Craig's Brother | Real Music
When the average person hears the term "punk rock," they tend to think of spiky hair, grungy clothes, and incredibly annoying music. It's an immediate turnoff.

Music should inspire, uplift, and bring us new ideas to consider. Real talent is addictive, and that's exactly why we grew up listening to Craig's Brother, a melodic punk rock band from Santa Cruz, California.

Craig's Brother is not your typical punk band and never will be. Their music is filled with melodic harmonies, intricate guitar riffs, and thought provoking lyrics.  With Craig's Brother, you won't find the screaming, the drunk ranting, or the rude humor you find with other punk bands. They are an accomplished group of great guys who sing about life and what it means to them.

Homecoming (May 19, 1998)
Even when they were young, Craig's Brother knew how to attract the ears of people seeking actual talent. In 1998, they released their first full length album called "Homecoming.," one of the best punk albums of all time in our opinion.

Songs like "Going Blind," relating to us the desensitizing power of pornography, or "Who Am I?," begging the question we all ask ourselves at some point in time, are songs that get the heart pumping, the foot tapping, and the mind exercising.

The Insidious Lie (January 24, 2011)
In 2011, Craig's Brother released their third full length album, "The Insidious Lie." The most amazing aspect of this album is the evidence that the band stuck to the sound that fans fell in love with in the beginning. The melodicism still pounds away. The harmonies still give you goose bumps. The lyrics still radiate sense and reason. This album, filled with diversity and pure talent, is what punk rock is all about.

The Point
If you're looking for a new sound, start listening to Craig's Brother. They remain our favorite band for a reason. Since the release of Homecoming, they've created song after song that trumps so much of the mainstream garbage out today. So do your ears a favor, run passed all of that mind-numbing noise that calls itself music, and grab your first Craig's Brother album.

According to NBC News, Tropical Storm Isaac looks to pass through Haiti overnight, putting South Florida on high alert over the weekend.

"With sustained winds now at 65 mph, up from 50 mph Friday morning, Isaac could pass near Florida's Gulf Coast early Monday just as the Republican National Convention is scheduled to start in Tampa."

It's reported that South Florida could see about 5 - 10 inches of heavy rain from Sunday through Monday along with a few twister.

Mayor Craig Cates of the Florida Keys is worried about the timing of this storm. There aren't many routes for evacuation, so they feel they would need at least 36 hours to evacuate residents and tourists.

The way we see it, Florida could either get pounded by Isaac or get lucky. We'll see what happens out in the Caribbean over night. If you have travel plans, forget 'em.

From Experience
If there's one thing I've learned from traveling, it's to always pack a jacket. Even if it's the middle of the summer and you're traveling to Arizona, bring that jacket. There will most likely be a moment where you wished you had it.

I recently wrote a Squidoo lens about this very topic, including a few other travel tips I started  living by. Traveling can be enjoyable. You just have to learn from past misfortunes.

So check out My #1 Travel Tip.

Have you ever swam 76 miles? 49-year old, British-born Australian grandmother Penny Palfrey did while attempting to swim from Florida to Cuba. She had to cut her journey short at the 76-mile mark.

Penny swam for 41 hours straight...........yeah. There was no shark cage or protection from the jellyfish infested waters, yet she pursued her goal of being the first woman to swim from country to country without assistance.

According the the Los Angeles Times, "Palfrey gave up when her 12-member support crew, escorting her on a 44-foot catamaran, briefed her on the tricky currents of the Florida Straits, which were causing her to lose ground, the Associated Press reported."

With a jelly fish-stung body and a blistered tongue from the salt water, Penny may have been unsuccessful this time around, but that doesn't change the fact that she made it a LOT farther than any of us could have swam. Congratulations, Penny for being awesome!

Nice Guys May Finish Last, But They'll Have the Most Friends
We just read an awesome post written by SEOBook's Trond Lyngbø called "SEO Success Secret - Help Your Community, Grow Your Business." In his post, Trond talks about his experience at a local electronics store. He asked the woman behind the desk if they carried a certain product. She told him that they were out of stock but then went out of her way to leave the counter and actually walk with Trond into a competing store where she knew the product was in stock. Trond found what he was looking for and applied this experience to his SEO practices.

A Lesson for Any Industry
Whether you work in the SEO, automotive, or hair care industry, being the nice guy and focusing on customer satisfaction (even if the customer has to go to a competitor to find what he or she is looking for) will add a certain luster to your name and ultimately strengthen your entire community. To feed off of Trond's own experiences with SEO, we as well have seen the benefits in sharing the Internet marketing-related techniques we use every day. Do we lose business? NO!

Instead of acting like an old hermit, we jump out into the community and share the wealth. Word-of-mouth leads pile up, and our reputation  becomes the leading factor behind our success.

Marketing can have a lot of ingredients: TV, radio, Yellow Pages, PPC, social media, sponsored events. Every local business on the planet has an almost endless amount of marketing resources at their fingertips. But there's one thing that has the potential to make those resources more potent and worthwhile, and that's SEO (search engine optimization).

Moving forward with any aspect of marketing without utilizing SEO is like making smores without the Hershey's bar. You can use all the marshmallows you want. You can use another brand of chocolate. You can dip those things in melted fudge, sprinkles, and ice cream, but it won't match what it could be with that Hershey's bar. Proper search engine optimization takes your other marketing activities and builds upon them in the most user-friendly ways.

Finding and Wooing Your Audience
For example, let's say you own a small skate shop. You're planning a city-wide skate competition to take place in a few months. You post fliers all around town. You put bumper stickers on all of your employees' cars. You ask the local skate parks to spread the word. You even have a few buddies at the radio station to give you a shout out.

With all of those great methods, you're forgetting where your audience is really hanging out throughout the day: the Internet. All of those skaters are online searching for skate videos on YouTube, new skate products on Google, and news about their favorite athletes on other online sources. You need to be there in the action, grabbing their attention. There are certain SEO techniques that can put you in front of those people.

On your website, you can write a blog post about the event. You could write a press release and submit it to popular skating websites. You could record a short video, post it onto YouTube, and optimize it for the keywords you want to target. You could go to popular skating blogs and submit guest blog posts. You could visit skating forums and post your comments, linking back to the original blog post on your site. All of these things and more will reach the eyes of your audience and bring in a larger crowd. Without SEO, you're that much weaker.

It's So Easy to Get Overwhelmed
Even the thought of "search engine optimization" drives some people away. There is so much you can do with SEO that it can sometimes be overwhelming and frustrating. As a Jacksonville-based SEO company, that's why we exist. We're smart. We're affordable. We bring simplicity to any of your complicated business ideas or goals.

As the experts, we're telling you to do all the PPC you want. Host as many events as you can. Make as many TV commercials and radio ads you have the budget for. But whatever you do, DON'T forget SEO. We'll be by your side every step of the way.

Add a Little Sunshine to Your Life
Florida, in our opinion, is the most beautiful place in the country. Sure, the bugs love it just as much as we do, but don't worry. Most of them won't kill you.

We thought we'd put together our own list of the top 10 things to do in Florida, whether you live here or you're planning a trip soon. Keep in mind, these are things that we love. You may have other places you'd rather experience. Feel free to comment at the bottom.

1. Cumberland Island National Seashore
Technically, Cumberland Island is in Georgia territory, but it's close enough. Cumberland Island is accessible only by boat. You can grab a ferry ride or take your own boat as well. The camping is great, and the hiking trails will keep you busy all day long. Don't get too close to the wild horses though, or they'll chase you.

2. Ponte Vedra Inn & Club
If you ever plan on staying in Jacksonville, whether you're heading out to the TPC or going to the Gator Bowl, there's no better place to stay than the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club. It has to be one the best Florida beach resorts for families if not the best.  It's a luxury, five diamond beach resort that opened in the early 1900's. With a beautiful private beach and a world renowned golf course and tennis club, the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club is what Florida vacationing is all about.

3. Downtown St. Augustine
Founded in 1565, St. Augustine is a history-lover's haven. With many of the original establishments still in tact, including Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, downtown St. Augustine is one of the coolest places to visit in the whole state of Florida. It's also home to the best shrimp on planet Earth. Go to Barnacle Bill's Seafood Restaurant, and you'll see what we mean. 

4. Walt Disney World
Most everyone on the planet is familiar with Walt Disney World, but it's pretty much our second home. Even if you hate standing in a 45-minute line just to sit on a flying elephant for 3 minutes, Disney World has so much to offer. We recommend staying at Port Orleans Resort - French Quarter. It's a quaint, relaxing New Orleans-themed resort close to the attractions. Oh, and for dinner, head over to the Rainforest Cafe or T-REX in Downtown Disney.

5. Islands of Adventure
Universal Orlando's Islands of Adventure is more of a super hero/movie-based theme park with some great attractions, including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster. When you're stomach starts churning from all of the twists, turns, and loops, head over to Universal CityWalk for shops, dining, and awesome entertainment.

6. The Florida Aquarium
Located in Tampa, the Florida Aquarium is one of the most outstanding attractions in Florida. Even though the ocean is all around you, being able to see such an amazing variety of marine life up close and personal is a unique experience, especially in such a spectacular facility as the Florida Aquarium.

7. Kennedy Space Center
NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center will bring out the explorer within. We suggest taking the guided tours around the Launch Control Center, Vehicle Assembly Building, and Cape Canaveral. These tours are led by trained space experts, so open your ears and don't forget your camera.

8. Blue Springs State Park
When you think of Florida, a few things come to mind: the beaches, the oranges, and the manatees. Blue Springs State Park is a designated Manatee Refuge on the St. Johns River. Even though you can't swim where the manatees are, there is a crystal clear spring perfect for swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, and tubing. Picnic areas, campgrounds, and hiking trails are everywhere

9. The Everglades
Florida is known for its abundance of wildlife and wetlands. If you're looking to experience Florida's wild side, the Everglades will give you just that. Boat and swamp buggy tours are a must. Just make sure you keep your hands on board. The activities are endless. The adventure you'll encounter in the Everglades is one of a kind.

10. Key Largo
The Florida Keys are famous for their exotic beaches, marine activities, and awesome campgrounds. Key Largo epitomizes all of those things. Known as "the first of the Florida Keys," Key Largo is home of two state parks, a national park, and a national marine sanctuary. If you plan on heading down to South Florida any time soon, don't pass up Key Largo.

An inbound Internet marketing blog called Hubspot Blog came out with an article about 15 things people absolutely hate about your website. Some of these things are pretty obvious to anyone with design background (or common sense). Others may have you saying, "I don't think so."

Everybody has their own tastes and preferences when it comes to website design and optimization. Whatever  your personal opinions may be, here is the list.

1. Pop-Up Ads
2. Automatically Playing Multimedia Content When a Page Loads
3. Disorienting Animations
4. Generic Stock Photography
5. Including a "Contact Us" Form in Lieu of Contact Information
6. Unintelligible "About Us" Page
7. SEO-Driven Copy
8. Not Including Social Sharing Buttons on Your Content
9. You Don't Have a Blog
10. Titles and Content are Incongruous
11. Your Call-to-Action Copy Doesn't Align With the Offer
12. Your Internet Linking Isn't User-Friendly
13. Sliders That Take Forever, and Ever, to Load
14. Using Flash
15. The Worst Offender: I Don't Know What to Do.

Now it's obvious that we ourselves are guilty of some of these things. We use a contact form instead of contact information because this website is simply used for informational purposes only while our actual website is under construction. We're not perfect. Big whoop.

But most of these are valid points. We don't like pop-up ads. We can't stand content that makes absolutely no sense because of how keyword-driven it is. Stock photography is a joke. Bad animation can cause seizures. Again, you may not agree. That's fine. Just try and remember a few things on this list when designing a website.

Our Stance
Most of the world still uses the term "SEO" instead of "inbound marketing." To be clear, we still use the term "SEO" as well. It's easy. It's short. It's not going away any time soon. What we do is still SEO.

The reason we are comparing SEO with inbound marketing isn't to bash SEO at all. We simply want to discuss the ideology behind the new and old ways of doing things. Inbound marketing is just the term we use to define the new way of influencing (not manipulating) search engine rankings.

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies
You probably wouldn't disagree with us when we say that you'd much rather have a warm batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies instead of a bag of Chips Ahoy! from the super market. Why? The smell that fills every room, the gooeyness that demands your attention, and that taste of chocolatey perfection; it's absolutely irresistible, especially with a cold glass of milk.

This has everything to do with inbound marketing. SEO used to be all about conveyer belt, "Chips Ahoy!" techniques like paying an offshore resource to build links on free link farms and directories, run articles through article spinning software, and auto-generate posts on social networks and blogging platforms. Google, the #1 source for immediate answers on every topic imaginable, won't tolerate such practices anymore. Instead, they rely on genuine, "homemade" human interaction.

Everybody Used to Love Penguins
Google's new Penguin update to its ranking algorithm has upset a lot of webmasters. All of a sudden, their rankings dropped, and they didn't know why. It's kind of obvious now. They were attacked by a giant penguin, and you just cannot win against a giant penguin.

Google has placed its primary focus on human to human interactions when it comes to ranking high in the search results pages (SERP's). That human to human interaction is pretty much the definition of inbound marketing. Whether you're tweaking a web page's meta title, posting a link to Facebook, uploading an image to Pinterest, or writing an article on Squidoo, it is insanely critical to make things readable, likeable, and shareable for whatever audience you're aiming for.

Dump the link farms. Trash the article spinners. Cut off any tool or method you have used in the past to manipulate search engine rankings. The only way you're not manipulating Google is if your eye is centered on building a relationship with your consumers. As we have always said, if it's user-friendly, it's search engine-friendly. If you're handing people homemade chocolate chip cookies rather than a bag of Chips Ahoy!, you'll become Google's best friend.

Florida is known for a few things: the heat, the beautiful beaches, the oranges, and the manatees. Today is a special day for one manatee who was nursed back to health in the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa.

ABC Action News says that "The manatee, nicknamed Petunia, was rescued on September 16, 2011, from Booker Creek in St. Petersburg. She was severely emaciated." Petunia weight only 230 pounds when she was rescued.

She was then taken into care at the David A. Straz Jr. Manatee Hospital and treated for the last 8 months. "The zoo's rehab team and members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute worked together to return the manatee to the waters of Tampa Bay" says the Tampa Bay Times. Petunia added 410 pounds of weight since her rehab.

She was released this morning at Demen's Landing in St. Petersburg around 9:45 AM. It's so awesome to see Florida's local wildlife being watched over and taken care of.

Click the link below to watch the full video at the Tampa Bay Times.

After rehab stint, manatee's back home in Tampa Bay