Tips to Choose a Good Domain Name
Jan 11th
When we need an appropriate and representative domain name to develop a “brand” of our business, we should consider many things. Mistake on choosing domain name can affect the less effective marketing efforts that we develop. Domain name must be accordance with the theme or the content of the website. Besides, the name should be available and really not be used by others. We can read it in ‘finding a domain name for your client’ article.
If it could be not an easy thing to do, then, how to find a good domain name? There are some tips that I will share below.
1) Choose a domain name that represents your business
If your business revolves around buying and selling clothes, try to select a domain name that has an element of the clothes in it. Do not buy a domain with a name that had nothing relevant, even contradictory. For example, if you sell clothes, you can choose clothesshop.com, and do not choose computershop.com
2) Prefer to select a domain with (dot)com extension
Why? (dot)com extension is more general and familiar to people than other extension, such as: (dot)net, (dot)biz or (dot)edu. Because of that, people will remember it easier when they typing in the browser.
3) Choose a domain name that easy to remember
Many web users who today still rely on their memory to open a site that once they open (and they like) before. freesoftware.com, than freegenuinesoftware.com.
4) Choose a short name of domain
In many instances, get shorter domain name, it’s better for your business. bookstore.com is much better than staceyonlinebookstore.com. Short domain is easier to remember and more elegant than a long domain name, even it much details.
5) Avoid domain names that use numbers
Do not choose a domain name that writing ambiguous, or can be written in many versions. For example: 123.com. If we don’t know yet, we may have multi interpreted about it. It could be: 123.com, or onetwothree.com, or maybe one2three.com. Confusing, isn’t it?
6) Avoid clashes with copyright or trade mark issues
Try not to use the domain names of existing copyrights, famous brand or having trade marks. If we are not a person who has access to wear brand “Honda”, then do not ever make a domain with the name “honda-shop.com” or “genuine-honda.com“. We never know when brand holders offended by your domain name, and complaint to court over issues such copyright infringement.
7) For personal branding, use our name
We can already use our own name or your company name as domain name to develop. For example: jacksparrow.com, breadtalk.com (for branded business). Do not use the name of goods, or another person’s name.
Finally, use the “top” or “best” or the like for the website review
If you buy a domain that is used for affiliate marketing with the type of review, it is a good idea to use the word “best” or “top” in your domain name. For example: for web hosting review domain name, use the name: besthosting.com or tophosting.com. It could explained, that most people find the best web hosting on search engines like Google with keywords “best web hosting” or “top-hosting” or something like that. With a domain name similar to the desired keyword, your site’s potential to be on the home page search engines will be even greater.
I hope it will be useful for who will buy a domain name for the first time, considering points on the next domain purchase, or maybe who will make a domain name to their client.
Difference between High Definition and Normal tv transmision?
Jan 11th
Normal” TV can mean a number of things. Analog TV is what we’ve all been watching since about 1947. Standard Definition digital TV (SD) is 480i — 480 lines of vertical resolution interlaced. Interlaced means that each frame only transmits every other line.
High Definition (HD) digital TV is anything more than 480i. SD DVD is 480p — 480 lines of vertical resolution, progressive scan. Progressive scan means that each frame contains all 480 lines. This takes twice as much data as 480i.
Most HD TV is now 720p. This has 720 lines of vertical resolution and every frame contains all 720 lines. Fairly common is 1080i which requires the same data rate as 720p (think about it). The highest resolution HD now available is 1080p.
HDTV Digital Sound
Jan 11th
Another great feature is that HDTV is able to receive and reproduce 5.1 independent channels of digital sound. This format is generally termed Dolby AC-3 and reproduces CD quality digital sound. 5.1 means that you can hook up 5 separate speakers, plus one subwoofer. The 5 speakers hooked up are usually part of a home theater surround sound system and consist of 2 front channel speakers, one center channel speaker and 2 rear or sometimes referred to as surround sound speakers.
It is important to note that HDTV requires either a built in HDTV receiver or a stand alone receiver to watch HDTV programming. Just having a High Definition television set will not allow you to receive HDTV broadcast and view them on your HDTV set. You must also have an HDTV receiver.
HDTV Resolutions
Jan 11th
High definition television (HDTV) is the highest form of digital television. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is similar in appearance to a movie theater screen. HDTV has a couple of advantages over the old analog TV format, The wide screen and the resolution.
The wide screen is good on our eyes. We see the rectangular wide screen images better than the old square format. Basically, our eyes see better from left/right compared to up/down. The wide screen will also let us see more of the on-screen scene, which is great for sports and movies.
Resolution is undoubtedly HDTVs biggest selling point. HDTV’s resolutions are 720p, 1080i and 1080p — the number stands for the number of lines that create the image and the letter describes the type of scan used by the TV to display the picture.
Resolution matters because the more lines means a better picture. This is a similar concept to digital photos and how dpi determines print quality.
Which HDTV Format Is Better — 720p, 1080i, and 1080p?
To put the 720 or 1080 lines into perspective, televisions of the past had 480 lines. Since more lines means a better picture then that alone shows why the HDTV has a nicer picture than an analog TV.
More lines is nice but don’t forget about the ‘p’ and ‘i’ in the 720p, 1080i and 1080p. The letter is an abbreviation for the type of scan the TV uses — ‘p’ stands for progressive and ‘i’ stands for interlaced.
Progressive scan is better than interlaced because it processes the images twice as fast. This faster scan rate produces better clarity and color in the on-screen picture.
The difference between 720p and 1080i is minimal but the TV industry is using 720p more than 1080i. So, buying a 720p HDTV is recommended over a 1080i HDTV.
As far as 1080p, there is no doubt that 1080p is the best resolution on the market. However, there is little to no difference in picture quality between a 1080p and 720p at the 32″ and below screen size.
Google Nexus One
Jan 11th
Nexus One: The Big Picture
The phone looks more like the iPhone than any other phone on the market. There is no physical keyboard like the Android-powered Motorola Droid, and the tradeoff is a much slimmer design. The phone is 11.5 mm deep, slightly thinner than the iPhone 3GS at 12.3 mm. It is also slightly lighter than the iPhone 130 grams v. 135 grams). The package comes with the phone, a removable battery, 4 GB Micro SD storage card (expandable to 32 GB), USB charger and microphone headset.
The Nexus one has four functional touch buttons at the bottom of the screen (back, menu, home, search) and a navigation trackball pointing device. It also has physical power and volume controls. But most of your interaction with the phone will be through the gorgeous 3.7 inch 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touchscreen. This is the best mobile phone display on the market today, blowing away the iPhone’s 480 x 320 display. The screen is bright and alive, and an absolute pleasure to use.
This phone is also powered by the Snapdragon 1 GHz core processor, which is more than able to handle the Nexus One’s 3D graphics, multiple applications running in the background and heavy browser use simultaneously. Unlike previous Android phones, there is no slowdown or lag when you push the phone’s performance, and less of a need to kill applications to keep the device humming.
On the downside: all this hardware bling is an energy hog. The screen will self adjust brightness and Google is smart about turning down the processor when it’s not being used. But I’ve found battery life to be woefully brief, even by iPhone standards. Officially the phone has up to 7 hours talk time, 250 hours standby, 5 hours of 3G Internet use, 7 hours of video playback and 20 hours of audio playback. Unofficially, I was able to kill the fully charged battery with 1.5 hours of continuous gameplay (Robo Defense) on the full-brightness screen. Be prepared to keep this phone near a charger at all times. You can easily view what’s using the battery, though (the screen is 71% of my current usage), and then adjust the hardware or software usage to maximize battery life.
Overall the Android is a superior mobile device, particularly when paired with Google Voice. Google is calling this the first of the Super Phones. And they may not be exaggerating all that much.
Price And Availability
The Nexus One is available “in large quantities” starting today at Google.com/phone. An unlocked GSM version of the phone that will work in most countries is $529.
Google is also offering a subsidized version of the phone – also unlocked – through T-Mobile for $179. The service plan offered by Google is 500 minutes/unlimited SMS/unlimited data for $80/month. T-Mobile’s termination fee is $200, and some users might be tempted to buy the T-Mobile version and terminate immediately, paying just $379 for the unlocked phone. Google says that users terminating too soon will be charged the full price of the phone, however. But even the T-Mobile version of the phone can be used overseas on trips by slipping in a different SIM.
Google will ship the unlocked version of the phone to customers in the U.S., U.K., Hong Kong and Singapore. In the Spring they say they’ll add a CDMA version of the phone through Verizon, and set up a European store with a carrier plan via Vodafone.
U.S. users can also use the unlocked phone with AT&T, although the phone’s radio isn’t able to use AT&T’s 3G network.
Notable Software Features
The Nexus One, which runs the new Android 2.1, has a number of notable software features that make the phone a pleasure to use.
First, Google Voice is deeply integrated with the phone, as it is with all Android phones. That means you can assign your Google Voice number to the phone, and use it to make all outbound calls and text messages. In my opinion this is the single biggest selling point for Android phones, and why I won’t switch away from the platform any time soon.
Google’s Voice Keyboard is amazing. It goes way beyond the Voice Search application that was launched in 2009. Every text field in the device is now voice enabled. In most apps you can choose the microphone button and talk into the phone, which then converts your speech to text. I’ve found it to be around 90% accurate with no background noise (dropping to around 70% accuracy in a moving car). It’s easy to then go in and edit out errors. It’s a massive time-saving feature of the phone.
The Live Wallpaper feature is pure eye candy, and fun. You can choose a variety of wallpaper settings like Grass (blades of grass wave gently in front of a day or night sky), Magic Smoke (my favorite, draws smoke, clouds, water and plasmas in eye popping colors), Water (touch it and it ripples), and a Polar Clock (presents the date and time as clockwise arcs).
The new clock application, which runs automatically in the charger doc, shows the time, local weather and has easy access buttons to the alarm, pictures and music. Keep a charger next to your bed and toss out that alarm clock.
Google will also offer a Settings Backup service that backs up profile, application, ringtone and other settings to the cloud. Setting up a new Android phone after using the backup service is a breeze. Even without it I was able to set up the phone in about ten minutes with my Google contact, calendar, email and important applications.
Finally, Google has added a lot of nice graphical touches, including 3D scrolling of apps, and a new way of viewing photos using the CoolIris technology. Photos dip into the plane as it there is depth. Tipping the phone trips the accelerometer and the photos dip in the same way.
Notable Hardware Features
The most obvious hardware feature of the phone is the 480 x 800 OLED capacitive touch screen. Combined with the Snapdragon chipset the phone is a real workhorse. But Google has also included other more-than-nice touches.
The noise cancellation feature is particularly useful. The device has a second microphone on the back that monitors inbound noise and automatically cancels it out (anyone who’s used Bose noise cancellation headphones on a long flight will appreciate this). It does a great job of canceling out machinery and wind noise on the other end of the call. In my testing, call recipients noticed a substantial increase in call quality on this phone v. either the Droid of the iPhone. Look for other phones to quickly add this feature, it’s a must have.
On the downside, the phone’s primary microphone is located on the bottom of the device, to the left. I noticed that on calls, when I cradle the phone between my neck and shoulder without using my hand, my voice is often muted and can’t be heard. This is a design error that should be changed in future versions.
The phone’s camera really shines. It has a large footprint on the back of the device, larger than on most phones. It’s a 5 megapixel camera with a flash, but that description doesn’t do it justice. The macro and low light features are top notch for a mobile phone. I took the picture to the right in low light with no flash in our conference room at TechCrunch HQ.
The phone has two available docks. Both charge the device via frictionless touch points. The normal charger turns on the phone’s clock feature, as described above. The car charger turns on Google Navigation, a killer Android application that turns the phone into a connected navigation device.
Google, Purveyor Of The Nexus One Smartphone
The Nexus One is an important milestone in the smartphone market. This is a software company, frustrated with making compromises with hardware manufacturers, that has taken the product bull by the horns. HTC makes the phone, but the branding is mostly Google and it’s clear that they directed every aspect of the development of this phone. It’s Google’s vision of the perfect Android device, from the huge and beautiful screen and massively fast Snapdragon processor to the software elegance of Google Navigation, Live Wallpaper and the Voice Keyboard. When combined with Google Voice there is no phone on the market today that can touch the Nexus One.
Unlike previous Android phones, and I’ve used most of them, the Nexus One has no obvious flaws or compromises. The phone is the state of the art in mobile, and I will use it happily. Until, as I always say, something better comes along.
URL Shortening Services are Holding You Hostage – Fight Back!
Jan 11th
One of the most useful tools to come along in recent years for online marketers is URL shorteners.
There are sites where you can paste a long, ugly URL into a form, and the site will give you a much shorter URL to use in your emails, newsletters and promotions.
There are also scripts that you can install on your server, that allow you to generate shortened URLs, which is what I prefer, due to the great control it gives you.
In case you are not using the tiny urls, you’re probably losing a lot of sales and traffic. The benefits of using shortened URLs typically include:
• They allow you to conserve space when posting to micro-blogging platforms such as Twitter, where each of your posts is limited to a mere 140 characters.
• They look more professional than long, unwieldy affiliate URLs (especially if they have your domain name in them). Longer URLs can wrap to two lines in your emails, forcing many readers to copy and paste the pieces of the link before they can visit a recommended page. Many won’t jump though that hoop!
• They allow you to log into a control panel and change where a particular link sends traffic without you having to track down all of the places where you have placed that link and manually swapping them out. This comes in handy if you are promoting a particular product, and due to whatever reason, you decide to promote a different product in the same category.
There are also times when affiliate programs change the software that power things, forcing you to change your affiliate links for a given product. If you use the right URL shortener, you would merely need to log in to your control panel, click an edit button, change the destination link, and all of your links scattered across cyberspace now STILL point to where you want them to.
This is essential for ebooks, because once an ebook is in your customers’ hands you can’t update those links in most cases. Only ebooks that connect to the Internet each time that they are read (which most of MY customers don’t like) allow you to change links inside the ebook after it’s distributed.
There are literally dozens of third-party link shortening services. I’ve used several of them and they work great except that they control YOUR links. If they get any complaints, or simply decide to change their business model, they could kill off all your links instantly.
Premium, third-party URL shortening services also hold you hostage. They charge you a monthly fee for extras, or for the ability to have more than a handful of URLs on their platform. Some charge you extra if you generate more than a few thousand clicks – they penalize you for being successful.
If you stop paying for these premium services, they often shut off all of your links INSTANTLY. Once you have all those links floating around cyberspace (in ebooks, articles, ads, press releases, ezine editorials, etc.) you don’t want to just kill them off, so you’re STUCK often paying hefty fees, month after month.
I recently looked at one service that had the audacity to charge $97 per month to allow you to “white label” their third-party service, and use your domain name with their service. Using your domain name within shortened links is a great idea because it brands you and your domain. If properly configured, it also passes along “link love” from the search engines, and helps you to rank higher for your keywords.
However, paying a monthly fee is unnecessary, and therefore wasteful. Instead invest that money in another area of growing your business.
Here’s the better solution that I use…
I’ve installed an inexpensive link shortening script, that works just like those third-party hosted shorteners, on my OWN server. I paid less than $40 for this script AND I own it and can use it forever, on as many of my own domains as I want to (in-accordance-with the terms of their license).
Think about it. If you’re using one of those services that cost just $30 per month, you’ll save $360 per year using the solution that I use. You’ll save $1164 per year compared to that company charging $97 per month!
Heck, I could even offer MY OWN URL shortening service to my customers if I wanted to, using this same under $40 script. I don’t because spammers love these services, and would harm my brand and the reputation of my domain name.
That’s another reason why you don’t want to use a third party hosted URL shortening service. Many ISP’s get so many complaints about emails containing URLs from some of these services, that they filter against emails containing some of their domain names. It does no good to build a list of 50,000 if only 20% of your email gets through because of a poor decision that you made. You’re missing 80% of potential sales.
If you are the only one sending out from the domain name that your URL shortening script resides on, and you market ethically, you should not have this problem of being blocked by spam filters.
I’ve just shared with you some things that most marketers using URL shortening services don’t really give much thought. Now that you understand these things, you can set up links that will work for you long-term, brand you and your domains, cost you very little, and provide all of the benefits that led many marketers to use those third-party hosted solutions in the first place. The big difference will be that you’ll be in charge of your links instead of being a hostage to those third party URL shortening services.
10 Amazing Ways to Find Your Dream Job
Jan 10th
Start living a worry-free life again.
The North American job market has experienced a net loss of its high-paying industrial jobs due to a combination of outsourcing, bankruptcies and illegal employment practices employed by many North American corporations and businesses. These business practices appear at least for now to continue for many more years to come with no end in sight. This is very bad news for the hardworking people that depend on these jobs that are being dissolved at record-breaking paces, so that the rich shareholders and executives can only get richer no matter whom they have to hurt along the way.
While the high-paying industrial and manufacturing job market seems to be disappearing right before our very eyes, there is a ray of hope still left to land that dream job that you have always desired. The only thing, it’s not going to be easy and a matter-of-fact, it’s going to require some legwork on the jobseeker’s part to locate the job, apply for the job and finally to get the job. Sadly, finding a good paying job in a country where quality jobs are disappearing and being replaced with sub-par service market jobs that usually only pay above minimum wage and offer little to no health benefits requires the jobseeker to rethink their employment searching tactics. Hopefully this article will help regenerate a new found hope of landing your dream job and if not, then possibility landing a good job that will keep you from calling a cardboard box “Home”.
Internet Employment Agencies
There are literally hundreds of thousands of new jobs being posted on the Internet by businesses everyday that are seeking quality employees to fill both low-wage jobs and high-wage or salaried jobs within their companies. While there are thousands of job employment websites popping up all over the Internet is really is a waste of valuable time trying to find and use them all. Most companies and corporations in North America rely on the most highly visible and visited job search engines such as: Hotjobs, Monster, Careerbuilder and Craigslist to find quality applicants to solve their employment needs.
Local Newspapers
For decades, the local newspapers have been a useful vehicle for local companies to use to solve their employment needs. Newspapers are still an important and somewhat successful way for companies to find quality employment applicants in the Internet-age, however jobseekers are not buying as many newspapers to locate employment much anymore and this is causing employers to find new ways to solve their employment problems. Still jobseekers should continue to use their local newspapers to locate their dream job, because some companies still only rely on newspapers to fill new employment opportunities that are available in their companies.
State Unemployment Agencies
In the United States there are governmental state unemployment agencies that are provided to aid each state’s unemployed populations from issuing food stamp benefits, unemployment checks and to aid in the re-employment of their unemployed workforce. These state agencies maintain an up-to-date list of local companies and out-of-state companies seeking to fill new employment opportunities that are available within their companies.
It is not uncommon for many large, well-known corporations to solely use these state agencies to seek out quality qualified job applicants through these state operated programs. Even through many such companies are not listed in the standard public job listings that is generally provided by these state agencies doesn’t mean that these types of companies and corporations are not currently hiring at any given time. Many times the state agencies will only share this type of information with jobseekers who inquire about these job opportunities by directly asking the state employed agents about the opportunities. So, it is important to ask and you may discover an employment opportunity that pays well and that you are qualified to do.
Internet Employment Opportunities
There are hundreds if not thousands of Internet based companies on the web and around the world that use only their websites to advertise internal employment opportunities within their companies. Not all of these employment opportunities are technical jobs, but many of these opportunities are geared towards the technically skilled applicant since they are in many cases solely Internet companies. However, some of the employment opportunities are marketing, customer service and data-entry positions that many jobseekers are qualified to do and these employment opportunities can be located and applied for through the company’s website.
Internet Social Networking
Social networks such as Myspace and Facebook have become excellent places on the Internet to look for new employment opportunities, because companies understand and realize that there is potentially thousands of jobseekers that are members of these social networking meeting destinations. It makes good business sense to employ these social networks to advertise the company’s employment needs and potentially find the quality job applicants that the company desires to employ, so to resolve the company’s employment void.
A Friend of A Friend Networking
One of the tried and true methods of finding employment is to network through friends and family, because many times some of the best employment opportunities are found through the people that the jobseeker already knows on a personal level. Some companies even prefer to hire a person based solely on whom they know and on the information that their friends and family tells the employer about the jobseeker. Usually this is the case if the company that the jobseeker is currently seeking to be employed by already employs the friend or family member.
Search The Obituaries
Located in most of the major metropolitan newspapers there is a section that is used to make announcements of local deaths in the area. Now this job seeking tactic maybe regarded by some people as morbid, but if a working aged person dies, then the company that the individual had been employed by, will be left in the position to fill a newly available employment position left empty by the deceased. Many obituaries announcements will give the name, age and family members who are left behind by the deceased and where the deceased had been employed prior to their death. This is the information that the jobseeker needs to have to be able to locate the employer and apply for the recent job opening, just try to avoid mentioning the deceased during the application and interviewing process.
Place Your Own Help Wanted Ad
An excellent employment seeking tactic is to place your own help wanted ad in your local newspaper, Internet classifies message boards, blog and/or website. Making a public announcement to your community regarding what type of employment you are seeking can potentially attract the attention of employers seeking the skill set that the jobseeker has to offer to their company.
Telemarketing Your Job Search
It is a cold hard fact, that about 70% of all employment opportunities are never publicly announced or advertised and most of these jobs are either left unfilled or filled by jobseekers that are known by someone already working for the company. One of the most productive methods (albeit time-consuming) is to call local businesses using the yellow pages or blue pages phonebook to identify the businesses that have employment opportunities currently available. After these businesses are identified, then the jobseeker can email, fax or mail their job resume’ to those employers that are hiring.
Distribute Personalized Business Cards
Have a couple of hundred personalized business cards printed with your name, phone number and/or email address and a short message saying something like “I am a hairstylist and I am available to work for your company – call me” or “I am looking for employment in the education field – Call me if you are hiring”. Pass out these business cards to anyone that your believe may be in the position to help you land a job or put you in contact with someone who is looking to hire someone like you. Potentially, everyone that a person comes in contact with on given day could be the one who either knows someone that might hire you and they may be in a position to hire you themselves, so it is very important to try not to judge someone if they are not dressed well or doesn’t appear to be anyone important, because even those important people do dress down every once in a while.
(Originallly written by Nelson Doyle)
Media Sources
Jan 10th
Media
When there’s a breaking story or you want an expert opinion on a subject, a good first place to hit are the media sources in that industry. The SEO industry is no different and there are some impressive albeit often unconventional media sources. Some of my favorites are:
Webmaster Radio
Webmaster Radio is an Internet-based radio station with some great programing ranging from affiliate marketing to PPC to organic optimization and much more. With shows hosted by experts in their fields from Danny Sullivan (Search News) to Dave Szetela (PPC) you’ll find solid information that is well-rounded. I’d list my favorite shows but what I like may be different than you and what I need to know may be different than what you need to know, so look through their programming and either listen through your work day as I often do or download the podcasts for later listening.
WebProNews
WebProNews offers up-to-the-minute information on virtually every event. They have reporters writing constantly and have other scoring SEO blogs and other news sources, compiling the information in one place for easy access. They also have great articles by third-party writers and a very active readership that is proactive in their commenting. Definitely near the top of my go-to list when I’m looking for news and current feedback.
Addme
This site is difficult to classify as it fits into a couple categories but I decided to include it under media as that’s my primary use. They include tools, resources, a directory and much more on their site. My primary use of this site is for the articles and newsletter.
Search Engine Watch
No list of SEO resources would be complete without including Search Engine Watch. This site is the one that started it all. Search Engine Watch provides everything from fantastic articles and breaking news to search engine stats and an awesome forum. A definite bookmark.
Blogs
As with many industries – blogs are a great way to keep informed on the latest goings-on in the SEO realm. The trick, however, is figuring out which blogs are worth reading and which authors are truly knowledgeable. Over the years I’ve read many blogs and to be honest – I still do. Below are some of the key blogs I reference on a regular basis.
SEO Book Blog
Aaron Wall over at SEO Book has an excellent blog worth reading on a regular basis. I have yet to visit his blog and not find some tid-bit of information that was worth reading either because of the information itself or because often he’s just entertaining. Another to add to your weekly reading list.
Matt Cutts Blog
It’s nice to get it from the horse’s mouth. For those who don’t know – Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Webspam team. He blogs about Google, technology and occasionally his cat. One has to read what he writes knowing that he’s a Google employee and as such can’t really give away the farm, BUT he gives tons of great advice, insight and tips. The perk being that you don’t have to ask if following his advice will get you banned. :)
SEO By The Sea
Bill Slawski (the author) focuses his attention on the more technical side of things with tales of patents, algorithmic possibilities, statistics and functionalities. For many, his would be one of the more dry blogs if not for his gift with words and ability to make even the most bland of subjects palatable. You don’t need to visit his blog daily but adding it to your weekly journey through the web is recommended.
SEOmoz Blog
What blog list would be complete without the inclusion of the SEOmoz blog. Rand Fishkin and crew keep their visitors up-to-date on some great research, news and SEO tips. From opinion pieces to months-long whitepapers, you’ll find useful information. Again – not necessary to visit every day but a weekly pass is always worthwhile.
Forums
Forums are a great place to gather information, especially on current events such as ranking updates. That said, reading forums can be a risky thing. Almost anyone can join a forum and post their thoughts. While this format allows us to capture a wide range of information and knowledge – it also results in less qualified people giving advice as well. So while I recommend reading forums, I also recommend taking things with a grain of salt – at least until you figure out who’s who.
SEO Chat Forums
The SEO chat forums are easily one of the largest and most popular of the SEO forums. They cover a HUGE array of issues from Google and social media to Alexa rankings and (hold your hats) Ask Jeeves (that’s right – the forum’s been around for THAT long). Users worth noting are rustybrick, fathom, and randfish.
DigitalPoint Forums
DigitalPoint is also an ancient forum (2000 – ancient by web standards at least). It covers a wide range of topics from SEO to PPC and affiliate programs. Some users worth noting there are shoemoney, daven, and, of course, digitalpoint. A great place to ask your questions. Heavily visited and they have a ranking system for their users so you can get a decent feel as to whether they’re reliable.
SitePoint Forums
There are a variety of reasons I like SitePoint and I own a number of their books. Their forums focus on design and development (not SEO), but every SEO needs resources on the design and development side.
Newsletters & Other Resources
Of course there are other resources that every SEO or webmaster needs to be able to get their hands on. Here they are:
Google Webmaster Guidelines
These are the guidelines set out by Google telling you what you can and can’t do and what tactics to look out for. Worth a look over periodically as they do change from time-to-time. If you’re heading into the forums for advice, you’ll definitely want to take a gander at the guidelines first to make sure that if you get led astray – at least you’ll know what can get you banned or penalized.
Developing Your Online Business Brand
Jan 10th
Developing a business brand online is an important strategic maneuver to help customers identify you or your products and what they stand for. Online branding not only helps to readily identify you with a particular niche but also helps to build your reputation as well.
Successful business branding is not a transformation that takes place over night. Instead it consists of a series of online branding strategies utilizing various activities calculated to convey a consistent message.
Whether it is content distribution, article submissions or promotional consistencies a repeated message is being sent out to consumers. Invariably these messages are relating you to a theme, niche or level of quality. Over time this message eventually becomes embedded in the consumers mind and at that point the brand development is complete.
But before any branding strategies can be developed a determination must first be made of what in fact the brand is. This initial step is very important since business branding is much like a tattoo; you CAN NOT just wake up and wash it off if you do not like it.
You need to be right on target as to what it is you want consumers to associate you with. And on the ‘flip’ side you best represent what it is you are trying to impress people that you stand for.
Here are 5 questions you need to answer, and honestly, before you can determine exactly what your branding strategies should be.
What is it You Do?
What type of product or service do you offer? For example do you sell weight loss products or do you offer a computer programming service? Are your products physical or are they digitally delivered to customers? Perhaps you offer consultation or advice in a particular field.
Do you work within a clearly defined niche or do you offer a broad base of products or services? Is your focus short term or do you long range plans within this niche?
Determining exactly what it is you do is your first step towards developing a sense of what your brand should be.
What Sets You Apart?
Considering the products or services you offer, what makes them different or unique to the customer as opposed to comparable products. Do you have a ‘unique selling point’ you can emphasize in your branding strategies?
Why Would Customers Care?
As far as the product(s) you offer and considering any uniqueness they may have why would a customer care? Is there something about what it is you do that would make a difference or impact in the life of the customer?
Why Would Customers Buy from Me?
Assuming that there are similar products available to what you offer why would anyone want to purchase from you? How would they benefit? What makes you special or different from your competitors?
Can you list any reasons as to why you standout? If so make a list and the longer the better!
What Are Your Strengths & Weaknesses?
Assess your strengths and weaknesses regarding your expertise in the field and your ability to conduct business in a professional and reliable manner. Take into consideration how this would impact the customers overall buying experience including any necessary activities involving customer service.
Once again by compiling the results of your assessments in a list it will be easier to work them into your overall branding strategy.
Developing a business brand online makes you more credible and identifiable within your niche. Online branding is very effective at improving your ability to do business on the internet.
It is very important however that before you attempt to implement any brand development strategies you need FIRST to determine what your brand is or should be.
The 5 questions we reviewed above that need to be answered should better clarify for you what you stand for in the eyes of the consumer. Once you have determined that you have also determined you brand.
In Case You Missed an Issue
Jan 10th
If you’re having trouble tackling pagerank, and moving up on Google’s SERP’s, then you might want to double-check to see if you have a sitemap.
Use Google Sitemap Generator, and you can crawl up to 10,000 pages at once.
When developing a website, one of the trickiest components to master is having your site appear well in all monitor resolutions.
Google has released a tool to help with this called, BrowserSize.
This tool will load up any URL and provide you a schematic of how your site looks on certain monitor resolutions.
Ensure that your content has all the right keywords! Also, make sure that it has them in sufficient quantities. Here’s one last thing to consider – you don’t want alot of the wrong words or phrases. The Keyword Density Analysis Tool can solve the above with just a few keystrokes.
Simply enter your website’s URL, consider the length and frequency of words you want to count, and that’s it! You’ll be shown the words and phrases that appear most frequently on your site – it’s that easy!