Max Your Ping

Counting

2010-09-27T10:13:00.000-06:00

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
-Albert Einstein

Empowerment With Technology

2010-09-23T21:11:00.001-06:00

"The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential."
Steve Ballmer

2009-06-04T13:09:00.005-06:00

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For future posts, please see Issues On Call...Click HERE

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What is in a terabyte?

2009-02-26T07:35:00.001-07:00

1 gigabyte = 1024 megabytes

This is the simplest way to look at them:

The 1000 can be replaced with 1024 and still be correct using the other acceptable standards.

· 1 Bit = Binary Digit
· 8 Bits = 1 Byte
· 1000 Bytes = 1 Kilobyte
· 1000 Kilobytes = 1 Megabyte
· 1000 Megabytes = 1 Gigabyte
· 1000 Gigabytes = 1 Terabyte
· 1000 Terabytes = 1 Petabyte
· 1000 Petabytes = 1 Exabyte -
· 1000 Exabytes = 1 Zettabyte
· 1000 Zettabyte = 1 Yottabyte
· 1000 Yottabyte = 1 Brontobyte
Now let's go into a little more detail.

Bit: A Bit is the smallest unit of data that a computer uses. It can be used to represent two states of information, such as Yes or No.

PayPal Button.

2009-01-06T16:37:00.003-07:00

PayPal button.

If you have product that you would like to sell online, an easy method to create a payment option for checkout is through PayPal.

Simply, set up a PayPal account, which is free of charge, and then follow this link to their Online Logo Center for the button. Click Here For The PayPal Online Logo Center link.

Here is what one of the options looks like...

There are a few to choose from so you can choose what will work better with your website.

PayPal is a great way to simply take many different forms of payment, including credit cards. This ensures payment has been received and there are minimal fees to retrieve your money from PayPal.

PayPal is a great service. I highly recommend it!

Generating and Querying Semantic Metadata and Ontologies. Video Tutorial.

2008-11-26T21:26:00.002-07:00

ECommerce Home Shopping - 6 Business Web Design SEO Tips

2008-11-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Top Search on Technorati Today

2008-11-22T17:06:00.003-07:00

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

Network Solutions Sr VP; Beginner Tips for SEO, YouTube Video

2008-11-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

Today's Top Technorati Search Words, Economy

2008-11-19T16:56:00.003-07:00

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

Ping (blogging), Wikipedia Definition

2008-11-18T13:41:00.001-07:00

"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

Have you pinged today?

2008-11-15T21:55:00.001-07:00

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.

SEO Tools and Optimization Techniques

2008-11-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

2008-11-07T16:19:00.004-07:00

SEO - What is SEO? Search Engine Optimization.

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

IOTAWeb.org, A Great Keyword Resource!

2008-11-05T14:32:00.003-07:00

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?

Adsense Keywords - Keyword Tool

2008-11-03T11:21:00.004-07:00

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.

Adsense Keywords...More Information...

2008-11-01T16:45:00.003-06:00

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%

Mortgage Sector Keywords

2008-10-30T10:33:00.005-06:00

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.

Adsense Keywords. Maximize your income.

2008-10-28T16:13:00.005-06:00

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!

New Website In Development

2008-05-05T12:51:00.002-06:00

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!

Out Buying Rice

2008-04-24T16:59:00.001-06:00

Just out buying rice like everyone else.

Analytics of Your Blog

2008-04-15T18:40:00.001-06:00

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.

"Blogsessive"

2008-04-03T14:12:00.002-06:00

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.

Pinging Includes Submitting Your URL

2008-03-26T16:24:00.003-06:00

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

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

Office or No Office. No Question!

2008-03-14T17:50:00.001-06:00

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.

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* 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!

2008-03-14T17:48:00.001-06:00

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.

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!

2008-03-14T17:46:00.001-06:00

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!

2008-03-14T17:45:00.001-06:00

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

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?

Star Wars - Boba Fett First Introduced (1978 Animated Holiday Special)

2008-03-14T17:44:00.001-06:00

Boba Fett Cartoon
Uploaded by TheWalkingDude

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Movie Maker .MOV Conversion Solution

2008-02-22T21:26:00.006-07:00

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.

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

Blog Insurance = Monetary Gain With Adsense Keywords

2008-02-12T11:43:00.000-07:00

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

A "Windows Movie Maker" Experience

2008-02-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

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

Meta Data

2008-01-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

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

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.

Social Network Aggregators...Consolidation For Sanity!

2008-01-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

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."

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 Post

2008-01-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

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

Click Here

Hope you've had a fabulous weekend!

Thank you for reading!

Today? Just Humor.

2008-01-26T22:02:00.001-07:00

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."

Submit To The Open Directory Project

2008-01-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

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!

Being Sick Can Be Funny!

2008-01-24T21:10:00.001-07:00

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...
******************************************************************************

Click Here For Link

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."

Click Here For Link

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.

********************************************************************************
Link Here

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."

******************************************************************************
Click Here For Link

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.

Ping Juiced By Networking

2008-01-18T16:56:00.000-07:00

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.

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

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

2008-01-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

Register Your Site. Get More Out of Your Ping

2008-01-04T17:31:00.000-07:00

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 (that I know of) to which you need to submit your URL.

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

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.

Note: Refer to my post dated December 10, 2007 for information regarding pinging.

Happy Blogging!

A Joke of a Sponsorship Site

2008-01-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

I was looking around for sponsors and investigating that option for my blogs when I came across a site called bloggingsponsorships.com.

I thought it looked credible...even enticing, so I began the sign-up process. I entered one of my blog addresses after reading a large amount of terms and rules, and gave my personal information, including the number of visitors per month I get from my site based on Google Analytics and Feedburner.

Following that information, they asked for information about what my blog site could do for the sponsor. I gave a great deal of information about how I network and the number of visitors that come from networking, in addition to the consistency in writing on the particular blog site, as well as consistency in analysing my traffic.

After taking all of that time to fill out that information, I clicked to go to the next section and guess what I found...that you have to pay bloggingsponsorships.com to get your blog on their site to find the sponsors. It's a subscription! The next page asked for the number of months that I wished to pay for and my paypal information. I tried the paypal, just to see if they really had it (since they had an option to pay via credit card on their own site) and neither one of my paypal accounts showed up as "credible" paypal accounts, according to their system.

So, just an FYI. Watch out for these guys! They are in it to get a buck from you, not the other way around.

Holiday Break Ciaos

2007-12-31T15:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a challenge to keep blogging while my kids have been home from school over this holiday break...when is school back in session? Just kidding. I really enjoy my kids being home all day, but the balance gets way off and by the time you find new balance they go back to school again. I guess it's one of the fun challenges and the enjoyment of being a parent.

A site called Social Media Trader.com has some great information regarding social, news, and bookmark sites, statistical analysis of Digg "top" lists, and other networking information that I found informative and helpful.

Here is the link.

Click Here

I like this site because they include a link to each of the networking sites, as well as $ value. They are listed in order and it can never hurt to check each of them out.

I have a blog set-up in www.newsvine.com to test the waters there and enjoy those networking contacts.

I also use www.digg.com religiously.

I check into www.technorati.com weekly and my "authority" there is rising steadily...I have no idea how or why...I think it is due to the "ping" factor.

I check into del.icio.us and www.stumbleupon.com weekly as I find that my efforts to do more than that don't pay off for traffic to my sites like it does with Digg.

Regarding the other networking sites, it can be all-consuming to network, however I think that I may try out a couple of other sites in the next couple of weeks to see if the formats they use are conducive to my content and interest.

Here is a page with some interesting statistics regarding the "Top Diggers" from July on seomoz.org.

Click Here

I learn something more about the networking sites all of the time.

One more item for this post...

I ran across a great article about the top women in blogging that I thought I'd share. It starts with "A little while back someone said to me that blogging is a “man’s game”...I then made it my mission to compile a list of some absolutely amazing women in blogging."

Because I feel it's important that blogging is a level playing field for all sexes, I love this article at eXtra For Every Publisher(xfep.com)and include the link here.

Click Here

Keep blogging, even when the balance gets off, and the consistency will eventually pay-off and you will reach your goal(s).

Happy blogging!

"Digital Review Blog" Site...Great Find!

2007-12-26T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a great location for up-to-date "Intelligent Analysis On Internet and Emerging Technologies"

Digital Review Blog

This is a great place to find out about the top tech blog sites and the top tech news.

The blogs that are listed are

*TechCrunch
*cjnet
*Digg
*Business 2.0
*ZDnet
*GigaOM
*EWeek

Take a look. I really like this site for the up-to-date info.

Happy Blogging.

Google Analytics

2007-12-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I enjoy the method that Google Analytics tracks my blog data better than FeedBurner, thus far.

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.

Sunday Post, December 23, 2007

2007-12-24T00:51:00.000-07:00

Please refer to

Issues On Call

for Sunday's post.

Please refer to

Column @ Newsvine

for issues regarding national and international politics, issues, agendas of the government, etc.

Thank you for your readership!

For Serious Articles Only...

2007-12-21T22:03:00.000-07:00

Here is updated information regarding the Newsvine.com site that I previously mentioned...

Click Here

I've progressed from "The Greenhouse" to "The Vine" now because of articles I've written, networking, clipping, and "seeding" the vine.

News I promised regarding earnings...

"Advertising Payments

Advertising Revenue. Our services may permit registered users to post User Content to a portion of our Site that is identifiable by a third level domain name selected by the user (username.newsvine.com) called a "Subdomain". As with other areas of our Site, we may post advertisements in the Subdomain ("Ads"). In the event that we post Ads of a third party to a user's Subdomain, we will pay users as follows:

*ninety percent (90%) of the Net Advertising Revenue derived from a Subdomain that we receive from third parties (the "User Earnings") will be paid to the registered user of that Subdomain;

*ten percent (10%) of the Net Advertising Revenue (the "Referral Earnings") will be paid to the registered user (if any) that the Subdomain's user listed at registration or that we have otherwise identified as the party that referred the Subdomain's user when the account was set up with Newsvine."

They also have a great "Code of Honor"...

"1. Above all else, respect others. If you see disrespectful behavior, report it, rather than further inflaming the situation.

2. Before you write, seed, or comment, ask yourself if your contribution increases the strength and virtue of the community.

3. Newsvine is for collaborative discovery and discussion of the news, not self-promotion. Posting full articles which also appear on your blog is acceptable but seeding your own stuff is not.

4. Keep your headlines accurate and free of sensationalistic language. For instance, if you're writing a satirical piece, please follow the form: "Satire: [Headline]"; if you're seeding a story about a rumor, "Rumor: Yahoo to Buy ___" is appropriate whereas "Yahoo Buys ___" or "WTF! Oh my God!" are not.

5. Although full internationalization is important to Newsvine, please keep all articles and seeds in English until the system can properly sort multiple languages.

6. Keep Newsvine tidy by tagging for accuracy rather than for readership, editing headlines and lead-ins to be compact and descriptive, and seeding as close to the original source as possible."

I know that this seems Spammish, but this is a great site for serious article writing and serious considering of other's websites only...not just a popularity site.

It remains to be seen how much different my earnings become at Newsvine versus AdSense, but there is no insurance in any ad campaign that I have explored, thus far.

Happy blogging!

New Stuff, New Tweaks

2007-12-19T23:50:00.000-07:00

As you can see, I've decided to change to a different template.

I hope that it is agreeable with my readers.

The reasoning behind the change is my disappointment with the inability of the previous template's flexibility with regards to widget size and placement. Additionally, the previous template caused my blog archive list to stretch extremely far down the sidebar, as well as any other text that I added to that area of the template.

I'm not sure that I love this template because there is not as clear a division between posts, however, I do feel it is an improvement from the past template.

I may change my template at Issues On Call as well, as I am not extremely pleased with its appearance. However, I have been working with the colors and layout over the past week, as well as the ad layout.

I feel that learning, based on the option of these templates, gives me a greater understanding of the details I will desire to develop on my own web domain, when the time comes.

I hope that viewing my learning process helps others in their blogging journey and that it doesn't annoy those who subscribe to my blog.

Thank you for your patience.

With regard to Feedburner...I have been able to integrate AdSense with Feedburner and that allows for additional ads to appear at the end of each "newest" post. This location is supposedly a prime location for readers to view and curiously click, however, my results have still been minimal, which is frustrating.

If you look at my Issues On Call site, at the end of each post, Feedburner has placed the ads there as well, however, with the FeedFlare option (where the ad option was first located), there is an option to include things such as, technorati, sphere, digg, etc. This shows up on my Issues On Call site but somehow doesn't show up on my Max Your Ping site. So, this will be something that I'll need to troubleshoot...Ahhh the frustration of inconsistency...probably something I did or didn't do correctly.

Additionally, my Headline Animator from Feedburner continues to circulate the titles and dates of my posts, which in turn interests my viewers in clicking on the widget. From clicking on the widget the viewer can subscribe to my post...an additional subscription option. Within the Headline Animator section, you can choose to advertise your site through Headline Animator, however, the budgets begin at $25 per month...something most bloggers are not in the blogging business for. Certainly, right now, I'd love to see my $25.00 in a check to me...lol

I have added my name to another location as well...Newsvine.com. I'm just getting the hang of it, but it seems to be a pretty serious site...not one made for match-making, but for serious article writing...right up my alley (not that you can tell from the tidbits I write here).

Here is my link so that you can see what it begins to look like
Click Here

I am still getting to know the ropes. They are pretty strict. I'm trying to find out if I can actually add any ads to my articles through Google Analytics or Feedburner, as Newsvine uses different rules which include the longevity of the user and the amount and quality of your articles and interaction.

It is an interesting site. I suggest reading up on it as another option in networking, however...let me tell you that these are serious WORK, serious ARTICLE, serious EVERYTHING networking groups and it isn't like Digg. You really have to work hard to get people into your networking group.

My StumbleUpon Tool Bar doesn't seem to work half the time, so I have a hard time integrating with that site. Plus, it seems that it is not quite the serious networking site that I'd like to be involved with, however, from time to time I still visit it and check on my friends there and network a bit. It is somewhat between Digg and MySpace. You can have some people that want you to see their work and others that want you to SEE their work...if you know what I mean. So...just an FYI.

The Yahoo networking site is one that I have not figured out AT ALL yet. It is still in Beta and I think it has a long way to go. However, I have to say that I have given the others a better try so I will cut it some slack...for now.

Digg seems to be good sometimes, and then sometimes it seems to be too much work. I get Digg burn out. I feel that there is a lot of junk that gets "shouts" to my login, mixed in with some selectively "real" news, tech, interest, etc. type stuff. However, the catch is that if you don't respond to most of the people sending you shouts in some way, you may not get the response that you want when you want something publicized. Kind of crazy. I guess it is representative of the globe, however, and I take the interesting ideas that come over as, just that...interesting.

I had one day following the writing of an article Issues On Call - Article
where I suddenly earned $13.00 on adsense from a bunch of clicks and have no idea how they came about, since I have been doing the same procedure of sending out my pings and promoting my articles this whole time. That is the most I have earned.

The earning is becoming a great deal of frustration, as I am sure it is for many bloggers. I ask myself what I am doing wrong, what I am doing right, if my articles are good enough, if my articles are the right topic, if my production is sufficient, etc.

What else can I do? If someone who is reading this has suggestions and has seen my other sites, please let me know. I am in this for the long-haul and would love some tidbits of advice on earning.

I did receive some emails tonight from affiliate groups who I sent applications to showing that I am approved, however, it may take me a couple of days to go through all of their information to make sure they are legit. I will update you and let you know the sources once I find out the results.

I find myself staying up until all hours of the night (actually into the morning) working on this investment into mine and my family's future and so, since it is now close to 1am I must sign off, hoping that this is good feedback, based on my recent experiences and frustrations.

Let me tell you something about the frustrations...they only drive me more, knowing that I can succeed because I have the drive, ambition, and best of all the TECHNOLOGY :-)

Happy Blogging!

A Bit of Humor for the Day...

2007-12-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

This is why I sit here blogging...at home...

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.

* 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

Sunday Post, December 16, 2007

2007-12-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

For Sunday posts, please click on

Issues On Call

Thank you for your readership!

Favorite Articles, Follow-up Regarding Affiliates

2007-12-16T02:32:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorite articles for today about ideas to help me with my blogging.

A No Click Necessary Alternative to Adsense
"And because it costs you absolutely nothing to sign up and benefit from the system, Pay Per Play gets our 5 star recommendation this time around."

Google Profiles
"They're coming and it will be difficult to get away without having one. Google Profiles will be integrated in most Google services so you have a coherent identity and a simple way to manage your contacts."

Now, I'm not having any luck with any of the four affiliate programs that I have attempted to sign up for thus far. They all want me to have my own domain and webpage and of course, they are willing to take care of it for a fee. All of these were affiliates that did not say that upfront in their information. I'll keep trying.

I think I'm burning myself out, trying to network like crazy. It all goes back again to managing that time. I just need to set better boundaries for myself.

Regarding affiliates...
The dish affiliate that I had ads on my site with for a few days would not let me log in after a few days and quite a few hits. They only left me a message on my gmail account with a link to their web page development department. Again, they did not have that information on their site when I first signed up. You just gotta love resources that seem to be a bit misleading, eh?...not!

I want to keep blogger as long as I can, however, I see that I may have to create my own pages sooner than I thought if I wish to make any money blogging.

Have a good Saturday Night.

Friday's Post

2007-12-15T00:48:00.000-07:00

For today's post, please see ...

Issues On Call

Thanks for your readership.

Affiliate Directories & Interesting Articles

2007-12-14T00:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it seems that my networking is taking much of my time these days. The more contacts I have and the more time I spend on my blog articles, the more I find that I spend on networking.

Working on my latest articles from my two blogs that I've submitted to my networking sites, I find that I am making great contacts by following-up with people (who have left their information, instead of anonymous) who have left comments.

Regardless of the comment, unless there was something extremely offensive involved, I give a simple thank you and try to look at their interests or submitted articles to see if I may add them to one of my networks to help them out. I like this more personal contact and it seems to be creating some great relationships where I have obtained regular subscribers and have subscribed to some of their blogs.

With networking, there always needs to be give and take. If you expect it all to come your direction without giving any back, expect to fail.

Additionally, I was wondering if any of you have tried Amazon.com and their "Partners" affiliate program? I have been giving it a good long try on both my sites and seem to be having zero success. Over twenty-thousand impressions on one of ad widgets, and thousands on others, but no orders, no referral fees paid, etc. I was looking over their discussion board and others seem to be complaining about the same thing, with others commenting that Amazon is just using bloggers to gather their customers for them without paying them.

I don't know if that is true. However, I am looking into other programs to try. I have found two great directories for affiliate-type companies. Be careful, however, because they will seem to be free and then you will be required to pay them to build a web-page and give you a domain, or you'll be required to purchase their tracking/reporting software, etc. Just a word of caution because it seems that every Tom-Dick-and-Harry want to offer an affiliate program.

Here are the two directories. I can't say much about them yet, since I am still exploring them myself. I will give my results once I've played around with it a bit.

Affiliate Scout

Commission Junction

Here are some interesting articles that I found that I thought I'd share regarding blogging, technology, etc. as it is important to always stay on top of the latest news if you want your blog to succeed...which you do, or you wouldn't be putting in the work in the first place.

The Next Social Network: WordPress
"Could open-source blogging platform WordPress serve as your next social networking profile? Chris Messina, co-founder of Citizen Agency, thinks so. He’s started a project called DiSo, for distributed social networking, that aims to “build a social network with its skin inside out.” DiSo will first look to WordPress as its foundation."

SEO Spammers: Leave Social Media Sites Alone!
"They always submit. They never vote/Digg/upmod anyone else’s submissions. Their submissions get 1 or fewer votes (unless they are a MASS - a Multi-Account-SEO-Spammer, in which case they will have more than one, but it will always be the same amount and always voted by the same “people”)."

Increase Earnings By Upto 30% With Google Coop & Adsense
"Here is a way that would allow you to earn higher and even turn a portion of first time visitors who come from search engine and after reading the content just close your site up."

I hope, as always, that this information is helpful and contributes to your blog's success.

Happy Blogging.

Wednesday's Post

2007-12-13T00:41:00.000-07:00

For Wednesday's Post, please see my blog at

issuesoncall.blogspot.com

Thanks for your readership!

New Social Media Submitter Tool, YouTube Partner Program

2007-12-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

New SEO - Social Media Submitter Tool Doesn't Perform...

Submit Your Site To Social Media!
This tool is supposed to link you to the following sites.
Blinklist
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Mixx
Newsvine
Reddit
You fill in the URL of the Site/Story, Title, Description, etc. and Submit and it is supposed to just get it out to all of them.

Unfortunately, this tool does not work. It would be great if it did, so that we all didn't have to take so much time networking and could use more time writing our blogs. Not so.

However, this does enable you to have a link to each of these sites to try them out for networking, if you wish. Let's look on the positive.

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

On the positive side of news and news of opportunity...

YouTube is offering an expanded YouTube Partner Program.

Earlier in the year they launched a pilot to enable some of the most popular creators in their YouTube community a way to receive a portion of the revenue generated from the ads that run next to their videos.

Since it was so successful, they have expanded it to anyone living in the U.S. or Canada. To apply to become a partner, click on the following link and read the information and click to apply.

YouTube Partner Program Expands

Have a great Tuesday!

Optimize Your Ping Time

2007-12-10T23:53:00.000-07:00

Optimize Your Ping Time...

Here are the sites that Ping-O-Matic will "ping" for you each time you post.

Weblogs.com
Weblogalot.com
Technorati.com
Feedburner.com
PubSub.com
Blogdigger.com
Moreover.com
Icerocket.com
Blogrolling.com
Bloglines.com (just added)

You can also choose to "ping" specialized services (see list on link)
Ping-O-Matic...Click Here

The advantage to this is your site gets more coverage faster than going to each of these locations separately. It helps to have an account set-up (free) at each of these locations to maximize your "ping" coverage potential.

Other "ping" coverage options are as follows.

Google Ping Service
"What is the Google Blog Search Pinging Service?

The Google Blog Search Pinging Service is a way to inform Google Blog Search of weblog updates. These updates are then published and shared with other search engines to allow them to discover the changes to your weblogs. In addition, Google Blog Search will add submitted weblogs to the list of blogs it needs to crawl and index."

Google Ping Service...Click Here

Pingoat
Pinging Services
A back-up to use in the case Ping-o-Matic is not available.
Click Here For Link
They "ping" the following, as well as special services listed on the link.

technorati.com
icerocket.com
weblogs.com
newsgator.com
blo.gs
feedburner.com
blogstreet.com
my.yahoo.com
moreover.com
newsisfree.com
syndic8.com
topicexchange.com
blogdigger.com
pubsub.com
coreblog.org
blogpeople.net
blogrolling.com
catapings.com
effbot.org
holycowdude.com
octora.com
veneblogs.com
bitacoras.com
technorati.jp
bakeinu.jp
blog-search.net
cocolog-nifty.com
bloggers.jp
blogoon.net
blogstyle.jp
amagle.com
gpost.info

Note: Some of the above list include foreign blog pings (not a bad thing). Additionally, I did not include in the list those pings which have been showing up as connection incomplete or error in connection.

The more exposure your blog receives, the more your advertising will pay-off.

You must remember that you need to sign up with each of the sites listed above that you would like to see yourself actually "pinged" at. They need to verify that you are, indeed, a true blog site. It is time consuming, but well worth the time.

Happy blogging.

Sunday Post, December 9, 2007

2007-12-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

On Sundays I write my blog posts at

Issues On Call

Thank you for reading.

Opportunity Knocks

2007-12-08T23:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting opportunities for anyone trying to make money on their sites.

"What is Pay per Play?
PPP is a brief audio advertisement that is purchased by major branding and direct response content advertisers on a "per play" basis. A website owner places the PPP code on any web page where it is appropriate for a visitor to hear audio advertisements and is paid on a per play basis.

There are 2 ways you can get involved and earn:

By placing the PPP code on individual pages of your website you will now share in revenue that was formerly distributed to major television networks across the world.

By referring other website owners to place the PPP code on their website(s) you will earn a percentage of everything they earn on a residual basis.

This is a limited opportunity. Once we create our core marketing group then nobody else will be able to market this opportunity to other webmasters and earn off of their effort. This is a time sensitive offer and it costs nothing to get involved."
Click Here

Pick Bee
"...free icons with quality is sometimes hard to find. Look no more, because now we’ve selected free, quality and well designed icons that scattered on the net especially for you."

"Icon is one of important visual element for web design or application. Appealing icon can easily draw your user attention and telling message in more effective way, therefore by using them properly you can help your user quickly find information that they are looking for. A well designed icons and proper use of them surely will help increasing your website or application value which lead to increase in profits for your product and business."
Click Here

Plug-N-Profit Site
PlugNProfit
a site that is somewhat misleading, seeming that you can choose affiliate options that are free or minimal cost, however, once you get down to the bottom of the form, etc., you find that you must sign up to have them create your webpage and manage it at a cost.

Hope you enjoy these options for opportunities.

Feedburner Tweak Test

2007-12-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

This is just a test of my tweaks on Feedburner.

For most of today my internet was down due to heavy storms. My blog that I was able to adequately complete is

Issues On Call

I'll let you know of my newest blog tweak, advertising, networking, widget, etc. findings tomorrow.

Thanks for your readership.

Manage Your Networking Time For Your Blog

2007-12-06T19:48:00.001-07:00

Please visit natashacall.blogspot.com for this article.

Thanks for visiting!

Productivity, Analyzing, Editing...

2007-12-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

Productivity today solely dealt with revising some of my ad layouts based on analyzing my Feedburner results, AdSense Results and Amazon Results.

Additionally, I networked on Digg, De.li.cious, and StumbleUpon, attempting to drive more traffic to my two blog sites...

http://maxyourping.blogspot.com/

http://issuesoncall.blogspot.com/

Some days become more analytical and developmental than article related.

Apologies go out to my readers for the lack of content in today's post.

However, the following is a link to an interesting new site for video sharing...

http://www.i-newswire.com/pr136188.html

Happy Blogging.

Networking Sites, Ping Sites, What is a "Ping"?

2007-12-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

Things learned...

I added the StumbleUpon toolbar today, which makes it easy for me to submit articles and add to my profile (to keep articles on-file) that I have interest in. I found that to be a 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 "reboot" (not your complete computer system...just the internet, i.e., Internet Explorer).

Additionally, I've added del.icio.us to my networking group. Their site seems, thus far, to be fairly easy to use. I've not yet had much interaction with my del.icio.us network, as that seems to be the hardest part. However, I have just begun using them and I discover new things as I go and will continue to update you. Posting items on their site is fairly easy. Adding people to your network is fairly easy.

My message regarding these sites is that networking is a necessity in marketing your blog, increasing its traffic and attractiveness to advertisers. Additionally, just because one networking site doesn't work for my blogs does not mean it will not work for your blogs.

A sight for adding "Pings" to your blog is called Weblogs.com. I signed up there to start adding "Pings" each time I add changes/articles to my sight, hoping it will drive traffic in my direction. Here is what they say about their sight...

"Weblogs.com, a VeriSign service, is a ping server that automatically notifies subscribers when new content is posted to a website or blog.

Weblogs.com is the original ping service and receives millions of pings every day from blogs that configure their publishing software to notify Weblogs.com the moment content is published.

The VeriSign-operated Weblogs.com ping server will continue to operate as an openly available service. This benefits the entire blogosphere because:
...Blog publishers can immediately notify the community when new posts are available
...Anyone can openly monitor the updated posts, enabling a wide range of intelligent blog monitoring tools and applications. "

That is the "dish" from them. I'll let you know how this experiment goes.

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."

Thus far, networking is the best tool for bringing traffic to my blog sites. I additionally tried Ping-o-matic this evening. Since I've only recently started utilizing tools for "Pinging" my blogs, I'll update you on the increase of traffice flow once I have accumulated enough data.

I continue to experiment with the different tools available to build and sustain great blogs and I will continue to give you the feedback from my experiences during these experiments, hoping that they help you have great success.

Happy Blogging!

Sunday Post

2007-12-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

On Sundays, please refer to my posts on

http://issuesoncall.blogspot.com

Thank you.

The Daily Update..."Where's the Fire?"

2007-12-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

I did my daily work on the networking sites and on research regarding marketing and such today. Here are some of my results.

On Technorati, their version of "hot topics" called "Where's the Fire?" has been down for well over a month. This makes the sight less attractive because there are virtually no new topics to vote on or ability to submit hot topics. Therefore, the only functions, as far as I can evaluate, are that of owning a profile, listing your blogs (having them "pinged" each time you post), and adding favorites. Posts from your favorites will flow through your home page and you can see news on the home page of Technorati. As far as favorites, thus far, I don't see that mine are networking on Technorati, due to lack of reciprocal response. I may not really know all of the ins and outs of this site exactly, however, I hope that the functionality of this site becomes more beneficial soon.

I started working in StumbleUpon today. Again, each site takes some getting used to and navigating. I haven't really figured out this one completely, or finished setting up my profile, however I did find an interesting post ( I haven't figured out how to post yet though). This post showed an interesting link

http://labs.google.com/

"Labs.google.com, Google's technology playground. Google labs showcases a few of our favorite ideas that aren't quite ready for prime time. Your feedback can help us improve them. Please play with these prototypes and send your comments directly to the Googlers who developed them."

It looks like a pretty cool link with items like...

...a whole section of great usable stuff that has "graduated from the lab"
...Google Mars (maps of Mars)
...Google Page Creator (Web Page Creator)
...Google Music Trends
...and more

Sounds like a fun playground! Have fun with that!

Until next time, happy blogging.

Blogging...Four Great Resources.

2007-11-30T21:16:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting recent technology/industry news developments that effect our blogosphere.

engadget (yes, spelled in all lower-case letters) is a site you should keep your attention on for latest developments.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/30/official-googles-quest-for-700mhz-is-so-on/
Today's development, titled "Official: Google's quest for 700MHz is so on" is particularly interesting because it shows that no matter who wins this auction, "American consumers...likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet."
Check out the article. The comments on Digg are also insightful, however, let me warn you that there are some with impolite language issues (I don't know why their vocabulary has to be so narrow).
http://digg.com/gadgets/Official_Google_s_quest_for_700MHz_is_so_on

TechCrunch is a site that is amazing with new web/technology development announcements. Keep your eye on them as well.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/30/google-trialling-openid-with-blogger-may-offer-openids-to-users/
Today's development, titled "Google Testing OpenID With Blogger, May Offer Open IDs To Users" shows that if you are already with Blogger, you may be receiving more benefits soon, from better traffic, advertising, etc. (if I understand it correctly...I am still learning the technical terminology.
Check out the article and comments, as well as the comments on Digg. This helps to round out the material based on different usage perspectives.
http://digg.com/tech_news/Google_Testing_OpenID_With_Blogger_May_Offer_OpenIDs_To_Users

SIGMA Infotech, has a great article of interest.
http://www.sigmainfotech.com.au/articles/change-web-design.html
This interesting article is titled "Things to consider before you change your web design". Their main points are, 1) consider the impact of a new web design, 2) employ a competent website designer, 3) don't change the website URL's, 4) consider the advantages of database driven systems. They expand on all of these topics with interesting detail and all of these topics can be applied to blogging as well. For Digg comments please refer to the following link.
http://digg.com/design/Things_to_consider_before_you_change_your_web_design

HRWorld, posted another great article regarding Web Workers.
http://www.hrworld.com/features/100-toolboxes-for-web-workers-112907/
This article titled "The Toolbox Toolbox: 100-Plus In-Depth Resource Collections for Web Workers" represents a list of great tools that I plan on researching for use with my blogging. Some readers don't like lists, however, this one is chalk-full of great resources to enhance your productivity. Check out the article. You can check out the comments on Digg as well, however, again let me warn you of not-so-polite use of language on the comments (unless the submitter has buried the inconsiderate comments)
http://digg.com/software/100_In_Depth_Resource_Collections_for_Web_Workers

These are my helps for today. I hope they are of service to you. I'd love appropriate comments with appropriate language content.

Thanks for your readership.

Money Left In The Blogosphere?

2007-11-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

I've just added Feedburner to my site. I will let you know in future posts how this works for my blog. Here is their link.

http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/home

As you can see from the changes on my sites, it has added a "subscribe" feature for email subscriptions for each post, as well as widgets to add me to other items. Right now, I am just toying around with them to see what looks good on my site and see what works.

One thing about feedburner that attracts me is that they can keep track of my traffic flow and analyze it for me, all for free.

Again, I will let you know how this addition turns out functioning for my blog.

On the topic of the success of blogging and traffic, here is a link to an article that I found fascinating.

There's No Money In The Long Tail of the Blogosphere
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/blogosphere_long_tail.php

I choose to argue with the article in that, if someone is consistent, which is the downfall of many in the industry, they can have success.

Of course, consistency includes researching regularly, writing regularly, networking regularly and tweaking your template/site and advertising regularly, all of which are very time consuming.

A great system is to look at a site, i.e., TechCrunch, and model your site after theirs. Watch how they advertise, how often they post, etc. See how this works for you.

Until tomorrow...happy blogging!

Blog Networking Tools

2007-11-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

When attempting to network your blog to the public for consumption and to attract advertisers, good networking sites are a must have.

Thus far, here are my test results. Of course, my testing is still on-going with other sites and I will give that information once the testing is of enough value to share with those searching for success in blogging.

Digg
http://digg.com/
Digg is possibly the best sight out there for serious networking if you intend your blog for public consumption. Your networking time will need to be reciprocal with your built-up "Friend" network so that they, in turn, will also have success with their blogs. This is all part of positive networking and making and keeping great relationships with your networking contacts. There is serious time involvement in this venture, however, it does pay off and there are fantastic people on Digg who will support your blog and give you great feedback. So far, this is the most user-friendly sight that I have been involved in, and therefore it has held most of my attention.
Once you read this article, if you would be kind enough to go to Digg and digg the article, that would be of great service to me and my experience. Thanks for that.

Technorati
http://technorati.com/
I am still getting to know this site and the usability of it. I understand from my research that it is important to involve your blog on this site if you would like it to become successful. However, it is much different than Digg and I may have to update you on the outcome of my venture there. I have both of my blogs listed there and have moved up on their rankings scale, which is great. However, I have had trouble with their posting area for articles and such. Still, once you read this article, if you could please click on my favorites button located on my blog for Technorati, I know that that will eventually benefit me. Thanks for that.

Researching these sites and using trial and error is the only way that I figure there can be success in this venture. This, along with reading blogs from others' experiences doing much the same thing.

I hope that this information (although short) helps you in your quest to network your blog and I appreciate any comments and/or suggestions that you may have regarding to topics I discuss on this site or regarding the presentation/appearance of my blog. Thanks for that.

Have a fabulous evening.

Blogs...Great Articles, Interesting Tools

2007-11-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been trying a variety of tools and networking sites for developing my two blogs...

http://issuesoncall.blogspot.com/
http://maxyourping.blogspot.com/

...and have results regarding a couple that I should share and in return I ask for your feedback regarding your results on these tools and networking site options, along with suggestions.

I mention four below.

Blogger
http://blogger.com/
...a great tool with great templates and ease of use. With this site, you are able to develop your blog with great ease and FREE OF CHARGE, including the fact that you don't have use another domain to host your blog. This is a great opportunity for getting a feel for the blogging market, and I am testing the limits of how long and how far Blogger will work for me and my needs. I love Blogger!

MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/
I tried to use this tool to start blogging about the content currently on this site (http//maxyourping.blogspot.com). However, I've learned that MySpace is not so much about blogging and much more about social networking. This is not a site I would use to post a serious blog with serious articles. I would not recommend using this site for networking unless for social (singles type social) reasons only.

Adsense
http://www.adsense.com/
...another great tool, especially when used along with Blogger. Options with this tool are such that there are multiple types of ad links, sizes, options. I am still playing around with the types of ads, sizes, appearance. So far, the tool is very user friendly.

AdsDaq
http://www.adsdaq.com/
With this tool the user is supposed to make more money than with Adsense. The HTML from Adsense is supposed to be used as back-up, in the case the AdsDaq ads are not available and you replace the Adsense HTML on your weblog with the AdsDaq HTML. As far as compatibility, the ads are supposed to be compatible with Blogger/Adsense. However, I tried this over the past few days and the AdsDaq system messed up my Adsense ads. Additionally, when I checked back with AdsDaq, a message stated that Blogger would not accept the code/ads. This leads me to believe that they were not so compatible. In addition to that, this set back my earnings on Adsense due to the overlay code, diverting my clicks to AdsDaq. If someone else has had a better experience, I'd love to hear about it.

Here are some articles that I highly recommend regarding today's topics (yes, I dugg them on Digg).

Sponsors and Advertising, by Problogger.net
http://www.problogger.net/archives/2007/08/27/find-a-sponsor-for-your-blog/

30 Must Read Articles To Help Kick Start Your Blog, Attract More Readers, And Stay Motivated, by mytropicalescape.com
http://www.mytropicalescape.com/2007/11/14/30-must-read-articles-to-help-kick-start-your-blog-attract-more-readers-and-stay-motivated/

You may find that things work for you that don't seem to work for me. I'd love you to share your experiences with me in my comments.

Have a great day! Happy Blogging!
Technorati Profile

Introduction, Tools For Blogging

2007-11-26T17:21:00.000-07:00

The following was a post I wrote on my blog at...

http://issuesoncall.blogspot.com/

I decided to start this site with it, giving a glimpse into why I decided to dedicate a blog to this type of information.

When starting a venture into weblogging, many bloggers wish to share their weblogs with the Internet Universe.

How do you get your blog past your immediate friends and family members?

Of course, Digg is a great site for networking. However, the following are other sites that have given me a plethora of additional information to add to my networking collection.First, here is a site with a ranking list of networking locations for your weblogs.

Blog Network Lists

http://www.blognetworklist.com/topnetworklist.php

Second, here are some more networking opportunities to maximize your blog coverage.

Technorati http://www.technorati.com/

Yahoo Publisher (Beta) http://publisher.yahoo.com/

Alexa http://www.alexa.com/

http://www.alexa.com/browse/general/?&CategoryID=1422529

Google http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=data+network&ie=utf-8

MSN Spaces http://home.services.spaces.live.com/

In addition to the sites listed above, articles from the following locations deal with maximizing weblog coverage and monetizing your blog.

If your like me, you really feel like your writing is an output of your reading (or other hobby or trade) and you're learning the weblog technology as an creative outlet.

The monetizing will be "icing-on-the-cake", so to speak.

My real goal, is to consistently improve my writing skills and to create a network of others with the same interests to gather writing material from and to present my writing material to. (This, in addition to my competitive nature of watching the numbers increase of those reading my materials on my site and constantly trying to maximize that number:)

Here are the articles of interest for maximizing your weblog.

I placed them on Digg when I first published this post. I hope they help someone who may have some of the same questions and/or curiosities as I have had.

Creating a New Blog Network - Hiring Bloggers
http://www.sohaibthiab.com/index.php/archives/129
Blogging Done Right
http://www.paolomendoza.com/2007/11/blogging-done-right.html
http://blog.icalvyn.com/freedomain
Many Titles from this location...
http://www.problogger.net/

Obviously, there is much information out there, and there are many different styles for each blogger.

The lessons I am learning are many, including some of these simple ones...

...pay attention to the quality and content of your writing
...pay attention to the comments from readers, as it is a signal of your writing content and quality needing improvement or change
...pay attention to your ads and their content, daily, along with the traffic they are bringing to see when you may need to adjust them to bring in more revenue
...pay attention to the traffic flow to your weblog and use daily time to network your site
...pay attention that you balance your investment in time that it does not take your passion away from your writing and/or from the topic(s) you wish to share.

I thank all of those who have been so brilliant in creating the technology so that I can meet a network of great and generous minds on a global scale.

Without the work of the technologically savvy, I would not be able to get to know such great people as I am now able to interact with.

Thank you for reading my articles and for being a part of this journey. I hope that this information is helping you as much as it is helping me.

Have a great evening!

Max Your Ping

Counting

Empowerment With Technology

What is in a terabyte?

PayPal Button.

Top Technorati Searches in the Political Arena. Today.

Generating and Querying Semantic Metadata and Ontologies. Video Tutorial.

ECommerce Home Shopping - 6 Business Web Design SEO Tips

Top Search on Technorati Today

Network Solutions Sr VP; Beginner Tips for SEO, YouTube Video

Today's Top Technorati Search Words, Economy

Ping (blogging), Wikipedia Definition

Have you pinged today?

SEO Tools and Optimization Techniques

IOTAWeb.org, A Great Keyword Resource!

Adsense Keywords - Keyword Tool

Adsense Keywords...More Information...

Mortgage Sector Keywords

Adsense Keywords. Maximize your income.

New Website In Development

Out Buying Rice

Analytics of Your Blog

"Blogsessive"

Pinging Includes Submitting Your URL

Office or No Office. No Question!

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

Just Digg It!

More Blog Traffic Wanted!

Star Wars - Boba Fett First Introduced (1978 Animated Holiday Special)

Movie Maker .MOV Conversion Solution

Blog Insurance = Monetary Gain With Adsense Keywords

A "Windows Movie Maker" Experience

Meta Data

Social Network Aggregators...Consolidation For Sanity!

Sunday Post

Today? Just Humor.

Submit To The Open Directory Project

Being Sick Can Be Funny!

Ping Juiced By Networking

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

Register Your Site. Get More Out of Your Ping

A Joke of a Sponsorship Site

Holiday Break Ciaos

"Digital Review Blog" Site...Great Find!

Google Analytics

Sunday Post, December 23, 2007

For Serious Articles Only...

New Stuff, New Tweaks

A Bit of Humor for the Day...

Sunday Post, December 16, 2007

Favorite Articles, Follow-up Regarding Affiliates

Friday's Post

Affiliate Directories & Interesting Articles

Wednesday's Post

New Social Media Submitter Tool, YouTube Partner Program

Optimize Your Ping Time

Sunday Post, December 9, 2007

Opportunity Knocks

Feedburner Tweak Test

Manage Your Networking Time For Your Blog

Productivity, Analyzing, Editing...

Networking Sites, Ping Sites, What is a "Ping"?

Sunday Post

The Daily Update..."Where's the Fire?"

Blogging...Four Great Resources.

Money Left In The Blogosphere?

Blog Networking Tools

Blogs...Great Articles, Interesting Tools

Introduction, Tools For Blogging