Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

We all use Adobe products (or at least most of us). Personally I only use Dreamweaver and Fireworks CS4 but Daryl here mocks me as he swears by Photoshop CS3 (about to upgrade to CS4) and the Ddobe Creative Suite Design Premium.

Whatever your flavor (we have other staff using other versions and specific Adobe products) one thing is for sure, the enhancements they've put forth in their CS4 versions are just plain awesome.

I couldn't possibly list them all here. You need to download the trial and give it a go or just upgrade. We just completed the upgrade on our last system (that would be poor Daryl who has been stuck with CS3 until now). Fortunately when we were looking at the upgrade we discovered that they're giving $200 off when you're upgrading from CS3 products. So now's as good a time as any. :)

Now it's time for full disclosure - I don't link to sites I don't like but when I am going to link to them and they have affiliate programs - I use them. The link to their product page (which includes the "no coupon code needed" discount rate) goes through our affiliate code. Just want to be right out there with that but I was going to write up a post regardless noting that the enhancements added are outstanding and worth every penny and the $200 discount is just an added perk. :)

For your convenience I'll provide links via our affiliate ID and then the non-affilaite link right below it if you opt to go that route though I don't know if the discount applies and I've already followed the link. :)

Discount From Adobe (No Coupon Code Needed)

• Affiliate link - Adobe $200 discount with no coupon code needed
• Non-affiliate link - Not sure about the Adobe $200 discount with no coupon code needed

Labels: adobe

Due to an ever expanding customer base Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization is pleased to announce that they are actively hiring SEO Copywriters. Right now we mainly need talented writers looking for some good experience to write educational articles to syndicate on our clients behalf. What we are looking for are individuals in the USA, or Canada who have a writing background / education. Please forward examples of your copy writing work and a resume to daryl@beanstalk-inc.com, with a subject line that includes SEO Copywriting and any post secondary education you may have. Copywriters with work experience in Natural Health, Insurance, Technology, and Law will earn extra brownie points.

Labels: beanstalk, copywriting, seo

Update 1: Microsoft has now pulled the public beta, and several people that managed to start a download have had the download killed. They have now replaced the text on Technet to "Windows® 7 Beta coming soon!". This just keeps getting better, I've only spent 2.5 hours trying to sign up and start this download and all the MS pages associated with the download now return 404 errors.

I'll start this Blog post with a disclaimer that if you don't like rants, then stop here. As some of you may be aware today Microsoft officially launched their Windows 7 Public Beta, which is available to the first 2.5 million people that sign up. Now you might think well I'll just go over to Microsoft's website sign up, then download my copy where in reality their servers are most likely nearly on fire! I've seen the screen "Server is too busy" well over 200 times, and I've seen their error page around 20 different times. I've now also seen the signup page twice, however after submitting my data the server was then too busy to process it, and I was redirected to an error page so I can't even repost my request, and I'm now back in the queue (90+ minutes and counting) to reenter my data.

In my eyes the Windows 7 Public Beta launch is a monster failure because they definitely didn't extend their planning to making sure that their Microsoft profile website / web server could handle this kind of website traffic volume. I personally find this extremely ironic as Microsoft claims to make the best Web server Internet Information Services (IIS). On a side note this is actual the second failed launch I've witnessed within the last 30 days on an IIS server, if this doesn't say another about its performance under a heavy load I don't know what does. The other failed launch was for NCIX for their boxing day sale which started on December 24th at 4PM, their website was down with Server is too busy message (if it actually showed up at all) for the first 45 minutes, and even then it took 30 minutes to add 3 items to my cart and complete my transaction!

What Microsoft should have done for their Windows 7 Public Beta Launch was 1) not to use one of their main websites and used a dedicated website on a dedicated load balanced server setup 2) Put together a queue based system which emulates standing through a lineup so people weren't constantly refreshing and putting more load on the server 3) Removed that error page so that you can resume from the point in your signup where the process failed instead of having to redo steps 4) Switch to Apache and PHP and actually run an efficient web server and scripting language.

Steve Balmer at CES said "We're putting in all the right ingredients [to Windows 7]: simplicity, reliability and speed. And we're working hard to get it right and to get it ready." All I have to say to Steve Balmer is "Thanks for nothing, and try putting those ingredients into Windows Server and IIS as I'm not seeing any reliability or speed".

Labels: microsoft, steve balmer, windows 7

2009 has started off great thanks to Advanced Web Ranking and Top SEOs. Advanced Web Ranking made it a great morning by providing me with the monthly ranking reports for a number of our clients. So I suppose it isn't *really* Advanced Web Ranking so much as a great team of dedicated SEOs and link builders who made that a great experience but I've got enough happiness to go around.

And Top SEOs helped make it a great morning by once again handing us two awards:

• Best in Organic Optimization
• Best in SEO Training

As with Advanced Web Ranking - I suppose it's more our great staff that I have to thank for these awards but I'll do that when I get back from holidays ... for now I'll thank Top SEOs for recognizing our hard work and presenting us with this honor.

And a big thanks to you as well - our blog readers and clients. We grew teremendously in 2008 and I'm looking forward to growing with you through 2009. Watch for some big changes to our blog frequency and free SEO tools in the near future.

A Reminder

Don't forget to change the copyright date on your websites.

Labels: beanstalk, blog, free seo tools, organic optimization, seo training, topseos