Strange Duck - Tech Talk in Plain English

I’m attending Podcamp Toronto this weekend and the first day has proven to be a blast as well as a gold mine for great ideas and information. I have gotten loads of really hot tips and advice from each session I’ve attended, and so have decided to share some of the best ones here.

If you don’t know what a Podcamp is, it’s a BarCamp style meetup for podcasters and listeners, bloggers and readers, and web types. What’s barcamp you ask? Well, as explained on the Official BarCamp web site, it’s an

“ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment…with discussions, demos, and interaction from participants. The name BarCamp was inspired as a complement to FooCamp…“

And so the Camp phenomenon goes. And grows. There are even CaseCamp’s for marketing case studies.

Podcamps have been hosted in seven cities so far, and this is Toronto’s and Canada’s first. The presenters are generous and have come in from places like Boston, Indianna and Montreal. The atmosphere is friendly and warm. And to make it all just perfect, registration, coffee, donuts and even lunch - are all free.

And so, onward to the Top Tips.

Numbers 1-3 are from the session “Giving Your Podcast A Google Presence” with Julien Smith of In Over Your Head.

1. You need to use text to speak to Google.

That’s the language Google speaks, and so you will need to deploy it to get a good Google ranking. Your page title is most important for SEO. Make sure you choose your page title wisely and compose it so that your most important keywords come first - Google has a tendency to cap the amount of words in a title that they will index.

2. Use the free SEO for Firefox plugin.

Once installed, the SEO for Firefox plugin allows you to check up on other people’s web sites so you can do a little snooping about their rankings. Just surf to a competitor’s page, right click on it, and you can choose “Highlight Keyword”, then type in a keyword to see everywhere it appears. Or choose “Keyword Density” to view and assess why other people are ranking higher than you.

3. Giving things away for free can drive people to your web site

Wonder why giving things away for free can be good for business? Because everyone starts talking about you and your product and linking to your site from their blogs or sites. For example, Aaron Wall created this SEO plugin, and if you go to Alexa.com and type in his site’s URL, www.seobook.com, his web site is the 993rd most popular web site on the Internet. And that’s pretty damn good.

Read more

These tips on how to write a verse for the twelve bar blues are are kindly contributed by Paul Quarrington of the Toronto band PorkBelly Futures. To see the tips in action watch and listen to “The Canadian Blues,” a blues song written by the audience using these tips.

Paul’s 12 Bar Blues Song Writing Tips

The blues typically begins with a statement regarding history and/or emotional state:

I WOKE UP THIS MORNING, MY BABY HAD LEFT

This line is repeated for dramatic emphasis:

I WOKE UP THIS MORNING, MY BABY HAD LEFT

Finally there is a resolution or recapitulation, which ends with the apposite RHYME:

I WAS SO SAD, DISHEARTENED AND BEREFT

As you can see, upbeat sentiments are somewhat frowned upon, but we can make allowances given the time of year:

WELL, IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME, ALL JOYFUL AND FUN
WELL, IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME, ALL JOYFUL AND FUN
IF MY BABY DON’T COME BACK, I’LL GO AFTER HER WITH A GUN

Good luck!!
PorkBelly Futures

Click here to learn to play blues guitar like a pro.

The Canadian Blues: A.K.A My Penis Has Shrunk - video powered by Metacafe

What gives Canadians the blues?

Why, if you ask some holiday revelers at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, it would seem it’s the weather.

“It’s too warm, it’s too cold. My Penis has shrunk.”

The “Cure Your Holiday Blues with Pork in Strange Shorts Holiday Party” was held at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto on Dec 18, 2006. The festivities included a blues verse-writing contest where guests were given a lesson on how to write the blues by PorkBelly frontman and award-winning author, Paul Quarrington.

After a preliminary judging, the band sang the top 3 verses on stage. Way to go, Joey Bechta, who penned the #1 winning lyrics.

This video shows an abridged version of the song and features Paul Quarrington, Rebecca Campbell, with some killer solos by Paul Reddick of “Paul Reddick + The Sidemen” and Teddy Leonard, formerly of Fathead. Click on the image above to view the video.

The party was hosted by BookShorts.com, StrangeDuck.com (this blog’s owner) and porkbellys.com, because we worked a lot together during the past year on various BookShort films and on the TV series Moving Stories, and wanted to keep the party going.

A big thanks to all our friends, family and guests who came by for the cure. We raised $200.00 bucks for www.pencanada.ca.

Extras:

• View the full 9 minute version of “The Canadian Blues” with all the solos.
• Download the full version of the song “The Canadian Blues MP3.“
• View the Canadian Blues video Quicktime Version, if that’s the way you prefer to view things.
• Instructions how to write a verse for the 12 Bar Blues

Tags: humour, video, comedy, song, blues, music, paul, quarrington, reddick, sidemen, rebecca, campbell, bookshorts, contest, porkbelly, futures, judith, keenan, irene, duma, futures, hotel, strange, duck, media

Come one come all!

The evening’s beverage of choice sponsored by

Saint Andre Lager

Lots of goodies and prizes from generous supporters

F.L.A.G. Accessories; Strange Duck Media; BookShorts; Pork Belly Futures

Thanks to the generous publishers that have contributed the gift of literature

Raincoast Books / IPG
Winter Wood by Patrick McCabe –– Signed by the Author
Drina Bridge by Jim Bartley –– Signed by the Author
Empire of the Soul by Paul William Roberts
Walking After Midnight by Katy Hutchinson
The Sweet Edge by Alison Pick
The Magdalene Moment by Joanna Manning
So Many Ways to Begin by Jon McGregor –– Signed by the Author
Remainder by Tom McCarthy –– Signed by the Author

ECW Press
No-Limit Texas Hold’em: A Complete Guide by Angel Largay with BookShorts DVD

McClelland & Stewart
Archetypes by Mireille Silcoff, Illustrated by Kagan McLeod with BookShorts DVD

Random House of Canada
The Upside of Down by Thomas Homer-Dixon with BookShorts DVD
What Casanova Told Me by Susan Swan with BookShorts DVD
High: Confessions of a Pot Smuggler by Brian O’Dea
Midnight Hockey by Bill Gaston
Relative Stranger by Mary Loudon
The Risk of Darkess by Susan Hill
Two Time by Chris Knopf
Before I Wake by Robert Wiersema
The Custodian of Paradise by Wayne Johnston

Penguin Group (Canada)
The Fighter by Craig Davidson with BookShorts DVD

Thomas Allen Publishers
One Bullet Away by Nathaniel Fick with BookShorts DVD
A Quiet Courage with BookShorts DVD
My Heart is Africa with BookShorts DVD

Hosted by Strange Duck Media, BookShorts and PorkBelly Futures