The gift cost just $.42. It was not from e-Giftology.com. It was not given for a holiday or any other event denoted on a calendar, but I think you’ll agree that it is easily the best gift a father can receive. 

Back story:  I spent two weeks in the north woods recently with my boys.  Now they are out of town until school starts, so I have not seen them for a few weeks. 

Yesterday, I received this in the mail.

The best gift ever received.

Based upon the artwork and acclaimed children’s book by Shannon Grissom, Daphne’s Headcovers has created an authentic licensed golf club head cover: Monkey Made of Sockies.

Monkey Made of Sockies

Gas has settled above $4 a gallon.  Airlines are going broke while charging you for air conditioning.  What’s old is new again. 

How do we get there if we're always here?

Just a few short years ago, AMTRAK depended almost entirely on government subsidies to remain operational.  In October, the Texas Eagle connection from DFW to Chicago was mostly empty.  Passengers were mostly retirees or hobbyists who rode the train simply because they enjoyed riding the train. 

As I type this, I am aboard the Texas Eagle leaving Chicago for the 22 hour journey to Dallas, Texas.  The train is booked and as we talk with other passengers the reason they are here is quite simple: the economics of travel. 

The train that makes a thousand stops

Personally, we took the train partially due to the economics of it and also because my boys have never ridden on the train.  The trip has been unique, nostalgic and memorable for the kids. 

In a way, it is great to see the trains full of passengers.  It is sad that it is driven by ecomonics, but trains have always been driven by economics in this country. 

If you’ve never ridden a “real” train, go to AmTrak.com and see where you can go.  Disney’s Monorail doesn’t count.  Get out and see America.

Visit all of e-Giftology’s railroad posters.

People always ask me what it is like to make a living online.  They ask as though they represent all of the people in the world with “real jobs”.   It used to irk me, but now I just smile and think back to the 1000s of hours spent during late nights after the kids were in bed…

e-Giftology.com began as a hobby that turned out to be profitable (and subsequently time consuming).  The site led to a contract to build PosterImageArt.com and a database of nearly 175,000 unique product options with more search terms (it seemed) than the Library of Congress. 

The largest print on-demand archive on the net.

The next question they ask is: Once it is done, what do you do?  The free-time must be amazing.  Again, I smile and think to the dozens of emails with very specific and sometimes downright trivial questions our visitors come up with.  Admittedly, I rarely know the answer, but the research is fun and leads to some interesting destinations. 

Also, my time is spent researching “free” ways to optimize for Google.  I think we’ll discover a cure for cancer before we truly solve the Google riddle, but it gives me something to do.

People typically assume that since you have a site that sells things, then your work life is pretty much on auto pilot.  I have learned two truths about e-commerce in my years as webmaster:

1.  A website knows the seasons.  Summer is slower than Winter and weekends are busier than Mondays.  Sounds like an overview of traffic at the mall, huh?

2.  If you do not constantly tweak and re-tweak a site, then the flow of visitors will dry up.  I am not sure about the algorithms and science behind this phenomenon, but I think it is the same as those that explain why shop keepers change out the displays in their windows every now and then. 

So when you’re not online playing geek, what do you do?

This week I am in the northern woods of Wisconsin with my boys on a fishing expedition.  We’re not sportsmen…nor are we particularly keen of the great mosquitoes..er….outdoors.  However, sometimes it is nice to get a tan from something other than an LCD screen.

Why we keep goldfish for pets...

Next week I’ll be back home trying to solve the mysteries of why people buy golf club head covers, but not tuned wind chimes.  Until then, surf safe and always bring a gift when visiting anyone…

Congrats to Matthew Goggin for a great showing at this weekend’s Memorial.

Those of you watching the weather delayed warm up at this weekend’s Memorial will surely note the conversation regarding Matthew Goggin’s Koala headcover and his desire to switch to a Tazmanian Devil in honor of the endangered species from his home country.

No word on whether Daphne’s Headcovers is currently designing one – or if Mr. Goggin is angling for a sponsorship deal from Warner Bros. to carry Taz. 

And don’t you just love how they say Kwala down under?

Buy your own here: http://www.e-giftology.com/servlet/the-13421/Koala-Golf-Club-Head/Detail

We have had several inquiries as to the origin of this image:

See more: http://www.e-giftology.com/servlet/the-9619/Maritime%2C-Sea%2C-Ocean%2C-Photography%2C/Detail

Here is what we know:

The image is from a book:
A Maritime Album -100 Photographs & Their Stories
Yale Univ. Press (do not know the year)
Picture found on pg141

Paul Dumas, founder of e-Giftology.com, has signed a contract with BuyEnLarge.com to design, publish, and optimize an e-commerce site marketing a variety of products that utilize their huge image archive.  Products includes paper posters, Giclee Art Prints, Gallery wrapped Canvas prints and chocolate bars with custom wrappers.

“The challenge”, said Paul Dumas, “is to present a massive selection of products in a way that makes it easy for visitors to find something tied specifically to their interest.  The underlying theme is posters and prints, but the subjects traversed is virtually limitless in appeal so long as the interface is properly structured.”

The resulting site, www.PosterImageArt.com, will focus initially on best sellers and an advanced search mechanism to guide visitors to images of interest.  As the site evolves, visitor guidance will rely on multiple platforms including search engines and a blog designed to provide access to the histories behind the images. 

The goal is to have the site go live on June 1, 2008, although you can currently track the evolution of the site today as the design is being published in stages as completed. 

We have put together several of our most popular items for a HUGE Father’s Day promotion. 

http://www.e-giftology.com/servlet/the-FATHER%27S-DAY/Categories

Popular items include golf club head covers, cool movie posters and select unique tools.

A brief survey of how webmasters consider Google PageRank, and you’d think it was a religion.  SEO advertisers point to their PR as proof you should buy their services.  To over-simplify, however, PageRank is only half of the equation when trying to court Google.  The other half is what kind of visitors are you targeting?

The ultimate goal is to get visitors to your site.  Just looking at PageRank does not always tell you how much traffic is making its way to the site.  For instance, this blog currently has a PR of 3 and it gets a tenth of the traffic of e-Giftology.com, which has a PR of 2.  So what is the difference?

First, this blog has only 81 posts (or unique pages) that cover about 40 somewhat unique topics that include about 500 “keywords”.   e-Giftology.com has about 18,000 unique pages with about 75,000 keywords.  e-Giftology certainly seeks a broader audience that this blog.  Basically, 50,000 small signs will tend to be seen by more people than 50 large signs regardless of everything else. 

So what does all of this mean when related to PageRank?  Well, it is actually simpler than most will admit.  If your PR is good, then visitors will find you via Google, but only for the topics that specifically relate to your source content.  Broad content and good PR will translate to a lot of traffic (see Amazon.com).  Limited content with good PR will translate to high quality visitors, but the overall quantity may be less than expected (see this blog).   

So do not rely only on PageRank to guage the value of a site.  Simple, but I have yet to see it articulated in any way that makes sense for a webmaster who simply wants to have quality visitors enter the site.