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Android

2011-11-04T22:25:00.000-07:00

Android

Operating System (OS) made by:
Google, Open Handset Alliance (mostly cellphone manufacturers), and the Open Source community. Android is still being released by Google. It is open source but it is still under strong guidance from Google. It is not the wild wild west like open source Linux that has no central control. Android has the advantage of BOTH open source and central control of a powerful and innovative company.
Phone carrier / network:
Depending on phone manufacturer: You can now choose Android phones from ALL 4 major U.S. networks: T-Mobile (GSM), Sprint (CDMA), Verizon (CDMA), AT&T (GSM) or by a prepaid carrier such as Criket by Leap Wireless (coming in 2010). By February 2010, Android was supported by 60 phone carriers worldwide.

4G data network.

4th generation cellular standard for digital data that is much faster than current 3G network. This give your 4G device a full broadband speed similar to home’s Cable-Modem or DSL connection.

Yes.

If you are with Sprint 4G “Wi-Max” network. Verizon will have its 4G “LTE” network by summer 2011. No word about AT&T. T-Mobile uses a high speed HSPA+ (4G equivalent) network and it is available now.

First cellphone to utilized the 4G capability . (4.3” screen, 1GHz).

Second phone 4G phone will be the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S Pro (4” screen with slideout keyboard) for Sprint.

Hardware design:

HTC, Sony, Motorola, Samsung, LG, Garmin, Dell, Archos, Acer, Asus, Kyocera, and the list is growing.

This is one significant advantage over the iPhone: CHOICES.

Number of phones make and models to choose from (cumulative total):

2007: Number of Android phones = 0

2008: Number of Android phones = 1

2009: Number of Android phones = 8

2010: Number of Android phones = 25

Above total does not include those models that come in different colors or any different models sold outside the U.S. 4 largest network.

Where can I run my apps?

Everywhere.

Manufacturers are making many devices not limited only to cellphones. Android OS is now running in cellphones, tablets, Android cars, HDTV, desktop phones, microwave oven, washing machine, set-top boxes for satellite and cable TV. Hopefully in the near future, we will see this in specialized field such as medical equipment, manufacturing, scientific, aviation, etc.

Text Entry: (Touch-screen or keyboard?)

Both: Touch-screen or slide-out keyboard.

All of them have touchscreen virtual on-screen keyboard but several phones also have a slideout physical keyboard as well.

Some people love the physical keyboard while others don’t. With Android, you have the choice and that choice is yours.

Processor or CPU (Central Processing Unit):

Depending on manufacturer, from 500 MHz ARM Cortex A8 to 528 MHz Qualcomm processor to 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 512 MB of processor’s RAM. This is almost twice the power and speed of the iPhone’s processor.

New upcoming HTC Scorpion is rumored to have either a Qualcomm 1.5GHz, or perhaps the new dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor.

GPU (Graphic Processing Unit):

samsung i9000 running Android can compute 90 million triangles per second.

Adobe Flash:

Yes.

Full support for latest Adobe Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 (Froyo).

Syncing (synchronizing):

Android devices can sync wirelessly, continuously, and to multiple services. It could also sync by plugging in should you choose to do so.

Example, Apps are available to allow user to sync their Android phone to an older Palm Desktop software or Microsoft Exchange server.

Camera resolution:

Most older Android phones support a 3.2 Megapixel camera. It varies from 2 Megapixel (LG Etna) to 5 Megapixel (Motorola DROID) to 8 Megapixel (HTC EVO 4G, HTC Incredible, Motorola DROID X)

Take picture in the dark:

Many phones now come with a built-in LED flash. Some with 2 built-in LED flash like the HTC Incredible.

The new Motorola Milestone XT720 (coming) will have a more powerful Xenon flash found on real cameras.

GPS

Yes, since the first Android phone.

There is a free Android app that allows you to do voice recognition turn-by-turn GPS navigation using Satellite and Street View. You can simply use voice command and say “Navigate to the museum with the King Tut exhibit in San Francisco” and this app will figure it out for you. Don’t need specific address or go through Point-of-Interest list.

Multitasking (ability to run multiple apps at the same time):

Yes from day one (since 2008), on all applications and background services. See below for specific example.

Google Voice:

Allows user to make a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone call over the network connection. This means you can make free long distance and extremely low International calls using local cellular or simply using a Wi-Fi connection. If you rely solely on Wi-Fi, you don't even have to pay for cellular phone bill to make phone calls. In addition to VoIP, Google Voice allows you managed your voice mail and the routing of your phone number.

Between Laptop and Desktop

2009-08-05T22:18:00.000-07:00

The main advantage of a laptop over a desktop is that a laptop is portable. You can take a laptop anywhere with you, so it can be used at any time, although laptops do require a mains adaptor in case the battery runs out. Choosing a laptop with a long battery life may be solve this problem.

Laptops also take up less space, and can look neater than a desktop PC. A laptop may generally be more personal, especially as you can carry it around with you anytime. Desktop PC's seem more suited to family use.

Laptop PC's also have an inbuilt mouse, though you can still choose to use a external mouse if you prefer. Laptop keyboards tend to be more compact and not as bulky as desktop PC keyboards.

The only disadvantage of a laptop PC over a desktop PC is the fact that laptops are much more expensive, so if you're looking for a cheaper option then a desktop PC may be a better choice.

But Laptop computers have come down in price significantly over the past few years, and compared to their desktop cousins, performance of this tier of mobile devices now rivals their larger counterparts. With the major computer manufacturers are becoming increasingly power-conscious, laptop users can now be power users. Increased competition among computer companies like Dell, HP, Toshiba, and Apple, has forced them to lower prices and offer greater flexibility in design and specifications of laptops. Whether you use your laptop to create music, edit movies, or just to check your e-mail, you can custom order a laptop to suit your specific needs.

And now i use laptop, i buy Hewlett-Packard CQ60-220US - Compaq Presario - Black several month ago, Product Description HP Compaq Presario CQ60-220US Notebook features: Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400 2.16GHz - 15.6" WXGA - 2GB DDR2 SDRAM - 250GB HDD - DVD-Writer (DVD-RAM/±R/±RW) - Fast Ethernet, Wi-Fi - Windows Vista Home Premium - Black General Specifications: Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard Manufacturer Part Number: NB048UA#ABA Brand Name: HP Product Line: Presario Product Series: CQ60-200 Product Model: NB048UA Product Name: Compaq Presario CQ60-220US.
It's work well for me, with no complain.
So What do you think desktop or laptop after read this?

10 Of The Best SEO Keyword Selector Tools!

2009-05-08T11:25:00.000-07:00

Using appropriate keywords are immensely crucial to the ranking of the site you are working on. Imagine a site which has the coolest Flash applications, great and unique content, the best products and services. However, without appropriate keywords, it would hardly ever have a good rank in the Google SERPs! And what about domains and keywords listed in them? This is why Keyword selector tools help us in understanding and analyzing the market while also capitalizing on its benefits.

Mentioned below is a list of 10 best keyword selector tools for SEO in alphabetical order:

Ask: Run a search for say, 'Search Engine Optimization' in Ask.com. On the left side of the SERPs, you will find a segment titled 'Narrow Your Search,' that has links to all many search terms related to 'Search Engine Optimization'. Use these as keywords. Ask gives you refined SERPs through searching further with this feature. However, many may find this time-consuming. Also, it does not feature volume of traffic.

Compete: Compete offers three main features Keyword referral, Site referral and Compare sites. Keyword referral tells the most recommended domains for certain search terms and queries. In site referral, you tupe in a domain to find out the most referred phrases or search terms. And, in compare sites, you type in 2 domains to know the comparison for keyword referrals. With compete, you do gain a lot of insight on how your competition is faring but it doesn't give you ideas on how to take advantage of the data you get.

In case you don't have other alternative analysis tools and you do not mind paying up, its good enough. Else, don't.

Digital point's Keyword suggestion Tool: Digital point's Keyword suggestion Tool incorporates the results of both Overture and Wordtracker's free tool. When you type a phrase, say 'Search Engine Optimization,' and press enter, the site returns two tabular lists of both Overture & Wordtracker information. When you think about it, there couldn't have been a better tool as no keyword is better than the one that brings in most traffic as Overture's tool shows daily results while Wordtracker's free tool shows results of every 6 months.

Again, as it feature's Wordtracker's free tool, the results are limited.

Google Adwords Keyword Tool: The Google Adwords Keyword Tool benefits not just Google AdWords advertisers & AdSense publishers but laypeople like us SEO professionals too. As soon as you type a query, say "Search Engine optimization," it gives long tabular list of keyword variations. Okay, no great shakes! Its the next features, that bring home 1st prize- Search volume and average search volume. It shows how the potential keyword you will use is faring in comparison to 'Search Volume' and 'Avg. Search Volume.'

Google Suggest labs: When it first emerged, I thought it was a really nifty tool. Not only does it try to complete the term for you, it also shows the number of results for each keyword. Obviously, it goes without saying that these are helpful keyword alternatives.

As for its disadvantage, Google search toolbar offers almost the same features now.

Google Trends Labs: Type two terms, say "Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Optimisation" in the query box and it gives a graphical representation about those 2 terms. You can put in 5 search terms at one go. You can also find out about the relevance of the search terms as it displays the frequency in which the respective topics have appeared in Google News. Additionally, it also tells in which location, people have searched for them most. Beyond this, it serves no benefits.

The disadvantage is that, only popular terms are served here. Not good if you are looking for a long tail!

Keyword Discovery Tool: Keyword Discovery is one of the more popular keyword selector tools. It has many excellent features and if you are willing to cough up $49.95 per month, you can get over 1800 phrases!

Keyword Discover Tool lets you search specific results of keyword terms in different countries. For eg- A search for 'search engine optimization' in Australia had '9,164' results while in the UK its had just '16'. This tool is helpful if you want to export keyword data and then later import keyword data into other tools that will provide this kind of intelligence.

MS Adlabs Search Funnels: Use this in Internet Explorer and not in Firefox, as more features are available in the former. Type a query and choose from Funnel in or Funnel out. Funnel in will run a search where the results will show all things users searched for before say, typing "Search Engine Optimization". In the outgoing funnel, the results show is a search that starts with the keyword; for example, an outgoing funnel for "Search Engine Optimization" displays all the queries that customers searched after searching for "Search Engine Optimization". The main benefit of Search Funnel is that you can visualize and study behaviour of prospective clients' incoming and outgoing search terms.

Disadvantage is that, it can take long to learn and use.

NicheBot: Nichebot's results combines the intelligence of Overture, Keyword Discovery and Wordtracker. That's not all, besides the aforementioned three, you can perform 3 more searches on Thesaurus, Lateralus and Google ranking. In simple words, for $9.95, you can have results of 6 searches and that is really a good deal.

However, Nichebot can get slow sometimes and it would only be good to use if it was little cheap!

Word Tracker's Free Tool: Granddaddy of all. Wordtracker is home to 340 million search queries. Use it to discover the most appropriate keywords for your website. This even features a misspelling search which helps you find misspelled keywords. This will ensure your website ranks high in SERPs.

The biggest disadvantage is that, its not for free.

Yahoo! Buzz: As the name suggests, Yahoo! Buzz provides readers and everyone with the latest stories, most searched items, top daily searches and the top percentage movers. SEO can take advantage of these features by analyzing the results. This way, you know which domains to register for.

As helpful as it is, remember that it will only benefit you if you are seeking the 'percentage of users searching for that subject' within the US alone.

What do we use at PageTraffic for keyword research? Our favorites are

Ask, Digital point's Keyword suggestion Tool, Google Adwords Keyword Tool, MS Adlabs Search Funnels and Word Tracker.

Keyword Best Practices: the Seven Habits of Highly Successful Search Engine Marketing

2009-05-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

When I first wrote about the seven habits of effective SEM, my primary motivation was to point out that keyword selection was not the end all, be all of SEM. I have seen too many people waste too much of their day trying to come up with that killer ‘long tail’ keyword, instead of spending their time more wisely on other equally important aspects of SEM. Indeed, I sometimes wonder whether keyword selection still deserves to be a top seven SEM technique, since the search engines continue to ramp up their broad matching technology (see, for example, Google’s recent “advanced broad match” announcement and Yahoo’s new terms and conditions which allow them to optimize your accounts for you), making it more and more difficult to find keywords where your competitors are not.

In the end, I concluded that keywords are indeed still important, just not as important as they once were. So here are my best practices for keywords:

1. Create Basic Keywords. Synonyms, action prefixes and suffixes, runons and misspellings, plurals (Google only). Before you start investing in expensive keyword research tools (some of which can cost up to $30,000 a year!), I recommend that you simply brainstorm a basic set of keywords. There are five types of keyword sets that every campaign should have. These are:

a. Root terms. This is the most basic keyword that relates to your campaign. If you are buying keywords for a mortgage lead campaign, this would include words like “mortgage”, “mortgage rates” and “mortgage quotes.”

b. Synonyms. Alternative words that basically mean the same thing as your root terms. Again, thinking about mortgages, this might include “home loans”, “refinancing”, and “home equity.”

c. Action Prefixes and Suffixes. These are words that you can append to the front or back of a root term or suffix that user might type in to further qualify their query. There are two types of prefixes/suffixes: general and category-specific. A general prefix would be something like “buy”, “find”, or “best.” A category-specific prefix might include a geographic region, a qualifying statement “bad credit”, or a commercial name like “Wells Fargo.” Note that the most generic prefixes and suffixes (like “the”) have now been almost entirely broad-matched out of existence, so if you see a prefix or suffix getting no traffic, this may be the reason (and you should probably delete that keyword to clean up your account).

d. Run-ons and Misspellings. Like generic prefixes and suffixes, the utility of run-ons and misspellings is much less than it once was. Still, you can sometimes get a few cheap clicks by creating words like “mortgagerates” and “refiancing.” You should put these in their own ad groups, especially if you are using dynamic keyword insertion (DKI) in your ad text. I recommend that you don’t get too carried away with run-ons and misspellings – you should limit this practice to the highest volume keywords in your account.

e. Plurals. There can be significantly different user behavior on a singular versus plural keyword (see further discussion below). As such, you need to make sure that all of your top keywords include both iterations. Note that this is not necessary for Yahoo, as Yahoo does not differentiate between singular and plural.

If you create five root terms, five synonyms, 10 prefixes and suffixes, and use plurals, this will result in a list of 200 keywords. Add in another 20 misspellings and you are up to 220 keywords. Add in all 50 states, specific cities, and combining prefixes and suffixes on the same keyword, and you can see how these five simple rules can quickly build a keyword set for you without ever touching a fancy keyword tool!

2. Don’t Overdo It. While it may be true that the keyword “Pacifica California Subprime Refinancing Interest Rates Mortgage Companies” will not be specifically purchased by many of your competitors, it is no longer true that you alone will show up on this keyword should you be the only one to buy it. As I have noted numerous times in the past, the search engine “broad matching” algorithms have gotten increasingly better at aggregating tail keywords into the same auctions with head terms.

In the past, there were two advantages to tail terms – first, that you could show up by yourself on that keyword (no longer the case with broad matching), and second, that you could improve your click through rate (CTR) for that specific query and pay less for high position. The second may still be true to a limited degree, but you aren’t going to be able to pay $.10 on a six token (word) keyword phrase and outperform a big competitor paying $5.00 on a head keyword.

Moreover, Google has explicitly stated that keywords beyond five tokens will be automatically considered “low quality” by their Quality Score algorithm. The rationale behind this (which I don’t necessarily buy, by the way) was recently summarized as follows:

“very long phrases and very low volume keywords well down the long tail are not necessarily an advantage to a marketer, as they don’t reflect how “real users” normally search. The sweet spot of the long tail is 2-to-4-word phrase. 5-8 word phrases, not so much. Among other things, Google will have such limited data on these, they have no choice but to assign slightly worse quality scores to them.”

The other hidden danger of millions of obscure keywords is the risk of either slow bleeds or sudden keyword explosions. A slow bleed occurs when you have 50 or 100 keywords costing you $2 or $3 a month. These keywords fly below the radar but gradually can cost you thousands of dollars a year. Unless you have a bid management system that has the ability to cluster similarly-situated keywords, you are unlikely to discover these bleeders.

A sudden explosion occurs when one of your random long-tail keywords is suddenly matched on a major search, or a news event causes that keyword to get a spike in traffic. As an example, a few years ago I bought the word “Pope mortgage”, which happens to be the name of a city with the word mortgage appended to the end. When Pope John Paul II died, this keyword received a huge rush of unprofitable clicks in a short time.

All this being said, there is still value to the long tail. For most non-retailers (i.e., companies that don’t have thousands of products for sale), a good rule of thumb is to have somewhere between 500 and 5000 keywords in your account. If, however, you find yourself patting yourself on the back for having developed three million keywords, you are living in the past and need to start living in 2008!

3. Keep Them Targeted. Although Google allows 2000 keywords in an ad group, this does not mean you should strive to pack as many keywords into as few ad groups as possible. Indeed, in most instances, you will be better served by having few keywords in many ad groups. There are two primary reasons for narrowly targeted ad groups: CTR and Quality Score. Your CTR will increase if your keywords are closely related to your ad text. Segmenting similar keywords into well-defined ad groups enables you to create very relevant ad text.

Your Quality Score will also benefit from well-defined ad groups. Google rewards advertisers who send a targeted keyword to a targeted ad text to a targeted landing page. When you combine a better Quality Score and higher CTR, you have solved two of the three factors that impact your position on Google (the other being max CPC). This can enable you to pay a lot less than your competitors for the same keywords.

Just to be clear, you could take this targeting approach to the extreme by literally having a one-to-one relationship between a keyword and an ad group. If you have the ability to automatically create relevant ad text and automatically make bid adjustments, this might makes sense. If you are doing most of your work manually, however, the management costs associated with thousands of ad groups may not be worth the effort.

4. Track at the Keyword Level. Keywords are the DNA of your SEM campaigns. As such, you need to measure their performance on a keyword by keyword basis. Whenever I see a tracking URL that reads www.domain.com/?campaign=GoogleAdWords I know that the campaign is not being properly optimized. Individual keywords will vary tremendously in terms of performance. I often use the example of the word “mortgage rate” and “mortgage rates” to prove this point. Someone who types in “mortgage rate” is most likely looking for today’s current mortgage rate; someone who types in “mortgage rates” is looking to get multiple mortgage quotes. Depending on your business, the conversion rate between these two keywords can vary dramatically.

5. Test Match Types. Google offers three match types – broad, phrase, and exact – and you should make a point to test keywords on all of these match types. In most cases you will find that your exact match keyword has the highest conversion rate but also costs you the most with the least amount of traffic, and that the exact opposite is true for broad match. But every account is different and you need to test performance for your specific campaign. Note that I don’t count match types as part of the total number of keywords in your campaign – in other words, if you have 5000 keywords but you match each of these three times, your account would have a total of 15,000 keywords, which I still think is acceptable without “overdoing it.”

6. Be Negative. The number one mistake I see novice search marketers make is not paying enough attention to negative keywords. As the search engines continue to push the limits of broad matching, your best defense against getting a lot of unproductive clicks is to buy tons and tons of negative keywords. There are two ways to create negative keywords. The first way is to create a generic list of negatives that will apply to almost any keyword. This could include words like “lawsuit, complaint, refund, scam, do it yourself, free, sex, UK, etc” – this will vary of course depending on your business.

The second way to create negative keywords is to use the Google keyword tool and look for words that might be semantically related to your product but are in actuality not at all related. A funny example of this would be to exclude the word “one” from an advertisement for “night stands” that are used for bedroom furniture. I consider the creation of negative keywords to be just as important as the creation of actual keywords.

Keyword Research Techniques - The Strategy to Get High Ranking Keyword With Less Competition

2009-05-05T23:30:00.000-07:00

At the end of article you would have learned the techniques and strategies for getting the best keywords in less time. Assuming you are into article marketing or even PPC, then I guess you will need to perform plenty of keyword research. There is need for you to do a thorough and prolonged keyword research in order to evaluate the campaign of your competitors, creating a number of keywords for the niche of your choice and discovering new niches or even the product of your choice.

As someone who is into these, I must tell you that keyword research takes a lot of time and it can even take up to a month or more to get the required keyword for your internet business, niche or campaign. But if you use a keyword research tool, you are assured of getting your result in a fast manner and most importantly you will get the targeted and less competitive in the niche of your choice.

All over the internet, there are varieties of keyword research tool, some of them are AdWord Analyzer, Wordtracker, Keyword Elite, Micro Niche Finder or even HitTail, etc. But the question here is: are they worth your hard earned money? Investing your money into some keyword research can be a waste of money and time.

As for me, one of the best keyword research tools I recommend is micro niche finder. I find it handy, easy and the results I get leads to profitable niches. This is due to it has varieties of features and functions which other keyword research tools don't have.

Are you into article marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, AdSense or SEO or even affiliate marketing, you need this software in order to skyrocket your earning. It will be able to evaluate your competitors PPC campaign, create a big list of profitable keywords quick and it will even save you time, so you won't invest all of your time doing manual keyword research. You just type the keyword of your choice and it will return thousands of similar keyword, both long and short tail keywords.

If you are into internet marketing and you haven't got this tool yet, then now is the time you should get it in order to fill the gap where you are not doing well.

Keyword Research Techniques and Strategies

Assuming you are into marketing a niche about an acne product. Let's say you want perform a search using the keyword "cure acne". Most people will just plug in the keyword "cure acne" in the search box for the keyword stuffing. As someone who is very experienced in this, the best way to get the top keywords out of this is to simply plug in the keyword "acne" in the search box. It will return similar keywords that pertains to acne both relevant and irrelevant ones. You should keep a pen and paper by your side for this. Glance through the result of the acne and select the words that pertain to curing acne like cure acne, treat acne, stop acne, fight acne, acne remedy, acne relieve, deal with acne, overcome acne and acne help etc. These keywords listed above are the keywords for solving a problem, avoid keywords like symptoms of acne, causes of acne etc. Though they are useful, as you are marketing a product about the remedy of a disease it is better to be more targeted here. Still plug the keywords I listed above.

If you continue plugging the keywords and searching them you will end up getting long tail keywords with little competition. You should get Micro Niche Finder, it is the best keyword for uncovering this little and hot niches.

Use High-Ranking and Relevant Keywords

2009-05-05T23:26:00.000-07:00

If you want targeted traffic, then create several web pages, each focusing on just one or two high ranking keywords. The pages should contain high quality and relevant content. Such pages are liked by the search engines and your web pages will rank much higher in the SERP for their keywords because they contain targeted content.
You will thus have many high ranking web pages for different high-ranking keywords instead of having a single page containing plenty of keywords.
If you are selling products and services, then create a unique page for each product and service with its own specific keywords. In this way, you can create targeted traffic for every product and service separately.
This means more targeted traffic to your website, each traffic coming from a unique set of keywords, and possibly more avenues of online income. The other advantage of this method is that, you will have more high-ranking pages in the search engines for the given keywords.

Google PageRank (PR) vs. Alexa Traffic Rank Correlation (Regression) Analysis

2009-05-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

Abstract: a statistical study (regression analysis) of a random sample of 102 websites has shown that a strong relationship (correlation) exists between Google PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank.

Introduction

Google PageRank (GPR) and Alexa Traffic Rank (ATR) are two different measures of a website's success. As you know (shame on you if you don't), simply speaking, GPR measures the number of links to the site, while ATR measures the site's traffic. (Official detailed descriptions of these two indicators are available at Google Technology and Alexa Help pages.)

Correlation between ATR and GRP has become my concern after I visited two websites in a row, namely CSS Zen Garden and Mail.ru. The first one, a specialized CSS design project, has Google Page Rank of 8 and Alexa Traffic Rank of over 13 thousand. The second one, a huge Russian portal, had Page Rank of 6, yet ranked 23^rd in Alexa! The question occured, «does traffic affect link popularity?» Interestingly, although Mail.ru is a much more popular portal, CSS Zen Garden obviously had much more quality links pointing to it. This phenomenon can be explained with a look at the nature of CSS Z.G.; the site is oriented at designers, who are likely to have a site and give direct links. Users of Mail.ru, on the other hand, are mortals that want free email, videos, chat, news, etc, and are less likely to put links to the site.

Here is a comparative table:

Site            |  GPR  |   ATR
--------------------------------
CSS Zen Garden  |   8   | 13,138
Mail.ru         |   6   |   23

This difference between the actual real popularity of a portal and the quality links pointing to it created this desire in me to test the statistical correlation between the inbound links and traffic, measured by Google PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank respectively.

A copy of the original spreasheet is available, yet it does not contain graphs and charts.

The sample

The sample for this analysis consisted of 102 randomly picked websites. I tried to pick sites for this analysis as randomly as possible: I caught myself quering Google for such phrases that I would never ask for, such as "knitting", "nothing", "rotting" and other crazy queries. I tried to randomize the sample as much as I could. Yet I understand that there was a bias, because I was the only one who picked sites.

Many websites from the sample I like and visit daily, yet others I don't even know. To get some of the lower quality sites, I went to a lousy web design studio, and simply randomly clicked sites from their portfolio (most clone-looking 0-2 PR sites are their masterpieces). Note that there was a chance of humar error; my Google Toolbar might have malfunctioned or I could have simply overlooked the value. Complete list of websites is also available.

T-distribution (or Student's T distribution) table I used for my analysis offers .... 70, 80, 100, 150 ... degrees of freedom, among others. The key fact is that it does not offer 98 degrees of freedom. This information is important, since the formula I used needs n-2 degrees of freedom, where n is the sample size. Thus, I used exactly 102 observations purposefully (last two added later) so that I could find the accurate tabular values in Student's T distribution table (so that I deduct 2 from my sample and arrive at 100).

Each sample value (site) had three parameters (dimentions), namely URL, GPR, and ATR. In the initial spreadsheet, each observation also has an ID number and the date of measurement. (Please note, that some of the sites I am sure have changed since the study! Few of the them I run/manage/own/develop. Note the date of measurement.)

Google PageRank Distribution

Normally distributed! From GPR point of view, the sample was almost perfectly distributed, representing the bell-shaped curve. As you can see from the diagram, there was a very little skewness to the right. Mean average was 5.05 and median 5, with dispertion of 7. The coefficient of skewness was as low as 0.06, which means that the sample was quite normally distributed.

For the histogram above, I have chosen each of the 11 PageRank values for each class (exactly 11, not 10, remember that zero is also a separate value).

Alexa Traffic Rank Distribution

For Alexa TR, the distribution was much less normal. The entire sample was significantly skewed right, with as much as 73% observations representing one eighth of the possible values. This vast majority encompassed sites within the first 1,500,000 positions in the rank.

With mean average of 1,245,677.471 and meadian of 109,922, the sample had huge dispersion of 5351667608993.28, range of 10,960,325, and skewness coefficient of 1.47. I have divided the entire sample into 8 classes, with 1,500,000 as a class step, altogether ranging from 0 to 12,000,000.

Obviously, vast majority of the websites from the sample belonged to a minority group, which is a limitation of the study. I should have either gathered sites that were all in the top 2M range, or gathered more lower quality sites.

Analysis and methods

The initial idea was to test whether the ATR actually correlates to GPR. Thus, the null hypothesis H₀ was, «no relationship exists between traffic popularity measured by Alexa Traffic Rank and link popularity measured by Google Page Rank». The alternative hypethesis H_f was, «there is a correlation between Google PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank». The purpose of the study was to reject the null hypothesis and to prove there truly is a correlation between the two site success indicators. (I must remind that the initial CSS vs. Mail encounter that pushed me toward this analysis showed that there was hardly any correlation between these indicators.)

Simple regression analysis and t-distribution significance test was used for the study.

Regression analysis

The two arrays of data (each of 102 observations) showed rather high negative correlation. The ultimate r (correlation coefficient) was equal to -0.5. The best fit line's equation was y = -439630,50x + 3469690,61. I had Alexa TR on the Y axis (and Google PR on X axis, respectively).

The data points are concentrated vertically at the 11 imaginary lines of PageRank values, because Google's rank only has 11 possible values. This phenomenon creates huge gaps in this discrete data array. Still, the tendency is obvious! There is a strong visible correlation between the two sets of data.

Hypothesis testing (significance test)

Regardless of the visual correlation, I had to test whether this was a chance occurrence, or a statistically significant phenomenon. As I mentioned earlier, I used t-distribution for significance test. The test statistic was r/√[(1-r²)/(n-2)], where r is the regression coefficient and n is the sample size. The number of degrees of freedom is n-2. I used standard significance level α=0.05. The table value of t_{0.05; 100df} appeared 1.984. Thus, with a two-tailed test, if the absolute value of the calculated value of t is greater than the absolute value of tabular t, I can reject the null hypothesis (hypotheses are described above). The calculated value of t was -5.83125. |-5.83125| is greater than |1.984|, and therefore we reject the null hypothesis, and prove that there is statistical significance to claim that correlation between Google PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank truly exists and is not a random chance phenomenon.

Outliers and interesting observations

Two potential outliers are at the top of the graph; one at point [6; ~11,000,000] and the other one (yet less likely to be considered an outlier) at [3; ~10,400,00]. These two, however, are potential graphical outliers, visible with the naked eye.

Three questionable points, which are not that visible, yet are very hard to believe in, are concentrated near the origin. Especially the one right next to the origin (the bottom point on the Y axis), which is a website with zero Page Rank, yet relatively high traffic. This is an interesting phenomenon, which shows a popular website, with nearly no inlinks. (The site is Red Bean, and at the date measurement on Nov 29th, 2007, it had 0 PR and 27,214 ATR. Yet, at the moment of writing this article, I see it has PR of 7.)

Conclusion

Regardless of the limitations of the test, the study showed very strong relationship between Google PR and Alexa Traffic Rank.

If you notice errors of typos, please leave a comment. The copy of the original spreadsheet is available at Google Spreadsheets.

What Does Your Alexa Rank Mean?

2009-05-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

Alexa is a funny little ranking engine. Your fluctuations in rank can be pretty dramatic until Alexa gets a handle on your site.

They have changed their algorithm to, supposedly, better reflect and predict all your traffic. This means they no longer depend on simply guestimating your rank based on Alexa toolbar users who visit your site.

After the update I went from 32,000 to 60,000+ and now I believe they rank me well over 100,000. Yet, my traffic continues to grow.

The important thing to remember is that Alexa is one of several indicators of your site’s traffic health. Of course, you know the exact number of uniques you get each day from your own stats. That’s the main indicator, above all else, you should use to gauge how you’re doing.

It is quite possible Alexa doesn’t know enough about the traffic that is hitting your site because it is too low at this point to estimate more accurately in their rankings.

With the traffic level you have now, my focus would be on more marketing, deeply important and interesting posts (linkbait) for your niche, more commenting and networking on other blogs and social sites, and link building.

Regardless of the quirks in Alexa’s particular ranking system, you want to set a benchmark of a solid 100 visitors per day and then shoot for 500, 1000 and beyond.

Eventually Alexa should reflect this progress in their rankings.

There's More to SEO than Rankings

2009-05-04T01:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions in SEO is that ranking at Google and Yahoo is all that counts in search engine optimization. Potential clients come to me with a single goal: "Get me a top-ten ranking at Google." Some will also mention MSN, and a few will rhyme off a list of search engines and want to rank well at the top 200 of them.

It is time to separate fact from fiction.

Yes, I can get you a top-ten placement at Google. But...

If the placement is for "dirty brown shoes", it probably won't help your shoe store one bit, even if I get you the first place ranking. Few people are actually searching for that term.
Being number ten might not help much either, depending on the term. People searching for "Essential Nectar liquid vitamins", will probably click on the first result they see, or at least on one of the "above-the-fold" results that do not require scrolling. On the other hand, someone searching for "liquid vitamins" might check through two pages of results to familiarize herself with the options available.
If your title tag reads like a cheap list of search terms, it will not be enticing. For instance, if it reads: "vitamins, liquid vitamins, multivitamins, multi-vitamins", you might skip over it in favor of the next result that reads "Liquid vitamins from the Liquid Vitamin Supplements Store".
If your description tag is a mess, people will more likely skip over your listing, even if it does rank number one, in favor of one that sounds like what they are looking for. Google and others use the description tag usually when the term searched for is found in it, so make sure to include your key search terms in a description tag that actually reads well.

Predicting traffic from SEO results

I recently responded to a forum question, which went something like this: My site ranks number one for this term at this engine. The term is searched this many times per day, and the engine has this percentage marketshare. Can I expect this many visitors?

That's not an SEO challenge; that's a math problem: searches x marketshare = visitors

I responded with a few factors that override mathematics in the SEO game, including the site's title tag and description tag, as well as whether the term lends itself to scrolling. I also pointed out that it depends on the title tags and description tags of the competition, too.

Another factor that makes predicting traffic difficult is the abandonment factor - how many people click on none of the results because they get interrupted or confused, or abandon the search for a new one because they find themselves off-topic or searching too broadly.

It also depends on how many sponsored links there are and how they are marked. Often at Yahoo and Lycos, for example, there are so many ads that the average searcher might never scroll a screen or two to see the organic (natural) results.

And, of course, it also depends on the color of the walls in the room the searcher is clicking from, the weather outside and how well they slept last night. But there is little you can do about that.

What you can do is to work with your SEO consultant to choose the most effective search terms for your business and make sure he develops a title tag and description tag that sell to both humans and the search engines. Then make sure he is monitoring not just the rankings for your key search terms, but also the description used by each of the search engines.

A good ranking at Google and Yahoo is just one measure of your SEO consultant's success. A more complete evaluation is that he is your partner in building long-term, targeted traffic

The Fatal Attraction of Online Marketers

2009-05-03T01:06:00.000-07:00

Suppose you were offered 263 links coming into your website from 263 other websites all in one fell swoop. Everybody knows that the more inbound links you have, the higher you will rise in the search engine rankings.

Suppose further that these were real links from real websites that actually sold real products and services - no cheap FFAs throwing come-ons on a street corner on the bad side of town.

Suppose further that this offer included the reciprocal linking code for all 263 sites that just had to be cut and pasted into your website. Piece of cake.

Does it get any sexier than this? Are you drooling yet? Does the sweet perfume of "ka-ching!" float around your head? Is this love at first site?

Well, no, it's actually a fatal attraction, one you had best resist. One that could infect your website with deadly communicable diseases.

I resisted this very offer not long ago, and you should resist anything similar. Here's why:

The link pages on these sites are essentially link farms. The more links on a page, the less value they have in a search engine's eyes, especially when you start approaching or even passing 100 links. And don't expect any direct traffic from this kind of link, either.
There is a technical term for identical pages within a site or on multiple sites. It is called "duplicate content", and it is strictly verboten by the search engines. Here is what Google says about them: "Don't create multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with substantially duplicate content."
Do some quick math. You have 289 outgoing links, 263 of them are labeled "bad neighborhood websites" by the search engines ... so bad that they might even have been banned. What do you think will happen to your rankings?

Sadly, many webmasters fall for such tantalizing come-ons without thinking carefully about what the repercussions might be.

There is a lot of truly bad advice floating around the Internet on how to trick the search engines or find a short-cut to high rankings. This is one example of how following poor advice and hopping into bed with the wrong partner could kill your business.

Here is a good rule of thumb. Two's company. Three's a crowd. Four or more will get you arrested. OK, so I just made that up, and it's not very elegant. But it will keep you from falling for that inevitable offer with the come-hither eyes and the deadly communicable disease.

Three things you should NEVER do in SEO

2009-05-02T01:05:00.000-07:00

Three things you should NEVER do
(even if some slick-talking "expert"
tells you it will cost you only $499
and will guarantee you gaggles of customers)

A webmistress asked me recently how much I would charge to optimize her site for the search engines. I took a glance at her site, and the first thing I found was a hidden link to an association she was part of.

I asked her why the link was there. She told me it was "for the search engines." It never ceases to amaze me how much really bad - I mean absolutely horrible - advice is floating around the Internet.

She never did hire me, but she did walk away with one free piece of advice that I now share with you: "Remove that link ASAP." Hidden links and hidden text are big trouble and something you should never do.

A hidden link is simply a link the search engine robots would follow, but is not visible to the naked eye. It could be a one pixel by one pixel graphic the same color as the background. Hidden text could be keyword written in the same color as the background.

If a search engine detects text in the same color as the background, it might penalize or even ban your site. In fact, one search engine expert has even suggested that if your background is, say, white, and you have a black table with white text on your page, that search engines would read that as hidden text (white background, white text) even though the text is clearly visible in the black table. Hmm. I will have to revisit my own site's colors.

Why are hidden links and hidden text bad? Because they try to cheat the rules. Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.

Duplicate pages are also a no-no. Search engines like original content made for human visitors. Five pages with the same article are seen as spamming, even if you did change "bicycle repair" to "fix your bike" in the second version and to "bike repair" in the third.

I was asked to exchange links with four websites this one person owned. The sites are very wholesome and I believe the webmaster is too. But the link pages on each website are identical: same introductory text and same links in the same order with identical wording each. All it would take is one complain to get all four sites banned, or at very least, severely demoted at Google and other search engines.

Needless to say, I turned down the offer, so that my site would not be associated with a "bad neighborhood".

Why are duplicate pages bad? Because they try to cheat the rules. Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.

Doorway pages are also bad. A doorway page is a page carefully designed to do well on search engine results, but is never meant to be used by humans. Often there is then a link to a website or there is some form of redirect.

Why not just optimize your site for the keywords you want, rather than try to trick the search engines? It probably will cost you less to hire a good search engine optimizer, and your website will not get banned.

I was approached by someone offering a combination of doorway pages and link farming (another no-no!). He did not call them by those names, even insisting they were not doorway pages. He wanted a few hundred dollars a month. There's nothing like your friendly neighborhood mortician coming to call when business is slow and bearing his own special brew for you to sample.

Why are doorway pages bad? Because they try to cheat the rules. Cheating is bad, and search engines do not like playing with cheaters.

By the way, "doorway pages" should not be confused with "entry pages". I get lots of my traffic entering through one or another of my articles. But these are real articles with real content, designed for human eyes and optimized for the search engines. This is a good tactic, because it adds content (which is what search engines are looking for).

Hidden links and text, duplicate pages and doorway pages are just a few of the "clever" tactics that can land you in the "Search Engine Slammer". If you spend much time on the Internet, you'll be approached about many others sooner or later.

Here is a simple question to ask yourself: "Would this be helping the search engines deliver the best results, or would it be trying to cheat their rules?" If it feels a little funny, don't try it. Or ask someone who knows.

Search engines are your friends. Be nice to them, and they'll be nice to you. You might just land yourself a berth atop Mount Google.

SEO: Google's Next Big Move archive copy

2009-05-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

By David Leonhardt

(Will your website be ready, or will you be playing catch-up six months too late?

November 2003 might go down in history as the month that Google shook a lot of smug webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists from the apple tree. But more than likely, it was just a precursor of the BIG shakeup to come.

Google touts highly its secret PageRank algorithm. Although PageRank is just one factor in choosing what sites appear on a specific search, it is the main way that Google determines the "importance" of a website.

In recent months, SEO specialists have become expert at manipulating PageRank, particularly through link exchanges.

There is nothing wrong with links. They make the Web a web rather than a series of isolated islands. However, PageRank relies on the naturally "democratic" nature of the web, whereby webmasters link to sites they feel are important for their visitors. Google rightly sees link exchanges designed to boost PageRank as stuffing the ballot box.

I was not surprised to see Google try to counter all the SEO efforts. In fact, I have been arguing the case with many non-believing SEO specialists over the past couple months. But I was surprised to see the clumsy way in which Google chose to do it.

Google targeted specific search terms, including many of the most competitive and commercial terms. Many websites lost top positions in five or six terms, but maintain their positions in several others. This had never happened before. Give credit to Barry Lloyd of SearchEngineGuide.com for cleverly uncovering the process.

For Google, this shakeup is just a temporary fix. It will have to make much bigger changes if it is serious about harnessing the "democratic" nature of the Web and neutralizing the artificial results of so many link exchanges.

Here are a few techniques Google might use (remember to think like a search engine):

Google might start valuing inbound links within paragraphs much higher than links that stand on their own. (For all we know, Google is already doing this.) Such links are much less likely to be the product of a link exchange, and therefore more likely to be genuine "democratic" votes.
Google might look at the concentration of inbound links across a website. If most inbound links point to the home page, that is another possible indicator of a link exchange, or at least that the site's content is not important enough to draw inbound links (and it is content that Google wants to deliver to its searchers).
Google might take a sample of inbound links to a domain, and check to see how many are reciprocated back to the linking domains. If a high percentage are reciprocated, Google might reduce the site's PageRank accordingly. Or it might set a cut-point, dropping from its index any website with too many of its inbound links reciprocated.
Google might start valuing outbound links more highly. Two pages with 100 inbound links are, in theory, valued equally, even if one has 20 outbound links and the other has none. But why should Google send its searchers down a dead-end street, when the information highway is paved just as smoothly on a major thoroughfare?
Google might weigh a website's outbound link concentration. A website with most outbound links concentrated on just a few pages is more likely to be a "link-exchanger" than a site with links spread out across its pages.

Google might use a combination of these techniques and ones not mentioned here. We cannot predict the exact algorithm, nor can we assume that it will remain constant. What we can do is to prepare our websites to look and act like a website would on a "democratic" Web as Google would see it.

For Google to hold its own against upstart search engines, it must deliver on its PageRank promise. Its results reflect the "democratic" nature of the Web. Its algorithm must prod webmasters to give links on their own merit. That won't be easy or even completely possible. And people will always find ways to turn Google's algorithm to their advantage. But the techniques above can send the Internet a long way back to where Google promises it will be.

The time is now to start preparing your website for the changes to come.

Five SEO Tips To Improve

2009-05-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

By David Leonhardt

"Dear David: I just created a website on baby toy safety. What should I do to make sure gazillions of people find me through the search engines?"

I can't promise you gazillions, but there are a few things you should do to make it easy for search engines to find you. I assume you have already decided to submit your site to the major search engines and directories. I assume that you will develop some sort of linking strategy (hopefully a better strategy than most websites use today). I also assume you will have picked key search terms for all the pages on your website.

Beyond that, here are my top five tips for making your website easy for those "gazillions" to find it.

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but search engines don't read pictures. Make sure your key search terms are written out in text, not part of a graphic title you hire somebody to prepare for you. That also means you should not just show pictures of toys, but also write out the names, and possibly a keyword description with the title.
Have several pages of articles related to your website's topic. Use a different keyword search term for each article. For instance, one article might use frequently the term "safe toys for babies", while another might use the term "baby safety".
What's the URL of your website? Your name won't help you there. Your key search term will. In this instance, I might pick www.baby-toy-safety.com, for example (if that is one of your top keyword phrases). Hire somebody who knows what he is doing to develop the right keyword strategy for you BEFORE you choose your domain name.
What's the title of your page? I don't know how many times I see titles such as "Article" or "Contact us". Don't expect the search engine robots to get all excited about that term. And don't expect anybody to search for that term, either. Much better to title your page "Free article on safe toys for babies" or "Contact the *Baby Toy Expert* today". By the way, this is the single most important place to include your keyword phrases.
What about that navigation menu that appears on every single page of your website? Does it say "Contact the baby toy expert?" Or "about the baby toy expert". Or links about baby toys?" Need I say more?

If your website is about life insurance, you have little hope of hitting the front pages of any search engine. "Life insurance" is such a competitive search engine marketplace. Unless, of course, people are searching for a very specific and rare niche. Even then, I suspect you will need much more than these five tips.

In fact, there are dozens, if not hundreds of things you can do to win the search engine race. These top five search engine optimization tips are a great start, whatever your website is about.

How Search Engines Connect

2009-05-01T01:03:00.001-07:00

Maggie knows how to find what she wants. She lets her fingers do the walking - not in the Yellow Pages, but at Google.com. She wants to learn about bread baking, and you have just written Bread Baking Made Simple, and you sell some great baking tools. The good news is the Google and other search engines exist for one simple reason: to help Maggie find your website.

Google will show Maggie 534,000 resources on "bread baking". Unless she fails to find what she wants on the first page, or top 10 results, she will never find your website listed 124th in the results. (Actually, if she does not find what she wants in the top twenty or thirty results, she is likely to refine her search to "easy bread baking" or "home bread baking").

How do you get into the top 10 results so Maggie can find your website? You might have heard a lot about "search engine optimization" and "ranking analysis" and "algorithms". It all sounds very complex, but it really works on a simple 1 - 2 - 3 principle.

A search engine will show Maggie only resources (websites) it has on record. So make sure to submit your site to the key search engines and directories. You do not need to hire somebody who will charge you big dollars to do this. Nor should you fall for any of the auto-submit software or services. This should be done by hand, and anybody can do it. You can do it yourself.
The search engine will rank highest those websites it feels are most "important". This means you have to show that your website is most important. There are a few simple things you can do. First, make sure you have content. Text content equals importance on the Internet. Links, both coming in and going out, are key. Connectivity equals importance on the Internet. Get listed in the major directories (DMOZ.com, Yahoo.com, Zeal.com, JoeAnt.com, etc.), as this also is a measure of importance.
The search engine will show Maggie the most "relevant" high-ranking resources. Google might rank http://TheHappyGuy.com relatively very high, but it is totally irrelevant to a search for bread baking. How does a search engine know which websites are most relevant for Maggie's search? By the number of times "bread baking" shows up in text on your web page. By the variety of ways it shows up on your page. By number web pages you link to and that link to you with the words "bread baking" included.

Are you ready to roll? Possibly. Some of this you can easily do yourself. But there are three places that are worth spending money to help all the Maggies out there find your website and your book.

The first is choosing the right keywords. It might look simple, but "bread baking" might not even be the best keyword phrase to focus on. It might be "easy bread baking" or "home bread baking". The most searched terms might not be the best, nor the term with the least competition.

The second is to prepare a link strategy. The "link exchange" pages that are getting more popular each day are also becoming less effective each day. Here are just a few of the linking factors that will affect whether Maggie discovers your book:

The total number of incoming and outgoing links
The importance of the sites you link to and from
The relevancy of the sites you link to and from
Which pages on their sites and on yours are being linked
What you include in the incoming and outgoing links
Where on the page the links are placed
How many links are on those pages
How many pages are linked to or have outgoing links
The ratio of links to content on the pages involved

You can implement the strategy yourself, but it is worth hiring somebody to put it together for you. Ask the person what factors she would consider when building a strategy for you. If she does not mention several of the above, your money is better spent elsewhere.

The third place to invest is to have somebody knowledgeable review your html code. Chances are that you have missed numerous opportunities to let the search engines know your website is relevant, and possibly some opportunities to show it is important.

When Babies Goes To Travel

2009-03-17T08:21:00.000-07:00

These simple tips will help you manage your baby gear before
and after you board the airplane and make the entire air travel
experience more pleasant for you and your baby.
Just how are you supposed to make your plane
when you have to haul a baby, car seat, stroller, diaper bag,
carry on bag and more through the airport?
Air travel with baby isn't always easy,
and some of the struggles start before you ever board the plane.

The Car Seat Travel
Car seats are sometimes available for rent,
but you never know what the quality will be on a rental seat,
and the car seat may have been in an accident, allways take my Safety 1st Alpha Omega Elite Convertible Car Seat for my baby
Better safe than sorry

Buy Baby A Seat
I suggest buying baby a ticket and using a car seat on the airplane, no matter the age.
Babies who aren't in car seats can be injured when a parent can't hold on during severe turbulence.
If your flight isn't full, you may be able to take the car seat and use it without buying a ticket,
if seats are available.

Carry On Bags and Diaper Bags
One carry on bag that serves the role of purse,
briefcase and diaper bag is the most pared down choice for air travel.
My favorite Black Backpack Diaper Bag that I can share with baby.
A backpack is easy to carry when your arms are otherwise occupied,
and easily holds diapers, snacks, airline tickets,
identification and even a spare outfit for baby.
Most importantly, a backpack holds plenty of baby gear
and still meets most airline requirements for carry on baggage size.

Strollers An Important things for Travel
did you didnt have a stollers for your baby?, check here for my favorite stoller
Even the smallest babies feel heavy after a long time in your arms,
and toddlers often decide they can't walk any longer at the most inconvenient times.
A stroller solves these problems.
Most infant car seats snap onto a travel system stroller,
making it simple to take both along for the trip.
Otherwise, a lightweight stroller with a carrying strap is easy to haul around,
and might help you make a connecting flight if your toddler's legs give out.

Special Travel Gear for Baby
If you're preparing for a long trip, or you travel a lot, invest in some top of the line baby travel gear to lessen travel hassles. Car seat and stroller combinations let you wheel baby right to the plane and board. Add a set of travel straps to baby's regular car seat and wear it like a backpack. Look for disposable feeding supplies like bibs, bottles, sippy cups and utensils so that you don't have to clean up during your trip. And don't forget to buy a few new toys to keep baby entertained!

hope some tips is usefull for you.

10 Mistakes about search engine optimize (SEO) on your site

2009-02-09T02:47:00.000-08:00

every body know about how important about seo, but sometimes we make a mistakes that we didnt know it, after i read a book about seo, i decide to write about this, hope this helpfull for us.

1. Targetting the wrong keywords
This is a mistake many people make and what is worse – even experienced SEO experts make it. People choose keywords that in their mind are descriptive of their website but the average users just may not search them. For instance, if you have a relationship site, you might discover that “relationship guide” does not work for you, even though it has the “relationship” keyword, while “dating advice” works like a charm. Choosing the right keywords can make or break your SEO campaign. Even if you are very resourceful, you can't think on your own of all the great keywords but a good keyword suggestion tool

2. Ignoring the Title tag
Leaving the tag empty is also very common. This is one of the most important places to have a keyword, because not only does it help you in optimization but the text in your tag shows in the search results as your page title.

3. A Flash website without a html alternative
Flash might be attractive but not to search engines and users. If you really insist that your site is Flash-based and you want search engines to love it, provide an html version.
Search engines don't like Flash sites for a reason – a spider can't read Flash content and therefore can't index it.

4. JavaScript Menus
Using JavaScript for navigation is not bad as long as you understand that search engines do not read JavaScript and build your web pages accordingly. So if you have JavaScript menus you can't do without, you should consider build a sitemap (or putting the links in a noscript tag) so that all your links will be crawlable.

5. Lack of consistency and maintenance
Our friend often encounters clients, who believe that once you optimize a site, it is done foreve. If you want to be successful, you need to permanently optimize your site, keep an eye on the competition and – changes in the ranking algorithms of search engines.

6. Concentrating too much on meta tags
A lot of people seem to think SEO is about getting your meta keywords and description correct! In fact, meta tags are becoming (if not already) a thing of the past. You can create your meta keywords and descriptions but don't except to rank well only because of this.

7. Using only Images for Headings
Many people think that an image looks better than text for headings and menus. Yes, an image can make your site look more distinctive but in terms of SEO images for headings and menus are a big mistake because h2, h2, etc. tags and menu links are important SEO items

8. Ignoring URLs
Many people underestimate how important a good URL is. Dynamic page names are still very frequent and no keywords in the URL is more a rule than an exception. Yes, it is possible to rank high even without keywords in the URL but all being equal, if you have keywords in the URL (the domain itself, or file names, which are part of the URL), this gives you additional advantage over your competitors. Keywords in URLs are more important for MSN and Yahoo! but even with Google their relative weight is high, so there is no excuse for having keywordless URLs.

9. Backlink spamming
It is a common delusion that it more backlinks are ALWAYS better and because of this web masters resort to link farms, forum/newgroup spam etc., which ultimately could lead to getting their site banned. In fact, what you need are quality backlinks.

10. Lack of keywords in the content
Once you focus on your keywords, modify your content and put the keywords wherever it makes sense. It is even better to make them bold or highlight them.

Sexy Lingerie Costumes

2009-01-26T09:55:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I searched on "How to take sexy lingerie pictures". I want to take my own pictures for my boyfriend with lingerie. I was "blogwalking" and I found flirtylingerie .They have many articles about lingerie. After I read about all the things that I needed, I went to the main page. They have a great selection of sexy costume lingerie, adult costumes and also plus size lingerie, like sexy school girl costume or sexy pirate costume

Since a lingerie website is in another state or perhaps another country you must be able to make decisions about products without trying them on. Sexy lingerie is often sold as one size fits most and this means there is a good amount of stretch spandex in the product for it to fit a woman with 5'2" to one that is 5'7". Also the weight differences will range from 110 to perhaps 165. Corsets are sold by bra size so if you wear a size 34 bra then you may need a size 34 corset. Cup size is not important in purchasing corsets. Shelf bras are sexy bras that support your breasts on a "shelf" that exposes your breasts and nipples. Again cup size is not a factor in these bras. When it comes to sexy stockings keep in mind that there are two types of thigh high stockings. One is a stay up stocking that has silicone strips on the inside of the stocking tops that hugs your thighs and helps them stay up. The other stocking is not a stay up and requires a sexy garter belt in order to stay up on your legs.
Adhesive bras are used by women when a conventional bra with cups, straps, back clasps just won't work. Many outfits require adhesive bras as they "stick" to your breasts over your nipples and can be reused if maintained carefully. They hide your nipples preventing headlights and give you confidence that you won't be showing off your nipples in that clingy dress or top. Breast Enhancers are used to enhance the size of a woman's breast and can add up to a cup size or two to a woman's figure. They fit in a woman's bra and no one needs to know that your aren't naturally busty and sexy.
Open Bust Lingerie or boob out lingerie is sexy lingerie that shows off a woman's breasts with the garment having little or no coverage over her breasts. Very popular as it is undeniable what a woman is thinking when she wears boob out lingerie. Along the same line is our line of Crotchless Panties and other crotchless lingerie. Wildly popular these open crotch panties or crotchless panties are a huge hit with women and especially with men. You are and you aren't wearing panties with these sexy crotchless panties.

you know what?
after i go to main pages i make decision to buy "Dropout School Girl Costume"
(Sexy Reform School Dropout Costume, Microfiber top with attached plaid tie, Includes matching plaid skirt with safety pin detail, Three piece set includes tie). It was very sexy , and the price was very exellent for my pocket.
While their prices werent the lowest, they were competitive, and the other advantages outweighed price. They have an excellent variety of merchandise, promised security and delivery options.
hmmm I can't wait to long to wear that costume.

Sometimes I can not trust an online shop, sometimes It makes me not feel secure to purchase online. Or it is frustrating to try and get hold of a company only by email. If they do not have clearly visible email contact informatino, I move on as this will likely cause problems later on/ I'm afraid I will encounter bad customer service, because I don't really like having to write, i just want to get to the point and talk about if face to face
or by phone. That's why I usually don't buy something in an online shop, expecially if it's lingerie.
I just worry that it might not fit and that I won't be able to get a refund.

I went to the testimonial page in the web, and I found the same complaint like I usually get, but then I found someone who left this feedback:
"I had several problems with finding in stock items. Usually I would be a little annoyed by it, but the ladies that I talked to were so helpful and nice it actually made everything enjoyable.
I cant emphasize how helpful and personable the ladies were. Personally I would make them all employee of the month, a raise, or something. They went out of their way to help me, I have never had customer service like this. I am not exagerating, I know that me and my boyfriend were very satisfied and I know that next time I shop I will absolutely go through flirty lingerie again.
I would like to thank them, so if you could pass this on please let them know!! THANK YOU!"

Wow I think not only do "they have a great selection of lingerie and also adult costumes"
but they have good customer services too, they have a toll free number, excellent shipping,
and for me they have an excellent price for my pocket.

The next time I shop I will absolutely go through flirty lingerie again.

How Search Engines Work

2009-01-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

The term "search engine" is often used generically to describe both crawler-based search engines and human-powered directories. These two types of search engines gather their listings in radically different ways.

Crawler-Based Search Engines

Crawler-based search engines, such as Google, create their listings automatically. They "crawl" or "spider" the web, then people search through what they have found.

If you change your web pages, crawler-based search engines eventually find these changes, and that can affect how you are listed. Page titles, body copy and other elements all play a role.

see about how to listed in google index

Human-Powered Directories

A human-powered directory, such as the Open Directory ( see about how to submited to open directory ), depends on humans for its listings. You submit a short description to the directory for your entire site, or editors write one for sites they review. A search looks for matches only in the descriptions submitted.

Changing your web pages has no effect on your listing. Things that are useful for improving a listing with a search engine have nothing to do with improving a listing in a directory. The only exception is that a good site, with good content, might be more likely to get reviewed for free than a poor site.

"Hybrid Search Engines" Or Mixed Results

In the web's early days, it used to be that a search engine either presented crawler-based results or human-powered listings. Today, it extremely common for both types of results to be presented. Usually, a hybrid search engine will favor one type of listings over another. For example, MSN Search is more likely to present human-powered listings from Look Smart. However, it does also present crawler-based results (as provided by Inktomi), especially for more obscure queries.

The Parts Of A Crawler-Based Search Engine

Crawler-based search engines have three major elements. First is the spider, also called the crawler. The spider visits a web page, reads it, and then follows links to other pages within the site. This is what it means when someone refers to a site being "spidered" or "crawled." The spider returns to the site on a regular basis, such as every month or two, to look for changes.

Everything the spider finds goes into the second part of the search engine, the index. The index, sometimes called the catalog, is like a giant book containing a copy of every web page that the spider finds. If a web page changes, then this book is updated with new information.

Sometimes it can take a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to the index. Thus, a web page may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until it is indexed -- added to the index -- it is not available to those searching with the search engine.

Search engine software is the third part of a search engine. This is the program that sifts through the millions of pages recorded in the index to find matches to a search and rank them in order of what it believes is most relevant. You can learn more about how search engine software ranks web pages on the aptly-named, see about How Search Engines Determine Your Rank.

Major Search Engines: The Same, But Different

All crawler-based search engines have the basic parts described above, but there are differences in how these parts are tuned. That is why the same search on different search engines often produces different results. Some of the significant differences between the major crawler-based search engines are summarized on the Search Engine Features Page. Information on this page has been drawn from the help pages of each search engine, along with knowledge gained from articles, reviews, books, independent research, tips from others and additional information received directly from the various search engines.

Now let's look more about how crawler-based search engine rank the listings that they gather.

How To Make Your Website More Popular

2009-01-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

At this very moment there are billions of people that are using the internet to surf, gather some facts and information and have fun. For this reason alone there are also millions of people from all walks of life who are creating a website and one of the major reason is that they have seen the potential to expand their business to the help of the internet. But creating a website alone does not warrant that an individual would be successful this field or that the web site he has will be searched and visited. A website without number of traffic is a site that is dead. It is a given fact that traffic inside the web site synonymous to being frequently searched.
There are 10 ways to make your website more popular and here is how it works;

1. Develop a nice design and concept. Having a nice design that is carefully planned will give an impression to your readers that your website is a legitimate and trustworthy website. Use appropriate fonts and colors, this will make important element in your website to be more appealing and eye catching.

2. Make your website convenient and easy to navigate. Think of every regular Jane and Joe that would conduct the search. And the way to do this is by having a simple yet powerful keyword ( see about keyword techniques and how to find good keyword ) or phrase that would make your website be visited by search engine crawlers for indexing.

3. Have relevant content rich articles. Bear in mind that the people visiting your website are looking for information and answers to their problems. It is important that they can find substance in the articles in your website; you should be able to provide quality and informative information. Is at this point that search engine spiders and crawlers will regularly visit your site because of the quality content you are writing.

4. Manage your site. It is important that you keep your articles fresh and updated. Remember a SEO worthy site is those that sites that are giving informative articles. And being informative means that you have to supply fresh information to your visitors so they will keep visiting your site and bookmark it even.

5. Be accommodating and answer queries and questions regularly. As much as possible prompt in answering their questions.

6. Join social networking sites from there endorse your website, then create links that will lead into your websites.

7. Be creative and create some stir in your target market. Give press releases to make your website popular. There are other websites and press release directory ( see about free directory list ) that is available that you can use for this kind of advertising.

8. Offer free giveaways like free newsletter, free tutorials or live video instructions that are related to the contents of your site. This will generate traffic and will rapidly make your website more popular.

9. Incorporate informative events that are happening in your circle. Make your readers be informed in the world you belong too, incorporate news about what is the latest development that pertains to your product.

10. Be informed, learned how SEO ( see about seo tips ) works and how top search engines such Google and Yahoo operates. Understand how these giants operate and how they track down relevant and informative websites to belong to their database of indices. Learn how to get a rank from this giant search engines and apply it into your website. ( see about pagerank tips and about increase alexa rank )

Increase Site Popularity

2008-12-29T19:09:00.000-08:00

1. Backlinking is an easy way to increase the number of visitors to your blog or website (and also increase search engine rankings, see about google page rank secret). This is nothing more than having your site address listed on other websites generating traffic back to your site (see about inbound and outbound links). Backlinking can be done in a number of ways. Following is a short list of ideas to get you started.

2. The first, and easiest, is to use article marketing. Write a few articles and submit them to free article directories. At the end of each article, use a signature line that includes your web address.

3. Double the impact by using social bookmarking sites such as digg, reddit, del.icio.us and others to submit your article information to.

4. Another technique is done through online classified ads (link to great free classifieds site under Resources heading). Here you will place brief descriptions of your site and your site url. Just be sure that when you are listing your site to use your site address, don't use a text link leading to your site, such as "Click Here To... It is important that the address itself is listed.

5. These few ideas alone can have a huge impact. Repeat these steps every week or so and you should see your number of visitors increase over just a short period of time.

Increasing Quality Inbound Links

2008-12-29T04:30:00.000-08:00

after reading this post maybe you can turn to this posting!

Inbound links may increase your site's popularity among web surfers as well as search engines. But how do you get them? Paul Bruemmer gives some advice.

(June 21 2005) There are several ways to increase inbound links -- and also a few ways not to.

It's always a good idea to have quality links coming into your site regardless of the fact that it helps your search engine rankings. So your linking campaign can be dual purpose by bringing in more traffic while improving your rankings. Back in the old days, it was derigueur to request links. You can still do this today, but you need to be a lot more sophisticated about it.

Link Requests

When soliciting links, research your project well to learn which sites are the best targets for a link request. Another tip is to use the phone rather than email whenever possible.

Look for quality sites that don't compete with your own site but can complement it. Find these sites by doing a search for your own strategic keywords. Then weed out the competitors and locate the related sites to approach.

Explain your interest in their site and what they have to offer. It's very important to give them a good rationale for providing the link. If your site has quality content that complements theirs, chances are they might link.

Links from Search Engines and Directories

It goes without saying that a link from Yahoo and Open Directory are desirable for commercial sites (despite recent reports about ODP slowness).

Depending on your industry, there are also many vertical search engines and directories that can provide valuable links.

See Danny Sullivan's list of Specialty Search Engines to find such verticals as business.com (financial and business search engine), FindLaw (legal search engine), or WebMD (medical search engine).

Links from Newsletters and Discussion Threads

Yes, these links are good. Write an article for industry trade zines and get a link in your bio. Post on industry forums and get a link there. Keep active and seed those links, but only when you can contribute to industry knowledge and educate your peers.

Links from SEO Press Releases

One of the newer linking strategies is to gain links with search-engine-optimized press releases. SEO press releases provide opportunities for inbound link development when Yahoo News, Google News and major news search engines list your data online. This helps achieve excellent rankings within major search engines.

The link structure of a properly distributed "search optimized" press release also benefits your website when you issue a release because you are providing relevant information to those searching for news related to your industry.

It could be a prospect looking for industry info when researching a purchase or a journalist researching a story. At any rate, your company will be represented in the search results, which increases the relevant traffic to your site.

SEO Press Release deliverables include:

450-500 word press release; optimized for a core search term and 2 to 3 niche terms

Release incorporates anchor text; based on search term associated with target web page

You often have your choice of distribution

Access to view statistics about how your news release performed over a 30-day period

RSS feed and paid inclusion distribution

Prior to preparing your search-optimized press release, a qualified SEO technician conducts keyword research and planning. Using the business information you provide, the vendor can then make comparisons with your competitors and similar websites.

A weighted value is calculated for each keyword based on the number of searches over the past two months compared to its percentage of relevance.

Because the first step in optimizing a web page for search engine ranking is placing keywords in the Title, it makes sense to determine how many pages have been somewhat optimized.

A good vendor will perform an "InTitle" and "Title+Anchor" search at Google to give you an indication of the popularity of your various terms, comparing these results with WordTracker's KEI (keyword effectiveness index).

This research allows one to determine relevancy, evaluate competition, and add modifiers for providing you the best advice on selecting your best keywords and phrases. The vendor may also marry the Keyword List to a Site Review and consider your current content to make recommendations for overall improvement and performance. Benefits of an SEO Press Release

Top rankings in Google News, Yahoo News and MSN news for targeted search terms

New rankings in Google and Yahoo web search results, often first page results

Coverage on hundreds of relevant web sites subscribed to PR Web's RSS feed

Links from web sites that pick up your news release

Help in building link popularity for your web pages

Archived press releases to deliver long-term link value

Often, the vendor can provide you with a tracking report to summarize the rankings achieved in news and web searches. The vendor can also provide stats on top search terms for which a news release is accessed; page reads and downloads of a release; number of sites that carried the release as news; and number of links created back to target web page.

Links You Don't Need

1. FFA (Free For All) pages where links can be obtained by any means without scrutiny, resulting in junk that no one looks at. Useless.
2. Guestbooks -- This is where a site invites visitors to sign a guestbook, many of which allow HTML code in the comments section where anyone can create a link to their site. Don't bother.
3. Link Farms - Don't even think it - could get your site banned.
4. Auto linking software - Don't bother, a waste of time.These are the types of links you do not need:

Social Network Sites: Scholarship (part 3)

2008-12-27T22:35:00.000-08:00

after read this http://atur4ku.blogspot.com/2008/12/social-network-sites-definition-history.htmlpost and this post you can go with this post!
Previous Scholarship

Scholarship concerning SNSs is emerging from diverse disciplinary and methodological traditions, addresses a range of topics, and builds on a large body of CMC research. The goal of this section is to survey research that is directly concerned with social network sites, and in so doing, to set the stage for the articles in this special issue. To date, the bulk of SNS research has focused on impression management and friendship performance, networks and network structure, online/offline connections, and privacy issues.

Impression Management and Friendship Performance

Like other online contexts in which individuals are consciously able to construct an online representation of self—such as online dating profiles and MUDS—SNSs constitute an important research context for scholars investigating processes of impression management, self-presentation, and friendship performance. In one of the earliest academic articles on SNSs, boyd (2004) examined Friendster as a locus of publicly articulated social networks that allowed users to negotiate presentations of self and connect with others. Donath and boyd (2004) extended this to suggest that "public displays of connection" serve as important identity signals that help people navigate the networked social world, in that an extended network may serve to validate identity information presented in profiles.

While most sites encourage users to construct accurate representations of themselves, participants do this to varying degrees. Marwick (2005) found that users on three different SNSs had complex strategies for negotiating the rigidity of a prescribed "authentic" profile, while boyd (in press-b) examined the phenomenon of "Fakesters" and argued that profiles could never be "real." The extent to which portraits are authentic or playful varies across sites; both social and technological forces shape user practices. Skog (2005) found that the status feature on LunarStorm strongly influenced how people behaved and what they choose to reveal—profiles there indicate one's status as measured by activity (e.g., sending messages) and indicators of authenticity (e.g., using a "real" photo instead of a drawing).

Another aspect of self-presentation is the articulation of friendship links, which serve as identity markers for the profile owner. Impression management is one of the reasons given by Friendster users for choosing particular friends (Donath & boyd, 2004). Recognizing this, Zinman and Donath (2007) noted that MySpace spammers leverage people's willingness to connect to interesting people to find targets for their spam.

In their examination of LiveJournal "friendship," Fono and Raynes-Goldie (2006) described users' understandings regarding public displays of connections and how the Friending function can operate as a catalyst for social drama. In listing user motivations for Friending, boyd (2006a) points out that "Friends" on SNSs are not the same as "friends" in the everyday sense; instead, Friends provide context by offering users an imagined audience to guide behavioral norms. Other work in this area has examined the use of Friendster Testimonials as self-presentational devices (boyd & Heer, 2006) and the extent to which the attractiveness of one's Friends (as indicated by Facebook's "Wall" feature) impacts impression formation (Walther, Van Der Heide, Kim, & Westerman, in press).

Networks and Network Structure

Social network sites also provide rich sources of naturalistic behavioral data. Profile and linkage data from SNSs can be gathered either through the use of automated collection techniques or through datasets provided directly from the company, enabling network analysis researchers to explore large-scale patterns of friending, usage, and other visible indicators (Hogan, in press), and continuing an analysis trend that started with examinations of blogs and other websites. For instance, Golder, Wilkinson, and Huberman (2007) examined an anonymized dataset consisting of 362 million messages exchanged by over four million Facebook users for insight into Friending and messaging activities. Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfield (2007) explored the relationship between profile elements and number of Facebook friends, finding that profile fields that reduce transaction costs and are harder to falsify are most likely to be associated with larger number of friendship links. These kinds of data also lend themselves well to analysis through network visualization (Adamic, Büyükkökten, & Adar, 2003; Heer & boyd, 2005; Paolillo & Wright, 2005).

SNS researchers have also studied the network structure of Friendship. Analyzing the roles people played in the growth of Flickr and Yahoo! 360's networks, Kumar, Novak, and Tomkins (2006) argued that there are passive members, inviters, and linkers "who fully participate in the social evolution of the network" (p. 1). Scholarship concerning LiveJournal's network has included a Friendship classification scheme (Hsu, Lancaster, Paradesi, & Weniger, 2007), an analysis of the role of language in the topology of Friendship (Herring et al., 2007), research into the importance of geography in Friending (Liben-Nowell, Novak, Kumar, Raghavan, & Tomkins, 2005), and studies on what motivates people to join particular communities (Backstrom, Huttenlocher, Kleinberg, & Lan, 2006). Based on Orkut data, Spertus, Sahami, and Büyükkökten (2005) identified a topology of users through their membership in certain communities; they suggest that sites can use this to recommend additional communities of interest to users. Finally, Liu, Maes, and Davenport (2006) argued that Friend connections are not the only network structure worth investigating. They examined the ways in which the performance of tastes (favorite music, books, film, etc.) constitutes an alternate network structure, which they call a "taste fabric."

Bridging Online and Offline Social Networks

Although exceptions exist, the available research suggests that most SNSs primarily support pre-existing social relations. Ellison, Steinfield, and Lampe (2007) suggest that Facebook is used to maintain existing offline relationships or solidify offline connections, as opposed to meeting new people. These relationships may be weak ties, but typically there is some common offline element among individuals who friend one another, such as a shared class at school. This is one of the chief dimensions that differentiate SNSs from earlier forms of public CMC such as newsgroups (Ellison et al., 2007). Research in this vein has investigated how online interactions interface with offline ones. For instance, Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfield (2006) found that Facebook users engage in "searching" for people with whom they have an offline connection more than they "browse" for complete strangers to meet. Likewise, Pew research found that 91% of U.S. teens who use SNSs do so to connect with friends (Lenhart & Madden, 2007).

Given that SNSs enable individuals to connect with one another, it is not surprising that they have become deeply embedded in user's lives. In Korea, Cyworld has become an integral part of everyday life—Choi (2006) found that 85% of that study's respondents "listed the maintenance and reinforcement of pre-existing social networks as their main motive for Cyworld use" (p. 181). Likewise, boyd (2008) argues that MySpace and Facebook enable U.S. youth to socialize with their friends even when they are unable to gather in unmediated situations; she argues that SNSs are "networked publics" that support sociability, just as unmediated public spaces do.

Privacy

Popular press coverage of SNSs has emphasized potential privacy concerns, primarily concerning the safety of younger users (George, 2006; Kornblum & Marklein, 2006). Researchers have investigated the potential threats to privacy associated with SNSs. In one of the first academic studies of privacy and SNSs, Gross and Acquisti (2005) analyzed 4,000 Carnegie Mellon University Facebook profiles and outlined the potential threats to privacy contained in the personal information included on the site by students, such as the potential ability to reconstruct users' social security numbers using information often found in profiles, such as hometown and date of birth.

Acquisti and Gross (2006) argue that there is often a disconnect between students' desire to protect privacy and their behaviors, a theme that is also explored in Stutzman's (2006) survey of Facebook users and Barnes's (2006) description of the "privacy paradox" that occurs when teens are not aware of the public nature of the Internet. In analyzing trust on social network sites, Dwyer, Hiltz, and Passerini (2007) argued that trust and usage goals may affect what people are willing to share—Facebook users expressed greater trust in Facebook than MySpace users did in MySpace and thus were more willing to share information on the site.

In another study examining security issues and SNSs, Jagatic, Johnson, Jakobsson, and Menczer (2007) used freely accessible profile data from SNSs to craft a "phishing" scheme that appeared to originate from a friend on the network; their targets were much more likely to give away information to this "friend" than to a perceived stranger. Survey data offer a more optimistic perspective on the issue, suggesting that teens are aware of potential privacy threats online and that many are proactive about taking steps to minimize certain potential risks. Pew found that 55% of online teens have profiles, 66% of whom report that their profile is not visible to all Internet users (Lenhart & Madden, 2007). Of the teens with completely open profiles, 46% reported including at least some false information.

Privacy is also implicated in users' ability to control impressions and manage social contexts. Boyd (in press-a) asserted that Facebook's introduction of the "News Feed" feature disrupted students' sense of control, even though data exposed through the feed were previously accessible. Preibusch, Hoser, Gürses, and Berendt (2007) argued that the privacy options offered by SNSs do not provide users with the flexibility they need to handle conflicts with Friends who have different conceptions of privacy; they suggest a framework for privacy in SNSs that they believe would help resolve these conflicts.

SNSs are also challenging legal conceptions of privacy. Hodge (2006) argued that the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution and legal decisions concerning privacy are not equipped to address social network sites. For example, do police officers have the right to access content posted to Facebook without a warrant? The legality of this hinges on users' expectation of privacy and whether or not Facebook profiles are considered public or private.

Other Research

In addition to the themes identified above, a growing body of scholarship addresses other aspects of SNSs, their users, and the practices they enable. For example, scholarship on the ways in which race and ethnicity (Byrne, in press; Gajjala, 2007), religion (Nyland & Near, 2007), gender (Geidner, Flook, & Bell, 2007; Hjorth & Kim, 2005), and sexuality connect to, are affected by, and are enacted in social network sites raise interesting questions about how identity is shaped within these sites. Fragoso (2006) examined the role of national identity in SNS use through an investigation into the "Brazilian invasion" of Orkut and the resulting culture clash between Brazilians and Americans on the site. Other scholars are beginning to do cross-cultural comparisons of SNS use—Hjorth and Yuji (in press) compare Japanese usage of Mixi and Korean usage of Cyworld, while Herring et al. (2007) examine the practices of users who bridge different languages on LiveJournal—but more work in this area is needed.

Scholars are documenting the implications of SNS use with respect to schools, universities, and libraries. For example, scholarship has examined how students feel about having professors on Facebook (Hewitt & Forte, 2006) and how faculty participation affects student-professor relations (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds, 2007). Charnigo and Barnett-Ellis (2007) found that librarians are overwhelmingly aware of Facebook and are against proposed U.S. legislation that would ban minors from accessing SNSs at libraries, but that most see SNSs as outside the purview of librarianship. Finally, challenging the view that there is nothing educational about SNSs, Perkel (in press) analyzed copy/paste practices on MySpace as a form of literacy involving social and technical skills.

This overview is not comprehensive due to space limitations and because much work on SNSs is still in the process of being published. Additionally, we have not included literature in languages other than English (e.g., Recuero, 2005 on social capital and Orkut), due to our own linguistic limitations.

Overview of This Special Theme Section

The articles in this section address a variety of social network sites—BlackPlanet, Cyworld, Dodgeball, Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube—from multiple theoretical and methodological angles, building on previous studies of SNSs and broader theoretical traditions within CMC research, including relationship maintenance and issues of identity, performance, privacy, self-presentation, and civic engagement.

These pieces collectively provide insight into some of the ways in which online and offline experiences are deeply entwined. Using a relational dialectics approach, Kyung-Hee Kim and Haejin Yun analyze how Cyworld supports both interpersonal relations and self-relation for Korean users. They trace the subtle ways in which deeply engrained cultural beliefs and activities are integrated into online communication and behaviors on Cyworld—the online context reinforces certain aspects of users' cultural expectations about relationship maintenance (e.g., the concept of reciprocity), while the unique affordances of Cyworld enable participants to overcome offline constraints. Dara Byrne uses content analysis to examine civic engagement in forums on BlackPlanet and finds that online discussions are still plagued with the problems offline activists have long encountered. Drawing on interview and observation data, Lee Humphreys investigates early adopters' practices involving Dodgeball, a mobile social network service. She looks at the ways in which networked communication is reshaping offline social geography.

Other articles in this collection illustrate how innovative research methods can elucidate patterns of behavior that would be indistinguishable otherwise. For instance, Hugo Liu examines participants' performance of tastes and interests by analyzing and modeling the preferences listed on over 127,000 MySpace profiles, resulting in unique "taste maps." Likewise, through survey data collected at a college with diverse students in the U.S., Eszter Hargittai illuminates usage patterns that would otherwise be masked. She finds that adoption of particular services correlates with individuals' race and parental education level.

Existing theory is deployed, challenged, and extended by the approaches adopted in the articles in this section. Judith Donath extends signaling theory to explain different tactics SNS users adopt to reduce social costs while managing trust and identity. She argues that the construction and maintenance of relations on SNSs is akin to "social grooming." Patricia Lange complicates traditional dichotomies between "public" and "private" by analyzing how YouTube participants blur these lines in their video-sharing practices.

The articles in this collection highlight the significance of social network sites in the lives of users and as a topic of research. Collectively, they show how networked practices mirror, support, and alter known everyday practices, especially with respect to how people present (and hide) aspects of themselves and connect with others. The fact that participation on social network sites leaves online traces offers unprecedented opportunities for researchers. The scholarship in this special theme section takes advantage of this affordance, resulting in work that helps explain practices online and offline, as well as those that blend the two environments.

Future Research

The work described above and included in this special theme section contributes to an on-going dialogue about the importance of social network sites, both for practitioners and researchers. Vast, uncharted waters still remain to be explored. Methodologically, SNS researchers' ability to make causal claims is limited by a lack of experimental or longitudinal studies. Although the situation is rapidly changing, scholars still have a limited understanding of who is and who is not using these sites, why, and for what purposes, especially outside the U.S. Such questions will require large-scale quantitative and qualitative research. Richer, ethnographic research on populations more difficult to access (including non-users) would further aid scholars' ability to understand the long-term implications of these tools. We hope that the work described here and included in this collection will help build a foundation for future investigations of these and other important issues surrounding social network sites.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the external reviewers who volunteered their time and expertise to review papers and contribute valuable feedback and to those practitioners and analysts who provided information to help shape the history section. Thank you also to Susan Herring, whose patience and support appeared infinite.

Notes

1. To differentiate the articulated list of Friends on SNSs from the colloquial term "friends," we capitalize the former.
2. Although one out of seven teenagers received unwanted sexual solicitations online, only 9% came from people over the age of 25 (Wolak, Mitchell, & Finkelhor, 2006). Research suggests that popular narratives around sexual predators on SNSs are misleading—cases of unsuspecting teens being lured by sexual predators are rare (Finkelhor, Ybarra, Lenhart, boyd, & Lordan, 2007). Furthermore, only .08% of students surveyed by the National School Boards Association (2007) met someone in person from an online encounter without permission from a parent.

References

Acquisti, A., & Gross, R. (2006). Imagined communities: Awareness, information sharing, and privacy on the Facebook. In P. Golle & G. Danezis (Eds.), Proceedings of 6th Workshop on Privacy Enhancing Technologies (pp. 36-58). Cambridge, UK: Robinson College.

Adamic, L. A., Büyükkökten, O., & Adar, E. (2003). A social network caught in the Web. First Monday, 8 (6). Retrieved July 30, 2007 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_6/adamic/index.html

Backstrom, L., Huttenlocher, D., Kleinberg, J., & Lan, X. (2006). Group formation in large social networks: Membership, growth, and evolution. Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Knowledge Discovery in Data Mining (pp. 44-54). New York: ACM Press.

Bahney, A. (2006, March 9). Don't talk to invisible strangers. New York Times. Retrieved July 21, 2007 from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/09/fashion/thursdaystyles/09parents.html

Barnes, S. (2006). A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States. First Monday, 11 (9). Retrieved September 8, 2007 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html

BBC. (2005, July 19). News Corp in $580m Internet buy. Retrieved July 21, 2007 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4695495.stm

Benzie, R. (2007, May 3). Facebook banned for Ontario staffers. The Star. Retrieved July 21, 2007 from http://www.thestar.com/News/article/210014

boyd, d. (2004). Friendster and publicly articulated social networks. Proceedings of ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1279-1282). New York: ACM Press.

boyd, d. (2006a). Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8: Writing community into being on social network sites. First Monday, 11 (12). Retrieved July 21, 2007 from http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_12/boyd/

boyd, d. (2006b, March 21). Friendster lost steam. Is MySpace just a fad? Apophenia Blog. Retrieved July 21, 2007 from http://www.danah.org/papers/FriendsterMySpaceEssay.html

boyd, d. (in press-a). Facebook's privacy trainwreck: Exposure, invasion, and social convergence. Convergence, 14 (1).

boyd, d. (in press-b). None of this is real. In J. Karaganis (Ed.), Structures of Participation. New York: Social Science Research Council.

boyd, d. (2008). Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life. In D. Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media (pp. 119-142). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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Donath, J., & boyd, d. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal, 22 (4), 71-82.

Dwyer, C., Hiltz, S. R., & Passerini, K. (2007). Trust and privacy concern within social networking sites: A comparison of Facebook and MySpace. Proceedings of AMCIS 2007, Keystone, CO. Retrieved September 21, 2007 from http://csis.pace.edu/~dwyer/research/DwyerAMCIS2007.pdf

Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook "friends": Exploring the relationship between college students' use of online social networks and social capital. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12 (3), article 1. Retrieved July 30, 2007 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html

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Geidner, N. W., Flook, C. A., & Bell, M. W. (2007, April). Masculinity and online social networks: Male self-identification on Facebook.com. Paper presented at Eastern Communication Association 98th Annual Meeting, Providence, RI.

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Golder, S. A., Wilkinson, D., & Huberman, B. A. (2007, June). Rhythms of social interaction: Messaging within a massive online network. In C. Steinfield, B. Pentland, M. Ackerman, & N. Contractor (Eds.), Proceedings of Third International Conference on Communities and Technologies (pp. 41-66). London: Springer.

Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005). Information revelation and privacy in online social networks. Proceedings of WPES'05 (pp. 71-80). Alexandria, VA: ACM.

Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. Information, Communication, & Society, 8 (2), 125-147.

Heer, J., & boyd, d. (2005). Vizster: Visualizing online social networks. Proceedings of Symposium on Information Visualization (pp. 33-40). Minneapolis, MN: IEEE Press.

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Hjorth, L., & Yuji, M. (in press). Logging on locality: A cross-cultural case study of virtual communities Mixi (Japan) and Mini-hompy (Korea). In B. Smaill (Ed.), Youth and Media in the Asia Pacific. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

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Hsu, W. H., Lancaster, J., Paradesi, M. S. R., & Weninger, T. (2007). Structural link analysis from user profiles and friends networks: A feature construction approach. Proceedings of ICWSM-2007 (pp. 75-80). Boulder, CO.

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About the Authors

danah m. boyd is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information at the University of California-Berkeley and a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her research focuses on how people negotiate mediated contexts like social network sites for sociable purposes.
Address: 102 South Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-4600, USA
Nicole B. Ellison is an assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University. Her research explores issues of self-presentation, relationship development, and identity in online environments such as weblogs, online dating sites, and social network sites.

Social Network Sites: History (part 2)

2008-12-27T22:31:00.000-08:00

A History of Social Network Sites

The Early Years

According to the definition above, the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists. Each of these features existed in some form before SixDegrees, of course. Profiles existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. AIM and ICQ buddy lists supported lists of Friends, although those Friends were not visible to others. Classmates.com allowed people to affiliate with their high school or college and surf the network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not create profiles or list Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first to combine these features.

SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to others. While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable business and, in 2000, the service closed. Looking back, its founder believes that SixDegrees was simply ahead of its time (A. Weinreich, personal communication, July 11, 2007). While people were already flocking to the Internet, most did not have extended networks of friends who were online. Early adopters complained that there was little to do after accepting Friend requests, and most users were not interested in meeting strangers.

From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends. AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente allowed users to create personal, professional, and dating profiles—users could identify Friends on their personal profiles without seeking approval for those connections (O. Wasow, personal communication, August 16, 2007). Likewise, shortly after its launch in 1999, LiveJournal listed one-directional connections on user pages. LiveJournal's creator suspects that he fashioned these Friends after instant messaging buddy lists (B. Fitzpatrick, personal communication, June 15, 2007)—on LiveJournal, people mark others as Friends to follow their journals and manage privacy settings. The Korean virtual worlds site Cyworld was started in 1999 and added SNS features in 2001, independent of these other sites (see Kim & Yun, this issue). Likewise, when the Swedish web community LunarStorm refashioned itself as an SNS in 2000, it contained Friends lists, guestbooks, and diary pages (D. Skog, personal communication, September 24, 2007).

The next wave of SNSs began when Ryze.com was launched in 2001 to help people leverage their business networks. Ryze's founder reports that he first introduced the site to his friends—primarily members of the San Francisco business and technology community, including the entrepreneurs and investors behind many future SNSs (A. Scott, personal communication, June 14, 2007). In particular, the people behind Ryze, Tribe.net, LinkedIn, and Friendster were tightly entwined personally and professionally. They believed that they could support each other without competing (Festa, 2003). In the end, Ryze never acquired mass popularity, Tribe.net grew to attract a passionate niche user base, LinkedIn became a powerful business service, and Friendster became the most significant, if only as "one of the biggest disappointments in Internet history" (Chafkin, 2007, p. 1).

Figure 1. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dates when community sites re-launched with SNS features

Like any brief history of a major phenomenon, ours is necessarily incomplete. In the following section we discuss Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook, three key SNSs that shaped the business, cultural, and research landscape.

The Rise (and Fall) of Friendster

Friendster launched in 2002 as a social complement to Ryze. It was designed to compete with Match.com, a profitable online dating site (Cohen, 2003). While most dating sites focused on introducing people to strangers with similar interests, Friendster was designed to help friends-of-friends meet, based on the assumption that friends-of-friends would make better romantic partners than would strangers (J. Abrams, personal communication, March 27, 2003). Friendster gained traction among three groups of early adopters who shaped the site—bloggers, attendees of the Burning Man arts festival, and gay men (boyd, 2004)—and grew to 300,000 users through word of mouth before traditional press coverage began in May 2003 (O'Shea, 2003).

As Friendster's popularity surged, the site encountered technical and social difficulties (boyd, 2006b). Friendster's servers and databases were ill-equipped to handle its rapid growth, and the site faltered regularly, frustrating users who replaced email with Friendster. Because organic growth had been critical to creating a coherent community, the onslaught of new users who learned about the site from media coverage upset the cultural balance. Furthermore, exponential growth meant a collapse in social contexts: Users had to face their bosses and former classmates alongside their close friends. To complicate matters, Friendster began restricting the activities of its most passionate users.

The initial design of Friendster restricted users from viewing profiles of people who were more than four degrees away (friends-of-friends-of-friends-of-friends). In order to view additional profiles, users began adding acquaintances and interesting-looking strangers to expand their reach. Some began massively collecting Friends, an activity that was implicitly encouraged through a "most popular" feature. The ultimate collectors were fake profiles representing iconic fictional characters: celebrities, concepts, and other such entities. These "Fakesters" outraged the company, who banished fake profiles and eliminated the "most popular" feature (boyd, in press-b). While few people actually created Fakesters, many more enjoyed surfing Fakesters for entertainment or using functional Fakesters (e.g., "Brown University") to find people they knew.

The active deletion of Fakesters (and genuine users who chose non-realistic photos) signaled to some that the company did not share users' interests. Many early adopters left because of the combination of technical difficulties, social collisions, and a rupture of trust between users and the site (boyd, 2006b). However, at the same time that it was fading in the U.S., its popularity skyrocketed in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia (Goldberg, 2007).

SNSs Hit the Mainstream

From 2003 onward, many new SNSs were launched, prompting social software analyst Clay Shirky (2003) to coin the term YASNS: "Yet Another Social Networking Service." Most took the form of profile-centric sites, trying to replicate the early success of Friendster or target specific demographics. While socially-organized SNSs solicit broad audiences, professional sites such as LinkedIn, Visible Path, and Xing (formerly openBC) focus on business people. "Passion-centric" SNSs like Dogster (T. Rheingold, personal communication, August 2, 2007) help strangers connect based on shared interests. Care2 helps activists meet, Couchsurfing connects travelers to people with couches, and MyChurch joins Christian churches and their members. Furthermore, as the social media and user-generated content phenomena grew, websites focused on media sharing began implementing SNS features and becoming SNSs themselves. Examples include Flickr (photo sharing), Last.FM (music listening habits), and YouTube (video sharing).

With the plethora of venture-backed startups launching in Silicon Valley, few people paid attention to SNSs that gained popularity elsewhere, even those built by major corporations. For example, Google's Orkut failed to build a sustainable U.S. user base, but a "Brazilian invasion" (Fragoso, 2006) made Orkut the national SNS of Brazil. Microsoft's Windows Live Spaces (a.k.a. MSN Spaces) also launched to lukewarm U.S. reception but became extremely popular elsewhere.

Few analysts or journalists noticed when MySpace launched in Santa Monica, California, hundreds of miles from Silicon Valley. MySpace was begun in 2003 to compete with sites like Friendster, Xanga, and AsianAvenue, according to co-founder Tom Anderson (personal communication, August 2, 2007); the founders wanted to attract estranged Friendster users (T. Anderson, personal communication, February 2, 2006). After rumors emerged that Friendster would adopt a fee-based system, users posted Friendster messages encouraging people to join alternate SNSs, including Tribe.net and MySpace (T. Anderson, personal communication, August 2, 2007). Because of this, MySpace was able to grow rapidly by capitalizing on Friendster's alienation of its early adopters. One particularly notable group that encouraged others to switch were indie-rock bands who were expelled from Friendster for failing to comply with profile regulations.

While MySpace was not launched with bands in mind, they were welcomed. Indie-rock bands from the Los Angeles region began creating profiles, and local promoters used MySpace to advertise VIP passes for popular clubs. Intrigued, MySpace contacted local musicians to see how they could support them (T. Anderson, personal communication, September 28, 2006). Bands were not the sole source of MySpace growth, but the symbiotic relationship between bands and fans helped MySpace expand beyond former Friendster users. The bands-and-fans dynamic was mutually beneficial: Bands wanted to be able to contact fans, while fans desired attention from their favorite bands and used Friend connections to signal identity and affiliation.

Futhermore, MySpace differentiated itself by regularly adding features based on user demand (boyd, 2006b) and by allowing users to personalize their pages. This "feature" emerged because MySpace did not restrict users from adding HTML into the forms that framed their profiles; a copy/paste code culture emerged on the web to support users in generating unique MySpace backgrounds and layouts (Perkel, in press).

Teenagers began joining MySpace en masse in 2004. Unlike older users, most teens were never on Friendster—some joined because they wanted to connect with their favorite bands; others were introduced to the site through older family members. As teens began signing up, they encouraged their friends to join. Rather than rejecting underage users, MySpace changed its user policy to allow minors. As the site grew, three distinct populations began to form: musicians/artists, teenagers, and the post-college urban social crowd. By and large, the latter two groups did not interact with one another except through bands. Because of the lack of mainstream press coverage during 2004, few others noticed the site's growing popularity.

Then, in July 2005, News Corporation purchased MySpace for $580 million (BBC, 2005), attracting massive media attention. Afterwards, safety issues plagued MySpace. The site was implicated in a series of sexual interactions between adults and minors, prompting legal action (Consumer Affairs, 2006). A moral panic concerning sexual predators quickly spread (Bahney, 2006), although research suggests that the concerns were exaggerated.²

A Global Phenomenon

While MySpace attracted the majority of media attention in the U.S. and abroad, SNSs were proliferating and growing in popularity worldwide. Friendster gained traction in the Pacific Islands, Orkut became the premier SNS in Brazil before growing rapidly in India (Madhavan, 2007), Mixi attained widespread adoption in Japan, LunarStorm took off in Sweden, Dutch users embraced Hyves, Grono captured Poland, Hi5 was adopted in smaller countries in Latin America, South America, and Europe, and Bebo became very popular in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia. Additionally, previously popular communication and community services began implementing SNS features. The Chinese QQ instant messaging service instantly became the largest SNS worldwide when it added profiles and made friends visible (McLeod, 2006), while the forum tool Cyworld cornered the Korean market by introducing homepages and buddies (Ewers, 2006).

Blogging services with complete SNS features also became popular. In the U.S., blogging tools with SNS features, such as Xanga, LiveJournal, and Vox, attracted broad audiences. Skyrock reigns in France, and Windows Live Spaces dominates numerous markets worldwide, including in Mexico, Italy, and Spain. Although SNSs like QQ, Orkut, and Live Spaces are just as large as, if not larger than, MySpace, they receive little coverage in U.S. and English-speaking media, making it difficult to track their trajectories.

Expanding Niche Communities

Alongside these open services, other SNSs launched to support niche demographics before expanding to a broader audience. Unlike previous SNSs, Facebook was designed to support distinct college networks only. Facebook began in early 2004 as a Harvard-only SNS (Cassidy, 2006). To join, a user had to have a harvard.edu email address. As Facebook began supporting other schools, those users were also required to have university email addresses associated with those institutions, a requirement that kept the site relatively closed and contributed to users' perceptions of the site as an intimate, private community.

Beginning in September 2005, Facebook expanded to include high school students, professionals inside corporate networks, and, eventually, everyone. The change to open signup did not mean that new users could easily access users in closed networks—gaining access to corporate networks still required the appropriate .com address, while gaining access to high school networks required administrator approval. (As of this writing, only membership in regional networks requires no permission.) Unlike other SNSs, Facebook users are unable to make their full profiles public to all users. Another feature that differentiates Facebook is the ability for outside developers to build "Applications" which allow users to personalize their profiles and perform other tasks, such as compare movie preferences and chart travel histories.

While most SNSs focus on growing broadly and exponentially, others explicitly seek narrower audiences. Some, like aSmallWorld and BeautifulPeople, intentionally restrict access to appear selective and elite. Others—activity-centered sites like Couchsurfing, identity-driven sites like BlackPlanet, and affiliation-focused sites like MyChurch—are limited by their target demographic and thus tend to be smaller. Finally, anyone who wishes to create a niche social network site can do so on Ning, a platform and hosting service that encourages users to create their own SNSs.

Currently, there are no reliable data regarding how many people use SNSs, although marketing research indicates that SNSs are growing in popularity worldwide (comScore, 2007). This growth has prompted many corporations to invest time and money in creating, purchasing, promoting, and advertising SNSs. At the same time, other companies are blocking their employees from accessing the sites. Additionally, the U.S. military banned soldiers from accessing MySpace (Frosch, 2007) and the Canadian government prohibited employees from Facebook (Benzie, 2007), while the U.S. Congress has proposed legislation to ban youth from accessing SNSs in schools and libraries (H.R. 5319, 2006; S. 49, 2007).

The rise of SNSs indicates a shift in the organization of online communities. While websites dedicated to communities of interest still exist and prosper, SNSs are primarily organized around people, not interests. Early public online communities such as Usenet and public discussion forums were structured by topics or according to topical hierarchies, but social network sites are structured as personal (or "egocentric") networks, with the individual at the center of their own community. This more accurately mirrors unmediated social structures, where "the world is composed of networks, not groups" (Wellman, 1988, p. 37). The introduction of SNS features has introduced a new organizational framework for online communities, and with it, a vibrant new research context.

read part3

Social Network Sites: Definition (part 1)

2008-12-27T00:12:00.000-08:00

this posting is taken from www.jcmc.indiana.edu (http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html) i just interesting to read this posting than i copy and paste for you in here..
this great article by.
danah m. boyd
School of Information
University of California-Berkeley
and
Nicole B. Ellison
Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media
Michigan State University

Social Networking

Abstract

Social network sites (SNSs) are increasingly attracting the attention of academic and industry researchers intrigued by their affordances and reach. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together scholarship on these emergent phenomena. In this introductory article, we describe features of SNSs and propose a comprehensive definition. We then present one perspective on the history of such sites, discussing key changes and developments. After briefly summarizing existing scholarship concerning SNSs, we discuss the articles in this special section and conclude with considerations for future research.

Introduction

Since their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) such as MySpace, Facebook, Cyworld, and Bebo have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. As of this writing, there are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their key technological features are fairly consistent, the cultures that emerge around SNSs are varied. Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests, political views, or activities. Some sites cater to diverse audiences, while others attract people based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious, or nationality-based identities. Sites also vary in the extent to which they incorporate new information and communication tools, such as mobile connectivity, blogging, and photo/video-sharing.

Scholars from disparate fields have examined SNSs in order to understand the practices, implications, culture, and meaning of the sites, as well as users' engagement with them. This special theme section of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication brings together a unique collection of articles that analyze a wide spectrum of social network sites using various methodological techniques, theoretical traditions, and analytic approaches. By collecting these articles in this issue, our goal is to showcase some of the interdisciplinary scholarship around these sites.

The purpose of this introduction is to provide a conceptual, historical, and scholarly context for the articles in this collection. We begin by defining what constitutes a social network site and then present one perspective on the historical development of SNSs, drawing from personal interviews and public accounts of sites and their changes over time. Following this, we review recent scholarship on SNSs and attempt to contextualize and highlight key works. We conclude with a description of the articles included in this special section and suggestions for future research.

Social Network Sites: A Definition

We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.

While we use the term "social network site" to describe this phenomenon, the term "social networking sites" also appears in public discourse, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. We chose not to employ the term "networking" for two reasons: emphasis and scope. "Networking" emphasizes relationship initiation, often between strangers. While networking is possible on these sites, it is not the primary practice on many of them, nor is it what differentiates them from other forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC).

What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made, but that is often not the goal, and these meetings are frequently between "latent ties" (Haythornthwaite, 2005) who share some offline connection. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites."

While SNSs have implemented a wide variety of technical features, their backbone consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of Friends¹ who are also users of the system. Profiles are unique pages where one can "type oneself into being" (Sundén, 2003, p. 3). After joining an SNS, an individual is asked to fill out forms containing a series of questions. The profile is generated using the answers to these questions, which typically include descriptors such as age, location, interests, and an "about me" section. Most sites also encourage users to upload a profile photo. Some sites allow users to enhance their profiles by adding multimedia content or modifying their profile's look and feel. Others, such as Facebook, allow users to add modules ("Applications") that enhance their profile.

The visibility of a profile varies by site and according to user discretion. By default, profiles on Friendster and Tribe.net are crawled by search engines, making them visible to anyone, regardless of whether or not the viewer has an account. Alternatively, LinkedIn controls what a viewer may see based on whether she or he has a paid account. Sites like MySpace allow users to choose whether they want their profile to be public or "Friends only." Facebook takes a different approach—by default, users who are part of the same "network" can view each other's profiles, unless a profile owner has decided to deny permission to those in their network. Structural variations around visibility and access are one of the primary ways that SNSs differentiate themselves from each other.

After joining a social network site, users are prompted to identify others in the system with whom they have a relationship. The label for these relationships differs depending on the site—popular terms include "Friends," "Contacts," and "Fans." Most SNSs require bi-directional confirmation for Friendship, but some do not. These one-directional ties are sometimes labeled as "Fans" or "Followers," but many sites call these Friends as well. The term "Friends" can be misleading, because the connection does not necessarily mean friendship in the everyday vernacular sense, and the reasons people connect are varied (boyd, 2006a).

The public display of connections is a crucial component of SNSs. The Friends list contains links to each Friend's profile, enabling viewers to traverse the network graph by clicking through the Friends lists. On most sites, the list of Friends is visible to anyone who is permitted to view the profile, although there are exceptions. For instance, some MySpace users have hacked their profiles to hide the Friends display, and LinkedIn allows users to opt out of displaying their network.

Most SNSs also provide a mechanism for users to leave messages on their Friends' profiles. This feature typically involves leaving "comments," although sites employ various labels for this feature. In addition, SNSs often have a private messaging feature similar to webmail. While both private messages and comments are popular on most of the major SNSs, they are not universally available.

Not all social network sites began as such. QQ started as a Chinese instant messaging service, LunarStorm as a community site, Cyworld as a Korean discussion forum tool, and Skyrock (formerly Skyblog) was a French blogging service before adding SNS features. Classmates.com, a directory of school affiliates launched in 1995, began supporting articulated lists of Friends after SNSs became popular. AsianAvenue, MiGente, and BlackPlanet were early popular ethnic community sites with limited Friends functionality before re-launching in 2005-2006 with SNS features and structure.

Beyond profiles, Friends, comments, and private messaging, SNSs vary greatly in their features and user base. Some have photo-sharing or video-sharing capabilities; others have built-in blogging and instant messaging technology. There are mobile-specific SNSs (e.g., Dodgeball), but some web-based SNSs also support limited mobile interactions (e.g., Facebook, MySpace, and Cyworld). Many SNSs target people from specific geographical regions or linguistic groups, although this does not always determine the site's constituency. Orkut, for example, was launched in the United States with an English-only interface, but Portuguese-speaking Brazilians quickly became the dominant user group (Kopytoff, 2004). Some sites are designed with specific ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, political, or other identity-driven categories in mind. There are even SNSs for dogs (Dogster) and cats (Catster), although their owners must manage their profiles.

While SNSs are often designed to be widely accessible, many attract homogeneous populations initially, so it is not uncommon to find groups using sites to segregate themselves by nationality, age, educational level, or other factors that typically segment society (Hargittai, this issue), even if that was not the intention of the designers.

Getting into Yahoo and Live (Formerly MSN)

2008-12-26T23:51:00.000-08:00

Most websites get into Yahoo and Live by getting spidered from other sites. Meaning if you're already linked from another site or web directory, Live and Yahoo's robots will eventually find you when they update their search index.

If you don't want to wait to get spidered, you can submit directly to Live by going here http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx.

Do not keep re-submitting your site. It will not speed up the process of getting listed and may even get you banned.

Yahoo's direct submission site is https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit.

The Yahoo Directory

Not to be confused with the regular Yahoo search function, the Yahoo directory is also a place you can add your site.

When you go to Yahoo.com and enter a search into the box, you are using their regular search engine, not the directory. So it is possible to be included in Yahoo's regular search index and not be included in their directory.

The Yahoo directory is actually a categorical listing of sites located here http://dir.yahoo.com and it's not used very much by web surfers.

The real benefit to being listed here is to have a high quality link pointing to your site. Many search engines look at who is linking to you and if you have a link from the Yahoo directory, it may give you some "credibility" points.

Some believe that having a listing in the directory will help boost your rank in Google and other engines. There is no solid proof of this, however. Yahoo also states that if you are listed in their directory, it does not have any affect on your position in their regular search results.

If your site is commercial it will cost you $299 per year to be included in Yahoo's directory. So if you can justify/afford the cost, I would still recommend getting into Yahoo just to have the high-quality link pointing to your site - but don't expect a lot of traffic from the actual page you'll be listed on.

It's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not. Many webmasters do quite well in the "Big 3" search engines without a listing in the Yahoo directory.

see too about how to get listed in google

How to Get Listed In Google

2008-12-26T23:46:00.000-08:00

There are three ways to list your site with Google, but I will warn you that using any one of these 3 methods no longer guarantees your site will be listed.

Google is getting more and more selective about who gets in, and the first step is ensuring that your site is full of useful, unique content.

After that, work on getting quality, relevant sites to link back to you. These days those two steps are the best ways to find your site in the almighty Google.

Having said that, here are some methods that may also get you in...

1) Get your site listed in The Open Directory - www.dmoz.org.

This is a directory that is managed by volunteers that act as "category editors." To list your site, simply go to the most appropriate category for your web site, then drill down to the relevant subcategory and select the "Add URL" link at the top of that category's page.

Wait about a month to see if your site appears. If it does not, I recommend emailing one of the category editors and asking for advice on how to get your site listed. If you're lucky, you'll receive a helpful response, but most of the category managers do not answer emails.

Sometimes it may take up to one year for an editor to review and list your site and other times it may only take a couple of weeks. Be patient and please don't keep submitting!

Unfortunately since DMOZ is run by volunteers, the time it takes to get your site reviewed really depends on the availability of the volunteers. Sometimes they may not check the submissions for weeks, which can be quite frustrating for people trying to get listed.

Lately, it seems to be more and more difficult to get in, but the good news is this is not the only way to get into Google. Years ago this was one of the fastest ways to get listed and ranked. Fortunately there are other options that are just as effective, and I'll discuss those below.

Warning: Don't try to submit to The Open Directory unless you have enough useful information on your site. If your site is only one or two pages long, then you won't likely get listed. They want medium to large sized web sites with useful and unique content. Strive for at least 15 pages.

If you need more content, articlecity.com has some free articles you can post on your site. Simply find the category that closely matches your theme and add them. Be careful though, don't use too many articles because the engines may penalize your site if you have too much duplicate content.

2) The second way to get listed in Google is to use their own Add URL form located here http://www.google.com/addurl.html. This method is not as dependable as listing with The Open Directory, but it can get you in. Google admits that they may not add every site, so don't be surprised if this does not work for you.

3) The third way to get listed is to be linked from another web site that is already in Google. That way, when Google's spider goes to visit that site for updates, it will pick up the link to your site and add it. This method does not always work, but many sites do get in this way.

and see too about submit site to open directory

How Search Engines Determine Your Rank

2008-12-26T23:39:00.000-08:00

Before you try to add your site to the search engines, you should understand what they look for when they decide how to rank your site. Just because you're listed doesn't mean you'll get traffic. You have to make sure your site is search engine ready.

The general rule of thumb is that most engines use a "formula" to determine keyword relevancy. The technical term is called an "algorithm", and each search engine has its own unique algorithm that it uses to rank pages.

Generally, this magic formula consists of your page title, overall body content and the number and quality of links pointing back to your site, how long people stay on your site, etc.

It's important to note that every engine is different. Some may look at inbound links (number of people linking to you), others may place more emphasis on your body content. These days, meta tag content is becoming less and less important.

In case you don't know, meta tags are hidden descriptors that appear at the beginning of your HTML code, inside your tag. They may be invisible to your visitor's eyes, but search engine spiders can read them.

They usually consist of a title, description, and keyword tag and they look something like this:

<>

<>Title of Your Site< / title >

< name="description" content="Description of your site here.">

< name="keywords" content="keywords separated by commas">

< / head >

Because of abuse, many search engines no longer use these tags to help rank pages, but you should still include them because they do use them to display information about your site.

and see too about Keyword Search Techniques

Inbound and Outbound links

2008-12-18T04:05:00.000-08:00

Inbound and Outbound links - carefully explained and what you can do with it -

Inbound links (links into the site from the outside) are one way to increase a site's total PageRank. The other is to add more pages. Where the links come from doesn't matter. Google recognizes that a webmaster has no control over other sites linking into a site, and so sites are not penalized because of where the links come from. There is an exception to this rule but it is rare and doesn't concern this article. It isn't something that a webmaster can accidentally do.

The linking page's PageRank is important, but so is the number of links going from that page. For instance, if you are the only link from a page that has a lowly PR2, you will receive an injection of 0.15 + 0.85(2/1) = 1.85 into your site, whereas a link from a PR8 page that has another 99 links from it will increase your site's PageRank by 0.15 + 0.85(7/100) = 0.2095. Clearly, the PR2 link is much better - or is it? See here for a probable reason why this is not the case.

Once the PageRank is injected into your site, the calculations are done again and each page's PageRank is changed. Depending on the internal link structure, some pages' PageRank is increased, some are unchanged but no pages lose any PageRank.

It is beneficial to have the inbound links coming to the pages to which you are channeling your PageRank. A PageRank injection to any other page will be spread around the site through the internal links. The important pages will receive an increase, but not as much of an increase as when they are linked to directly. The page that receives the inbound link, makes the biggest gain.

It is easy to think of our site as being a small, self-contained network of pages. When we do the PageRank calculations we are dealing with our small network. If we make a link to another site, we lose some of our network's PageRank, and if we receive a link, our network's PageRank is added to. But it isn't like that. For the PageRank calculations, there is only one network - every page that Google has in its index. Each iteration of the calculation is done on the entire network and not on individual websites.

Because the entire network is interlinked, and every link and every page plays its part in each iteration of the calculations, it is impossible for us to calculate the effect of inbound links to our site with any realistic accuracy.

Outbound links are a drain on a site's total PageRank. They leak PageRank. To counter the drain, try to ensure that the links are reciprocated. Because of the PageRank of the pages at each end of an external link, and the number of links out from those pages, reciprocal links can gain or lose PageRank. You need to take care when choosing where to exchange links.

When PageRank leaks from a site via a link to another site, all the pages in the internal link structure are affected. (This doesn't always show after just 1 iteration). The page that you link out from makes a difference to which pages suffer the most loss. Without a program to perform the calculations on specific link structures, it is difficult to decide on the right page to link out from, but the generalization is to link from the one with the lowest PageRank.

Many websites need to contain some outbound links that are nothing to do with PageRank. Unfortunately, all 'normal' outbound links leak PageRank. But there are 'abnormal' ways of linking to other sites that don't result in leaks. PageRank is leaked when Google recognizes a link to another site. The answer is to use links that Google doesn't recognize or count. These include form actions and links contained in javascript code.

Form actions
A form's 'action' attribute does not need to be the url of a form parsing script. It can point to any html page on any site. Try it.

Example:

< name="myform" action="http://www.domain.com/somepage.html">
Click here

To be really sneaky, the action attribute could be in some javascript code rather than in the form tag, and the javascript code could be loaded from a 'js' file stored in a directory that is barred to Google's spider by the robots.txt file.

Javascript
Example: Click here

Like the form action, it is sneaky to load the javascript code, which contains the urls, from a seperate 'js' file, and sneakier still if the file is stored in a directory that is barred to googlebot by the robots.txt file.

The "rel" attribute
As of 18th January 2005, Google, together with other search engines, is recognising a new attribute to the anchor tag. The attribute is "rel", and it is used as follows:-

Free Wordpress theme

The attribute tells Google to ignore the link completely. The link won't help the target page's PageRank, and it won't help its rankings. It is as though the link doesn't exist. With this attribute, there is no longer any need for javascript, forms, or any other method of hiding links from Google.

Tip: multi-site simulation and reciprocal links

It is possible to see how 2 small sites affect each other by creating a grid for the combined number of pages. E.g. for a 6 page site and a 4 page site, create a grid with 10 pages. Treat pages A to F as one site and pages G to J as the other. As long as there are no links between them, their results are totally isolated. Links between the 2 blocks of pages behave as outbounds and inbounds of their respective 'sites'.

This is particularly relevant with reciprocated links because the PR value of an outbound link is spread around the recipient site's pages, and a returned link from the same page will rarely return the same amount of PR.

Keyword Search Techniques

2008-12-18T03:17:00.000-08:00

1. What is Keyword Searching?

i have posting about keyword in here, but i just forgot about what is the keyword itself, Keyword searching is an effective method for finding information in any computerized database, whether it's TOPCAT, an online index, or even an Internet search engine. Once you learn the basics, you are capable of searching anywhere.

In a keyword search, you choose the most important words for your topic - words you would expect to find in every item of interest to you. The system finds all the items with the words you request.

The most important aspect of keyword searching is choosing the best possible keywords.
You need to do a lot of thinking to prepare for a keyword search.

How is this different than a title, author, or subject search? In a title, author, or subject search you browse an alphabetical list, starting with the first word you type in. You need to know exactly what you want to find, and you go to that particular entry on a list. With a keyword search you look for a word, no matter where that word appears. If you like, you can specify that the word be in a particular field (e.g. the title, author, or subject), but it can be in any position (beginning, middle, or end). Thus, a keyword search is a more broad and flexible search, for when you are not sure of what you will find.

For instance, if you wanted to find a book about Canadian history written by Pierre Berton called Marching as to War : Canada's Turbulent Years, 1899-1953, you could do any of the following searches:

title search: marching as to war	to get the one book you want
author search: berton	to get a list of all authors named Berton
subject search: canadian history	to get nothing (there's no such subject heading)
subject search: canada--history	to get a lot of books about Canadian history
OR
keyword search: berton and history and marching	to get the one book that has all 3 words in the record

As you can see, this is even useful when you are not sure of the exact title, but you know it has the word "marching" in it.

2. Preparing a Search

Before you begin a keyword search, think about your topic. Decide on some words (terms) to express the most important concepts. Use only important words that express the subject matter, not words such as "of", "compare", "effect", "reaction", etc. These words have no value to your search, and will cause you to lose useful records. Ask yourself "What should all of my resources be about, in order to be useful?"

Next, think of other words which might also express the same concepts. Keep in mind that the system searches for the exact letters you type, and not the general ideas they express. The system doesn't think. So you have to plan for single and plural, more specific and more general terms, nouns, adjectives, and verbs, etc.

For example: let's take the topic "Are pregnancy rates among teenage girls in Canada rising?".

The main concepts are "pregnancy", "teenage", "Canada". "Rates" is too limiting, and "girls" is redundant when referring to pregnant teenagers. You will be interested in any information dealing with teenagers, pregnancy, and Canada.

Next, think of other ways of expressing your terms:

pregnancy	teenage	Canada
pregnant	teenager(s)	canadian
pregnancies	teen(s)	north america(n)
baby	adolescent(s)	ontario
babies	adolescence	british columbia
infant(s)	youth	toronto
	high school	vancouver

If you do this work before you begin your search, you'll be ready to create many different searches using the list you prepared. It will make it easier when one of your searches doesn't get the results you want; just move on to the next search. Write down anything that comes to mind; you may not actually use all these terms, but they're there if you need them. Don't try to think of every possibility, either; try to get the important ones.

3. Using Boolean Operators to Combine Keywords: AND

Usually one keyword isn't specific enough for your topic. Special terms called "boolean operators" can be used to combine terms. When you use one of these operators the system knows that this term has special meaning and applies it.

Focus your search by adding more keywords and joining them with the word "and".

When you use "and", you are specifying that both terms must be in every item found.

The words can be in any order and in any searchable place in the record. You can join many keywords together this way, always typing "and" between them:

fish and pollution and legislation and ontario
atwood and handmaids
videorecording and teachers and racism

4. Combining Keywords: OR

Sometimes you need to broaden your search, to include alternate keywords so that you don't miss important items. Another boolean operator is "or".

Use "or" to say that either term is acceptable.

When you use "or" you specify that items may have one term or the other, but they don't need both.

Examples of "or":

labour or labor
car or automobile or auto
indian or native or aboriginal or first nation

Caution:

Be careful of using both "and" and "or" in the same search request. If you don't put brackets ( ) in the proper spots, the system might search the words in the wrong order, giving inaccurate results. If you must use both "and" and "or", place brackets around the "or" terms:

crayfish and (river or stream)

5. Phrases

When you type two words together, TOPCAT puts an AND between them: great lakes = great and lakes. If you want to keep them as a phrase, put single quotes around them: 'great lakes'.

TOPCAT will look for those words together, and not find items with "great" in one place and "lakes" in another (such as My Great Adventures in the Kawartha Lakes).

Other search engines may have different rules, and you need to check under "Help" to see how to keep a phrase together.

6. Truncation and Wildcards

Here's a very handy trick you should know and use. To find variations of words quickly, you can use truncation and wildcards.

Truncation goes at the end of a word and means "find any ending at all for this word". It's good for finding both plural and singular, nouns and verbs. (Example: "pollut$" finds "pollute", "pollutes", "pollution", "polluter", "polluted", "polluting", "pollutant", "pollutants".)

Wildcards are used within a word, to represent any letter. (Example: "wom?n" finds "women", "woman", "womyn".)

Truncation and wildcards are extremely useful in searching, and should never be forgotten. They'll save you time and improve your results. Unfortunately, the symbols used vary between search engines. Be sure to use the correct one for the database you're in.

TOPCAT:
$	replaces any number of characters (or none), anywhere in the word	truncation OR wildcard
?	replaces any single character anywhere in the word (but not "no character")	wildcard

Most Online Indexes:
*	goes at the end of a word to replace any number of characters	truncation
?	goes within a word to replace a single character	wildcard

You should check under "Help" for the search engine you are using, to see exactly how these symbols are interpreted.

Be sure to use the right symbol in the proper place; don't put a wildcard symbol at the end of a word or a truncation symbol within a word. And don't truncate too early or too late . Think about your searches.

7.

Quick Tips for Keyword Searching
1.	Choose keywords to represent the most important concepts in your topic. Have a list of many possible keywords ready to use.
2.	Use "and" to combine different keywords and narrow your search.
3.	Use "or" to find alternate keywords and broaden your search.
4.	Use truncation and wildcards carefully, to search for variations of words.
5.	Evaluate your results, and revise your strategy as often as you need to. Don't stop at one search, especially if it isn't very successful.

Using Advanced keyword Techniques To Improve PPC ROI

2008-12-18T03:10:00.000-08:00

Most PPC advertising campaigns use exact keyword matches in order to display your advertisement whenever somebody searches for the precise keyword combination that you bid on. This helps to ensure that all of the keywords you use are properly targeted to the content, services, and products you offer but there are other keyword match and keyword techniques that may benefit the overall return on investment offered by a PPC advertising campaign making them well worth consideration.

A broad match not only returns your ad for those searches that exactly include your keyword but for searches based on similar and related search terms. This can include the individual keywords within a key phrase or if the keywords are entered in a different order. Advanced broad match results will also display your ad when topically related keywords and strings of keywords are entered which can generate a lot more traffic but may also impact on how targeted the resulting visitors actually are.

Negative keywords are keywords that you do not wish your ad to be displayed for. Adding a list of negative keywords can prevent an advertisement from being displayed for ambiguous search terms or when specific words are added to your keyphrase. This can prevent people searching for words like “free” from seeing your ad. While “free” is one obvious negative keyword used by a lot of PPC advertising campaigns there are many others that you might wish to add to the list to improve your results.

Bored with Broad Match

2008-12-18T03:07:00.000-08:00

Working as a dedicated Pay Per Click manager on a number of varied accounts, from time to time you will come across issues that you haven’t dealt with before and will have to find different solutions to resolve them. Pay per click after all is still an industry in its infancy. My latest frustration has come in the form of matching options, but to be more specific ‘broad match’.

Around our office a discussion has been raging on for the last few weeks. Time and time again, after running search query reports, we are finding obscure search queries matching up to keywords on broad match within the pay per click account. A prime example of this occurred only this morning, where an ad was served under the search term ‘nintendo ds deals’ and was an expanded match from the broad match keyword ‘canada holiday deals’. How the Google algorithm finds a match of relevance between these two terms is beyond me, after all this is Google’s lifeblood - RELEVANCE!

Over the last couple of weeks I have been finding these occurrences more and more often over the different pay per click accounts that I manage. Accordingly, I have been working out solutions to these issues along the road. At first I was using an increased amount of negatives to drill down the possibilities that the keyword could be served for. Now I believe that this may just be a stop gap solution. I’m starting to think that maybe the way forward is to do away with the use of broad match altogether!

The minefield of pay per click is hard to navigate, even for vastly experienced people within the industry. I find new reasons every day why the companies are best to out source this work to the experts who can stay on top of these issues and find solutions to them.

The Negatives You Can’t Live Without

2008-12-18T03:00:00.000-08:00

Here at Click Consult, we obviously manage a large number of PPC (Pay per Click) campaigns and carry out a lot of negative keyword research. For those of you who don’t know, negative keywords eliminate searched phrases you don’t want your ad to appear for. A good example would be a 5 star hotel that wouldn’t want its ads to show for “cheap hotel” searches, and so, “cheap” would be added as a negative. Our clients operate across all markets sectors, industries, niches etc; nonetheless there are some negatives that crop up time and time again. Have you got them in your PPC campaign?

• Forum/Forums: If people wanna chat about a product or a service with others online, chances are they won’t be entering their card details any time soon.

• Free: There’s always someone looking for a free lunch. Avoid.

• Second Hand/Used: Pretty self-explanatory, unless you sell reconditioned products.

• Jobs/Job/Vacancy/Vacancies: Whatever the keyword, you can be sure that there is someone looking for a job in it.

• Repairs/Parts/Cleaning/Maintenance: If you sell products on your website, make sure you weed out people looking for related services or accessories (assuming, of course, you don’t offer them).

• Info/Information: These people are at the very start of the buying process. Don’t waste your clicks/money on them.

• Hire/Rent/Rental/Lease: A must if you only ‘sell’ the product in question – for example, wedding dresses, DVDs etc

• Define/Definition/What Is: Unless you want to pay for people who haven’t got a dictionary, make this a negative.

• Manual/Instructions/Guide: If people have lost their instructions or need a little help to work something, you don’t want them clicking on your ads.

• Review/Reviews: These people aren’t looking to buy or enquire – they want to know if something is any good. Avoid these people until they are several notches further along the buying process.

• How/Where: Someone who conducts search that contains the words “how” or “where” is, again, looking for information.

How to find good keywords

2008-12-18T02:23:00.000-08:00

After read this post, this and this, about seo technique i think you should see about keyword, Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Also very useful, Google AdWords Keyword Tool6 is free and much quicker to use than Wordtracker. Like Wordtracker, it tells you how many people are searching for each keyword phrase as well as the level of competition.
KeywordSpy

KeywordSpy7 is an interesting resource. Type in a keyword phrase and it'll tell you which websites are targeting that phrase. You can then click through to see which other keywords that website is targeting. This tool is excellent for giving you ideas for keyword phrases based around what search terms your competitors are targeting.

web designer seo techniques

2008-12-18T02:09:00.000-08:00

After read this post, this and this, i think good for you to read about seo technique in web design,

We all know the work of web designer. The beautiful design of a website can attracts the internet user but if it not properly not optimized then no one will reach to the website to see the design. A seo optimize a website that will help a website to rank high in search engines. But some of the seo knowledge will help the designers to make the website search engine as well as human friendly.

Here are some useful tips that will help designer to make search engine friendly website :

1. Try to focus on plain websites. It loads quickly and easily crawl by search engines.
2. Choose page name relevant to the page content and should be human-friendly. If a page provides seo tips for webdesigners then it should be webdesigners-seo-tips.html not 16.html or webdesigners55.html. Also avoid underscore, use hyphen between the words.
3. The page should be content rich and keep the content inside the P tag.
4. Avoid use of table. If possible replace the table using div.
5. Optimize the images used on the website. It will help to increase the loading speed of images.
6. Add alt tags to the images and it should be relevant to the images.
7. Avoid use of javascript. The javascript creates problem in crawling the pages by search engines. Use external javascript file.
8. For better navigation, use bread crumbs. For example Home >> Tips >> Web Designer Tips.
9. Create sitemap for a website. It help robots to go to any page from this page.
10. Donot add CSS in the web pages. It will make a web page heavy. Use external CSS file.
11. Remove useless text from the page like comments text.
12. Avoid use of frame.
13. Use text navigation instead of image navigation. Text navigation will help users and search engines to navigate easily and it will help to increase ranking of the page in the search engines by a particular keyword used as anchor text.
14. Keep the page size not more than 30-50 kb.
15. Use heading tags for the target keyword of the page and also for the heading of the page.

free directories lists

2008-12-18T02:02:00.000-08:00

After you read add url to dmoz i think you will need all free directory

There are lots of search engines where we can submit our website free of cost. Organic optimization is very helpful to increase traffic on the websites. I am writing the name of few search engines where you can submit your website. It is not very popular but can be useful to increase traffic on the website. I know except Google, Yahoo and MSN other search engines will hardly send traffic on the website. The complete url of search engines submission pages. Copy the url and paste it in the browser and add the information of your website :

http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
http://search.yahoo.com/info/submit.html
http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx?FORM=WSDD2
http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site (Powered by Yahoo)
http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/default (Powered by Yahoo)
http://www.searchit.com/addurl.htm
http://www.websquash.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?Mode=AnonAdd
http://www.accoona.com/public/submit_website.jsp
http://www.clickey.com/signup.shtml
http://searchsight.com/submit.htm
http://www.fybersearch.com/add-url.php
http://www.mixcat.com/addurl.php
http://www.fybersearch.com/add-url.php
http://www.infotiger.com/addurl.html
http://www.anoox.com/add_for_indexing_free.jsp
http://www.splatsearch.com/submit.html
http://www.clickey.com/signup.shtml
http://www.jdgo.com/add.html
http://searchramp.com/addurl.asp
http://www.searchtheweb.com/suggest/
http://www.uk.abacho.com/anmelden.html
http://www.alltheweb.com/help/webmaster/submit_site (Powered by Yahoo)
http://addurl.altavista.com/addurl/default (Powered by Yahoo)
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/addurl.html
http://www.changealarm.com/wus/addurl.shtml
http://www.boing.mobi/submit.html
http://www.exactseek.com/cgi-bin/autoadd.cgi
http://submit2.jayde.com/
http://www.netsearch.org/adds/addurl.php
http://searchengine.com/List_Your_Site/Basic_Submit/index.asp
http://acoon.com/addurl.html
http://www.onseek.com/add.html
http://www.claymont.com/submiturl.asp
http://www.admcity.com/search/addurl.shtml
http://www.gimpsy.com/gimpsy/searcher/suggest_compare.php
http://www.surfsafely.com/urladd.html
http://sm.mobrien.com/add_site.html
http://swoogle.umbc.edu/index.php?option=com_swoogle_service&service=submit
http://www.lexxe.com/add_url.cfm
http://www.searchhippo.com/addlink.php
http://www.searchking.com/add_new.htm
http://www.entireweb.com/free_submission/
http://www.intelseek.com/add_url_form.asp
http://www.bigfinder.com/submit/
http://amerifindit.com/submit.html
http://www.beamed.com/search/AddURL.html
http://www.axxasearch.com/submit-site.htm

5 blogging mistakes

2008-12-18T01:49:00.000-08:00

After you read about this post and this post, dont forget about 5 blogging mistakes that blogger ussualy do.

1. Make sure your English, grammar and spelling, is up to par and can be understood by International Readers as colloquial language that is used in your local area may not be understood by some one else a few thousand miles away. Also don't use a crappy title for your blog. An eye catchy title can work miracles and is like fish bait.

2. Do not show that you are trying too hard to sell your services, products or even blogging information. Make your site look natural, organic and as easy going as you can, despite the effort you are making. No one likes a hard sell and you have to sell your wares in the most subtle way possible.

3. Do not stray from the topics in hand and wonder off into some other realm as that may bore your readers to tears. Always make sure content is both informative and relevant to what you want to put across to your readers. No one likes a blog that waffles on about all and sundry and is full of useless and tacky information.

4. If you are creating a new blog do not use the default templates that your blogging platform provides. Even if it takes you several days or even a week to find the write blogging template to express your opinion in then you better take your time as an attractive blog is one way of getting some instant traffic to your site. No one likes a tacky blog that looks dull and boring even if it has great content. The blog has to look good as well as BE good just like other aspects of our lives. Your blog is like your store front or a window to your soul and it has to look clean and fresh and most of all inviting.

5. Do not be only introspective without involving others as this will not attract lots of traffic to your blog. Involve and engage with other bloggers. Leave feed back and comments on other people's blogs that share a common goal with you or are writing in the same niche. If you don't get involved in the blogging community how do you expect others to come and be part of what you represent? The Blogging Game is a two way street so only then you can succeed as a blogger.

55 Quick SEO Tips

2008-12-18T01:32:00.000-08:00

after read 27 Tips to build a successful SEO website in 12 months i think this posting good for reading after that posting.
Everyone loves a good tip, right? Here are 55 quick tips for search engine optimization that even your mother could use to get cooking. Well, not my mother, but you get my point. Most folks with some web design and beginner SEO knowledge should be able to take these to the bank without any problem.

1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.

2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.

3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks using your keyword phrase as the link. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for that site to link to you, you don’t want the link.

4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a major brand name that is a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.

6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.

8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.

9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.

10. Use keywords and keyword phrases appropriately in text links, image ALT attributes and even your domain name.

11. Check for canonicalization issues - www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. In other words, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.

12. Check the link to your home page throughout your site. Is index.html appended to your domain name? If so, you’re splitting your links. Outside links go to http://www.domain.com and internal links go to http://www.domain.com/index.html.

Ditch the index.html or default.php or whatever the page is and always link back to your domain.

13. Frames, Flash and AJAX all share a common problem - you can’t link to a single page. It’s either all or nothing. Don’t use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for best SEO results.

14. Your URL file extension doesn’t matter. You can use .html, .htm, .asp, .php, etc. and it won’t make a difference as far as your SEO is concerned.

15. Got a new web site you want spidered? Submitting through Google’s regular submission form can take weeks. The quickest way to get your site spidered is by getting a link to it through another quality site.

16. If your site content doesn’t change often, your site needs a blog because search spiders like fresh text. Blog at least three time a week with good, fresh content to feed those little crawlers.

17. When link building, think quality, not quantity. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than a dozen poor quality links, which can actually hurt you.

18. Search engines want natural language content. Don’t try to stuff your text with keywords. It won’t work. Search engines look at how many times a term is in your content and if it is abnormally high, will count this against you rather than for you.

19. Not only should your links use keyword anchor text, but the text around the links should also be related to your keywords. In other words, surround the link with descriptive text.

20. If you are on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their negative notoriety could affect your own rankings.

21. Be aware that by using services that block domain ownership information when you register a domain, Google might see you as a potential spammer.

22. When optimizing your blog posts, optimize your post title tag independently from your blog title.

23. The bottom line in SEO is Text, Links, Popularity and Reputation.

24. Make sure your site is easy to use. This can influence your link building ability and popularity and, thus, your ranking.

25. Give link love, Get link love. Don’t be stingy with linking out. That will encourage others to link to you.

26. Search engines like unique content that is also quality content. There can be a difference between unique content and quality content. Make sure your content is both.

27. If you absolutely MUST have your main page as a splash page that is all Flash or one big image, place text and navigation links below the fold.

28. Some of your most valuable links might not appear in web sites at all but be in the form of e-mail communications such as newletters and zines.

29. You get NOTHING from paid links except a few clicks unless the links are embedded in body text and NOT obvious sponsored links.

30. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Run a search for possible non-profit .edu sites that are looking for sponsors.

31. Give them something to talk about. Linkbaiting is simply good content.

32. Give each page a focus on a single keyword phrase. Don’t try to optimize the page for several keywords at once.

33. SEO is useless if you have a weak or non-existent call to action. Make sure your call to action is clear and present.

34. SEO is not a one-shot process. The search landscape changes daily, so expect to work on your optimization daily.

35. Cater to influential bloggers and authority sites who might link to you, your images, videos, podcasts, etc. or ask to reprint your content.

36. Get the owner or CEO blogging. It’s priceless! CEO influence on a blog is incredible as this is the VOICE of the company. Response from the owner to reader comments will cause your credibility to skyrocket!

37. Optimize the text in your RSS feed just like you should with your posts and web pages. Use descriptive, keyword rich text in your title and description.

38. Use captions with your images. As with newspaper photos, place keyword rich captions with your images.

39. Pay attention to the context surrounding your images. Images can rank based on text that surrounds them on the page. Pay attention to keyword text, headings, etc.

40. You’re better off letting your site pages be found naturally by the crawler. Good global navigation and linking will serve you much better than relying only on an XML Sitemap.

41. There are two ways to NOT see Google’s Personalized Search results:

(1) Log out of Google

(2) Append &pws=0 to the end of your search URL in the search bar

42. Links (especially deep links) from a high PageRank site are golden. High PR indicates high trust, so the back links will carry more weight.

43. Use absolute links. Not only will it make your on-site link navigation less prone to problems (like links to and from https pages), but if someone scrapes your content, you’ll get backlink juice out of it.

44. See if your hosting company offers “Sticky” forwarding when moving to a new domain. This allows temporary forwarding to the new domain from the old, retaining the new URL in the address bar so that users can gradually get used to the new URL.

45. Understand social marketing. It IS part of SEO. The more you understand about sites like Digg, Yelp, del.icio.us, Facebook, etc., the better you will be able to compete in search.

46. To get the best chance for your videos to be found by the crawlers, create a video sitemap and list it in your Google Webmaster Central account.

47. Videos that show up in Google blended search results don’t just come from YouTube. Be sure to submit your videos to other quality video sites like Metacafe, AOL, MSN and Yahoo to name a few.

48. Surround video content on your pages with keyword rich text. The search engines look at surrounding content to define the usefulness of the video for the query.

49. Use the words “image” or “picture” in your photo ALT descriptions and captions. A lot of searches are for a keyword plus one of those words.

50. Enable “Enhanced image search” in your Google Webmaster Central account. Images are a big part of the new blended search results, so allowing Google to find your photos will help your SEO efforts.

51. Add viral components to your web site or blog - reviews, sharing functions, ratings, visitor comments, etc.

52. Broaden your range of services to include video, podcasts, news, social content and so forth. SEO is not about 10 blue links anymore.

53. When considering a link purchase or exchange, check the cache date of the page where your link will be located in Google. Search for “cache:URL” where you substitute “URL” for the actual page. The newer the cache date the better. If the page isn’t there or the cache date is more than an month old, the page isn’t worth much.

54. If you have pages on your site that are very similar (you are concerned about duplicate content issues) and you want to be sure the correct one is included in the search engines, place the URL of your preferred page in your sitemaps.

55. Check your server headers. Search for “check server header” to find free online tools for this. You want to be sure your URLs report a “200 OK” status or “301 Moved Permanently ” for redirects. If the status shows anything else, check to be sure your URLs are set up properly and used consistently throughout your site.

27 Tips to build a successful SEO website in 12 months

2008-12-16T15:46:00.001-08:00

The following will build a successful site in one years time via Google alone. It can be done faster if you are a real go getter, or everyone’s favorite, a self starter.

1. Prep Work & Begin Building Content

Long before the domain name is settled on, start putting together notes to build at least a one hundred page site. That’s just for openers. That’s one hudred pages of real content, as opposed to fluff pages like copyright information and about us pages.

2. Domain Name

Easily brandable. You want Google.com and not MyKeyword.com. Keyword domains are out—branding and name recognition are in—big time in. The value of keywords in a domain name has never been less to search engines.

Learn the lesson of Goto.com becomes Overture.com and why they did it. It’s one of the most powerful gut check calls I’ve ever seen on the internet. That took serious resolve and nerve to blow away several years of branding.

3. Site Design

The simpler the better. A general rule of thumb to follow is that text content should outweigh the HTML content. The pages should validate and be usable in everything from Lynx to leading edge browsers. Keep the HTML clean and stucturally sound, it makes it easier for spiders to eat up your content.

Stay away from heavy things like Flash, Document Object Model (DOM), Java, and JavaScript. Go external with scripting languages if you must have them—there is little reason to have them that I can see—they will rarely help a site and actually stand to hurt it greatly due to the many factors most people don’t appreciate, such as search engines’ distaste for JavaScript being just one of them.

Arrange the site in a logical manner with directory names hitting the top keywords you wish to hit. You can also go the other route and just throw everything in root. This is a rather controversial method, but it has been producing good long-term results across many search engines.

Don’t clutter and don’t spam your site with frivolous links. Keep it clean and professional to the best of your ability. Learn the lesson of Google itself. Simple is retro cool. Simple is what surfers want.

Speed isn’t everything, it’s almost the only thing. Your site should respond almost instantly to a request. If you get into even three to four seconds delay until “something happens” in the browser, you are in trouble.

Those few seconds may vary for someone living in a country other than your native one. The site should respond locally within three to four seconds tops! Any longer than that, and you’ll lose ten percent of your audience for every second. That ten percent could be the difference between success and failure.

4. Page Size

The smaller the better. Keep it under 15k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 12k if you can. The smaller the better. Keep it under 10k if you can. I trust you are getting the idea here. Over 5k and under 10k. Yeah, it sucks, and it’s tough to do, but it works. It works for search engines, and it works for surfers.

5. Content

Build one page of content with 250 to 500 words per day. If you aren’t sure what you need for content, start with the Overture keyword selector tool and find the core set of keywords for your topic area. Those are your subject starters.

6. Keyword Density & Position

Simple old fashioned search engine optimization from the ground up. Use the keyword once in the title, once in the description tag, once in a heading, once in the url, once in bold, once in italics, and once high on the page. Try to hit a keyword density of five to twenty percent.

Use good sentences and speel check it. Spell checking is becoming increasingly important as search engines use auto-correction during searches. There is no longer a reason to look like you can’t spell—unless, of course, you really are phonetically challenged.

7. External Links

From every page, link to one or two high-ranking sites under that particular keyword. Use your keyword in the link text, as this is ultra important.

8. Internal Links

Link to on-topic, quality content across your site. If a page is about food, then make sure it links to the fruits and veggies page.

Specifically with Google, on-topic internal linking is very important for sharing your PageRank value across your site. You do not want one “all-star” page that out performs the rest of your site. You want fifty pages that produce one referral each a day, not one page that produces fifty referrals a day.

If you do find one page that drastically out performs the rest of the site with Google, you need to balance some of that PageRank value by moving it to other pages. It’s the old share the wealth thing.

9. Put It Online

Don’t go with virtual hosting. Stick with a hosting plan that offers a static IP address. Make sure the site is “crawlable” by a spider. All pages should be linked to more than one other page on your site, and not more than two levels deep from the root. Link the topic vertically as much as possible back to the root. A menu that is present on every page should link to your site’s main “topic index” pages.

Don’t put it online before you have a quality site. It’s worse to put a “nothing” site online, than no site at all. You want it flushed out from the start.

Go for a listing in the Open Directory Project (ODP). If you have the budget, then submit to Looksmart and Yahoo. If you don’t have the budget, then try for a freebie on Yahoo—but don’t hold your breath.

10. Submit It

Submit the root to Google, Fast, AltaVista, WiseNut, DirectHit, and HotBot. Now comes the hard part: forget about submissions for the next six months. That’s right. Submit it and forget about it.

11. Logging & Tracking

Get a quality tracker that can do justice to inbound referrals based on log files. Don’t use a lame graphic counter, you need the real deal here. If your host doesn’t support referrers, then back up and get a new host. You can’t run a modern site without full referrals available all day, every day, and in real time.

12. Spiderlings

Watch for spiders from search engines. Make sure those that are crawling the full site can do so easily. If not, double check your linking system to make sure the spiders find their way through the site. Don’t fret if it takes two spiderlings to get your whole site done by Google or Fast. Other search engines are pot luck and it is doubtful that you will be added at all, if not within six months.

13. Topic Directories

Almost every keyword sector has an authority hub on its topic. Go submit within the guidelines.

14. Links

Look around your keyword sector in Google’s version of the Open Directory Project (ODP). This is best done after getting an ODP listing. Find sites that have a links page or that freely exchange links. Simply request a swap. Put a page of relevant content and links up for yourself as a collection spot.

Don’t freak out if you can’t get people to swap links. Just move on. Try to swap links with one fresh site a day. A simple personal email is enough. Stay low key about it and don’t worry if a site won’t link with you. Eventually they will.

15. Content

One page of quality content per day. Timely, topical articles are always the best. Try to stay away from to much personal, blogging type stuff, and look more for article topics that a general audience will like. Hone your writing skills and read up on the right style of “web speak” that tends to work with the fast and furious web crowd.

Lots of text breaks. Short sentences—lots of dashes—something that reads quickly.

Most web users don’t actually read, they scan. This is why it is so important to keep low key pages today. People see a huge overblown page, and a portion of them will hit the back button before even trying to decipher it. They’ve got better things to do than waste 15 seconds trying to understand your whiz bang flash menu system. Just because some big support site can run flashed out motorhead pages, that is no indication that you can. You don’t have to do what they do.

Use headers and bold text liberally on your pages as logical separators. I call them scanner stoppers, where the eye will logically come to rest on the page.

16. Gimmicks

Stay far away from “fads of the day” or anything that appears spammy, unethical, or tricky. Plant yourself firmly on the high ground in the middle of the road.

17. Link Backs

When you receive requests for links, check the site out before linking back with them. Check them through Google and their PageRank value. Look for directory listings. Don’t link back to junk just because they asked. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic.

18. Rounding Out The Offerings

Use options such as email a friend, forums, and mailing lists to round out your site’s offerings. Hit the top forums in your market and read, read, read until your eyes hurt because you read so much. Stay away from “affiliate fads” that insert content on to your site.

19. Beware Of Flyer & Brochure Syndrome

If you have an e-commerce site or online version of bricks and mortar, be careful not to turn your site into a brochure. These don’t work at all. Think about what people want. They aren’t coming to your site to view “your content,” they are coming to your site looking for “their content.” Talk as little about your products and yourself as possible in articles.

20. Build One Page Of Content Per Day

Head back to the Overture keyword selector tool to get ideas for fresh pages.

21. Study Those Logs

After 30-60 days you will start to see a few referrals from places you’ve been listed. Look for the keywords people are using. See any bizarre combinations? Why are people using those to find your site? If there is something you have over looked, then build a page around that topic. Retro engineer your site to feed the search engine what it wants.

If your site is about “oranges,” but your referrals are all about “orange citrus fruit,” then you can get busy building articles around “citrus” and “fruit” instead of the generic “oranges.”

The search engines will tell you exactly what they want to be fed—listen closely, there is gold in referral logs, it’s just a matter of panning for it.

22. Timely Topics

Nothing breeds success like success. Stay abreast of developments in your keyword sector. If big site is coming out with a new product at the end of the year, then build a page and have it ready in October so that search engines get it by December, e.g. go look at all the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii sites in Google right now. Those are sites that were on the ball last summer.

23. Friends & Family

Networking is critical to the success of a site. This is where all that time you spend in forums will pay off. Here’s the Catch-22 about forums: lurking is almost useless. The value of a forum is in the interaction with your fellow colleagues and cohorts. You learn long-term by the interaction—not by just reading.

Networking will pay off in link backs, tips, email exchanges, and it will put you “in the loop” of your keyword sector.

24. Be Social

Social bookmarking and networking sites can be used to your advantage if the content is right. Places like Digg, Delicious, Technorati, StumbleUpon, and so on, can really expose your site to those that truly are interested. Expect some great backlinks and traffic if you use this to your advantage.

25. Notes, Notes, Notes

If you build one page per day, you will find that a brainstorm like inspiration will hit you in the head at some magic point. Whether it is in the shower (dry off first), driving down the road (please pull over), or just parked at your desk, write it down! Ten minutes later and you will have forgotten all about that great idea you just had. Write it down, and get detailed about what you are thinking. When the inspirational juices are no longer flowing, come back to those content ideas. It sounds simple, but it’s a life saver when the ideas stop coming.

26. Submission Check At Six Months

Walk back through your submissions and see if you are listed in all the search engines you submitted to after six months. If not, then resubmit and forget it again. Try those freebie directories again too.

27. Build One Page Of Quality Content Per Day

Starting to see a theme here? Google loves content. Lots of quality content. Broad based over a wide range of keywords. At the end of a years time, you should have around four hundred pages of content. That will get you good placement under a wide range of keywords, generate reciprical links, and overall position your site to stand on its own two feet.

Do those twenty-seven things, and I guarantee you that in ones years time you will call your site a success. It will be drawing between 500 and 2000 referrals a day from search engines.

If you build a good site with an average of four to five pages per user, you should be in the ten to fifteen thousand page views per day range in one years time. What you do with that traffic is up to you, but that is more than enough to “do something” with.

Google PageRank (PR) vs. Alexa Traffic Rank Correlation (Regression) Analysis

2008-12-16T15:07:00.000-08:00

Abstract: a statistical study (regression analysis) of a random sample of 102 websites has shown that a strong relationship (correlation) exists between Google PageRank and Alexa Traffic Rank.

Introduction

Here is a comparative table:

Site            |  GPR  |   ATR
--------------------------------
CSS Zen Garden  |   8   | 13,138
Mail.ru         |   6   |   23

A copy of the original spreasheet is available, yet it does not contain graphs and charts.

The sample

Google PageRank Distribution

For the histogram above, I have chosen each of the 11 PageRank values for each class (exactly 11, not 10, remember that zero is also a separate value).

Alexa Traffic Rank Distribution

Analysis and methods

Simple regression analysis and t-distribution significance test was used for the study.

Regression analysis

Hypothesis testing (significance test)

Outliers and interesting observations

Conclusion

Regardless of the limitations of the test, the study showed very strong relationship between Google PR and Alexa Traffic Rank.

If you notice errors of typos, please leave a comment. The copy of the original spreadsheet is available at Google Spreadsheets.

see too about pagerank algorithm

20 Ways to Increase your Alexa Rank

2008-12-16T14:57:00.000-08:00

see too about google pagerank secret
Here is a collection of methods you can use to boost your Alexa Rank. Most of these tips are derived from several fellow webmasters I know who claimed to have derived positive results through their experiments with the Alexa Rankings.

Some of the other tips were derived articles and sources, which I have duly referenced at the end of this post.

Do these tips work? According to some, yes they definitely do work. But do note that most of them require active effort of some sort and hence, they will work as long as long as you are consistently performing specific actions.

To increase your Alexa rank in the long run, I would highly recommended that one focus on developing quality content which attracts and maintains a large audience instead of purely focusing on artificially increasing your Alexa Rank.

Great link-worthy content will leads to an natural increase in site traffic and is an excellent way to passively increase your Alexa rank.

It is important to emphasize that you should devote most of your efforts in growing your site audience alongside integrated implementation of any of the following tips below.

Install the Alexa toolbar or Firefox’s SearchStatus extension and set your blog as your homepage. This is the most basic step.
Put up an Alexa rank widget on your website. I did this a few days ago and receive a fair amount of clicks every day. According to some, each click counts as a visit even if the toolbar is not used by the visitor.
Encourage others to use the Alexa toolbar. This includes friends, fellow webmasters as well as site visitors/blog readers. Be sure to link to Alexa’s full explanation of their toolbar and tracking system so your readers know what installing the toolbar or extension entails.
Work in an Office or own a company? Get the Alexa toolbar or SS Firefox extension installed on all computers and set your website as the homepage for all browsers. Perhaps it will be useful to note that this may work only when dynamic or different IPs are used.
Get friends to review and rate your Alexa website profile. Not entirely sure of its impact on rankings but it might help in some way.
Write or Blog about Alexa. Webmaster and bloggers love to hear about ways to increase their Alexa rank. They’ll link to you and send you targeted traffic (i.e. visitors with the toolbar already installed). This gradually has effects on your Alexa ranking.
Flaunt your URL in webmaster forums. Webmasters usually have the toolbar installed. You’ll get webmasters to visit your website and offer useful feedback. It’s also a good way to give back to the community if you have useful articles to share with others.
Write content that is related to webmasters. This can fall in the category of domaining and SEO, two fields in which most webmasters will have the Alexa toolbar installed. Promote your content on social networking websites and webmaster forums.
Use Alexa redirects on your website URL. Try this: http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?www.atur4ku.blogspot.com . Replace doshdosh.com with the URL for your website. Leave this redirected URL in blog comments as well as forum signatures. This redirect will count a unique IP address once a day so clicking it multiple times won’t help. There is no official proof that redirects positively benefit your Alexa Rank, so use with caution.
Post in Asian social networking websites or forums. Some webmasters have suggested that East Asian web users are big Alexa toolbar fans, judging by the presence of several Asia-based websites in the Alexa Top 500. I suggest trying this only if you have the time or capacity to do so.
Create a webmaster tools section on your website. This is a magnet for webmasters who will often revisit your website to gain access to the tools. Aaron Wall’s webpage on SEOTools is a very good example.
Get Dugg or Stumbled. This usually brings massive numbers of visitors to your website and the sheer amount will have a positive impact on your Alexa Rank. Naturally, you’ll need to develop link worthy material.
Use PayperClick Campaigns. Buying advertisements on search engines such as Google or Exact Seek will help bring in Traffic. Doubly useful when your ad is highly relevant to webmasters.
Create an Alexa category on your blog and use it to include any articles or news about Alexa. This acts as an easily accessible resource for webmasters or casual search visitors while helping you rank in the search engines.
Optimize your popular posts. Got a popular post that consistently receives traffic from the search engines? Include a widget/graph at the bottom of the post, link to your Alexa post or use Alexa redirection on your internal URLs.
Buy banners and links for traffic from webmaster forums and websites. A prominent and well displayed ad will drive lots of webmaster traffic to your website, which can significantly boost your rank.
Hire forum posters to pimp your website. Either buy signatures in webmaster forums or promote specific articles or material in your website on a regular basis. You can easily find posters for hire in Digital Point and other webmaster forums.
Pay Cybercafe owners to install the Alexa toolbar and set your website as the homepage for all their computers. This might be difficult to arrange and isn’t really a viable solution for most. I’m keeping this one in because some have suggested that it does work.
Use MySpace . This is a little shady so I don’t recommended it unless you’re really interested in artificially inflating your Alexa Rank. Use visually attractive pictures or banners and link them to your redirected Alexa URL. This will be most effective if your website has content that is actually relevant to the MySpace Crowd.
Try Alexa auto-surfs. Do they work? Maybe for brand new sites. I think they are mostly suitable for new websites with a very poor Alexa rank. Note that there be problems when you try to use auto surfs alongside contextual ads like Adsense. They aren’t also long term solutions to improving your Alexa Rank so I suggest using with caution.

Submitting your site to the Open Directory

2008-12-16T14:46:00.000-08:00

Getting your site an optimum listing in the Open Directory (http://www.dmoz.org) is vitally important as far as search engine positioning is concerned. AOL, Netscape & Lycos all take their results from the Open Directory. Google gives a lot of importance to sites being listed in the Open Directory. In addition to this, getting registered by the Open Directory will also help you improve the link popularity of your site.

In this article, we focus on how you can get your site an optimum listing in the Open Directory so that your site gets a high ranking in the search engines which use results from the Open Directory. Even if your site is already listed in the Open Directory, you should read this article to find out how you can get multiple listings in the Open Directory.

Before you submit your site, go through your entire site and ensure that there are no missing graphics, no links leading to empty or non-existent pages and no "Under construction" symbols. Also, check for typos and grammatical errors. Furthermore, your site must provide good content. If your site simply contains links to various affiliate programs, you will find it difficult to get through. The Open Directory does not mind sites containing links to affiliate programs, as long as you provide proper content.

Now, we need to review the factors that AOL, Netscape and Lycos use to rank sites from the Open Directory. You should not be too worried about the ranking of your site in the Open Directory itself - not too many people use the Open Directory for finding information. However, the algorithm that the Open Directory uses is similar to the algorithm that Netscape uses, and hence a high ranking in Netscape generally means a high ranking in the Open Directory and vice-versa.

Before we begin reviewing the factors influencing the ranking of your site, you need to select the two most important keywords for your site based on their popularity. If you don't yet know the keywords which are applicable for your site, have a look at my article on "Choosing the correct keywords for your site", available at here In this article, I have mentioned that while selecting the keywords for your site, you should look at both the popularity of the keywords as well as their competitiveness. However, for the purpose of this article, don't worry about the competitiveness - select keywords only on the basis of popularity.

Broadly, here are the factors which influence your rankings in AOL, Netscape and Lycos:

i) Presence of the keyword in the Title and Description

If you want to rank highly for a keyword, the Title and the Description that you use to submit your site to the Open Directory should contain the keyword. Note that this Title is not the title that you have used in the home page of your web site and that this Description is not the description that you have used in the Meta Description tag of your home page. Rather, it is the Title and the Description of your site's listing in the Open Directory.

ii) Prominence of the keyword in the Title and the Description

"Prominence" means how close the keyword is to the beginning of the Title and Description. Other things remaining the same, closer the keyword to the beginning of the Title and the Description, higher your ranking.

iii) Presence of the keyword in the URL

Other things remaining the same, your site will get a higher ranking if a keyword or a part of the keyword is present in the URL of your site.

iv) Presence of the keyword in the Category name

In Netscape, other things remaining the same, if the keyword is present in the name of the Category, your site will get a higher ranking. Even if only a part of the keyword is present in the name of the category, your site will get a higher ranking. Note that this is applicable only in Netscape.

v) Number of sites in a category which contain the keyword in their descriptions

In Netscape, other things remaining the same, more the number of sites in a category which contain the keyword in their descriptions, higher the ranking for all sites in that category. Once again, this is applicable only in Netscape.

Now, as you can see from points i) and ii), if your site has to be ranked at the top for a particular keyword, the keyword needs to be present in the Title. However, the Open Directory insists that the Title be the official name of your site.

Hence, unless the official name of your site contains the keywords, you have little or no choice with respect to the Title. Short of changing the official name of your site, there is not much that you can do.

Now, assuming that your target keyword is not present in the official name of your site, search AOL for the keywords which you had selected and find out if the top 10 sites in AOL all have the keyword in the Title. If they do, your site will not be able to get a high ranking for those keywords. In this case, select two more keywords based on their popularity and again search AOL for those keywords. If the top 10 sites all contain the keyword, reject the keywords and select the next two keywords. In this way, find out two keywords for which the top 10 sites don't contain the keyword in the Title.

Of course, if the official name of your site contains the keywords, then you are in luck! This means that your Title will contain the keywords and there is a good chance that you will get a high ranking for those keywords.

Now we come to how you should write the description of your site. When you write the description, your aim should be to make the Open Directory editor's job as easy as possible. You should not give the editor the feeling that he/she needs to edit your description in any way. The moment an editor starts to edit your description, you risk having your keywords removed from your description.

Your description should be a single sentence which conveys what your site is all about and contains the two keywords you are targeting as close as possible to the beginning of the description. However, your description should not just be a list of keywords - the description that you use should be a proper sentence and should be grammatically correct.

Broadly, here are the rules that you should remember when forming the description:

i) Make sure that the description can tell a visitor what your site is all about. Things like "Have a look at our site" or "Welcome to my site" does not tell a visitor what your site does.

ii) Avoid hype of any sort. Avoid using ALL CAPS or exclamation marks. Phrases like "The best web site dealing with widgets!!" or "Offers the BEST QUALITY, CHEAPEST WIDGETS you can find anywhere" are inappropriate.

iii) Don't capitalize every word in your description - capitalize only the first word. Of course, if some of the words in the description are proper nouns, then you should capitalize them.

iv) Write the description in the third person. Don't say "We offer financial planning and credit counseling services", say "Offers financial planning and credit counseling services.".

v) Don't make your description too long - limit yourself to 15 words at the most. If you are lucky, you may be able to get accepted with a description longer than 15 words. However, longer the description, higher the probability that the editor will want to edit it.

vi) Check your description for typos and grammatical mistakes.

vii) End your description with a period. If the editor has to add the period to the end of your description, she may also end up editing the description, which is not what you want. Your aim is to have the editor accept the exact description that you had written in order to ensure that your keywords are not removed from the description.

Now, we come to how you can select the right category for your site. Go to the Open Directory, and search for the two keywords you have established. Does a particular category come up at the top for both the keywords? If so, go to that category, and see whether the sites present in the category are similar to yours. Also see whether that category has a Description and/or a FAQ. Read them and find out whether that category is applicable for your site. If so, this is the category you should submit your site to.

If different categories come up at the top for the two keywords, go through all the categories and find out which is the most appropriate category among the different categories.

For some keywords, you will find that the Open Directory does not display any categories. In this case, find out which category most of the top sites belong to and submit your site to that category, assuming it is applicable for your site.

Once you have selected the right category, click on the "add URL" link at the top. Type in the address of your site in the first text box, the official name of your site in the next text box, the description that you have earlier developed in the third text box and your email address in the fourth text box. Although the Open Directory says that including the email address is optional, I would recommend that you include it - if, for some reason, your site is not accepted, the Open Directory editor may want to tell you why your site has not been accepted.

What to do if your site is not accepted

After submitting your site, go to the category where you have submitted your site every day and see when your site gets listed. If you find that your site is not in that category, it may so happen that you have been placed in a different category. Type in your domain name in Open Directory's search box and see whether your site comes up in the results. I have seen some sites getting accepted within 1 day and some sites in about 2-3 weeks.

If your site has not been listed after three weeks, then re-submit it to the same category and wait for another three weeks. If your site is still not accepted, then have a look at your site again. Does it contain any missing images or links, links to empty pages or under construction signs? Does it provide good content? Does it have any spelling or grammatical errors?

If you are absolutely convinced that your site is eligible for being accepted by the Open Directory, then the fact that your site is not being accepted may signify one of two things:

i) The editor of that category is inactive, i.e. he/she has not been reviewing sites for a long time.

ii) He/she is your competitor, and does not want to list you.

In this case, the first step is to write to the editor of the category. Scroll down to the bottom of the category to which you are trying to submit your site and click on the name of the editor. If that category does not have an editor, go to the category above that in the hierarchy. For instance, suppose you are trying to submit to the Computers: Consultants: Business Systems category. At the time of writing of this article, that category did not have an editor. In this case, you should go to the Computers: Consultants category and click on one of the editors there. Click on the "Send to editorname" link, and in the Comments field, write a very polite message to the editor. Tell her that you have been trying to submit your site to the Open Directory and you have been unsuccessful. Give her the complete details of your submission, i.e. the category to which you submitted, your URL, the Title and the Description that you used and the dates on which you submitted. Ask her as to whether there are any mistakes that you are making and whether she would be kind enough to point out the mistakes to you so that you can correct them.

If, after two weeks, you don't get any reply from the editor and are not accepted into the Open Directory, then look for another category which is applicable for your site using the method outlined earlier and submit your site to this category.

Getting Multiple Listings in the Open Directory

If you have already got your site listed in the Open Directory, you may try and get your site some additional listings in it. Begin by selecting two keywords which are different from the keywords for which you are already ranked well. Then try and locate another category which is applicable for your site and submit your site there with a new description which contains the two new keywords you have selected.

If you are lucky, you may be able to get a listing in this new category, especially if the editor of this category is different from the editor of the category where your site is already listed. Again, if the second category to which you want to submit your site is a regional category (i.e. a category applicable to the geographical region in which your company is located), that again improves your chance of getting a second listing. Alternatively, if you were originally listed in one of the regional categories, then getting your site listed in one of the general categories is also possible, assuming that the products or services you are selling are not intended for a regional market only.

However, you have a much better chance of getting a second listing if you submit one of the internal pages of your site to a different category (assuming you can locate a category which is applicable for that particular page), rather than again submitting the home page. Submitting an internal page has the benefit that the Title no longer needs to be the official name of your site. This allows you to include keywords in the Title. Before submitting one of the internal pages of your site, you should change the title of the page (here, by "title", I mean the Title tag of the page, i.e. the Title that is displayed at the top of the browser window when the page is opened) to the Title that you want the page to be listed under in the Open Directory. This improves the chance that the Open Directory editor will accept the title that you had submitted.

However, don't go overboard with submitting internal pages - you can be penalized for spamming. Don't start submitting any doorway pages that you have created - they will be rejected. Any internal page that you submit must provide some unique content and must be relevant to the category to which you want to submit the page.

Article by Sumantra Roy. Sumantra is one of the most respected search engine positioning specialists on the Internet. To have Sumantra's company place your site at the top of the search engines, go to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?1104 For more advice on how you can take your web site to the top of the search engines, subscribe to his FREE newsletter by going to http://www.1stSearchRanking.com/t.cgi?1104&newsletter.htm

Google PageRank Secrets & Tips

2008-12-16T14:40:00.000-08:00

PageRank is a secret algorithm which Google defines as: "...PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools."

Google also states: "Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query."

The purpose of this article is to document the pervasive myths, correct and clarify the definition by Google, correct the inaccurate PageRank information visible on many Forums, and the unwarranted obsessive nature that many folks have about PageRank. In essence, PageRank does not work the way you might think after reading the Google page.

Linking to other sites using PR (PageRank) as the determining factor and or any factor in your decision

This is a false assumption. Don't waste your time using the Google Toolbar. PR has nothing to do with where your site is listed in a given search. Want some proof? Drill down to some of this sites Webmaster Directory pages which opens in a new window, extract a few keywords and search. In some cases this site is in the top 5 listings and my page is PR2. Still not convinced? Fasten your hard disk. Run a search for "free webmaster tools" and you will see that this site is currently listed in the top 6 and the PR for my home page is only 6.

Reciprocal linking and linking guidelines

You should link to another site because it provides quality content complementary to your own, enhances and helps your visitors, propagates your "brand", and has the potential to provide both you and your link partner with targeted traffic. I've been using this criteria for a number of months on this site with absolutely no regard to PR. The net result is my Google traffic is up over 100% and so are my PageViews and unique visitors. Our own Barter/Trade Links Forum has provided thousands of Webmasters with link partners, which enhances both parties targeted traffic.

Their are no shortcuts or tricks to this procedure. You need to examine the other site, reject "Link Farms", "Off-Site Link Services", "TopSites", and any site who has a "links" page which does not branch from the sites home page. What about "bad neighborhood" sites which have a gray PR bar? If you take my advice and spend the time to visit the other site, you will spot some of these "Spam" kings and reject them without the use of the Toolbar. If a few slip through, don't worry. I have no evidence and neither do you that Google will ban your site for linking to an unrelated "Spam" site nor am I concerned because I spend the time to examine the site using the criteria I mentioned.

What is the value of PageRank?

Google uses PR in it's Directory listings. The default listings in a given Category is initially sorted by PR. This Directory uses data from ODP (Open Directory Project) which is also known as DMOZ. You can't determine the actual PR number but you can view the PR bar and ballpark the number. I consider this PR sort of limited value. Given the fact that most surfers don't drill through the Directory to reach your site. On this site, only about 15% of the Google referrals originate from the Directory. Does Google update these sorted PR listing? The evidence is inconclusive.

Want some proof to support the claim that PR may in fact never change in the Directory? My longtime friend, Ryan Adams, of ClickQuick fame used to have a fantastic site but because of time constraints, the site has not been updated or any page changed in over 1.5 years. ClickQuick is still listed as number 3 in the Google Directory with a PR6 and as one of his link partners, I can tell you that traffic from my old link on his home page has experienced a 400% reduction. Perhaps this is an isolated incidence as I have other examples where new sites move up in PR and eventually reach the sorted list as not all sites are sorted by PR. My point is that a higher listing in the Google Directory because of your sites PR is still of little concern/value and you can and should improve your site for Google with new content, rather than obsessing over PR.

Have you ever wondered why the PR number is not available in the Directory (even though the data is fetched) and why you must use the Google "Advanced Features" Toolbar, which tracks your surfing habits to obtain the PR number? I don't read minds but this procedure is a mystery to me. Is this a marketing ploy to collect your surfing habits to enhance the advertising sales of Google? I don't think so, since so few surfers actually use the Advanced Features Toolbar. Frankly, the small percent of folks who use this version of the Toolbar are SEO geeks and very teckie Webmasters. My own surveys of regular surfers indicate 90% of them never use the Advanced Features Toolbar and never use a PR value as a criteria on bookmarking the site and making it one of their favorite stops.

PageRank conclusions

It's important to remember that everything Google does is secret and in constant flux. No Webmaster (including me) or any SEO geek can tell you with 100% certainty exactly the way PR or a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) work. I say this after spending over 100 hours in research to create this article. PageRank is but one of perhaps 100 different factors which Google may use to determine exactly where your listing will appear in a given search. That's all that matters, top 10-20 placement in a search. It's best to view PR as a "very raw" metrix and most importantly, an automatic result of proper site construction, maintenance, and SE optimization.

What I can tell you with absolute certainty is to use common sense from a "user experience" perspective and that sites should be built using three factors in the exact order stated:

1. Appropriate Design including usability and advertising placement
2. Compelling content updated on a regular basis
3. Optimized for Search Engines and Directories

Forget PR, build your sites in this order and Google will reward you with targeted traffic.

Google PageRank Algorithm & Tips to Increase PageRank

2008-12-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

Google PageRank is a numeric value that shows how important a page is on the web. PageRank is Google's way of deciding a page's importance. It matters because it is one of the factors, which determines a page's ranking in the search results. In other words, PageRank is a "vote", by all the other pages on the Web, about how important a page is. A link to a page counts as a vote of support. If there's no link, there's no support. Thus, Google calculates a page's importance from the number of votes cast for it. Each vote is taken into account when a page's PageRank is calculated.

Method to calculate Google PageRank:

While calculating Google PageRank for a web page, all of its inbound links are taken into account. These are links from within the site (Internal Links) and links from outside the site (External Links). PageRank can be calculated using a simple iterative algorithm. PageRank algorithm is in fact elegantly simple and is calculated as follows:
PR (A) = (1-d) + d (PR (T1)/C (T1) + ... + PR (Tn)/C (Tn))
where

* PR (A) is the PageRank of page A,
* PR (Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A,
* C (Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti and
* d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1

Importance of Google PageRank:

PageRank helps Google's crawl to give preference to the web page, which has got good PR ranking. In fact, PageRank drives Google's monthly crawl, so that sites with higher PageRank get crawled earlier, faster, and deeper than sites with low PageRank. For a large site with an average-to-low PageRank, this is a major obstacle. If your pages don't get crawled, they won't get indexed. If they don't get indexed in Google, people won't know about them. In short, PageRank is the soul and essence of Google, on both the all-important crawl and the all-important rankings.

Tips to Increase PageRank:

* PageRank (PR) is related to link popularity (i.e. other sites linking to yours), however it depends more on the quality of these links than merely the number. If you want to increase PageRank, concentrate on building link popularity.
* Google PageRank depends on internal and external links. Look at its algorithim, and you can see both inbound and oubound links are taken. Thus, you may want to increase PageRank by enhancing the number of inbound and oubound links.
* To increase the chance of getting healthy PageRanks for pages beneath the home page, make sure your site is linked together healthily. Link all secondary pages to the home page and to each other.
* If you have several articles, in different directories on a similar subject, link these together too to increase PageRank - Google will see them as relevant and rank accordingly.
* It is essential to exchange links with sites with a PageRank of 4 or more to increase your site's PageRank. Sites of all PR's are worthwhile and should be contacted, but those with 4+ will have a direct impact on your page ranking. If these sites have a subject relevant to your own, it will be even better.
* If you have good quality content, good layout and good design, you will have a far better chance of building reciprocal links to sites in the subject area related to yours. The content-rich sites over the past few years usually have a PageRank of 6 or more, due to their quality content and good links with other companies in a similar area of business.

If you want assistance to increase PageRank, contact us at LSF Network. We offer services to optimize your site for higher Google PageRank.

Core file eat my space!!

2008-12-16T04:12:00.000-08:00

Disk Usage Warning full
The account with the username ~~'xxx'~~ (sasidesign.com), is running out of disk space.
Please remove some files from this account, or ask the administrator to increase your disk quota.
This account has used 100.02% (120.02 Megs) of its allocated disk space.
!! Do not respond to this message. Your reply will go nowhere. !!

and i go to check it up on in my public_html than find file core.2323 till 20mb and 30mb, thats why my disk was full, and i deleted all file named core.. than my hosting was no full again.
but i still didnt understand why that file can in at my hosting..

somebody know?

Blogvertise - Earn Money Writing

2008-12-16T02:51:00.000-08:00

I’m always one for trying new ways to earn more cash and that’s why I have just applied at Blogvertise. After reading a few reviews about Blogvertise I decided it was time to start using their service. Part of their approval program is to write about them, to show them all what I can do and introduce them to my blog, hopefully they will like it. So hello to the member of the Blogvertise team that drops by!
like before i learn about adobe photoshop and i deciede to make toturial about it, and make free themes too for wp.
Blogvertise take requests from advertisers that want to promote their websites. The process works very simply, they provide you with something to write about, you write the post and meet the requirements and they pay you for each post you do! It’s an extremely easy way of earning extra cash for your blog. You must complete it within 5 days; each post you make must contain 3 links and must be over 75 words long. There are some other rules, but they are all pretty straight forward to follow. You can receive payment for your services via PayPal. Apparently you can earn from $4 up to $25 per post, doing that a few times gives you a nice tidy sum.

Advertisers
If you wish to advertise on this blog then ask me to write about your website just join Blogvertise.

Your writing daily for nothing, so why not get paid for doing it? Seems logical right? and Blogvertise is free to use.
I will post a review in a few months, hopefully showing how well I get on with Blogvertise.

Go sign up and earn some money!

Building Website Pagerank To Get More Jobs From Paid Review

2008-12-16T02:16:00.000-08:00

Building website pagerank is one of SEO tips that very important for site monetizing program, ecsecialy for paid review program. With Higher pagerank, not only give webmaster more job to be reviewed but these job also available with high price, poor me i havent reank in here, but in other web i was.
eh sometime i was write about adobe photoshop tutorial, vector and free theme you can check it here
Well, like what I already said that with higher pagerank more jobs will be gotten. But it really difficult to make our page rank increase only in four months or less as there is not exact direction that can be followed. But it does not mean that we can’t use these tips or directions because tips and tricks that over written by websmasters have been practiced before.
you can check your pagerankhere that site i ussual to check my page rank.

I often found there are many webmasters write on their blog about inbond and outbond. These two points are the main of factors that make your site pagerank increase and decrease once there is pagerank update. If you realize that you never make any backlinks for adding inbonds, don’t surprise when you see your pagerank toolbar show lower number or even shows zero. So if you want to get more jobs from paid review looking for backlinks is absolutely must be done to make inbond become bigger than outbond.

It need to be known that there is effect from reviewing website to you pagerank. When you reviewing a the other site you will place some anchor texts that redirect to reviewed site. This is what called outbond which will be more once you use your blog to review oftenly.

After you know the effect of running paid review program, it is better for you to think twice if you want to run the other program which also need your pagerank.

IndoPTC

2008-12-11T15:37:00.000-08:00

At IndoPTC

The process is easy! You simply click a link and view a website for 30 seconds to earn money. You can earn even more money by referring friends. You'll get paid $0.01 ( Premium = $0.015 ) for each website you personally view and $0.005 for each website your referrals view ( Premium Referral View = $0.01 ). Payment requests can be made every day and are processed only through PayPal & Bank. The minimum payout is $3.00

Standard Members

You click 10 ads per day = $0.10

50 referrals click 10 ads per day = $2.50

Your daily earnings = $2.60

Your weekly earnings = $18.20

Your monthly earnings = $78.00

Premium Members

You click 10 ads per day = $0.15

50 referrals click 10 ads per day = $5.00

Your daily earnings = $5.15

Your weekly earnings = $36.05

Your monthly earnings = $154.50

The above examples are based on 50 referrals and 10 daily clicks. Some days you will have more clicks available, some days you will have less. What if you had more referrals? What if there were more ads available?

join now?

hello free wp themes

2008-11-22T06:45:00.001-08:00

titlle for this templates is hello 3 coloumn themes for wordpress
i found this from free wp themes at http://sasidesign.com if you wanna see for the live demo just go to that site than you can download it if you like it.
you can visit from here

free wordpress template

2008-11-22T06:33:00.000-08:00

titlle for this templates is simple beauty 3 coloumn for wordpress themes
i found this from free wp themes at sasidesign.com if you wanna see for the live demo just go to that site than you can download it if you like it. you can visit from here

Make Joomla Templates in 5 Easy Steps

2008-08-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

Joomla Templates are simple to make and this is an absolute beginners guide to creating your own Joomla templates. You don’t need any fancy software, or graphic design skills. You don’t need to know anything about HTML, PHP or programming, just an open mind and a willingness to learn.

Make Joomla Templates in 5 Easy Steps

This incredible Beginners Guide is just that:

* A 91 page instructional e-book
* Over 100 step by step visual illustrations
* 5 easy steps to create your own Joomla template.

Our members have reported creating their own templates in just 45 minutes. Totally custom, one of a kind dynamic templates! In fact in just 5 steps you’ll have a template created and packaged and ready to use.

need this ebook?

you can download here

PC Media Antivirus (PCMAV) 1.6

2008-08-20T03:56:00.001-07:00

download PC Media Antivirus (PCMAV) 1.6 ?

need this things?
you can download here

PC media antivirus or pcmav versi 1.6 is antivirus come from indonesian, i take from cd bonus indonesian computer mag call PC Media magazine,

minimal required.
Prosesor Pentium,
RAM 64 MB,
and os Windows XP (Cleaner+RTP )
and Non-XP (98, 2000, Vista) for just Cleaner.

update for PC Mav 1.6
this update just for only PC Mav 1.6 not for realease before or next release, if you use internet you can update automaticly, but if you want update manualy you can download here :

you can download here PCMAV 1.6 Update Build 1

Ekstract file PCMAV.vdb in the same directory with PCMAV 1.6

if u think it was useful, i will posting for next realese.

thanks.
hope it was useful enought

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition

2008-08-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

download Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition e-book?

By Eric A. Meyer
Second Edition March 2004
Pages: 528
ISBN 10: 0-596-00525-3 | ISBN 13: 9780596005252

Book description

Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is a thorough review of all aspects of CSS2.1 and a comprehensive guide to CSS implementation. The book includes new content on positioning, lists and generated content, table layout, user interface, paged media, and more. It explores in detail each individual CSS property and how it interacts with other properties, and shows how to avoid common mistakes in interpretation.

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you can download here

Advanced PHP Programming

2008-07-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Download Advanced PHP Programming ebook? in pdf format
By George Schlossnagle
Published Feb 20, 2004 by Sams. Part of the Developer's Library series.

Over the past three years PHP has evolved from being a niche language used to add dynamic functionality to small sites to a powerful tool making strong inroads into large-scale, business-critical Web systems.

The rapid maturation of PHP has created a skeptical population of users from more traditional "enterprise" languages who question the readiness and ability of PHP to scale, as well as a large population of PHP developers without formal computer science backgrounds who have learned through the hands-on experimentation while developing small and midsize applications in PHP.

While there are many books on learning PHP and developing small applications with it, there is a serious lack of information on "scaling" PHP for large-scale, business-critical systems. Schlossnagle's Advanced PHP Programming fills that void, demonstrating that PHP is ready for enterprise Web applications by showing the reader how to develop PHP-based applications for maximum performance, stability, and extensibility.

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Realy hope it is useful for you.
Enjoy.

PHP & MySQL For Dummies, 3rd Edition

2008-07-26T14:52:00.000-07:00

Download PHP & MySQL For Dummies, 3rd Edition by. janet valade ebook? in pdf format
PHP & MySQL For Dummies, 3rd Edition by. janet valade
ISBN: 978-0-470-09600-0
Format: Paper
Pages: 456 Pages
Pub. Date: November 2006

Build an online catalog and a members-only site

Everything you need to know to create a dynamic PHP and MySQL Web site!

Been thinking of creating a high-quality interactive Web site? This book is just what you need to get started! Here's the fun and easy way(r) to develop a Web application in PHP 4, 5, or 6 and MySQL 5, test your software, enable your Web pages to display, change, and move database information, and much more.

Discover how to
* Plan and implement a Web database application
* Design and build a MySQL 5 database
* Build dynamic HTML forms
* Create scripts that store, retrieve, and update database information
* Display database information in a Web page

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you can download here

Realy hope it is useful for you.
Enjoy.

Building Websites With Joomla!

2008-07-26T13:51:00.000-07:00

Download Building Websites With Joomla! ebook? in pdf format.

R e l e a s e I n f o
PAGES : 340!
TITLE : Building Websites With Joomla!: A step by step tutorial to
getting your Joomla! CMS website up fast
AUTHOR : Hagen Graf
PUBLISHER : Packt Publishing
ISBN : 1904811949
PUB DATE : January 30, 2006
LANGUAGE : English
FORMAT : PDF
SIZE : 9,25 MB

R e l e a s e N o t e s

The book begins by introducing Joomla! and concepts behind content management. Then the installation of Joomla!, and its supporting software [Apache/MySQL/PHP] is covered clearly and simply. Once you have the installation up and running, we then take a tour of Joomla! as it appears out of the box, to familiarize ourselves with how it works and what is what. As you take the tour, your own ideas for what you need in your new website begin to crystallize around what you can see Joomla! is capable of. We then build our web application, using only the features of Joomla! we really need. Once we have a base version of our site up, we then learn how to change its appearance and feature set to suit our particular requirements, including bringing it into line with an established corporate identity. At the end of the book we show how you can add your own extensions to Joomla!.

This book focuses on taking you through the essential tasks to create a Joomla! site as fast as possible. These essential tasks are explained clearly, with well structured step-by-step instructions. The book does not aim to cover every feature of Joomla! nor is it a comprehensive guide to extending Joomla!. Almost everything in the book is accomplished without recourse to the underlying PHP code in which Joomla! is written. The book is very readable and the author has a particularly chatty and engaging writing style.

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Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development

2008-07-15T06:01:00.000-07:00

download Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development ebook?

Learning Joomla! 1.5 Extension Development: Creating Modules, Components, and Plugins with PHP by.Joseph L. LeBlanc
A practical tutorial for creating your first Joomla! 1.5 extensions with PHP

Program your own extensions to Joomla!
Create new, self-contained components with both back-end and front-end functionality
Create configurable site modules to show information on every page
Distribute your extensions to other Joomla! users

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you can download here

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Enjoy.