Backup Anytime

Geansai Gormgreatest hits (with updated worm discovery information)

Password protection removed.

Why? Cause there are only a few days left ’till the album release.

What’s new? Well quite a bit actually. The main development is that a new variant of Geansai worm has been discovered. We are not talking here about the Spam snake. No, he was banned by St. Patrick quite recently and won’t be allowed to compete for a worm fest position on the first of December.

The newly discovered Geansai worm is a variant of the Germanic blue species. A formal name has yet to be agreed by the EU endangered species register. The man who discovered the worm is naming it Gansus Gormus merging the likely latin naming convention with the original Irish blue jumper translation Geansai Gorm. This informal name however he explains may stick but will not be accepted as the formal name as each species is named formally as a sub species and with a name derived from the genus. Most creatures, large, small, tame, wild, endangered and protected are not formally named with anything like the conventional names we use in ordinary speech.

Professor Ymiritindis of the endangered species ‘r us political HQ in Brussels has visited Berlin personally to view the new worm. We were unable to interview him there as his visit was short and for a specific purpose. We do however believe that we caught up with him in Cork. The man with the untended facial hair, cheap imitation wide rim designer plastic framed glasses, brown cords, blue untucked shirt and steel tipped loafer shoes was surely he. This however was denied and despite repeated probing for information regarding his discovery all he would say was “Ger=man? Wha di ya mean Ger-man. I’m from Toher ye tool”. We have no little doubt that this was actually the great man and that his sudden departure the wrong way up a dual carriageway in a blacked out, clapped out Honda Civic was in reality a guise to fit in with the local community.

Have you seen the Professor? Could you worm your way in to his confidence? Let us know if you can.

The content below may or may not be factually correct, is likely total rubbish, should not be taken seriously or acted upon and is not intended to be offensive but if any is taken that is an added bonus.

Geansai Gorm greatest hits (Top ten presented here, complete list on geansai gorm)

1. Where’s me Geansai

2. I’m blue (jumper)

3. You reap what you……. well er, knit

4.  Eye of the needle

5. Got a wool lotta lovin’ to give.

6. River gorm.

7. Might as well jumper.

8. I gansai anything since you poked me in the eyes.

9. I chased Jack Duckworth and I gorm in Rovers.

10. Roses are red and Geansai is blue.

I would be very interested in seeing anyone else’s top ten. They must be Geansai Gorm originals. No covers or wannabes please.

All the rest (70s, 80s and 90s viewable on geansai gorm)
The greatest hits album will be released on December 1st 2008. Join the queues at your local music shop early. Soup and sandwiches available to early queuers (I can’t spell that and either can wordpress) at selected venues. Queue tickets issued to protect early birds. You are required however to keep your place.

This post will be updated twice weekly or thereabouts between now and December 1st

Comments are welcome. You are not permitted to share the password “geansaigorm” for this post unless you really, really want to. No exceptions bar you. Please direct complaints somewhere else unless they are funny.

On a serious note, comments from competing entrants will be allowed link juice of they add to the overall silliness of this post without harming anyone.

If Microsoft was a bank its’ products wouldn’t crash!

Two things everyone knows.
1. Microsoft is a huge (understatement) worldwide software company.
2. World banking is in a horrifying state of flux (understatement no.2) at present.

Two things you may or may not know.
1. Microsoft has a finance division aptly if unimaginatively called Microsoft Financing.
2. They are at present in limited circumstances providing 0% financing!

Whats the catch? Here it is.
You must be a new purchaser of specific Microsoft Customer Relationship Management and Dynamics solutions. The financing period will be three years. You must take the offer some time between today (19th November 2008) and 20th March 2009. You must be credit approved. Your purchase must be a minimum of  $30,000 and a max of $1,000,000.

Katrina Braund, (Microsoft Finance dev. manager) will be better placed to give the green light to finance applicants than many major financial institutions. Indeed the financing division of Microsoft which doubled business in the past year is likely to do more so in the next twelve months despite the common near closing of books at traditional finance sources.

The Microsoft finance division (and finance divisions at other major software and software as a service providers) originally came about as a consequence of a reluctance of mainstream finance houses to finance these offerings.

Microsoft are obviously well positioned to offer finance for their own products given the considerable markup which reduces risk. This will remain welcome in the software market. Could it tempt Microsoft to expand it’s finance offerings beyond it’s own products? Not likely but always possible.

House of Commons data debate 12 November

This House of commons debate is quite fresh being dated 12 November 2008

I follow UK blogs and Irish blogs. A few click away from a regular UK site I read I fount the following.

Want to have your say in a house of commons debate on data management? The one I am following deals specifically with not alone the Governments handling of data but their subsequent handling of the situation arising from handling data badly. The opposition may have ulterior motives but this aside they are good at voicing public concern when it suits.

You can have a read and even join in this house of Commons data debate. You can even have your say. If your comment picks up enough following you may even end up influencing Government action. OK, that may be unlikely but is a possibility. Your post could at least tutor the opposition.

This is a far cry from watching the Irish Government dillydally late at night and hours after the event with one way communications only. Maybe someone will post explaining that a similar Irish service is running. That would be nice.

All in all, the UK Government are being forced to take data (privacy, responsibility and legislation) seriously and this has to be a good thing.

Some of the comments on the theyworkforyou site are also quite good and demonstrate a keen insight in to the importance of data management by the British public.

The participants (mostly male) can be bitchy but with a surprising amount of hidden and readily available ammunition. David Heathcoat-Amory hits hard. Not the type of man you want outside the tent shouting in. Being a conservative he is about as far outside the tent as people have wanted the conservatives for quite some time. So, enlighten me. What Irish service along these lines have I been missing?

I follow a few Irish politics sites and the Authors on twitter and despite a high standard I don’t know of anything with the time or resource to run at this standard.

Geansai gorm. What did I learn?
I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Damien Mulley. If you are in Ireland and blog you will know all about him. He is ubiquitous in Irish blogs. Anyway, where was I. I am not a fan. Indeed I have found Mulley strangely unavailable (even to answer a repeatedly asked question) to amateur bloggers like myself but quick to pull the verbal trigger should someone dare to venture an opinion which differs from what he has freely spoken. I consider much of his commentary (such as the Hardwood Restaurant review) to be abrasive and damaging even when people genuinely try to engage and communicate in a positive manner. So much so that I expect many of his apologetic respondents wish they didn’t reply at all. People however are complicated and dismissing them entirely on the basis of specific events or differences of opinion can serve only to exclude yourself from some positives. He can actually be generous of spirit and use his blog to point to social wrongs. God forbid however that the same woman in this story should on the day she received the H.S.E. letter happen to serve up a meal to Mulley with an attitude, in a manner or above a timescale which wasn’t acceptable. An example of something I like about Mulley is his fresh thinking. I much prefer this to his belief in free speech applying to aggressiveness of speech. This fresh thinking coupled with his blog following can (on occasion) be conducive to producing web marvels. An example of this is the Geansai Gorm competition.

This competition interested me as I had never come across an SEO race with a level playing field. The key was the requirement of a new domain and in addition the need to use keywords which up to then would be uncompetitive.

Granted, some entrants will have contacts for links and even control over powerful domains but these tools combined with the knowledge of when and where to use or not use them are surely part of an entrants skill set from a potential client view point.

The results so far are interesting. I considered joining for a while for fun and chickened out. Not because I feared I would not come first. I knew that I wouldn’t win. But because I didn’t like the idea of coming in below midstream. Somewhat akin to lining up against the wall as a kid to be picked for football, not expecting to be picked first but praying you would be ahead of centre. I now regret not entering as any knowledge I gain from the competition is third hand and I can’t engage in any trial and error.

I did however join in to a limited extent by supporting one of the entrants. I showed my hand early on with regard to my support for Paul Savage. My reason for supporting Pauls Geansai Gorm website was his work in resolving a problem I had with Google some time back.

Anyway, less about Paul and Mulley. This post is not to thank Paul. I have already done that and it was a commercial transaction. This post is not about exacerbating or resolving my own issues with Mulley. I want to be neither “Mulleycoddled” nor “Mulleyfied”.

This post is about what I have learned from the competition and a call to SEO experts, participating or otherwise to assist with putting the list of tasks in an order of importance or weighing the relationships between specific tasks or indeed removing them from the list and adding others.

Here (in no particular order as of yet) are the SEO factors I believe to be important.
The individual list entries may be short and brief. This however is no reflection on the amount of work they require.

1. Good content (original)
2. Prevalence of keywords in domain
3. Number of words in domain.
4. Domain extension.
5. Number of links in.
6. Quality of links in.
7. Location of hosting.
8. Use of Google maps.
9. Proper implementation of site maps.
10. General use of Google Webmaster tools.
11. registration with major search engines.
12. Age of domain.
13. Frequently updated content.
14. Correct meta and alt descriptions.
15. Well managed keyword usage.
16. Blog implementation.
17. Use of social media.

I am beginning to wonder if near complete overall SEO is a financially viable option for small business. Realistically, even with strong management it is very hard to put time weights on these factors as they relate to each other regarding any order of importance.
Even after a generous once off investment one could spent near unlimited time on any of a number of these factors. It would appear to me that strong SEO management from a cost management viewpoint has to be about outcomes and not activities.
In other words, an ambition to achieve a specific page rank for specific keywords may be provided at a reasonable cost but a requirement to keep a site in perfect condition is an ongoing time consuming process rather than an event.

Also (and I am meandering now) is there an example of a “near perfect website” from an SEO viewpoint which most web developers can agree on? Is the measure of SEO simply achieving that number one spot at all costs or are there examples of tacky number one achievers which a worthy web marketer would not be proud of?

I would really appreciate some expert feedback on this. Apologies also for the general usage of the term SEO as I am sure many will see this as one factor and not relevant to many list entries as they may relate to SEM etc. I know I put much of this incorrectly but you know what I mean.

In short. Can you add to the list? Would you remove from the list? Would you dare attempt to list all or some of this list in order of importance?

Go ahead, that’s what I am hoping you will do.

Thanks
John

Black dog with a geansai gorm.

Warning. Please read. There is an increasing number of unofficial geansai gorm websites being launched seemingly on a daily basis. Please do not be fooled by this. If you want to communicate directly with geansai gorm, please visit the official geansai gorm website.

Strange post title? It is in any language. If your Irish is not up to scratch it will be even more complicated!

Geansai gorm translates in to blue jumper with the noun (geansai) jumper being placed before the adjectivally used colour (gorm) blue. Pronunciation: ganzee gurum. A bit like: guna deas but totally different!

 So what? Well, Paul aka Black Dog has entered an SEO / marketing competition. The winner of the competition will be the highest ranking site holder for search term Geansai gorm. What I like about this competition is that all domains must be new. This can only level off the playing field. So, lets wish the luck of a black cat to black dog. If you want to show support visit him at http://www.mybluejumper.com by clicking on geansai gorm

Wordpress spell check has some difficulty with geansai gorm!

For geansai it offers the following alternatives; gens, gainsay, jeans, Genoas, gen’s

For gorm it offers the following; go rm, go-rm, form, corm, germ

I reckon this will be a hit with Irish blogs everywhere.  A bit of craic. If you needed geansai gorm translated, please believe me that craic is not a typo and craic while being good fun does not rot your nose. It is only for fun but having said that, I am sure there will be significant analysis of different approaches and results. When does it end? I have no idea. Sorry. You can find out more from Blackdog. You know where to find him. (:

Update 30 October:

I don’t want to put multiple Geansai Gorm entries on the blog so I will put the occasional dated update here. I don’t know if that will have any effect. I do notice however that this post has gone from position 2 to 2nd page in 24 hours. This page does not need to rank at first position but needs to ranks high enough to be of benefit to the site which it supports. If you are curious about which site it supports you can see it from the Geansai Link above.

Update 31 October

Anyone following this will be aware of the meaning behind geansai gorm and how this is being placed all over th Internet at present. We would like to further explore the concept and possibilities beyond an object being a jumper and simply being blue. A blue jumper may also be made of wool. Wool is generally the preferred material. A woolen geansai gorm may however offer little protection from the wind. In addition, a geansai gorm may comein round or “v” neck variants. A hand knitter geansai gorm could set youback a few quid. The West of Ireland as a craft location has a very strong geansai history. Indeed, if you are looking for  geansai gorm, Galway may be the place to look.

Geansai gorm links

How long does it take to produce a hand made geansai gorm?

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/2265

Famous people pictured wearing a geansai

http://www.showbiz.ie/news/august08/25-jc-reilly-gets-trinity-honours.shtml

You can now follow geansai gorm on twitter which will provide up to the minute information in the geansai gorm project.

Meet the Geansai gorm super hero. Coming soon! No wait, here it is; http://www.bebo.com/GeansaiG2

Update 4 Nov 2008

There was some wild geansai gorm activity yesterday. It would appear that all is back to rights today. There is some considerable time to run and literally anything could happen. I think that black dog and mybluejumper.com are in a strong position overall but the standard is high i this one.

Update Nov 5 2008

We do the research for you. You wanted to see a Geansai Gorm on e-bay? No problem. We have scoured ebay private and commercial seller sites andhave found a Blarney blue wollen jumper which you can see at:  http://cgi.ebay.com/BLARNEY-Woolen-Mills-IRELAND-Blue-Wool-Sweater-XL_W0QQitemZ250318865368QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item250318865368&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Coincidentally, and this really is a coincidence, the auction for this Geansai Gorm does not end ’till December 2 which is one day after Black Dogs acceptance speech for his Geansai Gorm award. Nice one.

Update 6 Nov

We see today that there is a compeditor in my blue jumpers geansai gormposition. We respect the efforts of competitors but are amazed that any index would do this. It can surely be none other than a temporary repositioning with regard to the medium term outcome. We will try to get an opinion from Paul Savage directly but I suspect this may take some time as he may be busy assisting Mr. Obama with geansai gorm policy.

Update 7 November

This has been running for some time but I just found it today. Geansai Gorm is now on LinkedIn.

It’s actually a good general news update and historical record of the positioning pattern for Geansai Gorm and serves to track the progress of the latest movers.

The official Geansai Gorm badge is available for you to display. So, wear it on your sleeve (literally) or just on your web profile if you are an offline introvert!

Here it is.

Update 13 November 2008

Pauls site, mybluejumper.com is in position 3 today. Number 1 is a invalid entry as it is a not so new and well established site which is commenting on the competition. Number 2 is a valid entry and is therefore currently in pole position, one step ahead of Pauls site. There are only a few weeks left but literally anything could happen during this period. I have been following this competition and supporting Geansai Gorm in the hope that I might learn something.

However, as with everything SEO, it can be hard to evaluate the individual effect of sub strategies as they equate to the overall effect. It is not just the extent of the change attributable to any specific action which is hard to guage but even ascertaining if the effect of an individual action is negative, neutral or positive can be difficult to do. I am going to create a new Geansai Gormpost over the coming days which will list the actions I feel could help and I would be delighted if some experts would add to the list and ultimately if we could put it in some order of importance. The addition of weighing the importance of relationships and dependencies between specific actions would also help.

Update Monday 17th November 2008

I don’t understand the latest developments in the Geansai Gorm competition. Entrants are not effectively linking to each other and reporting on each others progress. I would expect that this may be helpful for the competitor who is linked to and may have (I doubt it) limited benefit to a lower ranking competitor linking to a higher ranking competitor. There are however high ranking competitors linking to lower ranking competitors. I will just have to hunt down an explanation for this today. When I get it, I will post it here. If you want top have a look at it yourself be my guest http://twitter.com/geansai_gorm

If you crack it, let me know please. There is one other possible explanation. A number of the top entrants could be making mistakes God forbid.  And they looked so smart in their nice new geansais.  Maybe some reflection on their greatest hits will bring back our confidence.

Geansai Gorm greatest hits (Top ten actually)

1. Where’s me Geansai

2. I’m blue (jumper)

3. You reap what you……. well er, knit

4.  Eye of the needle

5. Got a wool lotta lovin’ to give.

6. River gorm.

7. Might as well jumper.

8. I gansai anything since you poked me in the eyes.

9. I chased Jack Duckworth and I gorm in Rovers.

10. Roses are red and Geansai is blue.

I would be very interested in seeing anyone else’s top ten. They must be Geansai Gorm originals. No covers or wannabes please.

Update November 20th

mybluejumper.com was doing so well for so long and now under two weeks from D’Day we find the official Geansai Gorm website, mybluejumper.com in second place for the search term Geansai Gorm! What can we do to remove the impostor. I shudder to think also that another impostor or indeed any amount of them could also lurch forward.

In an effort to resolve this we are publishing the chorus from the title track on the upcoming album. Yes, we are going to release our lyrics to you before we even name the song. So number one everywhere for Christmas and number one in Google by December 1st. Here it is.

“You try to take our place, in cyyyyber space.

You spam about the blogs like a digi-pansy

You want to win the race, so shooow your face

You can’t keep the dogs gorm geansai.”

So that’s it. The 35 word chorus of the new Geansai Gorm song. It is the unnamed title track. In other words, if you name the song you name the Album! Now that should get you going!