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If you're in the US, it's time to stop SOPA, so make your voice heard. If you're outside, call on your US friends to do what ever is needed to stop SOPA. As bloggers united, we can make a difference, let's make that difference. Now.

Stop SOPA, help the internet. is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

I thought it'd be fun to share the first two here for your enjoyment. One is me in a business suit, the other one me as superman, inspired by this tweet from Pamela Lund. So here we go:

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Yoast – New & Improved images is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

The reason for the site having to become more professional is the second, more personal and more important part of this post. Starting last July, when I "incorporated" my own Yoast BV, the Dutch equivalent of an Inc, I've been working on my own projects more, while also still working at and with OrangeValley. As of December 1st, yesterday, I no longer work for them.

Leaving OrangeValley

The fact that I've left OrangeValley might surprise some of you, so let me explain why. OrangeValley has grown tremendously since I became its first employee in October 2008, both in size and in knowledge. I've always thoroughly enjoyed working with the people there, as it's one of  the most talented crews I've ever had the pleasure of working with, helping a range of very cool customers. Naming any of my colleagues specifically would mean not naming one or two others, when all of them have their own specialties and they're all great people, so I won't. "Why leave then?", you'll ask.

Because it's time. It's time for me to be a true entrepreneur, and not an employee. I'm a very ambitious guy: being one of the best SEO's of the Netherlands, which I think I can fairly call myself, is not enough. I want to be amongst and compete with the best in the world. Some people might think that's arrogance, I've decided that doesn't bother me anymore.

So it is, with some pain in my heart, that I wish them all the best, I'm certain they'll do great things. There's two people whom I will name, as I especially want to thank them. Frank and Ortwin, managing partners at OrangeValley, have been great mentors throughout the time I worked with them, encouraging me to take my own path even when it had been in their better interest not too, to them I want to say: Thanks guys. While I'm leaving the company, we're not done yet, we will be working together in the future, I'm quite sure of that.

So what will you be doing?

I've got several ideas for products, at least one of which will lead to a very cool startup soon. A lot of this will happen in cooperation with other people, often with Frederick, in whom I've found a sparring partner of incredible value, and I've also got a couple of new sites planned with my buddy Roy.

Another product I'm working on and will be spending more time on, is my free WordPress SEO plugin and its paid modules. I'm very excited to work with Mark Robertson of ReelSEO on the Video SEO module and with Arjan on the Local SEO module. Those projects combined take up so much time that it's no longer possible for me to combine it with a job at OrangeValley, and frankly, I no longer have to. This site and my other sites make me enough money to live off, and allow me to fund all of these projects myself. I know, I'm a lucky guy.

So off we go, on to new adventures!

Yoast redesigned & bye bye OrangeValley is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Why? Well because I either work from home, or fly, and for those small moments in between, I don't need no car, I'd rather take a train. Ever heard of traffic jams? We seem to have invented those here in the Netherlands, or at least have a serious problem with them. Consider this: we've got longer traffic jams each office day, than that our country is long.

So why a "bakfiets"? Well I need to carry around my two kids sometime, and some beer, and this baby can carry it all at the same time. Ow and, just look how awesome it looks on me:

Now that we're talking about rides by the way, I got my son a new ride too, a skelter:

Is that cool, or what?

Showing off my new ride! is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Let me show you what's on my desk with me right now:

Travelgear: HyperMac, Mifi and MacBook Pro

To the left is my HyperMac external battery, which is powering and charging my laptop at the moment, and also has an outlet to charge my iPhone, should it need charging. I've been traveling quite a bit with this and found that, when fully charged, my MBP-100 HyperMac gives me about 6 hours of added productivity, which is very useful if you're in trains as much as I am.

On the right of the HyperMac is my Novatel Mifi, which is giving me a great HSDPA connection here in the airport. If you don't know the Mifi, it's a wireless hotspot that uses your simcard, and converts your 3G connection into a wireless hotspot for 5 devices. It's got an absolutely great antenna, giving me the best connection I've ever had wirelessly here in Holland.

Coolest thing about the Mifi? I can use it on the road, for instance while driving. Yesterday I was stuck in a traffic jam, but had to go into a Skype conference call. So I booted up the Mifi, made my iPhone to its Wireless connection, and was able to use Skype on my iPhone to do the conference call, while driving! (Nevermind the safety issues, I was going a maximum of 5 mph...)

I got my Mifi at Henk van Ess's MifiEurope.com, he's also going to be bringing the Eye-fi to Europe, the combination of a Mifi with and Eye-fi must be very good for those who make a couple more pictures a week than I do...

The Mifi and Hypermac both are a bit pricy, but they do help me to spend as much of my travel time working, and thus are well worth their money!

Travel gear… is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

On the other hand I do really want Microsoft to keep trying. We need the competition... If you understand Dutch, listen to the interview here.

*Bing* on national radio is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

I'm also, with this post, submitting this design to the WP WebHost Best WordPress Design Award contest in the "Modern & Elegant" category. I think the new design is worthy of a price :)

The credits for this design go to W3 Edge Web Site Design, where Frederick and his team did an awesome job. Coding it took a fair bit longer than expected, mostly due to me being extremely busy with OrangeValley.

New design (and submitting for a contest)! is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Personal note: wedding pictures! is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

We had an awesome day, and as you can see, Marieke looked absolutely stunning!

If you want something to read in the meanwhile, I have a few suggestions for you:

• Erik-Jan Bulthuis, who recently did some guest posts on B2B SEO on this blog, has his own english blog now, so head over there: justerik.com.
• Rae Hoffman did a nice post: Pimping Your WordPress Theme for Humans, if you subscribe to my WordPress newsletter, one of the tips in there should be fairly familiar :)

Keep watching this blog as well, some guest posts might just pop up!

Just Married! is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

About Sociable for WordPress: add diggita.it

That was all that was in there! I wish it was the first e-mail like that, but it wasn't...

Now if you want me to do something for you, the best thing you can do is ask! And I can tell you one thing, thanking me for writing plugin or tool X, Y or Z won't hurt, and adding "please" might be a good idea too.

If you want something done tomorrow, either consider paying me to do it (and I'm sorry, but tomorrow is never cheap), or be really really polite and tell me why you need it. I spend 20-30 hours a week writing plugins, tools and blog posts, and I give all of them away for free. Please be so kind as to reward that with well written and polite emails.

Update: it get's worse, I emailed this lady back with the following single line:

pretty please? :)

And I got this response:

It was not an order, just a quick request. I wrote it in a hurry. :-p

Now seriously, she'll never get anything done from me anymore.

Guide for contacting me is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

• Post: New Tool - Simply Advanced Google Search!
• Post: Google Chart API
• Tool: Simply Advanced Google Search

I hope you enjoy them (too)!

Blogging at Google Tutor is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

It's pretty darn simple, actually: I had MSN Messenger and Live Messenger installed. Somehow these two kept bumping into each other, so you should remove MSN Messenger, and all works flawlessly again. Follow these simple steps, and you will be cured of the problem as well:

1. Shut down Messenger.
2. Click Start
3. Click Run
4. enter "%appdata%\microsoft" (without the quotes) and press Enter.
5. You're now in your application data folder.
6. Delete the MSN Messenger folder.
7. Start up Messenger again.

That fixed it for me, hope it helps you out as well!

MSN / Live Messenger problems is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

A lot of my time goes into my own company, AlthA Web design, in which I do some WordPress coding and web design stuff.

All the time outside of doing those things goes into my family, first and foremost my lovely Marieke and our son Tycho (see the picture on the right). During weekends, we usually spend a lot of time at her parents and my parents, as both of them live near by.

Lastly, I love going out for a beer with some friends, but to be honest, I've not done a lot of that lately due to an extreme workload...

Now for tagging three other SEO's (and I'll pick people who aren't at conferences this week):

• Dave's new colleague Dan Horton
• SEOIdiot
• Dennis Goedgebuure (that should give me some time to answer your hard questions ;) )

Blog Tag: When I’m not doing SEO… is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Check out my new gravatar is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

It's not enabled for me yet, but once it becomes available, I think I'll switch to that instead of my regular IMAP.

That’s it! I’m switching to GMail! is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Sorry about that: back to full feeds… is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

Now it has been known for quite a while that MSN censors URL's, as covered here for instance, but I had not ever heard of them censoring out complete TLD's... This is, IMHO, insane... Come on Microsoft, stop doing this sort of nonsense!

Microsoft Censoring .info domains in MSN Messenger is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

I got a request to do a sponsored review for Bidvertiser for Advertisers. Requests like this are always fun, and this one started off even better, since the people at Bidvertiser really get how this market works. They encouraged me to sign up for their referral program and use the code in there to link to them, because that would give new advertisers a nice $20 in free clicks. Apparently they do not mind at all that I will get paid for that as well, which shows that they really like to be reviewed!

I must say I'm pretty impressed with their interface, it looks nice, reports well and fast and does pretty much everything you'd want it to do. Searching for cars gave me a load of sites on which you can advertise, and quite a few subcategories to do even more targeted niche advertising.

After I had selected a few for my car advertisement, I got the option to set up geotargetting. I chose US only for this testrun, but having the option to target your ads as easy as this is pretty nice. After that I got the possibility to set my bid prices, and what I found really good to see is that they're not inflating expected clicks. If they expect you to get 12 clicks a month from a site and tell that honestly, I'm impressed.

I think that using Bidvertiser you can get some pretty nice exposure if you pick your sites right (there is some crap in there, just skip through that), for a pretty low amount of money. Now what more would you want? So go sign up already!

Bidvertiser.net – Text-Link-Advertising is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

MSN Reporter still buggy is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!

The future of the internet. is a post by Joost de Valk on Yoast - Tweaking Websites.A good WordPress blog needs good hosting, you don't want your blog to be slow, or, even worse, down, do you? Check out my thoughts on WordPress hosting!