Hi Everybody,

Years ago when The Uninvited was a struggling rock band on the road, you showed us your endless kindness and support. You came to our shows, bought our records, even opened your homes to us. You let us crash on your floors. You fed us, bought us drinks, helped carry our gear, literally making our life on the road possible. More importantly, you made us feel like a part of a community much larger than the band itself.

Today we are calling on that community once again. Longtime friends and fans of the band, Doug and Kathy Morrow, need help. Kathy and Doug have been married for over 20 years. Together, they have spread love, joy and happiness to everyone they come in contact with. In 2008 Kathy became seriously ill, resulting in endless hospital stays, treatments and surgeries. As you can imagine, the situation has taken quite a toll on their family.

As such, we are asking you to help out again. The show on March 31st, 2012 is FREE, but if you could chip in $5 or $10 for Doug and Kathy, we would be endlessly appreciative. Just click the “Donate” button below and enter any amount you can contribute. Also, being Steve’s birthday and all, the greatest present you could get him would be a little something for Doug and Kathy. Please feel free to leave any words of encouragement in the comments section below. Seriously, we need a little love here…

Thank you so much. You rock!!!!

You want to give your ranking a spanking? Well, it’s a long way to the top if you wanna SEO.

Okay, the “SEO/Rock ‘n Roll” rhyme is a bit wonky. Angus Young will probably fly out to Maui specifically to kick my ass, but the sentiment is still true. Getting to the top is “harder than it looks”, to further mangle the AC/DC metaphor. But obviously, someone knows how – it’s not like the first returns on Google are blank, or have a big sign saying, “Sorry, you’re not cool enough for this spot.” So the question is, how is it done and how do I get there? Well you have come to the right shop because Steve is going to give you the low down on the up high.

Basically there are two major components to SEO. The murky alchemists who specialize in this field call them “on-page SEO” and “off-page SEO.” On-page SEO has to do with optimizing the content and code actually on the page – see how clever these guys are? Off-page SEO has to do with tasks you perform…wait for it…off the page, or outside your site. These techniques include link building, bookmarking , social media exposure and other activities that help give your site relevance and popularity.

On-page SEO is always the first step in optimizing your site so we’ll start our list there.

1. Know your key words

Make yourself a list of 10 key words or phrases (2 or 3 words) that you want your site to rank on. Start your list with your most important key words or phrases and work your way down. BE REALISTIC. The keyword “Facebook” is kinda tied up. Do the research and find the words that people use to find the stuff you sell, talk about, pitch, evangelize or pontificate upon in your site.

2.Use your key words in your titles

Pick one or two of your key words and use them in your titles. Titles should not exceed 55 characters in length. If you use WordPress, this content would go in your title field. If you are doing your own html markup, this is the content that goes in the <title> tags on your site. This is by far the most important step. Why? Because the page title is what all the major search engines display in their returns. Furthermore, be absolutely certain that the page title accurately describes the content of the page itself. If your title is “Free Beer for Everybody!” but your page is all about extracting bellybutton lint, the search engines will banish your site to the millionth page purgatory.

3.Use sub-headings

Search engine bots, the software that “crawls” your site and indexes the content, love a well structured page. Sub-headings that describe relevant content are yummy for the bots. Use heading tags – <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc – to give both the reader and the bots a “heads up” as to what the next section of your article or content contains. Be sure and sprinkle some keyword sauce on those.

4.Use your keywords in your content

Duh. You might ask why this is not number one. Well, you should know what your key words are first. Next, you don’t need to put all your key words on one page or section of your site. Just a few of the relevant ones. There’s that word “relevant” again. Don’t try to fool the bots with long lists of key words. It makes them angry, and angry bots are more judgmentally punitive than a Catholic grade school nun who just found your Playboy stash. “SEO Experts” go on about “keyword density,” the science of ratios between keywords and content and blah blah blah. Bottom line: make sure your content reads well and key words appear several times.

5.Alt attributes should be used whenever images are displayed

When it comes to pictures, bots are blind. They have no idea what your picture looks like. To make life simple for the bots, be sure your image tag s have an alt attribute that describes the image and uses keywords. For example, let’s say you have a great picture of your bellybutton lint extractor that you use on your site. The image tag should have an alt attribute like this:

<img src=” /images/bbcleaner.png” alt=”Bellybutton lint extraction make easy” width=”300″ height=”225″ />

If you are using a CMS like WordPress just fill in the text on the form field that says “alt” or something like that when embedding an image.

6.Use well formatted, syntactically correct markup

Googlebot would rather have a proctological exam than try to parse your endless nested paragraph tags. Don’t clutter up your page with a bunch of poorly coded markup. Use external style sheets and JavaScript files.

7.Use description and keyword meta tags…maybe

There’s a lot of debate out there about whether or not meta tags are important in SEO. Keyword meta tags probably don’t carry much juice anymore, but the description meta tag is often used by Google in the actual returns themselves. In my opinion that alone makes them worth the time.

8.Get other sites to link to yours

…then find a cure for cancer and guide the planet to world peace. Ok, “Get other sites to link to yours” makes it sound so easy. All ya gotta do is get harvard.edu to link to your site, and you’re golden (some people say backlinks from .edu sites carry more clout) . Let’s face it, not only is this hardest part, it is also the most important in regards to ranking. The reasoning is that the more sites point to yours, the more authoritative your content must be (cloudy logic when you consider how many people link to Fox News). Some people write articles for other sites in exchange for a link, which can be very helpful if you’re writing for the right site. Chumming for backlinks is a long, dull, arduous process. I use a company called RankPay who do a great job with all aspects of off-page SEO.

9.Put key words in your anchor text

When you are writing an article or “swapping links” with another site, be sure to use your most important keywords in the anchor text. The anchor text is the text that gets underlined in the link itself. You want to be sure your awesome keywords are right there in the clickable area.

10.Get social

Garnering a net-buzz through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is more important than ever. “Likes” have rank juice, as do tweats with links back to your content. We could go on for hours about this but you get the point. You need a Facebook page with lots of friends, and a twitter account with lots and lots of engaged followers.

That’s the whole enchilada in a nut shell – nice cliché mash. Obviously, the on-page stuff is a little easier to tackle than the off-page stuff. As I mentioned earlier in the article, outside SEO specialists like RankPay can handle this type of service for you, but it is costly. I like RankPay because you only pay if they actually push you up in the returns. If you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments.

Your lifestyle choices reflect your hard-earned status as Top Dog, so why clutter up your phone with proletariat ghetto apps? That’s why SteveWare Labs has released the first-ever “prestige app”, Munchie Madness Bling Edition.

Encrusted with over 2,345 carrots of flawless virtual diamonds meticulously set in a hand-crafted solid gold interface, the blinding brilliance of Munchie Madness Bling Edition tells the world that you are G’d up from the feet up, 24/7. If real, the diamonds, gold and craftsmanship that went into creating this app alone would be worth well over $5 million. Now that’s a statement to the world.

About Munchie Madness Bling Edition

Munchie Madness Bling Edition is more than just diamonds and gold. MMBE represents the bleeding edge of munchie procurement technology. Utilizing our breakthrough Hankering Algorithm, Munchie Madness instantly sifts through the entire accumulated knowledge of all mankind since the dawn of time to display the exact location of the best Cheeseburger, Pizza , Sandwich or Caviar within the specified range of your current geographic location.

Granted, you could type a search term into 3 or 4 of your favorite search engines, comb through the results, read the reviews, find the addresses, flip a coin, and hope your burger doesn’t suck. Or, you could place the awesome power of Munchie Madness Bling Edition on your iPhone and breathe easy, secure in the knowledge that the ultimate in culinary satisfaction is only one click away. Furthermore, Munchie Madness doesn’t give you a frustrating list of 10 million choices. Let’s face it – no one likes to read. What people really want is for a small black box to tell them where to eat, and that’s what Munchie Madness delivers. When you click “Cheeseburger” you will only get one restaurant. The best one. The one you should go to. How do we know? Cause we’re freakin scientists, man.

Features

• Sumptuous hand-crafted solid gold interface encrusted with 2,345 carrots of flawless virtual diamonds
• One-click area search for awesome Cheeseburgers, Pizza , Sandwiches or Caviar, the quality of which is guaranteed to satisfy the discerning tastes of our distinguished clientele.
• Built on our patented* Hankering Algorithm
• Map, routing and directions provided
• Configurable geo search radius
• Restaurant filtering. If you don’t like a particular chain or restaurant, you can remove it from the app.
• Chicks dig it.
• Guys will think you’re cool.

*Not patented in the sense that we actually went to the patent office and got a real patent. More like “patented” as in “that sounds cool and important.” There are no patents. Please don’t sue us.

FAQ

Should I fear such awesome technology?
No. Drink deep from the well of knowledge. Fear not the awesomeness, but revel in its…well…awesomeness.

Am I cool enough to posses one of the greatest technological and artistic marvels of the 21st century?
Of course you are. You deserve the best. Now click that Install button. Go on, click it.

It seems a little expensive?
If you’re worried about money, this is NOT the app for you. There are plenty of free cardboard apps laying around. Please check back with us after you get a job.

Pick-up your copy of Munchie Madness Bling Edition today!

About SteveWare Labs

When we’re not theorizing on particle physics with the boyz over at the Large Hadron Collider (we never are), or talkin’ Mars smack with the crew at NASA (don’t know anyone there), or bustin’ code with the Supreme Geeks at Google (never happens), we are knee deep in our never ending quest to find the BEST freakin munchies on the planet. At SteveWare Labs the sheer weight and volume of our centralized brainpower threatens to tear the very fabric of space, so who could possibly be more qualified to find a good pizza?

The Yoga Learning Center features audio and video instruction from some of the best instructors in the yoga community including Mia Taylor, whose gentle, invigorating style is attracting followers worldwide. Mia and the Yoga Learning Center have been featured in numerous publications including Yoga Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and even PC World, and have attracted users in almost every major city on Earth.

So what makes the Yoga Learning Center unique? Aside from being able to practice yoga online at any time night or day, the YLC focuses on quality over quantity, and is simple and intuitive to use. You don’t need to be a full-fledged yogi or yogini, nor have any prior experience at all. But if you are no stranger to the yoga mat, you’ll still find plenty of challenging practices.
Check it out if you get chance. You’ll be glad you did!

Yoga Learning Center – yoga online 24 hours a day.

I am a web developer and I am sitting here in my bathing suit, right now, writing this article in Maui. I went surfing this morning, came home, banged out super-high-quality code for about 8 hours, got paid a decent wage, and now I’m hanging out having a glass of merlot with my hot wife. Life is good.

Seriously, if you are interested in web design, whether as a career, hobby, or to build your own site, I have set up an entire online web design course that you can take on your schedule. Starting with nothing but a blank page on Note Pad, I show you step-by-step how to build a beautiful, fully functional website, while teaching you everything you need to know about HTML and CSS, the basic building blocks of the web. But that’s not all! The course also includes introduction to Photoshop and JavaScript, along with a complete tutorial on integrating PayPal’s popular eCommerce solution into your site.

To enroll now or for more information checkout Web Schools International. The course includes the eBook, “Web Design from the Ground Up”.

If you would prefer just the book by itself, you can purchase Web Design from the Ground Up separately at Amazon for the Kindle or in the iBookstore for iPad.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Munchie Madness, the new iPhone app from SteveWare Labs, represents the bleeding edge of munchie procurement technology. Utilizing our breakthrough Hankering Algorithm, Munchie Madness instantly sifts through the entire accumulated knowledge of all mankind since the dawn of time to display the exact location of the best Cheeseburger, Pizza or Sandwich within the specified range of your current geographic location.

Granted, you could type a search term into 3 or 4 of your favorite search engines, comb through the results, read the reviews, find the addresses, flip a coin, and hope your burger doesn’t suck. Or, you could place the awesome power of Munchie Madness on your iPhone and breathe easy,  secure in the knowledge that the ultimate in culinary satisfaction is only one click away. Furthermore, Munchie Madness doesn’t give you a frustrating list of 10 million choices. Let’s face it – no one likes to read. What people really want is for a small black box to tell them where to eat, and that’s what Munchie Madness delivers. When you click “Cheeseburger” you will only get one restaurant. The best one. The one you should go to. How do we know? Cause we’re freakin scientists, man.

Features

• “One-click” area search for awesome Cheeseburgers, Pizza or Sandwiches
• Built on our patented* Hankering Algorithm
• Map, routing and directions provided
• Configurable geo search radius
• Restaurant filtering. If you don’t like a particular chain or restaurant, you can remove it from the app.
• Chicks dig it.
• Guys will think you’re cool.

*Not patented in the sense that we actually went to the patent office and got a real patent. More like “patented” as in “that sounds cool and important.” There are no patents. Please don’t sue us.

FAQ

• Should I fear such awesome technology?
• No. Drink deep from the well of knowledge. Fear not the awesomeness, but revel in its…well…awesomeness.
• Am I cool enough to posses one of the greatest technological marvels of the 21st century?
• Of course you are. You deserve the best. Now click that Install button. Go on, click it.

You can get your FREE install of Munchie Madness on your iPhone right this very second on iTunes!

About SteveWare Labs

When we’re not theorizing on particle physics with the boyz over at the Large Hadron Collider (we never are), or talkin’ Mars smack with the crew at NASA (don’t know anyone there), or bustin’ code with the Supreme Geeks at Google (never happens),  we are knee deep in our never ending quest to find the BEST freakin munchies on the planet. At SteveWare Labs the sheer weight and volume of our centralized brainpower threatens to tear the very fabric of space, so who could possibly be more qualified to find a good pizza?

Munchie Madness