Web Development Blog

I came across a pretty interesting site today that shows how important links are to your site (just in case you think that they aren’t). I’m not going to reveal the site here because it is not one of my own or one of my clients, so you’ll just have to trust me that all of this is true. This person came to be concerned that none of their pages were showing up in Google.

The site in question is a PR 5 site that is not indexed in Google. Not a single page is indexed, and it never will be until they fix a 500 server error that is in the header of the site. The really strange thing is that the site displays just fine, but the server is returning a 500 error for every page load. Google will not index pages that return a 500 error.

I just think that it is interesting that even though Google can’t index the site, and therefore knows nothing about it’s content, it will still award it a nice PR because of all of the backlinks it gets (lots of edu backlinks). This is just a good example of how PR flows to a site, and really has nothing to do with the content on the site. So if you want high PR, just make sure you are focusing your effort on links.

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One theory that I have is that success can come from stupid things. Take this for instance:

Get your own Mclovin ID

The mclovin id maker* is a dumb idea. It’s definitely something my wife would think is stupid. However, it is also a fairly popular idea, and as you may know, popularity and dumbness seem to go hand in hand.

This revelation has made my life a lot easier because I used to have the notion that I’d have to outsmart my competition, when really all I have to do is out dumb them. I thought that if I became a genius programmer then all of my problems would be solved. Instead of spending all of my time learning how to program, I should have set aside some time to take some of the dumb ideas I’ve had and turn those into profits. Using your dumb ideas to make you lots of money = very smart.

Here are the things I’ve learned to help me root out the dumb ideas:

1. Marketing and Programming are very different. This has taken me a long time to learn…too long. When I started on the web, I came at it as a designer, and then moved to programming. I know these two perspectives very well, and when I started to get into marketing websites (ie getting traffic) I thought I knew all there was to know, but now I know that I’m pretty dumb when it comes to marketing.
2. If you know that you don’t know anything, you’re in a good spot to begin learning.
3. Treasure the dumb ideas. These are the ‘wouldn’t it be cool if…’ and ‘wouldn’t it be fun to make…’ kind of ideas. Write them down so you don’t forget.
4. Don’t let thinking get in the way. Many dumb ideas were ruined because they were thought about too much and made smart. A good analogy here is explaining a joke.
5. Execute your dumb ideas. In other words, don’t keep them in your head. A great way for new and better dumb ideas to come to mind is to actually work on the ones you’ve already got. Our brains tend to work this way with all kinds of things. So do the work and you will be rewarded.
6. Find out the things that you do that are dumb. What are your hobbies? Hobbies are dumb, start there. If you don’t think you have any hobbies (I used to think this), then pick something you do a lot and call it a hobby, like going to the bathroom. That’s dumb.
7. Daydream. Daydreaming is the ultimate dumb idea manifestator.

* Jeremy Shoemaker is the creator of the mclovin id maker and is very good at thinking up dumb ideas.

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I thought it would be cool to have a directory on this site for web developers to get links back to their website or blog, so I set one up. This niche web developer directory is for the websites of web developers, web designers, web programmers, and search engine marketers - so basically everyone that works in a web related field and who might be interested in this site.

The rules are simple:

• Reciprocal links are not required (because I’m not a jerk), but appreciated (thanks in advance).
• There will be some quality standards - like if your website looks like crap and you submit to the design category, I’ll probably say no.
• All links should point back to your personal blog, company website, or freelance/portfolio site. Basically the site should be about you and what you do, and not be client work.

That’s it. The directory is totally empty right now, just waiting for people to post it, so don’t be shy. Add your link…

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