It’s official folks, Apple has released a new Macbook line of laptop computers with some really cool features.

Here are the new models:

Apple's New 13 Inch Macbook

New 13″ Macbook featuring:

• Unibody Frame made from 1 solid piece of Aluminum, making the new Macbook lighter, more durable, and run cooler.
• Ultrathin 13 inch LED backlit display for a beautiful, insant on, and energy saving display.
• Up to 5x faster graphic performance with the new integrated Nvidia 9400M chipset.
• All Glass Touchpad replacing the trackpad button and offering even more multi-touch gestures.

All of this available on the new 13″ Macbook starting at $1299 (and the current Macbook prices have been reduced to $999 starting).

Apple's New 15 inch Macbook Pro

New 15″ Macbook Pro featuring:

• Unibody Frame made from 1 solid piece of Aluminum, making the new Macbook lighter, more durable, and run cooler.
• Ultrathin 15 inch LED backlit display for a beautiful, insant on, and energy saving display.
• Up to 5x faster graphic performance with the new integrated Nvidia 9600M GT chipset for High-End Gaming, and Professional Graphics.
• All Glass Touchpad replacing the trackpad button and offering even more multi-touch gestures.

All of this available on the new 15″ Macbook Pro starting at $1999

Apple's New 24 inch Cinema Display

New 24″ Apple Cinema Display featuring:

• Thin, Aluminum/Glass Enclosure, making the new Cinema Display lighter, and more durable.
• Ultrathin 24 inch LED backlit display for a beautiful, insant on, and energy saving display.
• Includes built-in iSight video camera, microphone, and speakers.
• Integrated MagSafe Adaptor, 3 USB Ports, and a new Mini DisplayPort to use the display with your new Macbook or Macbook Pro and charge your laptop at the same time.

All of this available with the new 24″ Apple Cinema starting at $899

Apple's Newly Re-Designed Macbook Air

Re-Freshed Macbook Air featuring:

• Up to 4x faster graphic performance with the new integrated Nvidia 9400M chipset.
• More storage options including a new 120GB Hard Drive or 128GB SSD.
• New Mini DisplayPort for use on the new 24 inch Apple Cinema Display.

All of this available with the newly re-designed Macbook Air starting at $1799

There you have it folks, new Macbooks, Macbook Pros, a new Cinema Display, and a re-designed Macbook Air.

According to sources Apple is preparing to reveal a whole new line of 12 laptops next week with prices ranging from $800-$3100.  Apple is having an invitation-only town hall event at 10 AM on October 14th  to show off the new laptops.

Unofficial Photos of the new Macbooks have already been leaked to the internet and show the new laptops made from the “Brick” process:

Apples's New "Brick" Macbook

Apples New Macbook is cut from Aluminum using lasers

USB, Network, Firewire, Audio and more on Apple's New Macbook

The price drop is rumored to come from Apples new “Brick” manufacturing process where the laptops bodies are cut from a solid piece of Aluminum, using lasers and water jets, making the laptops lighter, seamless, cheaper, and dissipate heat better.  You can read more about Apple’s new “Brick” process from 9to5Mac - http://9to5mac.com/macbook-brick

Looks like it could be a good time to finally upgrade from my trusty old Powerbook G4.

Let’s see how we’re doing on backlinks and visitors compared to the previous numbers:

Jon’s Blog and Photos - http://www.moongrabber.com
Inlinks: Google - 269/269/269/280/384/796, Yahoo - 150/152/145/199/403/502, Altavista - 181/186/181/227/393/580, Alltheweb - 180/185/179/225/390/577
Traffic: Google Analytics - 15/29/52/39/33/34

Minnesota Design and Photography - http://www.jbdesignandphoto.com
Inlinks: Google - 108/108/108/123/194/493, Yahoo - 126/130/133/172/244/373, Altavista - 150/154/158/198/314/430, Alltheweb - 149/154/157/197/313/423
Traffic: Google Analytics - 11/14/14/20/8/15

Gamer Junkie - http://www.gamer-junkie.com
Inlinks: Google - 0/0/0/0/0/2, Yahoo - 0/5/12/40/288/269, Altavista - 0/5/14/53/305/298, Alltheweb - 0/5/14/53/305/293
Traffic: Google Analytics - 0/47/44/32/17/62

Gamer Junkie Forums - http://forums.gamer-junkie.com
Inlinks: Google - 0/0/0/0/84/107, Yahoo - 0/6/13/40/133/225, Altavista - 0/6/15/52/143/250, Alltheweb - 0/6/15/52/143/243
Traffic: Google Analytics - 0/error/error/13/11/49
Threads - 0/8/17/27/57/73, Posts - 0/10/33/70/169/257, Members - 0/5/10/14/21/29

Remember, don’t lose hope!  The most important thing now is to stay consistent in your efforts because it shows the search engines that you’re commited and it keeps your site’s growth steady.  Stay Tuned for my final report on each site, including some of the sites and tactics I used to create and find new backlinks for each site, as well as build and grow each site.

Free Tools to Test and Optimize your Website

We’re talking free (as in beer) tools that you can use to improve your website, what more could you want?

1. Google (Webmaster Tools, Analytics, Adwords, Adsense, Etc.)

Google has an amazing assortment of tools to improve and monetize your site, and best of all they are completely free (you just need a Google Account).

First are the Google Webmaster Tools, it takes a little work to add and verify your site (upload a file to your server or add a meta tag to your homepage), but it’s completely worth it.  The Google Webmaster Tools give you comprehensive statistics on your site, including: diagnostics, top search queries, what googlebot sees, internal and external links, and plenty of other useful tools to analyze your site.

Next up is Google Analytics.  Google Analytics is all about site statistics, you simply add a small bit of javascript tracking code and voila, you’ve got some amazing visitor statistics.  These stats include: # of visitors, bounce rate, average time on the site, # of pageviews, visitor’s geographic location, traffic sources, content overview, and a whole lot more.

Now it’s Google Adwords turn to advertise your site and bring in the traffic (and business)!  Setup multiple Adwords campaigns and use the Keyword Tool to target specific keywords, to promote your website and your business.  You can also use the Website Optimizer to track A/B scenarios to improve your website and generate more business!  Now the advertising part of Google Adwords may not be free (well $50 of free advertising with a new Adwords Account), but all of the great tools that come with Adwords ARE free (Keyword Tool, Website Optimizer, etc.).

Don’t forget about Google Adsense!  You can use Adsense to provide targeted advertising on your blog or website.  Now you have the option of Adsense for Content (text and/or image ads in many different sizes), Adsense for Search (offer your users site search and get paid for relevant ads at the same time), Adsense for feeds (releveant ads in your RSS feeds from Google), Video Units (show youtube partner videos and get paid), or Adsense for Mobile Content (make money from your mobile website).  So, as you can see the options are endless, and with the right ads you can make money from your website!

There are many other Google Tools that I have not listed here, but that offer some really great features and functions.  To learn more about all that Google has to offer, check out the Google Products Page.

2. Yahoo Site Explorer

Site Explorer allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search. View the most popular pages from any site, dive into a comprehensive site map, and find pages that link to a site or even a specific page.  Overall the Yahoo Site Explorer is a great tool for analyzing your own site (for pages indexed in Yahoo, as well as backlinks to your site), but it’s also a great tool to analyze your competitors sites (see their most popular pages AND the backlinks to their site).

3. Website Grader by Hubspot

Website Grader is a free tool from Hubspot that you can use to analyze your website for traffic, SEO, and social popularity, as well as keyword ranking and competitor site analysis.  Simply enter your site address, a few of your competitors sites, and your email, and Website Grader does the rest.  You will get a report on your website with a final grade (out of 100) on how well your website is optimized, and how well your site does compared to other websites.

Paid Tools to Test and Optimize your Website

Alright, so that was a decent list of free tools, but how about the sea of paid tools that you can use to optimize your website?

1. Web CEO

Web CEO is the motherload in the case of Website Quality Testing, Search Engine Optimization, and a whole lot more!  Start off by finding your Niche through Keyword Research, Optimizing your Site, and Editing your Web Pages.  Then you can move on to Promoting your Site with Search Engine Submissions, Link Partners, and Paid Search Campaigns.  Finish off with Analyzing and Maintaining your Site by Checking your Search Engine Rankings, Analyzing your Inbound Links, Track and Analyze Visitors, Find and Fix Broken Links and Errors on your Site, and Monitor your Website in case it goes down.  Like I said before, Web CEO is the motherload of paid website tools.

2. WordTracker

With a WordTracker Subscription you can optimize your website for popular keywords, generate relevant keywords to improve your search campaigns and build traffic, and research online markets to find the right niche for your site.  There’s also the WordTracker Academy where you can learn all about keywords, niches and how to research and take advantage of online markets.

3. Compete

Compete’s slogan says it all, “Track your rivals.  Then eat their lunch.”  With Compete you can get comprehensive analytics and compare your site with up to 4 of your competitors.  Find out how much traffic your competitors sites are getting, their most popular keywords, and more.

Well that should just about wrap up this post.  If you have a really great tool for improving your website that you’d like to share, please feel free to post a comment here or contact me.  And, if you’re looking to Analyze or Optimize your Website (or you’re looking for Minnesota Web Design), don’t forget to check out JB Design and Photo.

Let’s see how we’re doing on backlinks and visitors compared to the previous numbers:

Jon’s Blog and Photos - http://www.moongrabber.com
Inlinks: Google - 269/269/269/280/384, Yahoo - 150/152/145/199/403, Altavista - 181/186/181/227/393, Alltheweb - 180/185/179/225/390
Traffic: Google Analytics - 15/29/52/39/33

Minnesota Design and Photography - http://www.jbdesignandphoto.com
Inlinks: Google - 108/108/108/123/194, Yahoo - 126/130/133/172/244, Altavista - 150/154/158/198/314, Alltheweb - 149/154/157/197/313
Traffic: Google Analytics - 11/14/14/20/8

Gamer Junkie - http://www.gamer-junkie.com
Inlinks: Google - 0/0/0/0/0, Yahoo - 0/5/12/40/288, Altavista - 0/5/14/53/305, Alltheweb - 0/5/14/53/305
Traffic: Google Analytics - 0/47/44/32/17

Gamer Junkie Forums - http://forums.gamer-junkie.com
Inlinks: Google - 0/0/0/0/84, Yahoo - 0/6/13/40/133, Altavista - 0/6/15/52/143, Alltheweb - 0/6/15/52/143
Traffic: Google Analytics - 0/error/error/13/11
Threads - 0/8/17/27/57, Posts - 0/10/33/70/169, Members - 0/5/10/14/21

Remember, don’t lose hope!  The most important thing now is to stay consistent in your efforts because it shows the search engines that you’re commited and it keeps your site’s growth steady (which the search engines prefer).  Stay Tuned!

Joe Kudla, left, as Snot, and Mark Sieve, right, as Puke are characters at the Renaissance Festival. Woman in the middle is unidentified. Photo provided by CIC Productions.

Kudla died Monday of an apparent heart attack at his northeast Minneapolis home. “Puke and Snot” have entertained hundreds of thousands of spectators at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival for 34 years with their feisty, vaudeville style street theater. He and Mark Sieve came up with the “Puke and Snot” shtick in the ’70s

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