Seo-Keywords-Ranking
One of my resolutions for 2008 was to do regular posting on my blog and make it more popular. So here I am thinking what to write today. Today there is no post, just figures to look at and I am happy to look at these figures. My SEO knowledge and work on the site is paying now and with the start of 2008, I am seeing an increased traffic on my site and also an increase in the earnings. Check out the image which shows my baby site’s keyword activity for 3 hours. Most of my traffic is from organic search and returning visitors or visitors recommended by the parents who frequent the site so often. It seems the site is doing really really well in mos of the keywords I aimed for and they are all ranked on first page and most of them on 1st and 2nd position.
Happy New Year 2008!
I wish all my readers a very happy new year 2008. I am sure, this new year will bring success and happiness in your lives. Year 2007 was really great for me. I got more involved in blogging and learnt many new things, simple things which we really don’t get time to know and learn while working on BIG technically challenging projects.
I also came to know about many good resources on open source. There are so many useful codes available in open source, which I plan to check out more in this new year 2008. Another big thing I learnt was Google Adsense. I did realize that you can make good money using Google Adsense provided you have time to look after your websites. It was in the year 2007, that I started getting regular checks from Google Adsense. My site KidsandBibs.com saw a huge increase in traffic in the year 2007 and it got very very popular. I am planning to make it bigger and better this year and at the same time, work on KidsandBibs -India site as well and make it the most happening place for all the internet savvy Indian mommies.
I also plan to sell of a few websites I own in the year 2008, as maintaining sites is a big big task. You need to really keep working on them so as to maintain the traffic and increase the site’s popularity. As they say, content is King.. so the content needs to be updated often. I have seen those sites which I did not pay attention lost the traffic which it used to get earlier. So I am planning to keep a few sites and sell rest of them so that I can give time along with my office work.
So for this new year, my main resolution is to organize myself a bit and bring some discipline in my hectic life schedule.
VistaDb - fully managed and typesafe embedded SQL database
VistaDb 3.2 is the world’s first fully managed and typesafe embedded SQL database engine built for Microsoft .NET, Compact Framework and Mono.
Managed code represents source code that executes within the .NET memory space and that is managed entirely by .NET and the Common Language Runtime (CLR). Managed applications let .NET protect a computer or device by preventing rogue or malicious code from directly accessing a computer’s resources such as memory or hard disks where damage can be done. Typesafe means that an application uses the native .NET data types. In other words, no pointers!
VistaDB is the lightweight alternative to SQL Server 2005.
It was during Rojit’s business development work that we came across this person Anthony Carrabino, owner of VistaDB. Since I was also there working on some project at that late hour, Rojit asked me to join him and we both had a good talk with Anthony and we never felt that it was our first chat with him. We just introduced ourselves and he was so good, so responsive and he was giving us tips on how to go ahead in our goal. He told us about his company, how he started it and how he has been fully involved in marketing vistaDB. He was so kind us to send across one copy of vistaDB to try it out.
I remember the last time we spoke to him, it was before he joined Microsoft, he gave us the news and he was quite excited and he told us that it has not been announced officially yet, but he has planned to join the company. I am sure Anthony, you must be enjoying the new company.
Usage of AJAX among .NET developers
I came across this survey results about usage of AJAX among .NET developers and it is really interesting to know the survey result, though it is not as accurate as it is based on a very limited number of responses, but it does gives us a fair idea. Also it is interesting to know that in the Commercial Tools section, Telerik Radcontrols got the highest number of votes. We have also seen that most of our clients do prefer to use Telerik Controls and we have used the same in many projects we have done.
Survey Results
| Answer Options | Response % |
| ASP.NET Ajax | 73,7% |
| AJAX Control toolkit | 49,6% |
| Ajax.Net Professional | 13,3% |
| jQuery | 11,7% |
| Prototype | 11,5% |
| Raw Ajax | 11,3% |
| Script.aculo.us | 9,7% |
| Ext JS- Javascript Library | 6,1% |
| Yahoo! User Interface Library | 5,5% |
| Infragistics | 4,9% |
Commercial tools
| Option | Response % |
| Telerik RadControls | 11,7% |
| Infragistics | 4,9% |
| ComponentArt | 3,6% |
| DevExpress | 0,7% |
| ESRI Web ADF | 0,3% |
| Backbase | 0,1% |
The hard core developers
| Option | Response % |
| ASP.NET MVC | 45,5% |
| MonoRail | 27,3% |
| SubSonic | 13% |
| WCSF | 9% |
And what if you are not using ASP.NET Ajax? The other preferred options among .NET developers
| Option | Response % |
| Ajax.NET Professional | 33,1% |
| Raw Ajax | 24,4% |
| Prototype | 23,6% |
| jQuery | 21,3% |
| Script.aculo.us | 15% |
| Telerik radControls | 12,6% |
| Ext JS - JavaScript Library | 12,6% |
Partial Rendering vs Core ASP.NET library usage
| Option | Response % |
| Partial Rendering / Update Panel | 91,8% |
| Ajax Library | 53% |
Referrals - an easy way of getting work!
Recently, we have been trying to check out other means of getting clients in a move to expand our business. So far most of our projects have come to us through word of mouth and through referrals from existing clients. Working and dealing with such clients who are referred by our existing clients is so easy because in that scenario, the person has already done his bit of work by checking out the satisfaction level, efficiency, performance and our delivery criteria. So in such cases, our work becomes so easy as we may be just one company bidding for that project and there is 99% chance of getting the project if the delivery timeframe and project budget matches with that of the asking client.
Whereas to market your services and get a new client, requires so much of hard work. You study the requirements, do your own research, prepare a long proposal only to keep hoping for the best. There are so many competitors all eyeing to get the project and sometimes the competition is so tough with many companies ready to do the work at a much lesser budget. In such a competition, you are trying to sell your services through means of your communication which may be a simple chat, email service and letting the other person know that you and your company is really able to perform the desired tasks in a very efficient manner. So I feel it all depends on how you present yourself to the potential client, whether you have understood the requirements in detail or not, have the required skillset or not and whether you are giving your services within your potential client’s budget or not.
So I truly believe that it is best to give good service to your clients, who in turn can get good work for you and you have to not really go through a whole sales cycle for getting a BIG FAT CLIENT 
Decorating your blogs :)
As blog/site owners, we all know how important it is to have the right widgets and right tools installed, so that you can keep an eye on the traffic, popularity and for making the blog accessible to as many people as you can.
There are many blog directories available today, but my favorite so far have been mybloglog. For me it is much more than a blog directory as it lets me know the exact web traffic, the popular keywords, how and from where people are coming to my blog, and most importantly - where they clicked on the site. It is very important as I get to know exactly which adsense units are working best on the site or the blog.
In the attched screenshot, you can clearly see the list of keyword terms through which people visit to my site, the actual search engine, where they are landing and where exactly they are clicking and thus I can keep a track of the popular adsense blocks and I can identify which format works best for the site. Also I get to see if they have clicked on any affiliate links. With 3USD per month, it is indeed a good service and I don’t mind paying that much to get all these useful information.
One major advantage of using mybloglog is that it keeps a track of other mybloglog visitors so you can build your online social circle easily by going to various blogs of your interest, leaving a message here and there and thus you create your own web community, which is really a very good PR for your website and it helps in making your site/blog popular.
So if you have still not added this widget in your blog, do it right now. I am sure, you will be happy and moreover now it is owned by Yahoo. So you will need a yahoo id to register.
