Is Simon Cowell using SEO for Reputation Management ?

A number of reports have been circulated, stating that Simon Cowell is apparently using SEO for reputation management. For those of you are are not savvy with website and search engine terms and phrases, SEO = Search engine optimisation, which basically translates into manipulating websites to appear higher in search engine such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

It is reported that Mr Cowell has employed a team of top SEO professionals to handle his reputation management, and to ensure that only “good” news can be found easily on the search engines, and the bad articles are buried.

To add fuel to this fire, it is also alleged that Hans Ebert (a former executive for Universal Music and EMI) wrote a Wordpress blog post saying that Simon Cowell was not a very nice person and that American Idol was a better program without Simon Cowell.

You might think there is nothing wrong with that, and maybe it was a coincidence what Hans’s blog was actually shut down by Wordpress within a few hours of the post going live, for allegedly breaching it’s terms and conditions !

After this occurrence (and according to the New York daily news), Hans Ebert started doing some digging and found that the trail lead to a company in India, who were paid to “monitor” articles and news stories about celebrities. Upon further digging, it is also alleged that the Indian Company is supplemented by top a London reputation management company.

Simon Cowell’s spokeswoman (Ann-Marie Thompson) has been quoted as saying it is “complete and utter rubbish”

I personally think Simon Cowell is fabulous and totally misunderstood. I have read a number of books on him, including his autobiography and I have to be totally honest, he seems a great guy when you get past the hardened exterior and his “television persona” he has had it all, and lost it all, and got it all back again.

Simon Cowell dropped out of school at 15 and after a number of unsuccesful jobs, his father (an executive at EMI Music at the time), got him a small job in the mail room. His connections paid off, and after a short time got him rehired as an assistant to an A & R man. From there, he worked his way up to become a record producer.

However he didn’t last very long and proved his musical talents even further by starting up his own record label “FanFare” however it wasn’t the bed of roses he had hoped, and in 1989 (at the age of 30) the company went bankrupt leaving Simon so deep in debt, that he had to move back in to his parents house.

In the next 20 years that followed he proved he was a real musical genius and entreprenur at heart, but returning from bankruptcy in 1989 to actually being worth £123 million in 2009. I have a real respect for people who can take their talents and expand it so much, that they totally supercede even their own expectations.

Maybe people should find out more about the “real” Simon Cowell before passing any further judgement, as I think the majority of you would be pleasantly surprised.

By the way Simon if you are reading and need any professional help with SEO for ANY purpose, my email address can be found on the ”about” page of this website

An expensive lesson learnt

Wow I haven’t blogged in ages, so thought I would make a little post about something that happened to me not so long back.

Our dog Alfie became very ill, and very quickly. He was taken into the emergency vet at midnight on a Saturday night, and they didn’t know what was wrong with him. He was being sick, had no energy, wouldn’t eat or drink anything at all.

They thought it might be a blockage, so on the Sunday they done x-rays and still couldn’t find anything wrong with him !

Monday morning his condition had deteriorated so badly, that they said they wanted to operate and do an internal investigation, and be transferred to our own vet clinic, as if they don’t do this and he has a blockage he would surely die very soon.

We agreed and were on pins for the next few hours (which felt like a year) to see what they found. They found no blockage but they found a very nasty intestinal infection. They gave him a strong course of antibiotics (different to what he was already taking) and were told to ring back i nthe morning to see if he makes it through the night as he was very very weak.

Tuesday morning came and we waited for the news….exepcting it to be bad…but it was the opposite – he was 60% better and back to his usual ways of looking for food, and being excited. At 12pm we went to pick him up and he was so pleased to see us, it didn’t seem real !

Over the course of this 3 days, various people asked us if we had pet insurance, to which I replied “no we haven’t but it doesn’t matter what it costs, as it will be fine anyway” to which I was met with a look of “hmmmm” on the face of the person telling me.

When we picked Alfie up, I asked for the bill so I could pay. The request was sent to 3 different people as no-one wanted to tell me the actual cost of the bill, as I had told them I didn’t have pet insurance.

The buck was then passed to the receptionist, who handed me the bill with a scared look on her face. I opened the envelope and the bill was £1982.34 for everything Alfie had received over the course of those 3 days. Whilst this came as a shock to them, I was more than happy to pay the bill to get our dog back to himself, and basically save his life.

The expensive lesson that we learnt that day, was we shouldn’t have put off getting pet insurance. We had talked about it 2/3 times prior to this happening and always put it off until another day.

Pet insurance isn’t expensive and after looking at the various pet insurance comparison websites, we took out a policy which worked out at £15 a month

Now if you work that out, thats £180 a year, so £1,800 over 10 years and that is STILL cheaper than this one vets bill we received.

Luckily we were able to afford his vets bills, and wouldn’t have had it any other way, but my advice to anyone with a pet is to STOP putting off getting pet insurance, and GET IT NOW !

Take it from me and my experience, it will give you great peace of mind and great cover for your well loved pet at the time it is most needed.

Gordon Brown Bigot video – this made me laugh

After the sham of Gordon Brown calling a woman (Gillian Duffy) a Bigot, when he thought he was off air –  link here to Gordon Brown bigot video, I had to post this image that I find HIGHLY amusing.

What I find even funnier, is that gillianduffy.co.uk (the 65 year old pensionor who Gordon called a Bigot) has already been registered by someone to obviously take advantage of the potential traffic that this will cause.

mobilephones.co.uk – the holy grail domain name on sedo auction NOW

So the day has finally come – mobilephones.co.uk is now in a live Sedo auction with a modest reserve price of only £25,000 ! Sedo auction link here

This has to be one of the most envied of domain names in the UK domain market place, and I know lots of different people who have tried to buy this name over recent months / years

It will be very interesting to see what the name actually sells for – it has to be well into £xxx,xxx imo and even more interesting to see what the current owners decide to do with mobilephones.com which they also own !

Who said you don’t get anything in life for free ?

Wow it has been 33 days since my last blog post ! and the first one of 2010 ! Lots has happened since my last blog post too. I have stopped drinking coke for a full two weeks now, and an even bigger achievement – I haven’t eaten anything from McDonald’s for 9 weeks on Monday ! Anyone who knows me, will know what a feat that has been so I am really pleased tbh !

Lots of decisions have been made with my projects and goals and I have decided to change the way I do things with certain elements of my business as there simply are not enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do.

One good thing that has come from this change of thinking, is me being able to offer something else to those who need some help. After my mammoth thread on a4u (which I still get daily emails about, even one year onwards) I decided to add another dimension to this and offer something even better.

This is a unique offer for people who want to get hold of a valuable generic product domain name with lots of monthly searches, but cannot afford to buy one, due to the hefty price tag, and here is how it will work :
 
1. I will offer 5 premium .org.uk domain names (1 per person) to begin with, where you can use the name 100% free for 6 months – these are domains names that would sell for £x,xxx each on the open market.
 
2. During this 6 months you must build a website on the domain name and build on the site exactly like it is your own.
 
3. After 6 months, you feel for any reason you cannot continue with the website, then you give the domain back with no charge but in return, the website you have created becomes mine also – which should make no difference as you would obviously have no interest in the project anymore.
 
4. If after 6 months you want to continue using the domain name, then you pay a monthly fee of £150 to myself and you carry on as you were before with full control over the website, and you keep all the earnings yourself apart from the monthly fee no matter how high the earnings are.
 
5. This gives you 6 months free grace to build something up, with no expensive domain name purchase upfront and no outgoings at all, and then the option to continue using the domain name if you feel the project is working for you. 

6. Even if you make money in the first 6 months and decide to give the domain name back after this period, the money you have made is yours to keep with no charge at all.

I am specifically interested in people who have some experience, as these are NOT niche domain names and are valuable domain names, which if used rightly they have the potential to earn £x,xxx – £xx,xxx a month for you.

If you are interested then please drop me an email me ******** OFFER NOW CLOSED DUE TO RECEIVING SO MANY REQUESTS ******** and put the subject as “blog domain name offer”

I look forward to hearing from you

Brittany Murphy dies aged 32 from cardiac arrest

TMZ have reported that Brittant Murphy has died from a cardiac arrest at the young age of just 32.

A 911 call was made approx 8am this morning from the home of Brittany’s husband, but she was pronounced dead on arrival at hospital.

She was best known for her roles in Clueless and 8 mile

RIP Brittany, such a young age to die, and such a tragic loss

Don’t believe in the power of social media ? Rage against the machine beat X Factor to christmas number 1, without spending a penny on advertising

Yes you did read that correct ! Rage Against the Machine have taken the Christmas number 1 2009 slot with their track “Killing in the name” and has beaten hot favourite X Facotr 2009 winner, Joe McElderry.

A facebook campaign was launched to stop Simon Cowell buying his way into yet another Christmas Number 1 with his X Factor winner (the last 4 Christmas number ones have been X Factor winners)

Killing in the name sold over 500,000 copies via download this week, and it was the first time in history a download single had reached christmas number 1.

The facebook campaign grew to over 950,00 members, just goes to show the importance and power of social media websites – think about it

The Gillette Curse ? Tiger Woods, David Beckham and Thierry Henry all jinxed in last month

What do Thierry Henry, David Beckham and Tiger Woods all have in common ? 2 things to be exact

1. They are all sponsored by Gillette Razors
2. They have all been involved in worldwide scandals / news in the last 2 weeks

Thierry Henry was first on November 14th with his “hand of god” where he caused worldwide controversy after scoring a goal with an illegal handball and therefore ending Irelands worldcup hopes.

David Beckham was next on November 23rd with his admission that he has had asthma since being a child, but medical experts have played down rumours that he will not suffer during the 2010 wordcup in South Africa where the air is much thinner.

Tiger Woods was third on November 27th when he crashed his car at 2.25am (Florida time) outside his $2.6m Orlando mansion in an “unexplained accident”

Now call me cynical but could it be a marketing ploy by Gillette to promote their next predictable razor blade ? not 1 blade, not 3 blades and not even 5 blades – but 10 BLADES !

We have made an artists impression of how the new Gillette advert may look

CLICK TO ENLARGE TO FULL SIZE 

Who said using facebook is a waste of time

A teenager from New York who was accused and arrested for armed robbery, has today been cleared of all the charges as his Facebook page had provided him with a concrete alibi.

19 Year old Rodney Bradford spent a whole 12 days in prison after being arrested on the suspicion of armed robbery.

But Rodney was released after a status update on his Facebook profile placed him acorss the other side of town in his fathers flat at the time of the alleged robbery.

The status update was posted exactly 1 minute before the robbery took place, which made it impossible for Rodney to be at the place at the time of the robbery.

The message posted was intended for his girlfriend, who he hoped would cook him some breakfast. Instead, it proved that Mr Rodney wasn’t near the robbery when it took place.

The charges were dropped after IT experts confirmed the status update was posted from his fathers IP address.

Not to be controversial, but surely it could have just been someone else posting that status update to “provide” an alibli ?

I think I might start updating my Facebook profile and Twitter accounts every few minutes, just incase I get wrongly accused of something I didn’t do and get banged up for almost 2 weeks.

Do you think your kids have too much for xmas ?

The answer is probably yes. I know our 3 kids have WAY too much for christmas and they are all very fortunate to receive everything they ask for and lots more.

For the last few years, my wife and I have been helping Operation Christmas Child through our kids local school, and we wrap up and pack  3 shoeboxes to send to this wonderful organisation, which helps bring happiness to the lives of children who are less fortunate than our own children, and to give them a glimpse of happiness at christmas.

I encourage you to watch this short 30 second clip of a child who has received one of these shoes boxes and the reaction he has to receiving it – Click here for the clip

If that doesnt bring a lump to your throat or a tear to your eye, then I don’t know what will. To see the joy on that kids face, from just receiving a shoebox full of  “christmas presents” which are items which we take for granted on a daily basis is very humbling.

But what was in this child box to make him so happy ?

Basically you get a standard size shoe box and wrap it in christmas paper, and then you fill it with items from the list below :

Toys: Bear, soft toy, tennis ball, finger puppet, jigsaw, yo-yo, building blocks, small musical instrument. For boys trucks and cars, for girls dolls, clip on earrings etc.

Educational supplies: Felt pens, pens, pencils, pencil sharpener, eraser, colouring book, notepad, picture or puzzle book, chalk, pencil case, stickers etc.

Hygiene items: Toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, comb, hair clips, bar of soap, flannel etc.

Other items: Sweets (sell by date to be at least March of the following year), gloves, scarf, sunglasses, cap, hat, bangles, necklaces etc.

It doesn’t cost much and the feeling it gives you to know you have helped out people who are much less fortunate than yourselves is truly worth it, let alone the joy it brings to the child who has received it.

I am not a preacher by any means, but the point of this blog post is to show others that a small act of kindness can make so much difference to someones life for a long time.