ASP.NET 2.0 Debugging: “Ambiguous match found”
Posted on January 3, 2007 - Filed Under ASP.NET 2.0
I got the error “ambiguous match found” when trying to migrate an ASP.NET 1.1 Web app to ASP.NET 2.0. The app would built, but the error would be displayed at runtime.
The is bizarre and is due to the naming of controls. I found, through trial and error (block commenting out of code!) that there were two variables named CarCollectionDateMonthList2 and carCollectionDateMonthList2 the only difference being case, which the ASP.NET runtime will have a fit over.
So, a fine tooth comb through your control names is in order.
Free Online Directories
Posted on January 2, 2007 - Filed Under Link Building
Info Vilesilencer is an excellent resource for free online directories that will list your site in a search engine friendly format.
Submitting your site to online directories is an ideal way to build links and drive traffic.
What’s a #1 rank on Google worth, in terms of clicks?
Posted on November 22, 2006 - Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation
Found this article whilst on my daily surf.
To sum it up:
Ranking Number 1 receives 42.1 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 2 receives 11.9 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 3 receives 8.5 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 4 receives 6.1 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 5 receives 4.9 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 6 receives 4.1 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 7 receives 3.4 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 8 receives 3.0 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 9 receives 2.8 percent of click throughs.
Ranking Number 10 receives 3.0 percent of click throughs.
6 Top Tips - How to Reduce Spam
Posted on November 2, 2006 - Filed Under Other IT Stuff
1. Turn OFF Catch-all
When I first started to configure my own email server I thought that Catch-all was the best thing since sliced bread. I could get every email sent to every possible of @mydomain.com including typos, spelling mistakes etc. Very soon though I realised that this was simply attracting a massive amount of spam to my inbox. If you have “Catch-all” turn on, then turn it off!Â
2. Don’t put your email address online in plain text
Spammers often farm Web sites for email addresses. However, not having your email address on your own Web site isn’t really an option. http://javascript.internet.com/miscellaneous/hide-e-mail-address.html” target=”_blank”>This link has a handy piece of JavaScript which allows you to hide your email address from spammers, but not from customers!
3. Create accounts especially for forums/newsgroups
If you are a user of online forums or newsgroups then you create an email address to use specifically for these types of sites. Often your email address is displayed in plain text (see above) and spammers will love this. A disposable email address that you use simply to sign-up, verify your account and then throw it away will reduce spam massively.
4. Unsubscribe from emails you don’t read
Alot of junk that arrives in my Inbox is actually stuff I’ve subscribed to, either directly or indirectly. You can end it once and for all by simply following the Unsubscribe instructions, usually contained at the bottom of the email.
5. Turn on your hosts Spam Filter
Your ISP or hosting company should offer you free spam protection. Turn it on. This will offer you a decent level protection.
6. Install a client side Spam Blocker
For full spam protection, install some client side spam blocking software on your own PC. I use SpamPal and it is excellent - and free!
Also - make sure your firewall and anti-virus software are up to date. Alot of spam carry viruses or other nasties.
Content Is King
Posted on November 2, 2006 - Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation
This is where the real action happens. Content is King and Google certainly believes that. You can do all the search engine optimisation in the world, but if your content isn’t relevant then you won’t ranking highly.
Meta Keywords/Descriptions
Posted on November 2, 2006 - Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation
These are not the holy grail of search engine optimisation that they used to be, however, some search engines still use them and it’s worth giving your keywords some thought. It’s best to optimise your metatags as one keyword per page.
Domains/Filenames
Posted on November 2, 2006 - Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation
Google will search your domain name and filenames for keywords. It is therefore important to strike a balance between a domain that allows people to find your business and one that make Google happy - and filenames that are easy to maintain, human readable, but also help your ranking.
The V7 Network ran a search engine optimisation competition using the totally made up keywords:
v7ndotcom elursrebmem
If you search for that phrase in Google you should be able to see what sites with the keywords in the domain name rank very well and sites with the keywords in their folder/file names slightly less well, but still occupy the top spots.
Submitting Your Site
Posted on November 2, 2006 - Filed Under Search Engine Optimisation
There are many, many search engines and lots of tools are available to help you submit your site automatically. However, some search engines don’t like automatic submission tools and your site may be penalised if you use them. Submission by hand, at least to the 3 most important engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) is well worth the effort. Better still is to allow your site to be found nauturally by search engines. You can do this by promoting your site around the Net on chatrooms, forums and on other sites. The search engines will follow (spider) the links to your site and soon enough you will appear on the search engine results pages, often referred to as SERPs.
If you want to see if your site is indexed on a particular search engine, you can use the search term:
site:www.citychallengeuk.com
and this will return all the pages that an engine has indexed. This works on all major search engines (Google, MSN and Yahoo).
I am here today to dispel the myth of reciprocal links
Posted on November 2, 2006 - Filed Under Link Building
Using City Challenge as an example…
Number of Links:
Google 36
Yahoo! 465
MSN Search 987
AltaVista 486
AlltheWeb 434
DMOZ.org Entry:
City Challenge
Business management game for team building, communications, and leadership skills. Complete event management is offered by Read Edge Events Ltd.
http://www.citychallengeuk.com/
Other Directories Listing:
City Challenge - Team Building Events
City Challenge UK, the Business Management Game: corporate development business management game to enhance team building, communications, co-operation, leadership and time-management skills for middle and senior management.
http://www.citychallengeuk.com
Does the site have a “links” page: Yes
What makes up that links page:
77 links in total.
10 links are hand picked and link to related sites.
8 links are to “highly regarded” sites, such as the BBC, Google etc.
41 links are requested reciprocal links.
So… how come this site, that only has 41 reciprocal links set up, is linked to by over 400 other sites???
The answer is DMOZ and other directory listings.
If you search for the complete DMOZ description for the site you get 2100 results on Google.
This suggests to me that DMOZ and other directories have fed into those 2100 other sites and generated the above result, as I can guarantee the site hasn’t been hand submitted to each of them!
What does this tell me? It tells me that getting listed on DMOZ and other highly regarded sites/directories will generate far more links than reciprocal linking ever will. It also generates links that are of far higher quality than reciprocal linking ever will, as most of the links are one-way inbound links.
These are just some thought I have put together in a spare hour. Comments are more than welcome, in fact I genuinely encourage you to post your thoughts and feedback.
« go back