installation of WordPress. However, you must visit Akismet.com to register for a subscription, free or paid, to get an activation key so that all of the comments to your site are submitted to the Akismet engines for review.

Learn more about Akismet
– http://www.akismet.com

Learn more about Alan Turing
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
– http://www.alanturing.net/

Learn about the Turing Test
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test

Building JasonPalmer.com in WordPress

June 23, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

So how is JasonPalmer.com built? Even though I have the technical skill to build and design a web site from scratch, I wanted to focus on creating the content, not the technology. I wanted a site that had a professional “look and feel” and that I could add features to without requiring any custom programming. And, most importantly, it had to be an extensible platform that I could put up in minutes and hours, not days and weeks. The answer was WordPress.

Installing the WordPress platform took less than ten minutes. For many web hosting packages, adding in a WordPress site is a “one-click” install, and then just a few minutes to answer some basic configuration questions like: Web Site Name, Time Zone, and Preferred Date Format – along with setting up the Admin user and password.

Next, I decided to purchase the Genesis WordPress Design Framework and Theme Pro Plus Pack from StudioPress.com and selected the “News Child Theme.” The advantage of this commercial package is that it is already Search Engine Optimized, offers a Turn-Key Design with dozens of built-in Widgets (similar to WordPress Plug-In’s) that extend the functionality of the design (think fancy menu bar options), and it is unlimited use, which means I can use it on any site I create. (Individual Themes can be purchased as well and are very competitively priced.)

Within approximately four hours I was able to build JasonPalmer.com in its’ entirety with all of the static content (everything you see in the top menu bar) and begin to post my first dynamic content article (blog and categories sections.)

Anyone can easily put a web site up at Bitnami Web Hosting and Amazon Web Services for Free (for the first year.) See how you can do that too by reading my post on the subject here.

Technical Disclosure Note: Although I am an expert in the installation of WordPress and Web Hosting, you do not need anywhere near my capability level to experience a similar outcome of being able to install and configure WordPress with a Theme of your choice and be “up and running” within one day with your new web site.

Official WordPress Site:
– http://www.WordPress.org

Genesis Theme Framework from Studio Press
– http://www.StudioPress.com

WordPress Content Management System Platform

June 22, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

The biggest misconception about the creation of a web site is that professional expertise is an absolute requirement to produce a commercial quality experience for the visitor. To put that myth to rest, “There’s an App for that” and it is called The WordPress Content Management System Platform. WordPress is web software that provides a complete off-the-shelf, ready to go site that one can easily manage completely through any web browser such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, or Chrome.

WordPress is billed as being a personal publishing system, which enables users to create, post, and manage content – things that you write about, details about yourself or your company, product information, photographs – in short – any kind of content you see on any other web site can usually be managed in a WordPress site without “professional” help.

It is called a Platform because it provides a framework to which one can choose from thousands of little pieces of code called “Plug-Ins” to extend out the feature set. Plug-In’s are created by army of independent software developers in the WordPress Community.

Web Designers can create ready to install “Themes” which allow users to seamlessly change the look and feel of a website using templates without altering any of the content of the site as easily as one changes their shirt at the click of a button. (Click here to see a number of Free Themes available.)

Examples of Plug-In’s include Search Engine Optimization tools, Site Backup, Event Calendars, Weather Reports, Picture Gallery’s, Ratings and Surveys and much more. (Check out the WordPress Plug-in Listings here.) Many users will only need just a few Plug-in’s and WordPress includes some popular one’s by default. However, there are thousands to choose from to do things that previously required the expertise of a programmer to create custom code.

Since WordPress is one of the most popular Content Management Systems, many Web Hosting companies offer it by default as part of their packages. In fact, there are a number of companies that are dedicated to hosting WordPress sites exclusively. Price is no longer a barrier as WordPress hosting is available for less than $5 a month for small sites.

Learn about WordPress
– http://www.wordpress.org

WordPress Plug-in Listing
– http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins

WordPress Free Theme Listing
– http://wordpress.org/extend/themes

Becoming the “Jason Palmer” on Google

June 21, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

Anyone who meets me would never confuse me with any other Jason Palmer. In fact, people say that I make a strong first impression that makes me virtually unforgettable – all good of course. You may read in to that as you will but it is along the lines of “The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about. And that brings us to a new series of articles on becoming “the” Jason Palmer on Google.

For the past twenty-five years of my career, I have been virtually invisible. To use a term of art, I was “off-the-grid” and nowhere is that more apparent then if you try to find me in a Google Search. Much of my consulting work has been for high profile accounts where being below the radar and discrete is good form. Almost all of my work has come from referrals where I am a well-known quantity prior to the introduction, and my credentials and references, if even asked for, are more than sufficient for me to be essentially hired before I actually meet the client. You could say in my field that I am a little like the “A-Team”, if you have a job, and you can find me, I can definitely help you. And there in lies the issue: Since most of my work comes from referrals, you have to know someone who knows me to find me.

To that end, approximately two weeks ago I decided to start to make myself visible on the Internet – Google specifically. There is no magic bullet but there are specific tried and true techniques that I will be sharing to demonstrate that one can go from invisible to highly visible in a reasonable period of time. In fact, the very first article I posted, if you search the proper two keywords, (M451 Error 13 – click here to see the proof), will appear as the very first listing in a Google Search. That is actually pretty impressive – if you are looking for one of my serious tech articles or what I call “Complex Solutions to Complex Problems.”

However, that simply demonstrates that I have highly specialized knowledge to solve a very specific problem with a very specific solution. It does nothing in particular for making me “the” Jason Palmer on Google. Search “Jason Palmer” (click here), and I am buried amongst a sea of “Jason Palmer’s” not appearing until the third page – at least as of the date of this post.

So, how am I going to become “the” Jason Palmer on Google? The answer? Incrementally. First if you look at the title of my site, I am not just “Jason Palmer” but “Jason Palmer – Tech Consultant.” My name is not so unique that there are not many other “Jason Palmer’s” but by adding the “Tech Consultant” tag line, I can narrow the field. This change alone, along with two weeks worth of daily posts allows someone to put in “Jason Palmer Tech” (Click here and see) and put me on the first page of Google.

It’s a start.

Android 4.0 coming to Galaxy Tab

June 20, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

A list was leaked by Samsung that shows that almost every model of the Samsung Galaxy Tab from the Tab 7 series to the Tab 10.1 is due to get the latest Android 4.0 release known as Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

Availability and deployment of the update is tentatively to start in July 2012 with most updates appearing in August.

Unfortunately, the original Galaxy Tab will not be getting the upgrade as the hardware is not capable of truly supporting the upgrade. (There will certainly be unsupported hacks to force ICS on to an original Galaxy Tab and if you understand what that means, no explanation is necessary.)

WiFi only tablets will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade first as Samsung has complete control over WiFi units. Samsung must work with the Cellular Data Carrier Providers to test the software update on the Carriers network prior to update and deployment.

The list of Samsung Galaxy Tab Models slated to get the update are:

GT-P6210 Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0
WIFI GT-P6200 Galaxy Tab Plus 7.0
WIFI + 3G GT-P6810 Galaxy Tab 7.7
WIFI GT-P6800 Galaxy Tab 7.7
WIFI + 3G GT-P7310 Galaxy Tab 8.9
WIFI GT-P7300 Galaxy Tab 8.9
WIFI + 3G GT-P7510 Galaxy Tab 10.1
WIFI GT-P7500 Galaxy Tab 10.1 WIFI + 3G

Learn more about Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich at:
– http://www.android.com/about/ice-cream-sandwich

Learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Tab Models at:
– http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/galaxy-tab

Google Safe Web Browsing 5 Year Anniversary

June 19, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

Five years ago Google launched the Safe Web Browsing initiative designed to help protect users from malicious content unintentionally returned in Google Search Results. The Google Safe Web Browsing infrastructure specifically detects and protects users from malware, (Software that is intended to damage or disable computers and computer systems), and phishing web sites, (the activity of defrauding an online account holder of financial or personal information by creating a replica of and posing as a legitimate commercial website.)

For the past five years, everyday, Google Safe Web Browsing:

Through built-in protection in Chrome, Firefox and Safari issues several million security warning alerts to over 600 million users.
Finds about 9,500 new malicious web sites, and alerts users with a visible warning.
For approximately 12-14 million Google Search queries and around 300,000 downloads warns users of current malware threats.
Sends Webmasters thousands of notification warnings of potential malicious issues with their websites. (Sign up with Google Webmaster Tools here to receive these notifications.)
Sends Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) similar notifications of potential malicious activity on their networks. (Sign up for Safe Browsing Alerts for Network Administrators here to receive these notifications.)

Phishing attacks are becoming more clever and complex. Google Safe Web Browsing has continued to evolve over time to respond to the challenges of today’s phishing techniques, which include:

Shorter attacks with webpages (URLs) remaining active for less than an hour to evade discovery.
“Spear phishing” attacks, whereby the spoofed email message appears to come from the targeted company and from someone of authority that might reasonably request the confidential information from the recipient. (These include nearly perfect replicas of legitimate commonly emails sent from Banks and Financial Institutions as well as eBay and PayPal which use the correct logo, formatting, color scheme and disclaimers – except for the one link to the phishing site and the improper request to divulge sensitive, personal information and/or passwords.)
Phishing sites that, just like the luring fake email, exactly replicate a legitimate site but will prompt the visitor to download a Web Browser Extension or some other executable program to enable fake content or re-direct the user to a malicious site.

Google Safe Browsing specifically identifies two main categories of Malware websites:

Legitimate websites that have had their content altered to redirect legitimate users to fake sites, provide fake content, or provide a “Drive-by-download” whereby the visitor receives a malicious program without their knowledge usually due to an exploit in the Web Browser.
Websites that are purpose built to deliver malware.

Google has some important safety tips to make sure you don’t become a victim:

Don’t ignore Google Safe Browsing Warnings! Do not visit an infected site until the site has been cleaned up. Many legitimate sites get “hacked” everyday with malicious content. Would you purposely ignore a sign that said, “Danger – Bridge Out?”
Help Google find Bad Websites. Users of the Google Chrome web browser can select a check box on the red warning page to alert Google and help protect other users. (Get Google Chrome here.)
Register your website with Google Webmaster Tools. This will allow Google to alert you of suspicious activity or code on your site.

Useful Links:

Google Webmaster Tools
– http://www.google.com/webmasters
Safe Browsing Alerts for Network Administrators
– http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/alerts
All about Google Safe Web Browsing in Google Chrome
– http://blog.chromium.org/2012/01/all-about-safe-browsing.html
StopBadware – Ads Integrity Alliance
– http://stopbadware.org

Get Google Chrome Web Browser
– http://www.google.com/chrome
Get Mozilla Firefox Web Browser
– http://www.mozilla.org/firefox
Get Apple Safari Web Browser
– http://www.apple.com/safari

Microsoft Surface Tablet Announced

June 18, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

Today, June 18th, 2012, Microsoft announced their NEW Surface 10.6″ Tablet featuring Windows 8 with an embedded keyboard and track-pad built in to the cover. Feature for feature, it would appear that the new Surface Tablets from Microsoft will meet or exceed the specifications of the market leading Apple iPads.

Microsoft is one of the few companies that has the expertise in managing software developer partnerships so as to be able to deliver the total tablet experience in a similar manner to Apple. Another key area where Microsoft Surface Tablets could pull ahead is in connectivity to the corporate world. Although the Apple iPad has done an excellent job of creating applications for business and even connecting to Enterprise resources, the fact is Corporate America still predominately operates in a “Windows World.” To that end, Apple may have consumers locked in to a total IOS and Mac Operating System environment, seamlessly syncing and connecting all Apple devices such as the iPhone, iTouch, iPad, Mac, and MacBook but that seamless connectivity starts to get shaky in a corporate environment. There are few, if any, options for managing Apple IOS and Mac devices in the corporate environment. After all, it used to be called the “Apple Personal Computer” before it became just plan Apple Computer and now Apple.

It will be really interesting to watch how Microsoft “connects” the Surface Tablet to the Microsoft Windows Servers and Windows Desktops that run America and perhaps offer a nearly identical, seamlessly connected experience similar to Apple. There may be many more iPads shipped than any other tablet but there are many more Windows based computers deployed in business than anything else for the new Microsoft Surface Tablet to connect with – and that could be the real potential driving change in the marketplace.

To visit the Microsoft Surface Tablet Launch Site, click here.

VMWare Tools Error 1325 – Administrator is not valid short name

June 17, 2012 By Jason Palmer 3 Comments

During a VMWare Tools Installation or Upgrade, you may receive the “Error 1325 Administrator is not a valid short file name.”

This is really a catch22 Windows error caused by the fact that the proper VMWare Tools drivers are not yet installed. The Administrator tries to login to the to the Domain but the Domain resources are not yet available because they cannot be resolved. Therefore the Users Shell PERSONAL Folders, like “My Documents” are not available if folder redirection is enabled and the folders are stored on a Server.

This usually occurs when performing a Physical-to-Virutal (P2V) migration of a Windows Operating System (Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, SBS, Server 2003 or Server 2008) and the Personal Folders like “My Documents” have been redirected from the Local Drive, for example, c:\documents and settings\username\ to a Server directory like \\domain-server\profile$\username\.

The preventative solution is to reset the Personal Folders Target back to its’ default location on the Local drive PRIOR TO beginning the P2V conversion through the properties of the My Documents folder (“Reset Target” button) or if necessary, through Group Policy Objects listed below.

For Server 2003 – Group Policy Object Editor
Folder Redirection
Group Policy object\User Configuration\Windows Settings\Folder Redirection\My Documents

For Server 2008 – Group Policy Management Console
Window Settings
Group Policy Object Name]\User Configuration\Policies\Windows Settings\Folder Redirection

The after the fact Solutions are:

1 – You can try to create a NEW User called “Temp” using the Adminstrartor Template (with Administrative Privileges). Login on as the new “Temp” user and attempt the install of the VMWare Tools again.

2 – Changing the following Registry Key change will most likely resolve the issue as well.

Start RegEdit

Navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/User Shell Folders

Change the PERSONAL registry key from:
\\<domain>\profiles$\<username> to %USERPROFILE%\<username>

NOTE: It is possible that you may need to search out other locations for the PERSONAL folders registry key and make the same change.

You should immediately be able to restart the VMWare Tools Installation and it should succeed and reboot the guest machine when the installation is completed.

If the above does not resolve the problem, and the VMWare Tools are already installed or failed to install completely, then if possible, attempt to un-install from Add/Remove Programs and try again. If the VMWare Tools do not appear in the Add/Remove Programs, then open up RegEdit and use the following VMWare Knowlege Base Tech Note Number 1001354 – “Unable to upgrade existing VMware Tools” to manually remove and clean up the Registry.

Unable to upgrade existing VMware Tools
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001354

Free Video Calling Applications

June 16, 2012 By Jason Palmer Leave a Comment

The most well known free video calling applications are probably Apple FaceTime for the iPhone, iPad, iTouch, and Skype for almost every other platform such as Windows, Android, IOS (iPhone, iPad, iTouch), and Mac. Although FaceTime and Skype probably have the most number of registered users and best marketing, other lesser known free video calling applications have more features that are truly free and do not require the purchase of premium subscription plans or the purchase of the application itself.

For example, the ability to have a free video conference call with multiple people requires a premium paid subscription with Skype. And, if you want to use Apple FaceTime on a Mac, the application has to be purchased from the Mac App Store. In ooVoo, a much lesser known free video and audio calling application, between six and twelve simultaneous can participate depending on the platforms of each caller – Windows, Android, IOS, or Mac.

Other free video calling applications like Fring and Movicha (Mobile Video Chat) will support chat over both 3G/4G connections unlike FaceTime which will only work when connected via WiFi. [ Apple has recently announced that with the release of Apple IOS 6, the newest iteration of the operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iTouch that FaceTime will also support connections over 3G/4G. ]

Not to be left out, the major text chat messenger products, such as AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), Yahoo Messenger, Microsoft Messenger (Part of Windows Live Essentials), and Google Chat all now include the ability to make free video calls.

Unlike the Telephone System, there is no one standard way in which any of these free video calling applications communicate. Each application can only communicate with other users who are running the same application. Skype can only call other Skype(*) users and FaceTime can only call other FaceTime users. The feature set and capabilities vary as to their popularity and penetration in to the marketplace so you will probably have to install more than one free video calling application to connect with your specific contacts.

*Skype is a Voice Over IP (VoIP) phone service that uses the Internet to complete calls between multiple Skype Application users or between a Skype user and a traditional land line or cell phone user. Skype to Skype calls are free. Skype calls to land lines and cell phones, both domestically and internationally, are charged at very low rates that are significantly less expensive than traditional land line and cell phone carriers. Skype allows for instant messaging and chat when voice and/or video calls are not supported. Skype usage is partially restricted by some Cellular Carriers to work only when a WiFi connection is available or only for International connections as the Cellular Carriers want you to use your phone plan voice minutes instead of free calling applications that would potentially travel over the 3G/4G data plan on the phone.

Other Instant Messenger products listed below have or are adding the ability to call out to traditional land line and cell phones as well.

Free Video Calling Applications

Skype
– www.skype.com
FaceTime (Free App for IOS only – iPhone, iPad, iTouch)
– www.apple.com/iphone/built-in-apps/facetime.html
FaceTime (Mac)
– www.apple.com/mac/facetime
Google Talk – Windows or Mac
– www.google.com/talk
Google+ (Android, iPhone, Mobile Web)
– www.google.com/mobile/+
ooVoo (Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, Facebook)
– www.oovoo.com
Tango (Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, Window Mobile)
– www.tango.me
Fring (Android, iPhone, Nokia)
– www.fring.com

Instant Messenger Chat Services

AOL Instant Messenger (Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, Web)
– www.aim.com
Yahoo Instant Messenger (Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, Web)
– messenger.yahoo.com
Microsoft Live Messenger 2011 (Windows 7 and Windows Vista)
– www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/rediscoverconversation
Microsoft Messenger for XP – Part of Windows Live Essentials
– windows.microsoft.com/en-us/messenger/get-started

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