Chris Hooley’s -ThinkBait-

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past year, you’ve probably heard about the Deaf Frat Guy (also known as Maverick), a regular personality on Adam Corolla’s morning radio show.  The dude ROCKS.  His fraternity, Delta Fu Gamma, is looking for more members, and fortunately for us we know how to drive traffic. 

Due to a crazy awesome set of circumstances, me and some of my peeps are involved in his site now.  Jon (AKA Snoop Blawg) is the head of the Phoenix Chapter of Delta Fu Gamma.  Jeff Dempsey (AKA Iambetterthanu, and the guy who runs Chris Hooley Secrets) is doing his web work.  I on the other hand, I am gonna sithere and let it happen for the promise of one day going to the PlayBoy Mansion with Maverick and getting really drunk and recording incidents I may or may not eventually get arrested for.

Today is a good day.

So dudes and dudettes, if you like beer, parties, college girls, potato guns, or anything awesome whatsoever, I urge you to join DFG and blow this thang out of the water.   Oh and FYI- Link to sign up coming soon once Jeff gets off his butt and creates it.

Tags: Adam Corolla, beer, Chris Hooley, college girls, Deaf Frat Guy, Delta Fu Gamma, DFG, I am Better than U, Iambetterthanu, Jeff Dempsey, Jon Heinl, Maverick, Parties, PlayBoy Mansion, potato gun, potato guns, SEO Snoop Blawg

Initially I decided to wait to launch the contest when I had 20 applicants.  Doesn’t look like I’ll get past 12, so the contest is moving forward.  So “Dirty Dozen”, get ready.  Your URLs will be sent to you this weekend, and the contest will begin.  You are officially one day closer to WINNING A DATE WITH AN SEO!  Hawt.

Tags: Chris Hooley, Date an SEO, Date Contest, Dating Contest, I am a whore, Noise, SEO, SEO Contest Who Wants to Date an SEO

I need ideas. In a month, I’m gonna turn 30 and I wanna throw myself the dopest party ever. Friends, family, loose acquaintances, people who wanna rip me off: You are all invited. Except the people who wanna rip me off.

Now I just need to plan this mofo. April 19, 2007 will mark year 30 of my earthly visit and I need to make it memorable. Anybody else ever have a kick ass 30th B-Day jam? What did you do to make it succeed? What should I do to pimp this thing?

Tags: Fun Stuff, Noise Personal

One single post from a good blog can have a huge impact on natural search rankings. Some SEOs already know this, and a few companies (ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews, PayPerPost, etc) have built businesses around the idea.

I recently posted about my experience with Acapulco Pools, a pool builder in Arizona, and told my buddy Adam to watch the Google ranks for “Arizona Pool Builder“. Keep in mind, this was only a few days ago. He ranked #12 at the time, and already he’s at #9. I also told him to watch “Fiberglass Pool Builder” where he was at #3. Now he’s at #3 AND #4 and my post is #5. Not too shabby.

The trick is, and always was, the appropriate use of anchor text, page titles, and content. This does NOT mean I am saying start up a million splogs. It means having a good blog post linking to you from a blog that has some trust and some backlinks can have a serious effect on natural rankings… especially if your keyphrases aren’t that competitive.

On a related note, if anybody else would care to mention Acapulco Pools (www.azpools.net) or this post on their blog(s), I bet it would dramatically change the above SERPs. If you choose to do so, make sure I know about it so I can show your blog and track the results as well.

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*update - our friends over at Tailored Consulting read this post and decided to join in and post a link. Thanks Brendon! Let’s watch the SERP to see what happens!*nother update- the Affiliate Profit Center popped a linkeroo to Adam’s company too - this is cool!

*yet another- Web Hosting Report popped a linkie in therrrr too- and according to my most recent search, the site is now at #5.  SWEET!

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Tags: SEO Signal

I’ve spent the past few years at NextStudent in a fishbowl type room to promote open communication. Just today, I moved into my own office. It’s pretty big, and pretty cool I guess. But it’s weird. I’ve been in here approximately 45 minutes (since being fully settled) and I have no meetings for the rest of the day. I am already having withdrawals from my team.

This is good because I think I needed it now that the team is so big, but it is gonna take some getting used to.

Tags: Chris Hooley, New Office, NextStudent, Noise, Personal, Professional Team Withdrawals

Back in the day before I was pimping SEO and online advertising, I was a web designer.  I created a site for my friend Adam who is an Arizona Pool Builder (Owner of Acupulco Pools).  At the time his company was a fraction of the size it is now; I think they are the biggest Fiberglass Pool Builder in Arizona now.  The site has been a successful lead gen and catalog type tool for them.  I gave him the hook up, basically working for peanuts to get a pretty decent site up.

Fast forward a few years, and I am in the market for a pool.  My backyard is bare (new house, dirt backyard, you know the drill).  He convinced me to let Acapulco Pools do my backyard and pool (I was thinking pebbletech at the time).  I can’t tell you how much it cost me because I got the “We feel like we owe you for the business that your site generated” hook up… but I can say this:  I AM ECSTATIC about how good these guys are.

These pools are 10x faster to install, they look just as good in a lanscape with cool decking, and from what I understand these pools are way easier to maintain.  The teams they send out are fast and courteous and the backyard already is starting to look awesome.  I’ll post pics once the yard is done so you can see what I am talking about.

Moral of the story, building websites for other people sometimes comes back and pays you back in ways you wouldn’t expect.  I am stoked about my new pool and landscaping so far.  My backyard is  gonna be ROCKIN’ this summer!

Tags: Professional SEO

A few days late, a few dollars short, but shizzle bizzle. I hope yo birf dizzle was da bomb. On an unrelated note, pretty soon I’m gonna get that contest running, I got disctracted with things that are not so awesome, but I’m back in the heezy!

Tags: Andrea Schoemaker, Chris, Chris Hooley, Fun Stuff, Hooley Shizzle Bizzle

There’s been some buzz at NextStudent about the proposed student loan taxes and related legislature coming down the pipe.  For those who want to hear the inside scoop on the subject, I found a pretty cool site.  Check out StudentLoanTax.org.

Take a stand against this thing- email your senator, congressman, etc.  It’s going to make it harder for kids to get to school, it’s going to raise the cost of student loans for students, and it could hurt, mabe even eliminate,  the industry I work in.

Tags: Professional Signal