No surprise here...

Delta Airlines

PO Box 20980

Atlanta, GA 30320-2980

RE: 2 Cancelled Flights, 4 Different Gates, 2 Different Airlines, 2 Different Airports, Luggage to another airport in the same city, all to get to NYC 13 hours late.

To Whom It May Concern:

I have never, in all my life, had such a miserable traveling experience as I did December 9, 2009.

My wife agrees with me, that in her entire life, she too has never had such a miserable traveling experience as she did on December 9, 2009.

I’ll describe what I have shared with friends, family, and coworkers as the most ridiculous, aggravating, unhelpful, rude, and idiotic string of air travel incidents that I’ve ever heard of – and they all agree that they’ve never heard anything like it either.  What I’m about to detail resembles something in a movie where “if it can go wrong, it absolutely does” – Murphy’s Law lived out in a Birmingham, AL Delta Airlines terminal.

The Beginning

My wife and I booked 2 tickets, both direct flights, to New York City in July through Cheap Tickets.  I’ll spare you the drama we experienced with that third party and focus simply on the ineptitude of what Delta Airlines did wrong and everything it cost me.  Fast-forward to December 8 when I log on to www.delta.com only to find my original flight – Delta 6360 from Birmingham to LaGuardia – is no longer leaving Birmingham on December 9 at 11:15 am with a NYC-LaGuardia 2:55 arrival.  In fact, that flight doesn’t even exist.  I do a search by my name and Confirmation Number (PBPSCC) only to find that my flight has been moved to 8:30am.  I find this out at 10:30pm on December 8, meaning I had to make additional arrangements to get to the airport 3 hours earlier than expected, all without any contact from Delta whatsoever.  Had I showed up at 10:00, would you have simply said “too bad” to me and my wife?  After paying in excess of $800 for both tickets, I would hope that if changes occur to the itinerary, I could at least get some sort of notice.  When checking in, I was told my phone number had been entered with a “001” at the beginning and your phone call system interpreted that as an international call and consequently did not notify me that my flight had changed.  I have yet to even begin to describe the real issues involved with this debacle.

When we checked in to the Delta ticket counter, we checked 2 bags at $15/each (9006DL474363 and 9006dl474358 were our ticket numbers).  We were told that our flight was slightly delayed and had a 9:30am take off.  I’m a very understanding person, I agree mistakes happen, I know weather can affect things too.  My wife and I were directed to a terminal, we passed through security, and went to the appropriate gate.  We were then informed by the staff at the gate at our first terminal that we would need to now move to a different gate.  Again, being understanding and anxious to get to NYC, my wife and I quickly moved to the different gate and sat down.  We were then informed that we were going to be “guinea pigs for a new ticket scanning system” something I actually looked forward to seeing as I work in IT.  In that same notice, we were informed by the gate staff that our flight was going to be delayed further because Delta did not have a plane for us to board and was flying a plane down from Cincinnati.

“Just how on Earth did you have a flight, cancel it, not notify people, then put them on another flight ONLY TO NOT HAVE A PLANE?!?!!?!?”

Those were my thoughts.

The Waiting Game Begins

So we wait for our plane to arrive.  And wait.  And about 11:00 we’re told our plane is here and we should be boarding soon.  So we wait some more.  And about 12:00 we hand our boarding passes to gate staff, they simply tear them, and hand them back to us.  There was no scanning or checking of any boarding passes whatsoever.  Anyone and everyone that wanted to board that plane, did.  My congratulations to you on breaking an innumerable number of TSA and Homeland Security protocols with your “new ticket scanning system.”

So we board what my wife calls “the smallest and most rickety plane I’ve ever seen.”  We’re shoehorned into this thing like peas in a pod.

You see, we found out that a number of people waiting for our re-re-rescheduled 8:30 flight were a part of a 6:30am flight.  Combining 2 flights into 1 to save money?  Good idea, but it could not have been handled any worse.  After all 50 of us board this crop-duster of a plane, we’re informed by a member of the gate staff that “5 checked bags have been taken off so the plane is balanced.  I don’t know whose they are, but in order to get this plane off the ground, we had to take 5 checked bags off to get all the carry on checked bags loaded.  Your bags will be routed though a connecting flight in Atlanta and they will arrive in LaGuardia tonight.”

How considerate.  First you cancel my flight, you don’t inform me, you move me to another gate, you don’t have a plane, you shoehorn us into this suitcase of a plane, and now I’ve got a reasonable chance that my bags will arrive hours after I do.  Again, how considerate of you.

To get to NYC at this point, I dare say not one single person on that flight minded thanks in whole to the joyous attitude everyone in Delta’s gate staff had in telling us our flight was delayed, delayed, delayed, and – you guessed it – delayed.  We never, ever, not once received even the first inkling of consideration for our frustrations and troubles.  And people wonder why and how airlines keep going in and out of bankruptcy?  Incidents like these are far too common and they affect far too many people.

But in order to FINALLY get to NYC, we all agree that the bags (to whomever they might belong) can arrive later.  We all just want this plane to finally get off the ground.

Close, But No Takeoff

We leave the terminal, we taxi out to the runway, and the captain informs us that we’re experiencing a break issue and that the right side breaks are getting too hot.  I imagine it has something to do with the fact that there are 50 people flying to NYC from BHM who are probably carrying plenty of coats and clothes to stay warm on their vacations.  Suffice it to say, the plane we were on simply was not nearly big enough to accommodate the number of people and bags.

So we taxi back to the terminal. We are informed that there is a second plane sitting at a different gate and Delta will move all the luggage to the new plane and we can all board it quickly.

Just where in the hell has this plane been?  We had to wait, and wait, and wait for a plane and miraculously you have 2 all of a sudden?  You have your OCC (Operations Control Center) that works with flights that are delayed that have people on them, but what about flights that are delayed where boarding hasn’t happened yet?  My suggestion would be to create a system to better support these types of issues.

Moving on with my story, we un-board the plane and take a seat at, you guessed it, another gate.  We watch them move our baggage from one plane to the next, the crew leaves the plane, gets on the next plane, and we wait. Only to be told we need to move to ANOTHER GATE!  Count with me here, one, two, three, four gates and zero flights.  How inefficient can you get?

Yet More Waiting!!!!!!!!!

We’re then told, after yet more waiting, that the second plane has a mechanical malfunction and the service technicians are going to take the needed part off the first broken plane and put it on the second broken plane.  Talk about losing the confidence of your customers!  How many malfunctions is that in 2 planes?  Two.  That’s 100% failure rate.

So we wait.  And wait some more.  In between all this waiting my wife and I spend about $25 on food in the airport restaurant for lunch, yet after this round of waiting, we were given a whopping $7 food voucher good for any food item in the airport.  Seven dollars?  That will buy 2 packs of chewing gum, not lunch in an airport.  Combining both vouchers might have covered half of our lunch bill, which is money we had to spend because Delta could not get plane to an airport, and then when you did, couldn’t get one that works.  Remember the 2 failures in 2 planes ratio?

After another 45 minutes of waiting, we were informed we were entitled to a $100 travel voucher with Delta.  Do you honestly think that $100 voucher that is causing me to miss the lunch reservation I had in NYC makes me a satisfied customer?  I was anything but.

They Don’t Care – At All – Thanks!

Throughout this entire ordeal, I tried to be understanding.   About 12:45 pm, over an hour after I should have ARRIVED in NYC, I’m a bit irritated.  But what had me and everyone on the flight fuming was the unhelpful and unsympathetic attitudes of EVERY SINGLE Delta associate.  Nobody cared, in fact, they were all snickering and laughing at our inconvenience.  What everyone would have preferred would be someone trying to work towards a solution (fix the plane, give us relevant information, find connecting flights, find flights with other carriers, etc but just get us moving).

Instead, we got rude attitudes, short tempers, snappy comebacks, and their laughter at our tiring situation.  Talk about alienating your customers!

And yet there is more waiting.

And yet even more waiting.  I began to think my hind end would take on the texture of pleather.

All the while, we are given no reasons other than “they’re trying to fix the plane.”  At 4:30 the call was made to cancel the flight.  Yes, that’s exactly 8 hours after scheduled take-off, innumerable delays, gate changes, no plane scheduled for a flight, eventual plane boarding, then plane de-boarding, worthless vouchers, inconsiderate attitudes, and now the flight has been altogether cancelled.  I’ve been in an airport terminal for nine hours now, my patience has long since left.

Never mind the facts I had lunch and dinner reservations scheduled for my vacation, I got a $7 food and $100 travel voucher in return.  Never mind the fact I had orchestra seating for the final night the Rockettes were in New York for Christmas.  Never mind the fact my wife has been crying for 3 hours because of the attitudes of everyone and the complete disaster this vacation has started on.  Now, I’ve got to find some other way to get to New York and there’s a reasonable chance my luggage is going to arrive in my destination city hours before I do.

No Direct Flight For You!  You Must Connect!

So I find a Continental flight from BHM to Houston, and from Houston to Newark – which is NOT what I purchased in a direct flight to NYC.  It’s not even my original destination, but it’s going to have to be at this point.

I go to Delta’s special services counter in BHM airport and discover, sure enough BOTH of my checked bags are headed to LaGuardia set to arrive at 11:00pm.  My flight from Houston to Newark arrived at 1:00am the DAY AFTER I WAS SCHEDULE TO ARRIVE IN NEW YORK!!!  The baggage claim office closes at LaGuardia at 12:30 so thank God I had the means to get my bags because both of my coats were in my bag and it was 23 degrees in New York!  That means I’m going to finally start my vacation a full day late and 100% of what I’ve had scheduled and ordered and purchased my first day there is 100% ruined.

You can clearly see my frustration.

I’d like to take a moment ask you why in the world you have some of the people working for your organization that are decision makers?  I was met at your special services counter by the most bullish, rude, insensitive, unhelpful individual I’ve ever met in my entire life.  That is no exaggeration either.  I was so overwhelmed by her attitude and virtual yelling at me that I can’t remember her name (Sharon or Sandra I believe).  She was not working the counter, but was called up to speak with me about my bags being at the right airport while I’m going to the wrong one. Before I could even explain my situation, she hammered on me so much so that people waiting in line took notice and tried to console me when she walked away.  Just where on earth does she get the authority to yell and try to humiliate a paying customer?  Just where does she get the right to talk to anyone that way?  It’s ultimately, because of her remarks and attitude and badgering that I will never, ever fly your airline again.  I work for a publishing company that flies representatives all over America daily, and I let the travel scheduling department know of this entire fiasco. I expressed to them that if they want our associates to avoid these types of insensitive people, we should schedule our flights with other airlines.  Again, I know mistakes happen and things happen outside your control, but you do control your people and who represents your company and if I ever had someone working for or with me that acted in a manner as Sharon/Sandra, I would immediately terminate them.  She was extremely rude and badgering and belittling in her comments, attitude, words, and tone in dealing with a customer.  I do not care to ever see or hear from her under any circumstances whatsoever.

I called ahead and had a friend of mine pick my bags up at LaGuardia – since I couldn’t get them because I’m going to Newark and am arriving after LaGuardia’s baggage claim office closes, had him drive to Newark to pick us up, paid the tolls to get us back into the city from New Jersey, and paid him the tolls to get out of New York and some gas money to come get us and pick up our luggage.  We missed lunch and dinner in New York, missed seeing the Rockettes as a part of our vacation, and had to pay in total about $100 in additional food costs while waiting and connecting flights, lost n full day of our vacation, and paid New Jersey toll fees all because of this disaster of a flight.

What I am requesting – since no one at BHM airport would offer me any assistance or sympathy other than calling customer service, emailing customer service, or writing customer service:

Compensation for my wasted Rockettes tickets – $141.01 – receipt enclosed.

Compensation for my travel expenses – $100 (food, drinks, snacks while we both waited and had a connecting flight – expenses I paid though not a part of my original ticket purchase/plan – as well as the tolls to get out of New York, in to Newark, then back to New York.).

Compensation having a connecting flight from a direct flight – $200 total – $100/traveler (there were a number of announcements at other gates that people can give up their seats for $ to fly later, since we had to fly 13 hours later, I believe I’m entitled to appropriate compensation).

Compensation for my checked luggage fees – $60 (2 bags sent to LaGuardia, we went to Newark, plus return flight baggage fees).

Compensation for a lost day of vacation – $550 (the sum total cost of paid-time-off for both me and my wife as we both work, used an earned vacation day, and had our first day of NYC vacation planned, and subsequently ruined because of your airline.  We arrived in Newark some 13 hours behind schedule, that’s more than a full work day of vacation time in terms of hours).

TOTAL DUE: $1051.01

I look forward to hearing from someone immediately.  I know your website says someone will contact me within 60 days.  I also reviewed your Delta Customer Commitment page and I find a number of things you’ve committed to that were not represented whatsoever in the experiences of both me and my wife.

I’ve also taken the liberty to post this request in its entirety on my blog, which is visited by plenty of IT professionals, so my colleagues can be forewarned as to what they may experience with your airline.

Respectfully,

Kyle Jernigan

delta airlines ruined my vacation

It’s on the Internet, so it must be true.

Again I say, Ryan Marks is “The Man.”

If you’re confused by this post, I suggest you just scroll down a bit.  The helpful info is below and in other categories.

- Kyle

You do not want to create new pages on your site using the same content as an old page without setting up a 301 redirect.  Specifically – creating a brand new page that creates a brand new URL string where each new page contains the same content as an existing page – should be examined.

Google and every other search engine want to find ONE VERSION of a page.  The search engines do NOT want to find the same content on multiple pages on your site, much less on another site.  So you need to set a canonical URL (serve http://www.site.com or http://site.com, but not both), check my blog post linked below for the how-to steps.

And if you launch a new version of a page, change the theme, or do anything and that changes the URL – such as moving from a dynamic page to a static page – then you need to implement 301 redirects accordingly for each and every page.  If you move a page from one directory to another, you need to implement 301 redirects accordingly.  If you rename a file from “contact-us.html” to “contact-us.php” you need to implement 301 redirects accordingly.  You get the point – if anything changes in the URL string for a page of content, you need to implement some helpful 301 redirects.  The search engines and your site users will thank you for it.

How To Redirect:

Dynamic pages, in all their helpful glory, sometimes need to be changed or updated or moved or renamed or redirected.  Simply changing the name or location is simple – you just make the appropriate code change or database update and POOF! you get your new page and likewise a new URL.

Dynamic Page URL: www.site.com/index.php?page=867-5309

New Page – Static Page – Moved Page URL: www.site.com/theme/867-5309.html

If you simply launch the theme/867-5309.html page and leave behind the index.php?page= version, you stand to have 2 different versions of the SAME CONTENT on your site.  Duplicate content, while not being a necessary deathnail in such a small instance as between 2 pages, should still be avoided whenever possible.  It’s just good developmental practice too.

Worse yet, suppose you launch the theme/867-5309.html page and simply stop serving the old index.php?page= version.  That leaves behind a 404 error when Google, or a user that’s bookmarked the page, tries to browse to the dynamic page.  404s are ok – at least better than 500 errors – but what’s a better solution – a more helpful solution – a good practice solution – is to 301 redirect the old dynamic page to the new page.

Simply 301 redirecting pages is pretty simple.  There’s a ton of information all over the web on how to do it.  I cover how to 301 redirect users to a canonical domain here, and 301 redirecting dynamic pages to a new, more static type URL string isn’t far off.

There are number of things you must consider, namely the syntax of your .htaccess file must be 100.0000% perfect, and you must have Apache’s mod_rewrite turned ON.  Chances are you’re tech savvy enough to handle that, you know someone who is, or your hosting provider can do it for you.

I like .htaccess because I like Linux.  I also like .htaccess because it’s pretty easy to manage.  If you don’t have an .htaccess file set up, check the Linux steps I outline in my 301 redirect post linked above.

After you’ve got your handy .htaccess file living in your domain’s home space, it’s high-time to get to re-writing.

(pending you’re 301 redirecting all of your domain requests to the www. version of your domain – having set up a Canonical Domain)

Here’s the helpful code you’ll need to do for each dynamic page you’re moving to a static version:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.yoursiteurl.com
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} ^page=867-5309$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.yoursiteurl.com/theme/867-5309.html? [R=301,L]

Let’s break it down a bit, shall we?

1st Line, turn the RewriteEngine On – pretty important and must be done for every instance.  Again, you’ll need these 4 lines of code for every dynamic page getting moved/updated/renamed.

2nd Line, a RewriteCond (rewrite condition), again pending you’ve specified the www. version of your URL, you’re making a declaration of sorts that what you’re about to do should be applied to this specified HTTP host.

3rd Line, another RewriteCond (rewrite condition), this is where some of the magic starts happening. That “%{QUERY_STRING} ^” actually takes the place of the “?” in the dynamic URL – so to speak.  And the QUERY_STRING must be capitalized. There is a space before the % and ^ as well that are required.  Again, the syntax is ultra-important! That $ at the end is VERY important too as well as the [NC] at the end.  All you really need to do is replace the variable and variable values, in this case “page=867-5309“ you use in your URLs for this line.

4th Line, this is where the magic is finishing up the redirect for you.  Now that you’ve got your rewrite conditions set up, it’s time to implement them somewhere with a rule, or RewriteRule.  The ^(.*)$ basically says “we’ll be using everything we captured in the last rule, between the ^ and the $, and the rewrite is going to go to this new URL.“ There is a space before the  of the % and ^ and after the $ that are all required. A character I cannot stress the importance of is the trailing ? towards the end of the new/static URL.  That is very important in connecting the Conditions to the Rule.

There we have it – how to 301 redirect dynamic URLs and dynamic pages to new static pages or new file locations.  If you copy those 4 lines and paste them into something simple like Notepad, you’ll see all the spaces and characters just fine.  Remember, turn Apache mod_rewrite ON, use 100.0000% perfect syntax, and use all 4 lines for every page needing a redirect/update.

Then today I thought to myself, “hmmm, I wonder if I can find multiple home pages for the site we just launched on Monday?”  Yes, just launched a site and just remembered an invaluable aspect of deployment – have 1 version – just 1 version – for any page and every page.  That includes the home page too, quite obviously.

And what did I find?  You guessed it, more than 1 URL to find the same page/content for my HOME PAGE!!!  Development No-No, shame on me, tisk-tisk, what was I thinking?!?!?

www.site.com/ and www.site.com/index.php both resolved and displayed the same content.  With duplicate content of 1 page on a site not necessarily being a deathnail in terms of site performance in a search engine, but rather a developmental habit that helps send a message to search engines that “my site is legit, well-developed, and well thought out” – I’m glad I remembered – DUH!  (and that message is good to send to search engines at any time – FYI)

My uber-preference for all things Linux leads me down the path of Apache and the use of the oh-so-handy .htaccess file.  If you don’t know what any of that is, check the links at the end of this post.  But without further ado, here is the code that redirects the “index.php” or “index.html” page to the “.com/” that I desire:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{THE_REQUEST} ^[A-Z]{3,9}\ /([^/]+/)*index\.php\ HTTP/
RewriteRule ^(([^/]+/)*)index\.php$ http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301,L]

All you need to do is update the bold sections so they reflect your need/site/coding preferences/tech specs and put that code in your .htaccess file, save, and you’re done.  For me, I had a page file “index.php” that I wanted to redirect/resolve to “www.site.com/” because that’s the way the site is branded, that’s the way the on-site links are set up to the home page, and that’s the way we’re getting inbound links.  We’re NOT getting inbound links to “www.site.com/index.php” and the specified domain for the site in Google WM Tools was “www.site.com/” – again, we wanted every instance of any traffic or link or search engine to find ONE path to the home page.

Hope this helps, Kyle

Linux    Apache Web Server    .htaccess

“(typing_sounds)  Enhance.

(typing_sounds) Enhance.

(typing_sounds) Enhance.”

Link To Social Media Article That’s Spiffy.

Facebook + MySpace + Twitter + Digg = Whoa.

And then there is this SEOmoz post which is all-too-perfect at describing clients.  Scratch that, all-too-perfect at describing SOME clients.  Keep in mind, even a client that might have unrealistic expectations is still a client.  And in the development industry, this line of code drives any and every single solitary program:

$clients = $$$;

Key character in that line is the “s” – as in plural.  If you don’t have clients, you very well could be looking for new gainful employment soon.  Take what you can get, just be sure to do what you take.

BuzzStream - Link Building Management Suite

Just got this Twitter Tweet from Eric Ward (aka The Godfather of Link Building):

ericward RT @BuzzStream launches! Free link building app: CRM, contact info finder, email and Twitter msg tracking. http://pitch.pe/9069

Thank GOD I was paying attention!  This BuzzStream program is just about all that the doctor could order in terms of a packaged, handy, 3rd party link-building-management-suite.  Oh, and you get to test drive it for FREE.  I’m a sucker for that 4 letter word (free).  Anyway, after seeing the Tweet and being as impatient as I am for someone to respond to my update notification (I wish everyone in my office worked at my pace) I clicked the tiny url.  Straight up URL = www.buzzstream.com

Being somewhat of a self-proclaimed link-building guru (adapting everything I know from experience and following Eric Ward’s lead), I’m always looking for a means to expedite the process – without spamming – and also looking for ways to keep up with link relationships and potential link relationships.  You see, we send untold #’s of emails every day, week, month to relevant resources.  Some of them give us links.  Some don’t.  Some give us links and never let us know so it’s kind of hard to get 100% accuracy for a link building campaign.  BuzzStream helps boost the accuracy and the effectiveness of your link building campaign so you can catch the links you get from people that might not respond.  You can have someone scouring the web for potential resources and set them to delegate everything they find to someone to do the leg work in terms of sending all the emails.  And by sending emails, I mean a non-spammy, classy, well-written, custom email sent to someone specific.  Check my “Link Building – How To Do It Right” post.

Now, BuzzStream doesn’t send the email for you – I would imagine that might be a neato module to add on later – but the management metrics it allows, the searching it performs, the information it spits back, and so on and so on is all really, really powerful and helpful.  I can do everything it can do, but it can do everything I can do and keep it in one nice handy location.  Which is really slick if I want to bring someone else in to help me out.  Or if I want to see who I’ve sent emails to so I can follow up with them.  Or if I want to see which sites have linked to me upon request.  Lots of cool things.

What I recommend if you have any interest in link-building is give BuzzStream a test drive.  It’ll knock your socks off.  With Google getting a nickname as a “popularity engine” you might want to give link building and BuzzStream strong consideration.

FAIL = ( (.com/)  ==  (.com/home.html)  ==  (.com/index.php)  ==  (.com/default.aspx) );

That’s the coding tech-ness in me saying that there are multiple ways to find the home page of some sites.  I’ve seen as many as 4 different methods to display the home page URL in a browser.

But, but, but, but, but why is that bad?

I’ll tell you – would you like to have to take 4 different routes home from the store?  Or would you like to have 1 method that’s the most direct that’s always available?  I thought so, so if you’re serving a slew of URL versions to get to the home page, you’re giving Google/Yahoo/MSN a pain in the woo-ha.  And that’s bad for SEO, mmmmkay?

The solution(s):

1. Always link your on-site home page link in your navigation to <a href=”/”>Home<a/> and any other link to the home page on your site. What that does is sends a user or bot to the home page, the same way as if someone enters the URL in a browser – the “/” is mucho importante.  And since search bots are basically really smart text-based browsers, you’re speaking their Love Language.
2. Never link internally, or externally, to anything other than “http://www.sitename.com” – if your canonical domain is www.sitename.com.  If you’ve got links on your site to .com/index.html – and that displays the same content as .com/ – then guess what, you’re serving multiple versions of the same page and same content on your site.  That’s a no-no.  If you can update inbound links that are hitched up to index.html or default.php, I’d suggest updating them to your ideal location as well.
3. 301 Redirect all requests for any currently live version of your home page, to one method of viewing your home page URL – preferably “/” And do this ASAP.  Depending on the operating system of your server, you might need to make an IIS update or .htaccess update or scripting update to the code that generates your pages.  A little Googling and you should be good to go.

There.  Those are some reasons and strategies to get you thinking about not serving a sack of routes to your home page.  Your users will thank you and the search bots will to.

Here are a few pointers since I see a LOT of developers crying out “why won’t my super-optimized site rank better than my competitor!!!” (wah, wah wah, cry me a river) – so here goes it:

1. Have a well developed site.   Nobody wants to link to – or be associated with – crap.  That’s right, good inbound links start with a good site.  Ask yourself this: is your site’s content unique?  helpful?  worth revisiting?  current?  well-written?  Start answering those questions and you’re BEGINNING the link-building process.
2. Look around. Literally.  Chances are there are brick and mortar buildings for companies and organizations that would be great places to get links.  Just today, a guy in a forum I patrol was looking for SEO tips to push his site for a Tai restaurant (Yum!).  He had zero (0) inbound links, but he knew friends in the restaurant business that had well-performing sites, he lived in a city with a Chamber of Commerce, and his city had a Local Businesses section on their website.  Think about it, if you can get links from 2 government resources and a handful of other restaurants, wouldn’t that seem like your site is a quality resource?  Guess what, Google and Yahoo and MSN will too.  Then you’re off to the races.  Make a few phone calls, send a few emails, rub some elbows, and you’ll pick up some great links.
3. Directories can help  (I don’t care what some people say otherwise). Not all directories were created equal, and in fact, most are worthless, but a very select few are valuable.  DMOZ used to be the king, but since it’s got its share of bogus “editors” the value of the ODP has declined in recent years, however it is still a credible directory to some extent.  The Yahoo! directory charges you $, but if you’ve got 300 bucks laying around, you can get a human reviewed link and get included in a quality directory.  The last one I really recommend is the Business.com directory.  It’s another one where you pay for inclusion, but it’s a positive check mark in favor of your site.  You can also get some traffic from these directories in addition to the link value.
4. Don’t link to just anyone. Many believe that some outbound links to really important sites in your industry can kind of “get you in the hub” so to speak, which makes sense.  It sort of tells the engines “hey, next time you’re over at that industry leading site, check me out, I’m related.”  But if your site is about car tires and you’re linking to a site about red roses, does that make sense?  Again, just watch who you link to because the search engines surely are too.
5. Be creative. If you’ve got a great idea, get it to the web and show it off.  With BILLIONS of Internet users now, you can tap into an audience of hundreds and thousands and so on in a matter of minutes.  Some people call it “link-baiting” while I call it being creative.  Develop something helpful, handy, neato, flashy and show it off.  If it’s as handy to others as it seems to you, they’ll dig what you’ve got and link to it.  The handier your do-dad, the better your idea, the more creative and appealing you seem to be, the more attractive you’ll be to someone who might link to you.

Last thing to think about: links pass value to your site AND traffic.  Don’t simply focus on link building for SEO purpuses because you’ll miss 1/2 the point.  Remember the idea of optimizing a site is to find users and repeat users and a steady flow of those users, and traffic building links are truly key to a site’s success.  You want users and link love, don’t ever, ever forget that.  Ever.

Anyway – it’s going to be 36 degrees tonight.  Thirty.  Six.  Degrees.  Alabama.  April.  Those words should never, ever be associated.  Ever.

I’d buy into the idea of global warming if it were 86 degrees today.  But the low tonight will be FIFTY (five-zero) degrees lower.  That’s freaking cold people!  Especially for us thin-blooded folks that reside South of the Mason Dixon line – which technically includes some places far more suited for this kind of weather – of which, I am most assuredly not.

This is what I prefer:

Note the inclusion of a beach, sunny weather, palm trees, sand, salty air, etc. and overall warm feeling.  Things that make me want to live, not go stiff.

Anyway, the weekend – it was cool.  Saw some planes fly on Saturday (FA-18 Hornet, A-10 Thunderbolt – Wart-hog really, C-17, C-130, B-25, and a bunch of bi-planes).  And the Army Golden Knights parachute team.  They were pretty cool too.  I should write the mayor and thank him for getting something this cool to come to town which helps with the “po-dunk-ness” of this place.  And I should write him another letter letting him know the traffic afterwards was God-awful terrible.  I sat in my car, nearly motionless, for 90 minutes.  I say nearly motionless because I could have walked from my parked car to where I really started moving in about 20 minutes – max.  So by my calculations, I drove about 4 1/2 times SLOWER than I can drive in post-airshow traffic.  Needless to say I was in a GREAT mood…