Jeff Woelker : Chicago SEO, SEM, and Online Marketing Consultant

On a more silly note, below is a compiliation of the greatest uses of the fantastic musical instrument, the Vocoder created by the genius Robert Moog Homer Dudley. If you are unfamiliar with what a Vocoder is, it’s pretty much the equivalent of taking your voice and then running it through a robotic cheese grater. What comes out is 100% D-Lite! Enjoy.

15. Bomfunk MC’s - Freestylers

14. Cameo - Word Up


Is that LeVar Burton?

13. Styx - Mr. Roboto

12. United States of Electronica - Party People

11. Air - Sexy Boy


Top 10…After the break.

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This is great news for ZAP, but also great news for me as an electric car enthusiast. ZAP confirmed in an email today that they have received the largest order for electric cars ever and from a Chicago based startup called the Electric Vehicle Company (EVC), no not that Electric Vehicle Company. So it looks like I may have double the opportunity to secure either a Smart car or an electric vehicle from ZAP via EVC.

Whenever I bring up my excitement for electric cars though, I get the same response, “Yeah, that’s great, but where do you charge it?” That’s an easy solution to fix my friends. Electric outlets are a dime a dozen and as electric cars become more prevalent, more outlets will be added. The next question that always arises is “How can you get behind electric cars, when much of our electricity currently comes from coal fired power plants or nuclear power plants?” Well, at least the opportunity exists with those alternatives for renewable power sources such as wind, wave, solar, or geothermal energy. The oil option or some hybrid solution of part oil, part electric or part oil, part hydrogen, just isn’t going to cut it in the long term.

So EVC, if you’re listening, send me a promo kit or let me know when you are having any test drive events.

Photo courtesy of Zap of Concord.

I got another email from SmartUSA the other day and I’m still kind of a twitter that these mini-cars will soon be coming to the US soon, but not soon enough. I can feel my Sebring getting right on the verge of a nervous break down and I’m trying to see how long I can go without putting substantial moneys into it. I’m hoping to trade it in eventually for a Smart Car or perhaps a plug-in electric, if that ever comes to market. Chevy Volt? I’m looking in your direction.

Smart has added a pretty cool feature to show colors and styles together, which is fun for a Friday afternoon. Anyone know anyway I can get these guys to move any faster? I mean, I’m already #5 for “SmartUSA” in Google.

Having worked on many website design projects, I often tell my clients to first define who the users of their website are, which should be obvious for any project, and then secondarily, write the content in a manner that answers your users questions. As more people become familiar with search engines, they often pare their search phrases down to “local Chicago stores” or “sustainable chicago” and cut out the key terms they actually want “Where can I find local Chicago stores?” or “How can I live more sustainably in Chicago?”. As more natural language processing is incorporated into search technology, this will be less of a problem as search engines are able to “guess” what people are looking for. In the meantime, content providers should try and word their content in a manner that answers exactly the questions their users will ask so there is no need for technology to catch up.

Take Yahoo Answers for example, this site is an SEO’s and an information seekers dream as most posts are from consumers looking for answers to their questions. It’s not written with business logic or marketing intentions behind them. There’s no “Contact Us” or “About Us” or “Services Strategies”, it’s people asking questions and getting answers. “Detroit or Chicago? Pros & Cons, please give me the good and the bad of Detroit & Chitown?” and “Is being a vegetarian healthy?“. This is exactly what the web was created for. It’s topical and relevant and what the user is looking for. I agree that Yahoo Answers is also the lazy person’s search engine, but many of the questions and answers that are on Yahoo Answers represent intangible events and experiences not easily found on the web. For example, where is the best place to get an oil change near Halsted and Diversey in Chicago? I can always google “Chicago Oil Changes” and get a big list of places. Then I can look at a map and see which places are closest to that. Then I can look at reviews of those places, if any exist. However, if I am a smart content writer, I figure out what terms, questions, and answers my users are looking for and write content to exactly match that.

So where can I find a usability professional in Chicago?

And where can I find a person to help me with my website?

Thoughts?

As if everyone didn’t already know, hybrids are popular. As gas once again does its’ $3 dance, Toyota and Honda published some sales stats for March and they can’t keep these things on the lot. EVERYTHING MUST GO! I’ll do my usual spiel and say US auto makers have to wake up. Chevy Volt? Smart Car? GM Concepts? Anyone? Bueller?

Well, you drove me to it CTA. I went out this weekend in preparation for 3 track hell and bought myself a Fuji Absolute for my new ride to work. It’s my first road bike and I think it’s pretty sweet and from the reviews I’ve read, it’s a pretty good value and easily customizable for when I want to graduate to a “big boy bike”. Much love to my friends over at Performance Bike at Halsted and Diversey. Where some other bike shops laughed at my beat to hell mountain bike when I brought it in two years ago, you guys were eager to give me a hand. In return, you have a new customer.

And as for you CTA and your so called “plan” for the 3 track nightmare which you have brought on the north side, I will say that I am anything but pleased. For the past 20 years, Daley I and II (Corruption Boogaloo*) have worked to bring the northside and the city in general back from the cities of the 70’s and 80’s, but I think this project may undo a large portion of this. Currently, the CTA is underfunded and overused. How will the funding perform if many people like me start taking their bike, taking the Metra, walking to work, begin driving again, or start working from home more often? What happens to revenue and capital funding at that point? I hope that someone at the CTA thought about this prior to saying “Sure, let’s inconvenience many of our customers. We can just tell them to leave for work early and come home late. No big deal.” If I leave for work early, but arrive at the same time as I normally would and I leave work late and arrive home later than I normally would, I could probably stomach that for about 2 or 3 months. 3 years is a bit much to ask of anyone. I imagine that many businesses will also see a decline in revenue as a result of the CTA’s decision, and if these businesses close, residents in that neighborhood will also begin to evaluate their choice of neighborhood. The implications of a radical disruption in CTA transit are much larger than inconveniencing people on the northside.

Either way, I’m ready for whatever happens.

Chicago Bicycle Federation
Chicago Bike Map

*Corruption Boogaloo provided by my good friend Shylo

According to a report today, Google has approached Yahoo Inc. in order to purchase the struggling media giant for a whopping $40 Billion in both cash and stock. When approached for comment CEO Terry Semel said, “40 Billion? More like 40 ounces! Party at my place!”

April fools!