simpleavr made a logic probe out of a TI EZ430 dongle for a 43oh.com contest:
this is a simple logic probe project based on TI EZ430 dongle. i took advantage of a free offer on a couple of ez430s from TI in september 2010. they are very handy and fun in trying out small code snippets and watch the led blink.
TI EZ430 EZProbe – [Link]
Disclaimer: The below post illustrates a personal experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of SEO.com or the work performed with their clients.
For the most part, link building is pretty straight forward and simple. You can publish your articles, request some directory listings, bookmark links, guest blog posts, request links from other webmasters or even purchase links if you’re feeling particularly rebellious. But keep in mind if you don’t have a strategy behind it, you might fall face-first into a ditch filled with sorrow and regret.
Many times so many of us start a website in hopes that in 5-6 months we might start seeing some decent cash rolling in. Because you need link building to attain those rankings, you need to make sure the links you’re acquiring match the progress that your website is currently at. Let me explain.
Most experienced search engine optimization professionals understand that you need a healthy balance of links. Building links in moderation and keeping a proper anchor text to non-anchor text ratio is crucial. If your entire backlink portfolio consists of anchor text links, it isn’t going to look natural to the search engines. Same can be said if everything is a directory link, bookmark link and especially a comment link.
If you are submitting articles, make sure that you are using your anchor text but also make sure that some of those links back to your site are strictly the URL or business name. If your site is brand new, the number of anchor text to branded links should probably be a 50:50 ratio so your backlinks don’t look unnatural.
However, the same cannot be said about large, established websites. Odds are that if your site has 40,000 backlinks, submitting higher ratio of anchor text links aren’t going to hurt you or your rankings. For example, if you pointed 1000+ spammy, anchor text filled comment links to YouTube, do you think it’s going to make a difference? On the other hand, if you did the same to a brand new site with no reputation or authority, you’ll probably get a penalty very quickly.
I’d like to share a personal experience with this. On one of my personal websites I wasn’t following my own advice. I got in the habit of submitting content using my anchor text. There was variation of the anchor text but I never threw in my URL to make it appear more natural.
For a couple months all I saw was an increase, and for two of my main keywords I even attained first page rankings. I was very happy and hopeful that this website might actually bring in some money. Then, on one fateful day, Google dropped the hammer…
As expected, I was very perturbed to say the least. After looking through my backlinks I found that I clearly wasn’t following best practice. I wasn’t building enough natural looking, credible links. Instead I got caught up in my fantastic rankings and continued submitting content, directories, bookmarks and other links using only my anchor text.
Because I was a new site with a limited online existence, building these links worked for almost two months, but it caught up with me. If I was a site with some authority and a very healthy, natural looking backlink portfolio, this probably wouldn’t have happened.
Just remember that the links that you are pointing back to your website need to vary when it comes to your anchor text and method of link being built. I think the same analogy (for the most part) applies to life, “too much or too little of anything, is a bad thing. Keep everything in moderation.”
Tags: Link Building
A recent post by Paddy Moogan from Distilled about when to use a 301 redirect and when to use a Rel =Canonical got me thinking about all the possible ways we can fight duplicate content issues.
First, for those who are new into search marketing; a duplicate content penalty is a consequence that the Search Engines impose when they find large amounts of text that have been copied from other sources on the Web. Some would argue that the search engines are simply filtering you out of the SERP’s (search engine results pages) in effort to deliver more relevant, fresh content. Anyway you look at it, you won’t benefit from it, and therefore it’s a penalty in my eyes.
Duplicate homepages can be seen as individual pages, possibly discounting the merit that your true homepage has earned. If your site homepage can be viewed like the examples below, you may want to continue reading to correct the error.
http://www.example.com or http://example.com are both good, but it needs to be one or the other.
http://www.example.com/index or /home or /homepage needs to be corrected.
There is also the possibility that someone has outright stolen your content. If that content you created has already been crawled and established itself in Google’s index, odds are that thief isn’t going to benefit on the search engines. Ideally they’ll just get filtered out.
Creating dozens of versions of the same article to distribute to article sites/networks is a rather popular link building technique. While I won’t take a stance on its effectiveness, if you use an article that is already on your site and create numerous versions of it, it can come back to bite you because the search engines can still see the correlation between the original and the copies spread all over the Web. It’s quite possible it could even discount those included links further.
Some shopping cart content management systems can have different paths to get to the same product or category page. Why is this an issue? Well if those two different URLs are going to the same product, then it’s fair to say that those are duplicate pages.
However, if you have a blog and you’re worried about your different categories having duplicate content because of the different categories you posted it in; the Search Engines are keen to this and understand blogs. Also, the more posts you get in those categories, the more it’ll mix up that content preventing any sort of duplicate content problem. Same story with post snippets.
One way is to browse your site to see if you have any of the examples above. Another is to type your URL into Copyscape. Keep in mind that when you do this, it is only showing you the result for that exact page that you entered, not sitewide. Also, it will not return results of duplicate content that you have on the same URL that you submitted your query for.
First, the odds of you hurting from other people stealing your content isn’t very likely. Lookup SEOmoz.com in copyscape.com and you’ll see that there are pages of results but because they were the originators of the content, it’s not likely that they’ll be filtered out or receive any sort of penalty.
If you have content that other people have copied or stolen, you can try e-mailing the webmaster and kindly asking them to take it down. Chances of them responding aren’t very likely so the best thing you can do is probably just forget about it. People steal content left and right on the Internet, dwelling on it is just wasting your time when you’re probably not getting penalized from it anyway.
Luckily if you are getting penalized because you have duplicate pages, it’s on your end of things and it’s relatively easy to fix. If you have duplicate homepage problems locate your .htaccess file.
Add the following code to redirect all your www-URLs to the non-www URLs:
RedirectMatch: 301 ^(.*)$ http://domain.com RedirectMatch permanent: ^(.*)$ http://www.domain.comYou’ll need to replace “domain.com” with your URL as well as change whether you want everything to go to www or non-www.
If you need to get rid of your /index or /homepage page problems you’ll need to implement a simple 301 redirect. This will also need to be specified in the .htaccess file using the code below:
Redirect 301: /badurl.htm http://www.example.com/Change the example URLs to make sense with your particular situation.
Redirect 301 /index http://www.example.comFor more clarification, it’s telling the site to permanently redirect your /index to http://www.example.com leaving you with a clean URL structure. Now, all your duplicate homepages should go to either http://example.com or http://www.example.com, whichever you preferred.
For example, if you have a product site that has more than one way of getting to the product, those duplicate URLs could be hurting each other. For example:
http://www.site.com/ipods/skins/blue-ipod-covers vs. http://www.site.com/skins/ipods/blue-ipod-covers
Same page, different URLs. In this instance, using a rel=canonical tag is in your best interest. Using it will tell the major Search Engines that the page that copies your other page should be treated as one in the same. For example:
If http://www.site.com/ipods/skins/blue-ipod-covers isn’t the correct page, and you would rather have http://www.site.com/skins/ipods/blue-ipod-covers be the main page, you’d want to put a rel=canonical tag on http://www.site.com/ipods/skins/blue-ipod-covers. This way the Search Engines understand that it’s a user-generated duplicate page and that you want all the links and other metrics to be directed towards the right page. No longer will the search engines be confused on which page to display or give credit too.
Using the rel=canonical tag is an alternative to programming a 301 redirect. A 301 redirect is still the preferred way to guarantee the search engines understand your intent to move content from one URL to another.
In addition to fixing potential duplicate content issues, treating the two separate pages as one can help any keyword cannibalization that could be going on.
Tags: canonical tag, duplicate content
In a game in which the Pac-10's two highest scoring teams combined for 173 points and numerous electrifying highlights, of course it was a defensive play that turned out to be the difference.
Trailing first-place Arizona by a point with 2.2 seconds remaining, Washington's Darnell Gant caught an inbound pass in the paint and appeared to be in position to score the game-winning basket. Instead Derrick Williams came from off the ball and made an emphatic game-saving block, preserving an 87-86 Arizona victory and strengthening his case for first-team All-American honors.
Williams finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds, but it was the sophomore forward's blocked shot that will resonate. The only question was whether Gant's shot was on its way down before the Arizona sophomore swatted it away.
Said Gant: "I thought it was goaltending."
Said Williams: "I believe if we were at Washington, they might have called that. Good thing we were at home."
As a result of that play, the Pac-10 title chase is down to two teams and neither of them are preseason favorite Washington. Arizona (23-4, 12-2) leads UCLA (19-7, 10-3) by a game in the loss column with their second of two meetings just seven days away in Los Angeles.
For Washington (18-8, 10-5), the loss was its fourth loss in its past five road games, but this one was far more encouraging than the previous three. The Huskies rallied from a 12-point second-half deficit to briefly take a 72-68 lead thanks to unselfish passing, energetic defense and relentless offensive rebounding.
Isaiah Thomas had 12 points and 9 assists and Matthew Bryan-Amaning had 18 of his 24 points in the second half, sparking the second-half comeback. The Huskies also forced 18 Arizona turnovers, taking advantage of sloppy ball handling from Williams and Arizona point guard MoMo Jones.
Falling one point short on the road leaves the Huskies in a slightly precarious position entering the final two weeks of Pac-10 play.
They look like a team capable of winning the Pac-10 tournament or making an NCAA tournament run, but their resume is mostly bereft of quality wins. Aside from a home win over Arizona and a road win at UCLA, the Huskies don't have another victory over an RPI top 80 team, though they've played lost to Kentucky, Texas A&M and Arizona by a combined seven points.
What's promising for Washington is its final three Pac-10 games of the season are in Seattle, where the Huskies have been basically unbeatable this season.
If the Huskies can beat Washington State, USC and UCLA and then make a good showing in the Pac-10 tournament, there's still an opportunity for them to play their way into a favorable NCAA tournament seed.
Related: Arizona WildcatsIt doesn't just stop with season-weary players and coaches. Announcers are ready for the All-Star break as well. Some could barely make it out of the last half-week of the season before sneaking in a long-deserved snooze.
Like former Philadelphia 76ers point guard, and current 76ers analyst Eric Snow(notes).
A good minute into the video (we skipped it ahead for you), you can hear Sixers play-by-play man Marc Zumoff ask the silent Snow (cool band name, kids) if he's "meditating."
Snow's sterling reply?
"I thought I was trying to stay awoke."
(Sic.)
Snow tries to play it off as if ... well, we're not sure how he tried to play it off. It started, we think, as a typical ha-ha joke about being annoyed by his partner, before he tried to compare it to an NBA huddle or game situation, before Zumoff and the action thankfully returned.
Enjoy the break, Eric. In your defense, I've fallen asleep to your games (both as a player, in-studio talking head, and analyst) as well. It's a long season.
(HT: FanHouse, via Deadspin)
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If Richmond is the Atlantic 10's best hope for a third NCAA tournament team besides Xavier and Temple, then the conference needs to prepare itself for the possibility of only landing two bids this season.
The Spiders' 73-53 loss at Temple on Thursday night leaves them in dicey position entering the final three-week sprint until Selection Sunday.
Despite a 20-7 overall record and a non-conference victory over Purdue, Richmond's RPI is hovering in the low 70s and its remaining regular season schedule offers no more opportunities to secure a marquee win to improve it. Even if Richmond defeats St. Bonaventure, Charlotte, St. Joes and Duquesne, the Spiders still might need a couple victories in the Atlantic 10 tournament to seal their ticket to the NCAA tournament.
Beyond Richmond, the prospects of a third at-large berth from the Atlantic 10 are bleak.
Duquesne is 9-2 in conference play, but the Dukes' best non-league win was probably Wisconsin Green Bay.
Dayton beat Ole Miss, George Mason and New Mexico early this season, but chemistry woes have contributed to a 6-6 Atlantic 10 record.
And Rhode Island (16-9, 7-4) and St. Bonaventure (14-10, 6-5) both have the look of NIT hopefuls rather than NCAA contenders.
At this time last year, the Atlantic 10 was widely considered the best non-power six league in the nation and six of its teams had realistic hopes of earning an NCAA tournament bid. It was a mild disappointment then that only Xavier, Temple and Richmond earned berths last March, but that looks like the best-case scenario a year later.
The good news for the Atlantic 10 is that Xavier and Temple have put themselves in position to earn favorable seeds by ascending to the top of the league.
Both Xavier and Temple are No. 6 seeds in Rivals.com's latest bracket projection and appear to be comfortably in the field. It remains to be seen whether Richmond, Duquesne or one of the long shots can finish strong enough to join them.
Garmin GPS MAP 60 CSx. The GPS MAP 60 CSx is one of the most popular GPS models for outdoor and marine use. It incorporates a barometric altimeter for extremely accurate elevation data and an electronic compass that displays an accurate heading while standing still. The 60CSx also features a removable microSD card for detailed mapping memory and a waterproof, rugged housing. The microSD card slot is located inside the waterproof battery compartment. You can load map data and transfer routes and waypoints through the fast USB connection. In addition, the GPS MAP 60C Sx has a new, highly sensitive GPS receiver that acquires satellites faster and lets you track your location in challenging conditions, such as heavy foliage or deep canyons. Electronic compass displays accurate heading while standing still; Barometric altimeter with automatic pressure trend recording; New high-sensitivity WAAS-capable GPS receiver by SiRF; Built-in quad-helix receiving antenna with remote antenna capability; Supports English, Spanish, Portuguese and French languages; MicroSD card slot allows for storage of optional Map Source detail (64 MB microSD included); LED backlit display and keyboard; Up to 18 hours of battery life from 2 AA alkaline batteries; Includes a built-in Americas autoroute basemap with automatic routing capabilities, including highways, exits and tide data (U.S. only); Internal memory is preloaded with a marine point database Enough memory for 1,000 user waypoints with nPrice: $535.99
No matter how you feel about the last-second whistle that gave Virginia Commonwealth new life at Wichita State on Friday night, the referees deserve credit for at least one thing.
That was a brave call to make given the high stakes and the raucous environment.
Needing a defensive stop to close out VCU and maintain realistic hopes of an at-large NCAA tournament berth, Wichita State appeared to have reason to celebrate when Joey Rodriguez's runner badly missed the mark as time expired. Instead referees called Joe Ragland for making contact with Rodriguez as he shot, enabling the VCU guard to sink two free throws with eight-tenths of a second remaining to secure a 68-67 road victory.It's debatable whether there was sufficient contact between Ragland and Rodriguez to warrant a foul in any situation, but the call was especially tough considering it was in the final second of a one-point game. A frenzied sellout crowd left no doubt how it felt, booing once when the call was made and then again when the final buzzer sounded after a desperation Wichita State 3-point attempt rimmed out.The significance of the call for both teams cannot be overstated.
For Wichita State, all hope of an at-large NCAA tournament berth is dashed. The Shockers lost this game and squandered previous chances for a marquee non-league win over San Diego State and UConn, meaning they must beat out Missouri State and Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley tournament.
For VCU, this win breathes new life into the program's hopes of an at-large bid. Back-to-back home losses to Old Dominion and George Mason this past week dimmed the Rams' chances, but they still have a 12-4 league record and a neutral-court non-conference victory over UCLA on their resume.
VCU's victory is also a significant boost to the Colonial Athletic Association's hopes of being a multi-bid league.
George Mason and Old Dominion appeared to be in better shape than the Rams entering the weekend. Now if VCU could close out the season on a strong note, it's not unthinkable that a league which often struggles to put two teams in the NCAA tournament could land three bids this season.
Cree’s new XLamp® CXA20 LED array is the first lighting-class array aimed at accelerating the LED lighting revolution and can enable a 60-watt A-lamp equivalent while consuming just 11 watts.
LED array delivers record 1050 lumens at 11 watts – [Link]
For a school that derives as much of its identity from football as Nebraska, beating a rival in basketball can never fully avenge a humbling gridiron loss.
Nonetheless, Saturday's stunning 70-67 victory over No. 3 Texas will at least provide revenge-minded Huskers fans a day or two of satisfaction.
Four months after the worst Texas football team in more than a decade still managed to upset Nebraska in Lincoln in what could be final meeting between the two teams, the Huskers finally earned some bragging rights over the Longhorns. They squandered a late 11-point lead lead in less than a minute yet never let Texas to regain control, thwarting the Longhorns' bid to take over the top spot in the AP Top 25 and edging closer to the fringes of the NCAA tournament picture.
It wasn't just defeating a top-five opponent that made Saturday's victory Nebraska's most satisfying of the season. Huskers fans consider Texas perhaps their most hated rival because of the Longhorns' controversial Big 12 title game victory over Nebraska in 2009 and the perception that schools from the Lone Star state have received preferential treatment from the league.
Before their football game against Texas last October, Huskers fans printed T-shirts that read "Beat Texas" or "It's BBQ time" in hopes that the Big Red could end an 11-year drought against the Longhorns. Some of those same T-shirts were on display Saturday afternoon as Nebraska students stormed the court in celebration of their second basketball victory over a highly ranked Texas team in three years.
The season-long ramifications of the victory for Nebraska could be significant if the Huskers finish strong.
In defeating a Texas team that had won its first 11 conference games by nine points or more, Nebraska notched its third straight victory to improve to 18-8 overall and 6-6 in Big 12 play. The Huskers accomplished little of note in non-league play, yet they're now in contention for an-large bid with home games against Kansas State and Missouri left in addition to winnable road matchups against Iowa State and Colorado.
It looked as though the Huskers would easily turn back Texas before a frantic late rally nearly resulted in heartbreak for the home team.
Jordan Hamilton was fouled on a 3-pointer and sank all three free throws to make it an eight-point game with 1:41 to go. Two Nebraska missed free throws and a Hamilton 3-pointer trimmed the lead to five just eight seconds later. By the time Nebraska surrendered a putback of a missed free throw for a layup and then two free throws after throwing away the ensuing inbound pass, the score was tied at 65 with 1:05 still left to play.
Nebraska somehow managed to regain its composure, regaining the lead on a pair of free throws from Brandon Richardson and then getting a much-needed defensive stop. Hamilton missed a go-ahead 3-pointer and J'Covan Brown missed one that could have tied it at the buzzer, sealing Nebraska's first win over a top-three opponent since a victory over Missouri in the 1994 Big Eight tournament.
As good a win as that one was, this may have been even sweeter.
Related: Texas LonghornsIf you're the type who tunes into NASCAR races to see the wrecks, you got your money's worth Friday night at the truck race, with not just one, but two! Two! TWO Big Ones! Let's go to the videotape, first with Travis Kvapil setting off a 15-car debacle:
Then, with only a few laps remaining in the race, the gang was running three wide when ...
By the end of the race, only a half-dozen hadn't sustained damage, and two of those belonged to Elliott Sadler and eventual winner Michael Waltrip. If this holds up, expect to see some serious carnage come Sunday afternoon.
Related: Michael Waltrip, Elliott Sadler
10 years to the day after Michael Waltrip won the Daytona 500 -- and 10 years to the day after Dale Earnhardt was killed in that last lap crash -- Waltrip visited victory lane at Daytona again, winning the NextEra Energy 250 Camping World Truck Series race Friday night after a last lap pass of Elliott Sadler.
Sadler and Waltrip broke away from the pack over the last two laps in one of those now-familiar two vehicle drafts, with Waltrip pushing Sadler until the two entered the trioval approaching the checkered flag. Waltrip faked Sadler to the inside and pulled to the outside as Sadler defended the inside, completing the pass as the two drag raced to the finish line.
However, it wasn't without some controversy. On the penultimate lap, somewhere between the start finish line and turns three and four, part of Waltrip's spoiler broke, leaving the passenger-side half leaning backwards over the bumper of the truck. (Here's where Tony Kornheiser jumps in)
And as we all know, the resistance that a spoiler provides can help increase downforce, but it also decreases speed. Did it have anything to do with Waltrip being able to complete the pass on Sadler because his truck probably had more top-end speed as a result? We'll never know.
What we also don't know is if the malfunction will lead to a loss of points or other penalty. It's doubtful that NASCAR will rescind the win, but don't be surprised if there are penalties announced on Tuesday.
Related: , Michael Waltrip, Elliott Sadler
This project is a POV display on a bicycle wheel based on Atmel ATTiny861 microcontroller to control 48 LEDs. There are 24 LED on each side. The LEDs are controlled from a series of 74×373 ICs connected to an 8 bit bus on the microcontroller. [via]
Bicycle Persistence of Vision Light Display - [Link]
A company received a smear campaign threat from its outsourced SEO firm because the firm knows Google’s algorithm improperly ranks negative results, which Google claims helps to show an impartial view of the Web.
Reference this e-mail and tell me if you’d rather hire offshore to save a few dollars or go with a reputable SEO company that can provide you with skilled SEO link builders and an on-going professional relationship.
This is in response to a request to cancel services for a month-to-month service offering:
Click to EnlargeThe legal nature of these tactics is questionable in the United States, but hiring an offshore firm doesn’t provide you the same protection from a “Negative Reputation Campaign.”
It’s unbelievable that an SEO company would put its own reputation on the line with such an e-mail because a client has decided to go with another SEO firm. I’ve seen these tactics for more than a decade in both Web design/development and SEO, and its extremely unfortunate.
A couple weeks ago, Google tweaked their algorithm to penalize DecorMyEyes.com after the NY Times published an article discussing their alleged fraudulent business practices that resulted in supposed increased Google rankings.
Bottom line: Google took action! They need to continue that effort with sites like RipOffReport.com, ComplaintsBoard.com, Scam.com and other sites that obtain very high positions in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and seem to be favored by Google’s algorithm.
When searching for brand names, you often see negative complaints published on these URLs at the top of the SERPs. I would understand seeing these URLs with negative information showing up in the SERPs for searches like:
Brand name scamBrand name sucksBrand name complaintsBrand name problemsAnd other keyword combinations based around negative termsBut when a brand name is the sole keyword and a complaint site URL is showing up #2, there is most likely an imbalance of credibility with Google’s algorithm that gives the complaint site the advantage.
Keep in mind the backlink portfolio to the URLs listed do not warrant a #2 ranking, nor does Google agree that a similarly credible website should rank for every brand in the world with little more than a brand name displayed in a page title, header tag and content body. At least Google’s love affair with Wikipedia can be argued that Wikipedia’s deep pages obtain thousands of links individually and therefore deserve a top ranking.
What did I miss in this post and plea to Google to do the right thing? Please comment and share.
Tags: Offshore SEO Company, Online reputation, orm, Outsourced SEO, Reputation Management
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This RGB LED wall is able to play Winamp visualizations, and more. The LEDs are driven by Rainbowduinos, the Rainbowduinos are connected to the PC using the router as a wireless serial connection. [via]
Wireless RGB LED display - [Link]
This photo of this awesome bobblehead re-creation zoomed around the Internet early Friday morning and I initially chalked it up to the work of a very nostalgic artist from the Twin Cities. Though it surfaced on the Minnesota Twins official Facebook page, it seemed like the team couldn't have officially sanctioned a figurine inspired by one of the most controversial plays in World Series history.
Follow Big League Stew on Facebook and Twitter for more MLB funBut wait! The Twins actually did commission this bobbling remembrance of Kent Hrbek lifting Ron Gant off first base during Game 2 of the 1991 World Series. And Michael Rand of the Star Tribune reports that they'll be given away on a date TBA during this 20th anniversary season of that title team.
Needless to say, this is the best big league bobble giveaway since the Cleveland Indians greeted their fans with tiny versions of Ricky "Wild Thing" Vaughn.
For those who weren't born yet, here's a description of the play from an ESPN article that named it one of the 10 worst calls in sports history:
Atlanta's Ron Gant ripped a single in the third and after rounding first retreated back to the bag. [Pitcher Kevin] Tapani threw the ball to first where Gant had appeared to make it in plenty of time. That was until Hrbek, under the guise of attempting to apply a tag, lifted Gant off the base. Umpire Drew Coble called him out. Guess what, the Twinkies win by one [3-2, to take a 2-0 series lead].
Twenty years later, there are plenty of Braves fans who remain plenty sore about the incident. And for good reason: Hrbek acted more like a sumo wrestler in that instant than a first baseman.
But now that the Twins are publicly celebrating being on the right side of historic misfortune, it opens a whole new world of possibilities for similar giveaways.
Among my initial thoughts: The Royals could hand out Don Denkinger bobbleheads, during the I-70 Series, Florida could feature Steve Bartman-Moises Alou handouts when the Cubs are in town and — my favorite idea to date — the Indians could celebrate Carlos Martinez's(notes) home run off Jose Canseco's head when the Rangers come calling.
Let's make these ideas a reality, promotions people.
What other infamous moments would make good bobbleheads?
Related: Carlos MartÃnez, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins
A quick recap of content from a competitive analysis session of PubCon 2010 with Matt Siltala, Michael Streko, Michael Gray, and Andy Beal.
Matt Siltala
Things to identify about the competition:
Hubs. Check PRWeb search, Digg, or article site search to see what’s being said about your competition, what they’re doing, and even which keywords they’re going after. You can make a spreadsheet of keywords that are being targeted by your competitors. Check local review sites to see which specials are being offered.
Tools. Use AuthorityLabs to put competitors side by side with keywords and identify areas to attack.
Social Media. You can use Social Media For Firefox plugin, Knowem, Who’s Talkin, Twitter Search/Lists, Image Search, SEO For Firefox plugin to identify.
Do “link:www.competitor.com” together with the Social Media For Firefox plugin to identify the best content.
Identify competitor keywords. What your competitors may be using may be converting better than your keywords. Test with Adsense. Make sure you’ve got enough good content on your site around your competitors’ keywords.
Michael Streko
Ways to find the “Next Move” of the company you’re looking at:
Search their code.Check out their Robots.txt. You could find a test site, pictures, a new product or domain, etc.Google search for possible partners.Check http://dotheyfolloweachother.com to see who people in your competitors’ organization are close to.Follow their company on LinkedIn.com Fan the Facebook page. If someone leaves, call them right away and find out why.Know Who Links To ThemRead their content, don’t be afraid to email a site linking to a page that has out-of-date content and request a new link to your better version of content. Use incompetence to your advantage.Become an affiliate of your competitors’ sites, find out “earnings per click” to get a good idea of traffic.Non-Internet Bonus Tactic: call your competitor and walk through the process.Michael Gray
Using Blekk0.com – use “/adsense=XXXXXXXX” with the Adsense code or analytics code and get a list of competitor sites.Use Tineye.com to see where an individual has other profiles and whether they are legitimate.Quarkbase will show popularity of content.Use a Google search for “submitted on” OR “submitted by” OR “discovered by” OR “posted by” to determine which content is being submitted and by whom. Identify the pattern of content “sneezers” when new content is being promoted/submitted. Try to get into the circle. TwitterCircles.com will help you identify who competitors are connecting with.Andy Beal
Look for customer rants. Poach clients, promote your alternative, improve your own products and services to avoid these same issues.Look for any negativity coming from competitor employees or clients. Blow on the spark that lights the fuse.Use Twitter. Use custom parameters at search.twitter.com and set up competitive searches. If X employee talks to Y employee about Z keyword, track it. Export as RSS. Take advantage of private Twitter lists.DomainTools.com/Registrant-Alert/ and /Mark-Alert will let you spy on competitors to find out when they’re registering new domains.Oodle.com/job helps spy on job listings. Look up competitors’ name and create an RSS feed then aggregate multiple competitors.Tags: Competitive Analysis, pubcon 2010
With the 2010 NFL season in the books, it's time to turn our eyes to the NFL draft, and the pre-draft evaluation process. Before the 2011 scouting combine begins on February 24, we'll be taking a closer look at the 40 draft-eligible players who may be the biggest difference-makers when all is said and done.
We continue our series with Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn. 2009 was the Hawkeye's best season to date, as he put up 70 tackles (36 solo), 20 tackles for loss (17 solo), 11.5 sacks, four forced fumbles, and nine quarterback hurries. 2010 wasn't a dominant sequel (52 tackles/19 solo/seven tackles for loss/3.5 sacks/one forced fumble/six quarterback hurries). In his Iowa career, Clayborn logged 191 tackles (72 solo), 37.5 tackles for loss (30 solo), 19 sacks (17 solo), seven forced fumbles, and 19 quarterback hurries.
Pros: Clayborn shoots off the snap in a big hurry and takes a clean angle to the quarterback - he has impressive burst and acceleration for his size (6-foot-3, 286 pounds). Relentless in the backfield; he'll double back even after he's blocked out of a play and manage to blow the play up at times. Can sift through trash at the line to get free, and he's got the upper-body strength to split through blocks and take running backs down inside even when he doesn't have optimal positioning.
Moves off potential second-level blocks very well - can either climb the ladder to extend the play to the sideline and use his quickness to keep up. Too quick and strong to be kept out of a play with anything but a straight on-block - be jumps over cut-blocks and just blows past quick chips. Exhibits a violent hand-punch at the line and gets inside or outside the blocker quickly.
Cons: Focuses so intently on the tackle that he can be susceptible to running back jukes and misdirection, missing tackles and throwing himself out of plays. Needs to take better and more consistent angles to the ball in short areas. Clayborn can be ridden out of pass rushes surprisingly easily against stronger tackles, and if you get under his pads, you can move him where you want. Disruptive effectiveness is based far more on speed than strength. Doesn't get low when going around the edge on pass rushes; he gets frantic with his feet at times and this is a source of his lack of power against better blockers.
Conclusion: Had he followed his amazing junior campaign with an equivalent senior season, Clayborn would have few questions to answer in preparation for the scouting combine. But as it stands, he'll need a great performance in Indianapolis, especially in the pass rush drills and anything involving his ability to make quick and correct decisions as a tackler. Clayborn has the potential to be an elite run-stopping five-tech tackle in either a 4-3 or 3-4 defense (he's one of several possible first-round five-techs in this draft class), but the pass rush may take some time and technique work against better tackles. If he puts it all together, Clayborn could be an amazing player and a real disruptor in any situation.
NFL Comparison: Shaun Ellis(notes), New York Jets
More Shutdown 40
#40 -- Rodney Hudson, OG, Florida State | #39 - Luke Stocker, TE, Tennessee
| #38 - Phil Taylor, DT, Baylor | #37 - Ryan Mallett, QB, Arkansas | #36 -- Leonard Hankerson, WR, Miami | #35 -- Danny Watkins, OL, Baylor | #34 - Stephen Paea, DT, Oregon State | #33 -- Christian Ponder, QB, Florida State | #32 - Mike Pouncey, OL, Florida | #31 - Nate Solder, OT, Colorado | #30 - Kyle Rudolph, TE, Notre Dame | #29 - Mikel Leshoure, RB, Illinois | #28 - Cameron Heyward, DE, Ohio State | #27 - Akeem Ayers, OLB, UCLA | #26 - Brandon Harris, CB, Miami | #25 - Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin | #24 -- Jake Locker, QB, Washington| #23 -- Jimmy Smith, CB, Colorado| #22 - J.J. Watt, DE, Wisconsin | #21 - Corey Liuget, DT, Illinois| #20 - Derek Sherrod, OT, Mississippi State | #19 - Torrey Smith, WR, Maryland | #18 - Ryan Kerrigan, DE, Purdue | #17 - Mark Ingram, RB, Alabama
Disclaimer: The below post illustrates a personal experience. The views and opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of SEO.com or the work performed with their clients.
For the most part, link building is pretty straight forward and simple. You can publish your articles, request some directory listings, bookmark links, guest blog posts, request links from other webmasters or even purchase links if you’re feeling particularly rebellious. But keep in mind if you don’t have a strategy behind it, you might fall face-first into a ditch filled with sorrow and regret.
Many times so many of us start a website in hopes that in 5-6 months we might start seeing some decent cash rolling in. Because you need link building to attain those rankings, you need to make sure the links you’re acquiring match the progress that your website is currently at. Let me explain.
Most experienced search engine optimization professionals understand that you need a healthy balance of links. Building links in moderation and keeping a proper anchor text to non-anchor text ratio is crucial. If your entire backlink portfolio consists of anchor text links, it isn’t going to look natural to the search engines. Same can be said if everything is a directory link, bookmark link and especially a comment link.
If you are submitting articles, make sure that you are using your anchor text but also make sure that some of those links back to your site are strictly the URL or business name. If your site is brand new, the number of anchor text to branded links should probably be a 50:50 ratio so your backlinks don’t look unnatural.
However, the same cannot be said about large, established websites. Odds are that if your site has 40,000 backlinks, submitting higher ratio of anchor text links aren’t going to hurt you or your rankings. For example, if you pointed 1000+ spammy, anchor text filled comment links to YouTube, do you think it’s going to make a difference? On the other hand, if you did the same to a brand new site with no reputation or authority, you’ll probably get a penalty very quickly.
I’d like to share a personal experience with this. On one of my personal websites I wasn’t following my own advice. I got in the habit of submitting content using my anchor text. There was variation of the anchor text but I never threw in my URL to make it appear more natural.
For a couple months all I saw was an increase, and for two of my main keywords I even attained first page rankings. I was very happy and hopeful that this website might actually bring in some money. Then, on one fateful day, Google dropped the hammer…
As expected, I was very perturbed to say the least. After looking through my backlinks I found that I clearly wasn’t following best practice. I wasn’t building enough natural looking, credible links. Instead I got caught up in my fantastic rankings and continued submitting content, directories, bookmarks and other links using only my anchor text.
Because I was a new site with a limited online existence, building these links worked for almost two months, but it caught up with me. If I was a site with some authority and a very healthy, natural looking backlink portfolio, this probably wouldn’t have happened.
Just remember that the links that you are pointing back to your website need to vary when it comes to your anchor text and method of link being built. I think the same analogy (for the most part) applies to life, “too much or too little of anything, is a bad thing. Keep everything in moderation.”
Tags: Link Building
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The NBA's Rookie/Sophomore Game is usually a mess of flubbed passes with a complete and utter lack of defense. It can get dull for viewers at times, but then every so often someone pulls off a play you've never seen in your life, like Jason Williams's elbow pass from 2000.
Tonight, John Wall(notes) and Blake Griffin(notes) connected for such a moment, one that's now the current frontrunner for the top highlight of the weekend: a bounce-pass alley-oop from Wall that Griffin finished with an emphatic reverse. Minds were blown and hearts were attacked.
It's really the perfect basketball play to unite fans of all types. Purists can appreciate the artful simplicity of a well-played bounce pass, and anyone under the age of 75 can appreciate all the other awesome parts. Everyone wins!
(Original video via @jose3030)
Related: John Wall, Blake Griffin
Enhance your daily brew by eliminating calcium deposits in your Capresso automatic coffee center.Price: $17.00
The dunk contest is still the crown jewel of All-Star Saturday. It can be a terrible, bloated mess, made worse by cackling announcers yelling at us about how the slam-dunk Contest is "back" (year after year), but it can also legitimately be the most fun you'll have in front of a TV until the playoffs start.
And, on basic cable in the middle of February on a Saturday night? Who's getting harmed by this fun? Or folly?
So don't mind, when they tell you the contest is dead. It's been pretty terrible at times for years. It's also been quite the show, I'd venture to say, twice as much for just as long. It's hit and miss. And, again, on a Saturday night in February. No static at all.
If you've never heard of Zander Hollander, well, there's no shame in that. For decades, Hollander produced a yearly NBA almanac that dove into the details behind every player in ellipses format. And in a tribute to his dry stylings, we humbly submit the participants in the 2011 NBA dunk contest:
DeMar DeRozan(notes), Toronto Raptors
A disappointment in 2010, betraying his hops and wits. ...Trying to get it right this time. ...Able to go off of either foot, with the ability to either pull a near 360, or some impressive Terence Stansbury action. ...In a contest full of bigs, will try to bring it home for all the wings.
Blake Griffin(notes), Los Angeles Clippers
Power with either hand. ...The ability to jump off of two legs, with the quickness of a one-leg bounder. ...Hands, hops and the height to make it all look otherworldly. ...The reason many of you are tuning in. ...The one to beat. ...More importantly? The reason to hope.
Serge Ibaka(notes), Oklahoma City Thunder
Can jump, but will have props. ...No props from us.
He has one day to reconsider.
JaVale McGee(notes), Washington Wizards
Certified dingbat, guaranteed reason to watch the train roll by. .. Length and jumping ability to drool over, with the ability to either pull off a dunk we've never seen before, or a goofball Chris Andersen(notes)-styled meltdown that could set the Internet on fire. ...Or, he could just miss a bunch of dunks.
Whatta you reckon?
Related: DeMar DeRozan, Blake Griffin, Serge Ibaka, JaVale McGee, Chris Andersen, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards
Many companies decide on a whim to jump on the SEO bandwagon without really understanding the ramifications. While SEO is becoming more and more vital to a successful business model, there are many things that need to be considered before moving forward. Below are a few points to get the juices flowing.
Seems like a simple thing, but you need to know how SEO will fit into the overall marketing objectives of your company. What will it accomplish? What do you want it to accomplish? Don’t just do SEO because everyone else is doing it. Do it for a specific reason.
It happens all the time, and causes me to scratch my head in complete confusion every time: Someone I’m working with on SEO will own multiple domains for the same business. I don’t mean that they have a couple related domains, I mean the same business and same offerings or services on more than one domain.
I usually find out about these domains in one of two ways: I find them through poking around and investigating the site (and the client usually acts like it’s some sort of dirty secret), or, they come to me about the domains and want more than one site to show up at the top of the search results.
I’ll be honest, I’m not usually a happy camper when I get this news; mostly because the secondary domains tend to have duplicate content (if you’re not aware, duplicate content is a bad thing). That being said, however, there is such thing as effectively using multiple domains (although I don’t recommend it). There are two main tactics commonly employed with owning multiple domains. Keep in mind that I’m going to keep an SEO perspective on these and only lightly touch on other marketing sectors.
Some businesses are worried that competitors will buy keyword oriented domains thereby pushing their own site into obscurity. This can lead to a panic shopping spree of domains. The idea is that as long as they own the available domains, there is less chance of a competitor beating them in the rankings. While there is some merit to this tactic, it will have no effect on your SEO at all. Nor do I believe that it will really have much effect in blocking out your competitors. You can’t think of all the domain variations and buy them all, and if you buy too many, it can get expensive just to maintain them. Any competitor can rank better by offering better content and getting more links regardless of domain name.
As a side note, if you do this tactic, you had better make sure that all of your domains are redirected toward your main domain using a 301 redirect.
In buying multiple domains, some companies want to simply dominate the search results. Buy having multiple sites on the first page, you can get that much more traffic, right? In theory, yes, and it has on occasion happened. However, there are some fairly serious drawbacks to this:
Doesn’t work on brick-and-mortar stores — If you have a single physical location, it’s not a good idea to have multiple websites. You’ll confuse your visitors and customers, and I personally avoid having two websites with the same address. Google doesn’t want to have multiple sites from the same business (as it doesn’t provide good results) and I consider this to be one short step away from spam. Duplicate content woes — Because you can’t use the content from another site, you will have to write all new content. Considering how hard it is to write content for sites as it is, not to mention the allocation of resources to get it written, I wish luck to anyone writing content for a whole new site.Double branding all the way! — You have branding issues with two sites. Does one site become higher-end and the lower-end? Do you keep the prices the same? For that matter, what names are you even going to use on the site? If you have a phone number, how do you answer the phone? While there are certainly going to be exceptions (such as targeting different demographics), such a chaotic and divisive branding effort comes with a lot of risks and extra work.This is less of a tactic, and more of a “must do,” and is therefore my exception to multiple domains. It’s an exception because all of the problems above do not apply when you get into other countries. In fact, in order to have the best results in international SEO, you’ll need to have a country specific TLD (or top level domain). For example, if you’re doing business in England, you will have a hard time ranking without a .co.uk domain. You can still rank without a country level TLD, but it’s an uphill battle. And by uphill, I mean Rocky Mountains-type uphill.
One final (and big) point to that I would like to reiterate. If you really intend to own and run multiple domains and get these sites to show up in the search results, you will have to double your SEO work. There are no shortcuts, freebies, or quick rankings that you can get, even if you are already ranking well for your main domain. In fact, a new domain and site will be significantly harder to rank than a site that has history and some authority already built. I highly recommend that indented listings (or secondary pages for the same site showing up underneath the first main listing) be the primary goal before attempting to achieve multiple domains in the same search.
Tags: Multiple Domains, seo
You talk in enough press conferences, you're going to say something unfortunate. Such is the case with Danica Patrick, who recently admitted she didn't know what state Bristol Motor Speedway is in. (Hopefully she'd narrowed it down to Tennessee, the correct answer, and Virginia, which is only about six miles away.)
In an effort to remind her of the track's home state, Bristol general manager Jerry Caldwell showed up at Daytona with a gift basket of Tennessee treats, including a Vols pillow, a Titans wristband, Moon Pies, Elvis Presley CDs and Jack Daniels whiskey, among a bunch of other items. (See a full list here.)
Anyway, Patrick will get roasted for this, for sure, but hey, at least she got some candy and whiskey out of the deal. Matter of fact, I think I need a refresher myself ...
Related: Danica Patrick,
The NBA's All-Star weekend is here, the league's Carmelo Anthony(notes)... err, trade deadline is less than a week away, and fantasy owners have four days with no games that count during which to refresh and prepare for the stretch run.
Join us Friday for a fantasy basketball chat, where we'll leave the topics for discussion up to you. Stop by and participate or just lurk and take it all in. We'll get started at 5pm PT/8pm ET.
Chat applet (and ability to send yourself a reminder email) available after the jump...
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photo via Getty Images
SEO.com releases whitepaper outlining a radical change in marketing spending across the country, and identifies the return on investment for search marketing.
SALT LAKE CITY – In this ever-changing digital age, marketing has made a momentous change. Companies of all sizes are shifting advertising and marketing budgets from traditional strategies to search engine optimization and other forms of online marketing.
“When we look at the numbers out there, it’s very revolutionary,” said Nelson James, president of SEO.com. “What used to be the main strategy for marketers has taken a back seat.”
Forrester Research said marketers spent $26 billion in 2010 in Internet marketing, which rivals all spending on cable/satellite TV and radio. Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) said nearly half all companies have decreased spending on traditional areas and are investing more in online marketing.
“We started investing in SEO for the first time this year, and the payoff has been tremendous,” said Sarah Huizingh, marketing manager for Spillman Technologies, a company that specializes in public safety software. Huizingh said Spillman took money out of the print advertising budget to invest in SEO.
Traditional strategies that are taking the biggest hit include print and direct mail. A recent SEMPO survey reported that 49 percent of companies are shifting money from their print advertising budget and putting it toward search engine optimization services, pay per click management and social media marketing. In 2010, 36 percent moved money away from their direct mail budget and 17 to 24 percent of companies made a similar shift away from conferences and exhibits, yellow page ads, and TV and radio ads.
So, what are the reasons for this change in behavior?
“It really comes down to three things,” James said. “Especially in a poor economy, people are looking for marketing solutions that target their demographic better, are highly measurable and show how each spent marketing dollar makes money.”
Strategies like SEO and PPC target customers at the moment they want to buy. Social media has the potential to engage millions of customers. Through analytics, marketers can accurately track where customers come from, how long they stay on a site, what campaigns bring in the most sales and more.
On average, SEO.com clients that have been doing search marketing for six months or more, receive an average return on investment of nearly 2,500 percent – or the equivalent of receiving $25 for every $1 spent.
“Online marketing enables companies to track each spent penny and is proven to deliver a really big ROI,” James said. “It’s probably the biggest reason why more are shifting their marketing budgets. As a result, traditional advertising is getting the leftovers of the marketing budget.”
For more detailed information, images, graphs and statistics about this shift in the marketing world, and the average ROI of 2,500 percent, read the whitepaper “Shift: From Traditional to Online Search Marketing” here: http://www.seo.com/Shift_Whitepaper.pdf
About SEO.com
SEO.com is a SEO firm that delivers a big ROI for its clients by driving traffic to their websites through aggressive search engine optimization, pay per click advertising, and social media marketing. SEO.com then turns those visitors into sales through user-friendly design and conversion optimization. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies.
Tags: internet marketing, marketing spending, Marketing trends, online marketing, Pay Per Click, Search marketing roi, seo, Social Media, traditional marketing
To the chagrin of the rest of the office (and to their respective wives) seven of SEO.com’s best talent kept their upper lips away from the bite of a razor blade through Movember November — except for Christian. He’s the guy on the right with the weak-sauce ‘stache that he had to shave last week for some family photo. Seriously, priorities …
Anyway, the bold and brave souls called on their mustaches to power them for four weeks, and even made it through Thanksgiving without losing a turkey leg inside their grisly, nasty facial hair.
Nathan Blair (second photo down) won the Movember contest with his oily black handle bars. Cheers to you Nathan Blair, mustaches around the world are proud.
Tags: Movember
If content can be searched, it can be optimized.
What are your customers’ content preferences? How do they discover? Consume? Share? Create a profile of your audience(s).
Use tools to create personas of data
Demographic info from Quantcast, CompeteKeyword info from SEMRush, GoogleEngagement info from PostRankSocial network info from Flowtown, RapleafCreate an editorial spreadsheet to plan all content that includes:
TopicKeywordsMedia TypePlaces Repost/Repurpose Content (Newsletter, Slideshare)Places to Promote (Facebook, Twitter, etc)The SEO Content Cycle
Create & promote optimized contentContent is noticed, shared, & visibility growsExposure attracts more subscribers, fans, friends, linksIncrease links and exposure grows search & referral trafficTraffic & community provides data that you can research, develop to further grow social networks for content & SEORepurposing Content Example
Upload video to YouTubeEmbed in a blog post with show notesPost screen shots from video to FlickrUpload images and text as a story in a PowerPoint or PDF, upload to .docstoc, Scribd, etc.Takeaways
Develop & optimize content with customers personas in mindThink like a publisher and create an editorial planDevelop channels of distribution & social linksLeverage both web & social media analyticsRounding up a few of the week's stories that didn't quite merit the full-post treatment.
• Check out the LPGA's new ad campaign, featuring Natalie Gulbis signing in strange areas ...
• At the ACE Group Classic in Naples, Fla., John Cook reported that Tiger Woods' swing has finally "clicked," and that he should be back to his winning ways soon. We shall see, won't we? [Press Tent]
• In Thailand, Michelle Wie and Yani Tseng sit just one stroke behind In-Kyung Kim, who shot a record-tying 63 on Thursday but, unfortunately, was 10 strokes worse on Friday. [Golfweek]
• Great video here from Golf Digest's Dom Furore on golf in the Middle East. Well worth a watch for, as GD puts it, a "familiar game in an unfamiliar land." [Golf Digest]
• Donald Trump has offered his Trump National Club in Bedminster, N.J., as a potential U.S. Open backup site. (Also, be sure to listen to our interview with Trump right here on his new season of "Donald J. Trump's Fabulous World of Golf.") [Golfweek]
Got a link/tip? Hit us up on Twitter at @jaybusbee, on Facebook right here, or by email at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.
Related: John Cook, Tiger Woods
With the 2010 NFL season in the books, it's time to turn our eyes to the NFL draft, and the pre-draft evaluation process. Before the 2011 scouting combine begins on Feb. 24, we'll be taking a closer look at the 40 draft-eligible players who may be the biggest difference-makers when all is said and done.
We continue our series with Maryland wide receiver Torrey Smith. In three years and 37 games on the field with the Terrapins, Smith caught 150 passes for 2,205 yards and 19 touchdowns. He also returned 120 kickoffs for 2,939 yards and three touchdowns. Smith set the ACC career record for kick return yardage (2,983), and the single-season mark for receiving touchdowns at Maryland with 12. He also put up more total yards (5,183) than anyone in school history.
Pros: Runs as fast in a straight line as anyone in this draft class -- difficult for all but the quickest cornerbacks to trail on deep sideline routes. Smith has tremendous quickness to get past defenders and upfield when crossing and looking for openings on slants; it's tough for anyone to keep up with him in space. He's more susceptible to man coverage because he's not a developed route-runner, but he just blows through zones and becomes a real problem for teams looking to have their linebackers and backs move to and sit in areas.
Can turn the edge on the sideline and get vertical as quickly as you'd like. Impressive ability to time his jumps to catch the ball even when he's running full speed. Incendiary kick returner who set an ACC return-yardage record in 2008 and broke it in 2009. More physical than you might think given his size (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) and speed; he doesn't develop alligator arms in traffic and he can give a good stiffarm to get separation after the catch. Overcame a difficult childhood to gain his degree, and his coaches can't say enough good things about him.
Cons: Needs a lot of work on his routes -- especially those routes, like comebacks and digs, requiring tight and immediate cuts. Tends to round off his cuts and make those routes far less defined. Doesn't consistently turn quickly upfield after facing the quarterback on quick passes and can get poleaxed by oncoming defenders as a result.
Conclusion: As with most pure burner receivers, Smith got by with speed at the NCAA level, and he'll be asked to do more against better and more complex coverages in the NFL. But his straight-line speed isn't his only characteristic -- he's a somewhat physical player for his size and seems to have the physical talent to develop into a more polished route-runner -- some of his rudimentary skills in this area are simply because he could blast past people before. Smith is expected to run under 4.4 in the 40-yard dash, and if he matches his speed with a plus performance in all receiver drills, his spot as the third-most coveted receiver in this draft class behind A.J. Green and Julio Jones could be secured.
NFL Comparison: Jeremy Maclin(notes), Philadelphia Eagles
More Shutdown 40
#40 -- Rodney Hudson, OG, Florida State | #39 - Luke Stocker, TE, Tennessee
| #38 - Phil Taylor, DT, Baylor | #37 - Ryan Mallett, QB, Arkansas | #36 -- Leonard Hankerson, WR, Miami | #35 -- Danny Watkins, OL, Baylor | #34 - Stephen Paea, DT, Oregon State | #33 -- Christian Ponder, QB, Florida State | #32 - Mike Pouncey, OL, Florida | #31 - Nate Solder, OT, Colorado | #30 - Kyle Rudolph, TE, Notre Dame | #29 - Mikel Leshoure, RB, Illinois | #28 - Cameron Heyward, DE, Ohio State | #27 - Akeem Ayers, OLB, UCLA | #26 - Brandon Harris, CB, Miami | #25 - Gabe Carimi, OT, Wisconsin | #24 -- Jake Locker, QB, Washington| #23 -- Jimmy Smith, CB, Colorado| #22 - J.J. Watt, DE, Wisconsin | #21 - Corey Liuget, DT, Illinois| #20 - Derek Sherrod, OT, Mississippi State
He's not exactly a chip off the old block, but Ryan Couture is showing a pretty good skill set for a kid who only made an MMA career a goal a few years ago. The son of UFC legend Randy Couture, won his second pro fight with a rear-naked choke at 4:40 of the third round against Lee Higgins.
"I just want to continue to get more comfortable in there," Couture said. "My skills held up there pretty well to what they do in the gym. I want to just pursue that comfort level. I think getting almost 15 minutes in here was a big help."
Couture's father is still an active fighter at 48 years old. He's held both the UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight titles. He was also an alternate on three U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling squads.
The younger Couture was ahead on the scorecards heading to the latter part of the fight before he landed the finishing move. He dictated pace throughout in both the standup game and the ground. The 28-year-old was constantly on the move going from side-to-side, switching stances and mixing in lots of kicks. A conventional fighter, he was effective as a southpaw with both the outside kick to the front leg and some vicious body kicks with his left. But it was on the ground where Couture wore down Higgins.
Late in the first, he worked a standing guillotine choke and dragged Higgins to the mat. He transitioned to a tight d'arce choke. He had it locked on over the final 15 seconds of the round, but Higgins survived.
Higgins tried to close space and play the clinch game in the second. Couture stayed on the move and softened up Higgins with more leg and body kicks. With 2:35 left in the round, Higgins got lazy with his hands and got drilled with a right, that buckled his knees and dropped him.
He got right up but didn't have his wits about him and was taken down with 2:29 left and mounted 16 seconds later. Couture first worked for an arm-triangle choke. Higgins defended that well, so Couture took his back and eventually slapped on a body triangle. As he squeezed the air out of Higgins, Couture worked for multiple attempts at a rear-naked choke. While doing so, he pounded away at Higgins' ribs and got in some nasty punches to the side of his head.
Couture gave Higgins (2-1) a lot of credit for his defense on the ground.
"He was tough as nails. He was hand fighting me like crazy. He wore out my forearms," Couture said. "I can't hardly ball up my fists anymore. I was real glad I was finally able to get him there at the end."
Higgins was ineffective on the feet and again tried to get it to the ground early in the third. Couture's takedown defense was excellent. The Las Vegan bounced around the cage landing occasional shots and took down a tired Higgins again with 2:08 left. Now he was battling the clock. Couture quickly moved to take his back, flattened him out and spun him over where he once again locked on the body triangle. Couture worked several chokes that were very tight. With 20 seconds left, Higgins couldn't hold out any longer and tapped.
Couture has no set schedule for his next fight, but he looks like he may be able to carve out a solid career at lightweight.His father also got a late start to his pro MMA career.Randy transition from amateur wrestling to MMA at age 33. Of course, it was also very much an outlaw sport back in 1997 with little earning potential. His son is a drawing card and is certain to be part of a future televised Challengers card.
"I just want to continue to get more comfortable in there. My skills held up there pretty well to what they do in the gym," Couture said. "I think getting almost 15 minutes in here was a big help."
Strikeforce Challengers undercard (courtesy MMAjunkie):
Ryan Larson def. Erik Apple via submission (triangle choke) - Round 2, 3:14
The 2011 slam-dunk contest wasn't exactly a return to form -- the 1988 and 2000 competitions won't be shaking in their respective slammin' boots after watching tape from Saturday night's affair -- but the Blake Griffin(notes)-led show was a fun time out.
Griffin did pace the field, as was expected heading in. But he did have a fair amount of competition. Toronto's DeMar DeRozan(notes), Washington's JaVale McGee(notes) and Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka(notes) all brought the relative goods. The Los Angeles Clippers forward was still ahead of the group, if barely, becoming the first rookie to win the contest since New York's Nate Robinson(notes) took the crown in 2006.
Click the jump, no dunk intended, for the breakdown:
DeMar DeRozan, Toronto Raptors
Expectations weren't exactly low for DeRozan as he entered the 2011 dunk competition, because we've watched him bound around the league for a year and a half since leaving USC. But after a weak showing last year during a glorified (and hopefully, one-off) dunk-in during 2010's All-Star weekend, one couldn't help but feel dubious as to whether or not the Toronto wing would bring the goods -- especially in a field featuring three forward/centers.
D.D. made it work, though, coming through with a nice reverse dunk off a poor pass from Amir Johnson(notes) (where was Jose Calderon(notes)?) in the first round.
DeRozan attempted a modified version of the Andre Iguodala(notes) bounce-and-reverse from the 2006 contest, but Johnson was out of his element trying to bounce the ball off the basket support. The last part is important. Iggy and others bounce the ball off the side of the backboard. DeMar? He took it off the support itself, several feet away from the board. And, most importantly, several feet away from the rim.
DeMar followed this with a deserved 50 for another reverse in the second round. An alley-oop followed by a windmill, from a guard? Brilliant. Not good enough to move on, apparently. Blame the pass in the first round.
Grade? Give the man an A, only mitigated by a teammate's bad toss.
Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City Thunder
Serge Ibaka is around 6-8, so his dunk from the free throw line should have easily registered a 50. It certainly wasn't the most creative turn, even if the Congo-born second-year big man came through with a tribute to his home continent before throwing down, but it was worth a 50. Julius Erving was the same height as Ibaka, Brent Barry(notes) was an inch or two shorter, and they both had a toe or more on the line as they took off from 15 feet away. Ibaka did no such thing, taking off beyond the freebie stripe, and all he could take in were nines from the judges.
His second dunk was pretty contrived. A well-coiffed child actor was brought in from the audience to complain -- into a microphone -- about losing his toy, which was stuck in the net below the dunking rim. The kid was cute, the idea OK, but it grew a little stale rather quickly.
Ibaka proceeded to attempt to oop himself a pass, and dunk while grabbing the stuffed animal with his teeth. As if it couldn't get any weirder, Serge couldn't nail the first dunk, only coming down with the toy in his mouth. No dunk, just a toy in his mouth. The kid had to wait, as if it was ever his teddy to begin with, as NBA workers brought out a ladder (showmanship!) and re-affixed the "lost" toy to the rim. If you're still reading at this point, stop. It was dull and strange, and, yes, Serge nailed the dunk on the second attempt and brought down the lost toy. No amount of over-arching from the judges following their miss on the foul-line dunk could make this one any better.
Grade? Give the man a B, only marred by some bad advice.
JaVale McGee, Washington Wizards
Dwight Howard(notes), the 2009 dunk contest winner, was underneath the TNT microphones as a guest analyst. And while he didn't really offer any sort of insight worthy of repeating, the uncomfortable back and forth between Howard and McGee's "coach" Chris Webber did, for a short time, allow us to believe that McGee was going to attempt a dunk on a 13-foot rim. After all, Webber was coming through with a muddled bit of trash talk sent Howard's way, and after Dwight dunked on a 12-foot rim a few years back, it seemed only natural.
Instead, McGee brought out a second rim not to churn his way to 13-foot heights, but to attempt (and succeed) in dunking on two baskets at once. Or, dunking lefty, while throwing down off a lob on the right-hand rim. It, if your imagination is all that is allowed here, was amazing.
In the second round, McGee dunked three balls at once. Or, as close to "at once" as gravity will allow. It was, again, amazing. After that? He pulled some reach around reverse that would have been fantastic in its own right, but JaVale managed to straighten-out his right hand and dunk on the weak side as if he had started from that end. In all, it was a stunning display of athleticism.
In the third round, after his closest competitor brought out a middling four-cylinder car and jumped over the hood, McGee sort of lost his nerve while attempting his final stuff. After two half-hearted attempts at a lob off the glass and reverse, an embarrassed McGee settled on a bounce off the board and cock-backed throw-down with one hand. Nice, but this was shootaround work. An unfortunate end to a wildly impressive night out.
Grade? Give the man an A, only hurt by the amount of dunk attempts he needed.
Blake Griffin, Los Angeles Clippers
Make no mistake, Griffin was the best dunker of the night. At least, he was the most entertaining, and that's without taking into consideration the -- oh, let's be honest -- lame presentation that was his final dunk.
Worst things first. Griffin had a Kia something wheeled out for his final turn, and with a local choir singing "I Believe I Can Fly" beyond the half-court stripe, Blake jumped over the car's hood for a nice two-handed stuff. Now, none of us want Griffin to push things. We kind of like the idea of this guy dominating the league for the next 15 years. But this dunk, this show, was pretty dull.
The rest? The rookie brought it.
A 450-degree throwdown in the first round started things off. A second-round reverse off of a terrible Baron Davis(notes) pass followed. Davis kept us from seeing a dunk contest classic because Blake shifted after a few attempts and took an easier dunk.
In the third round, Griffin dunked from outside the charge circle, and easily fit his elbow into the rim. And while the dunk might not be something you'll tell your grandchildren about, this was a fantastic display of athleticism. He put a basketball in a 10-foot rim with his hand, that was connected to his arm, that was connected to his elbow, that also went into the rim. Any bit of Official Vehicle of the NBA-sponsored nonsense -- and this is coming from a guy who is going to a car show later today -- can't take away from that stunning burst. Blake Griffin deserved to win this dunk contest.
Grade? Give the man an A, tempered only by a dull stuff in the final round.
***In all? The dunk contest was nothing to write home about.
As an entertainment package? It was great! I dare anyone who isn't on the wrong side of a batch of opiates to tell you that they sat through the entire thing and didn't have fun. Was it the best dunking exhibition we've seen? Clearly not. Were parts contrived? Of course.
Was it a great show? No doubt.
See you next year, Blake. And hopefully, JaVale.
Related: DeMar DeRozan, Blake Griffin, Serge Ibaka, JaVale McGee, Jose Calderon, Amir Johnson, Nate Robinson, Baron Davis, Andre Iguodala, Dwight Howard, Brent Barry, Los Angeles Clippers, Oklahoma City Thunder, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards