Chuck Aikens » Just For Fun

Chuck The Talking Truck Commercial

chuckaikens — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:05:49 +0000

My co-workers thought this video commercial for “Chuck The Talking Truck” by Tonka was pretty hilarious. I guess I was slightly amused My favorite was….”Talk to Chuck and He Takes Off”….enough goofing off….”Let’s Get to Work”!

http://bit.ly/9XnbMk

Win Top Google Rankings With Someone Else’s Domain

chuckaikens — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 23:19:12 +0000

Being in the SEO (search engine optimization) business, I spend a lot of time looking at the top rankings on Google for lots and lots of keywords. And yes, I would be one of the few people that click to the 2nd, 3rd, even 4th page of Google results to see what shows up for keyword. Did you know that you lots of SEOs and internet marketers win Top Rankings using someone else’s domain name?

First, the owner of the domain name has to allow you to post content on their website as I am not advocating anything malicious with this strategy.

Second, there are going to be lots of other people on these domains that can do the same thing. So, you have to be just a little bit smarter than the ‘rest of the pack’.

Third, you have to develop content for this 3rd party sites with the same level of quality as you would your own site AND you have to promote the content as if was on your own website.

Without further discussion, here is a list of sites that I continually see rank in Google in at least the Top 30 rankings and often make an entry for a less competitive keyword in the Top 10:

1. Profile Listings – There are lots of places that you can create a profile for yourself or a subject based keyword. here are a few of the more popular ones.

2. Social Sites – There are a number of sites where you can post information about an article, an interesting site, or other information for people.

3. Article Sites – While there were a number of article sites that I see on an occasional basis, these 3 seem to show up the most for the more broad, competitive searches. (You can use any decent article site for this strategy.)

4. Networking Sites – These are more useful for personal reputation management, but I have seen Yahoo Groups and Meetup both in the Top 10 of Google Rankings.

5. Both business categories and business names can make it into the Top 10 with a listing on the following local search directories.

Once you have built your profile, listing, or content on someone else’s domain, you are going to have to promote it. Here are few ideas:

Use one of your social networking or social bookmarking sites to promote it through a link.
Build a page on your website with links to your social profiles, or places your company has published content.
Tell other people about it inside of the network and see if they will link to it (either in the network or site, perhaps they will add a link somewhere else).

One last note, every situation, company, individual, and industry presents new opportunities for this strategy (i.e. http://www.activerain.com for Real Estate Professionals), so be sure to look beyond the first page on Google to find opportunities to win a Top Google Ranking with Someone Else’s Domain. It’s a lot easier than you might think!

Colorado Cobras Reach Milestone on Father’s Day

chuckaikens — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 03:08:09 +0000

As a Father of two, I got asked a couple times what I was doing for Father’s Day and replied ‘Baseball’. But, baseball gave me an unexpected Father’s Day gift today as I was able to witness a very gritty performance by my 10 year old Son and his baseball team.

Just the day before, my Son asked me “What’s a Milestone?” and I explained that a milestone is a significant event in someone’s career, or a defining moment that is a turning point.

He looked at me and repeated, “Dad’s What’s a Milestone?”.

I did my best to explain, but it was much easier today as he experienced several milestones of which I am proud and will remember for some time:

His baseball team reached its’ first championship game after winning 4 straight baseball games this weekend. While they didn’t win the championship game, they qualified for a spot in the USSA World Series.
In the semi-finals, he pitched a complete game (6 innings) which I haven’t seen done by a 10 year old. His pitch count for 6 innings was around 75 pitches and he was exhausted when he took the mound in the last inning, but he wanted to secure the win for his team.

Of course the entire team was devasted to lose (rather convincingly) in the championship, and he was upset on the way home. As we started to talk about team and individual milestones that were reached, he started to feel a little bit better. By the time we got home, he was feeling a lot better about the weekend and how much he and his team had accomplished and I feel like I got to experience a life changing event in my Son’s early life…which is a great Father’s Day Gift. Thanks Son!

What Your Website Says About You

chuckaikens — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:47:06 +0000

I stumbled into a website at Wordle.net that creates word clouds based on a block of text or all blocks of text on your website. Just for fun, I tried out this blog and found that it was pretty accurate as I tend to talk alot about SEO, Google and the Black Hat vs White Hat SEO issue.

Out of curiousity, I decided to run a couple more to see what I would get. Here are a few of the the results:

The Seeking Alpha Internet Sector appears to be focused on platforms & applications:

Google Adwords Blog – They must like to drink at Google:

New’s Year was huge at MTV, but I missed it. I was busy watching VH1’s 100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs with my wife as we rolled into the New Year.

From the ESPN NFL Nation Blog, it looks like the Cardinals & the Ravens in the Super Bowl:

If anyone wants to take the ~~St. Louis~~,I mean Arizona Cardinals and give me the points, email me here!

Florida Gators Favored To Win BCS Championship

chuckaikens — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:30:38 +0000

The Florida Gators are back in the National Championship game for the 2nd time in 3 years after beating the Alabama Crimson Tide and are rumored to be a 3 point ATS (Against The Spread) favorite against the Oklahoma Sooners.

A quick look at the BCS standings shows that the human voters put Oklahoma and Florida into the championship while the computers favored a Texas vs Oklahoma matchup. The computers have not been favorable to the Gators all year EVEN after beating the #1 team and having Ole Miss (the team they lost to) move into the Top 25.

Not so long ago, the computers had more influence in the final rankings than they do now and luckily they now only account of the BCS calculation. Just like many college football fans, I am in favor of a college football playoff and like most fans, I know we are stuck with the BCS. However, just like the Big 12 North tie-breaker, it is time to re-think the computers. Wait a minute, if you get rid of the computers…Texas would have played and probably beaten Missouri on Saturday night. If the human voters are going to the official selection committee for the BCS National Championship game, then let’s leave it up to the human voters and get rid of the computers.

Pumpkin Fun – Computer Pumpkin Decorating

chuckaikens — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 03:11:21 +0000

We had a neighborhood party at our house today with friends called “Pumpkin Fun”. It was our second year hosting the event and instead of carving pumpkins, we decorated them with screws, coat hangers, old paint, etc.

Here was my entry decoarted with computer keyboard parts, some cut Audio/Video cable clips,a USB to Mouse converter, and some computer desk screws. Even though I think the decorations were creative, I didn’t win any awards for funniest, prettiest, or scariest pumpkin.

Flickr Photo Set – Pumpkin Fun 2008

The Wrath of The Sun Dragon

chuckaikens — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:39:05 +0000

A long story, but it can be told quickly. My good old buddy, Troy Lerner, has two small problems as he starts out his week.

1. He has started his blog and since he is not posting frequently, he isn’t getting indexed by Google. Since he runs a very respectable interactive agency in Denver, he is not at all proud of this fact and is going to fix this very, very soon! In fact, his wife started blogging just a week or so ago and is already indexed and receiving traffic. This leads me to his second problem.

2. Troy found a great deal on a pair of running shoes and being the avid runner that he is….he decided to buy 4 pairs. His wife was not really that happy about the decision and tonight Troy asked me to take a look at his Google Base page for 3 pairs of trail running shoes. Luckily, he gets to keep one pair.

I recommended that he throw out a quick PPC campaign jokingly and he said he was setting it up. Inspired by his motivation to solve the problem, actually to survive the wrath of his wife for too many day…I decide to see if I could help him out with a little SEO. So, Troy..here’s your link to support both of your problems ->GoLite Sun Dragon Shoes

Colorado Rockies Win – Going To Tiebreaker

chuckaikens — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:56:54 +0000

My son and I headed down to the Rockies final regular season game with the Rockies needing a win combined with a San Diego lose to create a tie for the National League Wildcard game.

The San Diego Padres were playing the Brewers in Milwaukee and the game started an hour earlier. Before the Rockies even made the first pitch, the Padres were up 3-0. By the bottom of the second inning though, the Brewers went ahead 5-4 and never looked back.

The Rockies staring pitcher Ublado Jiminez pitched 5 scoreless innings before walking two batter in the Sixth. The Rockies reliever were a little shaky but got the job done. The 8th inning at Coors filed was awesome with a 3 run rally as the batting order went the heart of the lineup..Tulo, Holiday, Helton, Atkins, Hawpe, and company were up 4-1 and turned it over to Manny Corpas for the win.

Basically, the game was awesome and we won’t soon forget it. Go ROCKIES! Holliday for MVP.

Fantasy Football 2008

chuckaikens — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:06:33 +0000

It’s that time of year…football season. College football in Colorado kicks off this weekend with University of Colorado vs Colorado State at 10:00 am. The NFL season is wrapping up preseason which means Fantasy Football drafts are being held in sports bars across the country.

Tonight was my fantasy draft, I only participate in one league and this is my 4th year. So far, I have made the playoffs each year never advancing beyond the semi-finals. Our league does not play a tight end and allows 3 running backs….so RB’s are taken early and often. I took RB in 4 out of the first 5 rounds selecting Willie Parker, Edgerrin James, and Ahman Green in the first 3 rounds from the 7th position.

I almost landed Steve Smith in the third round but settled for a 3rd running back. I could have selected Terrel Owens, Reggie Wayne, or another Top 10 receiver, but I opted for Green and selected Lee Evans in round 4 before picking up a 4th running back in the 5th round with Deshaun Foster. In round 6, I picked the top receiver available before selected back-to-back QB in round 7 and 8 with Phillip Rivers and Jon Kitna.

QB is the highest scoring position and I will rotate the QB to play either the hottest hand or the weakest passing defense. This strategy has worked very well in previously years and I hope to play it to my advantage again. I selected the San Diego DEF and Shayne Graham in round 9 and 10 to round out my starting team. For the rest of the selections, I focused on picking undervalued receivers in Greg Jennings, Ronald Curry, Troy Williamson, and Micheal Jenkins as well as picking up my 4th rated DEF in round 12 to round out the team.

So, here’s the team I hope to take to the playoffs for the 5th straight year:

QB – Phillip Rivers 07.07
QB – Jon Kitna 08.06
RB – Willie Parker 01.07
RB – Edgerrin James 02.09
RB – Ahman Green 03.07
RB – Deshaun Foster 05.07
WR – Lee Evans 04.06
WR – Santana Moss 06.06
WR – Greg Jennings 11.07
WR – Ronald Curry 13.07
WR – Micheal Jenkins 14.06
WR – Troy Williamson 15.07
PK – Shayne Graham 10.06
DEF- San Diego Chargers 09.07
DEF- Miami Dolphins 12.06

Denver Broncos Training Camp

chuckaikens — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:04:32 +0000

My son, Tyler Aikens, and I went to the Denver Broncos training camp this morning with some other friends. There was a record crowd of over 3,000 fans, but the Broncos did a good job handling the crowd. Jay Cutler threw two picks in the short field morning scrimmage. We got to watch the DLine up close and I was impressed by the speed of Jarvis Moss, I also thought Kenard Lang looked good.

We also got to see Travis Henry and Mike Bell running the ball. Travis seemed pretty quick on his cuts, but of course the drills were not at game speed. Still, it was a fun time. If you are going out to Dove Valley, the practice fields open at 8:30, but I think showing up and 9:30 or 10:00 and finding a good spot is the best plan. If you are looking for an autograph, you have to be one of the first 50 in line by the Broncos Team Store…the line wraps done the alley near the portable restrooms.