Warmest Greetings,

:: Monday, September 30, 2002 ::

Moving soon

Stay tuned. We're configuring the Cre8asite Forum now in its new home. Will let you know this week when to point your bookmarks to "Cre8asiteforums.com", our new domain.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/30/2002 08:44:13 AM

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:: Friday, September 27, 2002 ::

Do you have the nerve?

Have you ever asked someone to NOT link to your web site?

Do you think your reputation is hurt by being linked from sites that aren't to your liking?

Do you ask before adding a link? Do you know some companies will sue you for linking to theirs?

The hottest topic over at the Cre8asite Forum is Leaky Links...

Come see me get all unglued over some sensitive subjects!

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/27/2002 12:08:24 PM

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:: Wednesday, September 25, 2002 ::

Cat and Mouse. Now You See It, Now You Don't. Peek-a-boo.

Call it what you will, but my word for it is FRUSTRATING.

We're still experiencing problems due to the virus/hacking situation. There's a team of people investigating what happened and working on the server, so we expect the forum to be up and down, unfortuntely.

It will be moved to a new server, new domain very soon. That process has already begun.

I hope you hang in there with us while we "rescue" the Forum :)

PS - keep those cards and letters coming. Just kidding. But we DO appreciate all the concern, love, encouragement and professional assistance coming our way.


Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/25/2002 12:51:05 PM

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WE'RE BACK!!!!!!


A short term solution, but we're back. Will let you know when we move to our new server, but for now it's business as usual for the Cre8asite Forums!!

Cre8asite Forums

SEO/Usabilty/WebDev/Internet Legal/News/Ranting/Blogs and much more

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/25/2002 09:11:46 AM

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We'll be back!

Support for the Cre8asite Forum poured in from around the world yesterday as word spread we were forced to shut it down.

From the offers of money, to the offers of technical assistance to the help of a Detective, we have it covered and are well on the way to returning with a safer, protected Forum.

Stay tuned for the relaunch date!!

And thanks to those who are sending their support, especially competitors and peers from the search engine marketing community itself. You all are wonderful people!!

Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/25/2002 08:02:24 AM

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:: Tuesday, September 24, 2002 ::

A Sad Day

The Cre8asite Forum has been destroyed.

It is with great sorrow that I regret to inform everyone that the newly launched Cre8asite Forum that received so many rave reviews and kudos from the SEO world has been attacked by a virus and/or hacker.

We have reason to believe this was done intentionally, but as you know these things are often impossible to prove - which makes this all more frustrating and unjust.

Suffice it to say that despite all the volunteer, unpaid hours it took to setup, configure, administer, moderate and publicize the Cre8asite Usability/SEO Forum by a team of dedicated persons from the US and several countries from around the world - it took one evil mind to ruin it all.

Whoever did this doesn't know me very well. We will be back with a vengence. You can count on it.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/24/2002 11:33:43 AM

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:: Monday, September 23, 2002 ::

Checklist Frenzy

I LOVE checklists, especially those that tell me why I'm doing what's suggested, or give a how-to example along with the suggested item.

Accessibility and Usability are more than just alt tags, content and logical navigation. Much, much more!

Whether you're a software developer or webmaster, this checklists page by the WorldWideWeb Consortium, is a vital resource worth bookmarking for future use, reference and study.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/23/2002 09:04:53 AM

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Dangle the carrot in front of their nose, if you want to be noticed.

I noted in a post in the Cre8asite Forum recently that even though I put up a donation box on the Cre8pc.com site last year to help off-set expenses, (since the site is largely a labor of love and not my main source of income) that nobody ever bothered to send in a donation.

Well, today, I received notification that a subscriber to the Forum made a donation!

And I quickly realized a new great way to make sure someone remembers you, if you want to promote your business. Because this company was kind enough to contribute, I in turn will remember them, their web site, their services and may be impressed enough to link to them, or refer people to them (since this is what I do as part of my volunteer work. I do a lot of referrals and help with networking.)

So, a little pocket change for this company and considerate gesture may get them a nice return on that small investment.

Smart company, they are.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/23/2002 07:49:29 AM

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:: Friday, September 20, 2002 ::

Send me your sinking ship

"Web Site Rescue!
Don't abandon the ship yet. Kim's expertise in SEO, UI and Usability is available to you at affordable prices!"

I've been helping web site owners for a few years now with their SEO needs, as well as user interface (overall design and architecture of the site.) To me it's fun and I enjoy freelancing in it, while I work full-time in software development in areas that also need SEO, QA and Usability input. I recently began to look around at what others charge for website reviews and was shocked. As in just incredibly flabbergasted.

Some companies charge $640 PER PAGE. I've seen as low as $100 per page. Each place I found looks for the same things I do, but their reports are glossy, classy outputs with colorful graphics and metrics. I guess if you have money to blow and want to take the time to decipher all the pretty pictures, that's fine. You won't want what I offer then.

I write you back and explain the situation as if we were sitting over coffee in a cafe and shoving bagels in our mouths. I point out all the brilliant stuff you thought of, what was missed, or could be improved and why. I can't draw, so you won't get any graphics scribbled on the napkin. I like metrics but they mean zilch to most people. I don't rate your site. If something is critically wrong, I tell you. It's either not going to work for you, or will. There's no maybe it will work and I give it a score of 3. If it was working, you wouldn't be hiring me.

Some comanies offer some basic usabilty testing as a way to get you in the front door so they can help you with targeted branding and marketing. I like this approach because these companies specialize in the upfront matters that are of extreme importance, such as designing the site from the very start with the user in mind. The money spent with this approach is wise spending. Companies that focus on usability and their users FIRST are less likely to need web site rescue later.

So there it is. I do web site rescue for an entire site for those who want the facts and are willing to pay for my time to give them those facts, only.

If you want the pretty pictures and have a few thousand bucks to spare, go to the other usablity testing sites. Hope you get a good return on that HUGE investment.

Cre8pc Web Site Rescue can be found here.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/20/2002 10:43:58 AM

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:: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 ::

Logo go home

I can't remember a time when I didn't know that companies logos on a website are usually hyperlinked back to the index page. So, this is a surprise!

Seven tricks that Web users don't know

(snip)
"When I first noticed that the majority of users (two-thirds in one study -- see the sidebar) didn't click logo links, I wasn't sure whether they didn't know about them or knew but simply didn't use them. To find out, I started asking users whether they knew that the logo was a link to the home page. (I'm always careful to ask this kind of question at the end of a usability test, otherwise I could change the very behavior I'm trying to observe.) Sure enough, most of the non-clickers confirmed that they didn't know this trick."

Great usability article, but you'll need a magnifying glass to read it.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/18/2002 09:31:37 AM

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:: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 ::

Linkable!

Cayley Vos, from Netpaths, sent me this from her site. It's very helpful and worth bookmarking. Visit Online Glossary

and

if you seek the best resources and most trustworthy recommendations for SEO, usabilty, etc., we've compiled a list in the Resources section of the Cre8asite Forum. You can go directly to these resources by clicking here.

Launched August 29, the Cre8asite Forum now has 88 registered users, is frequented by many top names in the SEO world, and several top names are moderators, including Jill Whalen and Ammon Johns.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/17/2002 07:37:19 AM

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:: Sunday, September 15, 2002 ::

Search Engine Nascar Races

According to Brent Winters' latest reporting, the top engines are pushing their strollers a bit faster to compete with FAST (AlltheWeb)...which apparently accounts for the lightening speed indexing some of us have been witnessing at Google...and possibly the weird stuff going on over in Yahoo! Yahoo Mystery

When FAST announced this summer it exceeded having index 2 billion documents, which blew Google's claims as the "biggest", the top search portal brass clamored to compete.

Winters' mentions that Google "began indexing pages with high link popularity (or more accurately, high "PageRank") in as little as 24 hours. Indexing of other sites is also happening more frequently than before, but can still take up to 3-4 weeks depending upon the site. Google also struck a deal getting AOL and IWon to drop their Inktomi listings in favor of serving Google's results."

This is a huge loss of exposure for Ink. One of the reasons I suggest paying for INK is the AOLSearch exposure (I don't consider IWON a search engine. It's a gimmick/Ads site.)

When Winters claims Google began indexing pages with high PR in as little as 24 hours I have to assume he meant existing sites, since a new site doesn't come flying out the gate with high PR.

Note that Winters mentioned Ink has announced a new feature to improve relevancy and Yahoo! still hasn't announced if it will keep Google results or switch back to Ink or try FAST. Would love to be a fly on that wall!

The WebPositionGold newsletter is always a good read. You don't have to buy the product to receive the free newsletter or join their forum for SEO support - MarketPosition Newsletter

To follow the thread on this click Google IS indexing faster, INK has a new relevancy algo?

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/15/2002 09:42:58 AM

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:: Friday, September 13, 2002 ::

Oh goodie! I got to rant today.

Quote from the Cre8asite Forum:
"SEO is very simple these days."

My response:
"I think it always was. It was SPAM (SEO techniques that tried to fool engines) that made it difficult, followed by the greed that fueled SEO scams.

I don't like to remember all the times I was threatened with lawsuits by SEO scam companies because I spoke out publically against them. I wrote an article about SEO scams back in 1998 that still exists on my site (hasn't been looked at for awhile. Still has an old font on it even. Likely needs some updating... http://www.cre8pc.com/whim.html) that users loved, but ticked off those who ran so-called free submission tools, especially my recommendation that they supply the list of every place a web site is submitted to so the web site owner could approve or disapprove (i.e. have a choice). I was once attacked so severely for this I took my entire web site down and seriously considered retiring from SEO altogether.

What's so simple is being honest in your work, learning the skills, applying them with integrity, and thinking of your users at all times. The engines are an advertising outlet - same as a magazine, newspaper, TV, radio. They are a tool. They're not the only one available for web sites. A simple business card with a URL is a tool.

to read more click this mile-long link - http://webworkshop.net/cre8asite/viewtopic.php?t=99&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/13/2002 09:42:36 AM

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:: Thursday, September 12, 2002 ::

How Do You Spell Relief? F.A.S.T.

Dynamic web site relief has arrived via FAST (AllTheWeb.com), which is adding the capability to search Macromedia Flash content and applications on the web. This functionality will automatically be made available to FAST's portal partners, such as InfoSpace & Lycos.

This, on the heels of news that Usability guru Jakob Nielsen is working with Macromedia to make Flash more usable is enough to make me pull out my Dreamweaver disk and relearn the danged software!

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/12/2002 05:01:30 PM

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:: Wednesday, September 11, 2002 ::

Ok. This is just hilarious!

Usability Test

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/11/2002 02:20:07 PM

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Vett your 'Net appetite dahling

If you think your site should be one of the *hand picked* entries for http://www.wellvetted.com/, learn how to do it here http://www.urlwire.com/news/090902.html.

Incidently, how come Wellvetted has no Google PageRank?

Well, who cares about Google PR anyway. The sites linked to from Wellvetted are awesome. I like this one Design is Kinky

Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/11/2002 11:08:04 AM

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:: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 ::

Happy Birthday Google. Did you cash that check yet?

Four years ago, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin needed to incorporate their new company. Why? So they could cash a $100,000
personal check that had been sitting in Page's desk drawer for a couple of weeks.

"The investment created a small dilemma. There was no way to deposit the
check since there was no legal entity known as 'Google Inc.' It sat in
Larry's desk drawer for a couple of weeks while he and Sergey scrambled to
set up a corporation and locate a few other funders among family, friends
and acquaintances. Ultimately, they brought in a total initial investment
of almost $1 million."

"The company grew quickly, and on June 7 1999, the company announced that
it had secured a round of funding that included $25 million from Sequoia
Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Buyers."

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/02/sd0910-google-bd.html

Google got lucky. The guy from NSYNC who trained to fly to the space station was rejected because he couldn't come up with the $20 million the Russians said he needed.

I guess a search engine is worth more than space travel these days.

Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/10/2002 11:26:04 AM

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:: Sunday, September 08, 2002 ::

No Problem!

The Cre8asite Forum that existed on 9/5 is no more. Phil found the problem, fixed it, and we were back in business in no time.

We're having a blast over there. Lots of renuniting with friends and making new ones. Come see what all the hoopla is about at Cre8asite

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/08/2002 04:32:18 PM

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:: Thursday, September 05, 2002 ::

Captain's Log Stardate Blah Blah

Ok. The Forum admin/programmer/guru, Phil, just alerted me that the forum has a temporary problem whereby nobody can make a new post.
Now, thanks to Jill, there's a billion people over there registering and reading and maybe one or two is going to want to post sumptin', ya think?

I'm cool. This is all normal stuff for Internet apps. Nothing to get hysterical about.

I now imagine myself on an island...with lots of palm trees swaying in the breeze...and naked men bringing me bloody marys on silver trays...and I'm breathing in and out...focusing on the breath...relaxing each muscle in my big toe...which nostril are you supposed to pinch for Yoga breathing?????

Please hang in there with us.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/05/2002 11:56:18 AM

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When Friends Help Friends, it's a Great Thing!

Last night I received about 4 emails from a client who delved into my blogs, web site and personal history, as well as the Cre8pc Testimonials page. She wrote to say how inspired she was to read about a single mom who managed to accomplish the things I did, such as teaching myself a career. For years I didn't speak publically about the behind the scenes of Cre8pc.com. Only once did I share with a co-moderator of a Yahoo! club that I was struggling and not sure how I'd pay bills or buy food. I never had any money to promote my site or services, but I did have two things. Love of SEO, web design and eventually usability - once I learned what that was. And I liked "talking" to people and making friends online.

That "talking" has culminated in the new Cre8asite Forum, which thanks to many of those friends I made over the years, is going gang busters. The only thing I hate about the Internet is that I can't meet and hug all the people who've supported me, or people like the client who was so taken with my "story" she kept sending me emails (and apologizing for taking up my time). Jill Whalen came through with a thingy in her Wednesday newsletter (see below). This is what people do when they care.

It's not about money. Sometimes it's about something else important. We each know what that is for ourselves. My life is "rich" because of my friends.

"++New SEO and Usability Forum++

Kim Krause, SEO/UI/Usability Consultant from Cre8pc.com has recently
opened a new SEO and Web site usability forum
that you should be sure to check
out. Along with her own expertise in the area of usability and SEO,
Kim has managed to snag a whole list of big-name moderators (including
me!) within just a week or so of opening the virtual forum doors.

What attracted me to Kim's forum and her other sites is her warm and
inviting writing style, which is somewhat similar to my own. I'm glad
to see another woman in the SEO world who isn't afraid to put herself
"out there" and just be who she is. Because the forum is so new, there
aren't a heck of a lot of posts yet. However, things are picking up
quickly, and there is some high-quality stuff to read. If it appears
as if everyone knows each other already, that's because Kim has made a
lot of friends in the biz over the years and has been posting in
various SEO groups for ages. You can read the forum history here:
.

So now, I've got another place to keep me away from my *real* work!
(You'll still be able to find me over at the Ihelpyou forums
just about any time of day or
night, so don't worry about that!)

Source:
"The High Rankings' Advisor is a free, weekly email newsletter discussing the latest news and information in the world of search engine marketing.
http://www.highrankings.com or http://www.rankwrite.com
Subscribe and Unsubscribe at http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/05/2002 11:24:08 AM

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:: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 ::

Today's Hot Cre8asite Threads

•Google Dance - the indexing cylce, algorithm, ethics of PageRank, and more...

•What To Do Before You Code - Ask yourself and/or your Team the following questions

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/04/2002 03:23:25 PM

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Do I Look Like a Sex Goddess to You?

For months now I've been receiving reports from the freebie site search engine app I put on the Cre8pc.com site (Atomz Search). What people actually search for tells me my users don't read sometimes, or think Cre8pc.com is a porn site.

For example: "nightclubs", "paths2pleasure" - What in heaven's name has either of them got to do with SEO, UI or Usabilty????

For example: "psychosonique" - Ok, I think I'll take that as a compliment, thank you very much. (But it still has no relationship to SEO, does it?)

For example: "joshr122 aol com" - Well, whoever he is, he's not hiding on my site. I hope.

For example: "manual development" - What the hell is that, exactly?

For example: "they" - Could we be a bit more specific here?

For example: "coat of arms" - This is a site about UI/Usability/SEO and Web Design. I think this user was just plain lost.

For example: "cerate a website" - God only knows what happens when you "cerate" a website, but if you want to "create" one, I'll be happy to help.

And my all time favorite word which someone typed in, "website" - the most common term on the 'Net that even search engines ignore it.

My search box originally said "Search Cre8pc.com", and I'd hoped this would be a clue to users that I meant the search field was for searching MY web site only, not the entire Internet. My little search box is not a metasearch engine. You can search for naked people all you want from my site but you won't get back stimulating results, if you catch my drift.

Today I broke down and made the search box more user friendly. It now says "Search the Cre8pc.com Web Site" instead of simply "Search Cre8pc.com". Apparently I needed to really spell this one out for people. And in case they still don't get it, I added more user instructions at the bottom that say "This search box is for THIS site only, not all search portals on the 'Net."

Do you think I should add a note that Cre8pc.com is definitely NOT a porn site or do you think users will eventually figure it out?

Have a great day. Use it wisely. And remember to check your spelling when searching and be aware of the environment from whence you perform your search. Your results may actually make some sense then.

Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/04/2002 09:51:02 AM

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:: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 ::

Cre8asite Forum - 6 days old and attracting Google's attention

When 3 Web sites with a PR6 link to a brand new forum, you know it's worth looking into.

Even Google has begun to add it to its index, and the forum History page has a Google PR of 3/10 already.

If you're a fan of Sharon and Roy, Ammon Johns (aka Black Knight), Jill Whalen or any of the other moderators you'll find there, please come and join in the discussions. We're adding Internet law to the pile of topics, quality assurance testing and more. For now, you'll find news, advice, debate and humor.

We especially like the humor part!

Kim

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 9/03/2002 07:26:29 AM

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• About Kim Krause Berg
• My resume (PDF)
• July 2004 : Interview with Kim
• My Partners
• My Articles
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• Me Again (My Fave Blog Posts)
• August 2005 : Expanding on Usability - An Interview with Kim Krause Berg
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Recent Posts

Pondering Your Search Engine Marketing Navel

No Awesome Usability Experience Ecommerce Trend This Year

Cre8pc's SEO, Usability, and Internet Predictions for 2006

A Google Carol

Repeat After Me. Change Is Good. Change is Good.

Cre8asiteForums Has a New Look

Where Are The Women SEO's?

When Did Blogs Sell Their Souls to the Devil?

Never Mention the Words "SEO MYTH" Around Bill

Yale Law School Hosts A Symposium on Search Engines, Law, and Public Policy

Monthly Archives

It's That Book Again

Conversions Topic is New York Times Best Seller (Seriously)

Kim is a Member of the Usability Professionals Association

"This report exceeded my expectations. After reading it a few times, I went through and highlighted those parts of your actionable advice that I want to implement right away... I ended up highlighting most of the report. Stellar job. I won't hesitate to recommend you to one of my own clients." -- Andy Hagans of AndyHagans.com

"I have implemented the most obvious changes and I suppose the fact that we've seen an immediate increase in sales/conversions is no coincidence. I'd highly recommend your service to anyone running a serious web based business." -- Steve Clay, Plumeriabay.com

"As soon as we get our hands on one of her usability studies, my clients and I have a better understanding of what needs to be done with their sites to make them the best they can be from their site visitors' perspective."
-- Jill Whalen, HighRankings.com

"This is an exemplary piece of work." -- Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz.org

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