Blogger And Blogging: 2007

Search Engine Optimization And Why You Gotta Use It

E-commerce is a cut throat business. You have to arm yourself with the proper know-how and the tools to make your site a cut above the rest. Each day, more and more sites are clambering to optimize their rankings in websites and if you lose your guard, you may just get trampled on and be left in the abyss filled with so many failed e-commerce sites.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a term widely used today by many e-commerce sites. For the past few years and the next ten years or so, search engines would be the most widely used internet tool to find the sites that they need to go to or the product or information they need.

Most people that use search engines use only the ten top search results in the first page. Making it to the first page, more so to the top three is a barometer of a sites success in search engine optimization. You will get a higher ratio of probability in being clicked on when you rank high. The more traffic for your site, the more business you rake in.

But, it is essential to grab a hold of that spot or make your ranking even better. As I aforementioned, each day is a new day for all e-commerce sites to make them selves rank higher using search engine optimization. It is imperative to make your site better and better everyday.

So just what is search engine optimization and do you have to use it? The answer to why you have to use it is an easy one. You need search engine optimization to be number one, or maybe at least make your site income generating.

With search engine optimization you can get the benefit of generating a high traffic volume. Let’s just say you get only a turn out of successful sales with 10 to 20 percent of your traffic. If you get a hundred hits or more a day, you get a good turn out of sales already. If you get only twenty to ten hits a day, you only get one or two if not any at all.

So once again, what is search engine optimization? Search engine optimization is utilizing tools and methods in making your site top ranking in the results of search engines. Getting yourself in the first page and better yet in the top half of the page will ensure that your site will generate public awareness of your site’s existence and subsequently generate more traffic, traffic that could lead to potential income and business.

Search engine optimization requires a lot of work to be fully realized. There are many aspects you have to change in your site or add as well to get search engine optimization. These will include getting lots of information about the keyword phrases that are popular in regards to your sites niche or theme.

You may also need to rewrite your site's content so that you could get the right keyword phrases in your site without making it too commercial but light and informative. There are certain rules and guidelines to be followed with making your site’s content applicable and conducive to search engine optimization.

You will also need to collaborate with many other sites so that you could get link exchanges and page transfers. One of the components that the search engines use to rank sites is the number of inbound and outbound traffic links from other websites.

Try to search the internet for many useful help. Tips, guidelines and methods for search engine optimization are plenty to be found. Read many articles that can help you optimize your site in search engine results. The more knowledge and information you gather the better. This will all help you in getting those high rankings. This may require a little time and effort in your part but the benefits will be astounding.

If you can part with some money, there are many sites in the internet that can help you in search engine optimization. There are many sites that help in tracking keyword phrases that can help your site. There are also some content writers that have lots of experience in making good keyword laden content for your sites that have good quality.

Act now and see the benefits garner with search engine optimization. All of these will result to better traffic and more business for your site and company.

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Three Column Blogger Templates and Free Webmaster Tools

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

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

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

Wordpress Themes Converted For The New Blogger.

Create Your Own Free Three or Two Column Blogspot Templates

Free Templates For New Blogger

Free Unique, Themed, Two and Three Columns Blogger Templates

Free Blogspot Templates Converted From Wordpress Themes

Free Blogskins For Blogger, Xanga, Movable Type etc.

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

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

Cost Free Three Column Templates For New Blogger

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Page Rank Checker
View Google PageRank on different Google servers.

Source Code Viewer
View the source code of a page.

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

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

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

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

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

Keyword Suggestion
Find related keywords matching your search.

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

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

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

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

Domain Availability Checker
Check for available domain names.

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

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10 Reasons Why Websites Fail - And How To Avoid The Normal Pitfalls

Perhaps you have attempted (maybe more than once) to have a website. You may have signed up late at night on one of the countless web hosting plans that are on the web and for only $7.95 you were up and running. Or maybe you went all out and hired a web designer spending a thousand dollars or more having them build your site and shopping cart.

You dreamed of that customer hundreds of miles away logging into the Internet, searching on Google or Yahoo and easily finding your offering. You thought of how many more clients you would have and you thought to yourself, "if I could just get one extra client per month from my site, then I would make $XX, XXX.XX more money." So you built your site and waited and waited.

But no one showed up. You haven’t even gotten one single customer from your efforts and expense. You failed on the web. You joined the ranks of millions of others that have gone before and will go after you. Your website failed.

You are not alone. Out of the almost 56 million websites on the web, fewer than 500,000 of them have any real traffic to speak of. Let me say that another way. There are over 55 ½ million websites on the Internet that are complete failures because they have no real traffic. (People coming to the site). So if you have been one of those 55 ½ million, don’t worry, it happens to all of us.

What is failure?

What is failure? Quite simply, a website with little or no traffic is a failure. Without traffic on your site, then how could anyone ever contact you or hire you? How can they find out about your offering or product? How would they know where you are located and that you have the exact thing that they are looking for?

Let’s examine the reasons that websites fail on the Internet and begin thinking about how we can avoid these normal pitfalls in creating our new site or revamping a current site. Below you will find the 10 main reasons that websites fail.

1. Websites fail because of lack of content. In my opinion, there could not be a bigger reason of why websites fail on the Internet today than lack of real content. Content needs to add information to the web. It needs to add value to the web and be something fresh, new, or a differing opinion. Content is writing about your particular subject or offering in such a way that it helps your rankings with the major search engines.

I am not talking about sales pitches here. I am talking about writing real content on your site that answers a question for a searcher. You have to remember that people on the web are looking for information, not you. When they put in a search phrase like “homes in Charleston, SC” they are looking for information, not a particular real estate agent.

Search engines will analyze your site to see if it offers answers to particular searches that are made through their services. If it does, then for that set of keywords, you may be ranked (and ultimately get more traffic.) If it doesn’t, like the great majority of sites on the web, then you will never be found.

2. There is a general lack of planning before signing up for a domain. There are so many people that sign up for a domain by selecting domain names like, “haylorchurch.tv” or “bobsmithscrealty.net”.

There are almost no bigger mistakes to make than to sign up for the wrong domain. Why? People on the web are not searching for things like “Bob Smith”; they are searching for “Charleston homes for sale.” And in the above example of Haylor Church, the domain screams, “the .org was taken, so I took the .tv that was available.” Both of these examples are big mistakes. Your domain name should answer a question that is being asked and describe your offering. It should describe action, not identity.

Sure, Yahoo and Google don’t have a name that answers a question, but you are not Yahoo or Google. You are just someone who has a site and you would like to make some money off of it or draw new church attendees or meet new people. Whatever the case, you should choose a domain name that is descriptive of your offering and the overall theme of the site.

3. Most website owners don't update or proofread their sites. I know that it is hard to believe, but there are lots of people who spend thousands of dollars on a website only to let it sit there and do nothing for them. I cannot tell you how many sites I have visited with glaring mistakes in language, verb usage or vocabulary. I have seen the English language torn apart on supposedly professional websites. I have visited sites with tons of broken links instantly turning me away, never to come back. When people click away, they won’t come back.

Not much will make a surfer click away from your site faster than errors and broken links. Those problems are so easily fixed, but people fail to check their sites on a regular basis. However, just having a grammatically perfect website is not enough. You have to be constantly adding and updating your information to it so that the Search Engines will want to keep putting you at the top of their lists. When the Search Engines visit your site with their spider programs, they look for the last time the site was updated. The more it is updated, the better ranking you will enjoy.

4. Websites fail because of too many banner ads, colors, flashy text or external links. Websites that look (and are) one huge ad or one big sales pitch will usually fail. Why? People see hundreds of ads each and every day on billboards & TV. They hear them on the radio while they are driving and they see them all over the web. If your website is not focused on what you do, then surfers will click away.

There are tons of other websites that will create banner ads for you to place on your site. Don't do it. They don't work, they won't make you any money and you are just helping that company's search ranking. Only provide external links on your site that help your business because an external link is a way for the surfer to leave your site. They can get distracted and not ever return to your offering.

5. Way too much money is spent for a website, hosting, setup and domain name. There are some web designers who are making an absolute fortune on the public just because they don’t understand how the web works. Hear what I am saying here. Your investment in your website should be like other business investments that you make. For example, let’s say you are a water ski retailer. You consider bringing in a new line of water skis. Would you immediately buy thousands of dollars worth of skis without knowing if they will make you any money? Of course you wouldn’t. You would bring in a few, test the waters (pardon the pun) and as they made you more and more money, you would increase your inventory.

The same applies to the website, which is just an advertising medium. Start out with a simple, but professional design. Don’t spend a lot of money on it at first. $500 for your first year is very reasonable. Then, as the website brings you customers and clients, you increase your offering perhaps by adding a shopping cart, or more fancy graphics.

6. Website owners don’t spend enough time researching keywords. Keywords are an important part of how a Search Engine finds your website. Choosing the right keywords doesn’t mean coming up with a list in your head. It means spending some time using web-based tools to help you find what people are actually searching for when using the Internet. Wouldn’t you like to know what people are searching for before writing pages on your website?

There are so many tools out there that it is beyond the scope of this article, but as a reason for failure, this is one of the big ones.

7. People do not spend time optimizing their pages to be found by search engines. Many people will pay for a "Search Engine Optimizer" (SEOs) that will get them to the top 10 on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. They do this before writing good content, analyzing their own keywords, and making their sites user friendly. The S.E.O. companies that offer these services are keying in on the fact that most people are ignorant about how a site gets into the top positions on the major Search Engines.

Let’s get something strait. Search Engine Optimizers cannot and will not get you into the top ten for the words and searches that you want. If they could, then everyone would use them and everyone would be in the top ten. Please remember that only 10 can be in the top ten for each keyword search and those are the ones who have built their pages with the content that puts them there and keeps them there. If an S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimizer) does get you to the top ten for a day or so you won’t stay there long.

The best computer engineers in the world work for Yahoo, Google and MSN and they will not be tricked into letting you into the top ten, the top thirty or the top 1,000 for that matter. They will let you in if your page offers relevant content that their searches are looking for though. And, once you make it into the top ten the honest way, it is really hard to drop out of it.

8. People that have websites don't respond to visitors in a timely manner. It simply baffles me, people do not respond to inquiries on from their websites. Recently, I contacted several real estate agents when I was moving. I was relocating to Charleston from Denver which is 1,600 miles away and I found some agents that I thought could help me out in finding a home. I sent emails to them all (about 5 of them) and only one emailed me back within 24 hours. The others either waited over a week or did not email at all. That is a whopping 80% with poor response times.

I cannot tell how this will kill your business. Of course I chose to work with the one that did contact me and we were in a home within 60 days. Point is, you have to email visitors back quickly or they will find someone else. Not only do you need to respond quickly, you need to respond professionally and you need to let them know that you read and understand their email. You should include all of your contact information and you have to use 'spell-check'.

9. People fail to register their sites on the local search engines: Did you know that the major Search Engines are pouring millions of dollars into developing their local searches? What does this mean? I believe that in three to four years, the major SE’s will overtake the Yellow Pages as the number one medium for searching a local business. Engineers are working around the clock now to create formulas that will point searchers in the right direction and towards local vendors that can meet their needs.

Everyone from dentists to hair salons who don’t show up on the local search will be at a disadvantage. In my estimate, a full 90% of sites are not showing up in the local searches and will be passed by their competition very soon.

10. The biggest reason that websites fail is when people do nothing. Yes, there are so many things you can do wrong that will make your website basically useless, but the worst one of all is not having a site. Today people surf the web. This is just a fact. The Internet is no longer a luxury; it is used daily by millions and millions of Americans. They are searching for your help right now and if you don't have a place on the web where they can find you, then they won't.

About The Author

Bill Nixon is a website designer, owns a hosting company and manages several sites for businesses and nonprofits. His latest project is here http://www.real-estate-agent-website.com. You can also find his web design and development company here: http://www.sc-site.com.

bill@sc-site.com

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Photography School Reviews

"Any good photography is a successful synthesis of technique and art.” - Andreas Feininger

This article will attempt to help you come to a clearer understanding of the photography schools and colleges available, what they can offer you in terms of photo and arts education, and guide you towards investigating more about specific schools and where you can find out more information.

Photography SchoolsPhotography is a wonderful choice when it comes to a career. Photography is a versatile path that allows you to specify within the degree, and move from different types of photography within your lifetime. From magazine covers to exotic locations to local newspapers, a career in photography will allow you to pick and choose exactly what you want to photograph. However, a career in photography doesn't happen with well wishes and hopes...you have to work to get there! So where do you begin in your search for photography schools? Right here!

You'll have to learn about the photography business, learn how to deal with copyright issues and information, manage your photo porfolio and how to work with others in the field. There are many courses in the field of photography taught at many of the schools, teaching you in a variety of areas including:

* Photographic equipment
* Photographic processes
* Photograph techniques
* Color theory
* Special skills
* Digital imaging and photo processing

There are many many more fields available when it comes to your career path in photography, the above were simply some examples.

If you're passionate about photography and want to pursue this versatile career, it's important that you take the time to learn from experienced professionals that can guide you in your efforts to pursue professional photography, motion picture and video photography, visual journalism, and thinks like visual communications. What's great about attending photography schools nationwide is that you dont' have to begin an expert, you begin a beginner! Many of you are pursuing this field because you have a natural eye for photography, and that's great - but maybe you're just developing one. That's great too! What you probably didn't know is that photography school will teach you much more than simply how to snap a few brief pictures and dip em in developer. They teach you the scientific processes of film, chemistry, optics, color theory, lighting rations, and digital and computer skills.

You'll also find collegues and students at your school that share your passion, talents, and skill and want to join in mutual efforts to further your careers. Here are a few photography school frequently asked questions that might help you!

* What is the objective of many photography schools?
* What types of photography might I choose to go into?
* What type of school should I look for?
* What are some of the top schools in the US?

What is the objective of many photography schools?

The objective (or the objective I believe is crucial to selecting a school) of many is to develop photographers that are technically and professionally sound, enabling them to pursue any photographic field and compete in the job marketplace.

What types of photography might I choose to go into?

There are many different types of photography fields, including fasion photography, digital photography, advertising photography, editorial photography, documentary style, wedding photography, portrait photography, or photo technician style work. You'll be prepared to do any of these with a solid education at a photo college or school.

What type of school should I look for?

My recommendation is a school that teaches nothing but photography! Obviously affordability is important, but a photo only institute is a great way to go!

What are some of the top schools in the US?

There are several wonderful photography schools, but some of ones we'll choose to highlight are Brooks Institute of Photography and the Art Institute of Colorado. For a more detailed list of Photography schools and information, please click here or continue browsing this article.

Brooks is a world leader when it comes to visual arts and photographic education. You'll want to find a photography school that helps to meet career oriented needs that you establish before you search. You'll want one with experience in the field for a long period of time, not just a hokey internet college.

You want want that can offer you a chance to broaden your resume through internships and opportunities. The joy of this career is that you get to turn your photographic ambition into something that pays the bills and you love to do every single day! Who wouldn't want that! I hope this article has proved even a little helpful, and that you'll consider going into the wonderful field of photography!

*This article is from http://www.youseekit.com and is originally located at http://www.youseekit.com/Arts/Photography_Schools.html

About The Author

Andrew Holloway is the owner of YouSeekIt.com, an article resource site, and this article can be found here : Photography Schools.

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Exposing Your Expertise

Writing and leveraging articles is my most successful strategy for promoting my Website and my speaking and consulting services. Visitors to your site from targeted articles tend to be higher quality leads than those from search engines, and potential buyers like to see that you're published in many credible outlets.

Here are my recommendations to implement this strategy:

1. Write the article

This may sound self-evident, but a couple of pointers:

Keep it short, and make the language simple, especially if you're targeting online outlets. People don't read word for word on the Web - rather, they'll scan the screen. Complex sentences and dense copy will lose readers fast.
Develop a template that can be easily customized for different target markets. My "Top Seven Ways to Tune Up your Website" has been parlayed into versions for over a dozen different industries. The essential points remain the same, and customizing simply involves adding specific examples.

2. Put it on your Website

One of the key goals of your Website should be to showcase your expertise. Content (combined with testimonials and success stories) is the best way to achieve this.

When adding articles to your site:

Include a clear reprint policy. This should state whether you allow articles to be reprinted, and if so, under what terms (including your byline, copyright, notification of use, etc.)
If you have a large number of articles, provide an index page that divides them into appropriate subject groupings, and gives a two-line description of each.
Create a byline with an enticing hook to get people to visit your Website. Mine refers to my popular free tipsheet "Beyond the Search Engines", which lists 23 alternative ways to promote your site. This is far more powerful than a bland statement such as "Philippa Gamse is an internationally recognized . . ."

3. Research and offer it to appropriate venues

It's critical to be very clear about your target audience, and how to reach them. Who are the economic buyers and decision makers that you'd like to be in front of, and what do they read? Do those sites or publications accept outside articles, and if so, what are their policies around doing so?

My assistant, Bonnie Jo Davis, runs my highly successful articles placement strategy. She provides a complete primer of her methodology, along with many online research sources at http://www.ArticlesThatSell.com/

4. Follow up links and references

It's extremely important to measure the success of these efforts, both in terms of the traffic to your site, and its quality.

Check the "referring URL" section in your traffic reports, and follow links to you from any site that you don't recognize. Often, site owners won't inform you when they've used your material. So you want to ensure that you have been properly attributed. But also, thank the site owner. I recently sent a note to a university professor who had added some of my articles to his course reading list. His response? "I really like your ideas, and by the way, we're looking for a speaker for our upcoming conference . . ."

The Proof of the Pudding . . .

Does all this work? Absolutely. One of my articles was recently highlighted as the "Cool Site of the Week" in Tekguide.net - an online technology and computer directory. But the page that it linked to was not mine, but PowerHomeBiz.com - another site that had featured this article. So I now have sites quoting sites that quote me . . . and that gets major brownie points in Google - the only remaining credible free search engine.

I was also recently hired to consult for a site in the auto industry after the owner had read my article in eDealershipnews.com. He said "I liked the article, I can see how you think, and I'd like some of that thinking for me". No further selling required!

About The Author

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317.
pgamse@cyberspeaker.com

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Create Buzz for Your Business via a Contest!

A very easy way to get more people to your site and also more interested in what you offer is to start your own online contest. It is something that is very easy to do. You probably can even get other companies to become sponsors in return for posting their logo and link to their website on your contest page. This will also help you bring in more viewers but if you get sponsors you will now have a wider selection of prizes to offer. Also see if the sponsor will post the contest link on their site as well.

It is actually an interesting thing that many other sites don't do it. Not only is it a good way to increase the amount of visitors to your website but it also rewards people for coming to your website. Running multiple contests every so often will keep visitors interested and coming back to visit your website to see if there are any new contests going on. It can help build your whole site up or specific part like your forum.

Not only will people come back to your site but after they enter into the contest they will tell other people about it so that they can enter as well. Then those people tell their friends and then they tell their friends and so on. So you can see how it can spread out. Also while visiting your website to enter the contest they will browse around to see what you are offering. This can lead to increased sales as well as an increase in the number of people who sign up on your forum and newsletter.

Prizes can range from cash prizes or to virtual products such as software, web design packages or web hosting packages. When you start your contest be sure to set a cut off date for entries, limit number of entries allowed and when the draw date will help. Have them either email you with a certain line in the subject header or enter via web form online. Then take all of the names and set them up so you can draw randomly(such as putting them in a hat). Then choose what prize you are drawing for and pull out a name.

So as you can see the benefits of a contest are not only for your site but for your visitors too. They will love you for it and will keep coming back for more. Plus it is easy and fun to do, so why not!

About The Author

Anthony Jewell has over 6 Years experience in the Web & Graphics World. You can visit my business at http://www.logo2d.com

©Copyright 2005 Logo2D.com : Feel free to use this article freely but please keep in the copyright

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

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

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

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

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

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

Use Attention-Grabbing Headlines.

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

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

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

Establish Trust. Show Them You're Real.

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

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

Understand Your Audience!

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

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

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

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

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

-- You will establish rapport with your readers

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

Copyright 2006 Trish Andrews

About The Author

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

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

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Love Poetry and Its Countless Faces

There are many interpretations and expressions of love. When love appears as an emotion, people experience a strong magnetic force pulling them to their beloved.

Most lovers complain that they cannot properly express the way they feel. For lovers who are also poets, however, the situation is different, because poetry has the power to hint at, explain, or lay bare what is unexplainable and what is intense.

This intensity of emotion comes to life in a love poem through wit, passion, eloquent phrases, imagery, symbolism, and other tools of poetry such as alliteration, assonance, rhythm, anaphora, metaphors, similes and the like.

Many types of love poetry exist in literature. The love poem of the instant addresses the falling in or out of love in one single moment. Dante Alighieri put together a love-at-first-sight poem expressing a lover's feeling of being reborn.

La Vita Nuova

In that book which is
My memory . . .
On the first page
That is the chapter when
I first met you
Appear the words . . .
Here begins a new life

Another type of a love poetry carrying immediacy and impulsivity seizes the moment without caring what happens afterwards. William Shakespeare says in "O Mistress Mine":
What is love? 'Tis not hereafter;
Present mirth hath present laughter;
What's to come is still unsure:
In delay there lies not plenty;
Then, come kiss me, sweet and twenty,
Youth's a stuff will not endure.

Most commonly written love poetry, by professionals and amateurs alike, is the love tribute. Here is a good example by Oscar Wilde:

To My Wife - With A Copy Of My Poems

I can write no stately proem
As a prelude to my lay;
>From a poet to a poem
I would dare to say.

For if of these fallen petals
One to you seem fair,
Love will waft it till it settles
On your hair.

And when wind and winter harden
All the loveless land,
It will whisper of the garden,
You will understand.

Another kind of a love poem puts forth a proposal to the beloved as Pablo Neruda does in Love Sonnet VII:
I said it again: Come with me, as if I were dying,
and no one saw the moon that bled in my mouth
or the blood that rose into silence.
O Love, now we can forget the star that has such thorns!

Then, there are those poets who treat love philosophically. One such poet is William Blake.

The Clod and the Pebble

Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hells despair.

So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle's feet;
But a Pebble of the brook,
Warbled out these metres meet.

Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to Its delight:
Joys in anothers loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.

At times, love is one-sided. Worse yet, the beloved may not have any inkling of the lover's feelings. Walt Whitman voices that in "To a Stranger" by writing:
Passing stranger! you do not know
How longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking,
Or she I was seeking
(It comes to me as a dream)

Sometimes, lovers have to overcome a few obstacles. Matthew Arnold says in Dover Beach:
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Every so often, the beloved leaves the lover, and then, the poetry sings sadly of remembrance or regret. Thus, from centuries ago, Sappho echoes:
I have not had one word from her
Frankly I wish I were dead
When she left she wept
a great deal; she said to me This parting must be
endured, Sappho. I go unwillingly.
I said Go, and be happy
but remember (you know
well) whom you leave shackled by love

If the lover is lucky, the beloved will leave a token when he departs. Here is one such poem from Emily Dickinson.

I Held a Jewel

I held a jewel in my fingers
And went to sleep
The day was warm, and winds were prosy
I said, "Twill keep"

I woke - and chide my honest fingers,
The Gem was gone
And now, an Amethyst remembrance
Is all I own

The many faces of love has been playing peek-a-boo with the poetry lover from millenniums ago in ancient history when Solomon sang "The Rose of Sharon" to Emerson who urged us to "Give all to love" to our present day when modern day poets describe moments of epiphany and feelings of love in fragments, in concrete images, and in sound combinations obliquely, and at the same time, clearly.

Whenever we take a fleeting look, like any great art, love poetry turns out to be the most admired type of poetry that takes a human emotion and transforms it into something sacred, correct, and spiritual. I remember reading love poetry when I was in my teens. Some of those poems stick in the memory after many years and their magic still remains.

About The Author

Joy Cagil is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Love Poetry. Joy Cagil's education is in foreign languages and linguistics. She is a poetry enthusiast.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Opinion – Search Engine Success

This article is actually the summary to a book soon to be released by the author, titled “Guaranteed Website Success”. Opinions are quite often controversial. Such is the nature of this one.

There a many opinions and conclusions being expressed by so called “experts” at this time. We can’t turn a blind eye to all this information but nothing will replace our own logic and powers of observation. I would like to take a minute to summarize and express my own observations. Some will obviously disagree with these statements and views. Such is the nature of free speech and our ability to draw our own conclusions. I suggest that those that disagree are the ones that are reluctant to use their own logic and change with the needs of the present time.

Google is presently in a state of change. Their objective is honest – to produce valid results for your searches. However in the quest to do that they may stumble a bit in the process. That is a big challenge. They are presently considered the number one search engine and want to stay there. Their processes would seem a bit unstable at the moment but they must and they will stabilize to maintain their own position. There will be changes and modifications aimed at improving the whole exercise. Be observant and move with the needs of the present.

If you visit the forums you are going to see a lot of chatter and a lot of views about what is going on. Thoroughly discussed issues revolve around keyword placement and a term some of the so called experts are abusing “search engine optimization”. Some of these so called experts are in my opinion misusing that term “search engine optimization” They are claiming that they would never participate in that dastardly practice. Well, just look at the term. What does it mean. To me it simply means putting together your website so that people will find it when they search using their favourite search engine. If these guys aren’t doing that, they aren’t going anywhere. Of course they are participating in the practice. They just prefer to call it something else. I can’t figure out why though. The term doesn’t indicate anything under handed when used in itself. We all practice search engine optimization, it’s the difference in success and failure.

Much is being said about “keyword over use, stuffing” blah blah blah etc. Many are claiming keywords shouldn’t even be used here and they shouldn’t be used there. Wake up you “experts” that are making these crazy claims that google doesn’t want you doing this. Yes, you can produce a few results that will support that stand. I can produce my own results very quickly. Pick a dozen search terms out of the air. Do a search on each in google. Go view the source code. I will guarantee you are going to see plenty of first page results that exhibit the so called practice of “keyword stuffing” So what are you guys going to do? Are you going to shun the practice because “some expert” has told you google doesn’t like, it even though google is obviously rewarding the practice. Better not paint yourself into a corner. Use your logic. Observe and move with the market. Nothing is more valuable than your own powers of observation and ability to change to reflect those observations.

Regarding the theory being expressed that google doesn’t want you using keywords . Think about it. The whole basis of the search process revolves around keywords. We don’t search for a whole page of matching data. We search on a word or phrase. Who is going to determine which words are relevant to our website. Of course the search engines must leave that to us. Logic is part of that process and they still can’t get that logic from a machine. It is just too time consuming and resource heavy to try any valid effort at that. The search engines need us to provide that data at this time. If you have figured out the point where the search engines are deciding that “over use” can be stamped on this one, you have done well. I can show you heavy, heavy keyword placement that is being rewarded as we speak. That is now amidst the results of the google changes.

USE YOUR OWN LOGIC. Do what is working . If it is working, nobody can say that google is discouraging the practice.

Personally, I am saying the only rule today is that “there are no rules”

Observe, apply logic, and react positively. Don’t quit on it, because the job will never be complete. It will be a process of constant adjustment to the needs of the present time.

Tom Henricks

I’m not considered an “expert”.

About The Author

Tom Henricks is webmaster at Low Cost Websites, targetted toward helping people improve their website performance. Also a practicing walleye fishing guide near Windsor Ontario Canada.
thenrifi@gosfieldtel.com

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