No Spec Work - Rewarding Creativity Properly

If you own a blog and do not update its content frequently, you may end up losing your sites rank through search engines. Not only that, you will lose visitors who come there specifically to get new information. Now, believing that your websites performance is important to you, you need to correct this issue and do so before it causes you to lose these valuable assets.

First of all, have a blog that is not rich in new content causes search engines to skip over it or not read it since the content is the same. You want search engine spiders to crawl your page and grab that new information and place it in its log so that visitors searching for your product, site, or information can find it. The search engines realize that your site has changed when a certain number of bytes have changed. Let’s say a few hundred words or so. If it is different, it will trigger the search engine to come back again and again because there is something new there. There are many reasons you want a search engine spider to crawl your webpages. For one, each time it does it will go through more pages of your website. Also, your customers want new information to read, not the same old thing.

One way to prevent this lack of content is by using RSS or Real Simple Syndication. What is that? It is a program that will automatically update information as it becomes available from another site. Doing this will eliminate having to update your blog manually. This can save money and help prevent writer’s block! The main point is that you need to update and freshen your blog content in order to attract search engine spiders and keep your customers coming back for more.

Keith Mallinson is author of the article exchange newsletter, offering
subscribers up to date information on all aspects of article submissions and use
of free articles for search engine
optimization. http://www.article-exchange.com

(Continued from Blogging Your Way To Success Part 2)

You have already set up a blog. You have at least 20 pages of content. All of a sudden, you have a real website. You are in the game of Internet Business! The next thing to do is get yourself an account with AdSense.

AdSense

=======

You can get your account at www.google.com/adsense.

AdSense, in general, pays you for every click on its Ads. Isn’t that a good source of income? You bet it is!

Now, this does not mean you can simply click on the ads severable times to be paid (or even ask your friends for that matter) because the ones who are going to suffer are the people who subscribed to AdWords. They are paying for every click to their website through this program (that is where your money comes from). As you can see, this is a very unethical act. The ones who should be clicking on them are your visitors and not you! Can you imagine if you have subscribed to AdWords and people on the Internet do this to you?

Let’s go back to the original topic before I get carried away. Now, not just anyone can get an account with AdSense to start earning money. However, since you have a blog with over 20 pages of content and a focused topic, it would not be long until you will be accepted. There are sources that indicate one needs to have at least 20 pages of content, together with fulfilled criteria such as page design and topic relevance, before being accepted by Google.

We are going to assume that you got your AdSense account by now (which I am sure you will as long as you have been following the series faithfully up until now), so as soon as you have been accepted, log into your account, tinker with your settings, and finally - you copy and paste the AdSense code into your blog template.

Now, you have a source of income! Congratulations!

Submitting Your Links And Feed

============================

Up until now, no one has been to your blog yet. So, start establishing link exchanges at this point. You will want to do this with web sites with page ranks 4 or higher. The best places to start with are:

http://www.blogarama.com/

http://www.bloguniverse.com/

http://www.blogsearchengine.com/

http://www.popdex.com/

http://www.link2blogs.com/

You can also personally visit other people’s blogs and ask for a link exchange. Just be sure that their blog shares the same topic of interest as yours.

We will wrap this whole thing up in the next part of the series.

(To be continued in Blogging Your Way To Success Part 4)

Copyright © Edmund Loh

About the Author:
Edmund Loh is the author of the E-Biz Wiz Blog and Starting An Internet Business Special Report. Visit E-Biz Wiz Blog for proven ideas, tips and information on starting your own Internet Business and subscribe to the 12 Day Internet Marketing Success Course. http://ebizmodelsyoucancopy.blogspot.com

What is a blog? Have you, like so many others, heard this word and have no idea what it means? You aren’t alone, but you should know that blogs are a huge part of the internet and it’s marketing. A blog is perhaps best defined as a daily journal, which is posted on the internet. It’s purpose is to gain attention and garner the interest of website visitors. By grabbing visitor’s attention, you keep them wanting to come back for more information.

If you are just starting a new business, are a veteran business owner or have something exciting happening within your company, blog your news online. If you have a website, include a link on your homepage directing visitors to your new daily blog. Post something new every day - just as you would in a diary or journal. If nothing is going on, post something silly. If your business is slow, explain what you are doing to change that. Add some humor if at all possible. The trick is to get your readers attention and make them want to come back tomorrow and the next day and the next. Well, you get the picture.

If you don’t have a website, there are blog services online that let you post your daily antics. Remember, this is a terrific marketing tool. A recent article was featured about an author who blogged his way to bestseller status. Having no idea the popularity he was garnering, he began a daily posting of his progress on the book. By the time it was published, thousands of readers were anxiously awaiting the release. A success by any standards, this author became a bestseller and many believe that his blog helped push him to success. Another individual, who is currently in college, claims to have reached millionaire status through his website and updated the progress regularly on his blog.

If you aren’t a writer, but still want to explore the avenue of blogging your business to the world, hire a freelancer to write for you. Work with them closely to ensure that the content is what you desire and you will soon have professionally written content available on a regular basis. If you do hire a writer, make sure that he/she is available on a regular basis. Your blog won’t work if you do not update regularly. While daily updates are best, several new entries each week will also work nicely.

Mark Kenny is an eBay expert who specialises in launching eBay related online businesses. You can see his selection of Turnkey websites at: http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com or read his blog via http://www.Trading-Web-Solutions.com/blog.

For years the most noticeable public role for Peter Sutherland as chairman of BP PLC was to play host at the company’s yearly meeting. But after a run of oil spills, deadly accidents and an energy-trading scandal at BP, the 60-year-old former rugby player has rushed into the scrum.

Last year, the Irish politician and prominent banker forced Chief Executive John Browne to publicly identify his retirement date. After Lord Browne’s unanticipated decision last month to depart a year and a half earlier than planned, Mr. Sutherland must now buff BP’s image and manage the company’s first executive-suite transition in more than a decade.

Despite a persistent rise in oil prices its shares rose only 4.5 per cent in 2006, in comparison with a 36 per cent increase by Exxon Mobil Corp. and 15 per cent at Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Yesterday, the company reported fourth-quarter net income decreased by 22 per cent, in part this can be seen as indicative of lower natural-gas prices and lower production.

BP, meanwhile, faces U.S. criminal probes on multiple fronts — corrosion and oil spills in Alaska; a March 2005 refinery blast that killed 15 in Texas; as well as its energy-trading practices, with federal officials alleging BP traders surreptitiously influenced propane markets in 2004. BP refutes this claim and says it is cooperating with investigators on all three inquiries.

Mr. Sutherland’s prominent public standing also underscores a trend that goes beyond BP: a transition in the boardroom dynamics at many of Europe’s biggest publicly traded companies. Nonexecutive directors here have in the past been criticized for leaving too much decision-making in the hands of powerful executives. In recent times, many firms are moving to shore up their boards with strong and independent directors.

Until an accounting scandal rocked Shell in 2004, Shell’s British holding company had as its chairman a professor of geology. After the controversy, it got in Jorma Ollila, former chief executive officer of Nokia Corp as chairman. Unilever also appointed an external chairman last month to cap a restructuring at the Anglo-Dutch consumer-goods giant.

The goal of Mr. Sutherland at BP from the beginning has always been to establish a “robust” and independent board structure he remarked in a recent interview. After stints as Ireland’s attorney general and Europe’s competition czar, Peter Sutherland in 1993 was instrumental in taking forward the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in Geneva. There, he clinched the Uruguay Round, a pivotal trade agreement that set the stage for today’s World Trade Organization. For a man who has achieved so much it is difficult to forsee where he will find his next challenge.

Blogs are becoming more and more popular.
The word “blog” is short for web log.
And blogs are a great way of getting links
in to your website.

For instance, if you have a website about Internet marketing,
you could search Google for “Internet Marketing Blogs”

In the listing that comes up I’m sure that you’ll find some
blogs that you can post a comment to.
There are blogs that have page rank of 5 or even 7.
So a link from one of these blogs could mean a lot when it
comes to search engine rankings.

Find one blog that are relevant to your site,
and post a comment that make sense to the original
posting on the blog.
Make sure that you link back to your site with the keywords
that you are targeting.

That way your comment won’t get deleted,and you have a link
from a high page rank site.

You should also consider to start your own blog.
Blogs seem to get spidered a lot faster than a normal website.
And it’s easier to get good search engine rankings for the keywords that you are targeting.

I use the blog solution from Google.
It is easy to use and gets you started fast.
It can be hosted on the Blogger server or on your own website.
Sign up and start your blog at: www.blogger.com

You can use the blog like a journal and add posts
about your daily updates to your website.
Your blog should have the same theme as your website.
That way you are targeting the visitors to your blog and can
direct them to your website by linking back to your homepage
in each posting.

Fresh content gets your blog spidered often.
So try to add a couple of post each week.
That way your blog will soon become a content site.
It will contain a lot of keywords that could bring you targeted traffic from the search engines.
There are also a lot of blog directories where you can add
your blog for free.
One good example is http://www.blogarama.com/

My blog is ranked higher than my website,
even though I have hundreds of back links to my site,
where I use my targeted keywords in the linking text.
That only shows how powerful a blog can become
for your business.

Torgeir Sunnarvik, Norway
mailto:webmaster@everypleasures.com

Torgeir Sunnarvik is the owner and webmaster of
http://www.everypleasures.com/. His site offers free ebooks,
ebooks with reprint rights and review of business ebooks.
One of his blogs http://www.norway-tour.com/

Everyone doing business with the public today should have a website, and that goes double for non-profits. Like commercial businesses, non-profit organizations rely on public interest and their ability to meet the public’s needs in order to survive.

If you’re creating a web presence for your organization, or revamping an existing one, consider using a blogging platform as the foundation for your site. A blog platform is essentially a user-friendly content management system that allows you to create anything a regular static site has, but is far simpler, easier and cheaper than just about any other system.

Here are a few more reasons you should be thinking “blog” when considering your web options:

Blogs Are Sticky

One of the primary metrics of effectiveness of a website is what is referred to as “stickiness” - a sticky site is one that attracts constant traffic and holds onto that traffic once it arrives. Good design and intuitive navigation are helpful, but real stickiness requires compelling, targeted content.

Marketing studies show that it often takes 5-7 exposures to any marketing message before someone says yes and buys your product or service - and fundraising, event announcements and requests for volunteers are just as much marketing messages as commercial sales copy is. But if all you have to offer is a static site with infrequently updated information, what incentive does your wandering visitor have to come back to be exposed to your message enough times to get them to act?

None, that’s what.

However, by its very nature, a well-maintained blog continually updated with valuable content invites people to return regularly to keep up to date. It engenders a sense of community between the host and the extended readership while creating the sort of emotional buy-in that increases responses to any calls-to-action that may arise. And features like RSS subscription and email notification let your readers know when new information is available without leaving their desktops, motivating them return to read more.

Search Engines Love Content - Especially When It Changes

Since blogs contain far more, and more frequently updated, content than static sites, and are therefore more frequently scanned by search engines, having a content-rich and frequently updated blog translates into far better search engine ratings and greater site visibility than a static site. And a blog’s ease of editing allows for keyword changes to be implemented at a moment’s notice across the entire site, further boosting the chance of your site coming up in a relevant search.

Another advantage blogs have over static sites is that not only can you link to other related sites of interest, but other sites are much more likely to link to you, assuming you provide valuable and interesting content for them to link to. Link-backs from well-placed, relevant sites are search engine gold. Simply put, the more interesting your blog is, the more it will be linked to and the more it is linked to, the better your chances of making it to the top of a search results page.

It’s So Simple, Your Child Could Do It (And Probably Already Is)

In the realm of non-profit organizations, few except the most successful can afford a full-time IT specialist with the sort of training it takes to design, build and maintain a regular static site. With its familiar input interface and ease of use, a blog is the ideal web platform when creation and ongoing maintenance of the site will likely be attended to by a string of motivated, but untrained, volunteers or staff members.

With a blog-based site, much of the work is done for you by the platform itself. If need be, the initial set-up and design can be done by a professional, but many platforms are so easy to set up that even the terminally clueless can do it. And even if you do opt for a professional set-up, once that infrastructure is in place, updating the site couldn’t be easier and is well within the abilities of a basic computer user. More advanced tasks may require more specialized skills. But even these are easier to do on a blog than on a standard static site, and help is often available on the web.

As you can see, a blog platform is a great way to attract visitors to your site, engage them at an emotional level and keep them coming back for more. And to top it all off, blog platforms are easy to use and very cheap, sometimes even free - and that’s always good news to who’d rather be spending their time and money doing good than running the shop.

Soni Pitts is a professional freelance writer and copyeditor. In addition to her freelance work, she collaborates with other writers on such projects as Wordbrains and the upcoming Web Content Awareness Day event. Need copy? Email Soni at writer [at] sonipitts.com for more information.

Fresh detailed Global Positioning System readings acquired on the 15-16th September have shown that Mont Blanc numbers 4810.2 meters. Mont-Blanc is veiled by a dense ice cap which has got bigger by 2.8 m in just two years moreover more unexpectedly the amount of the ice has virtually doubled up . At least that is according to the experts.

The amount of snow and ice was computed for the initial time in 2000. It measured 14200 metres cubed higher than 4790 m. It amounted to scarcely 13500 meters cubed in 2002 perchance due to the high temperatures with + temperature as high as 4850 meters elevation. Still the icecap has all but doubled up since then and today amounts to 24000 metres cubed.

Chamonix Mont Blanc’s renowned near by weather man Jacqueline Lewis said the increment in the bulk of the ice-cap is one of the contrary outcomes of climate change: The amount of snow hasn’t expanded generally in the French Alps simply with the climate change we’re having more hot prevailing westerly winds which bring rain at lower altitudes however during summer this means heavy snowfall that rests higher up than 3600 meters height thus the amount of the ice cap is growing. Counterpoint that to the situation in winter when snow crystals are very cold and are transferred by wind so they don’t rest on the top.

When you are just about to start to play cricket it is not always easy to choose what you should acquire. If you go into a sportswear equipment shop and ask them what you need, you will most likely end up coming out with a great quantity of equipment. So, it is sensible to understand what you require previous to you going shopping. That way you are more likely to obtain what you need, rather than what the store owner thinks you need.

Below, is more or less a comprehensive cricket equipment list, you don’t have to get everything on this list, as many organisations will provide you equipment in particular at youth level:

Cricket whites, cricket bats, balls, helmets, gloves, batting (wicket keeping) inner gloves, wicket keeping gloves, batting pads, wicket keeping pads, box, chest pad, arm guard, inner thigh pad, cricket boots (bowling boots; batting boots), box (groin guard), stumps and bails. Get cricket equipment uk at Sportswear-Equipment.com.

For most of the cricket meetings you partake in you will require your own set of whites. Cricket whites consist of white cricket trousers & a cricket shirt. It is important to ensure that you get hold of a high-quality set of cricket trousers as well as a nice white cricket shirt & jumper as it can quickly turn pretty cold if you are standing out on the pitch for a considerably long time especially if you are playing in England (the start and end of the season are the coldest).

If you can not hire kit from your club the other most crucial items of equipment are a cricket bat & box. A descent cricket bat is crucial if you intend to score tons of runs and is a very individual piece of cricket equipment, spend a few hours selecting your bat, ideally you ought to go to a sports shop & try one out before you buy so you know how it feels to play with. As soon as you know what you want you can often purchase bats on the Internet a great deal cheaper). You need a good box to guard your groin from the ball, as getting hit down below’ is considerably painful, so investing in a good box before you start is a defiant must - you can’t bat without one.

Related topics of interest include: F1 Merchandise & Cheap Toys.

With more companies adopting blogs, we’re starting to see what works and what doesn’t work from a design perspective. As a cue from Jakob Nielsen’s article on the topic, here are thing problems I often find.

Bad headlines. They’re frustrating. Some bloggers like to get creative… but creativity can affect search engine keyword opportunities. The important thing is that readers have a hint of what the post is about.

Links. Readers like to know where links take them and most of us rely on the status bar, but sometimes that doesn’t help. Some experts say to use “click here” to help those who are newer to the Web and others say that’s wrong, wrong, wrong. It just depends on the content. When linking, try to pick the best words that give readers an idea of what to expect.

Calendars as the only way to navigate a blog and impossible to find archives or older entries are big problems. I almost always resort to search when I want to find postings no longer on the home page. Unfortunately, some blogs don’t have search. That’s why I put “archive” links in my sidebar in both meryl’s notes and meryl’s notes features. As my site goes through redesign, I’m making sure the archives are accessible especially in the features section. I found some old entries from 2001 that are still relevant today.

Bloggers must be regular. No bathroom jokes here, please. When a blog looks abandoned for a month… your audience is gone. They’ll take you off their feed reader and blogroll. If you plan not to do it again or take a long sabbatical… prepare to start over again when you return.

Keep the boss in mind even if your the head honcho. Always blog with a boss in mind. Will your boss (current and future) be offended by your posting? Not only do people get fired for their blogs, but also they could cost job offers. It wouldn’t surprise me if managers are Googling applicants while going through the interview process.

Junky URLs. Nielsen says having a typepad.com or blogspot.com equates to having a yahoo.com or aol.com email address. Some of the bigwigs use Blogspot or Typepad URLs. Guess what? I never remember their URLs. I have to rely on Google. So this makes sense, BUT I wouldn’t call it unprofessional.

Business blogging has many benefits and problems. Companies tread carefully when entering this new world. It’s wise to have policies on the approval process and what can and can’t be said. Like anything else in a business, blogs need to be evaluated to determine whether or not they fit the business’ model.

Meryl K. Evans (www.meryl.net),
Content Maven, is the editor of eNewsletter Journal and Shavlik’s The
Remediator Security Digest. She writes columns for PC Today, InformIT,
and MarketingProfs. Contact her to get content that inspires action or
check out her blog (www.meryl.net/blog/.

Email, Instant Messaging, Blogs, RSS, Forums and Listservs: What’s Next?

How do we keep Internet communication simple? Let’s start by taking a look at the different methods used to communicate on the web. It is important to understand the nuances and benefits of the different forms.

Email

This is the most popular communication method. Users typically use desktop software to receive, read and respond to messages. Some users use web-based mail and manage messages in a web browser like Internet Explorer. The downfall to email communication is that anyone can send email messages to anyone else if they have (or guess) the correct email address. This system’s Achilles heel is its simplicity and universal popularity.

Email accounts are often burdened by spam or unsolicited email. Despite software developers having created complex spam filters and legislators having introduced new anti-spam legislation, the problem persists and spam continues to burden email as a messaging medium.

Email Clients -
http://www.messaging-software.net/e-mail-client-software.htm
Spam Software - http://www.email-software.org/spam-filter-software.htm

Instant Messaging
Instant messaging allows users to “chat” in real time. Users can send text messages to anyone online and receive instant replies if the user is also online. The “instant” fad gave way to parental fears as children made “friends” online. With no way to confirm if “friends” are who they represent themselves to be, and multiple security holes, instant messaging has taken a back seat in internet communication.

Instant Messaging - http://www.instant-messaging-software.com

Blogs
Online journals and daily diaries have taken hold. Some blogs are interactive, allowing users to respond and comment on posts. Locating topic-specific blogs that provide relevant and interesting content on a daily basis can be a challenge. The nature of a blog is to contain fresh public content. As our lives become more complicated blogs are often abandoned, as they require constant updating.

Blog Connections - http://www.blog-connection.com

RSS
RSS is the latest messaging medium and shows genuine promise as a means to communicate. RSS files are produced as XML files and are designed to provide content summaries of news or information. The biggest benefit to RSS is that it does not have the spam issues inherent to email; users opt-in to the RSS feeds that interest them.

RSS Specifications - http://www.rss-specifications.com

Forums / Newsgroups
A forum is an online discussion group. Forums can be newsgroups, or they can be web-based discussion groups. Forums have proven themselves as valuable business resources - often creating communities of customers helping customers. Without moderation and oversight they can potentially create an unfriendly environment.

Message Board Software - http://www.messaging-software.net/message-board-software.htm

Listservs
Liststervs are mailing list programs for communicating with other people who have subscribed to the same list. Using e-mail, you can participate in listservs pertaining to your topics of interest. When you submit a message to the server, your message is relayed to all on the listserv. You receive messages from other participants via e-mail.

Yahoo Groups - http://www.yahoogroups.com

What’s Next?
Internet communication is intrinsically tied to the hardware options available. Wireless technology has accelerated the development of messaging software, opening the market to a dizzying array of devices for web access. Where we were once tied to a keyboard and mouse, we will soon be navigating the web with our voices from a moving automobile, or browsing via screens in our eyewear, with tiny cameras reading our eye movements to move the cursor and make selections. Our interactive conversations will include more and more participants at once. Evaluating the many options and choosing what works best for you is the first step to effectively communicating on the web.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be found at http://www.feedforall.com , http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and http://www.small-business-software.net