Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Top Technorati Searches in the Political Arena. Today.

american
politics
army
arnold schwarzenegger
cia
congress
democracy
election
energy policy
federal
foreign affairs
george bush
iraq
latin america
liberalism
mccain
military
nation
insurance
national security
parliament
presidential election
racismr
egulatory
schwarzenegger
the middle east
vote
stock quotes

Generating and Querying Semantic Metadata and Ontologies. Video Tutorial.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Top Search on Technorati Today

These are the top search words on Technorati today when I searched for "economy".
amex
bankruptcy
cd
cfr
corporate
credit
credit cards
debt
earnings
federal reserve
financial
financial goals
garmin
gold
housing
housing market
inflation
insurance
ipo
nasdaq
options
saving money
stock market
stock quotes
tax

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Today's Top Technorati Search Words, Economy

amex
bankruptcy
cd
cfr
corporate
credit
credit cards
debt
earnings
federal reserve
financial
financial goals
garmin
gold housing
housing market
inflation
insurance
ipo
nasdaq
options
saving
money
stock market
stock quotes
tax

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Ping (blogging), Wikipedia Definition

"In blogging, ping is an XML-RPC-based push mechanism by which a weblog notifies a server that its content has been updated. An XML-RPC signal is sent to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material. Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post or updates an old one.

Open ping servers, like VeriSign's Weblogs.com, let other web-services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them. Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material.

In addition to open ping servers, there are an increasing number of proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.

Unlike open ping servers, proprietary servers with their own subscription applications have no incentive to share their received ping data directly with other servers, which may offer competing services. As these servers do not share their data, bloggers have to ping a large number of individual servers to receive the desired publicity. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers." -- Wikipedia

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Have you pinged today?

Have you pinged your blog today? If you have made changes, anytime you make changes to your blog, you need to be sure to ping it.

Some sites that work great are Pingoat and Ping-O-Matic.

Give it a try.

Friday, November 7, 2008

SEO - What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization.

Here are some great videos to help with your SEO...







Wednesday, November 5, 2008

IOTAWeb.org, A Great Keyword Resource!

Here is another free resource for Adsense Keywords.

The website is called www.iotaweb.org.

There is a link to an Adsense tutorial, which can be helpful for those who have not yet utilized Adsense in their blogs.

There is alphabetical access to keywords that give you the opportunity to find out the current Adsense PPC/CPC Value for each keyword.

Here is an example of the list you would find if you click on the letter "A".

Adsense PPC / CPC values for keywords: "A"
Angeles Criminal Defense Los
Auto Insurance Quotes
Att Call Conference
Alicante Car Hire
Att Conference
Alicante Airport Car Hire
Angeles Criminal Lawyer Los
Arizona Divorce Lawyer
Attorney Dui Florida
Angeles Attorney Criminal Los
At And T Cell Phones
Anti Spam Exchange Server
Administration Lease Software
Aarp Insurance
Anti Spam Lotus
At T Wireless Service
Alicante Car In Rental
Anti Spam Lotus Notes
Adverse Credit Remortgage
Anti Spam Appliance
Attorney Law Lemon
Anti Spam Exchange
Auto Insurance Quote
Att Call Conference
Alicante Car Rental Spain
Asbestos Cancer
At And T Mobile
Angeles Drug Los Rehab
American Relief Tax
Arizona Law Lemon
Auto Free Insurance Quote
Att Go
Accident Car Florida Lawyer
Auto Quote
Auto Buy Insurance Online
Angeles Criminal Defense Lawyer Los
Aarp Car Insurance
Automobile Law Lemon
Auto Cheap Insurance
At T Wireless
At And T Cell
Auto Law Lemon
Anti Spam Appliance
Adverse Remortgage
Att Conference
Auto Insurance Online
At And T
American Cancer Society Car Donation
Anti Software Spam
Angeles Attorney Dui Los

...and these are only the first 50 out of at least 1200 "A" words. When you click on the word, the current Adsense PPC/CPC Value for each keyword is listed. It seems to be a great tool!

What do you think? Do you have other sources you utilize?

Monday, November 3, 2008

Adsense Keywords - Keyword Tool

Need a resource to get some keyword ideas? Here is a great one!

The Google Adword Keyword Tool

All you have to do is enter a word..."Enter one keyword or phrase per line".

For example, I entered "keyword".

From that entry came a list of words and/or phrases, an "Advertiser Competition" bar, the "Approximate Search Volume: October", and the "Approx. Avg. Search Volume".

Here are the top keywords and/or phrases that came up with this search...

keyword
keyword search
keyword tracking
keyword advertising
keyword bidding
keyword analyzer
google keyword
keyword generator
keyword search tool
adsense keyword
keyword tool
keyword selection
overture keyword tool
keyword suggestion tool
adwords keyword tool
keyword phrase
overture keyword
adwords keyword
keyword suggestion
keyword popularity
keyword tools
keyword density
keyword density analyzer
keyword finder
keyword service
keyword research tool
keyword research
keyword searches
keyword marketing
keyword management
keyword relevancy
keyword software
keyword bid
free keyword generator
keyword cpc
overture keyword search
keyword ads
overture keyword suggestion tool
keyword phrases

The only suggestion, unless you want to pay the money for Adwords, you should just use the words that come up in your blog text. There are all kinds of options out there including Keyword Generators, Keyword Ads, Keyword Software and more. If there is anything free that helps with keywords, I'll look into it here.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Adsense Keywords...More Information...

Symbiotic.com has a great tool for your webpage Adsense keyword search convenience.

At this link HERE there is script for you to add to your blog or webpage. What does this script do?

"Just follow the instructions..., and in a few minutes, your visitors can be requesting AdSense keyword data on a page branded to your webpage...All you have to do is provide your AdSense publisher id ( pub- followed by 16 digits found in the javasript provided by google) we'll give you half of the impressions you drive to Symbiotic.com's Keyword Bid Value Query page."


Isn't that awesome? Just a great idea! Try it out!

Here are some additional keywords and their correlating current percentages as of today on Symbiotic.

Loans Sector Keyword

DataLoans -0.89%
Finance Loans -0.04%
Credit Loans -0.16%
Mortgage Loans -0.17%
Loans Mortgage -0.17%
Loans Home -1.19%
Home Loans -1.19%
Student Loans -1.03%
Bad Credit Loans -2.11%
Personal Loans -1.64%
Unsecured Loans +90.8%
Loans Unsecured +90.8%
Payday Loans -1.19%
Loans Car -1.96%
Car Loans -1.96%
Cheap Loans -2.29%
Consolidate Loans -1.63%
Loans With Bad Credit -1.89%
Loans Debt Consolidation -1.51%
Best Loans -2.17%
Auto Loans -3.14%
Small Loans -1.42%
Rock Loans -1.39%
Instant Loans -1.2%
Countrywide Home Loans -2.01%
Loans UK -1.85%
Low Interest Loans -0.91%
Military Loans -0.8%
Loans Online -5.39%
Online Loans -5.39%
Fast Loans -1.06%
Pay Day Loans -1.62%
Loans Rates -1.78%
Loans Interest -0.84%
Poor Credit Loans +90.91%
Loans Poor Credit +90.91%
Quick Loans -4.72%
Cheapest Loans -4.25%
Home Loans Bad Credit -3.39%
Money Loans -1.46%
Bank Loans -1.44%
Loans Bank -1.44%
House Loans -2.44%
Low Cost Loans -2.33%
Quicken Loans -0.23%
Kansas Mortgage Loans -2.34%
Low Rate Loans -4.2%
Construction Loans -1.13%
Va Loans -2.53%
Time Home Loans -4.02%
Small Business Loans -1.06%
Loans California +0.08%
Easy Loans -3.09%
Interest Only Loans +0.04%
Home Loans Rates -7.17%
Real Estate Loans -2.23%
Online Payday Loans -1.9%
Boat Loans -2.94%
Advance Payday Loans -3.57%
Students Loans -3.87%
Refinancing Loans +0.1%
Home Loans Interest -8%
Mortgage Home Loans -4.08%
Home Loans Mortgage -4.08%
Direct Loans -1.53%
Secured Personal Loans -0.26%
Used Car Loans -11.83%
Bridging Loans -4.44%
Bad Credit Car Loans -4.88%
Car Loans Bad Credit -4.88%
Graduate Loans -3.37%
Loans For Students -2.73%
Loans For Tenants -6.84%
Federal Student Loans -0.36%
Loans Mortgages -6.19%
Bad Credit Auto Loans +0.05%
Bad Credit Refinance Loans +0.45%
California Home Loans +100.54%
Home Loans California +100.54%
Bank Of America Loans -4.31%
Car Title Loans -2%
Loans Company -3.09%
Automobile Loans -2.79%
Auto Title Loans -3.85%
Wizard Home Loans -0.17%
Home Loans Va +0.17%
Mortgage Loans Rates -6.19%
Mobile Home Loans -3.01%
RV Loans -2.95%
Home Buyer Loans -8.24%
Student Loans Bad Credit
Bad Credit Student Loans
Mortgage Loans California +0.19%
Loans In UK -8.7%
No Faxing Payday Loans -6.11%
Low Mortgage Loans +0.02%
Payday Cash Loans -3.45%
Mortgage And Loans -0.19%
Tenants Loans -5.11%
Homes Loans -0.19%

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Mortgage Sector Keywords

Here is another list of keywords and their corresponding percentage of value (raised or lowered in value)...

Mortage Sector at Symbiotic.com

Mortgage -0.35%
Home Mortgage +99.99%
Home Mortgage Refinancing -0.04%
Refinancing Mortgage -0.04%
Mortgage Loans -0.17%
Loans Mortgage -0.17%
City Mortgage
West Mortgage -0.18%
Credit Mortgage -3.08%
Mortgage Calculator -0.8%
Mortgage Rates -0.65%
Rates Mortgage -0.65%
Mortgage Loan -0.85%
2nd Mortgage -0.72%
Mortgage Rate -0.86%
Rate Mortgage -0.86%
Miami Mortgage -1.17%
Bad Credit Mortgage -3.23%
Best Mortgage -0.86%
Mortgage Denver +97.84%
Denver Mortgage +97.84%
Mortgage Tampa -0.06%
Refinance Home Mortgage +48.17%
Orlando Mortgage -0.58%
Mortgage Orlando -0.58%
Reverse Mortgage -1.52%
Mortgage Leads -0.87%
Leads Mortgage -0.87%
Mortgage Insurance -0.96%
Second Mortgage -4.59%
New York Home Mortgage -0.74%
A Mortgage -0.88%
Chase Mortgage -1.93%
Online Mortgage -0.94%
Mortgage Company -1.02%
Home Mortgage Loan +49.5%
Colorado Mortgage -1.44%
Interest Mortgage -0.85%
Lenders Mortgage -0.66%
Home Mortgage Rate -2.06%
Mortgage Quote -1.18%
Bank Mortgage -0.4%
Mortgage Rate Refinance -0.05%
Current Mortgage -2.4%
Mortgage Com -1.47%
Home Equity Loan Mortgage -3.01%
Brokers Mortgage -0.86%
California Mortgage -1.87%
Mortgage Lender -0.94%
Homes Mortgage +106.45%
Mortgage Homes +106.45%
Mortgage Deals -1.16%
Uk Mortgage -0.76%
Mortgage Uk -0.76%
Interest Only Mortgage -1.72%
State Mortgage
100 Mortgage -2.15%
Mortgage Home Equity +50%
Mortgage Lowest +0.12%
Best Mortgage Refinance -0.1%
Florida Mortgage -2.02%
Chesapeake Home Mortgage -3.51%
Mortgage Information -2.78%
Chesapeake Mortgage -3.43%
Mortgage Compare -1.35%
Mortgage Home Rates -1.88%
State Home Mortgage +0.16%
Current Mortgage Rates -1.16%
Kansas Mortgage Loans -2.34%
Manhattan Mortgage +0.12%
Countrywide Mortgage -1.83%
Home Mortgage California +0.06%
Mortgage Advice -1.08%
Atlantic Mortgage -1.52%
Mortgage Financing
Mortgage Fixed Rate -3.53%
Fixed Mortgage Rate -3.53%
Interest Mortgage Rates -1.47%
Interest Rates Mortgage -1.47%
Calculators Mortgage +0.14%
Mortgage Calculators +0.14%
Home Mortgage Bad Credit -5.78%
Mortgage Broker Leads -1.87%
Mortgage For Bad Credit -9.51%
Mortgage Rate Calculator -2.61%
Clarksville Mortgage -3.44%
Va Mortgage -2.78%
House Mortgage +0.08%
Home Mortgage Calculator -1.96%
Refinance Rates Mortgage +100.14%
Mortgage Comparison -2.04%
Mortgage Rate Best -0.11%
Best Rate Mortgage -0.11%
Best Mortgage Rate -0.11%
Mortgage Best Rate -0.11%
Interest Rate Mortgage -2.31%
Mortgage Interest Rate -2.31%
Interest Mortgage Rate -2.31%
Mortgage Approval -2.42%
Wells Fargo Home Mortgage -1.11%

Now, I am sure that the reason for the lowered percentage values on most of these words is due to the corresponding rise in the Dow and the possible relief in mortages due to the bailout.

I will continue with another list of keywords with my next post.

Notice that these values for any keywords will fluxuate with the emotion of global events.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Adsense Keywords. Maximize your income.

Top Paying Adsense Words. Where do you find them? How do you use them?

Here is a source list for your convenience.

Note: More sources will be listed in my next post.

www.keywordcountry.com
Predict your Adsense earnings before targeting a keyword!

Get access to :

6.5 Million High paying keywords

Traffic Building Keywords

High CTR Keywords

Thousands of Niche keywords from 600,000 markets Online!

Build loads of Traffic, Build more content and study the behaviour of keywords.

Video Tutorials

www.google.com
How does adding keywords affect AdSense for search?

Keywords are used by Google to make sure that we promote the most relevant ads and pages in the search results for your search engine. Good keywords are words and short phrases that describe any of the following:

The topic of your search engine

The content of the pages you want promoted

For example, a search for 'tiger' may yield different sets of results and ads depending on keywords entered.

stason.org

Here is a partial list:

$78.30 Chicago personal injury lawyer
$73.01 Chicago personal injury attorney
$69.17 lasik New York City
$64.27 New York personal injury lawyer
$64.17 New Jersey car insurance
$63.10 New York personal injury attorney
$61.64 Chicago personal injury lawyers
$61.17 mesothelioma lawyers
$60.74 Atlanta personal injury lawyer
$60.29 New York personal injury lawyers
$59.00 lasik Dallas
$58.68 New York personal injury lawyers
$58.38 Miami personal injury attorney
$58.25 what is mesothelioma
$58.08 best equity loan
$57.95 lasik New York
$56.88 whole life insurance quote
$56.75 New York car insurance
[...]
$53.46 whole life insurance quotes
$53.42 car insurance in New Jersey
$53.12 Las Vegas personal injury lawyer
$53.12 term life insurance quotes
$52.57 mesothelioma treatments
$52.41 equity loan rate
$51.78 equity loan
$51.50 New York personal injury lawyer
$51.29 equity loan rates
$51.15 fixed rate equity loan
$50.54 causes of mesothelioma
[...]
$45.33 Los Angeles botox
$45.07 new lasik
$44.86 fixed equity loan
$44.51 San Diego personal injury attorney
$44.19 125 equity loans
$43.58 mesothelioma cases
$43.57 car insurance in New York
$42.97 equity refinance
$42.70 asbestos and mesothelioma
$42.52 auto insurance quote
[...]
$40.47 cosmetic surgery Los Angeles
$40.04 personal injury attorney Atlanta
$39.67 car insurance California
$39.66 Oregon personal injury lawyer
$39.43 auto insurance
$39.35 Albany personal injury lawyer
$39.21 fixed equity loans
$39.11 personal injury lawyers
$38.84 Ameriquest mortgage
$38.31 auto insurance quotes
$38.19 mortgage refinance
$38.17 lump sum settlement
$37.43 cause of mesothelioma
[...]

www.xedant.com

A great resource for most profitable Adsense keywords.

Here is a partial list.

insurance
hotels
film
home
car
schools
acting
credit
cheap
digital
hotel
film schools
software
new
auto insurance
rental
free
travel
auto
video
mortgage
flights
editing
refinance
loans
UK
computer
buy
extended stay
home insurance
training
travel insurance
cars
debt
furniture

www.symbiotic.com
Here there is accessibility to Top Keyword Sectors. Here is an example of a sector.

Insurance Sector Keyword Data
Insurance -0.46%
Auto Insurance -0.18%
Insurance Quotes -0.06%
Quotes Insurance -0.06%
Auto Insurance Quotes -0.07%
Car Insurance -0.52%
Home Insurance -0.11%
UK Car Insurance +199.67%
Car Insurance Cover -0.04%
Car Breakdown Insurance -0.04%
Travel Insurance -0.21%
Insurance Travel -0.21%
Cheap Car Insurance -0.2%
Car Insurance UK +49.86%
Insurance Car UK +49.86%
Cheap UK Car Insurance -0.05%
Cheap Car Insurance UK -0.05%
Life Insurance -0.84%
Health Insurance -1.16%
Rental Insurance -0.11%
Columbus Insurance -0.3%
Insurance Company -1.12%
Motorcycle Insurance -0.45%
Progressive Insurance -0.53%
Business Insurance -2.91%
Pet Insurance -0.36%
Insurance Car Quotes -2.29%
Car Insurance Quotes -2.29%
Term Insurance -1.49%
Insurance Companies -0.98%
Term Life Insurance +146.98%
Life Insurance Quote -1.23%
Insurance Rate -1.71%
Liberty Mutual Insurance -1.49%
Newark Insurance -1.1%
State Farm Insurance -0.55%
Homeowners Insurance -0.61%
Insurance Medical -3.29%
Medical Insurance -3.29%
Dental Insurance -1.11%
Insurance Liability -2.32%
Liability Insurance -2.32%
Allstate Insurance -1.14%
Insurance Co -0.73%
Mortgage Insurance -0.96%
Insurance Car Quote +0.04%
Quote Car Insurance +0.04%
Insurance Quote Car +0.04%
Us Auto Insurance -1.07%
Delaware Insurance -0.82%
Insurance Life Quotes -2.56%
Iowa Insurance +0.54%
Home Owner Insurance -0.51%
Cheap Auto Insurance +46.25%
Insurance Comparison -1.44%
Insurance Quote Auto +30.21%
Auto Insurance Quote +30.21%
Boat Insurance -1.08%
Renters Insurance -1%
Bike Insurance -1.34%
Automobile Insurance -3.74%
Car Insurance Young -1.68%
Indemnity Insurance -1.74%
Insurance Online Quotes +48.93%
Health Insurance Quote -1.01%
Cheap Travel Insurance -1.12%
Whole Life Insurance -1.47%
Property Insurance -0.53%
AAA Insurance -1.24%
Term Life Insurance Quote -0.02%
Hartford Insurance -0.9%
Sterling Insurance -1.35%
Insurance Coverage -0.95%
Student Insurance -4.74%
American Family Insurance -1.44%
Classic Car Insurance -0.1%
Nationwide Insurance -0.09%
Leads Insurance -4.5%
Insurance Leads -4.5%
Health Insurance Quotes -1.73%
Insurance NY -1.54%
Insurance Lead -3.21%
Insurance Motorbike -2.76%
Toronto Auto Insurance -1.33%
Insurance Plans -3.53%
Car Insurance Cheapest -3.17%
Professional Indemnity Insurance -3.88%
Insurance Broker -4.54%
Health Insurance California -1.59%
Individual Insurance -1.52%
Auto Insurance Company -3.52%
Life Insurance Company -1.24%
Prudential Insurance -2.34%
21 Insurance -3.46%
Public Liability Insurance -3.18%
Health Insurance Plans -1.83%
Insurance Agent -5.96%
Farmers Insurance -1.67%
Individual Health Insurance -2.04%
Health Insurance Individual -2.04%

More on Keywords in my next post. I know that most of this information is via cut-and-paste, however, why reinvent the wheel.

As always, don't forget to ping!

Monday, May 5, 2008

New Website In Development

As you may have noticed, I have been posting less often on this blog.

I am currently writing a manuscript for a politcal thriller novel which is taking necessary time away from this blog.

Additionally, I am creating a new website to do podcasting/live radio shows from in the near future.

In addition to that, I am searching for a fiscal sponsor to welcome me aboard as a spokes person for Lyme disease awareness, education, research, reporting, and etc.

With all of these things in play, my main blog focus will be at http://issuesoncall.blogspot.com.

However, I will from time-to-time plug in a post here for those interesting things I wander upon.

Thank you for reading my posts!

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Analytics of Your Blog


I have decided that I enjoy the method that Google Analytics tracks my blog data.

Some of you may have varying opinions on the subject, so please comment.

Google Analytics

The things that I like about it are that you have a complete analytical dashboard.

This dashboard is interactive and complete with line graphs showing dates and visit numbers for your blog, the number of visitors, a map overlay of the locations of your visitors, a pie chart showing where your visitors are coming from, and a content overview section so that you can evaluate what content to continue writing about based on the number of visits.

Within these areas you can get really detailed reports.

We'll just take one example of the detail reports that I happen to enjoy..."Visitors".

I click on visitors for any of my blogs and it give another dashboard with stats for the site.

I can click on "Visitor Trending" and see anything from "Pageviews" to "Time On Site".

Clicking on "Visitor Loyalty", I can find out how many are return visitors versus how many are new.

If you want to know something about your readers it is on Google Analytics.

Don't forget to use the Ping locations that I mentioned in my December 10th article. Unless you network and ping your site, the traffic is not just going to come knocking automatically.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

"Blogsessive"

Someone clued me into a blog that may be of interest to others attempting to gain traffic to their sites.

It's called Bloggsessive and it has many interesting points.

Points of interest are the following.

Importance of blogging constancy...why it is important and how much it affects your blog.

How can you insure your blogging constancy?

What do the search engines say?


These are all important pieces of the pie when considering your blog.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Pinging Includes Submitting Your URL


If you have not yet done so, you need to go to the following sites to submit your weblogs or websites.

What is the benefit?

When you go to Ping-O-Matic or Pingoat (immediately after you post) you're sure that your sites get maximum coverage, or that you get more out of your ping.

Theoretically, this adds traffic flow to your site(s).

Here are a list of the sites (among others) to which you need to submit your URL. Note: Some of the other sites you need to post your URL on are listed when you use www.pingoat.com to ping. When the list processes the sites that have been pinged, keep the list and methodically add your URL to each of those sites for most coverage.

dmoz.org click here
note: they are partners with AOL and this is the only way I've found to submit my site to AOL.

AltaVista click here
note: go to the bottom directory on the main page...click on "submit site" and then do a "Basic Submit" (this is after you have already been registered at Yahoo) or the other submission areas can be costly.

Clusty click here
note: Click on "Add Your Site" on the left margin menu and look at the bulleted items.
If you try the first one, it redirects you to dmoz.org.
The MSN bullet works great, so submit your site there.
The Gigablast bullet works great, so submit your site there.
The WiseNut bullet redirects you to "Look Smart", which is another affiliate/advertising site.
Read the remainder of what Clusty has to say under the bullets


$8.95 Domain Names Transfers from Dotster


LYCOS click here
note: This is supposed to be one of the places you should submit your site to, however, I only found a way to put their logo or link on my site, which I didn't because I don't know enough about them. However, it is interesting to use their "retriever". I used it (along with its "hotbot" to look up my own name and it came up with places that others had submitted my articles. This allowed me to visit their sites and add them to my networks on places, such as StumbleUpon and Reddit.

Google is another site that is suggested for submitting your site to for their directory. When you click to submit a site on Google, it directs you to dmoz.org, which we have already discussed.

Each time you post, don't forget to ping.

Sources:
www.pingoat.com
Ping-O-Matic
www.dmoz.org
AOL
www.altavista.com
clusty.com
MSN
Gigablast
WiseNut
LYCOS

Friday, March 14, 2008

Office or No Office. No Question!

This is why I enjoy blogging...

A Cubicle Conundrum: The Downside of Working in a Cube
Author: The Idiot Aug 13, 2007

* Being told to "Think Outside the Box" when I'm in the darn box all day!

* Not being able to check E-mail attachments without first seeing who is behind me.

$16 OFF Instant! XFX Geforce 8800 GT 512mb DDR3 PCI-E Graphics Card Now $263

* Fabric cubicle walls do not offer much protection from any kind of gun fire.

* That nagging feeling that if I just press the right button, I will get a piece of cheese.

* Lack of roof rafters for the noose.

* My walls are too close together for my hammock to work right.

* 23 power cords, 1 outlet.

* Prison cells are not only bigger, they have beds.

* When tours come through, I get lots of peanuts thrown at me.

* Can't slam the door when you quit and walk out.

* If you talk to yourself it causes all the surrounding cubicle inhabitants to pop their heads over the wall and say "What? I didn't hear you."

* If your boss calls you and asks you to come into his office for a minute the walk there is like a funeral march... people hand you tissues as you pass and refuse to make eye contact.

* You always have the feeling that someone is watching you, but by the time you turn to look they're gone.


For more humor click here

What is a "Ping"? Just Make Sure You Do It!


Stating upfront that Digg is my networking site of choice, here are a couple of other sites that are good as well.

Adding the StumbleUpon toolbar, makes it easy to submit articles and add to my profile (to keep articles on-file) that I have interest in. That's a pretty cool feature. However, word-to-the-wise when you're adding the toolbar...be sure that you don't have any tabs up that you are in need of keeping track of because you'll lose those as your Internet will re-boot (not your complete computer system...just the Internet, i.e., Internet Explorer).

del.icio.us seems, thus far, to be fairly easy to use. Interaction with my del.icio.us network seems to be the most difficult part. Posting items on their site is fairly easy. Adding people to your network is fairly easy.

Networking is a necessity in marketing your blog, increasing its traffic and attractiveness to advertisers. Additionally, there is not a "one-size-fits-all" networking site. Try a few sites to feel out which one(s) work best for your blog topic and traffic. It may take time to analyze which site(s) will be most beneficial and therefore I recommend using Google Analytics or Feedburner to analyze where your traffic is coming from.


Hostmonster


What is the definition of "Ping (Blogging)"? This comes from Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_blog

"Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post (or updates an old one.) That is, the tool sends an XML-RPC signal to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material.

Open ping servers, like VeriSign's Weblogs.com and Yahoo!'s blo.gs, let other web-services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them.

Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material. A few of the blog aggregators that can be pinged directly include:

BulkFeeds, FeedBurner, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, Technorati, and Yahoo

In addition to open ping servers, there are an increasing number of proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.

There is a conflict of interest here between the blogger--who wants his new post to get the widest possible publicity as fast as possible--and the web-service owner--who wants his search engine or aggregator to have new blog posts long before anyone else. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers. As the blogosphere has grown, other ping "services" have cropped up, such as Pingoat and BlogFlux Pinger."

Each time you post a new article, be sure to use at least one of the ping sites to register your new post. This will drive traffic to your site and increase your rating on Technorati and Alexa.

Sources:
www.technorati.com
www.alexa.com
www.del.icio.us.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.digg.com
www.feedburner.com
www.google.com/analytics/
en.wikipedia.org

Just Digg It!


When using Digg, you may decide to check-out its crystal balls, or the sites that may companion you along your Digging journey.

One companion site DuggTrends: mirror. "Duggtrends is not another clone but it complements diggTM. Our main goal is to provide more insight of what & how we are voting. All the stories listed in this site are from digg.com. diggTM is a trademark of digg.com; this site (duggtrends) is neither affiliated with nor would have existed without digg.com. DuggMirror is a site that allows users of the popular news site Digg.com to see popular links that may have gone offline or slowed down due to the so-called "Digg Effect.""

From this site you can learn important trends such as the right time of day to submit your article on Digg, what day of the week works best for the topic you are submitting, and what topics are so saturated on Digg that they are less likely to get to the front page. The stats regarding the trends are older, however still may be effective.

On DuggTrends "Forcasted Stories" tab it states, "We are working on an algorithm to predict stories which has best chances to make it to front page. If you are someone who is curious to know interesting stories in advance, this is your page." It would be interesting if they could figure this out, especially since most everyone using Digg cannot even figure out the regular algorithm. Digg's page on "How Digg Works" states, "Once a submission has earned a critical mass of Diggs, it becomes “popular” and jumps to the homepage in its category. If it becomes one of the most popular, it qualifies as a “Top 10”. If a submission doesn't receive enough Diggs within a certain time period, it eventually falls out of the “Upcoming” section." Exactly how many diggs is enough and exactly how many buries is enough...that is the mystery. Further, in their "Frequently Asked Questions" they state, "The promotion and burying of stories is managed by an algorithm developed by Digg. There is no hard number of Diggs/buries to promote or remove a story. It's based on a sliding scale that takes several factors into consideration, such as number of Diggs, reports, time of day, topic submitted to, Digging/burying diversity, etc."

Additionally included on DuggTrends is a "Missed" tab. To describe how this section works they state, "Daily thousand's of stories are being submitted; but only a few are promoted to frontpage, many interesting stories just miss frontpage and we feel it might be worth taking a look at them."

One of my favorite tabs is the "Buried Stories" tab. To describe this section they state, "If you have not noticed yet, but there are many "controversial" stories which make it to frontpage but then get buried. If you have missed them, this page tracks them up for you." It seems there are a few on Digg that are quick with the "Bury" finger. Here is your solution to enable viewing all of those stories. You can also log onto your account on Digg and click in the search box. Once you are in "Search", enter the URL of the buried story. It will pull up all stories for that URL if you click in the box to include buried stories and the URL is a general one, such as "http://www.johnchow.com".

Within DuggTrends there is supposed to be a way to enter a URL from Digg and have it plot a stats graph. I attempted with three different topics, all fairly new stories, to discover the use of this application. However, with each try I was unsuccessful, ending with an error message stating "digg.com url is not found in our database. please try another". In other words, I am not sure that function is in working order at this time, and with the lack of updating on the site, unfortunately may not be in working order anytime in the future. It would be a nice feature if it was in working order.

The word-to-the-wise on this site is that the blog has not been updated since January of 2007. What does that mean? Not much except that the development may have ceased at some point due to lack of funds. Please note the blogging about Adsense and the lack of ability to make money, along with the fact that no ads are currently running on the site.

Regarding Adsense, however, be sure to check out the article they have posted on their site as a link. Here is the link for your convenience. "Now, I really wonder how much money does digg.com, myspace.com and youtube.com make through google adsense. Recently there was a story about “Biggest Google Whores” on digg." I bypassed the digg link and went straight to the source for your convenience. If you wish to visit the digg link, here it is LINK.

Here is one more option when it comes to a companion to Digg. http://diggcomments.headzoo.com. They call themselves "The Digg Comment Stalker", and it is for real. If you enter the person's user name from Digg (their name on your "Network"), all you have to do is click on "Show Comments" and it shows a drop down list of ALL of their comments. Additionally, Digg Comment Stalker shows how many diggs or buries a person has made. It brilliantly reveals each of these based on each article title. This is a great tool for Diggers who are debating whether to add or delete someone from their network. Note: This site is VERY MUCH NOT affiliated with Digg.

A site recently presented by TechCrunch as "a service launched last year that allows you to see the the number of buries on a Digg story by the time of each bury" is called Ajaxonomy Bury Recorder. Here is the article from TechCrunch that caused them to check into buried articles on Digg "Digg Has Super Users Or Hates Ron Paul". Not only can you enter and track a story's URL, but you can also click on "Top Buried Stories" and you have a complete drop down list. A very interesting site, indeed.

As social networking has grown and more sites have hit the scene and flourished, Digg's Alexa ratings have begun to drop. Please see the first graph from Alexa above.

However, comparing a few other networking sites along side Digg, including Reddit, Technorati, Slashdot, and StumbleUpon, the Digg networking rating is quite good. Please see second Alexa graph above.

Essentially, Digg must be doing something right. I digg it!

Sources:
www.digg.com
http://duggtrends.com/duggmirror.aspx
www.johnchow.com
www.adsense.com
http://diggcomments.headzoo.com
www.techcrunch.com
www.alexa.com
www.ajaxonomy.com/buryrecorder

More Blog Traffic Wanted!


Here are some of my favorite articles found on Digg from this week that relate directly to blogging, technology, widgets, etc. and that benefit us all with regard to our progress in this blogging/technology industry.

I could pretend that I wrote all of this information and just re-write it to make myself look smart. However, why reinvent the wheel. These folks did all of the work and deserve the credit.

Here they are...

How 30 Minutes a Day Can Result in 250 Inbound Links
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here

5 Surefire Ways to Get More Links to Your Blog
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here

5 Blog Traffic Articles You Should Read
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here


Hostmonster


Increase search engine traffic to your WordPress blog with one night's work
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here

What People Search For - Most Popular Keywords
Digg Link Here
Article Directly Linked Here

10 Ways to Attract New Readers to Your Blog
Digg Link Here
Article Directly Linked Here

As you can see, there is a theme within these articles and their content. The common theme is increasing the traffic to our blogs.

I think that everyone struggles with this issue. How much do you network on the social networking sites? How much to you comment on like-content blogs? What other tricks work?

For me, I will be trying any number of the items listed in these very informative articles. If they have worked for someone else, maybe they will work for me as well. Tell me your thoughts on this issue. Do you struggle with traffic to your blog location?


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Friday, February 22, 2008

Movie Maker .MOV Conversion Solution

Here we were at the dilemma to how to get your .MOV files to work in your Windows Movie Maker on Vista...a continuation from my post Linked Here

Yes, from feedback I've received, converting files so that they can be used in Windows Movie Maker is a dilemma experienced by many. So, I decided to do some experimenting to find a solution for this frustrating situation.


Freelance Jobs


Through my experimentation, I figured out a way to convert my .MOV files and import them into Windows Movie Maker. My final product for my experiment still had some flaws to sort out. However, the solution, although more time consuming than if the codec weren't an issue in the first place, actually worked.

First, I tried to import the video directly into Movie Maker, which proved unsuccessful, again calling for codec.

Next, I used Roxio Creator DE that we already had loaded on our machine. I figured, why not give it a try...at this point, what did I have to lose?

I clicked on "video" and selected the VCD format, clicked on "add new movie" and it took me to my directory, where I had already downloaded my .MOV files. I selected the files I wanted to download and let the software take its time to process them. Next, after playing around with the project settings and menu style settings, I created a disc. Yes, I had to burn the files to a disc. They were not formatted in any smooth way at this point; however, they were converted to a format that would work in Windows Movie Maker.

Following this process, I opened Windows Movie Maker, imported the movies and placed them where I wanted them, put the transitions and effects in, added music and photos, and took out the disk. This was before I published the movie. My files I had imported could not play...they could not be found without the disk. Once I put the disk back in, the data files could be found and I could play and recheck and edit the movie. Only once I officially "published" the movie did the files become a permanent part of the movie. I was able to transfer this to YouTube without a hitch.

The only problem I had was that I was fiddling with a movie I had made from a slideshow that I had put music behind and was re-doing it, attempting to replace the music. I couldn't figure out how to remove the original music so the overlap is kind of cheesy. However, it served the purpose and I was able to utilize some of the video I had originally prepared for that particular project in the process.

One lesson learned. Here is the final product for this lesson.



Sources:
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Vista
Roxio Creator DE
YouTube

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Blog Insurance = Monetary Gain With Adsense Keywords

Here are some sources for YOUR AdSense keywords. These are only a few, as there are many methods of obtaining this information. Like anything these days, some sources are better than others and you may wish to compare multiple sources as done here for your data.

If you wish to pay for a directory of keywords, you can go to www.toppayingkeywords.com where they offer a database for purchase. However, there are many free resources at the click of a mouse.

For instance, here is a list of words and their values located at www.symbiotic.com

women ----------value=$0.70-$0.88
baby -------------value=$0.89-$1.11
teenager ---------value=$0.90-$1.13
men --------------value=$0.93-$1.16
child -------------value=$0.94-$1.19
family -----------value=$1.11-$1.39
technology -----value=$2.01-$2.52
blog -------------value=$2.31-$2.89
bank ------------value=$2.48-$3.24
Vista ------------value=$3.28-$4.10
ping -------------value=$3.47-$5.20
car ---------------value=$4.19-$5.23
network ---------value=$4.67-$6.58
bankruptcy -----value=$5.28-$6.60
Stock Market ---value=$6.76-$8.45
loan --------------value=$8.65-$10.92
credit ------------value=$8.43-$10.96
debt -------------value=$11.36-$14.25
AdSense -------value=$12.31-$16.89
insurance -------value=$12.80-$16.16
mortgage -------value=$13.37-$17.11
mesothelioma --value=$40.51-$60.76

Of course, this data provided only takes into account the dollar value and not the traffic volume value. For more information, please click on the link provided above for Symbiotic.

Another source is www.iotaweb.org. Here is a comparison of the same words.

women "men seeking women" --------------CPC Value=$1.99
baby "baby, gift"-------------------------------CPC Value=$4.42
teenager = no results
men "women seeking men"------------------CPC Value=$1.99
child "child custody"--------------------------CPC Value=$2.36
family "family insurance medical"---------CPC Value=$5.58
technology "computer technology"--------CPC Value=$2.25
blog = no results
bank "bank rate"------------------------------CPC Value=$3.76
Vista "vista print"----------------------------CPC Value=$2.36
ping "sniping"--------------------------------CPC Value=$1.16
car "Alicante car hire"-----------------------CPC Value=$42.64
network "network support"-----------------CPC Value=$3.21
bankruptcy "bankruptcy attorney"---------CPC Value=$8.03
Stock Market "stock market day trading"-CPC Value=$4.91
loan "home equity loan rates"--------------CPC Value=$57.23
credit "home equity line of credit"--------CPC Value=$52.27
debt "card consolidation credit debt"-----CPC Value=$36.56
AdSense ----------------------------------------CPC Value=$17.09
insurance "health insur. international"---CPC Value=$25.91
mortgage "home mortgage refinance"----CPC Value=$36.14
mesothelioma "mesothelioma lawsuits"--CPC Value=$40.77

As you can see by the above list, this site does not calculate their figures per word. Instead, they typically use the combination of words for their calculations. Again, the above list does not take into account the traffic driven to your site by certain words, but rather the Google AdSense dollar value based on the particular site's calculations.

Invest in your weblog. Take stock of all factors involved in the keywords you utilize.

Sources:
Google AdSense
iotaweb.org
www.symbiotic.com
www.toppayingkeywords.com

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

A "Windows Movie Maker" Experience



This is a video that I created, following the funeral of President Gordon B. Hinckley of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As you may see, it is built from a slide-show of photos with transitions and effects and not any actual video. This production process was quite a frustrating one. In fact, this is the first video that I prepared on my "Windows Movie Maker" software with Windows Vista.

If you have used this software, attempting to utilize your digital video files from your camera phone or from your digital camera, you are aware of the source of my frustration.

Attending a function, carefully documenting each detail with photos and digital video, is plenty of work on its own. Now you get the photos and the video home, download them to your computer, and attempt to utilize this exciting "Windows Movie Maker" software. Your mind is beaming with all of the possibilities of your masterpiece.

Importing photos is extremely easy. So you get excited for the next step of importing your video. You attempt to import one clip, finding the error...

.MOV cannot be imported because the codec required to play the file is not installed on your computer. If you have already tried to download and install the codec, close and restart Windows Movie Maker, and then try to import the file again.


You think this particular clip is bad or is the cause of the error, so you attempt to import another. Again, you view the identical error.

Looking online for a fix is next to impossible, as I found that I was far from the only one with this issue. Since "Windows Movie Maker" takes pretty much any format besides the .MOV, you decide to look for a converter. Of course, there are a plethora of offers for free downloads for converting tools. Though they are free for a trial period, after you convert one of your video files, you realize why they are free. THE GIGANTIC LOGO OVER THE ENTIRE SCREEN OF THE VIDEO ADVERTISING THE SOFTWARE. Can you say...cheesy!?

www.cnet.com
My Windows Movie maker keeps freezing & its driving me insane! I noticed its also happening to a lot of other people. Is there any remedy to this problem??


I would like to know why it doesn’t let you open a previous saved project if it’s not in the same format. Does any1 know if this can be changed and how would you get it to burn on to a dvd disc.


Windows Movie Maker is the worst video editing software I have ever used. Its limitations are frustrating and it is prone to freezing up, resulting in lost work and time. The solution to the freeze-ups? Invest in a better program.


So, I decided to check out my YouTube account to see if there were any options there. After all, I had a lot of videos, a lot of photos, a lot of imagination, and not much I could do with it all.

I uploaded one of my video clips to their site and found there to be an option to use to YouTube Remixer (Engine by Adobe Premiere Express). I decide that I would upload all of my video and attempt to utilize this tool. Once I uploaded all of my video, I attempted to get into the "Remixer" which then posted a message that it was waiting for the server...for the next three hours.

Next, with my frustration at its height, I decided to improvise utilizing Microsoft Publisher with WordArt and my photos, along with "Windows Movie Maker" and some simple music. Thus, this video created for YouTube.

I am frustrated that "Windows Movie Maker" has no way to accept .MOV files and that there is not a fix by Vista without purchase (that I have been able to locate...anywhere).

Lessons learned regarding color and clarity…I put in a slide of a poem called "The Master Bridge Builder". The poem looked really clear (easy to read) on "Windows Movie Maker". However, on YouTube the poem is mostly a blur. The font for that length of a poem needs to be larger and needs to be white if there is that dark background ...definitely on multiple slides (or clips). Additionally, many of the photos that were clear on "Windows Movie Maker" were a blur on YouTube. These were taken of items from the event itself with a dark background. If they were done with a lighter background they would have, most likely, been clearer.

Going back to YouTube, I am having similar issues with my videos in the "Remixer" once I have been able to go back. The "Remixer" only shows the video I made through "Windows Movie Maker"...the slide-show. The others in the .MOV format will not show up in the "Remixer". At this point, I have stopped fumbling with them out of frustration.

Sources:
YouTube
Windows Movie Maker
Windows Vista
Microsoft Publisher
www.cnet.com

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Meta Data


To be included in the topic from my post dated January 25th Link Here you must put your meta data into your template to maximize your potential on the directory sites.

Once you have registered your URL on the sites listed on the January 25th post, they will send out their spiders to crawl your blog. They will be searching for keywords in the meta data area of your template. So, this information would be good to add prior to registering your URL. If you have already registered your URL, add this meta data now.

Note: Obviously, customize it to reflect your own information for your own weblog.

These meta elements go inside the head section of your template: See Picture

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Once you have republished (or published for the first time) your blog, the search engines will pick up these keywords. It takes time for them to pick them up. It may take months for some. However, over the long-term, this data will help to increase your traffic and effectiveness from publishing your blog in the directories listed on my above mentioned post.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Social Network Aggregators...Consolidation For Sanity!


So, you've been staying up until 3:00am to touch base with all of your social networking contacts in your chosen networks. Feeling like you have a million login names and passwords to remember for each of your networks.

You are so exhausted that your writing is severely suffering and your blogging isn't consistent.



Feeling burnt out, you wonder what your options are. Which networks do you sacrifice?

The answer?...None!

Currently, the most efficient option for consolidating your networking is to choose one of a relatively new breed of applications called social network aggregators. These attempt to consolidate (with varying success) your variety of social networking profiles into one.

Welcome back your sanity!



Some of the biggest competitors in this field include the following.

8Hands
"With 8hands, you can organize and optimize your different online profiles from one place, while receiving real time notifications of your events...
IM and share online content with your friends: Just drag and drop your YouTube videos, Flickr pics and more into our easy to use chat window.
Get notifications of new comments, messages, friend requests, videos, feeds and more - in real time!
Receive summaries and statistics on your social networking activities."

Claim ID
"One of the greatest things about having a claimID page is that you can easily provide people searching for you with a real picture of your identity. With claimID you can claim your blog, your website and news articles that mention your name into a central place. If someone is searching for you, they previously might not have found all of those important pages. With claimID, you can put your best face forward and let people see the identity you wish to present."

Fuser
"Fuser develops tools that improve Internet user's digital lifestyles. Our tools make it easier to communicate online, whether that means one web-based inbox for email and social networks or some other method our community has yet to dream up. You tell us! Our users play a key role in the development of our products."

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Minggl
"Minggl is a toolbar that brings your social sites together in one place, feeding you the latest activities of friends, no matter where you are on the web...Get notifications of email, comments, and friend activity from Facebook while browsing other websites...Flip quickly between profiles such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube without logging in."

MyLifeBrand
"We give you a place to manage your social networks and message your social network friends. We have upgraded this service by adding Hi5 and Tagged...a place to create a community of your own. We are introducing tools that allow you to auto create blogs, wikis, event calendars and forums. The cool thing about our communities is you can add up to 8 live, browsable URL’s to add to the content of your community. Plus your community can have access to the groups pages and friends on other social networks!"

otherEgo.com
"It's simple to share your Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, Xanga, Blogs, Websites, or anything else that has a URL in your otherEgo profile!...A social network aggregator simply links and/or shows your profiles from other social networks (i.e. Myspace, Friendster, Facebook, Youtube). Most social network aggregators accomplish this by providing a simple link and image that you can click on. OtherEgo allows you to load them inside your profile. It's kind of like a social network profile browser."

Profilactic
"Profilactic is a social media aggregator that pulls in just about everything you and your friends create online...We support 111 social sites by default; however, you can add as many custom sites as you'd like, so essentially we support them all."

Profileomat
"profileomat.com is a shareable Profile Aggregator that lists all your personal Websites, Social Networks, Blogs, Contact Info, Photo Albums and other Profiles in one Profile. Plus: People can leave a message in your Profile (this is something between a guestbook and reputation system)."

ProfileFly
"Profilefly.com is a site that makes it easy to Control + Promote all of your:
Profiles – Social Networks, Blogs, Photo Sites, Professional, Love & Dating, Social Bookmark Sites, Personal Websites
Contacts – Email & Instant Messengers
Bookmarks – Video links, Cool Sites, News, & more
At ProfileFly.com you can also stream content from your favorite sites like Flickr, Twitter, Del.icio.us, Digg, & Last.FM. All you have to do is include the RSS feed from the site your adding to your Profile."

Readr
"Readr works with most blog, photo, and video services, from Flickr and Blogger to YouTube, Myspace, and Facebook...Keep up with your friends. Find out when your friends post new pictures, write in their blog, post a video, and more - no matter which sites they use."

Snag
"Snag aggregates information from your accounts at various social networks. Instead of having to visit each of your networks separately, you can find friends, read messages, and get updates from all of your networks in one place by using Snag...While Snag supports a few of the popular social networks, there are so many more that aren't included here. In developing Snag, we simply chose the networks that we use and know."

Second Brain
"Second Brain is an interface for all your online content. With smart collection tools and community features, we make it easy to create, manage, search and share content on multiple services. Access yourGet your content in your personal internet library...This is a beta preview release. This means that it’s not really finished yet, but good enough to give it a try."

SocialNetwork.in
"To help you aggregate links to all of your profiles, including social networks, chat, VOIP, and other communities. To help you aggegate links to all the social sites you want to monitor. To help you aggregate links to all your friends on various social and chat networks. To provide a simple means for you to rate social and chat networks using a 1-10 scale and comments. To provide a simple API for developers to use to extend their services and better serve your needs and interests."

Socialstream
"Socialstream emphasizes improving social connections by making it more efficient to communicate with, share with, and view the social content of all the people in a user's online social network. Socialstream provides a compelling user experience because it aggregates content across many different networks so a user has a single location to discover new content and communicate. The goal of Socialstream is to present social information in a way that ties it to the person who posted the information, and not the site from which it came."

SocialURL
"SocialURL is a social community platform enabling you to organize your online identities. Connnect to all your social network sites with one URL."

Spokeo
"Do you know how many of your friends blog on MySpace or upload photos to Flickr?
We don't think you do...Spokeo searches popular networks for your friends' blogs, photos, videos and music...We guarantee you'll learn something new about your friends."

Tabber
"Tabber is an online social address book that allows you to: import your contacts, get updates from contacts that are Tabber members, watch your contacts live information on the web as they update it (Myspace, Blogs, Photo Galleries, and more!)"

Upscoop
"Upscoop is a fun, free service that allows you to find all your friends on all the major social networks, such as MySpace and Friendster."

Zoolit
"Zoolit is a shareable Web page that lists all your personal sites. Your Zoolit Landing Page is always current and up to date, providing the world with all of your personal Websites, Social Networks, Blogs, contact info, and Photo and Video Sharing sites...When you add, change or delete a Website address, simply make the change on your Zoolit Page and its updated everywhere you have your Zoolit Button or Link."

While it may be a daunting task to network, it seems that it may be another daunting task to choose a social network aggregator.

As it turns out, there may be a solution for those who choose not to use one of the above options.

Steve Rubel with Micro Persuasion wrote an article that explains how you can simply use your Gmail account as your aggregating tool. Here is the link to his article.
Click Here

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, it seems that social networking is expanding our time spent on the computer, instead of with personal relationships. In order to balance our time, choosing an aggregator needs to be at the top of the priority list.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Sunday Post

For all Sunday posts, please refer to the following link...

Click Here

Hope you've had a fabulous weekend!

Thank you for reading!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Today? Just Humor.

Saturday deserves some laughs. Here is a good one...

Click Here For Link

The patient demanded, "Doc, I just must have a liver transplant, a kidney transplant, a cornea transplant, a lung transplant, and a heart transplant."

"WHAT?" yelled the doctor. "Tell me, exactly why you think you need all these transplants."

"Well," explained the patient, "my boss told me that I needed to get reorganized."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A plumber attended to a leaking faucet at the neurosurgeon's house. After a two-minute job, he demanded $150.

The neurosurgeon exclaimed, "I don't even charge that amount and I am a brain surgeon."

The plumber replied, "I agree. You are right! I too, didn't either, when I was a surgeon. That's why I switched to plumbing."

Friday, January 25, 2008

Submit To The Open Directory Project

Have you been searching for a way to get your blog URL on directories such as AOL and Google?

Here is your solution...

Submit your URL to the Open Directory Project Click Here For Link

Here is what it will say once you have submitted your site...

"Your site submission has been received.

An editor will review your submission for inclusion in the directory.

Once your site has been accepted into the Open Directory, it may take anywhere from 2 weeks to several months for your site to be listed on partner sites which use the Open Directory data, such as AOL Search, AltaVista, HotBot, Google, Lycos, Netscape Search, etc. We make updates of the data available weekly, but each partner has their own update schedule."

That is quite a list of included search engines! What do you have to lose? Take the time to submit to the Open Directory Project!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Being Sick Can Be Funny!


Because I haven't been well and able to post, I thought I'd write something easy for my readers to enjoy in the absense of the availability of my brain for something informative...workplace humor...for sick days...
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Mr. Johnston, a businessman from Colorado, recently went on a business trip to Arizona. He immediately sent an e-mail back home to his wife, Jo Ann, to let her know that he had arrived safely.

Unfortunately, he mistyped a few letters and the e-mail ended up going to a Mrs. Joan Johnson, the wife of a preacher who had just passed away.

The preacher's wife took one look at the e-mail and promptly fainted. When she was finally revived, she nervously pointed to the message, which read: "Arrived safely, but it sure is hot down here."

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I'm tired. For a couple years, I've been blaming it on iron poor blood, lack of vitamins, dieting and a dozen other maladies. But now I found out it ain't that. I'm tired because I'm overworked.

The population of this country (the USA) is 237 million. 104 million are retired. That leaves 133 million to do the work. There are 85 million in school, which leave 48 million to do the work. Of this there are 29 million employed by the federal government.

This leaves 19 million to do the work. Four million are in the Armed Forces, which leaves 15 million to do the work.

Take from the total the 14,800,000 people who work for State and City Government and that leaves 200,000 to do the work.

There are 188,000 in hospitals, so that leaves 12,000 to do the work. Now, there are 11,998 people in Prisons. That leaves just two people to do the work. You and me.

Boy Oh Boy . . . And you're sitting there reading this. No wonder I'm tired, I'm the only one working.

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Jesus and Satan have an argument as to who is the better programmer. This goes on for a few hours until they agree to hold a contest with God as the judge.

They set themselves before their computers and begin. They type furiously for several lines of code streaming up the screen. Seconds before the end of the competition, a bolt of lightning strikes, taking out the electricity.

Moments later, the power is restored, and God announces that the contest is over. He asks Satan to show what he had come up with. Satan is visibly upset, and cries, "I have nothing! I lost it all when the power went out."

"Very well, then." said God, "Let us see it Jesus fared any better."

Jesus entered a command, and the screen came to life in vivid display, the voices of an angelic choir poured forth from the speakers.

Satan was astonished and stuttered, "But how? I lost everything, yet Jesus' program is intact! How did he do it?"

God chuckled and replied, "Jesus saves."

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Software Revision Guide

Once you start playing with software you quickly become aware that each software package has a revision code attached to it. It is obvious that this revision code gives the sequence of changes to the product, but in reality there's substantially more information available through the rev-code than that. This article provides a guide for interpreting the meaning of the revision codes and what they actually signify.

1.0: Also known as 'one point uh-oh', or 'barely out of beta'. We had to release because the lab guys had reached a point of exhaustion and the marketing guys were in a cold sweat of terror. We're praying that you'll find it more functional than, say, a computer virus and that its operation has some resemblance to that specified in the marketing copy.

1.1: We fixed all of the killer bugs.

1.2: Uh, we introduced a few new bugs fixing the killer bugs and so we had to fix them, too.

2.0: We did the product we really wanted to do to begin with. Mind you, it's really not what the customer needs yet, but we're working on it.

2.1: Well, not surprisingly, we broke some things in making major changes so we had to fix them. But we did a really good job of testing this time, so we don't think we introduced any new bugs while we were fixing these bugs.

2.2: Uh, sorry, one slipped through. One lousy typo error and you won't believe how much trouble it caused!

2.3: Some jerk found a deep-seated bug that's been there since 1.0 and wouldn't stop nagging until we fixed it!

3.0: Hey, we finally think we've got it right! Most of the customers are really happy with this.

3.1: Of course, we did break a few little things.

4.0: More features. It's doubled in size now, by the way, and you'll need to get more memory and a faster processor.

4.1: Just one or two bugs this time - Honest!

5.0: We really need to go on to a new product, but we have an installed base out there to protect. We're cutting the staffing after this.

6.0: We had to fix a few things we broke in 5.0. Not very many, but it's been so long since we looked at this thing we might as well call it a major upgrade. Oh, yeah, we added a few flashy cosmetic features so we could justify the major upgrade number.

6.1: Since I'm leaving the company and I'm the last guy left in the lab who works on the product, I wanted to make sure that all the changes I've made are incorporated before I go. I added some cute demos, too, since I was getting pretty bored back here in my dark little corner (I kept complaining about the lighting but they wouldn't do anything). They're talking about obsolescence planning but they'll try to keep selling it for as long as there's a buck or two to be made. I'm leaving the bits in as good a shape as I can in case somebody has to tweak them, but it'll be sheer luck if no one loses them.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Ping Juiced By Networking


Stating upfront that Digg is my networking site of choice, here are a couple of other sites that are good as well. However, before I go into those sites, here is a new tool I discovered that is a companion to Digg that I thought I'd share with you... DuggTrends: mirror. Just check it out. If you want to see a great review regarding the basics on DuggTrends: mirror, click here.

Adding the StumbleUpon toolbar, makes it easy to submit articles and add to my profile (to keep articles on-file) that I have interest in. That's a pretty cool feature. However, word-to-the-wise when you're adding the toolbar...be sure that you don't have any tabs up that you are in need of keeping track of because you'll lose those as your Internet will re-boot (not your complete computer system...just the Internet, i.e., Internet Explorer). StumbleUpon has sent me many-a-visitor to my blogs and I abundantly enjoy my interaction with my readers.

del.icio.us seems, thus far, to be fairly easy to use. Interaction with my del.icio.us network seems to be the most difficult part. Posting items on their site is fairly easy. Adding people to your network is fairly easy. I have not received as many visitors through their site with my networking efforts as other sites.

Networking is a necessity in marketing your blog, increasing its traffic and attractiveness to advertisers. Additionally, there is not a "one-size-fits-all" networking site. Try a few sites to feel out which one(s) work best for your blog topic and traffic. It may take time to analyze which site(s) will be most beneficial and therefore I recommend using Google Analytics or Feedburner to analyze where your traffic is coming from.


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What is the definition of "Ping (Blogging)"? This comes from Wikipedia...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ping_blog

"Many blog authoring tools automatically ping one or more servers each time the blogger creates a new post (or updates an old one.) That is, the tool sends an XML-RPC signal to one or more "ping servers," which can then generate a list of blogs that have new material.

Open ping servers, like VeriSign's Weblogs.com and Yahoo!'s blo.gs, let other web-services subscribe to a list of blogs that have recently pinged them.

Blog search engines can provide fresh results very quickly by polling only the newly-updated blogs. Similarly, aggregators use results from ping servers to tell subscribers which items on their subscription lists have fresh material. A few of the blog aggregators that can be pinged directly include:

BulkFeeds, FeedBurner, Google Blog Search, IceRocket, Technorati, and Yahoo

In addition to open ping servers, there are an increasing number of proprietary ping servers that gather information only for their own applications. Most of the major blog search engines operate such ping servers.

There is a conflict of interest here between the blogger--who wants his new post to get the widest possible publicity as fast as possible--and the web-service owner--who wants his search engine or aggregator to have new blog posts long before anyone else. As a result, bloggers have turned to services such as Ping-o-matic, which pings multiple proprietary ping servers. As the blogosphere has grown, other ping "services" have cropped up, such as Pingoat and BlogFlux Pinger."

Each time you post a new article, be sure to use at least one of the ping sites to register your new post. This will drive traffic to your site and increase your rating on Technorati and Alexa.

Sources:
www.technorati.com
www.alexa.com
www.del.icio.us.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.digg.com
www.duggtrends.com
www.feedburner.com
www.google.com/analytics/
en.wikipedia.org

Friday, January 11, 2008

"Digg" These Great Ideas To Increase Traffic To Your Weblog


Here are some of my favorite articles found on Digg from this week that relate directly to blogging, technology, widgets, etc. and that benefit us all with regard to our progress in this blogging/technology industry.

I could pretend that I wrote all of this information and just re-write it to make myself look smart. However, why reinvent the wheel. These folks did all of the work and deserve the credit.

Here they are...

How 30 Minutes a Day Can Result in 250 Inbound Links
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here

5 Surefire Ways to Get More Links to Your Blog
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here

5 Blog Traffic Articles You Should Read
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here


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Increase search engine traffic to your WordPress blog with one night's work
Digg Link Here
Article Link Directly Here

What People Search For - Most Popular Keywords
Digg Link Here
Article Directly Linked Here

10 Ways to Attract New Readers to Your Blog
Digg Link Here
Article Directly Linked Here

As you can see, there is a theme within these articles and their content. The common theme is increasing the traffic to our blogs.

I think that everyone struggles with this issue. How much do you network on the social networking sites? How much to you comment on like-content blogs? What other tricks work?

For me, I will be trying any number of the items listed in these very informative articles. If they have worked for someone else, maybe they will work for me as well. Tell me your thoughts on this issue. Do you struggle with traffic to your blog location?