Bloglines For Bloggers: 2007

SEO: The Art of topping in Search Engines

Do you want your website to be on the top rank when a search is made in google? Are you willing to submit your website to 500 000 search engines and directories? Do you need your website to be on permanent top positions for searchers? If answers to all these questions are affirmative then the solution for it is SEO. Search engine optimisation or SEO is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your web site from search engines via natural search results. It is important because earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it ranks, more traffic is brought to your site. It usually targets different kind of searches that include image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

To get a good search engine rankings for your website what matters the most is how much SEO is done along with accessibility, usability, and high quality markup with the various principles of web standards. The things that actually make a website better than others during searches is the accessibility and usability of the site for humans, use of valid, semantic markups, adding unique content to a site, ensuring that content is easily indexed by search engine robots, and by making the site more appealing to users.

SEO is considered to be a subset of Search Engine marketing. Many site owners and consultants are engaged in it. They attempt to pursue qualified visitors to a particular site. It involves optimisation of website content, keyword targeting in the Meta tags and minimum use of script which can hinder search engine robots to crawl your website. To make your site count better in ranking you should look for qualified SEO consultant and must see their background portfolio.

The efforts may involve a site's coding, its presentation, and structure, as well as fixing problems that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully scripting a site and the quality of visitor traffic is then measured by how frequently a visitor using a particular keyword phrase trails to a desired conversion action, such as sell or purchase, requesting further information, signing up for a newsletter, viewing or downloading a certain page, or taking some other specific actions

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
searchengineoptimising.com’s organic search engine optimisation company ensures a high return on investment by achieving maximum visibility within major search engines including Google, MSN & Yahoo! Search.

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Templates For New Blogger - Free Webmaster Tools

Here is a screen shot of one of the 4 column blogger templates you can found at 4 Column Templates For Blogger.

You can find more free four column Blogger templates when you visit the blog.

Here's a link to my previous post on free three column Blogger templates.

Wordpress Themes Converted For The New Blogger.

Create Your Own Free Three or Two Column Blogspot Templates

Free Templates For New Blogger

Free Unique, Themed, Two and Three Columns Blogger Templates

Free Blogspot Templates Converted From Wordpress Themes

Free Blogskins For Blogger, Xanga, Movable Type etc.

Free Templates For Blogger (Classic Templates, Blogger Beta or New Blogger) - Part I

Free Templates For Blogger (Classic Templates, Blogger Beta or New Blogger) - Part II

Cost Free Three Column Templates For New Blogger

I hope that you'll find the links useful. The links and posts on Free Blogger templates will continue to grow over the coming days as I search for more websites or blogs that offers free Blogger templates. If you know of a website or a blog that offers free Blogger templates that hasn't been included on my list, please inform me through my email - bloggingmix[at]gmail[dot]com or you can just leave a comment on this post.

You might also be interested in these free useful tools you can use to evaluate your blog's performance.

Check Your Alexa Traffic Rank
View and compare Alexa Ranking graphs.

Check Your Website for Broken Links
Use this tool to check for broken links on a website.

Reciprocal Link Checker
Check your reciprocal links to see if link partners are still linking back to your site.

Website Speed Test
Find out how fast a specific website loads.

Google Banned Checker
Discover whether a website is banned on Google.

Index Checker
Check for the total number of pages of a specific website which are present on search engines.

Page Rank Checker
View Google PageRank on different Google servers.

Source Code Viewer
View the source code of a page.

Search Engine Position
Check your search engine positions on Google Search Engine.

Keyword Density Checker
This tool is useful for helping webmasters achieve optimum keyword distribution.

Search Listings Preview
Create a preview of how your website will appear on Google, MSN and Yahoo Search.

Domain Whois
Find all the information you need on any domain name. Check the DNS settings, Registrar details and much more.

Google PageRank Prediction
This predictor tool does what it says, it predicts your future Google PageRank.

Keyword Suggestion
Find related keywords matching your search.

Meta-tags Generator
Generate and configure your meta-tags.

Link Shortener - Make a long web address short and easy to remember.

Meta-tags Generator
Make a long web address short and easy to remember.

Link Price Calculator
Estimate how much to pay for a link.

Domain Availability Checker
Check for available domain names.

Thank you for using these free tools. I hope you found them useful.

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Blog Rush - What's New?

Blog Rush will soon introduce flavors on their widget.

MORE NEWS…

It seems that some people are trying to call BlogRush a “pyramid scheme” or stating “there’s just no way the future impressions will ever be able to be served based on the promises of what referrals will bring. The math is impossible like other schemes of this kind.”

Anyone that is saying this doesn’t understand how BlogRush works…

EVERY SINGLE IMPRESSION GETS REWARDED FOR *THAT* IMPRESSION AS IT HAPPENS. There is no “promise” of future rewards based on referral activity today. Each and every impression of the widget (and impression of the 5 headlines per widget) is rewarded AS IT HAPPENS. And when all the math is said and done, it also leaves 1 out of every 10 headline spaces left-over for BlogRush to use to monetize the service. So apparently some people think it’s all based on false promises that the network will eventually “catch up” and pay rewards in the future. This just isn’t the case. Every single impression that occurs is calculated and rewarded to the generations ‘above’ — that’s how the math has to work.

We’re working hard to move to the 100% Manual Review Process as quickly as possible, and other improvements.

As I’ve now said many times, our SOLE FOCUS is helping our members generate quality, targeted traffic. So we’re hard at work to make that happen.

John Reese - income.com/blog

What's New at BlogCatalog?
Increase Your Technorati Authority and Blog Ranking
Blog Rush - More Exposure Equals More Traffic!
Fechr.com - Broken Promises and Failed Expectations!
Create Your Own Free Three or Two Column Blogger Template
Beware of Quechup. It's One Hell of a Spammer!
Submit Your Blog to Free Directories

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Traffic Rush From blogrush.com - Join NOW!

Blog Rush is the newest way to increase your traffic. It’s from John Reese, a renowned and successful internet marketer. Creating a Blog Rush account is free. And installation of the Blog Rush widget is easy. It will take you less than five minutes to do all the simple and easy steps.

Join Blog Rush Now and find out for your self.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Blog Rush – More Exposure Equals More Traffic!

Fechr.com - Broken Promises and Failed Expectations!

Create Your Own Free Three or Two Column Blogger Template

Beware of Quechup. It's One Hell of a Spammer!

Submit Your Blog to Free Directories

Exchange Blog Reviews - An Open Invitation

How To Protect Your Blogger Blog From Hackers?

Viral Linking to Increase Technorati Ranking and Google Page Rank

Blogging Contest

Blogsrecord.com - Blogging Mix Review

Improving Comment System For Blogger Users

Free, Unique, Themed, 2 and 3 Column Blogger Templates

Blogging Mix - Performance Report 3 Months After It Was Launch

Optimizing Your Title Tag - For Blogger Users

Effective Ways to Increase Your Technorati Ranking

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Want More Traffic? Use The Untapped Resource

Just when we have thought of everything and still want to generate more traffic, there is one place we can go. We have all heard of it, that’s right MySpace. An interesting thing happened when I was looking at my websites traffic statistics the other day. I found out that I have got over 4,000 visitors to my company website, from my personal MySpace website. That accounted for over 25% of my total traffic. From a search engine optimization standpoint this was a very sizable number.

This intrigued me so I signed my business up for a free account on MySpace. Invited all my friends from my personal MySpace account, joined groups on MySpace that are industry specific to my business, and bamm! More traffic. MySpace, to debrief, is a way for people to not only express themselves and their interests, but allows individuals, companies, music groups and others to network and keep in touch.

Remember traditional marketing, specifically businesses like Mary Kay? You would hit up everyone you know and tell them about your business. Your target of local friends and family would sustain the most business for you under this system. Not only does MySpace take care of this, but lets you reach farther with people you may not already know.

Give it a try, invite the MySpace community to your business and watch for increased traffic while doing so. So far I have seen nothing but good things from this and have even landed business. This strategy has definitely helped my Internet Marketing SEO endeavors. Check out my site http://www.LeviSolutions.com and my MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/FortCollinsWebDesign

About The Author

Todd Levi owns http://www.LeviSolutions.com - Fort Collins Web Design & Internet Marketing SEO company.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Fechr.com – Broken Promises and Failed Expectations!

Create Your Own Free Three or Two Column Blogger Template

Beware of Quechup. It's One Hell of a Spammer!

Submit Your Blog to Free Directories

Exchange Blog Reviews - An Open Invitation

How To Protect Your Blogger Blog From Hackers?

Viral Linking to Increase Technorati Ranking and Google Page Rank

Blogging Contest

Blogsrecord.com - Blogging Mix Review

Improving Comment System For Blogger Users

Free, Unique, Themed, 2 and 3 Column Blogger Templates

Blogging Mix - Performance Report 3 Months After It Was Launch

Optimizing Your Title Tag - For Blogger Users

Effective Ways to Increase Your Technorati Ranking

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Web Project Tips

Introduction

The ultimate goal of this article is to understand the best practises to do processing in a web development/consultancy company. This is just a guideline and it may vary according to people and companies.

Background

There are few things to be aware about web project that I am sure most of you already know, at least the ones working on them.

Budgeting and Scoping

- Account Management are always pushing for selling, but is not always able to quantify the amount of work needed in a web project.

- There are different kind of projects, depending from size, business impact and budget. Usually Account Management try to accommodate all of them, and to do it without getting overbudget is sometimes very hard.

- Men hours always depends from person to person, the same job can be done from different people in 2 or 3 days, according to their knowledge and speed.

Solution:

Get the development people involved in it; use your producer or Project Manager to define your delivery and costs.

Main development Phases

The main phases in a web project are:

Scoping -> Concept -> Development -> Delivery.

Scoping:

During this phase we collect all the requirement and we need to have clearly defined the objective of the project.

Concept:

The concept is usually based on the “creative brief” given to the Creative Team, usually more than one concept are proposed to the client. This step is not needed if an already defined concept is used.

Development:

The development part means the day to day work on the project, from start to finish, during this phase the people involved in the project are coordinate by a Project Manager or Producer usually.

Delivery:

Once the deliveries have been approved we need to prepare them to be published properly, all the deliverables should be tested (QA) before sending them.

Before the Scoping if necessary a strategic plan/ media plan should be done, usually for big online campaigns or big web development projects. This plan should involve not just marketing people but also creative people that can help choosing the media for the campaign.

The Way to go

As I already said do not take it as a perfect guide on how to run web project, but this is just an article outlining some best practice that usually work in web development.

1)Draw a Project Plan
2) Get the right people involved not too many not too few.
3) Work as a close team, monitor performance and amends.
4) Don’t change people during the project.
5) Stick to the timelines as much as you can.
6) If you have a problem and can’t solve it in house, outsource it.
7) Always add time for contingency, just in case things go wrong.

Problems always arise in projects and the team needs to as much flexible as possible sometimes. Resources is always a big issue, be aware that usually they are not assigned just to a web project, so sometimes you may affect other project if you overuse them, free resources as soon as you don’t need them.

Some interactive agency have developed their own processes, but most of the time these processes are done from a cost effective use of the people in the company. From my experience the simple is the process to get the people the better. Adding bureaucracy to processes it just add problems to the manageability of the project.

About The Author

Giuseppe Mormandi is the founder and creator of Virtusportal.com, a site providing tips and useful links to people working in web projects.He is a Project Manager, expert in web development. You can find out more at www.virtusportal.com.

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Which Article Directories Should You Submit To?

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Keyword Research Software Reviews

Extensive keyword search and analysis is essential for website publishers. The performance of a particular website will depend upon the keywords it used as its content. For instance, if your website focused on “swimming”, its contents must have keywords and phrases that portrays on “swimming”. In this way, the site’s popularity search in a search engine will be higher, thus placing them on higher ranks during a particular search.

Another thing aside from higher rankings in a search engine is the profitability of the website. Although there are really high profits that can be derived from using Adwords or Adsense, if your site uses keywords that are not popularly searched by Internet users, there will be no visitors that will click on those paid advertisement.

How will you determine if a particular keyword or phrase is popular to Internet users? Fortunately, there are keywords analysis tools and software that you can use to determine it. In addition, it will not only identify what keywords are popularly searched but also it will determine how many times that particular keyword or phrase has been searched. It will be a great help in optimizing the contents of your webpage.

There are number of keyword research software that are available for keyword research and at the same time for its competitive analysis. Keep in mind that this software may be free of charge or will require you some monthly subscription.

Yahoo! Search Marketing

One of the major search engines in the web, Yahoo offers this search marketing tool to webmasters and Internet marketers who want to know the keywords people are searching. All the keywords that are stored in their database are updated in a regular basis. And this tool is offered free of charge. Just log in to the provided link in the Yahoo home page.

Wordtracker

It is one of the popular keyword research software tools in the web today. Keyword results that are provided by Wordtracker are compiled from Dogpile and Metacrawler. Although the services provided by this software will require you monthly subscription, it is worth the money that you will pay; it has the ability to provide you the keywords you need to optimize your webpage content.

Nichebot

Nichebot provides you an updated top 15 weekly list of the popularly-searched keywords in the Internet. The result is retrieved from the Wordtracker database; thus it assures you the best keyword search you need. It has a thesaurus, keyword analysis, and other useful functions.

Google Sandbox

Although not as flawless as the results posted by the three previous keyword research software, Google Sandbox is still worthy and actually can be relatively useful when used with other keyword analysis tool. All you have to do is to take the results you have obtained from the Sandbox database, copy, and paste it to other research tool to provide you extra results as well as search counts.

Google Suggest

This research software is useful to analyze the competitiveness of the keywords that you have searched by popularity. If your keyword is low-competitive, you can use it as your webpage content in order for your site to gain higher rankings in a search engine.

Overture Keyword Tool

It is the longest-running keyword research software that has been the favorite of many Internet marketers before the introduction of the Wordtracker. It jumbles up the keywords along with the phrases that you have used and eliminates what it thinks are irrelevant words. It is quite effective if will be used with keyword analyzing software.

These are just some of the keyword search software that you can use in determining the keywords you need to optimize your webpage content and at the same time improving your site’s rankings in major search engines.

About The Author

Burt Cotton http://www.keyword-service.org

Exchange Blog Reviews - An Open Invitation

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9 Steps to Success in Affiliate Marketing

1. Join an Affiliate Program: Join programs that interest you personally. There are affiliate programs for almost any product or service you can think of so do some research and find one that is right for you. If you have a passion for your product niche it will be a whole lot easier to stay motivated and be successful.

2. Build your own website to promote your product: You will need to build a website with your own domain name (ie. homeworksolutions.biz) and pay a monthly fee for hosting as opposed to going the free route and sharing a domain (ie. yourname.homeworksolutions.biz) If you don't know much about web design that's quite ok. You will find there are lots of companies out there who offer very affordable website design.

3. Start a reciprocal linking campaign: Start exchanging links with other websites in your niche. You will find lots of webmasters willing to add a link to your website as long as you return the favor. The more websites that link to you, the higher page rank you will have in the search engines, therefore leading to more traffic to your website.

4. Start your own newsletter: The newsletter can simply consist of articles related to your products and website. Always add a signature containing a link to your website at the bottom of each newsletter entry. That way when people read your articles they can continue on to your website. If you don't want to write your own articles, there are many webmasters who will let you use theirs for free. Submit your newsletter to as many websites as you can.

5. Build an Email List: Owning your own email list is one of the most important tools you can have as an affiliate marketer. The best way to build your list is to buy leads, that way you don't have to worry about getting in trouble for spamming. Lots of companies sell quality leads (email addresses) consisting of people who have requested information about your products. With every lead you buy you can in turn sign them up for your newsletter.

6. Get an Auto Responder: With an auto responder program you can make the process of buying leads and adding them to your newsletter completely automated. You can save hours of time with this approach.

7. Write your own Articles: To be successful with affiliate marketing you will eventually have to write an article or two. This may sound a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but after you have been building your business for awhile you will get into it. Always include a signature at the bottom of the article containing your website link. Then post your article on as many websites as you can. A search for 'article directories' in any search engine will give you lots of places to start.

8. Add an Article page to your website: Post all of your articles on this page and any others you find related to your niche. Having an article page will add content to your website and will help with your page rank. Search engines like Google and Yahoo love websites with lots of relevant content.

9. Join an Online Forum: Becoming a member in a forum is a great way to stay current with the products in your niche. Talking with fellow entrepreneurs will keep you motivated and help generate new ideas as well as answer all your questions.

About The Author

Curtis Sexton is owner of Home Work Solutions. Find out how you can put these 9 steps to work immediately with your own Money Making Website designed to generate Huge Residual Profits. Get Details at: http://www.homeworksolutions.biz or contact me at: support@homeworksolutions.biz

curtissexton@gmail.com

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Optimizing Your Title Tag - For Blogger Users

Effective Ways to Increase Your Technorati Ranking

DOFOLLOW Blogs With Good Page Ranking

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Alternative to Search Engines - Ways to Attract Traffic

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Lost That Writing Contest? Take Advantage Of It.

I submitted the best story I’ve ever written to a contest, but it didn’t even win an honorable mention! I guess I’m not as good a writer as I thought I was, I might as well quit right now.

The hurt of rejection goes deep into the heart of any writer, but new, inexperienced writers don’t know how to get up, grab a new pen and keep writing. It doesn’t help to encourage them by saying simply, “Keep writing!”, or “It happens to everyone.” It just doesn’t help. They will have to cry and go through a time of low-confidence mourning. It’s almost a requirement - a rite of passage on the journey to publish-dom. Most authors know the feeling intimately.

They don’t know that this hurt will eventually come out through strong, intense drama and a better knowledge of showing real emotion.

They don’t know this low point of confidence will eventually prop them up and make them more determined to write, if for no other reason than to prove they can.

They don’t know this hurt could be the catalyst to success. They don’t know it will cause them to become a better writer.

But it will.

Losing a contest or being rejected by a publisher, doesn’t necessarily mean your writing is weak. It means the judges saw something special in the winning piece. It may have simply been the tone or the topic - or the mood of the judge. Or the cover letter, or the full moon, etc. etc. etc. Who knows why one wins over another?

Read the winning entries and try to see what the judges saw in them. If your work is honestly as good as the winning entries, submit it again somewhere else and hope for a judge with the smarts to recognize good writing!

Remember though, there are lots of good writers competing for the top spots and the final decision will depend on that ‘special something’ one write has over another. Be sure your piece has breath and is singing! Bring it to life!

Take advantage of your distressed state by continuing to write. Your mood will affect the emotion, and the new story you write, if drawn from your soul, will be powerful. Your mood will show in the characters actions and reactions, and in their dialogue. Later, when you feel better, you’ll look back on this particular story and wonder how you ever attained that strong voice. Then, you’ll remember and wish it didn’t have to hurt so much to become successful.

About The Author

Harriet Silkwood is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Fiction Writing. Her portfolio may be found at http://www.Writing.Com/authors/storytime.

Blog Contest, Blogging Contest - Win Prizes

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Writing Copy That Sells - What's The Big Secret?

When someone buys a product, what they actually are buying is the benefit of owning that product.

A woman buys a gift to celebrate a birthday or express a thank you... but deep down she wishes to be generous, thoughtful and remembered. A man buys a new set of golf clubs – his old set might be a bit worn out, true... but he's really hoping this new set will knock strokes off his game and improve his prestige at the clubhouse.

Writing copy that sells is all about showcasing these benefits to the potential buyer. It can be a product or a service - what sells is the excellent benefits they bring. It's the benefits that motivate and persuade the reader that your product will make his or her life easier or better.

To put it another way, there are hundreds of gifts and golf clubs out there. Why buy yours? The buyer's inner decisions will determine the sales outcome, after all. As a copywriter, your mission is to develop a relationship with the reader, understand his problems, and then solve those problems with your product. Lead him to choose you!

Here's a look at some key points to writing great sales copy, all focused around selling the benefits of your product or service:

Use Attention-Grabbing Headlines.

They say headlines pull in 80% of the orders if done correctly. Your "hook" headline is the most important piece of copy on your page. Make it irresistible. Good, effective headlines get your readers' attention and draw them into your sales copy. Now you're on your way to a sale.

Write Copy That Answers The Age-Old Question: "What's In It For Me?"

Explain the features of your product or service only in a secondary light. Features are product centered. Benefits are people centered and solve problems! It is easier to sell a solution to a problem than it is to sell the same feature that hundreds of other products have. Simply put, your copywriting should highlight these problems, and then offer your product or service as the best solution.

Establish Trust. Show Them You're Real.

Rapport is so important! Part of what will lead your readers through your copywriting is the one-on-one relationship you develop with them. This is especially true in web site copywriting.

Write about your product or service from the standpoint of a friendly expert. Study the product information and history until you know it well. Present the information in an entertaining, clear and concise way. People want to do business with an expert. Keep your writing as simple as you can, too. Never lose your readers in the details.

Understand Your Audience!

Who is your target market? What do they need? How old are they? What brought them to read your sales copy? This kind of information will make a great impact in how you write your copy. It is impossible to sell to everyone, so narrow your copywriting down to focus on your real target market.

This one tip alone will reshape how you write your sales copy. When you understand and write for targeted readers, the return will be remarkable.

Because you'll know who they are and what they need, you will be practicing all of the above techniques by default:

-- You will be able to write targeted headlines that will grab your readers

-- You will be able to show your readers what is in it for exactly them

-- You will establish rapport with your readers

Writing copy that sells simply focuses on good, old-fashioned human behavior! We all want benefits in life. Write about them.

Copyright 2006 Trish Andrews

About The Author

Trish Andrews helps freelance writers and businesses grow and profit through writing and search engine optimization. To discover how to prosper from SEO web content in your business, or to hire a writer that will make your site come alive ... visit her website at http://www.pro-technical-writing.com.

Blogsrecord.com - Submit your blog for free and join the contest now!

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Creative Fiction Writing Workshop: Character Development

Would you recognize your characters if you ran into them on the street?

Answering a resounding “yes” to this question indicates you have been able to develop solid, plausible characters in your fiction stories.

Make your characters come alive, whether in good or bad ways. Let them talk. This means using dialogue. However, you need to also provide vivid descriptions of the characters’ mannerisms or facial expressions or body expressions. Your readers must be able to create a visual picture of your characters, as well as hear what they are saying.

Pay particular attention to how your characters interact with other people in the story. How they behave toward others reveals much about their character. Are they kind? Abrupt? Intelligent? Funny? Weird? Concerned? Evil? Strong? Controlling? You need to convey these traits to a reader in a way that will inspire your reader to love, hate, admire, or feel SOMETHING about the people you have created.

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“And she hates you.”
“With a passion and what a passion.”
“And what have you done to earn such ire from such a young woman?” Tonie seemed mildly amused by the man.

“I tried to force her to marry me. I shot one of her oldest and dearest friends down in cold blood and killed him.” He didn’t even pause for breath as he listed his catalog of worthy accomplishments. “I betrayed my own brother. And I shot her lover in front of her eyes. A pity Frederick William wouldn’t give up on the man or he would have died. As it was it took him months to recover. I guess you could say the woman has a personal vendetta against me. Will there be anything else, madame?” he concluded with a practiced politeness.

“Not at the moment.” Tonie left the room, Konrad on her heels. She stopped long enough to pull Greg aside and give him instructions in regard to the pursuit of one Laurel d’Anlass. “Ever try betraying me, and I’ll kill the woman myself, Konrad.”

“I would expect nothing less. But, my lady Tonie, I highly recommend you do not seek to threaten me.”

“Take it as a threat if you will, Konrad. But you have shown your weakness, my dear.” Tonie’s barbed words struck with more force than even she realized. “In that warped heart of yours you love Laurel and could never kill her without dying yourself. So don’t push me unless you want me to take all control out of your hands and make you lose any possibility of ever possessing that beautiful, young woman.”

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In the above scene from the coming book, Righting Time by Kat Jaske, even though you have not read the book, you can discern much about the characters. Note that Konrad is speaking rapidly and doesn’t even pause for breath as he rattles off his list of worthy accomplishments. He is polite, but it is not real. He has a “practiced” politeness. These behaviors help the reader to instinctively dislike the man. Readers quickly realize that Tonie is a killer since she is amused by evil deeds and so easily states she will kill Laurel herself.

Who is in control here? Tonie or Konrad? Near the end you see that Tonie controls this scene, but Konrad pushes back when she threatens him. These two people are fighting to establish who is really in control.

Note also the double use of the word “passion.” Although one would not normally use the same word twice so close in the same sentence, this is much more powerful and descriptive than saying, “With a great passion.” Kat Jaske http://www.forhonor.com.

About The Author

Kat Jaske is an English and French teacher and fiction author in Las Vegas, where her high school selected For Honor as the featured book for the 2006 Reading Incentive Program in the school. See samples of her great writing and all her articles at http://www.forhonor.com. ©2006 All rights reserve

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Blogging For SEO: How To Get Maximum Search Benefit From Your Small Business Blog

If you have a small business blog, or are thinking of starting one, you should be aware of the ways you can use your blog to drive traffic to your Website. It's simpler than you think.

The first thing to understand about your blog is that each entry is counted as one Web page. Even if you have your blog set to display 10 blog posts on the same page, each of them is counted as a separate Web page by the search engines. That's why it is important to treat each blog entry as an SEO tool. The following tips should be kept in mind for each blog entry in order to optimize them for the search engines and drive more traffic to your Website from your blog:

1. Optimize each blog post around a single keyword
2. Make sure your keyword is in your blog post title, preferably at the beginning
3. Use subheads with or tags that also use your keyword
4. Include 1-3 keyword links (anchor text) in your blog posts
5. Sign every blog post with a signature link that uses your keyword
6. Use bold and italics effectively to emphasize certain keywords and phrases
7. Be sure to ping the directories
8. Include tags for all of your blog entries
9. Use categories effectively
10. Make links appear natural by linking to internal pages of your Website

Because each blog entry is a separate Web page, the search engines will crawl them and index them just as they do your Web pages. Optimize each one heavily around a specific keyword related to your Website and that's an extra doorway into your Website for each page indexed at the search engines. Also, by adding anchor text to a couple of those keywords and pointing those links to relevant internal Web pages of your Website you are improving the SEO effect of your blog entry. A poll of top SEO experts by SEOmoz revealed that a majority of those SEO experts said these type of keyword links are among the top 10 most important SEO factors for ranking Web pages. Don't give up on keywords and anchor text.

You'll also want to include keyword tags with each blog entry. Those tags will be used by the search engines to index your pages appropriately for your keywords. Also, social bookmarkers will find it easier to tag your blog entry if they like it and this makes it easier to share among their social group.

Your blog category should indicate an important element of interest as well. Unlike tags, you should only choose one category for each blog post. Don't use "main" or "uncategorized." Those are too generic. Use a specific keyword-related category as that will make your blog posts more crawlable by the search engines.

There are more than 100 blog directories that you can ping to let them know you have updated your blog. I suggest you do this every time you update your blog. With WordPress, and several other blogging software platforms, you can input each directory into a field and the software will send out an automatic ping each time you update your blog. If you are not using WordPress you should go to Ping-o-Matic and use it to ping your blog for free.

Finally, if you sign your blog posts with a keyword-rich signature that points to a relevant internal page of your Website, this will make your Website more crawlable and give you another anchor text link. Use something like, "Find Out More About Keyword." Then add another link that points to your home page.

The important thing to remember about keywords and links, whether on your blog or your Website, is to make them appear natural. The benefits are enormous.

About The Author
Caroline Melberg is President and CEO of Melberg Marketing. She has over 20 years of experience creating exciting marketing campaigns for some of the most successful companies in the world. She publishes the popular eZine, "Blue Chip Tips: The Secrets of Blue Chip Marketing...Revealed!" Learn more today at http://www.melberg.com.

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The Golden Rule Of Website Design

Ever browse any of those personal improvement books that crowd the bookshelves at the booksellers and the libraries, not to mention the coffee tables of your friends and desks of your coworkers? Ever notice how they all say the same thing? That’s because there are very few truths in life.

The same goes for website design, where the Golden Rule applies every bit as well as it does in your personal interactions. Design your website for your visitors as you wish they would design their websites for you.

For example, are you thoroughly annoyed by popups, especially those that run complex scripts, take forever to load, seize other browser windows for themselves, require interaction before you can continue with your reading or research? What makes you think you are the only one? What makes you believe your visitors will be more tolerant of such antics that you are?

Ever been confronted by one of those popups telling you to click here to do a registry scan or a virus scan? In the current atmosphere, with legitimate concerns about spyware and trojans, do you think you are building trust with your visitors by appearing to attempt to download malware onto their computers?

The common wisdom is that you should have no more than one popup, preferably an exit popup offering one last chance to buy your product or service, or asking your visitor to join your mailing list. However, even a single popup can be extremely annoying, especially when just about every site out there has one or more. Besides, with the advent of some very good popup blocking software, especially those incorporated into the Google and Yahoo toolbars, what makes you think your popup is even going to be seen? We surf quite a bit in our daily activities, and we see most popups being blocked by our free toolbar software. Therefore it is much more effective to write good tight succinct page content that attracts your visitor’s eye, keeps him interested, makes her want to bookmark your page for future visits.

Then there are those raucous audio blasts. These days, many people listen to music or radio programming via their computers while they surf. There is nothing more annoying than to have your favorite music interrupted by some obnoxious sales pitch, sound effect, or someone else’s idea of listening enjoyment. Sure, those audios make your website “kewl”, or so you think. But be honest. When you walk into a brick and mortar store, are you sometimes put off by the walls of sound that greet you? When you are surfing, do those audios interfere with your chosen listening enjoyment? Think maybe your web visitors feel the same?

Ever tire of those never ending sales letter websites? You know the ones, where you read and scroll and read and scroll, and finally give up, scroll to the end, looking for that place where you can buy, or request further information, only to find that what you want isn’t there, but is buried several paragraphs up? Most people do NOT want to read long and winding web pages, with a lot of repetitive information. What most people want are the essentials, and a means of finding you again later. You don’t have to give a long sales pitch with the expectation that your visitor is going to buy then and there after reading your convincing content. Your visitors are looking for general information, with the idea of purchasing your product of service later, after having comparison shopped. Think about it. When you walk into a store, do you want the salespeople to engage you in a twenty minute pitch, or do you want to look around first, see what’s available, and then consult the sales staff for more specifics? It is no different on the web, and your website should reflect this reality.

Lastly, take care what features you incorporate into you website. Are your visitors going to have to download or upgrade software in order to view your content? Are they going to want to? A lot of people don’t think they should have to upgrade to the latest and greatest, just because that’s what you have. There are still a lot of older computers and older operating systems out there which don’t support the absolute state of the art toys. Do you really want to exclude those people from your target audience?

Yes, website development, like life in general, benefits from the thoughtful practice and application of the Golden Rule. Build your website for others, as you would have them build their websites for you. By practicing this advice, you will build meaningful content and attract the kind of traffic that will result in sales and success for you.

About The Author

Chuck Larrieu is a common sense voice of reason in the world of business marketing and website design. His company, The Leisure Group, provides information, advice, products, and services to those who want to run successful home and internet based businesses.

http://www.theleisuregroup.biz

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