Joe Cannella

What does it take to be #1?

2008-07-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

Whoa Nelly.... not much it seems, if you have a relatively unique name and your own blog. I made it! And just in time for a weekend in Vegas to celebrate my success. I'm even holding the #2 slot with my LinkedIn profile! And with Big Joe coming in at 3rd, the fam is really front and center =)

So I'm declaring victory for phase 1, but suppose I'm going to have to come up with something more interesting to actually gain readers.... I have a couple ideas, but first thing first - let's get Google Analytics involved so I know what the hell is going on. There were 5 views in the last few days, and 2 are me and 2 are my boss, which means there is a random unaccounted-for mystery guest that I must find a way to thank.

Perhaps its Joe Cannella, the Queens restaurant owner of Bourbon Street, who currently comes in at #4.

Or maybe its Joe Cannella, the CPA in Tampa, Fl, checking in on me. Or Joe Cannella the realtor in Dallas. Likely however its 18 year-old Joe Cannella, UK resident, student at West Kent College and whose favourite (UK spelling intended) drink is something called um-bongo.

To my fellow Joe Cannellas - hit me up! We have to be related somehow right?

It worked!

2008-06-01T10:49:00.000-07:00

We're making progress! I was definitely number 1 for a couple days last week (Thursday and Friday at least). Currently I'm back down at slot 3, but clearly a big change has occurred. I'm actually owning spots 3 *and* 4 at the moment, result 4 being indented as you see below (click image to link through). The old title (Joseph Anthony Cannella III) is still showing up from the past, but I expect at some point for that to be phased out. We'll see.

So we've learned that simply mentioning "joe cannella" many times in the blog posts did not have NEARLY as much impact as making it the title of the page. Make sense!

There are still yet other factors to overcome, seeing as the two results above me are a pool tournament bracket (go Dad!) and a legal document from the Dept. of Education on Cannella Schools of Hair Design (definitely not Dad).

And since there has been so much movement of my position in general, let's define success - one full week at number 1, without moving around, and we'll put this one in the books (unless, of course I get bumped). But I'm getting ahead of myself. Third isn't good enough.

Next step: I'm going to "Digg Myself" for the first time! Very exciting stuff I'm learning. It seems only a handful of people I know are on Digg (the usual suspects are very active) so I don't know what impact this would have. Maybe its time to start promoting the ole blog to friends & family?

New Strategy.....

2008-05-20T18:08:00.000-07:00

Clearly writing a blog post once a month and randomly mentioning my name in the blog text isn't really getting it done. I'm currently ranked 11 on Google for "Joe Cannella", and my dad has taken over #1 with his recent billiards exploits. Nice job Dad!!! I'm coming for ya.

Curiously, it seems I singlehandedly changed the mix in the last couple months - it was pretty standard before I jumped in the game. Councilman from NY was #1, Dad was mixed in on page 1 and I was somewhere on page 2 with my Facebook profile or something else random.

New Strategy (DUH) is to change the title from "Joseph Anthony Cannella III" to "Joe Cannella". I'm obviously number 1 for the former query. So we're going to give this a shot until I actually do something with joecannella.com besides post the ever-genious HOT / CRAZY diagram.

Stay tuned - hopefully this will do the trick, and soon we can move onto some more ambitious goals, like (gasp) write some posts someone might actually give a crap about!!!

2008-04-18T00:28:00.001-07:00

Clearly I haven't gotten into the flow of updating this blog, for one primary reason...... I discovered Twitter! Wow - could that BE more addicting? (now say it in a Chandler from Friends voice. Do it....) Anyway, as much as I enjoy writing, I think in the short term its much more likely that I will Twitter away versus taking the time / having the time to Doogie Howser every night before bed.

Besides, in doing pretty much nothing, I moved up two spots on Google for the search "Joe Cannella"!

"Joe, what will you do now that you've made it all the way to number one?" they will ask... "I was thinking I would punch Phil Simms" is what I hope I would say, but more likely you won't be able to reach me as I'll be jumping up and down on my bed after toasting to the good life and before posting a self-congratulatory twitter post.

9 spots to go......

2008-04-07T21:41:00.000-07:00

So my short term goal is simple - to be the #1 Google result for my name!! The Google employee should be able to figure that out right? Putting up this blog with my name as the title got me to the first page, but looks like I'll have to become a little more popular to get that number 1 (currently held by Councilman Joe Cannella of Harrison, NY - I'm coming for ya buddy!). So far I'd be shocked to learn if anyone but me and the other Joe Cannella's that gratuitously Google their own name have seen this page, but I'm on it! Looks like I bumped my dad down a spot and took his place on the first page (sorry pops - we'll work on you next!)

To blog.....

2008-02-09T21:32:00.000-08:00

or not to blog.....? A lame question, with a simple answer. The pursuit of anonymity is futile - time to get on board.

How to do it without alienating family, friends, coworkers or prospective employers? Now there's the real question. Stay tuned - this could get interesting....