joi, 24 martie 2011

Damn Cool Pics

Damn Cool Pics

Rebecca Black's "Friday" as Radical Text

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 09:58 PM PDT

If you think that 13-year old Rebecca Black's song "Friday" is an insipid, bubblegum pop expression of the teenage mind, you'd be wrong. Dana Vachon argues that it's actually a complex rebuttal to the artificiality of modern life.

Awesome Stereographic Projection

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 09:46 PM PDT

A great set of images using a technique called stereographic projection that takes a panoramic image and projects it onto a sphere. The results are surreal. More images.

Meet Boo the Cutest Pomeranian Dog

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 09:21 PM PDT

I wanted to share Boo with everyone… A Pomeranian puppy who undoubtedly takes the cake as being the cutest puppy on the face of the planet.

What's even more noteworthy is that Boo has almost one million friends on Facebook.

Collection of Famous Retro Photos

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 09:06 PM PDT

A great collection of pictures that will take you down memory lane and have you think about those happy golden days of yesteryear.

25 Movie Tattoos

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 08:50 PM PDT

Tattoos are not just for literary enthusiasts. movie buffs, too, are anxious to immortalize their cinema favorites. Take a look at tattoo artwork that runs the gamut from awesome to outright insane.

Giant Ukrainian Airplane Antonov An-225

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 08:40 PM PDT

The Antonov An-225 Mriya is a strategic airlift cargo aircraft, designed in the USSR in the 1980s. It is the world's heaviest aircraft. The design, built to transport the Buran orbiter, was an enlargement of the successful An-124 Ruslan.










































Malawi Boy Builds Windmill Out of Junk

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:06 PM PDT

William Kamkwamba of Malawi was expelled from his high school for non-payment. At 14 years old he went to the library and started reading an American textbook called 'Using Energy.' People thought the kid was nuts. Turns out he was just a genius. For full story click here.
Publicat de 1 la 20:19 0 comentarii

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

Build Your Social Media Embassies

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 10:59 AM PDT

Posted by Dr. Pete

I came across a great analogy over at Zen Habits, and it's got me rethinking how I view social media:

If my personal website is my digital home, then my social networking profiles on Facebook and Twitter, etc. are my embassies. Embassies exist to maintain relationships with "distant lands".

US Flag Car ChairAlthough the post is really about gaining focus and managing your digital life, I think the idea of social media profiles as embassies in distant lands is fantastic, and I'm going to run with it. My apologies to the author (Tyler Tervooren), who probably didn't intend anything I'm about to say.

Here are 6 ways to build up your social media embassies without an international incident…

1. Declare Independence

Before you can really have an embassy, you need to be a sovereign nation. It's great that your Facebook page has 100 Likes and your band's MySpace profile just cleared the double-digit friend mark, but what happens when the rules change? An embassy isn't a permanent home – politics change, alliances shift, and you ultimately have no control over someone else's territory.

The impact of social media is growing, no doubt, but that doesn't mean you should surrender your entire presence to someone else's site. Make sure you have a permanent online home that you control. Your social media embassies should be an extension of that home.

2. Be a Model Citizen

Your embassy is, first and foremost, your face to the world. You don't see countries set up a lawn chair next to a cooler under an umbrella with "Embassy" written on it in permanent marker. It's ok to create a light profile for some recon – you may decide that a given social network isn't for you – but once you're in, remember that you're representing your home country. Finish your profile, and put a little time into it. Connect with people and participate. Nothing says "poser" (or "spammer") on Twitter, for example, like someone with 1 update, no bio, and an egg for an avatar.

3. Respect the Locals

Being on a social media site is like travelling in someone else's country. If you never plan on coming back, you can play the obnoxious tourist all you want. If you want to set up a home away from home, though, you need to respect the locals, their customs, and even their leaders. Don't assume that what flew in some other country will be acceptable in your new embassy. To put it simply: listen first, and then participate.

4. Learn the Language

This is an extension of (3), but it's important to enough to stand on its own. Every social network has its unique lingo, and talking the talk can really help smooth over any diplomatic missteps. Know your hash-tags from your emoticons, and remember that the slang that can be hip in one country can make you look like a loser somewhere else. I'm not saying you have to talk like you're in high-school or pepper every conversation with "OMG LOL WTF?!", but learn to appreciate the flavor of the local language. It will also help you avoid misunderstandings.

5. Bring Your Credentials

Anybody with an email address can set up a social media embassy, and it's easy to forget that being a stranger in a strange land is a privilege. What do you bring to the table? Can you produce the paperwork, if you have to? Treat this as a thought exercise – I strongly believe that the more you understand your own value proposition, the more effective you'll be in social media. Know why you're there, and you'll be able to back it up with real contributions.

6. Foster Allegiances

Embassies have an important function – to be in the right place at the right time when a crisis occurs and to be near the heart of international relations. Your social media embassies aren't just a place to broadcast your opinions and hurl links at people. They're an opportunity to build relationships. I'd estimate that 60-70% of my current consulting business has come from a combination of blogging and my participation in social media.

Take the time to learn about people – Twitter and Facebook blend business and personal relationships in a way that makes it easy to build rapport (if you're sincere about it). Pay close attention to existing allegiances – who do your allies know, and how many steps away are those contacts from you? Done carefully (without pushing your own agenda too hard), it's easy to broaden your circle of influence, sometimes in just a couple of steps.

How's Your Embassy?

How is your own social media presence like an embassy? Are you on good terms with the locals, or are you teetering on the brink of war? This is mostly a thought exercise, and I'd love to hear what other people think about it in the comments.

Photo borrowed from Bodew.com. It really has no relevance to the post, but I was looking for a picture of a flag umbrella with a lawn chair, found this, and loved it. I'm not even entirely sure what it is, but someone please go buy one.


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Running A Seasonal Website Graywolf's SEO Blog

Running A Seasonal Website Graywolf's SEO Blog

Running A Seasonal Website

Posted: 24 Mar 2011 07:24 AM PDT

Post image for Running A Seasonal Website

While running multiple websites isn’t a strategy I recommend for beginners, it is something experienced publishers and SEO’s can do to diversify their income sources. While some people choose to run websites in different niches, another option is to run seasonal websites.

If you are going to run seasonal websites, you want to set up websites that have peak traffic and buying cycles that are at opposite times of the year–say, for example, Department 56 Christmas decorations and swimming pool supplies. Look at the search patterns for those two terms on Google insights.

Season Website Term Search Traffic

Seasonal websites have the advantage of being evergreen and only require updating once a year. You need to decide if you will use a living URL strategy (which I recommend) or add new URL’s. Even if you do use a living URL strategy, consider doing a content audit and removing or updating your weakest content every year BEFORE the prime buying cycle. I would also recommend adding some new content every year. Increasing your content by 10% every year is a solid number.

Another variation of running seasonal websites is running one website with distinctly different search seasons. For example, you could have a family travel website with family ski vacations, winter family vacations, spring break family vacations, summer family vacations, and so on. If you can find a way to have enough different terms so something is converting throughout the whole year, you are golden.

Seasonal Family Vacation Search Volume

So what are the takeaways from this post:

  • Look for ways to diversify your income with multiple sites with different peak search periods.
  • Try to keep the content as evergreen as possible.
  • Revise, update, or remove the weakest content from last year.
  • Try to add some new content every year.
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  10. TigerTech - Great Web Hosting service at a great price.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Running A Seasonal Website

Traffic & Trust by Nick Reese Review

Posted: 23 Mar 2011 08:06 AM PDT

Post image for Traffic & Trust by Nick Reese Review

One of the questions that comes to my inbox fairly regularly is how do you actually build an affiliate website, one that will rank for competitive terms and make you enough money that you can live on? Talk about a big question that I really can’t answer in a single or even multiple emails!  Well, if you’re one of those folks, I’ve finally got something to offer you: Nick Reese’s Traffic & Trust ebook.

… there is a section called “blueprint” that helps you go from a blank piece of paper to an actionable list on building a successful, money-making website …
Ok let’s get the hard question out of the way. Nick sent me a free copy of his book and asked whether, if had the time, I would review it. To be honest, I get these requests all the time and, if I don’t know you or know of you, I’m not going to do it. Secondly, if I start someone’s ebook and don’t like it or don’t think it has any value, rather than bash it, my schedule will suddenly become too busy, and I’ll never get to it. However, Traffic and Trust is a book that I think has value. If you apply the principles in it, you will make back the initial investment and more money over the long haul.

The problem with a lot of ebooks is they give you overly generalized advice, sort of a 10,000-feet-up, CEO-style overview. Very few ebooks give you “in the trenches” actionable info that you can use. Now, this isn’t a step by step recipe for how to build a money making website. Quite honestly, I don’t think that’s even possible. But it takes the 10,000-feet-up good advice and helps you break it down into actionable items you can use to make a “to-do” list. In fact, there is a section called “blueprint” that helps you go from a blank piece of paper to an actionable list on building a successful, money-making website. The blueprint section is very specific. You will have to do the work, because there are no “get rich quick” steps, but it’s very do-able even if you have limited to no technical skills.

One of the sections of the book that I think is particularly important is the promotion section. As you may know, over the past year Google has tried to give credit to trusted brand websites. They have even filed patents trying to algorithmically define and identify what is a brand . IMHO two of the most important parts of the algorithm are trust and authority. If you do a good job promoting your website, the links, trust, and authority will flow. In fact if your content is good, and you do a good job promoting it, you won’t have to worry about crazy linking schemes.

There is also a section on tracking. To be honest, this is an area where a lot of people screw up. If you can build your website so you know which pages not only get the most traffic but drive the conversions, you have very powerful information. You want to put most of your effort into the parts of your website that make you money and less effort into the parts that don’t.

The very last part of the book has a list of resources that you can use to help you get from wherever you are to money making website, even if you don’t even have a domain name . It lists everything from registrars and hosting companies to affiliate programs, plugins, and promotion tools. I don’t use everything on his list but I do use a lot of them. Personally, I’m a big fan of Tiger Tech Hosting because they rock. They even monitor my friends’ tweets and provide solutions on the spot. I also use quite a few more plugins than he does–heck, I use more than most people (see WordPress SEO plugins)–but these are personal preferences. I didn’t see anything in his list of recommendations that made me wince.

Who is thus book for? If you’re an SEO veteran, there’s probably not a lot here for you. You might pick up one or two things but that’s it. If you’re a mid-level SEO and you can drive some traffic and sales but want to take it to the next level, there is definitely actionable information here for you. If you’re new and your website isn’t making any money, then you should absolutely get the book. If you put in the work described, there’s no doubt in my mind you will make more money.

Check out Trust and Traffic by Nick Reese.

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Advertisers:

  1. Text Link Ads - New customers can get $100 in free text links.
  2. BOTW.org - Get a premier listing in the internet's oldest directory.
  3. Ezilon.com Regional Directory - Check to see if your website is listed!
  4. Directory Journal - Get permanent deep links in a search engine friendly directory
  5. Glass Whiteboards - For a professional durable white board with no ghosting, streaking or marker stains, see my Glass Whiteboard Review
  6. Need an SEO Audit for your website, look at my SEO Consulting Services
  7. Link Building- Backlink Build offers 45 PR5+ Backlinks for $295
  8. KnowEm - Protect your brand, product or company name with a continually growing list of social media sites.
  9. Scribe SEO Review find out how to better optimize your wordpress posts.
  10. TigerTech - Great Web Hosting service at a great price.

This post originally came from Michael Gray who is an SEO Consultant. Be sure not to miss the Thesis Wordpress Theme review.

Traffic & Trust by Nick Reese Review

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