I mean, have you ever tried to describe the feeling of love, or what sunshine feels like? For house music lovers who’ve seen Chuck Love perform live, I’m sure you’ll agree it’s just as difficult to verbalize what the experience is truly like. He pulls out all the stops. From guitar to vocals to horn, and then synthesizer to hookaphone (!), he puts on one amazing performance. He killed his set so beautifully and kept my friends and I dancing all over the floor until we were about to collapse from exhaustion. It was awesome.

However, if you don’t have the opportunity to see the producer-slash-DJ in person, I do recommend checking out his new album. The two-disc set includes one compilation of all original tracks, including two of my favorite house tunes, “Back in My Life” and “Soul Symphony.” For you house heads out there, you know what I’m talking about. Disc two features a blend of both Chuck’s remixes and original tracks that will pretty much make you either bob your head like crazy or just get up and dance. In my opinion, it’s an extremely solid album set, and everyone I know who’s heard it also sings his praises.

But you don’t have to be a house head to appreciate him. His production includes influences ranging from soul, funk, disco, and downtempo. One thing I love about albums of this quality is their versatility. Throw it on during a barbeque, house party, or beach bonfire and you’ve got instantly fun mood music. I’m excited to experience such a talented artist, I’m happy to spread the love to you all, and I hope at least a few of you will explore the “Love” too.

Resources:

• Listen to / Purchase Album
• Upcoming Shows [MySpace]
• Live video [Sorry the sound is distorted! I was near the speaker]

Notes: This article is a non-paid review, sponsored by MsDanielle. The Resource links are non-affiliated links. Shout-outs go to my friend Andrew from Ubiquity Records for passing the album along to me, as well as to Lindsay Fagan from OM Records for providing support.

So is there one way to create the ideal landing page, shopping cart, or checkout process for your site? No way. There are as many successful variable combinations as there are sites, which WD4ROI points out. Use of color, placement, word choice, and images can all affect how a user may or may not successfully navigate through your site to the shopping cart, and eventually, checkout. Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus provide suggestions that should be tested for improvement, as they cover the basics of why you should attempt to improve your conversion rates, as well as landing page, home page, category page, detail page, form, and checkout process optimization.

It only took me a handful of sit-down sessions to read through the book, it’s that intuitive of a read. But it’s great food for thought. Design plays such an important role in today’s online business. No longer can webmasters and project managers expect to build a site and have sales come pouring in just because the site is “there.” It affects the way we browse sites, fill out forms, purchase, and so forth. I mean, how many times have you been on a site and thought, Where the hell is the shopping cart?! Or, How do I get to the next page?? At that point, as a user, I usually “X out” and find another site to satisfy my ADD tendencies and impulsive online shopping habits.

I recommend checking out this book if you’re interested in increasing your site’s conversion rates (which means, all of you!). If you test something and it fails, the worst thing that can happen is you change it back to its original design. But if something works to your advantage, it could mean a significant increase in sales or leads, with little to no increase in marketing spend.

[Additional resources here.]

Grandma’s right — we are a good looking bunch!
Last weekend I went to Las Vegas for a huge family reunion. Most of these relatives I’ve never met, and the best part was meeting all of my “new” cousins. There were 17 of us, to be exact, a mixture of first, second and third cousins. Some weren’t able to make it, so I don’t even really know how many of us there are. Including the parents, aunts and uncles, there were 50 who attended the reunion.

Meeting new family is great, especially when there’s lots of love and positive energy floating around. My adorable grandmother made a speech at the reunion dinner, announcing in an evenly-toned manner, “I am so proud to be part of such a wonderful family. Everyone likes each other. We’ve got doctors and lawyers, students, and others who are still trying to find what they want to do [not to mention teachers and a tv newscaster!]… And, we’re a good looking bunch.” LOL I almost fell out of my chair when she said that!

Here’s a group shot of most of us cousins on our way to Stratosphere. There are three rides way up on the top (one goes up and down the red pointy thing in the background!), and we had the greatest time bonding and screaming our heads off at the same time.

And here’s something else that wasn’t so cool, but both aggravating and entertaining enough for me to capture and write about — the most annoying car to drive behind in the fast lane on the way to Las Vegas. This video is 5 seconds long:

Microsoft Zune Contest Nearing the End
I announced the end date of the MS Zune giveaway, and just wanted to remind you guys that I’ll be randomly pulling a name out of a hat next weekend to see who’ll be getting it next. Thank you so much to everyone who’s participated! This thing sort of took on a life of its own after John Chow, Jane May, and a few other popular bloggers announced the contest. I will note that having a substantial prize helps motivate people to enter, as well as spread the word, and the fact that it first came from John Chow also helped a lot. I don’t have an exact count at the moment, but there are probably about 60 entries at this point, which is still good contest odds for winning a nice prize like the Zune. If you’re still interested in entering the contest, feel free to post your entry and let me know by next Friday.

Enkay Analyzes Ms Danielle dot com and Finds a Typo
That’s right people. It’s true. “N-K” of Enkay Blog has sifted through a majority of my blog posts and has found two typos that I let slip by. Why did he do this? Because I challenged him to find a typo in my blog, and if he found one, I would do a site review of his site. To make a long story short, somewhere I’ve misspelled “participated” and left out an “s” in pictures. Therefore, he gets his well-deserved review.

I believe I was first contacted by Enkay via MyBlogLog (which you all know I love). Subsequently, NK, as I’ll call him, submitted an entry for my Zune contest that I found personally entertaining. Not only does his blog cover a range of interesting topics like blog tips, entertainment, and technology news, he reports them in a way that’s very enjoyable to read. I find that the most refreshing writings are those that sound like people are conversing out loud to a group, and not just writing for the sake of putting something on their blog. Imagining that you’re addressing a group helps create a model for dialog exchange, which carries over into the tone of your writing, since you are addressing a pretty big group — the entire www. My only issue is his header which I think can be better branded. Other than that, it has potential to gain a very loyal readership.

Get a Free Review at Cash for Comments
My friend Prija recently started a blog called Cash for Comments. No, he doesn’t actually get paid to comment. But I have to admit it’s a very intricate yet simple plan to help everyone increase content and SEO value. This is how it works:

1. Leave five valuable comments on his blog and contact him to get your free review.
2. He will write a 200-word review of your site.
3. Let your readers know that you’ve been reviewed by Cash for Comments.
4. He will leave five valuable comments on your blog in return.

What are the benefits? Well, first of all, we know as bloggers that “content is king,” right? Well, commentary also counts as content. A large number of comments equal added value, therefore both sites benefit by gathering additional content. Second, both sites receive in-content links, links placed withing the content on the main body of the page. Google likes these kinds of links, and they will help your site’s SEO. Check it out if you want a free review and extra content on your blog. At the very least, it’s free!

San Francisco based Om Records has released the much anticipated album from artist collective Bassnectar. The album, Underground Communication, created by producer/DJ Lorin Ashton, fuses laid back hip hop tempos with the aggressiveness of heavy break beats and the melodic intricacies of experimental electronica. The result is a compilation of audio masterpieces.

There’s something completely mesmerizing about hearing clean lyrics laid down over complex break beats, like in the tracks Underground Communication and Amorphous Form. Track three, Bomb the Blocks, really made me stop in my tracks, mainly because it contains one of the best outros I’ve ever heard on a track. Yep, I said outro. They even tip their hat to Digital Underground in track six, Select Frequency. I dare you to resist nodding your head to this one! Track nine, Yo, featuring KristinaMaria also threw me for a loop, because the woman sounds like a latina Missy Elliott. Hot! And I can’t even get into the level of sexiness of the jungle bass line in the final track, Kyrian Bee Bop. You gotta hear it to believe it.

Anyone who appreciates “bone-rattling dancefloor crushers” should not pass on this album. It’s years in the making, and Ashton’s talent is embodied in these seventeen tracks. There’s no wasted potential here. (This is more than I can say for some other popular artists. *cough!* Lily Allen…) Now I just can’t wait to see him throw down this album live and I’ll be one really happy girl.

Resources:

• Bassnectar Media Kit
• Listen to / Purchase Album
• Bassnectar Tour Schedule

Notes: This article is a non-paid review, sponsored by MsDanielle. The Resource links are non-affiliated links. If you’d like MsDanielle to review your site, submit your information for consideration via the Contact Me page. And shout-outs go to my friend Andrew from Ubiquity Records for passing the album along to me. 

Rick and I go way back, all the way back to March. You may have seen his face in my first speed linking post. His latest online venture is BentoBoxReview, which “reviews a little bit of everything.” I came across the site when I saw a backlink from BBR pointing to my blog. He included me in his Great Blogs section, right under John Chow, which I thought was really cool of him.

The title is a great indication of what you’ll expect to find at the site. Bento, in Japanese culture, is basically a lunch box filled with a little bit of this and that. The layout is clean, the header is well-designed, and the ads, at this point, are unobtrusive. It also helps that Rick is a good writer, and updates his blog pretty regularly, which is an issue I know he was concerned about with his other blog.

I also watched his video blog (Episode 1), which I think could use some improvement. But since he works in the entertainment industry, I’m sure he’ll smooth out any kinks on his way to becoming a great host.

As long as he continues to write regularly, I think he’ll have a successful blog. Check it out, and while you’re there, don’t forget to enter the contest!

[Disclaimer: If I actually do win, I'm not making any promises to recycle it like the Zune. This baby's mine if Rick pulls my name out of a hat.]

When you first land on SEO Theory, it pretty much looks how you’d imagine a site about SEO theory to look like. Somewhat text-bookish, complete with bullet-points, introductory statements, “final thoughts,” and of course, no pictures. That’s fine because it’s the content that captivated me.

SEO Theory breaks apart the myths about link development, and other SEO related topics that mystify many of us online marketers, advertisers and publishers. The first article I read entitled “SEO Theory for Beginners” had me thinking I was sitting in SEO 101, and I was the eager student that couldn’t wait for discussion.

What I enjoy about the writing style is its “Here, take it or leave it” attitude. It’s as if the author, Michael Martinez, is daring you to disbelieve him. But I don’t. Ten years of SEO makes him a professor in my eyes.

SEO Theory is not a manual for “how to do seo.” Rather, it’s a in-depth theoretical model of what SEO is, from the perspective of someone who’s “been there, done that.” You won’t find Mr. Martinez telling you where to buy links, but he will tell you that you don’t know how to recognize a quality link because “quality links” don’t exist.

Take it. Or leave it.

Note: This article is a non-paid review, sponsored by MsDanielle. If you’d like MsDanielle to review your site, submit your information for consideration via the Contact Me page.

So why did I come up short? Well, I know I could have pushed the promotion harder by mentioning it in my posts, or perhaps running it a bit longer. A banner might have helped too. I think a back link to any site you want for 45 days plus a link back to your blog from this post was a pretty enticing offer. But maybe not enticing enough, what with the flurry of back link promotions going on these days. Also, I could have ran the promotion a bit longer in combination with the above.

In any case, the three people who participated in this promotion were: Julie from JuliesJournal, Jez of SiteLogic, and Bobs from ReformatThis. I invite you to check out their blogs, as well as the reviews they wrote. It’s always good to write constructive criticism too, if it applies, as I was grateful to see in Bobs’ review.

If any of you wrote a review of MsDanielle.com and forgot to link it to the post, let me know and I’ll get your links up too. Thanks to everyone who partipated and gave me some feedback!

Update (4/23): Thanks also to Darin Carter of Darin.cc for posting a review of MsDanielle. It missed the original deadline by a couple days, but here’s the review for you all to check out. Thanks Darin!

Anyway, I asked myself, What’s a good, fair back link exchange? Well, if you provide me a review from your blog, I’ll put a site of your choice in my sidebar for 45 days with the anchor text you choose. (It’s like a free Text-Link-Ad!) And I’ll add a link to your blog in the summary batch announcing the people who participated. Only the first 10 people to ping my post and leave a comment letting me know will get in the sidebar. But everyone will still get a back link from the summary post for participating.

Sound like a fair deal?

Here are the rules:
All you have to do is write 200+ words, link to MsDanielle.com, and link to one other post on my site. Please make sure to use the anchor text “marketing blog tips” at least once. And don’t forget to leave me a comment here. Oh yeah, and the 3 P’s aren’t eligible for back links (pills, porn, or poker).

I really don’t care what you write either, as long as the content is relevant and the links are correct. You have until Sunday, April 15th at midnight to submit your review. Hopefully I can average at least one review per day to get to 10!

After that I’ll be posting the summary. Only one sidebar link per person please, but you can write as many reviews as you want for back links from the post if you have more than one blog. Let’s see how many I can get!

Services like MyBlogLog – a social network for bloggers – make it easier for newer bloggers to get right into blogging, and become part of the blog world pretty fast. This makes for quick connections and therefore produces an accelerated level of interaction. So, what?

Like I talked about earlier, if you’re trying to optimize your blog, you need links. The more you interact with other bloggers, and the more links you provide, the more you’ll probably receive in return. This is why I decided to give this speed-linking thing a shot. It couldn’t hurt, right? If anything, I’m just spreading the link love! So here goes… These are a few of the blogs that I either read regularly or somehow find amusing. But one thing these links have in common – these are all people I’ve seen or met through MyBlogLog, and at one point or another, I’ve seen them checking out my site. I call this “Faces I See: Part I.”

This is my buddy Gary of MrGaryLee.com. Gary and I go way back. He’s a month ahead of me in blogging, but light years ahead of me in SEO and marketing. Check out his site and you’ll see what I mean. Straight gangsta. Keep on keepin on, Gare!

If you have a blog, most likely you’ve seen this face. It’s Saman of Samanathon.com and he’s probably your current Top Commentator (go ahead, go look!). Hi Saman!

Surprisingly, this image belongs to a grown up, not an angry two-year-old — and his name is Derrich of Derrich.com. Derrich actually pitted Gary and Saman against each other in his 2nd 2007 Bloggers Tournament. I can’t say who I voted for, but it wasn’t Saman. (Sorry!)

Meet Derek of DerekSemmler.com. We were in John Chow’s Batch 36 together. He would really like you to send him a t-shirt. Preferably clean, and size XXL.

This is Rick from 500DaystoFame.com. I think he was the first to comment on my other site. He’s giving himself 500 days to get on tv. Today is Day 79. Good luck, Rick!

This picture’s deceiving because it belongs to a guy named Jon of JonLee.ca. Yep, Jon is from the north (Canada). Jon is one cool cat because he’s always commenting and giving props. Thanks man!

You may have seen this image attached to a few different blogs. It belongs to So-and-So from JimiMorrisonsHead.com. I call him so-and-so because he doesn’t publish his name on his site. So-and-so, if you want me to post your real name, let me know!

At the very least, drop by their sites and say Hi. I’ll post a couple more when I have a few minutes. Right now I’m queueing up this post for tomorrow morning.

Update: This just in… I’m adding a couple more familiar faces to the list. Check em out!

This is by far the best avatar I’ve seen (Sorry Derrich!). AngryCat, aka Jez, of SiteLogic Web Development wants you to be in his SEO network. If you don’t join, AngryCat will hunt you down.

You may have seen me post this picture before. It’s Marisa, or Scorpy01, of Marisa’s Dandelion Patch, and she’s a sweetheart. She’s heading back to the mainland today from Kauai so welcome her back before she checks her email!

Now, getting to his latest promotion, and why it takes the cake for being the most evil back-link promotion yet. First, read his posting rules to get an idea of what the promotion is (It’s short. And if you have a blog, I recommend you participate!). OK, now that you’ve read it, you can see the breakdown of his strategy and how it will work. The benefits of his evil plan:

* Get an insane number of back-links to his site from his readers with the anchor text “make money online”
* Get ranked on page one of Google’s search results for one of the most searched terms in the world, “make money online”
* Denying anyone else from receiving a back-link from his site with the anchor text “make money online,” thus reducing his competition
* Getting an insane amount of new traffic to his site from people looking how to “make money online,” which is exactly his target audience

This is absolutely genius. He’s pretty much systematically figured out how to game Google’s system to get these popular back-links. The bottom line is, whoever has the most back-links with the anchor text “make money online” pointing to their site will almost definitely show up on page one of Google’s search results for that term. Evil? Yes. Inspiring? Oh yeah…