Added a new photo gallery to the site yesterday. There’s not much to see yet but I’ll be uploading loads of pictures over the next few weeks.

For now I have included some cute pictures of the pets and some shots taken from around where I live.

Another one of my sites is Resources.eu.com. The site is a hand edited directory for various resources that can be found on the internet.

A few years ago it seemed that Google used to list a lot of directories high in the serps so I thought I would go about making one. Quite honestly its not worth the bother. Now that the site is somewhat established it gets about 10 – 20 submissions a day which can take a lot of time to manually review. Out of these 10 – 20 submissions it isn’t unusual for only 1 or 2 to actually be approved and entered into the directory.

Anyone thinking about starting up a directory to make money with I would personally think again. Its not worth the effort.

Another one of my sites I have is Podcastblaster.com.

Podcasting is a new way of distributing audio broadcasts using the Internet. Using this method, people can subscribe to a variety of content in a certain file format (usually as MP3s). These files are then downloaded to a PC or a portable media player and can then be listened to at any convenient time. Podcasting is a new word that combines “broadcasting” and “iPod”.

A definite distinction of podcasting from other media delivery methods online is its subscription component – which basically defines the whole podcasting experience. Podcasters usually use a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or Atom feed to push their content to subscribers. It also allows independent producers and “broadcasters” to create and self-publish their own syndicated “radio shows” – whether it be talk radio, poetry readings or even comedy shows. Podcasting also gives traditional radio programs another distribution method for their shows – one that is not confined to the airwaves and available on demand. All that a listener needs to get the podcasts is “podcatching” software that is designed to check for and download new content at a given time. Other podcatching software are even designed to synchronize the downloaded files to the listener’s portable digital player.

PodcastBlaster.com was setup to sell a unique podcasting package for beginners who wanted to enter the world of Podcasting. Everything needed to get started is included with step by step instructions, professional quality recording software for creating your podcasts together with ready to use professionally produced voice-overs, loops, background effects, stingers and Podcast-safe music.

The whole package costs only $39.95 and come with a no risk 30 day money back guarantee. In the year or so that I have been selling this software I have only had 1 refund request. That must say something for how useful people have found it.

Last week I set myself a target to get in the top 10 results in Google for the search term “Philip Nicosia” without the quotes. I was a bit preoccupied yesterday to check but I had a look this morning and to my surprise I came in at No.2!

Hats off to Google for that one. Now you might think it pretty obvious to come in so high for a search term which is basically my name and the name is in the domain and I would agree.

However, despite my site being crawled and listed in both Yahoo! and MSN the same search term doesn’t find me in the top 100 results. I didn’t bother looking any further than that so it might be somewhere. I guess there is more work be done there.

It will be interesting to see how long it takes Yahoo! and MSN to catch up.

Okay, I have been very lazy with this site. Partly the reason for this is I wanted to get the site design right before anyone saw it. I’m not expecting to get many visitors if any at all other than from friends and family but I believe presentation is important. I’m a bit of a perfectionist at times and if you are going to do something then you must try to do it well.

Designing and building websites isn’t difficult. Doing it well takes real skill. Its easy to buy a ready made template on the web but I personally don’t like that idea. I would always worry about coming across another site that was using the same template much as a girl would be horrified to go to a party and see someone else wearing the same dress!

If you don’t have the necessary skills to do it yourself then it is worth paying someone to do it for you. There are plenty of web designers around and you even see them advertising on Ebay. Choosing one though can be tough. I’ve looked through many sites and their portfolios and am horrified to see broken pages, bad design and just general lack of attention to detail and that is on the web designers own sites. A tip to any web designer: Make sure your own site works and looks good before trying to sell your services.

The other thing that amazes me is the vast difference in rates that people charge. I have seen people charge as little as £10 for a single page up to £2000 for a 5 page website. Choosing the £10 page will likely be a waste of money and you will get what you pay for. Paying the £2000 for a 5 page website may seem a good idea for a naive company with a budget (who these deals are targeted at) but you are being ripped off.

I was lucky to stumble across Mike Anholm from Anholm.com. Mike has designed a few websites for me including this one. He did the original concept and then integrated into a customized WordPress theme. Mike offers very affordable web design and produces very good results too. He is very conscientious and will work with you to get the results you want without breaking the bank. If you are looking for a good web designer then give him a go. You won’t be disappointed.

Anyway, back to setting myself a target. Now I have the site design completed I am going to make an effort to get the site ranked for my own name “Philip Nicosia”. Getting to number 1 should be achievable but because I have written quite a few articles that have been published on the internet there are some strong sites which are ranking for this. So my target for this week is to get into the Top 10 results in Google for “Philip Nicosia” within 7 days. I will check next Sunday, 30th July to see if I have achieved it.