Occasionally one of my blogs will be bombarded by comments and trackbacks from someone looking for free linkbacks. They will make posts that have no relationship at all to the subject matter of the blog, and often they are quotations or pearls of wisdom like
"Life goes on no matter what we do or say."
Messages like this indicate that your typical spammer is not only being deceptive, but is also pretty stupid to boot. Anybody with half a brain would realize that you could create a generic "comment" that would sound relevant to almost any blog post, and would not be immediately rejected by the blogmaster. For example...
"Good point. This is a very interesting topic and I hope you write more about it in the future."
or
"I really found your post interesting. I'll watch for more in the future."
or even
"Thanks for the insight. Homer Simpson made a similar point in the famous ice cream cone episode."
But no. Spammers start out with a mental deficit, and it is unlikely that they will actually do something that makes sense. Invariably blog spam comments are planted by poker, gambling, or porn sites. And also invariably they are new sites with no history, traffic, Alexa rating, or PR. Somebody has told these webmasters (I use the term lightly) that there is traffic and ranking to be gained by spamming blogs with meaningless comments, and so they dutifully spam blogs.
It is pretty amazing to me that people actually do this. They must not be aware that most, if not all, blogging software comes with anti-spam features that allow you to filter out posts and comments like these. As soon as they are entered, an email message is sent to the blogmaster and the comment or backtrack is dealt with. Any serious blogger will watch his or her comments carefully. And there is no point in having comments in non-serious blogs. So it is a pointless exercise.
What's worse for the offending parties is that they get put on a blacklist that gets referenced by all the major blogging sites, and to which most bloggers will be connected by default. So now "http://genaholincorporated.com", a poker site which has been spamming a few of my blogs over the last couple of days, is blacklisted and on the master list of banned keywords. It is right there along with all the standard XXX, penis enlargement and "cheap drugs" keywords. Nice company to be in...
This is really no different from other types of spam such as mass email, FFA link/classified ad sites, traffic exchanges or "I'll give you 10,000 hits for $10". They are all attempts to get something for nothing. They are all examples of how playing a "numbers game" can sound good in theory, but be completely pointless in reality.
Why don't these people spend their time doing something more useful? I guess that would be too much to ask.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Justice for the World is Aim of Website
Millions of people are subject to various forms of suppression and torture each day and it is vital that the truth about innocent people being persecuted and various forms of violations of human rights all over the world is told and recognized and that it shall be discussed.
Justice FTW International, also called Justice For The World, is an independent, artistic, nonprofit human rights organization founded in The Netherlands on March 2, 2004 whose mission it is to protect human rights and help reestablish justice and morality in the world. Justice FTW uses nonviolent ways exclusively to draw attention to the severe and constant violations of human rights throughout the world.
The primary aim of Justice FTW is to get the truth out into the open and to raise awareness and morality.
Justice FTW features extensive articles and commentary on a broad range of issues including:
- Child Traffic throughout the world
- Anti-Semitism
- Forced Abortions
- Female Genital Mutilation
- Persecution of Falun Gong in China
- Widespread human rights violations in China
- many more justice and human rights issues
Justicefortheworld.org uses music, photography and other types of artistic expression to give artists a vehicle for speaking out against world injustice. If you are a writer, musician or artist or an individual with talent and want to contribute your talent, you can do so by sending a demo (tape, dvd or cd), script, essay, drawing, painting or photograph.
Send demos, or request more information from:
JusticeForTheWorld.org
PO Box 2118,2800 BG Gouda
The Netherlands
Or contact
Europe:
Edwin van Boxel: 031-652408418 on Central European Time
US Media:
Roger Koumans: 626 399 9509 on Pacific Standard Time
Justice FTW International, also called Justice For The World, is an independent, artistic, nonprofit human rights organization founded in The Netherlands on March 2, 2004 whose mission it is to protect human rights and help reestablish justice and morality in the world. Justice FTW uses nonviolent ways exclusively to draw attention to the severe and constant violations of human rights throughout the world.
The primary aim of Justice FTW is to get the truth out into the open and to raise awareness and morality.
Justice FTW features extensive articles and commentary on a broad range of issues including:
- Child Traffic throughout the world
- Anti-Semitism
- Forced Abortions
- Female Genital Mutilation
- Persecution of Falun Gong in China
- Widespread human rights violations in China
- many more justice and human rights issues
Justicefortheworld.org uses music, photography and other types of artistic expression to give artists a vehicle for speaking out against world injustice. If you are a writer, musician or artist or an individual with talent and want to contribute your talent, you can do so by sending a demo (tape, dvd or cd), script, essay, drawing, painting or photograph.
Send demos, or request more information from:
JusticeForTheWorld.org
PO Box 2118,2800 BG Gouda
The Netherlands
Or contact
Europe:
Edwin van Boxel: 031-652408418 on Central European Time
US Media:
Roger Koumans: 626 399 9509 on Pacific Standard Time
Get Your Own Product Page on 30 Sites
Here is another advertising and link generating opportunity from Linknet. I have developed a series of "product pages" and placed them on 35 sites.* You can have one of these product pages all to yourself for just $49/year. That means you get a unique page of your own that is dedicated to your product or site, and has no outbound links (other than navigation).
For a limited time I will even throw in a listing in Business Webs - a feed that runs on 25 high visibility pages. These ads generate traffic direct to your site, and they give you another 25 or so links. Your listing is guaranteed to be live for at least a month.
For more information, and to see a sample of the product pages go to Linknet Product Pages.
*The number of sites should be up to about 50 within two weeks. I am expanding the Real Estate and Health Products sections of Linknet.
For a limited time I will even throw in a listing in Business Webs - a feed that runs on 25 high visibility pages. These ads generate traffic direct to your site, and they give you another 25 or so links. Your listing is guaranteed to be live for at least a month.
For more information, and to see a sample of the product pages go to Linknet Product Pages.
*The number of sites should be up to about 50 within two weeks. I am expanding the Real Estate and Health Products sections of Linknet.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Finding Good Link Exchange Software
As part of the Linknet Services I offer, one of my objectives is to get the PR, traffic, and SE ranking of all my Linknet websites as high as possible. As you can tell from the subject matter of this blog, I consider getting inbound links an important part of my traffic and rank building strategy.
As I have outlined in various places, I try to pursue a "three tier linking strategy", with the first tier being Reciprocal Link Exchange. I consider reciprocal links of only marginal value, but as I have said in other places, exchanging links with other webmasters has other side benefits that are hard to quantify.
The bottom line is that it would be foolish not to develop an intelligent and efficient link exchange system for any site you want to enhance. Having said that, the important question is "What system?".
On some of my sites I have a manual entry system. Someone requests an exchange and I just enter it into the appropriate page. On several others I have been using LinkMachine. This software has some good points, but the biggest problem with LinkMachine is that the developer is completely uncommunicative. This is not unusual for software developers. But in this case I had some very specific questions about using the software on multiple sites.
In at least three emails I asked the developer to clarify his very unclear policy on this matter, and his response was complete silence. Now, six months later, after setting up numerous installations on the assumption that a reasonable licensing arrangement would be forthcoming, many of my installations have been shut down because I do not have sufficient licensing to go around. No notice. No email telling me what is going on. Just a page telling me I can't continue using the software until I license it properly. I have no idea if I have been properly credited for the licenses I have already purchased. Somehow I doubt it.
This is particularly aggravating considering the basic program is now being given away FREE, and the free version contains all the features I want. So because the developer has changed his licensing policy I assume I will have to uninstall the paid version and reinstall the free one, risking the loss of my previously constructed directories. Is there a way to just downgrade my current installations? I don't know, and I'm not interested in waiting another six months for a reply from the developer.
There are other problems with LinkMachine too. The biggest one is that it is too slow. Saving time is one of the advantages of an automated system over a manual one. But I often think my manual systems are quicker than the automated ones. Another problem is that LinkMachine installations seem to be fairly tightly integrated with the developer's own site -- at least for licensing and updating. This means you are at his mercy. Given the history of independent software developers, this is not terribly reassuring.
Is Link Management Assistant too good to be true?
I had put this entire issue on hold for a week or so, but since the link exchange requests continue to pour in and I cannot access many of my old directories using Linkmachine, I thought I'd better look for alternatives.
It did not take long to latch onto Link Management Assistant created by Duncan Carver of OnlineMarketingToday.com. Wow! A developer who actually has a name!
After a couple of installations I think I like this program. It is very straightforward and seems to be pretty fast. A word of warning though: you will need access to a MySQL database, and you may find the installation procedure a bit mysterious. It comes with a number of simple templates which are fairly easy to modify to give you a site directory that integrates nicely with your own site's look and feel. The two installations I have up and running are here:
Tradeshow-Display-Experts.com
CanadaDisplayGraphics.com
Neither of these are finalized yet, but they will give you an idea of two completely different looks. You can also go ahead and enter your site's URL, to get an idea of how it works.
Another feature of Link Management Assistant is its ability to import whole categories of sites from DMOZ. Say you want to develop a directory of "Business Opportunity" sites. According to the documentation you should be able to import the entire relevant category structure (along with all the links of course) from DMOZ. Not only does this give you a valuable directory of potential interest to your website visitors, but it gives you a fruitful base of potential link exchange partners. The program also contains instructions for exporting the link information and emailing potential partners with a request for a reciprocal link.
Best of all, this interesting little program is FREE
As I have outlined in various places, I try to pursue a "three tier linking strategy", with the first tier being Reciprocal Link Exchange. I consider reciprocal links of only marginal value, but as I have said in other places, exchanging links with other webmasters has other side benefits that are hard to quantify.
The bottom line is that it would be foolish not to develop an intelligent and efficient link exchange system for any site you want to enhance. Having said that, the important question is "What system?".
On some of my sites I have a manual entry system. Someone requests an exchange and I just enter it into the appropriate page. On several others I have been using LinkMachine. This software has some good points, but the biggest problem with LinkMachine is that the developer is completely uncommunicative. This is not unusual for software developers. But in this case I had some very specific questions about using the software on multiple sites.
In at least three emails I asked the developer to clarify his very unclear policy on this matter, and his response was complete silence. Now, six months later, after setting up numerous installations on the assumption that a reasonable licensing arrangement would be forthcoming, many of my installations have been shut down because I do not have sufficient licensing to go around. No notice. No email telling me what is going on. Just a page telling me I can't continue using the software until I license it properly. I have no idea if I have been properly credited for the licenses I have already purchased. Somehow I doubt it.
This is particularly aggravating considering the basic program is now being given away FREE, and the free version contains all the features I want. So because the developer has changed his licensing policy I assume I will have to uninstall the paid version and reinstall the free one, risking the loss of my previously constructed directories. Is there a way to just downgrade my current installations? I don't know, and I'm not interested in waiting another six months for a reply from the developer.
There are other problems with LinkMachine too. The biggest one is that it is too slow. Saving time is one of the advantages of an automated system over a manual one. But I often think my manual systems are quicker than the automated ones. Another problem is that LinkMachine installations seem to be fairly tightly integrated with the developer's own site -- at least for licensing and updating. This means you are at his mercy. Given the history of independent software developers, this is not terribly reassuring.
Is Link Management Assistant too good to be true?
I had put this entire issue on hold for a week or so, but since the link exchange requests continue to pour in and I cannot access many of my old directories using Linkmachine, I thought I'd better look for alternatives.
It did not take long to latch onto Link Management Assistant created by Duncan Carver of OnlineMarketingToday.com. Wow! A developer who actually has a name!
After a couple of installations I think I like this program. It is very straightforward and seems to be pretty fast. A word of warning though: you will need access to a MySQL database, and you may find the installation procedure a bit mysterious. It comes with a number of simple templates which are fairly easy to modify to give you a site directory that integrates nicely with your own site's look and feel. The two installations I have up and running are here:
Tradeshow-Display-Experts.com
CanadaDisplayGraphics.com
Neither of these are finalized yet, but they will give you an idea of two completely different looks. You can also go ahead and enter your site's URL, to get an idea of how it works.
Another feature of Link Management Assistant is its ability to import whole categories of sites from DMOZ. Say you want to develop a directory of "Business Opportunity" sites. According to the documentation you should be able to import the entire relevant category structure (along with all the links of course) from DMOZ. Not only does this give you a valuable directory of potential interest to your website visitors, but it gives you a fruitful base of potential link exchange partners. The program also contains instructions for exporting the link information and emailing potential partners with a request for a reciprocal link.
Best of all, this interesting little program is FREE
Monday, February 28, 2005
This Site is New Breed of Online Betting Sites
Before I was introduced to Betfit.com I was unaware that such a thing as a "betting exchange" even existed.
Betfit's customers are not limited to the fixed and discretionary odds of the traditional bookmakers. Instead, you can place bets with your own odds or you can accept bets placed by other customers at the most favorable odds offered. Moreover, you can act as a bookmaker laying bets that other customers wish to back.
For more information, see the more extensive write up at Review-of-the-week.com.
Betfit's customers are not limited to the fixed and discretionary odds of the traditional bookmakers. Instead, you can place bets with your own odds or you can accept bets placed by other customers at the most favorable odds offered. Moreover, you can act as a bookmaker laying bets that other customers wish to back.
For more information, see the more extensive write up at Review-of-the-week.com.
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Your Website Featured on 25 sites
Advertisement - Linknet Links and Web Advertising
For one small price - $24.99 - you can have a short promo for your website placed in our feature blog called Business Webs. This blog is then syndicated across all 25 of our Linknet sites on high visibility pages.
These posts include a live link pointing back to your website, and we guarantee that link will remain in place for at least a month. We also throw in another link from each of our sites from one of our "Priority Partner Pages".
That gives you 25 permanent inbound links to your site along with the promo for your site running on 25 different sites.
For more information go to Linknet Products.
For one small price - $24.99 - you can have a short promo for your website placed in our feature blog called Business Webs. This blog is then syndicated across all 25 of our Linknet sites on high visibility pages.
These posts include a live link pointing back to your website, and we guarantee that link will remain in place for at least a month. We also throw in another link from each of our sites from one of our "Priority Partner Pages".
That gives you 25 permanent inbound links to your site along with the promo for your site running on 25 different sites.
For more information go to Linknet Products.
Friday, February 25, 2005
SEO Toolkit definitely worth getting
Here is the best free SEO Toolkit I have found. The 21 part "kit" includes sections on how to build web pages, how to create your titles, metatags, etc., how to get indexed by Google, and much more.
It is available online, as an ebook, and as a CD. Here is the link:
RLRouse SEO Toolkit.
It is available online, as an ebook, and as a CD. Here is the link:
RLRouse SEO Toolkit.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Publishing and Organizing Articles with Blogging Software
After many months of messing around with different methods of publishing and organizing articles on my various sites, I have decided (as of last night) to go whole hog and just use blogging software for my articles.
The biggest reason is that blogs will automatically create an RSS feed. Once you get hooked on this RSS thing it is hard to think in any other terms. RSS is absolutely the easiest way to make your articles available to other sites. And blogging software is the easiest way to do RSS -- at least as far as I've found.
After checking out and experimenting with different blogging programs I decided to stick with the one I am already using on two sites -- b2Evolution. The biggest reason is that b2e lets you create a number of different blogs within one shell. And each of these different blogs can have its own RSS feed.
What this means is that I can view each different blog within a specific installation of b2e as a "super category" which can have its own feed. So, for instance, at Small-Business-Online.com I have created what I call The Linknet Marketing Resource Library which will have five or six different categories of articles. Each category will be its own blog, and each will have its own feed. So there can be a category (and feed) for "Marketing Articles", "Linking Articles", "Affiliate Marketing Articles", "Blogs and Feeds Articles", "Search Engine Optimization Articles", etc., etc. Once these feeds are set up, I (or anybody else) can post one or more of these feeds on any number of other sites.
In other words, I can post the feed for "Web Design Articles", or "Web Tools", or "Search Engine Optimization" on my web design site. The same goes for all the other feeds. This will make it possible to "segment" the feeds so potential users can pick and choose.
What really got me going in this direction was my use of RSS feeds to fill out a couple of sections throughout my Linknet pages. For example, my News Section consists of feeds from major news media around the world, along with a few of the more interesting current affairs blogs I've stumbled on. And my Online Betting Section consists of sports lines from various betting services around the world -- everything from horse racing to boxing to Nascar and tons of soccer and basketball (but no NHL hockey!).
I am gradually doing the same with many of the other categories -- Real Estate, Mortgages, Insurance, Small Business, Personal Health, Golf, etc. -- finding interesting content from blogs and websites dealing with the kind of subject matter I am after, and then picking up their RSS feeds to fill out my pages.
Now I will be able to do the same thing with my own collections of articles.
The biggest reason is that blogs will automatically create an RSS feed. Once you get hooked on this RSS thing it is hard to think in any other terms. RSS is absolutely the easiest way to make your articles available to other sites. And blogging software is the easiest way to do RSS -- at least as far as I've found.
After checking out and experimenting with different blogging programs I decided to stick with the one I am already using on two sites -- b2Evolution. The biggest reason is that b2e lets you create a number of different blogs within one shell. And each of these different blogs can have its own RSS feed.
What this means is that I can view each different blog within a specific installation of b2e as a "super category" which can have its own feed. So, for instance, at Small-Business-Online.com I have created what I call The Linknet Marketing Resource Library which will have five or six different categories of articles. Each category will be its own blog, and each will have its own feed. So there can be a category (and feed) for "Marketing Articles", "Linking Articles", "Affiliate Marketing Articles", "Blogs and Feeds Articles", "Search Engine Optimization Articles", etc., etc. Once these feeds are set up, I (or anybody else) can post one or more of these feeds on any number of other sites.
In other words, I can post the feed for "Web Design Articles", or "Web Tools", or "Search Engine Optimization" on my web design site. The same goes for all the other feeds. This will make it possible to "segment" the feeds so potential users can pick and choose.
What really got me going in this direction was my use of RSS feeds to fill out a couple of sections throughout my Linknet pages. For example, my News Section consists of feeds from major news media around the world, along with a few of the more interesting current affairs blogs I've stumbled on. And my Online Betting Section consists of sports lines from various betting services around the world -- everything from horse racing to boxing to Nascar and tons of soccer and basketball (but no NHL hockey!).
I am gradually doing the same with many of the other categories -- Real Estate, Mortgages, Insurance, Small Business, Personal Health, Golf, etc. -- finding interesting content from blogs and websites dealing with the kind of subject matter I am after, and then picking up their RSS feeds to fill out my pages.
Now I will be able to do the same thing with my own collections of articles.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
SBO.com featured in Marketing Best Practices Newsletter
Along with four marketing websites David Frey has a high circulation marketing newsletter called Marketing Best Practices Newsletter. He recently featured Small-Business-Online.com.
Thanks David.
At his four web sites David focuses on marketing products, and has a very active series of Audio Tips called Marketing Audio Minutes.
You can subscribe to his newsletter here:
Marketing Best Practices Newsletter
Thanks David.
At his four web sites David focuses on marketing products, and has a very active series of Audio Tips called Marketing Audio Minutes.
You can subscribe to his newsletter here:
Marketing Best Practices Newsletter
Saturday, February 19, 2005
On Being "Moralistic" about Self Promotion
Here is an excerpt from a more extensive post I made over at e_Marketing. In that post I comment on the tendency for practitioners of internet marketing (including but not limited to marketers, SEO practitioners, and editors of web directories) to get all "moralistic" about their jobs. We are, after all, just ad men, and while I think it is important to be honest about what we do, it is equally important (in my opinion) to be honest with ourselves about the importance of it. In short, it is not very important. Like everybody else we are just trying to make a buck.
This excerpt is from e_Marketing...
What I call the "moralistic" attitude towards self-promotion is reflected in at least two other areas of "earnest" web activity -- getting listed in directories, and chasing after SE rankings (better known as SEO). The moralistic attitude to these things is that there are correct "ethical" ways to do them, and then there are manipulative, unethical ways to do them. And since we all want to be "ethical" that means we should very strictly follow a set of accepted rules that have been laid out by some important authority figure -- like Google, or the editors of DMOZ, or the well-meaning webmasters of some particular article archive sites.
Lest I be accused of promoting unethical behaviour let me say that I agree there are right ways to do things, and wrong ways. But I would just draw the line in a different place. I would propose the important line is the one between truth and deception. In other words, as long as you're not lying or intentionally trying to mislead or deceive, then I say go ahead and self-promote.
For the full article go to Some Thoughts on Writing Articles for Promotional Impact...
I welcome your comments.
This excerpt is from e_Marketing...
What I call the "moralistic" attitude towards self-promotion is reflected in at least two other areas of "earnest" web activity -- getting listed in directories, and chasing after SE rankings (better known as SEO). The moralistic attitude to these things is that there are correct "ethical" ways to do them, and then there are manipulative, unethical ways to do them. And since we all want to be "ethical" that means we should very strictly follow a set of accepted rules that have been laid out by some important authority figure -- like Google, or the editors of DMOZ, or the well-meaning webmasters of some particular article archive sites.
Lest I be accused of promoting unethical behaviour let me say that I agree there are right ways to do things, and wrong ways. But I would just draw the line in a different place. I would propose the important line is the one between truth and deception. In other words, as long as you're not lying or intentionally trying to mislead or deceive, then I say go ahead and self-promote.
For the full article go to Some Thoughts on Writing Articles for Promotional Impact...
I welcome your comments.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Blog Promotional Tips and Tricks at Blogger
Here is an excellent article at blogger.com about tricks for promoting your blog, getting noticed, building traffic, how to structure your posts. This article is by Biz Stone who is on the blogger.com staff, so he should know what he is talking about.
There are a few other blog-help articles linked at the same address.
There are a few other blog-help articles linked at the same address.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Index of News Feeds at Linknet
A couple of days ago I received a Linknet order from a "news" related site. Since I didn't have a category for "news" sites, and since there is an abundance of material out there, I decided to create one. Of course this meant creating 50 new pages devoted to different kinds of news content.
Now where to get easily posted content? Answer: RSS News Feeds. All major news organizations (and many minor ones) have about 20 different "feeds" for things like "World News", "Entertainment News", "Politics". So I made a list of 50 and with the aid of "Carp", the software I use to integrate feeds with my sites, I had 50 unique pages. These were the fastest totally unique 50 pages I have created.
Here is an index to the News Feeds in the "News" Section at Linknet:
1. MSNBC-Newsweek
2. Washington Post - Front Page News
3. Washington Post - Middle East News
4. Washington Post - Religion Newsl
5. Washington Post - News of the Americas
6. CBC - Top Stories
7. CBC - World News
8. CBC - Health & Science
9. CBC - Sports
10. BBC - Front Page News
11. BBC - UK News
12. BBC - Politics
13. BBC - Science News
14. BBC - Entertainment News
15. Yahoo - Business News
16. Yahoo - Top Stories
17. Yahoo - World News
18. Justice for the World
19. Ziff-Davis - Windows Tech
20. Talking Point Memo
21. Guardian - Front Page News
22. Lessig Blog
23. Israel Peace Blog
24. Is That Legal Blog
25. Pendagon
26. Washington Post - Science
27. Washington Post - World News
28. Washington Post - European News
29. Washintgon Post - World Opinion Roundup
30. Washington Post - Politics
31. CBC - Canadian News
32. CBC - Business News
33. CBC - Arts News
34. CBC - Hockey News
35. BBC - World News
36. BBC - Business News
37. BBC - Health News
38. BBC - Technology News
39. BBC - Week at a Glance
40. Yahoo - September 11 and Terrorism
41. Yahoo - US News
42. Yahoo - Politics
43. Ziff-Davis - Tech News
44. Political Animal - Washington Monthly
45. Informed Consent
46. Guardian - Film News
47. Afronetizen
48. WarBlogging
49. The War in Context Blog
50. TechnoPuritanism
Now where to get easily posted content? Answer: RSS News Feeds. All major news organizations (and many minor ones) have about 20 different "feeds" for things like "World News", "Entertainment News", "Politics". So I made a list of 50 and with the aid of "Carp", the software I use to integrate feeds with my sites, I had 50 unique pages. These were the fastest totally unique 50 pages I have created.
Here is an index to the News Feeds in the "News" Section at Linknet:
1. MSNBC-Newsweek
2. Washington Post - Front Page News
3. Washington Post - Middle East News
4. Washington Post - Religion Newsl
5. Washington Post - News of the Americas
6. CBC - Top Stories
7. CBC - World News
8. CBC - Health & Science
9. CBC - Sports
10. BBC - Front Page News
11. BBC - UK News
12. BBC - Politics
13. BBC - Science News
14. BBC - Entertainment News
15. Yahoo - Business News
16. Yahoo - Top Stories
17. Yahoo - World News
18. Justice for the World
19. Ziff-Davis - Windows Tech
20. Talking Point Memo
21. Guardian - Front Page News
22. Lessig Blog
23. Israel Peace Blog
24. Is That Legal Blog
25. Pendagon
26. Washington Post - Science
27. Washington Post - World News
28. Washington Post - European News
29. Washintgon Post - World Opinion Roundup
30. Washington Post - Politics
31. CBC - Canadian News
32. CBC - Business News
33. CBC - Arts News
34. CBC - Hockey News
35. BBC - World News
36. BBC - Business News
37. BBC - Health News
38. BBC - Technology News
39. BBC - Week at a Glance
40. Yahoo - September 11 and Terrorism
41. Yahoo - US News
42. Yahoo - Politics
43. Ziff-Davis - Tech News
44. Political Animal - Washington Monthly
45. Informed Consent
46. Guardian - Film News
47. Afronetizen
48. WarBlogging
49. The War in Context Blog
50. TechnoPuritanism
Monday, February 14, 2005
Free 25 Link Exchange Made Easier
Now that I have had several webmasters take me up on my Free 25 Links offer I have been able to fine-tune it a bit to make it easier to take advantage of.
All it involves is copying the contents of this site description page to an active page within your website. The page must be linked no more than two steps from your home page.** If you have more than one site, just copy the page to all your sites. We can even supply different versions of the site description page to avoid the appearance (horrors!) of duplication.
We will then put your link(s) on a specially designed page within each of our sites. These pages will not have more than 25 outbound links.
Of course if you don't want to mess around with exchanging links we can give you the same 25 links for just $14.99. This is what I call our
.
**If you don't understand this try the following: first, you have link from your home page to a link directory index page. Second, you have a link from your link directory index page to the page with our links on it. Two steps. One step would be even better -- linked directly from your home page.
All it involves is copying the contents of this site description page to an active page within your website. The page must be linked no more than two steps from your home page.** If you have more than one site, just copy the page to all your sites. We can even supply different versions of the site description page to avoid the appearance (horrors!) of duplication.
We will then put your link(s) on a specially designed page within each of our sites. These pages will not have more than 25 outbound links.
Of course if you don't want to mess around with exchanging links we can give you the same 25 links for just $14.99. This is what I call our
.**If you don't understand this try the following: first, you have link from your home page to a link directory index page. Second, you have a link from your link directory index page to the page with our links on it. Two steps. One step would be even better -- linked directly from your home page.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Blog Focuses on Corporate Blogging
In my regular search for interesting blog sites and marketing information I stumbled on to CorporateBlogging.info. The article that tweaked my interest is called More Than Links to Blogs' Search Engine Success written by the blogmaster of the site, Fredrik Wacka.
Fredrik draws on more than four years experience of blogging in business environments, so knows a bit of what he is talking about.
His main points:
Blogs are usually tightly focused, the posts are straight and to the point, and usually keyword rich, and structured in a way that is SE friendly. And they are usually linked in SE-friendly fashion as well -- to other resources that are closely related.
While on the topic of the "structure" of blog posts... one thing I've noticed: blog commentators tend to emphasize that blog content is short and to the point -- different from "articles" in this sense. Then they often go on to turn their post into a 500 word article. I am sure there is a good reason for this... and it probably has to do with the unrealistic expectations the theorists (including myself) have for "short and to the point" posts. Sometimes you just need more words.
You can find the article here: More Than Links to Blogs' Search Engine Success
Fredrik draws on more than four years experience of blogging in business environments, so knows a bit of what he is talking about.
His main points:
Blogs are usually tightly focused, the posts are straight and to the point, and usually keyword rich, and structured in a way that is SE friendly. And they are usually linked in SE-friendly fashion as well -- to other resources that are closely related.
While on the topic of the "structure" of blog posts... one thing I've noticed: blog commentators tend to emphasize that blog content is short and to the point -- different from "articles" in this sense. Then they often go on to turn their post into a 500 word article. I am sure there is a good reason for this... and it probably has to do with the unrealistic expectations the theorists (including myself) have for "short and to the point" posts. Sometimes you just need more words.
You can find the article here: More Than Links to Blogs' Search Engine Success
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Great Article About Getting Effective Links
Yesterday I posted one of the best articles I've read in a long time about getting high value links. It was written by John Gergye and is called How to get 50 High PR One Way Links Each Month.
In the article John lays out a very detailed strategy for posting articles on high impact sites. What is unique about the strategy is that John recommends you post your articles on regular websites not on article archive sites. As he says,
Typically article banks, directories and the like are NOT going to be your best bet. Sorry. I’m not saying you shouldn’t submit articles to them as part of an overall article marketing scheme. Just don’t do so in the hopes of snapping up many high PR one way links is all.
Instead he suggests you do a search for your most important keywords and find some sites that rank for those keywords that accept articles. Then make a list of the sites that have articles with a PR3 and above.
One of my own best examples of such a site is BF Printing. I have a couple of articles on this site on pages with PR4. And they are highly relevant for the keywords I emphasize in these particular articles.
Another similar site is my own InternetGolfReview.com where I post golf articles which are mostly my own.
The best example in my own stable of sites is my Linknet Pages. These offer a perfect opportunity for authors across a wide range of topics. Surprisingly I have not received many direct submissions. I get the impression that marketing article writers talk a good game, but in the end, most either do not have the time or the motivation to do the hard slugging. They are content to submit through a service like PhantomWriters.com, or send their articles out through a group list like Publisher_Network at Yahoo Groups.
You can find John Gergye's article at this address: How to get 50 High PR One Way Links Each Month.
In the article John lays out a very detailed strategy for posting articles on high impact sites. What is unique about the strategy is that John recommends you post your articles on regular websites not on article archive sites. As he says,
Typically article banks, directories and the like are NOT going to be your best bet. Sorry. I’m not saying you shouldn’t submit articles to them as part of an overall article marketing scheme. Just don’t do so in the hopes of snapping up many high PR one way links is all.
Instead he suggests you do a search for your most important keywords and find some sites that rank for those keywords that accept articles. Then make a list of the sites that have articles with a PR3 and above.
One of my own best examples of such a site is BF Printing. I have a couple of articles on this site on pages with PR4. And they are highly relevant for the keywords I emphasize in these particular articles.
Another similar site is my own InternetGolfReview.com where I post golf articles which are mostly my own.
The best example in my own stable of sites is my Linknet Pages. These offer a perfect opportunity for authors across a wide range of topics. Surprisingly I have not received many direct submissions. I get the impression that marketing article writers talk a good game, but in the end, most either do not have the time or the motivation to do the hard slugging. They are content to submit through a service like PhantomWriters.com, or send their articles out through a group list like Publisher_Network at Yahoo Groups.
You can find John Gergye's article at this address: How to get 50 High PR One Way Links Each Month.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Changing Website Hosts Can Be Easy
It used to be that making any change to your domain configuration was complicated and confusing. I remember trying to change DSN servers for one of my first websites. Since everything back then went through "InterNIC" (or maybe it was Network Solutions -- it was never clear who was who), you were pretty much at the mercy of their ridiculously cumbersome system. And it usually took at least two days to finalize any change at all.
Now things are very different. You can make changes to your domain registration and configuration without ever having to talk to a real person or wait more than about 10 seconds.
The most serious change a webmaster has to make is moving a domain from one host to another. Even this procedure is pretty straightforward these days, although you'd better be prepared for some glitches along the way.
How the Process Works
Here is the bare minimum you should understand before starting:
- Your current host - This is the company that "hosts" your website -- the location where your website actually resides. It is likely a third party, but you could be hosting your site yourself. Either way your host will have assigned an ip address to your site, and will have DNS (name server) entries that relate your domain name to the actual (ip address) location.
- Your new host - This is the location where you want to move your website.
- Your domain registrar - This is the outfit that tells the world where your domain name servers are, and spreads this information around the web. When you registered your domain you might have used a 3rd party site like 000domains.com, or NetworkSolutions. Or you might have used the registration service of your original host. Either way your domain registrar is separate from your host. To change hosts you have to logon to your domain registrar and tell them who your new host is going to be.
Step 1. Get Your Information Together
The first thing you should do is collect the information you are likely to need along the way, and keep it handy -- preferably in a print out of some kind rather than in an email message or series of webpages scattered over three or four screens on your computer. Here is the minimum you will need:
- The address and logon information (id and pw) of your domain registrar. This is where you point to your host's DNS servers. Everything starts here.
- The address and logon information of your current web host. You may not actually need to make any changes here -- other than to eventually cancel your account -- but it is good to have this information available.
- The address and logon information of your NEW web host. If you have not already chosen a new host, you must do so before proceeding. Check out possible hosts. One good source of information is one of seveal web host "review" sites that compare web hosts in terms of cost, reliability, customer service, and so on.
Step 2. Sign Up With a New Host
Once you have selected a new host, sign up with them and create an account. Normally this involves selecting a "plan", registering your domain name with them, and paying them an initial amount.
"Registering" your domain in this case is not the same as the original registration of your domain name with your registrar. Here all you are doing is telling them to create a spot on their servers for this domain. At this point there will actually be two locations for your domain, but since you have not officially switched your host, only your old one will work.
Once you have registered with your new host you should be able to logon to the Control Panel for your new site. This is a good time to connect to your Control Panel and configure your new site. Normally you will be able to do things like enable Front Page extensions, and add email accounts even before you officially switch. But if your new site is not yet fully accessible, don't panic. I give you a method of "tricking" your computer to let you in even before your new location is completely made public. (see below)
Step 3. Back Up Your Site
Before you proceed you want to make sure you have the most up-to-date version of your website files. If you work with a program like Front Page, you should "publish" your entire site to a location on your local computer. If you work on your pages locally and then upload them by using ftp, your local version should already be up-to-date. If you are not sure, then just connect to your site and download all the files to your local hard drive.
Be sure to maintain the same file names and directory structure when you create your backup. Your new site should be an exact copy of your old one. The pages should all have the same file names and directory structure. If it doesn't then chances are many of the links will not work, and -- just as important -- you will have lost all the Page Rank and Search Engine rankings you have built up over the years. And searches will point to pages that no longer exist.
Step 4. Upload the Files to Your New Host
Ideally, you should upload all your files before you tell your domain registrar to point to the new site. That way there will be absolutely no downtime.
The problem is, however, that you may have no straightforward way of connecting to your new location. When you try to connect to (for example) ftp.mydomain.com, you will be connected to your old site. Many hosts will give you a temporary address that will get you into your new site. But if they don't you will have to make the official host change before you can proceed.
Step 5. Make the "Official" Change
Now you are ready to make your change "official". Don't be intimidated by this. All you have to do is make one change -- you have to point your registrar's name servers at the new host rather than the old one. Your new host should have given you this information when you signed up with them. There should be at least two name servers and you should have both a name and an ip address for both of them. They should look something like this:
ns1.hostname.net ip address: 205.123.222.223
ns2.hostname.net ip address: 205.123.222.224
(Note: Don't use these names. Thye are just "dummy" names and addresses, but may actually exist.)
Once you have made this change it will usually take a few hours to spread the change around the web. During this period web surfers will continue to access your old site (which you left intact), so you have a few hours to get your new site into shape.
Step 6. Tricking Your Own Computer to See the New Address
At this point you will still not be able to access your new site using ftp or Front Page. Until your new host address is "propagated" you will still be pointed to your old one.
One way to get immediate access to your new site using your domain name is to change the primary name server entry on your local computer to point to one of the name servers of your new host. They will already have the change (assuming you have already registered your domain with them), so there should be no delay.
To do this (with Windows), find where your "connection" information is configured. On my system it is called "Local Area Connection Status", because I am on a small network behind a firewall. Once you find your active local connection, click on "Properties" and then "Internet Protocol". There should be a place where you can enter "DNS Server Addresses".
Now enter one of your host's name server addresses in here. Then close it up and test to see if it is working. With XP and NT/Win2000 you don't have to reboot to make this change effective. It might be good to close all browser windows before trying your domain. You may have to "flush your dns cache" as well to get rid of references to your old host address. To do this, open a "Command Prompt" window and type at the prompt:
ipconfig /flushdns [Enter]
Now type:
ping www.mydomain.com
...where "mydomain.com" is the name of your domain.
This will "ping" your domain -- send a little message to it and ask for a reply. You should get a reply telling you which ip address it is sending the message to. If it is sending the message to your new host (you recorded this information earlier), then you are in business.
You should now be able to connect to your new site with ftp to upload your files. You should also be able to connect to your Control Panel using your domain name. Now you have a few hours to upload all your files and get your new email accounts working.
Good Luck!
Now things are very different. You can make changes to your domain registration and configuration without ever having to talk to a real person or wait more than about 10 seconds.
The most serious change a webmaster has to make is moving a domain from one host to another. Even this procedure is pretty straightforward these days, although you'd better be prepared for some glitches along the way.
How the Process Works
Here is the bare minimum you should understand before starting:
- Your current host - This is the company that "hosts" your website -- the location where your website actually resides. It is likely a third party, but you could be hosting your site yourself. Either way your host will have assigned an ip address to your site, and will have DNS (name server) entries that relate your domain name to the actual (ip address) location.
- Your new host - This is the location where you want to move your website.
- Your domain registrar - This is the outfit that tells the world where your domain name servers are, and spreads this information around the web. When you registered your domain you might have used a 3rd party site like 000domains.com, or NetworkSolutions. Or you might have used the registration service of your original host. Either way your domain registrar is separate from your host. To change hosts you have to logon to your domain registrar and tell them who your new host is going to be.
Step 1. Get Your Information Together
The first thing you should do is collect the information you are likely to need along the way, and keep it handy -- preferably in a print out of some kind rather than in an email message or series of webpages scattered over three or four screens on your computer. Here is the minimum you will need:
- The address and logon information (id and pw) of your domain registrar. This is where you point to your host's DNS servers. Everything starts here.
- The address and logon information of your current web host. You may not actually need to make any changes here -- other than to eventually cancel your account -- but it is good to have this information available.
- The address and logon information of your NEW web host. If you have not already chosen a new host, you must do so before proceeding. Check out possible hosts. One good source of information is one of seveal web host "review" sites that compare web hosts in terms of cost, reliability, customer service, and so on.
Step 2. Sign Up With a New Host
Once you have selected a new host, sign up with them and create an account. Normally this involves selecting a "plan", registering your domain name with them, and paying them an initial amount.
"Registering" your domain in this case is not the same as the original registration of your domain name with your registrar. Here all you are doing is telling them to create a spot on their servers for this domain. At this point there will actually be two locations for your domain, but since you have not officially switched your host, only your old one will work.
Once you have registered with your new host you should be able to logon to the Control Panel for your new site. This is a good time to connect to your Control Panel and configure your new site. Normally you will be able to do things like enable Front Page extensions, and add email accounts even before you officially switch. But if your new site is not yet fully accessible, don't panic. I give you a method of "tricking" your computer to let you in even before your new location is completely made public. (see below)
Step 3. Back Up Your Site
Before you proceed you want to make sure you have the most up-to-date version of your website files. If you work with a program like Front Page, you should "publish" your entire site to a location on your local computer. If you work on your pages locally and then upload them by using ftp, your local version should already be up-to-date. If you are not sure, then just connect to your site and download all the files to your local hard drive.
Be sure to maintain the same file names and directory structure when you create your backup. Your new site should be an exact copy of your old one. The pages should all have the same file names and directory structure. If it doesn't then chances are many of the links will not work, and -- just as important -- you will have lost all the Page Rank and Search Engine rankings you have built up over the years. And searches will point to pages that no longer exist.
Step 4. Upload the Files to Your New Host
Ideally, you should upload all your files before you tell your domain registrar to point to the new site. That way there will be absolutely no downtime.
The problem is, however, that you may have no straightforward way of connecting to your new location. When you try to connect to (for example) ftp.mydomain.com, you will be connected to your old site. Many hosts will give you a temporary address that will get you into your new site. But if they don't you will have to make the official host change before you can proceed.
Step 5. Make the "Official" Change
Now you are ready to make your change "official". Don't be intimidated by this. All you have to do is make one change -- you have to point your registrar's name servers at the new host rather than the old one. Your new host should have given you this information when you signed up with them. There should be at least two name servers and you should have both a name and an ip address for both of them. They should look something like this:
ns1.hostname.net ip address: 205.123.222.223
ns2.hostname.net ip address: 205.123.222.224
(Note: Don't use these names. Thye are just "dummy" names and addresses, but may actually exist.)
Once you have made this change it will usually take a few hours to spread the change around the web. During this period web surfers will continue to access your old site (which you left intact), so you have a few hours to get your new site into shape.
Step 6. Tricking Your Own Computer to See the New Address
At this point you will still not be able to access your new site using ftp or Front Page. Until your new host address is "propagated" you will still be pointed to your old one.
One way to get immediate access to your new site using your domain name is to change the primary name server entry on your local computer to point to one of the name servers of your new host. They will already have the change (assuming you have already registered your domain with them), so there should be no delay.
To do this (with Windows), find where your "connection" information is configured. On my system it is called "Local Area Connection Status", because I am on a small network behind a firewall. Once you find your active local connection, click on "Properties" and then "Internet Protocol". There should be a place where you can enter "DNS Server Addresses".
Now enter one of your host's name server addresses in here. Then close it up and test to see if it is working. With XP and NT/Win2000 you don't have to reboot to make this change effective. It might be good to close all browser windows before trying your domain. You may have to "flush your dns cache" as well to get rid of references to your old host address. To do this, open a "Command Prompt" window and type at the prompt:
ipconfig /flushdns [Enter]
Now type:
ping www.mydomain.com
...where "mydomain.com" is the name of your domain.
This will "ping" your domain -- send a little message to it and ask for a reply. You should get a reply telling you which ip address it is sending the message to. If it is sending the message to your new host (you recorded this information earlier), then you are in business.
You should now be able to connect to your new site with ftp to upload your files. You should also be able to connect to your Control Panel using your domain name. Now you have a few hours to upload all your files and get your new email accounts working.
Good Luck!
Friday, February 04, 2005
So Much for My SBI Site
After a year of using Ken Evoy's Site Build It for one of my primary ecommerce sites I decided a few days ago to move the site over to a conventional server. Today I got the deed done -- with no serious hitches, no downtime (so far), and no lost ranking or PR (as far as I can tell).
The site in question, namely TradeShow-Display-Experts.com was set up as the primary vehicle for promoting our company's trade show display and trade show graphics business. When I set the site up just over a year ago (in December 2003) I did it partially as an experiment. I told myself I would set up TSDE.com using SBI, and my other primary site -- Small-Business-Online.com, set up at pretty much the same time -- using a conventional host.
I was impressed enough by Ken Evoy's pitch focusing on the Search Engine Optimization and submission tools built into SBI that I felt it was probably worth the difference in cost. After a year of head to head comparison I would be able to make an informed decision.
The difference in price is not insignificant. You can get a normal site up and running these days for around $5 a month. That's $60/year. Ken's package costs in the range of $300 (I'm not even sure what he is charging now). The justification is that SBI helps you select a "niche", holds your hand while you build it, and then helps you promote it by submitting on a regular basis to the SEs.
After a year of working with the SBI site, and building about 25 others on normal hosts, I have concluded that there is no significant advantage to SBI. I say that from the perspective of someone who has approached web building in a very serious manner. On all counts -- traffic, SE ranking, PR -- my SBI site has not done any better than 4 or 5 of my other main sites. And that, in spite of persistent PPC promotion for the entire year drawing traffic directly to my SBI site.
Here are my conclusions:
1. The claims for constant and regular "submission" to the SEs are overstated. I have concluded that submission is unnecessary. If you are interlinked with other sites, and if you keep your content updated often enough you get spidered automatically. No need for resubmission. I could be wrong about this, but, as I noted above, I could not see any effective ranking or placement difference.
2. The site building tools built into SBI are restrictive and clunky. I never used them anyway. I built my pages in Front Page and then uploaded them, one at a time. I found this process aggravatingly restrictive.
3. At least two important technologies cannot be used (as far as I could tell) in SBI sites: SSI (server side includes) and dynamic pages such as .php or .asp. Both of these things make building a dynamic site much easier, and both have become important for the kind of sites I am currently building. I think the SBI claim is that not allowing these things keeps their sites cleaner and more SE-friendly. I suspect the real reason is that they cannot easily implement these technologies in the restrictive hand-holding "modular" environment they use to build their sites.
4. The cost is not justified. Yes I know there are many tools made available to SBI subscribers, but I could not make use of any of them. It would be interesting to know how many SBI sites really make money for their owners. I can't say that I have ever seen one that looks like it has significant traffic.
5. One thing I will say is that I have never had any problem with my SBI site going down. Virtually every other site I own has had serious and very annoying downtime. It is hard to say how much this reliability is worth. I also find it hard to believe that there aren' at least a few reliable hosts out there. I assume it's just a matter of finding a couple.
The SBI package is probably a good investment if you don't know anything about web building, have no design experience, and need serious help formulating a business plan. But I suspect anybody with this many strikes against them isn't going to make it in online commerce anyway.
The site in question, namely TradeShow-Display-Experts.com was set up as the primary vehicle for promoting our company's trade show display and trade show graphics business. When I set the site up just over a year ago (in December 2003) I did it partially as an experiment. I told myself I would set up TSDE.com using SBI, and my other primary site -- Small-Business-Online.com, set up at pretty much the same time -- using a conventional host.
I was impressed enough by Ken Evoy's pitch focusing on the Search Engine Optimization and submission tools built into SBI that I felt it was probably worth the difference in cost. After a year of head to head comparison I would be able to make an informed decision.
The difference in price is not insignificant. You can get a normal site up and running these days for around $5 a month. That's $60/year. Ken's package costs in the range of $300 (I'm not even sure what he is charging now). The justification is that SBI helps you select a "niche", holds your hand while you build it, and then helps you promote it by submitting on a regular basis to the SEs.
After a year of working with the SBI site, and building about 25 others on normal hosts, I have concluded that there is no significant advantage to SBI. I say that from the perspective of someone who has approached web building in a very serious manner. On all counts -- traffic, SE ranking, PR -- my SBI site has not done any better than 4 or 5 of my other main sites. And that, in spite of persistent PPC promotion for the entire year drawing traffic directly to my SBI site.
Here are my conclusions:
1. The claims for constant and regular "submission" to the SEs are overstated. I have concluded that submission is unnecessary. If you are interlinked with other sites, and if you keep your content updated often enough you get spidered automatically. No need for resubmission. I could be wrong about this, but, as I noted above, I could not see any effective ranking or placement difference.
2. The site building tools built into SBI are restrictive and clunky. I never used them anyway. I built my pages in Front Page and then uploaded them, one at a time. I found this process aggravatingly restrictive.
3. At least two important technologies cannot be used (as far as I could tell) in SBI sites: SSI (server side includes) and dynamic pages such as .php or .asp. Both of these things make building a dynamic site much easier, and both have become important for the kind of sites I am currently building. I think the SBI claim is that not allowing these things keeps their sites cleaner and more SE-friendly. I suspect the real reason is that they cannot easily implement these technologies in the restrictive hand-holding "modular" environment they use to build their sites.
4. The cost is not justified. Yes I know there are many tools made available to SBI subscribers, but I could not make use of any of them. It would be interesting to know how many SBI sites really make money for their owners. I can't say that I have ever seen one that looks like it has significant traffic.
5. One thing I will say is that I have never had any problem with my SBI site going down. Virtually every other site I own has had serious and very annoying downtime. It is hard to say how much this reliability is worth. I also find it hard to believe that there aren' at least a few reliable hosts out there. I assume it's just a matter of finding a couple.
The SBI package is probably a good investment if you don't know anything about web building, have no design experience, and need serious help formulating a business plan. But I suspect anybody with this many strikes against them isn't going to make it in online commerce anyway.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Wear the Right Golf Shoes - Bite the Turf
Product Feature from Review-of-the-Week.com
from Golf-Topics-Tips.com
Mechanics and golf shoes. We have all heard the term mechanics applied to golf and particularly the golf swing.
A slight change in mechanics by any part of the body can adversely affect the way the rest of the body performs during the swing and thus affect the swing itself. The term also applies to golf shoes and their importance in controlling the mechanics of your game.
If you are even slightly familiar with how Kurt Schilling’s ankle affected his pitching during the playoffs and World Series, and how special footwear was designed to help stabilize his foot, then you will understand the importance of proper golf shoes to the golf swing.
During a golf swing, weight and torque are being transferred from the upper body to the lower body and, simultaneously, from the right leg to the left leg.
This weight shift is stabilized by the golf shoe that is biting the turf. Prior to beginning your downswing, most of your weight has shifted to your right leg. When you start the swing, you are swinging along the centerline of the right leg. This creates torque.
Without proper support of the right ankle and foot, stability is lost and that centerline will fluctuate. This leads to a loss of power from your stroke.
During impact with the ball, weight and momentum are abruptly shifted to the left leg. If the left foot and ankle are not properly supported, you’ll get a swaying motion in your body’s movement that will cause an over compensation by your upper body as it tries to assist in your overall balance. This leads to an exaggerated swing that typically causes a hook.
A good pair of golf shoes is important to provide the added support necessary to stabilize the feet during the golf swing.
Of course, you also want them to be comfortable when walking the course, bending to retrieve the ball from the cup or, if the case may be, hunting a ball in the woods.
For more information and to explore your options, go to Golf-Topics-Tips.com.
from Golf-Topics-Tips.com
Mechanics and golf shoes. We have all heard the term mechanics applied to golf and particularly the golf swing.
A slight change in mechanics by any part of the body can adversely affect the way the rest of the body performs during the swing and thus affect the swing itself. The term also applies to golf shoes and their importance in controlling the mechanics of your game.
If you are even slightly familiar with how Kurt Schilling’s ankle affected his pitching during the playoffs and World Series, and how special footwear was designed to help stabilize his foot, then you will understand the importance of proper golf shoes to the golf swing.
During a golf swing, weight and torque are being transferred from the upper body to the lower body and, simultaneously, from the right leg to the left leg.
This weight shift is stabilized by the golf shoe that is biting the turf. Prior to beginning your downswing, most of your weight has shifted to your right leg. When you start the swing, you are swinging along the centerline of the right leg. This creates torque.
Without proper support of the right ankle and foot, stability is lost and that centerline will fluctuate. This leads to a loss of power from your stroke.
During impact with the ball, weight and momentum are abruptly shifted to the left leg. If the left foot and ankle are not properly supported, you’ll get a swaying motion in your body’s movement that will cause an over compensation by your upper body as it tries to assist in your overall balance. This leads to an exaggerated swing that typically causes a hook.
A good pair of golf shoes is important to provide the added support necessary to stabilize the feet during the golf swing.
Of course, you also want them to be comfortable when walking the course, bending to retrieve the ball from the cup or, if the case may be, hunting a ball in the woods.
For more information and to explore your options, go to Golf-Topics-Tips.com.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Tech Support Sometimes Sucks
A recent problem with one of my web hosts reinforced my impression that technical support people are either poorly trained or not motivated enough to care about customer relations.
Last week I suddenly lost contact with the ten or so websites located on this host. Nothing I could think of would remedy the problem. It had happened twice before but always rectified itself. Not this time.
This meant I could not work on these sites -- a fairly serious problem since I am right in the middle of rolling out various Linknet products, and the sites need a fair bit of tweaking.
Of course this is one of those outfits that will not talk to you on the phone. You have to submit a "support ticket" and hope they 1) read it, and 2) get around to responding.
Now I'm sure this is a universal experience: the initial response from these guys is always the same: "Looks OK from our end.", "When did the problem start?", "Try doing this, and try doing that." We've all had experiences where support people get you to reformat your hard drive, or reinstall Windows. Hours and hours of wasted time to prove that you are the problem, not them or their products.
After my initial exchange with this particular tech department I was bold enough to make a couple of suggestions. One of them was "Is it possible you have blocked my ip address? Here it is..xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...Can you check?"
Silence....more silence.... no response.
Either I had offended him, he had died, or the company had gone out of business. Either way I assumed that something as obvious as a blocked ip would be something he would check. So I left the problem and worked around it, hoping it would fix itself as it had in the past.
A week later the problem had not gone away, and in fact I could not connect from two other locations as well. So now I could not get into my sites from any of the three locations I had access to.
Now I was really screwed, and for all I knew the tech department had no idea what was going on. They were completely unresponsive. They had tuned me completely out.
So last night I got serious about contacting these tech guys again.
Finally an email to the Sales Manager got some action. He got a "supervisor" on it, and I actually got to talk to someone on the phone...
Guess what the problem turned out to be. Yup. My ip address was blocked. It took four or five messages and three phone calls to get these guys to actually look at this possibility.
But now everything's working, everybody's happy, and the incident is forgotten...
I don't think so.
P.S. By the way, if you are wondering why my ip was blocked, it is because I tried (unsuccessfully) to access the ftp site at this host several times. You know what it's like remembering those damned logins. At this place, three incorrect tries and you're blocked. I should have known it was related to crude old ftp. Shouldn't they have known it?
Last week I suddenly lost contact with the ten or so websites located on this host. Nothing I could think of would remedy the problem. It had happened twice before but always rectified itself. Not this time.
This meant I could not work on these sites -- a fairly serious problem since I am right in the middle of rolling out various Linknet products, and the sites need a fair bit of tweaking.
Of course this is one of those outfits that will not talk to you on the phone. You have to submit a "support ticket" and hope they 1) read it, and 2) get around to responding.
Now I'm sure this is a universal experience: the initial response from these guys is always the same: "Looks OK from our end.", "When did the problem start?", "Try doing this, and try doing that." We've all had experiences where support people get you to reformat your hard drive, or reinstall Windows. Hours and hours of wasted time to prove that you are the problem, not them or their products.
After my initial exchange with this particular tech department I was bold enough to make a couple of suggestions. One of them was "Is it possible you have blocked my ip address? Here it is..xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx...Can you check?"
Silence....more silence.... no response.
Either I had offended him, he had died, or the company had gone out of business. Either way I assumed that something as obvious as a blocked ip would be something he would check. So I left the problem and worked around it, hoping it would fix itself as it had in the past.
A week later the problem had not gone away, and in fact I could not connect from two other locations as well. So now I could not get into my sites from any of the three locations I had access to.
Now I was really screwed, and for all I knew the tech department had no idea what was going on. They were completely unresponsive. They had tuned me completely out.
So last night I got serious about contacting these tech guys again.
Finally an email to the Sales Manager got some action. He got a "supervisor" on it, and I actually got to talk to someone on the phone...
Guess what the problem turned out to be. Yup. My ip address was blocked. It took four or five messages and three phone calls to get these guys to actually look at this possibility.
But now everything's working, everybody's happy, and the incident is forgotten...
I don't think so.
P.S. By the way, if you are wondering why my ip was blocked, it is because I tried (unsuccessfully) to access the ftp site at this host several times. You know what it's like remembering those damned logins. At this place, three incorrect tries and you're blocked. I should have known it was related to crude old ftp. Shouldn't they have known it?
Friday, January 28, 2005
Directory of Southeast Asian Furniture
From Review-of-the-week.com - Furniture-Asian.com
Southeast Asian Furniture Directory
In South East Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand), Korea and Taiwan. The seven countries have a combined furniture production of about US$ 12,137 million. Korea and Taiwan are by far the largest furniture markets and the main furniture consumers in Asia. Asian furniture have also been popular in developed countries like USA, Europe and Australia.
As for the Malaysian furniture industry, it has been on a steady upsurge since 1999. Furniture production fuelled by export demands reached an estimated USD1,828 million in 2000. Leading overseas importers are the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada.
Furniture-Asian.com gives these companies an opportunity to pool their resources and make an even greater impact on the export market.
Southeast Asian Furniture Directory
In South East Asia (Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand), Korea and Taiwan. The seven countries have a combined furniture production of about US$ 12,137 million. Korea and Taiwan are by far the largest furniture markets and the main furniture consumers in Asia. Asian furniture have also been popular in developed countries like USA, Europe and Australia.
As for the Malaysian furniture industry, it has been on a steady upsurge since 1999. Furniture production fuelled by export demands reached an estimated USD1,828 million in 2000. Leading overseas importers are the United States, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada.
Furniture-Asian.com gives these companies an opportunity to pool their resources and make an even greater impact on the export market.
Monday, January 24, 2005
Follow Up on Google Adwords Revisions
Just a follow-up on the revisions I made to a couple of my Google Adwords campaigns last week. (See previous post).
As I reported in my other marketing blog, e_Marketing, the numbers after 2 full business days using the new configuration:
Clicks per day: Before - 72 -- After -105 (+46%)
Cost per day: Before - $77 -- After - $27 (-65%)
In other words, the total number of clicks increased by 46%, and the total cost went down by 65%. The average cost per click went down from $1.07 to $.26. That is a reduction of more than 75%.
Pretty much in line with the numbers in the David Jackson article.
As I reported in my other marketing blog, e_Marketing, the numbers after 2 full business days using the new configuration:
Clicks per day: Before - 72 -- After -105 (+46%)
Cost per day: Before - $77 -- After - $27 (-65%)
In other words, the total number of clicks increased by 46%, and the total cost went down by 65%. The average cost per click went down from $1.07 to $.26. That is a reduction of more than 75%.
Pretty much in line with the numbers in the David Jackson article.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Getting Full Value Out of Google Adwords
While processing an article for the Linknet Marketing Resource Library I actually took the time to carefully read the article. It is called How to Save a Bundle on Google Adwords and describes how the author, David Jackson of ImageLink Incorporated changed his Google Adwords strategy, and in the process increased his traffic by 400% while spending the same money.
This sounds like another one of those shameless promotions for some get-rich-quick ebook that affiliate marketers are noted for. But in his article David refers to Perry Marshall whose strategies and ideas I have a good deal of respect for. So I thought it was worth having a careful look at our own Adwords strategy in light of the recommendations made in Jackson's article.
The three main suggestions are:
1. Focus on more obscure keywords and key phrases (especially key phrases) and take the focus off the keywords that get the most hits (and are therefore expensive).
2. Enter hundreds of these more obscure keywords. One or two clicks on a hundred search terms is still a couple of hundred clicks.
3. Cut your maximum bid down drastically. You can usually get the number one spot for obscure key words for about $.10 (Yes, that's 10 cents) rather than the $2 or $3 you have to spend for high traffic keywords.
I must admit I am a bit skeptical of this process of bidding on low traffic keywords. My experience is inconsistent. Nevertheless, our Adwords campaigns are getting too expensive, so I thought I would follow these recommendations for at least a one week test.
The result of applying these tactics to two of our campaigns was surprising, and can be summarized as follows:
For one campaign I was able to cut my projected click thru costs down to about 25% of the original figure and still get the same projected click-thrus(according to the Google keyword tools). That means, there should be a savings of about $1000 per month for this campaign.
For another campaign I was able to increase my projected click thrus by about 200% while cutting the projected costs to about 25%. That is a potential increase in ROI of 800%.
These are still just projections based on Google's campaign tools. Since the new campaigns just started last night it will take a few days to see what sort of results I get. The big questions are:
- Will I still get the click thrus?
- Will I still get the same (or better) level of 2nd level inquiries?
We'll see. I will keep you posted.
The David Jackson article is also published here: How To Save A Bundle on Google Adwords.
This sounds like another one of those shameless promotions for some get-rich-quick ebook that affiliate marketers are noted for. But in his article David refers to Perry Marshall whose strategies and ideas I have a good deal of respect for. So I thought it was worth having a careful look at our own Adwords strategy in light of the recommendations made in Jackson's article.
The three main suggestions are:
1. Focus on more obscure keywords and key phrases (especially key phrases) and take the focus off the keywords that get the most hits (and are therefore expensive).
2. Enter hundreds of these more obscure keywords. One or two clicks on a hundred search terms is still a couple of hundred clicks.
3. Cut your maximum bid down drastically. You can usually get the number one spot for obscure key words for about $.10 (Yes, that's 10 cents) rather than the $2 or $3 you have to spend for high traffic keywords.
I must admit I am a bit skeptical of this process of bidding on low traffic keywords. My experience is inconsistent. Nevertheless, our Adwords campaigns are getting too expensive, so I thought I would follow these recommendations for at least a one week test.
The result of applying these tactics to two of our campaigns was surprising, and can be summarized as follows:
For one campaign I was able to cut my projected click thru costs down to about 25% of the original figure and still get the same projected click-thrus(according to the Google keyword tools). That means, there should be a savings of about $1000 per month for this campaign.
For another campaign I was able to increase my projected click thrus by about 200% while cutting the projected costs to about 25%. That is a potential increase in ROI of 800%.
These are still just projections based on Google's campaign tools. Since the new campaigns just started last night it will take a few days to see what sort of results I get. The big questions are:
- Will I still get the click thrus?
- Will I still get the same (or better) level of 2nd level inquiries?
We'll see. I will keep you posted.
The David Jackson article is also published here: How To Save A Bundle on Google Adwords.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Focus on Golf Website Promotion
InternetGolfReview.com shows occasional flashes of promise. Very occasional.
It is hard to be objective about your own website, especially when you desperately want to do a good job on it. But the truth is, InternetGolfReview.com has been floundering for about 18 months.
InternetGolfReview.com was one of my original web projects, back when I wanted it to be a significant resource for golf information. Typically I was unable to narrow down the focus so it now has a bit of everything, and a lot of nothing.
Still, the intention is to return to my original objective — to focus on reviews of golf resources such as online training sites, big name golf sites, instructional books and videos, and make it website promotion oriented, as well as develop my own golf related books.
The storytelling and opinion spouting will be saved for my golf blog and accompanying site called The WEG. And the golf travel reviews will eventually start happening over on Golf Around the World.
It's getting there slowly. Contrary to popular belief, developing good websites usually takes a lot longer than you first think.
Check out these recent articles and reviews...
Dave Pelz Putting Guru
You Can Join a Golf Club in Scotland
The Significance of Hogan's Rubber Bands
Hooked on Golf, My First Golf "Lesson"
Bobby Jones Challenges Current Swing Theories
Submit Golf articles to InternetGolfReview.com
Exchange links with InternetGolfReview.com
It is hard to be objective about your own website, especially when you desperately want to do a good job on it. But the truth is, InternetGolfReview.com has been floundering for about 18 months.
InternetGolfReview.com was one of my original web projects, back when I wanted it to be a significant resource for golf information. Typically I was unable to narrow down the focus so it now has a bit of everything, and a lot of nothing.
Still, the intention is to return to my original objective — to focus on reviews of golf resources such as online training sites, big name golf sites, instructional books and videos, and make it website promotion oriented, as well as develop my own golf related books.
The storytelling and opinion spouting will be saved for my golf blog and accompanying site called The WEG. And the golf travel reviews will eventually start happening over on Golf Around the World.
It's getting there slowly. Contrary to popular belief, developing good websites usually takes a lot longer than you first think.
Check out these recent articles and reviews...
Dave Pelz Putting Guru
You Can Join a Golf Club in Scotland
The Significance of Hogan's Rubber Bands
Hooked on Golf, My First Golf "Lesson"
Bobby Jones Challenges Current Swing Theories
Submit Golf articles to InternetGolfReview.com
Exchange links with InternetGolfReview.com
Thursday, January 13, 2005
A Link Strategy that will get Hundreds of Links
If you have begun exchanging links, you know how time consuming -- and time-wasting -- the process can be. On the other hand, you don't want to give up the process because you might actually unearth the occasional valuable link partner. You know that getting links to your site is important because it brings in traffic, helps you find strategic partners, and enhances your Search Engine rankings.
But not all links are created equal. And that means that link partners have to be prioritized. Some are worthless because your links end up on pages that nobody looks at and have no PR. But at the other end of the spectrum a few of your link partners will be very valuable because they will give you links on high value, high traffic pages.
Most of the rest of your inbound links will be only marginally valuable. How you tell the difference between the valuable ones and the useless ones is the subject of many discussions and articles, some of which you will find at the Linknet Marketing Resource Library.
One solution is to put prospective link partners into three levels. This assumes that you have already rejected those that have negative value -- the sites you don't want to identify with for various reasons -- pornography, violence, racism, pharmaceuticals, and so on. Here is a suggestion for three levels of inbound links (links pointing at your pages):
Level 1 - Basic Links
These links have no obvious positive value, but also have no negative value. Therefore, if exchanging links with these partners can be done efficiently, there is no downside to doing it. These will usually be "reciprocal" partners and can be given links on properly formed "link directory pages". The more time and effort you put into your directory, the more valuable it will become.
Level 2 - Self-Generated Multi-Links
The second category consists of "multi-links" that you generate yourself. You do this by seeding your articles, forum posts, blog entries and so on, around the web. Many of the strategies used to create these links are discussed in the "Power Linking" section of the Linknet Marketing Resource Library, mentioned above.
Level 3 - High Value Links
The third and most valuable category consists of "High Value Links" on sites that you specifically target. These include high traffic sites in your area of interest, highly rated directories, and sites where you can get a number of quality links all at once. In some cases these links will bring you lots of traffic. In other cases they will enhance your PR and Search Engine ranking. You need both kinds.
As I mention in other posts, there are a range of strategies to get these "Level 3" links. For instance,
- Write glowing testimonials. Target 10 or 20 high traffic sites in your area of interest, and send your testimonial to the webmaster. Usually they can't resist publishing it where everybody will see it.
- Write positive reviews of sites and/or posts. Target 10 or 20 high traffic products/sites. Post the reviews on your site or in your blog, and make sure to send a copy to the reviewee. Again, most webmasters or online entrepreneurs are hungry for this kind of exposure. You might even create a "review" section on your site to show you are serious.
But the most direct, fastest, and least painful strategy is to find link partners who will either sell or trade text ads on a number of high value pages. For example, at Linknet we do both of these things (selling and trading multiple links).
We offer up to 25 free links across 25 websites. And we also offer packages of 30 and 50 links for one small annual fee. For more information go to our Free Advertising page.
But not all links are created equal. And that means that link partners have to be prioritized. Some are worthless because your links end up on pages that nobody looks at and have no PR. But at the other end of the spectrum a few of your link partners will be very valuable because they will give you links on high value, high traffic pages.
Most of the rest of your inbound links will be only marginally valuable. How you tell the difference between the valuable ones and the useless ones is the subject of many discussions and articles, some of which you will find at the Linknet Marketing Resource Library.
One solution is to put prospective link partners into three levels. This assumes that you have already rejected those that have negative value -- the sites you don't want to identify with for various reasons -- pornography, violence, racism, pharmaceuticals, and so on. Here is a suggestion for three levels of inbound links (links pointing at your pages):
Level 1 - Basic Links
These links have no obvious positive value, but also have no negative value. Therefore, if exchanging links with these partners can be done efficiently, there is no downside to doing it. These will usually be "reciprocal" partners and can be given links on properly formed "link directory pages". The more time and effort you put into your directory, the more valuable it will become.
Level 2 - Self-Generated Multi-Links
The second category consists of "multi-links" that you generate yourself. You do this by seeding your articles, forum posts, blog entries and so on, around the web. Many of the strategies used to create these links are discussed in the "Power Linking" section of the Linknet Marketing Resource Library, mentioned above.
Level 3 - High Value Links
The third and most valuable category consists of "High Value Links" on sites that you specifically target. These include high traffic sites in your area of interest, highly rated directories, and sites where you can get a number of quality links all at once. In some cases these links will bring you lots of traffic. In other cases they will enhance your PR and Search Engine ranking. You need both kinds.
As I mention in other posts, there are a range of strategies to get these "Level 3" links. For instance,
- Write glowing testimonials. Target 10 or 20 high traffic sites in your area of interest, and send your testimonial to the webmaster. Usually they can't resist publishing it where everybody will see it.
- Write positive reviews of sites and/or posts. Target 10 or 20 high traffic products/sites. Post the reviews on your site or in your blog, and make sure to send a copy to the reviewee. Again, most webmasters or online entrepreneurs are hungry for this kind of exposure. You might even create a "review" section on your site to show you are serious.
But the most direct, fastest, and least painful strategy is to find link partners who will either sell or trade text ads on a number of high value pages. For example, at Linknet we do both of these things (selling and trading multiple links).
We offer up to 25 free links across 25 websites. And we also offer packages of 30 and 50 links for one small annual fee. For more information go to our Free Advertising page.
Fund Raising with Vinyl Banners
If you are part of a community group, service club, school class, or parks and rec committee, consider selling vinyl banner "spots" at your baseball or soccer field, in your local arena, or even in your school gym.
Banners are perfect for this because they can be printed in full colour with striking graphics, they are weather resistant. They also come with grommets or pole pockets so you can easily attach them to a fence or hang them on a wall.
A typical softball field has a fence which is roughly 40" - 50" high, with segments of approximately 8'-9' — a perfect size for a 3' x 8' vinyl banner.
Here is how you would calculate the revenue potential. The cost for a 3' x 8' full colour banner would be $156 cdn. Advertising charge per banner, say, $400 for the first year. The available advertising spots around an outfield fence 25 - 40 (just on the outfield fence, not including the foul lines)
So let's say you sell 20 banners:
Total revenue, 1st year: $8,000 (20 banners x $400)
Total production cost: $3,120
Less 20% volume discount: -$624
Plus shipping and handling: $200
Total Net Profit: $5,304
These banners are fully weatherproof, so they could stay in place all year round, and would last at least three years. Charge a renewal rate of, say, $300 for the second and third years for a net profit of $6,000 each in years 2 and 3.
Profit for three years: $17,304.
Not bad for selling 20 banners.
For more information on Fund Raising with Vinyl Banners, visit our site at Vinyl Banners Online. We are currently preparing a sales kit to help you organize a banner campaign.
Read more about this program at Vinyl Banners for Fundraising Overview
Banners are perfect for this because they can be printed in full colour with striking graphics, they are weather resistant. They also come with grommets or pole pockets so you can easily attach them to a fence or hang them on a wall.
A typical softball field has a fence which is roughly 40" - 50" high, with segments of approximately 8'-9' — a perfect size for a 3' x 8' vinyl banner.
Here is how you would calculate the revenue potential. The cost for a 3' x 8' full colour banner would be $156 cdn. Advertising charge per banner, say, $400 for the first year. The available advertising spots around an outfield fence 25 - 40 (just on the outfield fence, not including the foul lines)
So let's say you sell 20 banners:
Total revenue, 1st year: $8,000 (20 banners x $400)
Total production cost: $3,120
Less 20% volume discount: -$624
Plus shipping and handling: $200
Total Net Profit: $5,304
These banners are fully weatherproof, so they could stay in place all year round, and would last at least three years. Charge a renewal rate of, say, $300 for the second and third years for a net profit of $6,000 each in years 2 and 3.
Profit for three years: $17,304.
Not bad for selling 20 banners.
For more information on Fund Raising with Vinyl Banners, visit our site at Vinyl Banners Online. We are currently preparing a sales kit to help you organize a banner campaign.
Read more about this program at Vinyl Banners for Fundraising Overview
Monday, January 10, 2005
Promote Your Products and Get 20 Low Cost Links
Review-of-the-week.com is our newest product and link promotion product, and was just launched on January 10/05. This is another in a series of products from The Linknet Network that provide low cost ways of generating multiple high value links to client websites.
Here is what you get when you purchase a Product Promotion Package from Review-of-the-Week.com...
A Linknet Product Promotion Package gives you 20 links to your website and includes...
- A Product Feature Page with text and photos at Review-of-the-week.com, that is optimized for your area of interest and your product category.
- Product Summary in 7 blogs and review sites with links to your site.
- Your Product Review included in Reviews of the Week, published on 10 high traffic review and article sites.
- Extensive links to your site within the Linknet Network.
For more information go to Review-of-the-week.com.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
Product Line to Feature Three New Linking Products
The new product offerings for this spring from Small-Business-Online.com include three fantastic link purchase products:
1. Linknet Partner - This product is clearly outlined at The Linknet Network website, and initial pre-promotion has already begun in a limited way. Linknet Partners purchase 30 text ads on category-specific pages across at least 15 different websites in the Linknet Network. There are more than 25 categories including Real Estate, Finance, Mortgages and Loans, Insurance, Marketing, Web Design, Blogs, Golf, Travel, and many more. Linknet Partners subscribe on an annual basis.
2. 100 Link Blitz - Clients purchase 100 high value links on a range of partner sites. Blitz package includes a Linknet Partner subscription, plus at least 70 additional links on well-placed directories and linking partner sites. All links are placed on active pages with Page Rank. Initial one year subscription $149usd; annual renewal $59.
3. Product Feature Pages - Purchase your very own Product Feature Page — a complete page dedicated to your product or website on our product review website. Product Feature page can include photos and graphics (as long as these are readily available), and can have as many as 5 links pointing back to your (single) site. Other components of this package include:
- A summary of your product feature page (with links) placed in at least 5 Linknet blogs and announcement sites, such as Marketing Bites, e_Marketing, Trade Show Buzz, Trade Show Tips, Click-Partners, Traffic-Advisor, Free-Web-Tools, and Inside Real Estate.
- Inclusion of your product feature information in the weekly Reviews of the Week which is posted on at least 10 high traffic article and announcement sites such as IdeaMarketers.com, GoArticles.com, Click-Partners.com, etc.
In total you will recieve more than 20 links pointing at your site. One year subscription is $59. Renewal, including an update of your Product Page, and resubmission to all of the above is $49.
1. Linknet Partner - This product is clearly outlined at The Linknet Network website, and initial pre-promotion has already begun in a limited way. Linknet Partners purchase 30 text ads on category-specific pages across at least 15 different websites in the Linknet Network. There are more than 25 categories including Real Estate, Finance, Mortgages and Loans, Insurance, Marketing, Web Design, Blogs, Golf, Travel, and many more. Linknet Partners subscribe on an annual basis.
2. 100 Link Blitz - Clients purchase 100 high value links on a range of partner sites. Blitz package includes a Linknet Partner subscription, plus at least 70 additional links on well-placed directories and linking partner sites. All links are placed on active pages with Page Rank. Initial one year subscription $149usd; annual renewal $59.
3. Product Feature Pages - Purchase your very own Product Feature Page — a complete page dedicated to your product or website on our product review website. Product Feature page can include photos and graphics (as long as these are readily available), and can have as many as 5 links pointing back to your (single) site. Other components of this package include:
- A summary of your product feature page (with links) placed in at least 5 Linknet blogs and announcement sites, such as Marketing Bites, e_Marketing, Trade Show Buzz, Trade Show Tips, Click-Partners, Traffic-Advisor, Free-Web-Tools, and Inside Real Estate.
- Inclusion of your product feature information in the weekly Reviews of the Week which is posted on at least 10 high traffic article and announcement sites such as IdeaMarketers.com, GoArticles.com, Click-Partners.com, etc.
In total you will recieve more than 20 links pointing at your site. One year subscription is $59. Renewal, including an update of your Product Page, and resubmission to all of the above is $49.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Trading Links En Masse
The webmaster for these sites asked to trade links, so I'm going to see if this page will work with his automated link scanning software. The core site is lakeviewstudios.com.
Dry Tortugas
Information on tours and other travel deals.
Nature Photos
Photos of the Outdoors , Adirondack Mountains
Florida Keys Hotels
Booking information on Hotels in the Florida Keys
Key West Hotels
Booking information on Hotels in the Key West
Florida Keys Photos
Photos of the Florda Keys , fishing , wildlife and the 7 Mile Bridge
Marathon Florida Vacation Rentals
Vacation Rentals in the Keys from Key Largo to Key West
Islamorada Hotels
Hotels in the famous village of islands sportfishing capital of the World.
Key Largo Hotels
Hotels in the upper-most Key, Key Largo Diving Capital of the World
Islamorada Key Largo
Information on everything there is to do in the Keys
Tourism Marketing
Market your tourism website trade links wiht other travel sites.
Florida Keys Scuba Diving
Online source for Diving information in the Florida Keys.
Pictures of Flowers - Flower Gallery
Photo Galleries of flowers and information on plants
Payday Loan Online
Get a payday loan for all your vacation needs.
Florida Keys Real Estate
find your dream home in the Florida Keys
maui real estate
find you dream home in Hawaii
Landscape photography
Photos of the rocky mountains and the Adirondacks
cash advance online
Get a cash advance for all you vacation needs
Flower Garden
Photos of Flowers and outdoor gardens
freelance copywriter
Professional website content writers, devoted to composing expert, concise, promotional writing for new and existing websites. Legal Writers and Language Translators on staff.
Albany NY Hotels
Book a room in the city of dreams, lovely Albany NY
Miami Dade- Your Miami
Online guide to the city of Miami
miami hotel reservations
Reserve a hotel in Miami
News Feeds
Bunch of News Feeds, check it out
Ferret Information
Tips on caring for your pet ferret.
------------------------
We are creating the authority on linking at SBO Linknet Network
------------------------
Dry Tortugas
Information on tours and other travel deals.
Nature Photos
Photos of the Outdoors , Adirondack Mountains
Florida Keys Hotels
Booking information on Hotels in the Florida Keys
Key West Hotels
Booking information on Hotels in the Key West
Florida Keys Photos
Photos of the Florda Keys , fishing , wildlife and the 7 Mile Bridge
Marathon Florida Vacation Rentals
Vacation Rentals in the Keys from Key Largo to Key West
Islamorada Hotels
Hotels in the famous village of islands sportfishing capital of the World.
Key Largo Hotels
Hotels in the upper-most Key, Key Largo Diving Capital of the World
Islamorada Key Largo
Information on everything there is to do in the Keys
Tourism Marketing
Market your tourism website trade links wiht other travel sites.
Florida Keys Scuba Diving
Online source for Diving information in the Florida Keys.
Pictures of Flowers - Flower Gallery
Photo Galleries of flowers and information on plants
Payday Loan Online
Get a payday loan for all your vacation needs.
Florida Keys Real Estate
find your dream home in the Florida Keys
maui real estate
find you dream home in Hawaii
Landscape photography
Photos of the rocky mountains and the Adirondacks
cash advance online
Get a cash advance for all you vacation needs
Flower Garden
Photos of Flowers and outdoor gardens
freelance copywriter
Professional website content writers, devoted to composing expert, concise, promotional writing for new and existing websites. Legal Writers and Language Translators on staff.
Albany NY Hotels
Book a room in the city of dreams, lovely Albany NY
Miami Dade- Your Miami
Online guide to the city of Miami
miami hotel reservations
Reserve a hotel in Miami
News Feeds
Bunch of News Feeds, check it out
Ferret Information
Tips on caring for your pet ferret.
------------------------
We are creating the authority on linking at SBO Linknet Network
------------------------
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Automated Link Exchange Update
Last month I expressed some serious concerns about automated link exchange pages. I had installed Link Machine on about 15 sites back in July and August, had spent three months fairly religiously exchanging links with other sites. By December 8/04, I reported that none of the automated link exchange pages on any of my sites (about 15 of them) had acquired any page rank. This made me extremely skeptical about the value of a) automated link exchange pages, and b) link exchanges in general.
As a result I put my link exchange program on hold across the board, pending "new developments". It has been almost a month since then, and until the last couple of days I have essentially ignored link requests, and automated submissions from fellow Link Machine users. The requests have piled up and I have to decide whether to follow up on them, or completely rethink the whole link exchange thing.
Then yesterday I noticed that some of my automated pages had acquired some Page Rank. Most of them are sitting at either PR1 or PR2, which, considering how little effort I've put into developing and promoting them is about what I would expect. It also compares favourably with my manual pages at Trade Show Tips, on which I have done no work at all.
My manual pages at Tradeshow-Display-Experts.com continue to perform the best, with the index page sitting at PR4, and most of the rest at PR3. I actually worked quite a bit on these pages in the late spring and summer, but have ignored them since about August.
Some conclusions:
1. Automated link exchange pages — at least the static kind generated by Link Machine — will eventually acquire PR.
2. They will not do significantly better or worse than manual pages.
3. Having the words "link" or "links" in the file name or page title does not seem to adversely affect the PR of these pages. My highest scoring page is called "links.html". It is a PR4.
Also, I have no test data to confirm this, but I think it follows from basic SEO theory that pages with targeted content — including optimized link and anchor text —will eventually score better than bare bones links pages with nothing on them but lists of unrelated URLs.
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We're going to make SBO Linknet the authority on linking.
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As a result I put my link exchange program on hold across the board, pending "new developments". It has been almost a month since then, and until the last couple of days I have essentially ignored link requests, and automated submissions from fellow Link Machine users. The requests have piled up and I have to decide whether to follow up on them, or completely rethink the whole link exchange thing.
Then yesterday I noticed that some of my automated pages had acquired some Page Rank. Most of them are sitting at either PR1 or PR2, which, considering how little effort I've put into developing and promoting them is about what I would expect. It also compares favourably with my manual pages at Trade Show Tips, on which I have done no work at all.
My manual pages at Tradeshow-Display-Experts.com continue to perform the best, with the index page sitting at PR4, and most of the rest at PR3. I actually worked quite a bit on these pages in the late spring and summer, but have ignored them since about August.
Some conclusions:
1. Automated link exchange pages — at least the static kind generated by Link Machine — will eventually acquire PR.
2. They will not do significantly better or worse than manual pages.
3. Having the words "link" or "links" in the file name or page title does not seem to adversely affect the PR of these pages. My highest scoring page is called "links.html". It is a PR4.
Also, I have no test data to confirm this, but I think it follows from basic SEO theory that pages with targeted content — including optimized link and anchor text —will eventually score better than bare bones links pages with nothing on them but lists of unrelated URLs.
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We're going to make SBO Linknet the authority on linking.
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Monday, January 03, 2005
Is the Page Rank System Fair, Part 2
 | In a previous post I sketched out some of the background of the Page Rank system used by Google. In particular I compared it to the "citation" system used by academics to gauge the importance and relative status of academic researchers and university professors. |
The primary purpose of this series of posts is to demonstrate how "Power Linking" — or what I am now calling "Multi Linking" — is not cheating. Multi-linking — the process of strategically setting out to create multiple links pointing at target sites — might be considered "cheating" if one was to take what I call "an overly moralistic view" of the Page Rank system. In these two articles I explain what I mean by "an overly moralistic view", and why it is not acceptable.
The truth is, I do not spend a lot of time reading forum posts by SEO professionals. But when I do, I get the general impression that many of them take a "path of least resistance" approach to Google because they are very concerned about getting "penalized". On the face of it this would appear to be a prudent course of action. If Google penalization actually happens — e.g., the page rank of one's web site gets removed or downgraded or ranking for specific keywords gets downgraded — because of some tactic deemed to be against the rules, then it would be best to steer clear of such tactics. Especially when you are doing SEO on behalf of clients who trust your judgement.
Some similarities with the athletes-on-steriods debate
In some posts I've read, this argument tends to move from a discussion of strategy to one of ethics, more or less analogous to discussions about steriod use by athletes. In other words, it sounds like a "moral" or "ethical" argument.
From a strictly strategic point of view one would expect athletes like Mark McGwire, Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis, Barry Bonds (and a whole host of others) to make the decision about steriod use strictly from a consideration of its benefits vs risks. But of course there is an ethical dimension that cannot be ignored, and in the minds of most onlookers this dimension is actually paramount. Winners who break the rules are cheaters. End of discussion.
In fact there are at least two layers of ethical considerations going on. On one layer there are explicit rules against certain behaviour. And on another layer there are implicit rules of behaviour that one accepts as a member of the fraternity of athletes. Both of these have an important bearing on what is acceptable ("ethical") and what is not — on deciding who is and who is not a "cheater".
Understanding the dimensions of ethical behaviour is never as easy as the fundamentalists among us pretend. It is easy to say "rules are rules", but the fact of the matter is that rules are usually applied and interpreted in a dynamic context where circumstances are constantly changing. So it is not clear who exactly is abiding by the rules in such a context, because it is not always clear exactly what the rules are. Traffic speed limit laws are another good example of this. Usually police are free to exercise their discretion when applying the rules. Most of us think this is a good thing.
Charlie Francis (Ben Johnson's coach) was about as cold-blooded about this as one can be. He assumed that since virtually all the competitive sprinters of the era were using "performance-enhancing drugs", then it was strategically unwise for an aspiring sprinter not to use them as well. (Whether he was right or wrong in his facts is not really the question here.)
The moralist replies "I have never taken these drugs. I am clean. I will not cheat." And then we find out he or she was lying, or if they were not specifically using these drugs they were using some other practice that was equally against the "spirit" of the rules. The rules had just not caught up with them yet. Or we find out that associations charged with policing the rules were letting their athletes get away with infractions so they would appear to be clean.
So was Charlie Francis right or wrong? Only the fundamentalist who is too dogmatic or too lazy to think the matter through would cling to a simplistic answer.
What does this have to do with Page Rank and SEO?
The relevance of this analogy to Search Engine Optimization techniques will be lost on many of its practitioners. That is because they are too close to the activity to see that SEO is itself an activity meant to skew outcomes in the desired direction — never mind blatant techniques like keyword or link spamming. SEO is already manipulation of text and content in order to speak clearly to the Search Engines.
In other words, SEO involves what we might call "soft" manipulation. The SEO practitioner encourages us to write our text in ways we would not normally do — unnaturally. Soft manipulation is assumed to be acceptable while other "harder" types of manipulation are condemned.
So how do we distinguish between acceptable levels of manipulation and unacceptable ones? Presumably by looking at both the letter and the spirit of the rules and seeing if a certain practice falls within them. And probably understanding the "spirit" of the rules is even more important than focusing on what we think is the letter of the law, since the people at Google play their cards very close to the vest. They do not say: "Here are the rules we are now using", because that would result in even more overt attempts by SEO experts and webmasters to manipulate them.
For the moment, then, let us assume a set of "rules" actually exists. In an important sense the famous Google "algorithms" is a set of rules. But it is not really the algorithms we are after is it? The algorithms are notoriously changeable, and are set up to operate in the service of some more fundamental principles or assumptions. So it must be the set of assumptions behind the algorithms that determine what is "right" and what is "wrong".
It is these general assumptions we are after. They will look something like this:
1. Pages should be ranked according to the "relevance" of their content.
2. "Relevance" is determined quantitatively by the emphasis within a given document on certain terms (keywords and key phrases) related to the subject matter.
3. "Relevance" is determined qualitatively by the extent to which others with similar interests refer to or "cite" a given document, calculated by the frequency with which they "link" to it.
4. Some links will be more valuable than others in determining relevance. Links from important, authoritative sites will be more valuable than links from unimportant, non-authritative sites.
This is essentially the way the Page Rank system was formulated by the founders of Google while still post-graduate students at Stanford. (Find a link to the original document here.)
Where do these rules come from?
Given the significant influence these rules have on the development of the web, and the economic well-being of millions of people who use it to make a living, it seems fair to ask some questions about these rules. Unless we think everyone should be an obedient little Google slave, we surely are justified in asking "Where do these rules come from?", "Why these rules rather than some others?" "Are they fair?", "What assurance do we have the Google is applying them even-handedly?"
I will take up these questions in my next post.
-- Rick Hendershot
Internet Marketing and Web Traffic Generation
Linknet Small Business Marketing Resource Library
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