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AliReza & HamidReza - Narafigh 2

2007-03-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

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Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 01 Narafigh 2.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 02 Zenduny.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 03 Sarbar.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 04 Vasiat Name.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 05 Be Name Man Be Kame To.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 06 Havaei.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 07 Park Mamnuo.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 08 Dokhtar Farari.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 09 Ye Dokhtare 3Sale.mp3

Hamidreza & Alireza - Narafigh 2 - 10 Ma2Ta.mp3

Beauty is Within Us

2007-03-28T23:07:00.000-07:00

O mother dear
Look what you’ve done
To your forlorn and once beloved son
Why was I born at all?
O mother dear
I’m such a freak
A mutant man, a woman underneath
Why was I born at all?

It’s you I blame for all the shame
This anguish and this aching
The mirror turned against the wall
Myself despised, forsaken
*You say, “Beauty is within us, your mother knows”
“There’s a beauty that’s within us, just like a rose”
You say, “Beauty is within us, so let it grow”
But it’s grown so dark and ugly

O mother dear
I curse you so
For breathing life into your wretched son
Why were you born at all?
O mother dear
I love you so
O please forgive this anger in my soul
Without you I’m alone

It’s me who’s been eternally damned
Trapped inside this cage, a ruined man
All damaged and depraved

O mother dear
This misery
Has settled like a stain upon my skin
-a vast unspoken sin

And my mistake is much too late
But your mistake was trusting
That out of grief, a goodness comes
And love comes out of lusting

*repeat

You say, “Beauty is within us, your mother knows”
“There’s a beauty that’s within us, just like a rose”
You say, “Beauty is within us, so let it grow”
But it’s grown so dark I can not see you anymore

“O beauty is within us, mother knows”
“O beauty is within us, like a rose”
“O beauty is within us, let it grow”
O mother dear, let me out of here!

HOME BUSINESS THAT WILL WORK FOR YOU

2007-03-28T23:03:00.001-07:00

I know that you will be very interested in my home business. It is a business that everyone is able to do. You know that some home businesses are either to expensive, you know nothing about the products or services they offer, you dont want to be collecting money or delivering products, you dont want to be stuck with products in your home that you dont need, etc…. Well, that is exactly why I chose the home business I am with. I was able to invest a very small amount to join, and I dont have to do any of the above! I simply Refer people - you do it all the time - you see a movie and tell someone about how good you thought it was. My business is the same way - our products sell themselves because they’re great.

Our company has also been recognized for our “standards”. We believe in helping others reach their goals. This is not a company you join and then figure everything out on your own. I will personally teach you all the valuable information I have learned. We have a lot of training materials and presentations. If you have always been skeptical of a home business opportunity, I assure you, I was too. Let me show you an opportunity I believe will change many people’s lives.

Visit my profile and fill in your contact information so I may provide you with more information.

The Secret to Winning in a Home Business

2007-03-28T23:01:00.000-07:00

Understand first: You have what it takes! You have heard about “The Secret” Im sure, and while it states some very interesting concepts, it is also a bit misleading. Positive thinking is essential in “Any” aspect of life. You have already heard “you are what you eat”, ” you will become like those you are around”, ” someone who is negative will bring down everyone around them” etc. These are ALL true. Have you ever been around a crowd of negative people and only ONE person with a positive attitude enters: if that positive person remains in a positive attitude, he/she can change the outcome of the entire group! Amazing!! People really want to be surrounded by positive thinking, they are sometimes simply not strong enough to do it themselves. Practice, Practice, Practice. If you retrain yourself, you too can be that person who changes the outcome. The problem with most people is we are so used to “negative thinking”. It seems to come more naturally for us, that is why it requires “Everyday” retraining yourself to believe you can, you will, you are changing! These are some of the critical aspects of “The Secret” I agree with. The concepts it states that “You are God, You are the Creator, ” You are all powerful” — is nonsense. Its misleading, its a lie! If you are spiritual in any sense, you will realize how the book misleads you by throwing in scriptures and truthful ideas. None of these ideas are “New”.. These ideas have already been around for years…you could have figured ALL of them out on your own without the misleading statements! When you realize you can achieve more than you are right now and that you are “somebody” and that you dont need any special education…..you can become the person you have desired to be. Home business opportunities are increasing every day — the concepts are the same. YOU MUST HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE because it is hard getting started. DO NOT let that disway you - just keep practicing your positive attitude - YOU CAN MAKE IT . Everything you have learned in life or have achieved was done so by repitition. You practiced it over and over until you completed it. Starting with a home business is no different - you must learn “How to share your opportunity” - its a whole new life here but one that has so many rewards if you learn the right way and stick to it. Your success will not come over night - there is alot to learn. Knowing that the rewards and benefits of having a home business will provide you with security, financial freedom, reaching your dreams, being able to retire, the ability to help children thru college and more - will offset any negative emotions. Let me invite you to visit my home business opportunity - one that will provide you with the training, the teaching, positive attitudes, and help you reach your dreams. You may also want to take a look at my other articles for more tips in a home business atmosphere. Remember: there is no Secret - you already have what it takes, you just havent been practicing it! Start today changing your future! Below I have included my link to my business website, read it over, find out what we’re all about, fill out a way for me to contact you and lets get you started to creating Your new future. I will provide you with all the information on my company with no pressure or obligation. Let the Teaching Begin!!

ESSENTIAL CONCEPTS FOR SUCCESS

2007-03-28T22:59:00.001-07:00

If you have a home business or are looking for a home based business opportunity, there are a few things YOU NEED to know. Network marketing is here to stay - it is one of the fastest growing industries today. More businesses are advertising on the internet than ever before. Many businesses are simply starting on the internet - because its cheaper and more effective. Why shouldnt you? If you are one of those people who believe you can get rich quick doing nothing - network marketing is not for you. Understand this concept or you will invest in every get rich quick scam out there and LOSE. Network marketing requires WORK - now understand, you may only need to devote 20hrs a week or so - but you are still working your business. There is NO opportunity out there that allows you to sit at home and do NOTHING! Do not throw your money away joining these companies that make those types of promises. Okay, lets talk some more about Success.

No matter what type of home business you join, you NEED to know how to build your business. If you read about network marketers, you will hear them all say “the money is in the list”. While this may be true, I ask you to consider another concept. Most of these types of marketers have joint ventures which can be very profitable - but what happens with “their” list? They cause “burn out” to many of the people on their lists - because these people are sent tons and tons of email offers. People then “opt out” of their lists - leaving that marketer - minus 1, 2, 3 etc. What if, you built a list based on “relationships” - see many outstanding mentors out there today - suggest - building relationships instead of lists! Why? People are drawn to relationships because they can share their problems, their joys, their sorrows etc to someone who is really “listening”. How often to you meet someone who listens? Think about that, when you are talking to someone, are they looking around or looking you in the eye, do they ask you to repeat yourself or are they hearing everything you say, are they allowing themselves to be interrupted by a cell phone or are they focused on “YOU”? You see today, hardly anyone “listens” - if you want to build a lasting business that will continue to grow and grow —YOU BETTER START TO LISTEN!

You say to yourself, well that is easy I can do that. I encourage you to try - take a look at yourself and how you have been building your business. If you are the typical marketer - you pressure the person to make a decision NOW - you dont listen to anything they are saying, your focus is on closing them today. WRONG!! Stop it!! You will not have a successful business if you continue to build it this way — do you know why? Because everyone you sign into your business will follow in your example and build their business the wrong way. If you are doing this now, I encourage you to change. Building your business on relationships - which develop trust and respect and security - are far more worth it. You will be amazed at how quickly your business can grow if you develop these traits and teach them to your partners.

I hope you will take the time to examine your business and make sure you are growing it the right way. My home based business is important to me, but more importantly is what people see in me. Are they seeing a leader or partner that really cares - or are they seeing someone in it for the money? My focus is that people that join with me in my home business will see a leader that wants them to succeed. A leader that desires them to achieve greatness. A leader that will teach them “how” to build a successful business - the “right” way. What do your partners see in you?

If you would like to contact me about my home business - visit me here http://lauriem.6s2u.com

***I WISH YOU SUCCESS - IN BUILDING YOUR BUSINESS THE “RIGHT WAY”.***

101 Stupendous Pick Up Lines and others

2007-03-28T22:54:00.000-07:00

1. Can I borrow a quarter? I want to call my mom and tell her I just met the girl of my dreams.
2. Is your daddy a theif? Then who stole the sparkle of the stars and put them into your eyes?
3. Will you go out with me?………. to McDonald’s? +
4. Can I flirt with you?
5. Blonde, James Blonde… Jr. =
6. I looked up the word BEAUTIFUL in the thesaurus taday, and your name was included.
7. I’ve had a really bad day and it always makes me feel better to see a pretty girl smile. So…
would you please smile for me?
8. Hey, somebody farted. Lets get out of here!
9. You’ve got the whitest teeth I have ever seen!
10. Excuse me, but what pick up line works best for you?
11. Hi, what’s a girl like you doing in a nice place like this?
12. Hi, can I buy you a car?
13. Excuse me, I seem to have lost my phone number, can I please borrow yours?
14. Do you have a boyfriend?
No?! Well do you want one?
Oh, you do? Well, when you want a MANfriend, come talk to me!
15. Can I have directions?… to your heart?
16. For a minute there I thought I had died and gone to heaven, but now I realize that I am very much alive, and that heaven has been brought to me.
17. Have you always been this cute, or did you have to work at it?
18. Hey, don’t I know you? Yah, you’re that girl with the beautiful smile!
19. You know, you might be asked to leave soon. You’re making the other women look really bad.
20. Hi, you’re cute!
21. Hi, are you legal? No, your to hot to be legal.
22. I’m not drunk, I’m just intoxicated by you.
23. You know, girls like you give guys like me a reason to live.
24. Even the word Chicka-mama doesn’t describe you! -
25. Is there an airport nearby or is that just my heart taking off?
26. Nice socks, can I try them on? +
27. Can I carry your books?
28. Your father must be a drug dealer, cuz you dope!
29. Your father must be an alien, because there’s nothing else like you on earth!
30. Your dad must be an awsome baker, because you have rad buns!
31. You know, if I could rearange the alphabet, I’d put U and I together.
32. Out of curiosity, were you born on a plane? cuz baby, you’re FLY!
33. Hey, what are the chances of a guy like me, picking up a girl like you? +
34. Hi, do you dig guys who use cheesy pick up lines? +
35. Hi, will you reject me if I try and pick you up? +
36. I advise you to surrender imediately or I’ll have to use a pick up line. -
37. If I had hand-cuffs, I’d lock myself to you right now! -
38. It’s a good thing I brought my gloves today, other wise you’d be too hot to handle! -
39. Yesterday, I found this magic lamp and I asked the genie to let you to fall in love with me… did it work? -
40. Is your name Gellete? cuz your the best a man can get.
41. So I heard you got the hots for me!
42. Hey, I know you, yah, you’re that girl in the supermarket looking for the jamacan banana! +
43. That’s amazing! You’re eyes are the exact same color as my porche!
44. Are you tired? cuz you’ve been running around in my mind all day!
45. I know milk does a body bood, but how much have you been drinking?!!!!!
46. Are those space pants? cuz your legs are out of this world!
47. It’s a good thing I have my library card, because I’m checkin’ you out!
48. Hey good lookin’, what’s cookin’?
49. See these arms? They are just dying to be wrapped around you! +
50. Reproducing, eh? Mind if I help? (ya kinda need to be at a copy maching for this one)
51. Do you mind if I stare at you up close, instead of from across the room?
52. Hey baby, got any cavities?
53. If I asked you…… would you marry me? +
54. I got a word for you in my secret language, it’s Chicka-mama! -
55. I’ll see you later, I have to pick up my new porche.
56. Are you a model? =
57. Do you want to come over? My mom wants to be the first one to meet the girl of my dreams! +
58. I’m a stud, not a dud! =
59. Hey, I’m writing a love letter to you, how exactly do you spell BEAUTIFUL? +
60. My heart combination is LOVE! =
61. Wanna get married in the temple? (you sort of have to be Mormons to use this one)
62. My pits say, you smell good! =
63. If it startd to rain, would you come under my unbrella? +
64. Hey, is it hot in here, or it that just you?
65. Am I hot or what?
66. You are beautiful in every language! +
67. If beauty were measured in seconds, you’d be an hour!
68. I thought I’d come over and say hello before you caught me staring.
69. Was it love at first sight, or should I walk by again?
70. So are you ever going to talk to me, or were you just going to continue to stare?
71. You have the academic look I just lust after.
72. You’re cute! Mind if I use you so I can impress my friends?
73. Can I buy you a soda, or do you just want the money?
74. I’ve got a thirst baby, and you smell like my Gatoraid!
75. Nice boots, want a meaningful relationship?
76. What? Do you want one of us to come over there and bite you are something?
77. Hey, I’m bored. Entertain me and I’ll buy you a root beer.
78. You look like the type of girl that has heard every line in the book, so what’s one more?
79. Hi, the voices in my head tole me to come over and talk to you.
80. Hi, all my friend call me sheldon. +
81. Hey, I’m in a rock band! +
82. Hey honey, I got money!
83. Are you Sweadish? cuz you’re the sweetish girl I’ve met!
- or - cuz you’re the sweetish fish in the sea!
84. Excuse me, but you owe me a soda! cuz when i saw how beautiful you were, I dropped mine.
85. How are you? [”Fine”] Darn right you are.
86. My name is Peter Pan, cuz I can take you to Never Never Land.
87. I’m gonna follow you home.
88. You are a cruel thief, cuz you stole my heart!
89. If I followed you home, would you keep me?
90. Do you have a map? I just keep getting lost in your eyes.
91. Are you O.K.? because it’s a long fall from heaven.
92. I’m sorry, I’m an artist and it’s my job to stare at beautiful women!
93. Hey, I’m a professional wrestler, can I get ya in a headlock? Don’t worry, I get paid to do this! +
94. I know I don’t look like much now, but I’m drinking milk.
95. What does it feel like to be the most beautiful girl in this room?
96. You must be from Tennassee! Because you are the only TEN I see!
97. Yo baby, gimme yo digits! +
98. You know what I think? I think that it is about time you stop ignoring me. Let’s say we engage in a meaningless conversation… +
99. Hey, can you do me a HUGE favour!? Ask me on a date in front of my friend over there? +
100. Do you alway wear your shoes over your socks?
101. See my friend over there? (he waves sheepishly from afar) Well, he wants to know if you think I’m cute!

32 lines to get sugar

1. I bet you a dollar I can kiss you without touching you. (kiss) Here’s your dollar.
2. Hey, what would you do if I kissed you right now?!!
3. Hey, normaly I charge girls when they kiss me, but for you I’ll make an exeption. -
4. Kiss me if I’m wrong but haven’t we met before?
5. Wanna get some pizza and KISS?… No!? you don’t like pizza?!!
6. So hey, I hear you’re a great kisser. +
7. Do you like peanut butter? Do you want to kiss?
8. Do you want to play spin the bottle? Come on! +
9. Did you know that kissing prolongs life? +
10. Doesn’t this musick make you want to kiss? +
11. My friend bet me ten bucks you wouldn’t kiss me, so lets say I give you half and you do.
12. Do you want to dance? No?! Then I guess kissing is out of the question, eh?
13. If I were elvis, would you kiss me?
14. Here’s the deal, give me a kiss and if I don’t like it, I swear I’ll give you a full refund. +
15. If you kiss me, I promise to stop bugging you.
16. Hey baby, how about some kissing lessons? I’m a professional amateur! ^+
17. Yo mama, how about some lip wrestling? ^
18. Is it cold in here, or are you just afraid to kiss me? +
19. If I was the last man on Earth, I bet you would kiss me in public!
20. Hey, you wanna know what I heard about you? Kiss me and I’ll tell you.
21. Hey, my lips can dance just as good as me! let’s kiss! +
22. i’m usually better looking! give me a kiss and i’ll turn into a prince!
23. hugs are for wusses, give me a kiss! +
24. i’ll give you 10 bucks if you kiss me right now in front of my friend over there!
25. Do you believe in obeying the scriptures? read this… (2 corinthians 13:12) +
26. hey girls, each of you pick a number between 1 & 100. you win! (kiss the girl who’s the hottest and run) +%
27. Didn’t anyone tell you that you wanted to kiss me?!?! I thought you knew???
28. Kiss me if I am wrong, but you want to go out with me, don’t you…
29. Kiss me if I’m wrong, but isn’t your name… ?
30. Hi, I’m not trying to pressure you, I don’t want to kiss without mutual consent; but by the way, you have my consent, don’t worry!
31. My lips are registered weapons. Watch out, cuz your on my wanted list!
32. I am a magical being, I command you to kiss me. NOW! (stretch your arms out and wiggle your fingers)

Even More Pick Up Lines

1) Hello, you caught my attention but I’m in the middle of a conversation with an old friend of mine. Let me buy you a soda now, and I’ll be back in a few minutes because I’d really like to meet you!
2) Hey baby, wanna wrestle? +
3) I’m not Elmo, but you can tickle me anytime you like!
4) I’d walk a million miles to see one of your smiles.
5) Hey, if i wistled at you, would you stop and talk to me??? +
6) You can’t be sisters! That’s not fair to the rest of the family trees to have 2 peices of fruit as beautiful as you. +
7) Hey, how old do you think i am? +
Hey, can i write a song about you? I will call it, “to the love of my life… you are so beautiful!” +
9) Hey, can i butt into your personal life? +
10) Do you think i have a chance with you? +
11) Hey, what’s your name? Wow! Did you know what the ancient greek translation for your name is? Your name means… “Godess of Beauty!” +
12) Did you want to go out with me, or do you just get a kick out of playing hard to get? +
13) Hey, my email address is: “sheldon@studly_and_available.com”. +
14) Hey, can i buy you some flowers? +
15) Hey babalicious, are you chewable… i mean available? +
16) Are your hands cold? +
17) Wanna see my socks? +
18) Do you have even the slightest idea of how beautiful you are? +
19) Do you always have to look this good?! You are driving me bananas! +
20) I bit the last girl who turned “me” down! +
21) Why are you ignoring me? You haven’t said a word to me all day! +
22) (Give them a flower) “I just wanted to show this flower how beautiful you are!”
23) Hey, my dentist says i have perfect theeth! (you need milk duds caught in your teeth for this one to work!) +
24) Who are you waiting for? … are you sure you aren’t waiting for me??? +
25) It’s girls like you that make days like this, all the more beautiful! +
26) So uh, … what um… are you, uh… doing on uhm… you know … like on Saturday night?
27) Would you like to help me with my self esteem?
28) I am looking for someone with a good head on their shoulders. I just hate necks.
29) Excuse me, but … would you like to see my collection of curly nose hairs?
30) Are you religious? Good, because I’m the answer to your prayers.
31) Are those space pants??? Because your buns are out of this world!
32) Do you want to dance? No? NO! i said you look fat in those pants!
33) Achoo! Sorry, i must be alergic to your good looks!
34) If beauty were a drop of water, you’d be an ocean!
35) Man, you sure are easy on the eyes!
36) You’re walkin’ like you want a boyfriend! so… want one?
37) Hey, open your mouth! i just want to see if you are as beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside! +
38) do you have stars on your underwear? becuase your butt is out of this world!
39) Your good looks are lethal! you’re killing me! +
40) Do you have a license to kill? becuase your good looks are killing me! +
41) Even if you were a cactus, i would still want to hug you! +
42) So hey, your friend told me you got the hots for me… i think she’s right! +
43) Hey, here’s the signals: thumbs up it’s good, thumbs down it’s bad. here’s the plan: you stay right here, don’t take off on me! i’m gonna go over there behind that bush, and when you see me pop my head out, give me the signal wether you would go on a date with me or not, k? see you soon! +
44) hey, wanna hold the preisthood?
45) i get so frustrated when hot chicks like you only look as far as the surface, cant you see my inner beauty??? +
46) i dont have time for long goodbyes… so here. (hug and run!)%
47) i dont have time for those lame cheezy pickuplines, so i’ll just say your one hot mama! %+
48) quick call 9-11, ther’s about to be a crime committed (hug and run) hug and run, hug and run! +
49) sorry for what i’m about to do. (hug and run)%
50) i hope you dont take any offence to this but… (hug and run)%
51) whats your name? oh thats nice, i’ll probly never see you again, so… (hug and run)+%
52) pick a number between 1 and 101. (say the pick up line they choose) +
53) wanna see a magic trick? i can dissapear real fast, watch! close your eyes… (hug and run) +
54) hey wanna go on a date? (put a date on ground, pick her up in your arms [pick a hot chick, preferably skinny] and stand on the date.) how long do you want to be on this date for? +
55) ever since i was a kid, my mom has taught me the importance of household chores, the most useful chore she ever taught me was how to sweep. because now as i’ve gotten older… and wiser, i can now sweep girls off there feet! (pick up the girl but do not drop her) +
56) you’re lucky good looks dont start fires, becuase you could burn down a forest! +
57) i’m gonna cry, quick, hold me! ha ha ha +
58) hey, i’ve got something for you (when they open there hand, hold it)
59) you are too pretty for words!
60) Your eyes are as blue as window cleaner.
61) Hey you’re in my seat!
62) Do you have any raisins?’
“No I don’t.”
‘You don’t have any raisins? Well then, how about a date?’
63) I saw you at the party last weekend and you look kind of interesting. Let’s meet sometime.
64) Did the sun come out or did you just smile at me?
65) Hey, if I wistled at you, would you stop and talk to me? +
66) Hey, lucky you… it’s National Hug Day! (hug and run) +
67) If you were a tear in my eye I would not cry for fear of losing you.
68) My lenses turn dark in the sunshine of your love!
69) So there you are! I’ve been looking all over for YOU, the girl of my dreams!
70) Stand still so I can pick you up!
71) Would you touch me so I can tell my friends I’ve been touched by an angel?
72) Wouldn’t we look cute on a wedding cake together?
73) [Grab her tush.] Pardon me, is this seat taken?
74) Your eyes are blue, like the ocean. And baby, I’m lost at sea
75) Your name must be Mickey because your so fine.
76) You’re daddy must be a hunter because he sure caught a fox!
77) Can you say constantinople backwards? Me neither, but I just wanted to ask. (elponitnatsnoc)
78) Can you spell ICUP? “I-C-U-P” You saw me pee?!?!? (laugh profusely)
79) I am very, very lonely, and I was wonderin’…
80) would you like to help me with my self esteam?
81) would you go on a date with me sometime?
82) You are just truly absolutely beautiful!
83) If you were a booger I’d pick you first.
84) Your name is Sandra, huh? Can I call you Sandy? Really? what’s your phone number, and what time can I call? are you sure boys are allowed to call you???
85) Are my undies showing? “No.” Would you like them to?
86) Hey, are you one of those chicks who goes out with guys right off the bat? ‘Cause that’s what I’m looking for.
87) Congratulations! You’ve been voted “Most Beautiful Girl In This Room” and the grand prize is a date with me!
88) Hey, I need your help! My mom says that if I don’t get a date by tomorrow, she’s putting me up for adoption! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease…
89) Hey, check these out! (flex your bicepts) +
90) Your hands look cold. Do you want me to warm them up?
91) Girl, you so fine! I wish I could plant you and grow a hole field of you!
92) Baby, you must be a broom, cause you just swept me off my feet.
93) I think I can die happy now, ‘cause I’ve just seen a piece of heaven.
94) Baby, you’re so sweet, you gonna put Hershey’s outta business!
95) I just had to come talk with you. Sweetness is my weakness.
96) Is it hot in here or is it just you?
97) Nice to meet you, I’m Sheldon and you’re Gorgeous!
98) You make me melt like hot fudge on a sundae.
99) So, what do you do for a living besides making guys excited and warm all over?
100) Were your parents Greek Gods? ’cause it takes two Gods to make a Goddess!
101) What does it feel like to be the most beautiful girl in this room?
102) What’s that on your face? Oh, must just be beauty… Here, let me get it off. Hey, it’s not coming off???
103) Ya know, you are really hot! You must be the real reason for global warming.
104) Excuse me, but you have a beep on your nose. “What?” (Reach up and gently squeeze her nose) BEEP!
105) Hi, my name is Sheldon, how do you like me so far?
106) Chicks dig me. I wear colored undywear.
107) Hey, wanna take me out for ice cream sometime??? +
108) Hey, you’re the cosine of an isosolece triangle and i’m a tangent on the same side of the transversal! +
109) i’m gonna put this blind fold on, ok? and now i’m gonna sing you a song, and if you are still standing (or sitting) there when i’m done singing and I take the blind fold off, then that means that either you like my singing, or else you think i’m a hot stud and you want a date with me. ok, here I go… today i’m gonna be singing, “someone’s in the kitchen with Dina”

The cowboy boots

2007-03-28T22:52:00.001-07:00

An elderly couple, Margaret and Bert, are in Alberta. Bert always wanted a pair of authentic cowboy boots. So seeing some on sale one day, he buys them, wears them home,walking proudly He walks into the house and says to his wife

‘Notice anything different about me?’

Margaret looks him over, ‘Nope.’

Frustrated Bert storms off into the bathroom, undresses, and walks back into the room completely naked except for the boots.Again, he asks, a little louder this time ‘Notice anything different NOW?’

Margaret looks up and says, ‘Bert, what’s different? It’s hanging down today, it was hanging down yesterday, and it’ll be hanging down again tomorrow.’

Furious, Bert yells, AND DO YOU KNOW WHY IT’S HANGING DOWN, MARGARET?

‘ Nope,’ she replies. IT’S HANGING DOWN BECAUSE IT’S LOOKING AT MY NEW BOOTS!!!!!’

To which Margaret replies…Shoulda bought a hat, Bert. Shoulda bought a hat.’

Can’t Blame White People - Bill Cosby

2007-03-28T22:51:00.001-07:00

They’re standing on the corner and they can’t speak English.

I can’t even talk the way these people talk:

Why you ain’t,

Where you is,

What he drive,

Where he stay,

Where he work,

Who you be…

And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk.

And then I heard the father talk

Everybody knows it’s important to speak English…

except these knuckleheads.

Mushmouth is what they speak!?

You can’t be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth.

In fact you will never get any kind of job making a decent living.

People marched and were hit in the face with rocks to get an education,

and now we’ve got these knuckleheads throwing that all away.?

The lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal.

These people are not parenting.

They are buying things for kids. $500 sneakers for what?

And they won’t spend $200 for Hooked on Phonics.

I am talking about these people who cry

when their son is standing there in an orange suit.

Where were you when he was 2?

Where were you when he was 12?

Where were you when he was 18?

And, how come you didn’t know that he had a pistol?

And where is the father?

Or who is his father?

People putting their clothes on backward:

Isn’t that a sign of something gone wrong?

People with their hats on backward,

pants down around the crack,

isn’t that a sign of something?

They’re walking around with their nasty underwear showing, and

holding onto their pants to keep them from falling to the ground!

Or are you waiting for Jesus to pull his pants up?

Isn’t it a sign of something

when she has her dress all the way up to her panty line,

and got all types of needle piercings

going through her body?

What part of Africa did this come from?

We are not Africans.

Those people are not Africans;

they don’t know a thing about Africa .

With names like Shaniqua, Taliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail.

Brown or black versus the Board of Education

is no longer the white person’s problem.

We have got to take the neighborhood back.

People used to be ashamed.

Today a woman has eight children

with eight different ‘husbands’ –

or men or whatever you call them now.

We have millionaire football players

who cannot read.

We have million-dollar basketball players

who can’t write two paragraphs.

We as black folks have to do a better job.

Someone working at Wal-Mart

with seven kids saying…

you are hurting us.

We have to start holding each other

to a higher standard.

We cannot blame the white people any longer.

It is not for media or anyone of this time

anymore to say whether I’m right or wrong.

It is time, ladies and gentlemen,

to look at the numbers.

Fifty percent of our children are dropping out

of high school.

Sixty percent of the incarcerated males

happen to be illiterate. There’s a correlation.

Tell the media to stop asking me what I think about people who don’t believe what I’m saying or feel that I’m too harsh or feel that I’m just running my mouth because I’m old.

Seventy percent of the teenagers pregnant happen to be African American girls.

Don’t ask me to soften my message.

-Bill Cosby

Telephone Problems

2007-03-28T22:48:00.000-07:00

A South Carolina farm wife called the local phone company to report her telephone failed to ring when her friends called - and that on the few occasions when it did ring, her dog always moaned right before the phone rang.

The telephone repairman proceeded to the scene, curious to see this psychic dog or senile lady.

He climbed a telephone pole, hooked in his test set, and dialed the subscriber’s house.

The phone didn’t ring right away, but then the dog moaned, and the telephone began to ring. Climbing down from the pole, the telephone repairman found the following clues:

1. The dog was tied to the telephone system’s ground wire with a steel chain and collar.

2. The wire connection to the ground rod was loose.

3. The dog was receiving 90 volts of signaling current when the number was called.

4. After a couple of jolts, the dog would start moaning, and then urinate.

5. The wet ground would complete the circuit, thus causing the phone to ring.

Moral: All of which goes to demonstrate that some problems CAN be fixed by pissing and moaning.

Funny Email,s Humor(Sign language)

2007-03-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

A construction worker on the 3rd floor of a building needs a handsaw and spots another man (Veli) on the 1st floor. He yells down to him, but the noise makes it impossible to hear anything, so he tries sign language.

He points at his eye meaning “I”, points at his knee meaning, “need”, and moves his hand back and forth in a handsaw motion.

The man on the 1st floor (Veli) nods his head, pulls down his pants, and starts masturbating.

The man on the 3rd floor gets so angry he runs down to the 1st floor and shouts,” What the f*ck is wrong with you, idiot? I said I needed a handsaw!”

The other guy says, “I knew that, I was just trying to tell you I’m coming.

Hips Don´t Lie Bamboo (FIFA WORLD CUP 2006)

2007-03-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

Shakira performed before the start of the World Cup Soccer Final in Berlin. They released a special Mix of Hips Don’t Lie.

Lyrics Hips Dont lie

dance like this
She makes a man want to speak spanish
Como se llama (SI) bonita (SI)
Mi casa (SHAKIRA SHAKIRA) su casa
Oh baby when you talk like that
You make a woman go mad
So be wise and keep on
Reading the signs of my body
And i’m on tonight
You know my hips dont lie
And i’m starting to feel it’s right
ay ay ay to the bamboooo
La gloria te esta esperando
Latino! Africano! Asiatico! Americano!
Tu Dios te esta mirando!
BamboooOOOooo
Tembaleuoluwaaluweee
Anubaleee le balooo
Levanlevaaandaa laoooo
No Fighting tonight!
I never really knew that she could dance like this
She makes a fan want to speak spanish
Como se llama (SI) bonita (SI)
Mi casa (SHAKIRA SHAKIRA) su casa
Oh baby when you talk like that
You make a woman go mad
So be wise and keep on
Reading the signs of my body
And i’m on tonight
You know my hips dont lie
And i’m starting to feel you boy
ay ay ay to the bamboooo
La gloria te esta esperando
I know i’m on tonight
So my hips dont lie
And i’m starting to feel it’s right
Come on let’s go, let’s go
Tu Dios te esta mirando!
Baila en la calle de noche…
Baila en la calle de dia…
Baila en la calle de noche…
Juega en la calle de dia…
People in the front, DONT FIGHT TONIGHT!
People in the side, DONT FIGHT TONIGHT!
People in the back, DONT FIGHT TONIGHT!
Dont fight tonight!
Dont fight tonight!
Let’s go…
I’m a student of Pele, call me Pele player.
Eleven on the field with the heart of a gladiator
one GOAL
two GOAL
three GOAL
GOAL!
Imma play til my knees grow low
one GOAL
two GOAL
three GOAL
GOAL!
Everybody in the final state go
And my futbol jersey says maradonna
And the crowd chants, sounds like spirits from Africa
BamboooOOOooo
Tembaleuoluwaaluweee
Anubaleee le.

Shakira calls for peace

2007-03-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 29, 2006

New Shakira Photos and Cards

There are new pics in our Photo Album. Have a look.. Hope you like them.

posted by shakiraweb at 1:52 pm

Comments (0)

Sunday, July 23, 2006

Shakira calls for peace

Shakira called for a cease-fire before her concert in Athens last thursday:

“Its urgent that there is an international diplomatic intervention and an immediate cease-fire. I am sad, I guess like the rest of the world is, to know that because of this conflict so many innocent mothers and children are dying. I just want a call from my generation to the US leaders and the super power countries’ leaders to stop this war because we all know that they can stop it. I just hope that there is an international diplomatic intervention right away. We want something better for our kids; the kids in Colombia, the kids in Israel, the kids of Palestine, the kids of the world, because I believe in only one human race…

There is a lot that we need to start doing in order to survive as a community and as one human race.”

New Shakira Photos and Cards

2007-03-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

There are new shakira photos, pictures in our Shakira Photo Album. Have a look.. Hope you like them. New Photos Of Shakira

2007-03-28T22:01:00.000-07:00

Stars to launch 'Latin Live Aid'

2007-03-28T21:59:00.000-07:00

Stars to launch 'Latin Live Aid'

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is the foundation's honorary president

Musicians, intellectuals and leading businessmen from across Latin America are in Panama to announce a series of benefit concerts next year.

The events are part of a drive to help reduce regional poverty and observers say they will partly emulate the Live Aid humanitarian effort for Africa.

They will feature stars including Colombian singer Shakira and the Panamanian salsa singer, Ruben Blades.

Buenos Aires, Miami and Los Angeles are among five cities hosting the events.

The concerts are part of a wider foundation, the Latin America Solidarity Action Foundation - known as Alas or wings in Spanish.

Facing facts

The Colombian novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is the honorary president of the foundation which was also launched on Tuesday.

Colombian pop singer Shakira was at the launch in Panama

Its aims include improving development and tackling child poverty.

"Latin America has some devastating statistics," Mr Garcia Marquez said at the launch.

He made reference to the 350,000 children under five who die from causes linked to poverty and the 40 million minors who work in the street.

"We all have to do our part to fight against inequality," pop singer Shakira said prior to the launch.

The foundation has received the backing of Unicef.

"The artists are building something different, with a vision and an interest in inclusion," representative Nils Kastberg said.

Shakira At Latin Live Aid

2007-03-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Artists, intellectuals and leading businessmen from Latin America are in Panama to announce a series of benefit concerts. Several stars including Colombian singer Shakira and the Panamanian salsa singer, Ruben Blade will perform at these concerts. Buenos Aires, Miami and Los Angeles are among five cities hosting the events.

The concerts are part of the Latin America Solidarity Action Foundation who tries to reduce regional poverty.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

2007-03-28T21:53:00.000-07:00

They allready canceled two concerts. The Arnhem concert in Gelredome has been rescheduled for March 17. Shakira, who had her Birthday on 2 February, suffers from a throat infection. She has problems with the freezing cold in Europe. Lets hope she gets better soon. She can’t wait performing on stage: “It is fantastic to connect with so many people on this tour. I’ve learned so much about this continent and its people but it is freezing.”

ASHLEE SIMPSON’s NEW ‘JACKASS’ BOYFRIEND!

2007-03-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Ashlee Simpson is rumored to have been secretly dating ‘Jackass‘ star Chris Raab.

The sexy blonde recently announced she was looking for a normal boyfriend after things went so wrong with celebrity men Wilmer Valderrama and Ryan Cabrera, but the reality has proved her the opposite.

Ashlee and ‘Jackass’ Chris Raab was reportedly seen snuggling at Metal Skool night at Hollywood’s Key Club nightclub.

Stolen Ashlee Simpson Sex Tape Released?

2007-03-28T21:43:00.000-07:00

An Ashlee Simpson sex tape allegedly stolen from her house was being released on the internet. But sources close to Ashlee dismissed it as rumers.

The pictures which are claimed to be the screen caps of the said sex tape seems to be too different to be true. Though face of the girl on the pictures appers to be Ashlee Simpson, the body is totally different - with smaller sized t*ts.

Yet the name of the male in the tape is not known anyone.

It is better to warn those who has the urge to see the movie, not to get cheated by those websites which claims to have the tape and charge $$ for a download.

Ashlee Simpson has refutes Lindsay Lohans

2007-03-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

“I didn’t steal her boyfriend! I dated her ex when I was 17, before she dated him” is what Ashlee Simpson told about the ‘boyfriend’ fiasco with Lindsay Lohan.

Ashlee Simpsons new single ‘Boyfriend’ which was rumored to be about Lindsay Lohan “stealing” her ex, Wilmer Vanderrama, according to some reposrts.

But ashlee Simpson said “It’s just a song about every girl who has gone through a situation where somebody thinks you took their boyfriend - and I didn’t steal her boyfriend!”

“She is a sweet girl. But we’re obviously not best friends. I don’t see her all the time, but when I do, we always say hi.” Says Ashlee Simpson about Lindsay Lohan.

Hayko - Anytime You Need ( Eurovision 2007)

2007-03-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

HELSINKI 2007 Eurovision

( How To Download : right click then click save target as.. )

Download Mp3 Song

( link 2 )

Hay Tgheq & H.A.Y.Q. - Nor Jahelutyun

2007-03-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hay Tgheq & H.A.Y.Q.

" Nor Jahelutyun "

( How To Download : right click then click save target as.. )

Download Mp3 Song

What is Bollywood

2007-03-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

What is “Bollywood”?
Bollywood is the name given to the Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India. When combined with other Indian film industries (Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada), it is considered to be the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced, and maybe also the number of tickets sold.

The term Bollywood was created by conflating Bombay (the city now called Mumbai) and Hollywood (the famous center of the United States film industry).

Bollywood films are usually musicals. Few movies are made without at least one song-and-dance number. Indian audiences expect full value for their money; they want songs and dances, love interest, comedy and dare-devil thrills, all mixed up in a three hour long extravaganza with intermission. Such movies are called masala movies, after the spice mixture masala. Like masala, these movies have everything.

The plots are often melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers, corrupt politicians, twins separated at birth, conniving villains, angry parents, courtesans with hearts of gold, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.
Bollywood song and dance
While most actors, especially today, are excellent dancers, few are also singers. Songs are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers with actors lip-synching the words, often while dancing. One notable exception was Kishore Kumar who starred in several major films in the 1950s while also having a stellar career as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya and Noor Jehan were also known as both singers and actors. Of late, a few actors have again tried singing for themselves. Amitabh Bachchan, who started the trend of non-singing stars at the mike with the runaway hit “Mere Angane Mein” in “Lawaaris” in the mid-80’s, continued his toe-dipping in singing with turns in “Silsila”, “Mahaan” “Toofan” and more recently in the movies Baghban and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, as well as doing a duet with Adnan Sami in the song Kabhi Nahi (Never). Aamir Khan took a turn singing “Kya Bolti Tu” in Ghulam but only because “the character had attitude that only Aamir could do justice to”, according to director Vikram Bhatt. These forays, while well-received at the time, have not led to real singing careers for either actor.

Playback singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans who will go to an otherwise lackluster movie just to hear their favorites. The composers of film music, known as music directors, are also well-known. Their songs can make or break a film and usually do.

The dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modeled on Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans (tawaif), or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles (as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals), though it is not unusual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film. The hero or heroine will often perform with a troupe of supporting dancers, usually of the same sex. If the hero and heroine dance and sing a pas-de-deux (a dance and ballet term, meaning “dance of two”), it is often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings.

What is Bollywood dancing?
Bollywood dancing is a commercial name for modern Indian dancing. It’s a combination of classical Indian dance (which is the base), folk dancing such as Bhangra and sometimes has a Latino and Arabic influence. It’s fun and very expressive and there’s a lot of deep meaning behind music in the films. You can actually express what the music means, through the graceful movements of the body.

Why is dancing so crucial to Bollywood films?
People in India have been brought up on musicals and if the music in a film isn’t very good, sometimes the movie doesn’t sell. Specific producers, such as Yash Chopra, Karan Johar generally produce movies with phenomenal and very emotional songs; hence the dancing comes into play.

Choreographers are now starting to take the industry by storm because Farah Khan – a famous choreographer recently directed her first movie called Main Hoon Na. This goes to show that people want to see elaborate and funky dance sequences, they don’t want pure acting, hence dancing is a crucial.

Dialogues and lyrics
The film script (frequently credited as “Dialogues”) and the song lyrics are often written by different people. The dialogues are mostly written in Hindi, with use of Urdu in situations which require poetic dialogues. Contemporary mainstream movies also make great use of English. Dialogues are often melodramatic and invoke God, family, mother, and self-sacrifice liberally.

- In the 1975 film Deewar, a dialogue between the gangster brother Vijay and his policeman brother Ravi:

Vijay: Hum dono ek hi jagah se apni zindagi ki shuruwat ki thi — aaj main kaha hoon aur tum kahan ho. Mere paas gaadi hai, bungalow hai, daulat hai — kya hai tumhaarey paas?
We both started our lives from the same place — look where I am today and where you are. I have cars, bungalows, wealth — what do you have?

Ravi: Mere paas ma hai.
I have Mother.

Music directors often prefer working with certain lyricists, to the point that the lyricist and composer are seen as a team. Song lyrics are usually about love. Bollywood song lyrics, especially in the old movies, frequently use Urdu or Hindustani vocabulary which has many elegant and poetic Arabic and Persian loan-words. Here’s a sample from the 1983 film Hero, written by the great lyricist Anand Bakshi:

Bichhdey abhi to hum, bas kal parso,
jiyoongi main kaisey, is haal mein barson?
Maut na aayi, teri yaad kyon aayi,
Haaye, lambi judaayi!

We have been separated just a day or two,
How am I going to go on this way for years?
Death doesn’t come; why, instead, do these memories of you?
Oh, this long separation!

Cast and crew
Bollywood employs people from all parts of India. It attracts thousands of aspiring actors and actresses, all hoping for a break in the industry. Models and beauty contestants, television actors, theatre actors and even common people come to Mumbai with the hope and dream of becoming a star. Just as in Hollywood very few succeed.

Stardom in the entertainment industry is very fickle, and Bollywood is no exception. Popularity of the stars can rise and fall rapidly, based on single movies. Very few people become national icons, who are unaffected by success or failure of their movies, like Amitabh Bachchan. Directors compete to hire the most popular stars of the day, who are believed to guarantee the success of a movie (though this belief is not always supported by box-office results). Hence stars make the most of their fame, once they become popular, by making several movies simultaneously. Aamir Khan is one of the few actors who is notable for his insistence on doing only one movie at a time.

Bollywood can be clannish, and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge in getting coveted roles. One notable film clan is the Kapoors: the patriarch Prithviraj Kapoor, his sons Raj Kapoor, Shammi, and Shashi, Raj’s sons Randhir, Rishi, and Rajiv, and Randhir’s daughters Karisma and Kareena Kapoor, have all been popular actors or even stars. Yet industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is brutal and if film industry scions don’t succeed at the box office, their careers will falter.

Bollywood awards
The Indian screen magazine Filmfare started the first Filmfare Awards in 1953. These awards were to be Bollywood’s version of the Academy Awards. Magazine readers submit their votes and the awards are presented at a glamorous, star-studded ceremony. Like the Oscars, they are frequently accused of bias towards commercial success rather than merit.

Other companies (Stardust magazine, Zee TV etc) later entered the award business. Some of the other popular awards are:

Zee Cine Awards
Star Screen Awards
Stardust awards
IIFA Awards

They all sponsor elaborately staged award ceremonies, featuring singing, dancing, and lots of stars and starlets.

Since 1973, the Indian government has sponsored the National Film Awards, awarded by the government-sponsored Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF). The DFF screens not only Bollywood films, but films from all the other regional cinemas and independent/art films. These awards are handed out at a ceremony presided over by the President of India and hence are coveted by all.

Finances
Bollywood budgets are usually modest by Hollywood standards. Sets, costumes, special effects, and cinematography were less than world-class up until the mid-to-late 1990s. But as Western films and television gain wider distribution in India itself, there is increasing pressure for Bollywood films to attain the same production levels. Sequences shot overseas have proved a real box office draw, so Mumbai film crews are increasingly peripatetic, filming in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are drawing in more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well, such as Lagaan, Devdas, and the current production The Rising.

Funding for Bollywood films often comes from private distributors and a few large studios. Indian banks were forbidden to lend money to film productions, but this ban has been lifted recently. As the finances are not regulated properly some of the money also comes from illegitimate sources. Mumbai gangsters have produced films, patronized stars, and used muscle to get their way in cinematic deals. In January of 2000, Mumbai mafia hitmen shot at Rakesh Roshan, film director and father of star Hrithik Roshan; he had rebuffed mob attempts to meddle with his film distribution. In 2001 the Central Bureau of Investigation, India’s national police agency, seized all prints of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke after the movie was found to be funded by members of the Mumbai underworld.

Another problem facing Bollywood is piracy of its films. Often pirated DVDs arrive before the print for the picture. Factories in Pakistan and India stamp out thousands of illegal DVDs, VCDs, and VHS tapes, which are then shipped all over the world. (Copying is particularly rife in Pakistan, since the government has banned the import of Indian films, leaving piracy as the only way to distribute them.) Films are frequently broadcast without compensation by countless small cable-TV companies in India and Asia. Small Indian grocery-spice-video stores in the U.S. and the U.K. stock tapes and DVDs of dubious provenance while consumer copying adds to the problem.

Satellite TV, television and imported foreign films are making huge inroads into the domestic Indian entertainment market. In the past, most Bollywood films could make money; now fewer do so. Balanced against this are the increasing returns from theatres in Western countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States of America, where Bollywood is slowly getting noticed. As more Indians migrate to these countries, they form a growing market for upscale Indian films. ‘Foreign’ audiences—in Asian and Western countries—are also growing, if more slowly.

What problems does Bollywood face?
Bollywood’s biggest problem is piracy - where people copy the films and either sell them or show them to other people for free. At the moment not all films made make more money than they cost to make, even though they can be seen by around one billion people.

If everyone paid to see the film legally the industry would make lots more money. At the moment Bollywood film producers are trying to work out a way to stop this happening. Another problem is that younger generations sometimes find the stories a bit predictable and are get bored of the similar tales. Film-makers are trying to solve this by changing storylines to reflect real life - like the fact that children of Indian families now study abroad.

What’s the future for Bollywood?
The future looks even brighter for Bollywood. Big US film companies such as Warner Bros and Twentieth Century Fox are setting up offices in India. Where Indian film makers have found it difficult to compete with Hollywood’s special effects, this is seen as the next big area for Bollywood to develop.

A brief summary of Indian music

2007-03-28T21:24:00.000-07:00

Indian classical music is based on the ragas (”colors”), which are scales and melodies that provide the foundation for a performance. Unlike western classical music, that is deterministic, Indian classical music allows for a much greater degree of “personalization” of the performance, almost to the level of jazz-like improvisation. Thus, each performance of a raga is different. The goal of the raga is to create a trancey state, to broadcast a mood of ecstasy. The main difference with western classical music is that the Indian ragas are not “composed” by a composer, but were created via a lengthy evolutionary process over the centuries. Thus they do not represent mind of the composer but a universal idea of the world. They transmit not personal but impersonal emotion. Another difference is that Indian music is monodic, not polyphonic. Hindustani (North Indian) ragas are assigned to specific times of the day (or night) and to specific seasons. Many ragas share the same scale, and many ragas share the same melodic theme. There are thousands of ragas, but six are considered fundamental: Bhairav, Malkauns, Hindol, Dipak, Megh and Shree. A raga is not necessarily instrumental, and, if vocal, it is not necessarily accompanied. But when it is accompanied by percussion (such as tablas), the rhythm is often rather intricate because it si constructed from a combination of fundamental rhythmic patterns (or talas). The main instrument of the ragas is the sitar, although historically the vina zither was at least equally important. Carnatic (Southern Indian) ragas constitute one of the oldest systems of music in the world. They are based on seven rhythmic cycles and 72 fundamental ragas. The founder of the karnataka school is considered to be Purandara Dasa (1480).

Interest in Indian music (until then largely unknown in the west) was triggered by Bangladesh-born sarod player Ali Akbar Khan’s 1955 concert in New York. Eventually, western curiosity for Indian music wed the hippy ethos and (thanks mainly to the Byrds’ Eight Miles High) “raga-rock” became a sonic emblem of the Sixties. His album Music of India - Morning and Evening Ragas (1955), containing two side-long ragas (the traditional Rag Sindhu Bhairavi and his own Rag Pilu Baroowa), was the first Indian classical recording to appear in the West, and the first recording of ragas on an LP. The popularity of his and Shankar’s concerts led to a stream of recordings in the Sixties, mostly featuring 20-minute long ragas: several EPs from 1961 to 1964, later collected on Sarod (1969), Traditional Music of India (1962), The Soul of Indian Music (1963), Ustad Ali Akbar Khan (1964), The Master Musicians of India (1964), Classical Music of India (1964), The Soul of Indian Music (1965), Sarod (1965), Two Ragas for Sarod (1967), etc. In 1967, Khan founded the Ali Akbar College of Music in the San Francisco Bay Area, to provide education in the classical music of North India. Among his later performances, there are still impressive ones such as Raga Basant Mukhari, off Artistic Sound of Sarod (1985). He remained faithful to his roots longer than other Indian performers, eventually experimenting with synthesizers on Journey (1991) and with instruments of the western symphonic orchestra on Garden of Dreams (1994), basically a raga symphony for a chamber orchestra.

Another disciple of Ali Akbar Khan’s father Allaudin Khan, sitar player Ravi Shankar, would become the star of Indian music. He first toured the west in 1956, when he was already a veteran and made friends among pop stars (George Harrison of the Beatles became his student in 1966). Among his historical performances are his masterpiece Raga Jog, from Three Ragas (1961), the Raga Rageshri, on Improvisations (1962), and the Ragas and Talas (1964), containing the Raga Jogiya and the Raga Madhu Kauns. Improvisations (1962), a collaboration with flutists Paul Horn and Bud Shank, was the first meeting of jazz and raga. Shankar pioneered the “east-west” fusion with West Meets East (1967), a terrible collaboration with British violinist Yehudi Menuhin containing both a raga and a sonata. Shankar was also instrumental in turning the raga into a product of mass consumption (he performed at both the 1967 Monterey Festival, the 1969 Woodstock Festival and the 1971 Concert for Bangla Desh), but he soon repudiated his “pop” period and returned to classical music. Nonetheless, he continued to experiment with western music (he performed with western symphonic orchestras and soloists), and, later, starting with Tana Mana (1987), even with electronic keyboards. He is a composer, not only a performer, including two sitar concertos (the second, Raga-Mala, debuted in 1980).

The austere, pure Pakistani-born vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, a master of the Hindustani (North Indian) kirana style since 1937, moved to the USA in 1970, performing the first morning ragas ever in the USA. His emphasis on perfect intonation and emotional subtlety influenced minimalist composers LaMonte Young and Terry Riley. He only recorded three albums: Earth Groove (1968), containing two traditional ragas, Raga Bhupali Maha Dev and Raga Asavari, Ragas Yaman Kalyan and Punjabi Berva (1972), containing his Raga Yaman Kalyan, Ragas of Morning and Night (1986), containing two 1968 compositions (Raga Darbari and Raga Todi). He also composed Raga Anant Bhairavi (1974), Raga 12-note Bhairavi (1979), Darbar Daoun (1987), and Aba Kee Tayk Hamaree (1989) for voice and string quartet.

Shankar frequently performed with tabla player Alla Rakha. His son Zakir Hussain, also a virtuoso of the tablas, came to the USA in the late 1960s and went on to star in two of the most progressive projects of world-music, Mickey Hart’s Diga Rhythm Band: Diga (1976) and jazz guitarist John McLaughlin’s Shakti. Hussain’s Making Music (1987), featuring Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansur, Jan Garbarek on saxophone and John McLaughlin on guitar, was a milestone in jazz-Indian fusion.

Less known are instrumental masters (ustad) such as sitar player Nikhil Banerjee (widely considered the century’s greatest virtuoso), bansur (bamboo flute) player Hariprasad Chaurasia, particularly the Rag Ahiv Bhairav (1987) and the 69-minute performance of his Rag Lalit (1988) and violinist Lakshminarayana Subramaniam.

Subramaniam’s son Lakshmi Shankar, who had played in Shakti with John McLaughlin, has often wasted his talent in light, pop efforts, but at least Pancha Nadai Pallavi (1991), which features three fourths of Shakti, is a dramatic and austere work in the classical tradition.

Since 1973, the stormy voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan interpreted the hypnotic litanies of Pakistan’s “qawwali” (sufi devotional music). His lengthy improvised vocal acrobatics are best represented by the colossal Ni Main Jana Jogi De and Yeh Jo Halka Halka Saroor Hai on The Day The Night The Dawn The Dusk (1991) and by the live performances of Intoxicated Spirit (1996). “Discovered” by Peter Gabriel, Ali popularized the style for the British audience with Shahen-Shah (1989). After the westernized format of Mustt Mustt (1990), basically electronic funk-rock with dub overtones, he delivered the four soaring tours de force of Shahbaaz (1991), accompanied only by droning harmonium and frenzied tablas, the Devotional and Love Songs (1993) with guitar and mandolin juxtaposed to harmonium and tablas, and The Last Prophet (1994), which focused on call-and-response group singing. He died in 1997 at 41, having recorded some 120 albums.

In 1989 John McLaughlin hired an Indian percussionist, Trilok Gurtu, the son of vocalist Shobha Gurtu, who had already played with Don Cherry and with Oregon. Gurtu’s own Usfret (1988) offered an intense mix of Indian vocals, jazz-rock and world-music.

Ilaiyaraaja (born Gnanadesikan Rasaiya) experimented a fusion of Bach and raga on How To Name It? (1988).

Debashish Bhattacharya reinvented the Hawaian slide guitar as a raga instrument on recordings such as Raga Ahir Bhairav (1993).

Courtesy/Copyright: Piero Scaruffi

Google Changes Everything … Again

2007-03-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

Google announced a new cost per action program that will be rolled into its AdSense program. Why are we talking about that in a series that covers building a web site from scratch? Keep reading to find out.Affiliate marketing has been around for quite some time. Networks that help put together affiliate managers with affiliate marketers have also been around for a while. These types of activities are often referred to as “cost per action.” Essentially what that means is that an affiliate marketer will get paid by an affiliate manager for performing a certain action (such as generating a lead or a sale).

By far the two largest affiliate networks are Commission Junction and ClickBank. Both of these companies are probably quaking in their boots right now. The reason is simple: Google is entering the cost per action fray.

When Google entered the search engine market we saw the face of search change. When it entered the cost per click fray we saw the face of that market change. Therefore, it does not take a crystal ball to realize that Google is probably going to change this market as well. Part of the reason why this prediction is so easy to make is because this new program is going to be rolled into the wildly popular AdSense system.

That means that blogs, and other authority sites which are widely successful at converting visitors to regular “customers,” can now get involved in the cost per action “business” without having to modify their web sites very much, thanks to the way that Google will be integrating this new system with AdSense.

Unfortunately, this program is still very new. In fact, as far as I am aware, it was really only released in the middle of June; and as usual, Google has released this program to a limited number of people on an invitation only basis.

So what does this really mean? Why am I talking about this now in an article series about building a web site from scratch?

The reason is simple: planning. Let me explain some of the potential behind this program.

Imagine for a minute that a company which has a web site, and is not very good at converting web site visitors into leads for their business, decides to spend $50 to obtain a lead using the new Google program.

You, however, have a blog with lots of loyal readers. You can decide to throw leads to this other business at a cost of almost zero (or at least at no additional cost over and above what you already have) and make more money than you ever could with the basic AdSense pay-per-click program.

Or perhaps a company looking to boost sales offers web sites some set amount of money to make a sale for them. You find out that this is a product that you already know, use, and like, and would recommend to people anyway. The amount of money you could make generating sales for other companies is truly huge.

In fact, you can now begin to operate in somebody else’s business, without having to actually BE in that business. If you know how to convert visitors into customers, you can scale a business to almost any size because you don’t have to worry about producing packaging or shipping a product. You leave that to the actual company.

To say that the potential of the field into which Google is now entering is large is like saying Mount Rushmore is a big hill. People with the ability and the know-how to convert visitors will be able to easily and rapidly enter new markets and make lots of new money, all through what Google is now doing. As I said, the potential for this goes very, very far beyond the AdSense pay-per-click program.

Now let’s swing this into the web site that I am creating. It is one thing to have a blog that people will come to read and like. It is not exactly the same thing to have a blog which will actually convert visitors into people that will perform actions just because you ask them to.

To make the maximum revenue, you need to begin to condition your visitors to perform actions based only on your request, now. That means starting a mailing list (I personally like the one at getresponse.com) at the minimum. The reason for this is simple: by starting a mailing list and then asking your web site visitors to join that list, you are beginning the process of getting your visitors used to performing actions based on your request.

Now let me be absolutely clear. When you start a mailing list it needs to have a purpose. When you send messages to your mailing list there needs to be value to your subscribers for having received the message. If all you are going to do is send one advertisement after another, you’ll quickly find that your mailing list has no readership. When it comes to mailing lists, the number of people on the list means nothing. What matters is the number of READERS that it has.

Now that does mean that you will need to come up with two sets of content: one set for your blog, and another for your mailing list. However, doing this will be well worth it. In fact, coming up with content for your mailing list need not be all that challenging. There are numerous “article directories” that you can find on the Internet using any search engine. Simply go to an article directory to obtain relevant, valid, articles for your business to send out. This way you can get other people to produce content for your mailing list for you for free.

So what does that mean for the web site we are building? The answer is simple. A mailing list will need to be created, and you will need to have content to send to the subscribers. As I stated above, finding content is easy. I’ll simply use an article directory to find relevant, interesting articles that will matter to my readership, based on the market my blog serves, and send those. Content for my blog will continue to come from me, as it always has.

The one thing I can not stress enough is the need to get started now, training your visitors to do something because you asked. This is probably one of the single most important things that you can begin doing now to prepare for when the new Google cost per action program goes live.

Now, before I begin getting all of the flames in the comments section, let me say that the purpose for doing this is not to simply manipulate your site’s visitors. The real goal is to provide your site’s visitors with another service, more content, and an additional method you can use to build a relationship with your visitors. However, do not let me hide from the fact that doing this also helps to prepare for when Google starts their new addition to AdSense.

The other thing I cannot stress enough, is to make sure that you are not promoting something simply because it makes you money. If it is not a service you have used, tried, and like, then you should not be asking other people to try it. The reason for this is simple. If you promote something simply because it makes you money, and that product turns out to be no good, your visitors will blame you for having promoted it to them. Promoting a product for which you do not know the quality, or the customer service of the company producing it, is a fast way to put yourself out of business by accidentally promoting bad products.

Not only that, but by using the Google program to promote products that you are already familiar with, you can now provide honest, heartfelt endorsements for those products. In all honesty, it is the endorsement of a product which will get you the most sales. It will be through telling your visitors that you have experience with a product, that you have experience with the company, and that you find both to be exceptional, that you will get the most sales in the first place. Therefore, let me say again that you should only endorse or recommend products for which you are a customer.

Unlike with Commission Junction, where the number of available companies was still somewhat limited, I predict the new Google cost per action program that is being rolled into AdSense will draw a great many companies. Further, because of the economies of scale, affiliate marketers are likely to get paid much more money than they ever did under the Commission Junction program. The reason I believe this is because of Google’s tendency to use an auction format. If you remember, when the AdSense program was started, the average cost per click was relatively low. However, as more and more people started using the AdSense system, prices were driven up (in some cases rather rapidly). I foresee the very same thing happening with the new cost per action system. In this case however, the prices going up will likely happen a great deal faster, thanks to the huge number of AdSense users.

I truly believe that Google’s new program is likely to completely change the business models of many web sites on the Internet, just as the AdSense program did.

Sitemap and Google Sitemaps

2007-03-28T21:19:00.000-07:00

A site map (or sitemap) is a web page that lists the pages on a web
site site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors, and search engine robots, to find pages on the site. An example is the one on EFF’s (Electronic Frontier Foundation’s) page.

Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. This is especially important if a site uses Macromedia Flash or JavaScript? menus that do not include HTML links.

Site maps do have limitations. Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if a site is very large, additional strategies besides the site map may be required that search engines, and visitors, can access all content on the site.

Google Sitemaps:

Google maintains a feature called Google Sitemaps that allows web developers to publish lists of links from across their sites. The basic premise is that some sites have a large number of pages that are only available through the use of forms and user entries. The sitemap files can then be used to indicate to a web crawler how such pages can be found

How to write Page Title?

2007-03-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

Every page should have

Generally the formula should be: website name - keyword|keyword|keyword. Avoid using articles and conjunctions like a, the, and. Use the pipe(|) or dash (-) to separate keywords.

The keword “Online Auction” and “E bay” are more searching words on Searc Engine, plus in half sentence we have mentioned our distinctions as well to attract the user.

Page Title and Click Through Rate:
Often times a good page title or URL can double or triple your click through rate. You want to make sure your page title is especially made for human consumption, and not just some random ugly keyword stuffed string. Certainly get your primary keywords in there, but make the title readable too.

How to use Meta Tags?

2007-03-28T04:59:00.000-07:00

Meta tags are placed in a web page not intended for users to see but instead which typically passes information to search engine crawlers, browser software and some other applications. Most meta-tags are included within the ‘header’ code of a website and the most important tags are the title, description and keyword tags. Rules used by different search engines govern how such tags are used, how many characters they should contain, and how they should be formatted.
Search engines like Google no longer look at the Keywords and other meta tag.

How meta tags are look like:

Do not “stuff” this keyword meta tag by repeating your keyword phrases over and over. Search engines will ban sites for such practices.

?.com large online auction portal. An ebay alternative offering Buy or sell in thousands of Internet auction categories like electronics, cars, clothing, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods, digital cameras, and everything else on eBay. Start bidding today.”>
The meta description tag has varying levels of relevancy in different search engines. Many search engines still support it and display it in their page description snippets in their search results.
This tag should be between a sentence to a paragraph and not visually appear keyword stuffed. The sentences should read well to the human eye

How to use Headings

2007-03-28T04:58:00.000-07:00

The HTML tag

“heading” is much weighted in Google and Inktomi algorithms. Optimizing the h1 and title tag will give you quite a boost in your search engine rankings. Again, you should not repeat keywords in this tag, as it will be seen as spam. If you want to have subheadings underneath the main heading, your best bet is to create a cascading stylesheet (CSS) file that declares classes for different classes of h1 tags.
For those of you who are not familiar with CSS, I suggest you read the tutorial at w3schools.com. You can then gain the high rating Google places on the h1 tag, while having different font sizes and colors, etc. declared in your CSS file.

A simple h1 HTML tag example would be:

Main Heading

Sub Heading

Another Sub Heading

And in your stylesheet file define these classes:

How to use ALT Image Tags and Image Links: It is better to use text as links than images, because text on images is not readable for search engines

2007-03-28T04:56:00.000-07:00

It is better to use text as links than images, because text on images is not readable for search engines but if you have to use an image ensure you place a descriptive image alt tag on it.

Many suggest that the alt tags on your images should contain your keywords. Be careful. Some search engines see that as spamming. If you do it, don’t over do it. Better if you use the words, images or picture along the combination of your keywords.

If you use image navigation links it is advisable to place descriptive text links at the bottom of the page to help search engines figure out the relevancy of your pages.

How to Select Keywords?

2007-03-28T04:54:00.000-07:00

It is always recmonded that before going to build the contents of your website, and before going to optimize the each webpage, you must have a complete list of keywords (The word or words that relate to a particular topic. Keywords or phrases are used to construct a search statement to find information).

I personaly divide keywors into two following categories

• Primary Keywords
Those keywords which are your main keywords 3-5 keyword for which your mail website should be indexed and rank well in alll mojor search engines.

• Secodary keywors
All the keywords which are used on your different pages along with some matching words which may used differently w.r.t geographically or in different termonolgy

How to find Good keywords?

• Conduct a survey with your friends and net surfers if you are not sure about how people will search for products you are going to offer from your website.
• Make a list of keywords from the meta tags of your competatiors.
• Make a list of your product and services you will offer from your website
• Prepare general name and specific terms if these things have some botonical, chemical or technical naming in professional use. (If applicable)
• Use the following tools

o Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool
o Google Keyword Sandbox
o Word Tracker
o The Best Free Keyword Research Tool
o Good Keywords

Where to place your Keywords

Place keywords in the paragraphs.
Place keywords in the heading tags.
Place keywords in img alt tags.
When the word is part of a small statement making a specific point, you may bold it or italicize it.
You may also want to include your keywords a few times in bulleted lists.
When possible place the keywords in links, and don’t forget navigation.
The key focus of the page should be on readability. If it does not make sense to human eyes then it is no good for a search engine and it will not convert. You want to use keywords often, but not to the point where it sounds like you are writing for the search engine and not the user. If you are in question to yourself then you probably are overly optimized.

How to select domain name

2007-03-28T04:51:00.000-07:00

Select a Domain Name that Reflects Your Web Site

Your domain name should reflect what your web site is all about. For example, if your web site is about Auction, you certainly wouldn’t want to select a domain name like ‘mybusinessname.com. You would want to select a domain name that tells the world what your web site is all about something like ‘OnlineAuction.com.’

Select a Domain Name that Contains Your Web Site’s Keywords

Another consideration of great importance is your keywords. Try to select a domain name that contains your most relevant keyword phrase because some Search Engines place relevancy on them. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on low bids auction, your best keyword phrase will be “lowbidsauction.com”

Select a Domain Name that will be Easily Remembered

With millions of web sites accessible on the Internet, it is also very important to select a domain name that will be easily remembered. As in the ‘OnlineAuction.com’ example above, ‘OnlineAuction.com’ is very easily remembered, contains the most relevant keyword phrase.

Select the Best Domain Extension

Another consideration of importance is the domain name extension. Although there are many new domain extensions available, dotcom is still the best choice. When typing in a web address, Internet users automatically want to type in a .com extension, since this is the extension that has been embedded into our brains from the start.

Avoid Using Numbers in Your Domain Name

Although you may be tempted to do so, avoid using numbers within your domain name. Including a number within your domain name can cause problems. When you tell someone your web address, you will continually have to tell them it’s a number and not the word. For example, if you selected a domain name like number1betting.com, if you were to tell someone your web address, they may try to type it as ‘numberonebetting.com’ instead of ‘number1betting.com.’ This type of domain name can cause confusion.

Avoid using Dashes and Underscores in Your Domain Name

Although many people do it, don’t make the mistake of using dashes, underscores or any
other characters within your domain name that may cause confusion. When you will tell someone about your domain name, you have to say it like this: Unique dash Auction dot com.

Avoid Using Abbreviations within Your Domain Name

Although well-known companies, such as IBM, can get away with using abbreviations within their domain name, most companies can’t. As a rule, try to avoid using abbreviations or anything
that will be difficult for your visitors to remember. Not only will this cause confusion, but it can also cause your potential visitors to make spelling mistakes when trying to type in your
web address. Like you were saying me for ua.co.uk have been missed and there may be some one will mistype it as au.co.uk

Avoid Using Long Domain Names

Although you may now register long domain names, it’s really not a good idea. Suppose I registered ‘www.cheaponlineuniqueauction.com’ and there will be happen to me that half the time I will type it onlinecheapuniqueauction.com. How can I expect our potential visitors to remember it? Try to keep your domain name as short as possible.

Ensure Your Domain Name is Not a Trademark Infringement

Prior to registering a domain name, you may want to consider searching the Trademark Electronic Search System, http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm to ensure your potential domain name isn’t infringing on any trademarks.

When you’re ready to begin, create a list of a dozen or more potential domain names, as chances are, your first choice will already be taken. With any luck, one of the domain names on your list will be available. Take your time and select a quality domain name that will grow with your business. It will be well-worth your time and effort in the long run.

How to built site Navigation

2007-03-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

Your navigation structure needs to be visible to the search engines. Some page components are simply invisible to search engines. For instance, a navigation structure created with JavaScript? won’t work for the search engines. If the only way to navigate your Web site is with the JavaScript? navigation, you have a problem. The only pages the search engines will find are the ones with links pointing to them from other Web sites; the search engines won’t be able to find their way around your site.

Here are a few tips for search-engine-friendly navigation:

If you use JavaScript? nagigation,or some other technique that is invisible, make sure that you have a plain HTML navigation system, too, such as basic text links at the bottom of your pages.
Even if your navigation structure is visible to search engines, you may want to have these bottom-of-page links as well. They’re convenient for site visitors and provide another chance for the search engines to find your other pages.Yet another reason for bottom-of-page, basic text navigation: If you have some kind of image-button navigation, you don’t have any keywords in the navigation for the search engines to read.
Add a site map page and link to it from your main navigation. It provides another way for search engines to find all your pages.
Whenever possible, provide keywords in text links as part of the navigation structure.

It is also very important that your website navigation should be user friendly. Make sure that the visitor knows at all times what section they are visiting and can reach any section easily. A key aspect to make your visitors happy is insuring they go where they need to go, quickly and efficently.

How to built Internal Linking?

2007-03-28T04:45:00.000-07:00

An internal link is a link in the context of web design is a hypertext function whereby clicking on the word or picture (an “object”) causes a web browser to load the new page to which the object is linked. Thus, clicking on the hypertext-affected word card should lead you to a page about a card or cards. Most commonly, a link to a page outside the same domain is considered external, whereas one in the same domain is considered internal. However, these definitions become a bit tricky when the same organization operates multiple domains functioning as a single web experience, e.g. when a secure commerce website is used for purchasing things displayed on a non-secure website. Similarly, a blogging website might have thousands of different blogs, in which context one might view a link as “internal” only if it linked within the same blog, not to other blogs within the same domain.

Anchor Text:

When building internal linking of your documents always use keywords as the anchor text.

Check Online Auctions

Descriptive internal text links can help search engines understand what your site is about.

You also can make up for slightly under descriptive site navigation links by providing descriptive footer text link navigation.

A large criteria in search engine rankings is the text used to link to a document. Sometimes it is hard to control how others link to you, but you can always do a good job of providing great links to yourself using internal site linking.

Use Descriptive Anchor Text:

When possible you want to refer to your documents using similar word that are expressed in the title. Let’s say I have a page about payment gateways that is linking to a page about the Features of Payment gateway. I would not use the word “Features” to create the link. I would use the phrase “Online Payment Gateway’s Features” in the link as it would help the relevancy of both pages.

How SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Works ?

2007-03-28T04:40:00.000-07:00

You will be eager to know that how Search Engine Optimiation - SEO works. Before starting to jump into this deep pool, first learn what is searh engine and how they work for us.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your web pages and getting links into your site in order to achieve the highest search engine rankings possible for your keywords/phrases.

There are mian two way to SEO, One is Ethical SEO (While hat SEO) and one is Un-ethical SEO (Black hat SEO).

Ethical SEO is simply a way to help your pages rank well compared to pages of similar quality and relevancy, making them easier for visitors to find. It also makes the search engine results for your pages’ keywords better for the search engine’s users.

Unethical SEO also exists and uses tactics such as hidden text, keyword spamming, participation in link farms, doorway pages etc. is bad for the search engines because they skew the search results and make them less relevant to the user’s query.

The search engines don’t like this so they penalize (or even ban) sites that use them whenever they catch them.

Why do I need Searh Engine Optimization for my website?

If you can have the very best, most professional looking website in the world, but if nobody finds it it’s useless.

The use of ethical and effective SEO techniques will help potential visitors find your web pages when they do a web search on your relevant keywords/phrases in search engines. In a nutshell, your pages will no longer be many pages down in the search engine results pages (SERPS). They might even end up on the first page!

Search Engine Optimization - SEO work is further divided into two categories

On-Page Optimization
Off-Page Optimization

On Page Optimization:

Onpage optimization is the process by which various elements on an individual web page are structured so that the web page can be easily indexed by the search engines for specific keyword or keyword phrases also can get good ranking.

Onpage optimization should occur not only on the main web page of a web site, but on every single content page within that site. You must have focus individual pages for specific keyword or combination of keywords but not more then three keywords.

Below is a list of onpage elements in which we have to focus for specific for Good ranking on good SERPs results:

How to select proper domain name
Keywords
Title
Metatags
Internal linking
Contents
Body and Keywords
Text Formatting
Page Headings
Alt Image tag
Navigation
Sitemap
Optimize Each Page
Sub Directory Name and Page URL

How to build site Contents

2007-03-28T04:36:00.000-07:00

Following are main guidelines to built the contetns

Provide relevant and substantial content
Be upfront about your services and offers and how they are provided
Treat a user’s personal information responsibly
Develop an easily navigable site

It seems pretty straightforward, so lets look at each one individually:

Provide relevant and substantial content

This simply means that the content on the page must be user friendly. It must be relevant to the query which means you much optimize your site accordingly.

Provide the content which will be most useful to your customers and then optimize it, trying to consider all the phrases one might use to find your product or service.

In addition make sure you have enough content to encourage the purchase decision. Don’t think that one or two pages will be enough. Be sure to offer more than enough information.

This is true of the search engines in general. A site won’t be considered an authority on its topic with only a couple pages of content. If you sell blue widgets be sure to devote a substantial portion of your site to talking about your blue widgets.

Be upfront about your services and offers and how they are provided

Again, a staple of good business is to be honest about what you offer. For example, don’t wait until the very end of the purchase decision to hit people with the shipping fee. Include it in the beginning so that they are aware of the total cost of purchasing from you.

Conversely if you offer specials or bulk discounts, be sure to mention that early as well. Things like “buy now and save 10% on shipping” help encourage the purchase.

If you don’t offer after-sales support you should also make that clear, but at the same time offer alternatives, such as local warranty depot’s.

Treat a user’s personal information responsibly

This one should be obvious but don’t try and sell your customers contact information to a bulk email service (for example). Many people are leery about giving out personal information over the web because of such things. To help ease their minds tell them exactly what you are and aren’t going to do with their information.

Also, be sure that you use a secure connection anywhere people are asked to give personal information such as address, phone number, credit card information and so on. Having that little lock icon in the browser is reassuring for many people.

Develop an easily navigable site

While this too may seem obvious, I can’t tell you how many sites webmasters and developrs worked on over the years that seem to do everything in their power to NOT allow people to convert.

Things like multi-page forms to fill out, non-secure purchasing, requiring a login to browse a catalog are all things I’ve encountered that are guaranteed barriers to extending the relationship with that potential customer.

My advice is to get some friends and family to critique your site. Get them to try and complete a sale. Give them specific tests such as “go buy a blue widget from my site” and note where they have problems.

BlogStar-ting

2007-03-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

BlogStar-ting

Fact: Girls Who Play Games Are Sex Fiends

2007-03-13T06:40:00.000-07:00

If you ever wanted to try to get your girl into games, here is a great reason. Gametart, which is a game rental service in the UK, decided to perform a scientific study about three things all male gamers think of: Games. Girls. and Sex.
Gamers Have Sex More Often!
It’s official – women who play video games have sex more often! Gametart, the UK’s largest online games rental company, carried out the survey throughout January to see how the recent influx of the likes of Pink PSPs and DS Lites would affect gamers’ sex lives across the country.
The results were surprising.
Of our sample of 200 women, those who played video games on average had sex 4.3 times a week while those who didn’t play games only had sex just 3.2 times a week.
Perhaps even more promising for gamers is the fact that many of the women that we interviewed who have only recently started playing games said that they now have sex more often than before.
Gamers have never had it so good!

Sex Games And Women

2007-03-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

There’s been a lot of talk about adult sex video games lately, especially at GDC last week. The adult industry is still fairly nonexistent in the main stream, but that could all change in the near future. It’s not exactly my cup of tea and you will not see me buying titles in the genre. I just want action and adventure myself.
The interesting thing that has come out of GDC and other recent talks is that the adult industry will be primarily targeting women as consumers for sex games. Targeting women works for night clubs, so they assume this will work for adult themed games as well. Currently the target is “straight white guys” according to the article.
I’m not really sure what to say on the subject. It’s not my kind of game, but feel free to comment.

3/12/07 - New Releases This Week

2007-03-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

You hear that? That is the serene silence before the God of War II storm hits. If you look out into the distance, you can see the huge plume of fire, destruction, and killer combos heading our way this week. If you call yourself a gamer, then this week is your week to accept your heritage and get God of War II. Kratos would be proud.

Xbox 360

Call of Duty 3 Gold Edition
Playstation 3

College Hoops 2K7
Nintendo Wii

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Playstation 2

God of War 2

You hear that? That is the serene silence before the God of War II storm hits. If you look out into the distance, you can see the huge plume of fire, destruction, and killer combos heading our way this week. If you call yourself a gamer, then this week is your week to accept your heritage and get God of War II. Kratos would be proud.
Xbox 360
Call of Duty 3 Gold Edition
Playstation 3
College Hoops 2K7
Nintendo Wii
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07
Playstation 2
God of War 2

Sony PSP
Call of Duty 3: Roads to Victory
Nintendo DS
Mind Quiz: Your Brain Coach
Herbie Rescue Rally DS
PC Games
Carol Vorderman’s Soduku
Gold Miner Vegas
Model Train 3D
Runaway: Dream of the Turtle
Top Spin 2
Tortuga Two Treasures
Battlefield Complete Collection
Great Invasions
IL 2 Sturmovik 1946
Making History: The Calm and the Storm
Mind Quiz
Slingo Quest
Air Battles Sky Defender
ETROM: The Sky Defender
Rag Doll Kung Fu

I Love Top Ten Lists

2007-03-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

Henry Lowood, the curator of the Stanford University History of Science and Technology Collections, released his list of the 10 most important video games of all time. In modern days, video games have taken a great importance in culture and science, particularly in Europe and North America. Here’s their choices:

Spacewar! (1962)
Star Raiders (1979)
Zork (1980)
Tetris (1985)
SimCity (1989)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990)
Civilization I / II (1991)
Doom (1993)
Warcraft (Series) (1994)
Sensible World of Soccer (1994)

Here’s my choices for the 10 most important games of all time:

Spacewar! (1962) -This is pretty much where it all started
Pong (1972) -Pong pretty much invented home gaming
Pac-Man (1980) -I can’t believe they skipped this one
Dragon’s Lair (1983) -Years ahead of itself
King’s Quest (1983) -The first great adventure game
Super Mario Brothers 3 (1990) -Pretty much the best Mario game ever
John Madden Football (1990) -The most important sports franchise ever
Sonic The Hedgehog (1991) -The game that stole Nintendo’s crown
Doom (1993) -An obvious pick
Halo (2001) -Symbolized the next generation in online warfare

You may or may not agree with my list ,but what does some Princeton nerd know anyway?

Making Money with Multi Level Marketing Programs

2007-03-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

Many beliefs to the adverse there is lot of money to be made by joining multi level marketing programs, offered you choose the correct programs and stay from those that normally just want your money, offering nothing in return except promises.

Not to be confused with pyramid plan, multi level marketing programs offer a realizable product or a valued service that people can use and want to use, as well as an opportunity to own your own multi level business, working from the comfort of your home and be responsible for your own future. Multi level marking programs plans are all over the internet, which in itself is an indication of the popularity of such opportunities, but discovering the one that you can profit from may take some study and be careful.

The way a multi level marketing program plans works is very similar to distributorships sold to sales associates in several door-to-door sales endeavors. A person was given a territory to market and once his sales techniques were perfected and sales improved, he could recruit more people to sell the same product in the same way in other parts of the territory. He made some money (commission) on his sales as well as a smaller commission on the sales of the distributors working for him.

As sales go up for his distributors, they could recruit additional sales people to work for him and the original distributor, again, received a commission from his sales as well. Conceivably the first person could stay home and make a living from the commission on the sales of those working under him.

It is the same concept with multi level marketing online, except the business can be run in your bathrobe and slippers. You can even recruit from home and never really meet people working under you face-to-face. However, it behooves you to make sure they are sufficiently and accurately trained, as a portion of your income will depend on their success. The same as the parent company wants you to perform well as their sales depend on your activity.

If you select a company, which no one has heard of, and worse, have a product that no one really needs, your odds of becoming a success or reduced, as are the odds of finding others to participate in the plan. This is not to say the company is not reputable, just the product or service being offered may not be something in which the general populace has an interest.

Search all the offers available and find out that you can be excited about based on what they are offering, not on the promises of instant and obscene riches they are promising. Remember you will have to grow your business, meaning your income will start slow and build to a level that may allow you early retirement.

New Online Network Marketing

2007-03-13T06:07:00.000-07:00

The revolutionary efforts of marketing is rapidly migrating to online efforts as more and more industries realize that to effectively attain their target audience they must go to where the clients are, and that is online. Being able effectively to circulate your word to the correct areas online is much easier, quicker and more effective than attempting to reach them through conventional means.

Using affiliate programs marketing a company can have one of their advertisements placed on a web site with no cost at all, paying only when results are reached. The ad are placed on couple of sites and when a person goes in to that site, goes through it and purchases something from another site, the site hosting the ad gets selling commission, the amount of which is agreed to by seller and the site manager.

Most companies or industries have discovered this to be an perfect way of increasing their ad presence on the net, being able to have a lot more exposure than paying for an ad. With paid advertising (publicity) a company buys ad space and wish for a return on their investment. When they set an ad on an affiliate site, they pay for the space based on the quantity of the return. This can succeed out well for both parties because the site hosting can search as though it is receiving paid advertising. People searching the web has no idea how the advertising got there, it just knows it did.

Advertisers also conserve over which sites their ads appear on, and may not want their name related with sites that carry promotions for other companies that may be deemed to have no redeeming qualities. Also, they may not concord with a site’s business methods or message and refuse an offer to have their ad posted there as well.

Inclusion of a web site into a company’s network marketing plan was ascertained largely based on the traffic of the website to get as much exposure as achievable. However, as companies begin a more targeted approach to advertising, they may search for web sites of higher quality and with a mission similar to their own, expecting they would pull in the same type of people more often, increasing the number of visitors that click through their site.

The other favor to network marketing online is feedback from the ad can be almost pronominal with a company having the ability to change the direction of their promotion at a moments notice.

How ‘Local’ Can Google Local Search Get?

2007-03-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

For a while now we have been seeing little maps, phone numbers and addresses appear in Google’s search results. Sometimes they would show up and sometimes they wouldn’t, leaving us to wonder just what Google was up to. Well as it turns out they are on their way to taking over the world. Okay maybe not, but they are in fact entering the world of localized search.

Posted on the Google Blog Monday,Google gave details on where and when local businesses and services would appear in the search results. Every time a user searches for a place, business or other location specific information, Google will show a map, provide contact information and in some cases (mainly businesses) present reviews.

It seems as if it was only a matter of time before we heard about this. SEO’s have been helping sites optimize for specific locations for years and sites like CitySearch and AOL’s CityGuide have made their names and money from providing users with information on restaurants, bars and attractions in every major city across the United States.

The only real question I have about this, is how accurate can the Google database be? Are they gathering their information from the yellow pages? Are they out trolling the streets taking notes? Can Google really give results for every small town across the U.S?

I don’t know the answer to this yet but I did a try searching for the dry cleaners in my hometown. (Quick background - my hometown of Avon, NY is extremely small and barely constitutes a suburb. We have two stoplights, three banks, three gas stations and no Wal-marts. We do however have a McDonald’s and a Dollar Store). The surprising thing was, Google not only gave me the name and location of the one dry cleaner we have, but they offered me directions.

Congrats to Google on this. Just one more way to increase your search traffic and one more hurdle we in the search marketing industry have to jump.

SEO Related Factors When Shopping for CMS Vendors

2007-03-13T06:04:00.000-07:00

In today's environment for web development, it makes a lot of sense for businesses with a large volume of web content to be transitioning their website development from stand alone tools such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage to Content Management Systems (CMS) that use set templates and login based environments. A CMS system allows people that would traditionally not have a technical background to be able to develop content and collateral for a website, and not worry about HTML, Scripting or Web Server configuration. Unfortunately, not all CMS applications are designed to present website content that is search engine friendly or allow users of the system full control to access and manage specific on-page factors related to SEO.

There are a few key factors that usually come into discussion when working with a CMS vendor and looking at SEO-specific functionality:

Web Page Management and Web Page Development
Web Address /URL Generation
Code Efficiency
Taking into Account Overall SEO Best Practices
Web Page Management
Because a CMS is almost always template driven, developers need to assign relationships to certain page related factors when creating web page functionality. As a result, unless directed, properties of a web page essential to SEO can often be "locked" or automatically generated without a user being able to manipulate them. Make certain that users always have the ability to manually edit the following characteristics of a "page":

The HTML Title
The Meta Description and Keyword Values
The Page Heading
It's good for a CMS vendor to create "default" variables that affect these properties, but a user of the CMS should be able to override these defaults and choose their own values whenever necessary.

One additional note on Title tags: It's optimal that the HTML title tag management be exclusive of all other properties, save the creation of internal cross links that are automatically generated (such as when websites include sections on a page for "related links" or similar usability components). The HTML Title should not be tied to things like the web address of the page (more on this a bit later)
Web Page Development and Navigation Considerations
Another key feature of web page development in a CMS that can be overlooked is the ability to include/exclude a new page from the main navigational menus. Make certain that you have the ability to expand the content you want users to find from a site-wide navigational perspective and be able to exclude content, especially if you build pages with seasonal relevance or temporary, promotional campaigns.

Web Address /URL Generation
The ability to control what a web address (URL) reads is less important than another, often overlooked factor of CMS vendors: how the CMS generates and presents the web address. Here are some guidelines on web address generation related to a CMS:

The web address should not be rendered as a dynamic URL (none of the following: ?=... or &id). The web address generated should appear like a static, directory-style URL
Example: domain.com/folder/folder/end (specific file extensions are not overly important)
The web address should not contain session ID's for purposes of user tracking or authentication. While tracking is absolutely important, the CMS vendor should have some form of cookie-based or alternative way to track and record visitor information, not through by way of a session variable appending to the URL.
The web address should not change in direct correlation with web page changes (such as a modification of an HTML title tag). The age of a URL is an important factor in search engine rankings.
Finally, navigation should be consistent and "locked down". That means that there should be no way to back door the page by entering in either a known dynamic query string or appending variables at the end.
Code Efficiency
How a CMS renders the HTML output can potentially have a negative effect on a search engine's ability to crawl a web page or website efficiently. For instance, not placing JavaScript in external file locations and simply adding the code to the page output is not uncommon to see. Another issue I have seen is bloated HTML/script-based parameters around formatted content and hyperlinks that are generated. Finally, the actual white space that is generated in web page output, while not a backbreaker, adds unnecessary file size to your web pages.

Consider Overall SEO Best Practices
The last thing to critical thing to consider in selecting a CMS vendor is how they respond to overall SEO best practices. I'm not suggesting they should bend over backwards for every little request - but consider the following components of SEO that are valuable and relevant to your success online in search:

Text-based navigation
Being able to incorporate an "alt" or "title" property in your images
Using etc tags for Page Headings and Sub-headings
Proper use of CSS and other web design technologies
Finally - Some "Nice-to-Have's" from CMS Technologies
Here are some ideas for CMS vendors to consider when looking at selling the value of "SEO-Friendliness" in their product as well:

RSS Feed capability - especially for articles, news and press releases
Automatic Search Engine Sitemap Generation
Data Exports of product or content related information in general
Usability compliance or proactively integrating best practices for ease of use, such as breadcrumb trails, access for the disabled, printer-friendly pages (with a noindex parameter!), social bookmarking/sharing features etc.
Wrapping It Up
As with any major purchase, make sure that you are doing the necessary due diligence as it relates to your total web development needs. This post is not meant to be a guideline purely for purchasing the right CMS, there are many other factors that should contribute to your selection and screening process (platform, integration, capacity etc). Here are a few links to articles online related to choosing an appropriate CMS system:

Teaching Your Clients SEO

2007-03-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

There was a discussion at High Rankings a few weeks back about training clients to maintain their website after it is designed. The conversation began with the question of whether it is better for web developers to teach clients how to maintain their site or to do it for them?

Not being in the web development industry I don’t have an exact answer to this question. But it did start me thinking about the same type of question in regards to SEO. How much should you teach your clients about the SEO process? Do they need to know the ins and outs of search engines? Should you teach them the aspects of keyword research and link building? Or is it simply better to do these things for them and only teach them the basics?

We try and give our clients as much information as is useful to them. We want them to understand what we are doing but we don’t want to give them too much information. One of the worst things you can do is overwhelm a client with documents that make no sense and have no value to them. It’s a waste of your time and it’s a waste of theirs.

Here is an example: At a previous SEO firm I worked at we would spend 10-12 hours putting together an extensive technical document for every client. We would send it to them, get on the phone to discuss it and realize the majority of the clients not only had no idea what any of it meant but didn’t even read it.

We also take into consideration the knowledge level of each client. With keyword research for instance, we want each client to know why we do it, how we do it, and how it’s going to help them. It is important they understand things like what the search volume numbers mean, why broad terms aren’t necessarily better or why they shouldn’t have the same keyword on every page. Does a client really NEED to know how to perform keyword research? No probably not. But the more they know about it, understand it and see the time and effort that go into it, the more they value you and that time you spent doing it.

Another major factor to think about is the client’s expectations. What exactly are they expecting from you? If a client signs a contract expecting that you will do the work, implement the recommendations and report to them once a month then the level of information you give them is minimal. If a client is expecting calls once a week and details on what you are delivering to them, explaining the processes is very important and you should give them the appropriate information.

Basically, the best thing you can do to determine if the information will be useful to the client is to ask the question “Is this going to be beneficial to both them and us?” Maybe you shouldn’t spend three hours of a client’s time and money explaining the link building process to them. But if it will help them understand the value in SEO and more importantly in you, then it may be worth the time. The way I look at it, the more knowledge and understanding the client has of what we do, the more they value us as a whole.

Googles Search Engine Update

2007-03-13T05:50:00.000-07:00

I have a website that was finally making money, not a lot but some. Every little bit helps.

Getting between 1600-2400 vistors a day. On March 1, it went down to about 300. You guessed it, Google update.

After several sleepless nights and some help from other SEO types, I found the answer, I added affilliate links near Feb 1, 2007, 30 days later, Google removed the website out of its search look up.

Very much a problem, I was number 1 in every state exept New York, in the Google Search Engine

My question is if I was dependant on this site for my income, I did make some money with the site, the point is, if this was my main source of income, now I have none, due to no wrong doing of my own, Google has ripped my food from my childrens mouth, Now what.

Is this going to be the way Google plans to act from now on???

It will be back. You can take that to the bank.

Cheers

To Blog or not Blog or forum - that is the question

2007-03-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

Blogs or sometimes called Weblogs are online journals published on the internet, about specific subjects. A forum is an online notice board where users can post questions or post answers or comments to those questions.

I send a lot time in reading several SEO blog and several discussions on SEO forum. With forums you get answers in days that normally would take weeks or months to get answers.

Performing SEO and SEM can be time consuming you spend lots and lots of hours studying and resolving issures. Searching and configuring websites.

I know after this, everyone will want to get into SEO.

Should I give up blogging (NOT).

Cheers

Marketing To Internet Marketers - Respecting Their Ingenuity

2007-03-13T05:45:00.000-07:00

Being businessmen in their own right, it can be safely said that internet marketers are a resourceful lot. They take pride in what they have accomplished in this industry. It has served them well, and they have served it well. This is something they want to be acknowledged.

Why is this important?
It’s because such a fact should dictate your approach. Deal with them as if they’re mindless drones and you’ll lose a sale quicker than the pop of a bubble. But deal with them with the respect that should be accorded their rank and you will be able to secure loyal customers who will turn to you for their appropriate needs.

There are several do’s and don’ts when selling to an internet marketing crowd. The success or failure of your campaigns will greatly depend on how many of these do’s you actually do, and how many of these don’ts you’ll be able to avoid.

Never be condescending. Never treat them as inferior subjects. Remember, they are your brothers in this field. What you know, they also know. They may even know more than you do. Hence, if you talk in a way that appears to impose what you know, you might just meet some resistance, if not indignation. Your prospects belong to an extraordinary market. They may be your leads right now, but on any given day, you can easily become their customer as well.
Never be patronizing. The opposite of condescension should likewise be avoided. Assenting to their every whims and kissing their feet as they walk will be taken as butt kissing, something that has no room in this industry. They want solutions. They want answers. They want products that will revolutionize the way they do business. They do not want suck ups just to win their sales. Remember, sincerity is the name of the game, and sincerity is never synonymous with patronizing your prospects.
Speak in a language they will understand. They know what you know and they may even know more than you do. There is no need for technical discussions most of the time. Deliver what they need to know straight and fast. If they have questions, encourage them to ask. This will save you a lot of time. And this will save them a lot of time as well.
Assume what they know without going overboard. It is safe to assume that they will understand what you’re talking about. But you have to exercise further judgment. For example, you are introducing a concept that is totally innovative, then you’d have to set it up with some tidbits from the market research you have made as well as the bare bone specifications of what you’re offering.
Tell them what they need to know without the fluff. Time is gold for online businessmen. If you’ll beat the bush to deliver your pitch, they’ll get offended. They’d immediately lose their patience, and they won’t stay long enough to read your main pitch. Since it is almost a given that they know a lot about the industry, deliver your pitch straight and quick. No need to dillydally. No need to introduce matters that are totally irrelevant to what you’re offering. They know you’re selling something. There is no use pretending otherwise. Give them what they need to know from the get go.
Selling to an internet marketing crowd is a tough gig. But much of your success will be determined by how well you will approach them. Follow the guidelines above and you can rest assured that you’ll gain better results from your campaigns.

Google Sandbox Effect for New Websites

2007-03-13T05:44:00.001-07:00

Google Sandbox effect started in March 2004 for new websites is the hot topic currently in discussion for every search engine optimization forums, blogs and websites. SEOmoz.com has defined Google Sandbox effect is the theory that websites with newly registered domains are placed inside some sort of holding area within the indexes of Google until such time is deemed appropriate before a ranking can commence. As per Google’s Senior Engineer Matt Cutts “There are some things in the algorithm that may be perceived as a sandbox that doesn’t apply to all industries and it works to keep the spam out”.

As per my studies with new websites, they started ranking with several competitive keyword phrases within 2 or 3 months of launch EXCELLENT! Even though there wasn’t any page rank assigned to my website it out-ranked many higher page ranked website for several competitive keywords. But the sad story started just after 3 months. Website traffic dropped. Although my website is getting traffic my Google but most competitive keywords it use to rank in SERP has seen huge drop. For most of the keywords it is not even in the SERPs. VERY SURPRISING! But not to worry about.

Factors Triggering Google Sandbox
Google Sandbox and Trust Rank are the important elements of Google ranking filters. Websites observed inside Google Sandbox shows following symptoms:

The ageing factor influencing your ranking. The older your website / domain the higher trust rank it gets. New websites gets low trust rank directly triggering sandbox effect.
New websites getting huge number of link backs in short period. Google has excellent idea of natural link building. Higher number linking will trigger link trade or link spamming.
Websites having search-engine friendly pages, those considering on-page optimization factors like maintaining keywords in text, title, meta tags, header tags, anchor text etc.
As per SEOMoz blog websites particularly in English language are affected with Google Sandbox.
Sites penalized most are higher ranked (particularly top 3 results on major search engines like Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask.
Sites which are over optimized in anchor text. As with inbound links Google also knows natural anchor text building with inbound links. When this appears over optimized it is flagged to be sandboxed inside Google indexes.
Reports have also brought cases with commercial & private sector sites more affected than authority sites like .gov, .edu and .mil.
What to do when in Google Sandbox?
Personally I thing sandbox is the best time when you can think of making your website more popular. Google sandbox is not a penalty on any website but it is there to reduce spam, but it is when your new site is reviewed by algorithms to give them trust rank. This is when search algorithms decide if a new site is highly relevant for competitive keywords. Theory has suggested a website can remain inside sandbox for at least 1 year depending on how competitive the keywords are. Less competitive keywords will be given much shorter stay. So the only real way to come out of sandbox is just to wait. In the meantime continue to improve your website and build trust with other search engines. You can consider following when sandboxed:

Add more relevant content to your site. Concentrate on more keyword rich content along with both on-page and off-page optimization. Stick to the theme of your site.
Sandbox is the best time when you can start adding more incoming links to your website. This gives two big advantages. Firstly, it increases trust when search bots finds your link and secondly contributes towards increasing your website’s page rank that Google assigns. Make sure you added your keywords in the anchor text and blend them with related keywords to avoid spam filter. Build natural linking.
Consider other website traffic sources. This is the best time when you can find several other sources to traffic. Consider other search engines like Yahoo, MSN and Ask. It is very easy to rank in MSN if you have good off-page optimization. Consider buying traffic from Adwords, Yahoo Search Market, MSN AdCenter, buying text link ads etc. If you budget is low I would recommend you working to get organic search results with search engines like Yahoo and MSN.
Getting listed within quality free Internet Directories most preferable DMOZ and Yahoo Search Directory.
If you want to escape sandbox at the first place, consider buying older domains.
The length of time your site is within the sandbox is quite difficult to quantify however starting rank of less competitive keywords will boost other rankings soon.

Cutting-Edge Strategies to Affiliate Marketing

2007-03-13T05:39:00.000-07:00

Affiliate marketing goal is to promote affiliate programs effectively and capture your visitor’s attention. Most important part in affiliate marketing is to convince people to buy products you are promoting. What you need in the first place for a good affiliate marketing campaign is a good lead capture page and knowing your visitors.

Promoting all types of affiliate programs would not help you succeed online. Ideally, any affiliate marketer needs a thorough research on a product before promoting. A personal experience of a product you are promoting is required before you show its importance to others.

What Affiliate Marketing Requires?
One of the most basic needs for anyone doing business online is getting traffic to your website. After all, if people don't visit your site, it doesn't matter how fantastic your product is, because you're not going to have the chance to tell them. There are several sources you can get traffic from, like search engines, pay-per-click, text link ads, banner ads etc. It all depends on how much committed you are to your online business. Paid traffic also require you to have good marketing budget on the other hand organic search engine traffic requires lots of trial and testing methods.

However, organic traffic is not guaranteed. If your website is well established and have good Page Rank you can expect your website to rank quite well for demanding keywords. But new website struggles to rank. Google has recently introduced filters in its algorithms called Google Sandbox Effect which applies to your new website. Considering several sources of website traffic has become very essential for affiliate marketers.

Article Marketing to Promote Affiliate Programs
Writing articles will increase your traffic to 100%. Writing short, targeted articles and distributing them to the far corners of the Web is an incredibly effective way to boost your rankings in the search engines, increase your website traffic, and establish your credibility. With articles you can promote your affiliate products quite freely. Although, most article directories do not allow affiliate links within article body but they do allow links in resource box. Here is what you need for good articles:

Use WordTracker to build a list of keywords related to your business. Ideally your keywords will have a good number of people searching for them, but not too many sites optimized for them.
Write a SHORT, informative article for each of your top keywords. The keyword you are highlighting should appear in the title and in the first 90 characters of your article. And it can't hurt to plug it into the last paragraph as well.
Write a short, credibility-building "About the Author" blurb that you can tag onto the end of your articles and make sure you include a link back to your website.
Submit your articles to directory sites with a high Google PageRank.
Repeat weekly or monthly for best results.
Laser Target Your Opt-In List to Increase Affiliate Revenue
Well said by most big Internet Marketing Gurus “Money is in List”. Segmenting your list to your customer’s desires will incredibly increase your revenue by 781% as said by Derek Gehl of Internet Marketing Center. Segmenting your opt-in list simply means dividing your subscribers and customers into smaller, more focused groups, according to factors such as:

Whether they've bought something from you
Which products they've bought
What their specified interests are
Where they live
Their age group
And so on
You then create different mail out promotions for each group that specifically targets their particular needs. By following this strategy, you're guaranteed to see better results with your promotions. In fact, a study from Jupiter Research found that business owners who segmented their lists according to what customers bought, where they clicked on the website, and other collected information improved their conversion rates by up to 355% -- and increased their revenues by an amazing 781%!

Google says it loses $1 billion a year to false ad clicks

2007-03-13T05:31:00.000-07:00

Google Inc. loses about $1 billion US a year to "click fraud" or other invalid click-throughs on its ad service, the company says.

Advertisers have been asking Google for a clearer picture of the reach and effectiveness of their ads.

Google's AdWords service brings together advertisers and websites willing to display their ads. Advertisers pay Google a fee based on the number of click-throughs, and site operators receive a commission for each time that a visitor clicks on an ad.

Special software that can click on an ad repeatedly can be used to inflate a rival company's advertising costs or boost a site operator's own revenue gained from displaying the ads.

"Our invalid clicks rate — the activity rate — has remained in the range of less than 10 per cent of all clicks every quarter since we launched AdWords in 2002. At Google's current revenue rate, every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million [US per] year in potential revenue foregone," Shuman Ghosemajumder, Google's business product manager for trust and safety, wrote in a post to the company's Inside AdWords blog late Thursday.

Google does not charge its advertisers for clicks it determines to be invalid. For example, if 10 out of 100 clicks were excluded Google would not charge its advertisers for the invalid clicks, cutting into the company's revenue.

The Mountain View, Calif., internet search giant had previously come under fire after earlier reports that as much as a third of click-throughs on ads the company offered were false.

Google settled a click-fraud lawsuit in July 2006 for $90 million US, with $60 million in ad credits going to the claimants and $30 million paid to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

"Click fraud protection is something we take very seriously, and it requires a great deal of research and development to do effectively," Ghosemajumder said in the blog post.

"We are disclosing these network-wide figures in order to provide greater transparency to Google advertisers and the marketplace as a whole," he said, emphasizing that the "figures illustrate the significant level of proactive protection we provide, and how this has resulted in minimizing the actual impact of click fraud on advertisers."

3-stage system
Last year, Google launched a feature called the AdWords Report Center that shows advertisers how many clicks are being excluded.

In the blog post, the company explained that it determines which clicks are invalid through a three-stage system. Most of the illegitimate clicks are automatically detected analyzed and filtered out in the first stage, Ghosemajumder said.

The second part uses automatic and manual analysis of the AdSense network to weed out false clicks before they are logged to an advertiser's account.

The final aspect is investigation of alleged false clicks reported by an advertiser. Just 0.02 per cent of click-throughs that are ultimately excluded fall into this category, Ghosemajumder said.

Links = More Web Traffic Part 1

2007-03-13T04:17:00.000-07:00

It is important to link you blog or site to others for many reason. Besides the fact that this will help you growth and popularity because of the exposure, it will also give you a higher ranking on search engines. This means you will be closer to the top. Search engines have numerous ways of ranking your site, but the number of links connected to your site is almost always a very important factor. So how do you link up with other sites? Here are some different ways:

1. Message or E-mail the site owner and ask 2. Link their site and they may in return link yours. (this is tracked through Technorati.com) 3. Sign up for a link trade program. Linkmarket is a good choice. It is free and simple. This is a powerful tool that can help you connect up with other sites. Linking will help you achieve success. Check back for part 2

54 Ways to get Traffic to your Blog

2007-03-13T04:16:00.000-07:00

Use lists.
Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
Break news.
Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
Announce news.
Write short, pithy posts.
Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
Write long, definitive posts.
Write about your kids.
Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
Coin a term or two.
Do email interviews with the well-known.
Answer your email.
Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
Be anonymous.
Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
Post your photos on flickr.
Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
Point to useful but little-known resources.
Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
Write about Google.
Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
Run no ads.
Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
Write about blogging.
Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
Be patient.
Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
Write in English.
Better, write in Chinese.
Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
Don't be boring.
Write stuff that people want to read and share.

Best Deals on Domains

2007-03-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

For Domain Registration, GoDaddy.com has become popular because it is so cheap, but it lacks reliability and customer service (they also charge for phone support). FTPplanet.com reviews:

"Stick to domain registration, leave hosting to the professionals. Downtime constant, no support. Might be cheap but you get what you pay for..."
"I sign up for hosting in Godaddy.com with 500Mb of space and 100 email accounts. When I am going to setup my email account, they are only 3MB each. It is totally usless for me. This limitation was not on the description of the plan."
"They cost me hundreds of dollars in billing errors and refused to correct the matter. I was told they would have a supervisor contact me but never did. They were also rude and insulting. I will NEVER use them again."
As shown they are less than quality. I have a special surprise for Blogging 4 Money readers. A Promo code for DreamHost.com a trusted and reliable domain registar and host.
The code is: BLOG4MONEY.
This code gives you a free $20.00.
So you can get an awsome webhost for GoDaddy prices! http://www.webhostingratings.com gives DreamHost a rating of 9.49 out of 10
"I was introduced to DreamHost when 2 separate clients of mine needed site redesigns... I "converted" about a year & 1/2 ago, and have been happier with each passing month! The account panel is easy to use, and allows me to help clients with their own accounts through my access. DH consistently keeps feature upgrades, including new software releases and security updates, on the forefront of their service. I've currently got about 90% of my client base hosting their sites with DH!"
Best of luck everyone.

Participate in Forums for more Traffic

2007-03-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

A fairly simple way to boost traffic to you blog is to take part in forums. Search for forums that already have a lot of traffic. This is also more effective if you pu in your 2 cents at forums that are related to your blog. Besides creating a link on the site for search engines to grab, all the thousands of users that surf the busy forum will read past your comment. The curious ones will check out your site, and if your content is valuable enough to them they will continue to return. This free advertising can also establish credibility for your site with the comments you leave on the related forum.

Online

2007-03-13T04:12:00.001-07:00

My new server which I now offer unlimited hosting accounts, has started to runs it's first websites. By tomorrow I hope to have all the websites transferred which will make life alot easier.

Other websites have been coming online in the last few days so all in all it has been a very busy time.

I have also spent a lot of time researching web 2.0 of course. Layouts and designs for these types of websites have changed so much that I feel the more I know the better I can inform my clients.

A metaphoric discovery

2007-03-13T04:11:00.000-07:00

The discovery of this metaphor could is probably the best way to explain how SEO tips get out.

The Internet is like the Australian Bush. SEO tips and techniques spread like wild fire.

There is more to this but you will need to wait until the release of my book to get the full metaphor.

WebFast CMS version 2.0 Gain control of your website NOW!.

Completely Mobile

2007-03-13T04:09:00.000-07:00

With the arriaval of this wireless solution I have been focusing on the redevelopment of the Able Net Design website.

Of course it will be built in that all important web 2.0 style. So at the moment to keep with the web 2.0 culture I am playing around with some AJAX functionality.
Work will also start to take serious form for my top secret website that I am developing. The main template has been created so it is just a matter of developing the code and functionality.

Simplified Success for those that don't know is the book I am writing at the moment about how to run a successful website. Of course I can't go into every aspect but I can provide some valuable information. Well the update on the book is that it is almost complete. So very shortly you will be able to purchase it.

On that note I have to go. So many blogs to update.

Softbank, Yahoo link up with video service

2007-03-13T02:40:00.000-07:00

"Softbank, the Japanese internet investment company, and its affiliate Yahoo Japan have linked up to distribute video content on a new Yahoo portal in a step towards the country’s integration of broadcasting and the internet.

A joint venture, TV Bank, will procure content for the service, distribute it on the portal and operate an internet search system for video. The service highlights the growing convergence of broadcasting and the internet, driven by innovations such as faster internet connection and better picture quality.

Japan has one of the world’s highest broadband penetration rates, with more than 21m users, and the lowest connection fees.

The new services give Softbank and Yahoo Japan a lead over smaller rivals Rakuten and Livedoor, two internet service groups that this year made hostile attempts to acquire national broadcasters as a short cut to providing broadcasting services on their portals.

In contrast to those failed bids, Softbank and Yahoo Japan have signed up a range of content providers, including NHK, the public broadcaster, three of South Korea’s leading broadcasters, BBC Worldwide and AP, the newswire service. The portal offers a variety of content from Hollywood movies to TV dramas and sports programmes.

Masayoshi Son, Softbank president, said the groups were also in talks with other Japanese TV broadcasters.

As part of a trial service, TV Bank is offering 16,000 video titles that are free to view and from which it plans to generate advertising revenue. Another 15,000 titles, such as films, will be fee-based.

In addition, the portal will allow users to search from among 70,000 video titles that are freely available on the internet but for which TV Bank does not own the rights. Commercial services begin next March.

Softbank’s shares rose 8 per cent to a five-year high of Y11,700. Softbank owns 41.9 per cent of Yahoo Japan.

The service comes as Heizo Takenaka, minister for internal affairs and communications, has indicated he plans to set up a committee to study the integration of broadcasting and telecoms.

Conventional Japanese broadcasters have been cautious about embracing the trend. But Mr Son said he was optimistic that such services would become more popular."

Google Earth Worldwide Security Matters

2007-03-13T02:39:00.002-07:00

"When Google introduced Google Earth, free software that marries satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities, the company emphasized its usefulness as a teaching and navigation tool, while advertising the pure entertainment value of high-resolution flyover images of the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the pyramids.

But since its debut last summer, Google Earth has received attention of an unexpected sort. Officials of several nations have expressed alarm over its detailed display of government buildings, military installations and other sensitive sites within their borders.

India, whose laws sharply restrict satellite and aerial photography, has been particularly outspoken. "It could severely compromise a country's security," V.S. Ramamurthy, secretary in India's federal Department of Science and Technology, said of Google Earth.

Similar sentiments have surfaced in news reports from other countries. South Korean authorities have said they fear that Google Earth lays bare details of sensitive military installations. Thai security authorities said they intended to ask Google to block images of vulnerable government buildings.

And Lt. Gen. Leonid Sazhin, an analyst for the Federal Security Service, the Russian security agency that succeeded the KGB, was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying: "Terrorists don't need to reconnoiter their target. Now an American company is working for them."

But there is little they can do, it seems, but protest.

Google Earth is the most conspicuous recent instance of increased openness in a digitally networked world, where information that was once carefully guarded is now widely available on personal computers.

American experts in and outside government generally agree that the focus on Google Earth as a security threat appears misplaced, as the same images that Google acquires from a variety of sources are available directly from the imaging companies, as well as from other sources.

"Google Earth is not acquiring new imagery," said John Pike, director of Globalsecurity.org, which has an online repository of satellite imagery. "They are simply 'repurposing' imagery that somebody else had already acquired."

Andrew McLaughlin, a senior policy counsel at Google, said the company had entered discussions with several countries over the last few months.

Those meetings have yet to result in a request that Google remove or downgrade any information, he said. Nor, he said, has the U.S. government ever asked Google to remove information."

Google Zeitgeist 2005 Result with Surprised Events

2007-03-13T02:39:00.001-07:00

A look back at 2005 wouldn't be complete without some lists. Here are three from us to you, representing some of the most popular searches this year on Google.

Google.com - Top Gainers of 2005
1. Myspace
2. Ares
3. Baidu
4. wikipedia
5. orkut
6. iTunes
7. Sky News
8. World of Warcraft
9. Green Day
10. Leonardo da Vinci

Google News - Top Searches in 2005
1. Janet Jackson
2. Hurricane Katrina
3. tsunami
4. xbox 360
5. Brad Pitt
6. Michael Jackson
7. American Idol
8. Britney Spears
9. Angelina Jolie
10. Harry Potter

Froogle - Top Searches in 2005
1. ipod
2. digital camera
3. mp3 player
4. ipod mini
5. psp
6. laptop
7. xbox
8. ipod shuffle
9. computer desk
10. ipod nano

Official Deal with Google & AOL

2007-03-13T02:38:00.001-07:00

"America Online and Google announced a $1 billion deal to expand their partnership, a move aimed as much at boosting their respective Internet advertising revenues as it is about thwarting the online ambitions of rival Microsoft.
The announcement late Tuesday confirmed a poorly kept secret. Word of the deal had leaked widely last week after AOL's parent company, Time Warner, ended weeks of negotiations by picking Google of Mountain View over Microsoft of Redmond, Wash.

While many details remained vague Tuesday, AOL and Google said the valley search giant will pay $1 billion for a 5 percent stake in AOL, valuing the company at $20 billion overall. AOL will be able to sell Google's search-related ads to appear on AOL properties.

The deal includes the prospect of adding more graphical ads throughout the Google network, though specifics remained vague. In addition, Google and AOL said they would enable users of their respective instant messaging services -- Google Talk and AIM -- to communicate with each other. AOL also will get an opportunity to have its content featured more prominently on Google.

While all these aspects should give a short-term boost to Google's and Time Warner's bottom line, one analyst said the deal's most important aspect was that it denied Microsoft a closer relationship with one of Google's biggest partners and customers.

``AOL was the last big Internet company that could have given Microsoft the scale it needed to compete with Google,'' said Jason Avilio, an Internet analyst at First Albany. Avilio owns no stock in any of the three companies and his company has no investment banking business with them.

The deal was approved by Time Warner's board Tuesday despite the last-minute opposition of Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor who has been leading a group of dissident shareholders who want Time Warner to radically restructure the company. In a letter to the board released Monday, Icahn said Google might not be the best partner for AOL and said the deal would be bad if it prevented AOL partnerships with other online companies, such as eBay.

The investment was announced after stock markets closed Tuesday. Time Warner fell 21 cents a share, or 1.2 percent, to $17.74. Google rose $5.14 a share, or 1.2 percent, to $429.74. Microsoft rose 3 cents to $26.86.

Time Warner officials declined to comment Tuesday. In a news release, Time Warner Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dick Parsons said he expected the deal would benefit all of his company, not just AOL.

``As digital technologies continue to drive industries together, the great value and opportunity inherent in Time Warner's structure and array of premier businesses becomes increasingly clear,'' Parsons said in the release. ``A critical piece of this strategic alliance will be our content, which we will be making more accessible to Google users.''

Officials at Google did not return calls Tuesday. In the release, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said the move should help connect Google's users to more content.

``AOL is one of Google's longest-standing partners, and we are thrilled to strengthen and expand our relationship,'' Schmidt said in the release. ``This partnership is an important next step for our companies.'"

New Japan Search Engine ?

2007-03-13T02:37:00.001-07:00

"Japan is limbering up to challenge the might of Google and Yahoo by developing its own search engine.

The country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has organized a study group consisting of about 20 Japanese electronics companies--including Hitachi and Panasonic--and universities, which will consider the merits of creating a search tool specifically for the country's Web users.

"The group will look into issues including whether Japan will start its own search engine," said Fumihiro Kajikawa, a ministry official in charge of information policies. According to reports, the Japanese government is considering spending up to about $885 million on the plan, as part of its drive to become a more dominant online player.

Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, has previously said that the country needs to extend its influence in the IT arena.

According to The Times, just over $100 million has already been earmarked for the plan, which could start in early 2007.

Several governments, particularly in countries where English is not the primary language, have shown concern about the dominance that the U.S. and other English-speaking countries have over the IT in general and over the Internet. French President Jacques Chirac, for instance, has called for a new European search service akin to Google Print. France has also teamed up with China to develop an open-source software product."

Search Engine Google & Yahoo Predictions for 2006

2007-03-13T02:36:00.000-07:00

"After John Battelle, see Philipp Lenssen posted predictions for next year :

1. Google will finally go ahead and release a real web-wide video search. It will be integrated into Google Video and you will find both user-uploaded files, as well as videos found on the web. The video search will quickly make its way into the small selection of homepage links. Probability: 80%.

2. Google gets rid of some of their old values and introduce graphic ads on their own site next to search results. This will make some purists and bloggers become angry at Google. Probability: 40%.

3. Google will buy 2 more technology start-ups in 2006. They will also buy one older company and release the company’s flagship product for free, thereby getting rid of some of the competition in that area. Probability: 90%.

4. Google will not release as may new services as in 2005, because they realized they must go through a consolidation phase to make their existing services scale and localize better. Google Analytics will open its doors again and starts to work faster. Google Calendar will be released, with tight integration into Gmail (and a similar look). Probability: 40%.

5. Google will have a major index update in February which will be heavily discussed by the search engine industry. Several sites will be kicked out of the index, and several businesses along with it. Probability: 70%.

6. Yahoo releases their new email client to the public in the first few months of 2006. Many Gmail users, but by far not all, will switch to it because of its desktop look and feel. Probability: 60%.

7. Google replaces their translator with new in-house technology which will be far superior to existing translation tools. They also manage to pull off on-the-fly translation of web pages in their index so that you are enabled to search in any language you want to. Probability: 50%.

8. Google aims to stay ahead of the competition by dramatically increasing the update frequency for new content. For most pages – anything above PageRank 5 – the content enters Google and can be searched for within hours. Probability: 20%.

9. Google releases a web based version of Google Talk which lets users chat in their browser. Probability: 40%.

10. Google is involved in a major privacy scandal with the US government revolving around some of their services. They lose quite a few users due to it. Probability: 20%.

11. Google releases an IRC (chat) search, but the service is closed after a week without Google giving us an explicit reason for this. Probability: 30%.

12. Internet Explorer 7 is released with new in-built search functions, many of which are making use of the MSN search. In general, IE7 underwhelms the public, but it turns out to be much faster than Firefox, with less bugs (but also less support of HTML and CSS standards). At the same time, Microsoft’s Windows is losing more of its importance as pretty much all applications moved to the web. Probability: 60%.

13. Google introduces new “onebox” search results on top of their search results. This includes a “What bloggers say” box for some search queries. Probability: 60%.

14. Both Yahoo and MSN remove clutter from their homepages to put more focus on search. Probability: 20%.

15. More and more people will complain that Google is becoming too much of a web monopoly. This results in some legal action, but not next year. Probability: 50%.
"

Time Warner Permits Google To Sell AOL Stake In 2008

2007-03-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

"GOOGLE WILL BE ABLE TO sell its newly acquired, hard-won stake in AOL in July of 2008, according to documents filed late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week, Time Warner sold Google a 5 percent stake in AOL for $1 billion--shutting out Google rival Microsoft, which also had vied for a piece of AOL. The papers filed last week state that Google will have the right to sell its shares--either to Time Warner or, if Time Warner refuses, at an initial public offering.

The SEC filing also spelled out details of an expanded advertising alliance between Google and AOL. It was known last week that Google in some manner intends to promote AOL's video within Google's video search results, but the papers also state that Google will "fund marketing efforts with third party media outlets to promote agreed-upon AOL properties, events or initiatives that will be sponsored by us."

Google also will assist AOL in optimizing its properties for Google crawlers, so that AOL pages have a better chance of appearing higher in the organic results on certain queries. In its SEC filing, Google stressed that its help wouldn't involve giving AOL any proprietary information about Google's algorithms. "We have agreed to assist AOL and Time Warner in understanding our published and/or publicly available tools for improving the accessibility of a Web site's content to Google's web crawlers," stated Google in its papers."

No More "Sex Male" Domination on Internet ! Women are Really In !!

2007-03-13T02:33:00.000-07:00

"The days of men dominating the Internet may be over, a new study finds. But, according to the study, the two sexes use the Web for very different things.

The study says 68 percent of men and 66 percent of women now go online. Since women make up a larger portion of the population, that means they outnumber men in cyberspace.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project surveyed more than 20,000 men and women over five years as part of research sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust, a Philadelphia foundation that focuses on informing the public and supporting civic life.

Fantasy Sports vs. E-Mailing Friends

Although a similar percentage of men and women use the Internet, the study found they often use it quite differently.

The research suggests men largely go online to pursue solitary pursuits, while women use the Internet to enrich their existing relationships.

Men go online to further their hobbies, for example. They are much more likely to use the Internet to read online, take Web classes and take part in sports-fantasy leagues. More men than women will download software and music or use a Web cam.

By contrast, 94 percent of women who go online do so for e-mail. Women see e-mail as a way to nurture friendships. They'll write to family and friends to share news and stories, ask for advice and discuss plans. When men use e-mail, it tends to be for work-related activities or for forwarding jokes or humorous stories. Believe it or not, women are just as likely as men to use the Internet to play games, listen to music, watch videos and share files. And both sexes are equally likely to gamble online. In fact, 4 percent of the population surveyed gambled online.

Both sexes have tapped the Internet as a powerful research tool, but Pew found they seek different information. Men go online to find weather, news, sports, political, financial and do-it-yourself information. For women, searches for health, medical and religious information are more typical.

Women are also more likely to use the Internet to obtain maps and directions. It seems some things never change. Men hate asking for directions so much that many won't even ask a computer!

The Pew report found men are more interested in underlying technology than women are. As a result, they experiment more and are more likely to solve their own computer problems. They know the latest terms and tech-related issues.

Women are more likely to fear the Internet. They worry about porn, crime, viruses and privacy. Many don't understand the complexities of the technology. Teen girls are an exception, however. The report found teenage girls run neck and neck with teenage boys in trying out challenging online technologies.

All adults — both men and women — are more likely to use the Internet if they have kids. It seems their children are either demanding to use the Internet at home or may even be teaching their parents how to navigate it. If that holds true, future studies of men and women and Internet use could yield profoundly different results. "

Adsense weekend dip again

2007-03-13T00:27:00.001-07:00

My adsense earning drops seriously EVERY weekend now...>.<
It becomes not only a one time accident, but a combination of adsense smart pricing, adwords stragery of advertisers and regular dropdown of my weekend traffic.
I dunno what I should do to compensate this drop. Maybe I should work on new topics which attracts holiday traffic~~ Right now my site is stock related and only attracts much traffic when the stock market is open. I hope stock market would never close... hahaha

See More on Google versus The US Government

2007-03-13T00:23:00.000-07:00

I lot of friends, including my wife, have said to me, "why are you so harsh on Google lately?" This kind of surprises me because I don't think I have been. Sure this is the third article I've written on Google as of late and you are probably wondering if I may dump blospot and pop over to Typepad instead.

Let me set the record straight. I love Google and the products that they bring to the marketplace. I also know a lot of people at Google and they are all great. Google also brings a ton of competition to the marketplace and, it didn't hurt that my former employer was part of the IPO group.

However, they are in it to make money, just like everyone else. Have you seen their stock price recently and their marketcap? It is outrageous. You know what else you need to learn about Google? How about their corporate mantra? Read #4 and #6. #4 is titled Democracy on the web works and #6 is You can make money without doing evil. Interesting huh? Let's see how democracy on the web and making money without doing evil has been forgotten or at least thrown out temporarily when it comes to making money.

Democracy on the web
First, Google decides not to help the United States Government in understanding how existing filtering on the web protects children from porn and predators. It IS a primary part of a ruling on the COPA act. Now, they are the only ones from the Big 4 that stood up to the Government. Some people think that Google is standing up to the US to protect individual freedom and who knows, first this data and then they hand over PII information on individual's searches.

Last time I checked, the US Government, the best Democracy on the great blue spot in the Milky Way protects our individual rights and not Google. And, you know who basically asked for the check on the existing filtering technology - The Supreme Court. Now lets look at the other side of the spectrum - China.

China and Google - Perfect Together?

China - the last time I checked was Communist. You remember those people, right? They were pretty popular up until 1989 or so, when Reagan's pressures finally led to the crumbling of the Soviet Empire and only really left Cuba and China as strong Communist nations.

Fast forward to 2006 and everyone loves China now a days because you guessed it - a billion or so people buy a lot of goods; that is when their government allows them to make some money. You know what the Chinese still practice - good old government censorship. Freedom of speech in China, the kind like we enjoy in the USA, does NOT exits. Hell, you can't even get a good search result without some form of censorship.

Now, Google decides to help the Chinese Government continue to oppress their people by making it easier to censor search results. No, not the Google. we can make money without doing evil company. Yes that Google; well maybe not the Google that originally wrote those words, but the Google that is now making a ton of money. Read this article from CNN entitled Google To Censor Itself in China to see for yourself.

I don't know about you, but when the same company decides to stiff the Democratic US Government in the name of freedom and then turns around and helps a Communist China continue their oppression, one has to wonder who we are dealing with. Maybe Google should re-read their Corporate Values Statement again and decide if they really want to make some money the free speech, democratic way which up until now has helped their stock grow from about $90 to $433.

Think I'm the only one that feels this way - check out Bambi's article over at CBS MarketWatch (require free registration) titled Google Shows Its True Colors. Again, makes you want to move your blog to Typepad.

Has Google visited my yahoo store yet?

2007-03-13T00:11:00.000-07:00

This is the question which I and my clients ask very often to ourselves.
It gets worse when we are not able to see our yahoo store specific keywords showing up in google searches.

Not everyone knows that Google offers a date-based syntax, which you can access via the advanced search, which limits your time options, or the daterange: syntax, which uses Julian dates and is a bit difficult to use.

Here is a way to tell whether the googlebot ( google crawler/spider) picked up any content from your yahoo store today, yesterday, within the last seven days, or last 30 days.

SEO with Headlines field on the Yahoo store Item/Section Pages

2007-03-13T00:10:00.001-07:00

New Yahoo Store Merchants always ask me whether they should use the item name or headline for the product pages.

The "headline" field lets you control the look and feel of title text on a product page without affecting the actual title of the page, the shopping basket, or the name that appears in Yahoo! Shopping.

Use the "headline" feature if you have a long, descriptive product name and you don't want text to wrap below the image or scroll off the page. "Headlines" let you shorten the product name, add linebreak tags in the middle of a long title so it displays on more than one line, or add bold or italic tags to your product title.

Don’t use HTML tags in the "Name" field. This will get you in trouble. The actual tags will show up within the browser title window - and you've probably seen how unprofessional that looks. Plus not good for search engines like google, yahoo, msn, etc who are looking for a good title tag. Make headlines instead!

One of the trusted SEO RTML templates for your yahoo store is to convert these headlines or name IMAGES on your item and section pages TO TEXT.

Gets picked up by google or any other text based search engines! Call me at 703-880-6510 if anybody needs more info.

" Google kicked out my yahoo store!"

2007-03-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

I just finished talking to a client who told me that he had his yahoo store item related keywords among top ten results on google search. He seemed to be pretty concerned about what wrong may have happened. When I browsed on his yahoo store pages, I found many problem areas related to google searchbot. Here are the few of them:

1. Hidden Text: Found two lines underneath the final-text area. Carrying so many store related keywords. For all of you who cant really avoid the hidden text, why dont we use a light grey color for that instead of white?

2. Doorway Pages: 5 of them using the Raw-html type. Linking back to the home page. Carrying no other links. It is always a good idea if you can create a content stories of about 400-500 words on the doorway or special pages which has link to the yahoo store section or item pages instead of just linking to the home page.

3. Javascript: Too Much javascript and css text on the head tags could be one reason. The javascript was about opening a popup page about the store annoucements. Well the function was being called popup. I am not sure if googlebot took this function name too seriously but the javascript iteself must have been. Moving everything in javascript or css into a file whopuld have been a better option.

4. Redirect to the Offer Page: This is a 100% NO-NO for google. Do not have any sneaky meta tag related or javascript redirect to the store. This applies to the doorway pages, landing pages, homepages on the web hosting side of your merchant solution package too.

5. Missing Content: Too little description on the item pages could be one reason.

6. Missing Robots Meta Tag: It is always better to let the googlebot find its way from the path specified by the robots .txt file. You can always add this meta tag in the head-tags variable

< meta name="robots" content="ALL" >
< meta name="robots" content="INDEX,FOLLOW" >

This tells the googlebot or any other search engine spider to look deeper into the linked pages on that particular page.

7. No Headline Text: Google does a great job in reading headlines. All the text which appears in h1, h2, h3 or h4 tags looks interesting to google crawler and is a must tool for google SEO

Btw, Ever wondered how a page looks to the spider?

Try this free service called Poodle Predictor at http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/spider.go.

This tells you how your site appears to the googlebot.

So, we need to be extra careful not to spam google when it comes to seo. Some of the listed things above may have no impact to other search engines like yahoo or msn, but a balanced approach is what we need when it comes to Search Engine Optimization

Make Yahoo Store Grow With The Times

2007-03-13T00:07:00.002-07:00

How do you ensure the continuous flow of sales and other positive aspects that your yahoo store gives you? Go on with your usual distribution and promotion of your print ads. As with these prints, your site should be updated in order to have people coming back for recent information. It would be a waste of time and a disappointment for them to go to your yahoo store to see the latest and get the read the same things that they have read like one or two months ago. If your site is like this, you have just signed an invisible termination of contract of a useful and worthy site.

Update your site from time to time. Give your visitors the latest and not the latest some years back. Having readers read outdated information will not win you any points. There is also a possibility that these people would never try to visit your site again after getting that impression. From the time you started your site, you should have been aware of the responsibility that comes with it. Sites are cheaper than any reading materials that you need to send on a time basis. Think about it, cost-effective and very accessible. Give the readers what they need and update your site.

Put reference section where you can note things like the recent changes you have made in your site. This lets people know that your site is being maintained. Nothing like a good reminder every now and then for people who are too status-conscious.

Remove outdated pages but make them still accessible for those who may need to go back to old information. This information not only becomes little of use also can be confusing. Removing them often would be wiser than having them pile up and taking so much of your site space and making you pay much more. Why continue to confuse and anger the people by giving them this information when you can give them far better things than that?

Check the search engines constantly if your yahoo store is still as accessible as before. Check also if people are finding it easy to search for your site in these engines. There are some search engines that uses meta tags that holds keywords and description of your site for easy access. You could try writing a page that explains your company, what it does; its services and other resources you offer. Different search engines have different preferences in the way your sites should be displayed. There are those who prefer meta tags and those that choose content page.

A site that can change, evolve, and grows is a definite candidate for the kind of site that people keep coming back for more.

Your YStore Check List

2007-03-13T00:07:00.001-07:00

1. Easy To Read- You want to make it easy for your visitors to read your text. You don't want to use a light colored text like yellow on a white background and you don't want to use dark blue text on a black back- ground.

2. Create A Mood- You want to use the color of your text to create a mood for the reader. If you want to create excitement, use some red text. If you want to create greed, use a some green text. Use colors that would put you in a mood to buy your product.

3. Grab Their Attention- You can grab your readers attention by using headlines. Make the headline more noticeable by using a different colored headline than your ad copy. This offsets the headline and pulls the reader into the rest of your ad copy.

4. Highlight Keywords- You can emphasize phrases and keywords that are important to your readers. For instance, use super, deluxe, fast, low price, free, new, etc. You could use bolding, underlining, italics, color changing, etc.

5. Sizing It Up- You don't want to use text that is too small or to large. You want to use larger text for your headlines and subheadings. You want to use smaller text for your ad copy. If your grandparents can't read it, it's too small.

6. Don't Use All CAPS!- You don't want to use all capital letters in your ad copy. It looks unprofessional and is hard to read. You may want to use all CAPS in your headlines to offset it.

7. Font Properly- You want to use a text font that relates to the product or services your selling. You don't want to use a comic type font when your selling business books.

8. Spacing Out- It's important to use spaces properly when typing your text. You should indent and bullet key benefits your product or service will give the reader. Your headlines, subheadings, sentences and paragraphs should be consistently spaced throughout your web site.

9. I Need Sunglasses- Don't use all bright text colors and backgrounds on your web site. It will make your text hard to read and actually bother your readers' eyes to the point they just decide to leave your site.

10. Check The Readability- It's important to check your spelling and grammar before you publish your yahoo store. When writing an ad copy you're allowed to break some of those grammar rules to get your point across.

New Prebuilt Custom Design Templates available for Yahoo Stores

2007-03-13T00:06:00.001-07:00

We just introduced some new pre built design templates for your Yahoo Store. Now too you can have a custom design without investing a fortune in your store design and missing out on the dollars for the promotion.

Any Yahoo Store Design template like you see on the left, is further modified and changed to suit your products and categories.

There is no loss of functionality of the store and you will be able to add modify delete the items just like before.

All the templates come with the following features:

1. Custom layout using approved HTML and RTML scripting.
2. Custom Header.
3. Custom Left Nav bar. All text links.
4. Third Column for display of important information. Can also be
used for displaying cross-sells
5. Breadcrumbs
6. Item Name or Headlines turned to text.
7. Quantity box and custom add to cart image.
8. Search Engine readiness with meta insertion and robot files.
9. Image pop ups.
10. Integration with any mail list program.
11. Tell A Friend.
12. Image Alt tags for SEO
13. Yahoo! Store Manager Configuration
14. Shipping and Tax Configuration
15. Yahoo Store Training on new templates.

Call us now at 1-888-508-0613 to find out more...

Small Businesses Should Plan for Summer

2007-03-12T23:36:00.000-07:00

Small Business Owners Should Plan Ahead to Avoid Dealing With Employee Vacation Hassles in Summer

Google News Suggest

2007-03-12T23:34:00.000-07:00

Google added some Google Suggest technology to Google News. Now, if you go to news.google.com/news?complete=1, the search box will suggest queries as you type. It appears that the suggestions are based on news searches, and not something else, which means they can clue you in to what is happening in the news. For example, typing in “Google” reveals suggestions for “google sketchup” and “google calendar”, both hot items.

My only wish: that you could turn this on in the preferences, so you wouldn’t have to bookmark it or remember that unfriendly URL. Otherwise, enjoy!
(via the Google blog)

Eye-Tracking studies- Usability holy grail?

2007-03-12T23:20:00.000-07:00

Eye-Tracking- following user eye patterns

Eye-tracking studies are a type of usability test where user gaze concentrations are recorded in thermal-like "heat zone maps". The heat zone maps track user eye movements. Eye tracking tests make usability testing look really interesting, sophisticated, high-tech and scientific. Eye tracking usability data appears to be more valuable or empirical since it is recorded using technology and gaze capture instruments.

The reality is that eye-tracking, while valuable, doesn't make usability testing any more powerful. It's what you do with the observations and the usability test data that counts.

Bottom line: If you are using eye-tracking, to make it meaningful, you must:

1. Have a trained observer or usability professional observing. Eye tracking vendors are not necessarily experts in interpreting usability research. So users looked over there, who cares? What is motivating their gazing activity?

2. Focus on what it is you are trying to learn. What aspect of user behavior are you trying to understand? What will eye-tracking offer that other methods won't?

3. Match what users are actually doing and feeling with the eye-tracking data reports. Data is just data unless it is meaningful and informative.

4. Be aware what eye-tracking is, what types of technologies exist and how your tests should be set up for maximum effectiveness. See the Problems Reported... section of this article below for discussion of this issue.

What Eye Tracking tells us about website usability

One of the recent and big studies to come out this year was the Poynter Institute's "EyeTrack III" 2004 Eye Tracking Study. This is the third eye track study conducted by Poynter since 1991.

Here's what Poynter has found from their eyetracking studies relating to website content usability, page layout, navigation and design: (my comment below finding)

1. Users spend a good deal of time initially looking at the top left of the page and upper portion of the page before moving down and right-ward.
Comment: Another thing to think about is how this user behavior mirrors search engine traffic (i.e. Google Bot visiting your site). Search engines read starting at the top left, and then downward in a left to right column fashion.

2. Normal initial eye movement around the page focuses on the upper left portion of the screen.
Comment: Not surprising when you consider that users are patterned by all the other software and websites that they use which have a standard menu start point (e.g. File, Edit, View...). Note: For Japanese or Arabic it would be the mirror reverse.

3. Ads perform better in the left hand column over the right column of a page.
Comment: The right column is treated by users as an "after-thought" area and should be designed with that in mind.

4. Smaller type encourages focused viewing behavior.
Comment: This is especially true in older or elderly users. For the rest of your users, stick with 9-12 point Sans Serif (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana) with an average of 10-11. FYI: Only developers appreciate miniature fonts!

5. Larger type promotes lighter scanning.
Comment: Most reading behavior consists of skimming and scanning. If you want to slow your users down- use smaller fonts in the body of your content. Use larger fonts to help them cover more territory.

6. Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page- especially upper left of the page.
Comment: Remember, Poynter's focus was a newspaper website. However, bear this in mind for portal type design and intranet design.

7. Users only look at a sub headline if it engages them.
Comment: So make sub-headlines relevant and of course make them the keyword phrases users and search engines use.

8. Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best.
Comment: Again, if you understand how users are patterned by other tools they use (Word, IE, Outlook Express)- the goodies are at the top of the page.

9. People's eyes typically scan lower portions of a page seeking something to grab their attention.
Comment: This seems consistent with "Information Foraging Theory" where users are said to hunt for information by "scent" or navigation and content of the highest value to them.

10. Shorter paragraphs performed better than longer ones.
Comment: Attention is clipped on the Internet. Short bursts of attention are the environment you are designing for at all times. Note: Longer product descriptions do better than shorter ones in ecommerce situations. As with all usability findings, context is key.

11. The standard one-column format performed better in terms of number of eye fixations.
Comment: Most users are overwhelmed by the average web page that they try to deflect information as a coping strategy. It is the same phenomenon that occurs at a party when you focus on one conversation and ignore the other conversations around you by categorizing them as "noise".

12. Ads in the top and left portions of a homepage received the most eye fixations.
Comment: Interesting, but I wouldn't recommend putting ads there. *Just because they receive eye fixations doesn't mean they put a smile on the user's face*. This is one of the main points of this article!

13. Close proximity to popular editorial content really helped ads get seen.
Comment: One of the golden "rules" of usability is that anytime you satisfy the user's task (interest, goal, objective), you increase the likelihood or create the conditions that they will be open to other stimuli (advertising, cross-selling etc.)

14. Text ads were viewed mostly intently of all types tested.
Comment: Text ads are popular because they are less distracting, camouflage well with the page and are often not known to be ads and therefore annoyances to the user. Oh, and since Google "pioneered" them- they are the de facto standard in effective web advertising.

15. Bigger ads had a better chance of being seen.
Comment: Also repeat advertising on a page by the same company is being used on many sites to reinforce exposure.

16. The bigger the image, the more time people took to look at it.
Comment: Using larger images (file sizes) is easier these days since 20% or more (USA) are on high speed connections, but using thumbnails with large images is always a safer bet.

17. Clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixations on homepages.
Comment: Humans are wired to recognize patterns and hard wired to other human faces.

18. Higher recall of facts, names, and places occurred when people were presented with that information in text format.
Comment: Good recall depends on the level of relevancy, good copy-writing and content usability (structure and display).

19. New, unfamiliar, conceptual information was more accurately recalled when participants received it in a multimedia graphic format.
Comment: It is known in the field of cognitive science that the more emotion involved in a learning transaction, the higher the retention and recall.

20. Story information about processes or procedures seemed to be comprehended well when presented using animation and text.
Comment: And the animation or text must be clear, easy to understand and in the language or conceptual world of the audience.

Types of Eye Tracking Technologies

1. Head-mounted tracker: Head mounted tracking devices as pictured at the start of this article (image from Poynter's earlier study) consist of a wire frame helmet that is mounted on the user's head in order to stabilize head and eye-movement.

2. Gaze-detection: This technique in addition to head mounted tracking has been around since the mid-1990's and featured as an interface device in virtual reality research. What's new with gaze detection are technological improvements.

In the Poynter III eye-track study, Stanford University derived www.EyeTools.com used the new eye-gaze technology developed by Sweden's www.Tobii.se. In this system, the computer screen itself detects, captures and tracks the user's eye gaze patterns. Other vendors like Australia's www.SeeingMachines.com, Germany's www.Eye-Square.com or American www.EyeTracking.com offer headset and headset-free kits.

Measuring more sophisticated variables...

I expect the next 15 years will see an increase in physiological measurements being used in consumer and usability research. Not because so called "traditional usability" techniques are inadequate, but rather because the field itself will help prove itself with the "hard proof" offered by the new technology. Already Eye-Square offers an additional skin-conductivity sensor to help detect such factors as shifts in sweat, temperature and heart-rate. Eye Tracking Inc. offers pupal diameter measurement as another way to gauge/track emotional response.

Further movements can been seen in physiological research in Harvard University's lab run by Gerald Zaltman (author of the amazing book How Customers Think), where fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) is being used to determine where data is being processed in specific regions of the brain. Now we're talking "hard proof". It's not what they see but what they think about what they see!

Problems reported with using eye-tracking for Usability Testing

Many eye-tracking firms (and the original companies that were founded) emerged from academic settings and moved toward selling commercial research services. The use of eye-tracking in usability research is fairly new and is recognized to lack empirical evidence regarding its effectiveness.

Eye-tracking technology changes every few years. However, most of the vendor websites do not offer detailed information about their specific technologies or approach (scientific basis, trials or double blind studies with their technology). The attitude seems to be, "eye-tracking is cool, so just do it"!

Take a quick look at the research literature on eye-tracking and a different story emerges.

Schnipke and Todd (2000) at George Mason University reported extensive problems in properly collecting eye tracking data, despite vendor training and one year's experience. They identified a host of obstacles such as ease of use of the system, calibration stability, pupil fluctuations and pupil condition quality as well as the issue of omitting users who wear glasses. The authors used a remote eye-gaze system.

Goldberg et.al (2002) at Stanford University and Oracle Corporation identified two styles of eye tracking studies: top-down (task oriented) and bottom-up (behavioral inferences). The researchers found that both styles of eye tracking studies must be adopted if eye-tracking is to become a routine usability methodology.

Pan et. al (2004) at Columbia University confirmed previous work by Rayner (1998), finding that individual characteristics of the viewer as well as the stimuli both contribute to viewer's eye movement behavior.

Eye-tracking seems to have a promising future. As the technology improves, so too will the research application, methods and action-ability of eye-tracking data. However, eye-tracking does not seem to be the holy grail of usability testing. The two biggest practical problems are calibration and complex reporting and analysis. In corporate usability settings, easy test set-up and quick design insight, guidance and recommendation are the most valuable elements of the usability research activity. If eye-tracking jeopardizes those elements then it looses some appeal.

Scrutinizing the quality and end results of new eye-tracking technology developments and methods will become a bigger problem as traditional academic spin-offs compete for eye-tracking services in a commercial capacity. As with any new technology it is important to remember why you are using it and what it can do for you. The Poynter research like many eye-tracking studies, provides another data point to validate or challenge your existing assumptions about user behavior. As Poynter's Howard Finberg put it, "Eyetrack III is a tool, not a solution".

The reality is that eye-tracking, while valuable, doesn't make usability testing any more powerful. It's what you do with the observations and the usability test data that counts.

How many users should you test with in usability testing? (Latest Research)

2007-03-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

Question: How many users do you need to test with for a usability test?

Answer 1: = 5 users (Jakob Nielsen and Thomas Landauer, 1993).

Answer 2: = 15 users (Laurie Faulkner, 2004), PDF file.

So, which is it, 5 or 15? And why are we arguing about an extra 10 users, doesn't one need to test with at least 100 or more users for statistical significance, accuracy and validity?

Statistical Validity in Usability Testing

Usability research is largely qual-itative, or driven by insight (why users don't understand or why they are confused). Qual-itative research follows different research rules to quant-itative research and it is typical that sample size is low (i.e. 15 or 20 participants).

The end result of usability testing is not statistical validity per say (the outcome of quant-itative research) but verification of insights and assumptions based on behavioral observation (the outcome of qual-itative research).

Why don't we do large numbers in usability testing?

We are looking for behavioral based insight (what they do).
Statistics tell half the story and often are devoid of context (e.g. Why did they fail?)- Also one of the major problems with gaining insight from web analytics (website traffic statistics).
Our objective is to apply findings to fix design problems in a corporate setting (not academic analysis).
Research shows that even with low numbers, you can gain valid data.
Usability testing is being used industry-wide and has been for past 25 years. Experts, authors and academics put their reputations and credentials behind the methodology.
Behavior vs. Opinion

Usability research is behavior-driven: You observe what people do, not what they say.

In contrast, market research is largely opinion-driven: You ask people what they think and what they think they think. You need big samples for market research because of this (though focus groups bend this because they are somewhat qualitative). This is why phone or web surveys require hundreds or thousands of responses. Behavior-driven research is more predictable. Basically, if 10/15 users are confused you can assume that many more will also be confused as well.

Example: If you ask someone "what do you think of this homepage?", you will need several hundred responses to gain statistical validity in order to validate what will be opinion-driven data. Asking someone their opinion does not constitute usability requirements, since usability testing is about isolating "how they will actually use" the design not just "what they think" of the design.

If you give a small set of users a scenario that forces them to interact with home page elements and observe their behavior, and listen to their unsolicited reactions, you will get a better idea of what they think and need. The driver here is expectation (governed by cognitive factors) vs. opinion which can be driven solely by emotional, social or personal factors.

Suggested Sample Sizes for Research

Corporate Usability Research:

Surveys (phone and web) = ~240-~1,000 +
Focus Groups = 15-20 (depends on audience segments involved and goals of study)
Usability Testing = 10-15 participants

Field Studies = 15-40 participants

Card Sorting = 15-30 (higher is better since card sorting uses the statistical method of cluster analysis)
Academic Usability Research:
Samples are usually larger depending on size and scope and research objectives (e.g. 15 users per segment or 40-100 users in a usability test).

Jakob Nielsen's "test with 5 users" assumption

I think it is important to understand that Jakob Nielsen was trying to promote usability testing as a regular usability research activity in corporate environments. I believe he conducted this research (using a call center software application in the early 90's, rumor has it) in order to demystify the perceived complexity of setting up and running a usability test.

Remember in the early 1990's, only the hard core research and development labs at Apple, Bell Labs, Microsoft, IBM and Sun were doing usability testing. In Nielsen's much respected and equally criticized article "Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users" (written in 2000) he recommends (based on the early 1990's analysis) that instead of opting for higher accuracy, you go for the "fast and dirty" approach of conducing three tests instead of one "elaborate" study.

Later on in the article Nielsen says that the rule only applies if your users are comparable. If you have other segments or user types, you will need to test more users.

Translation: 5 users per audience segment or target user group, or for a website with 3 diverse segments you will need 15 users for the one test.

Magic Number 15 for Usability Testing...or Why 5 Users is Not Enough

Laurie Faulkner ( PDF: 2004) has conducted new empirical research showing benefits from increased sample size. In her study, "Beyond the five-user assumption: Benefits of increased sample sizes in usability testing", she wrote:

It is widely assumed that 5 participants suffice for usability testing. In this study, 60 users were tested and random sets of 5 or more were sampled from the whole, to demonstrate the risks of using only 5 participants and the benefits of using more. Some of the randomly selected sets of 5 participants found 99% of the problems; other sets found only 55%. With 10 users, the lowest percentage of problems revealed by any one set was increased to 80%, and with 20 users, to 95%.

At Experience Dynamics, (usability consultancy) we have found that the cost savings of using fewer users is negligible. In other words, after you spend the time and money to set up, facilitate and report on the test, adding a few more users does not add "that much" time and money to the overall project.

The benefit you get from adding a few more users to the total (or in the case of 5 users, doubling the amount) is far greater than the small test that gives you "quick and dirty" results. In the case of running a series of usability tests or iterating your testing process (recommended for refinements based on evolving design decisions), you may want to choose a smaller number of users: I recommend no less than 8 users.

http://www.1websitedesign.net

Usability Guidelines for Using Pop-ups?

2007-03-12T23:18:00.001-07:00

So if you must use on of those pesky pop-ups (either self-selected or forced) be sure to follow the following usability guidelines for pop up dialog windows:

1. No intensive scrolling. Pop-up information (tables, images, text) should be short and sweet. e.g. 150-200 words max.

2. No left to right (horizontal) scrolling! Pop-ups are a limited attention adjunct to information. They serve the purpose on the web of the ellipse (...). We have seen pop-ups used that have long scrolling tables, buttons down, left, right, outside of easy reach. Our usability testing experience shows that users hate to scroll your pop-ups.

3. Tabs work well with Help Pop-Ups. A few tabs to help organize HELP information seems to work well. Again be careful the length of content. If you have that much to say, say it on a web page.

4. Use the pop-up blocker error message (above). No brain-er, but rarely used. Nice work AAA!

5. Let the user self-select a pop-up always. Unless you are doing some kind of intercept (for a survey or exit email capture offer).

So, next time someone says "I hate pop-ups" and everyone grumbles and says "yeah, me to" you can smile and say to yourself "yeah, but..."

Now, let me go close some of those pop-ups ;-)

The Politics of Pop-Ups, Pop-Up Blockers and the Pop-Up Error Message

2007-03-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

Pop ups are dead- so what?

First of all, let me just get this out in the open: there is nothing wrong with pop-ups per say.

Next, let me qualify what I just said: Pop-ups are ineffective as an advertising tool and are not recommended on the web since pop-up blockers are ubiquitous. E.g. Every browser and search engine tool these days has a pop-up blocker: AOL pop-up blocker, Google Toolbar pop-up blocker, Yahoo Toolbar pop-up blocker, Firefox built in pop-up blocker, third party free pop-up blocker tools...etc.

Google Killed the Pop-Up

From the late 90's to the early 00's Google quietly used it's simple and easy to use design (read great user experience) to hijack the pop-up as a form of web advertising. If you remember every credible large and small website used pop-up windows for advertising and more. Google's text advertising (right column block short phrase with a link) wiped out the pop-up since the click through rates (CTR) for text based advertising (or contextual advertising) were higher: under .5% CTR for pop-ups to 2-3% CTR for text ads.

Back to "There is Nothing Wrong with Pop-ups"

Pop-ups are not the problem. It is the forcing of them on your users without telling them, which also violates the permission-based marketing model. This issue is rarely understood I find due to the culture of pop-up hating. Yeah, I hate them too.

However, if it is appropriate to provide more detail such as help text, or larger images or diagrams- then by all means use a pop-up dialog! Just be sure that it is self-selected. In other words the user clicks to activate. Remember, pop-ups became hated because they forced themselves on users, got in their face, redirected their attention and cluttered up their train of thought.

The Pop-Up Blocker Error Message

Alas, with so many pop-up blockers (thank you to all the pop-up blocker tools) there is a need for a new kind of error message to help users orient to that which is supposed to be happening which isn't happening.

You've done it right? Clicked on a link, page, image and then...(nothing). What happened? Oh it's the pop-up blocker that ate it. So while you figured that out, the average user who is not savvy to browser features and functionality (such as pop-up blocking) will probably blink and miss the hidden "aha"...and then move on.

What is Web 2.0? (as of Dec. 2005)

2007-03-12T23:15:00.000-07:00

A new approach to web and web application development that is characterized by:

Web sites offering free (cool) web services and tools (examples below);
Open source code (open API's)- software code becomes a viral marketing tool;
An enhanced user experience afforded by new approaches to information sharing and use of existing/new web scripting technologies;
Giving users the ability to share their opinions, media or to offer back to the community aka "The Architecture of Participation" (see Wikipedia's Web 2.0 definition) or peer-to-peer goes mainstream.
Web 2.0 seems to have taken flight in the last 10 months related to:

The rising popularity of social networking websites (like MySpace); online dating sites (like Match.com) and social networking sites (like LinkedIn) that create more emphasis on the "Social Web".
Google's rising influence and use of new ways to present a map interface (Google Maps; Gmail; Google Suggest). And Amazon, Microsoft and other big players are working on what will be central to the "Web 2.0" user experience (i.e. Tagging in Amazon and RSS web feeds in IE 7).
Yahoo's positioning as a stakeholder in Web 2.0 with it's acquisition of Flickr photo sharing and del.icio.us social bookmarking services and hiring of key "Social Media" executives to spearhead the new effort. "Sharing will be everywhere," said Jeff Weiner, a Yahoo senior vice president in charge of the company's search services. "It's the next chapter of the World Wide Web". FYI: Fortune magazine ranks Yahoo! as #1 in 100 Fastest Growing Companies with a 78% revenue growth rate.

The shift in the one-way broadcast or publish model to a two-way flow of information where consumers are active creators in content aka User-Contributed Content (Experience Dynamics web seminar)....or what former US Vice President Al Gore calls "We Media" (see We Media 2005 Conference website).
A new momentum largely coming out of San Francisco; largely made up of former dot-com enthusiasts (sober but dreamy)- and a significant amount of Venture Capital dollars financing Web 2.0 infrastructure.
An annual conference called "Web 2.0"(in it's second year) sponsored by O'Reilly Media (see Tim O'Reilly's What is Web 2.0?).
A word about hype

Is Web 2.0 just hype? Many large organization including Yahoo!, Google and Microsoft are investing heavily in the technologies and projects that are driving Web 2.0. If you loathe hype (as I do), perhaps you should see it for what it is: Hype seems to be an expression of the excitement generated by something new; it is often careless, clumsy and poorly thought out- but it's real purpose is to excite and ignite the feeling of change, progress and newness.

Having said that, I think this interesting article by Russell Shaw at ZDnet, is refreshing in terms of putting the Web 2.0 "hype" into context:

"Web 2.0 is bunk. Not that the elements of this rebirth aren't there. I write about some of them, and Richard has them nailed. It's just that they cannot be classified under a common umbrella. They are forward lurches of various standards and technologies, some compatible, some not. Some revolutionary, some evolutionary, some impractical. Some are collaborative, others are highly competitive with each other".

What's New with Web 2.0 as a technology shift?

What's different about this technology curve is that this time, user experience is on the agenda, despite the fact that Amazon's Jeff Bezos sees Web 2.0 as "about making the Internet useful for computers". (Amazon's focus is on creating viral API's with Amazon Web Services). To give Bezos credit, he also has said,though not in his Web 2.0 related interviews,...

If there's one reason we have done better than most of our peers in the Internet space over the last six years, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience, and that really does matter, I think, in any business.

Some Dominant Web 2.0 Themes

1. "Mash-Ups"- using others code (e.g. many are using Google Maps) and sharing your own code (e.g. Amazon is trying to provide code) to create a new application or web service such as: London Terrorist Attack map; eBay Motors & Google Maps; Zvents events site; Trulia real estate search;

2. "Tagging"- letting users create categorization on the fly with "tags". The goal is to help create more personalized, context rich search and categorization. Encouraging users to tag, like Amazon is doing currently, helps create better search. Some sites that tag or promote tagging: TagWorld; Tag Cloud; Technorati; 43 Things, del.icio.us (Yahoo!).

3. "User-Contributed Content"- letting users comment, rate, add content or media such as photos, videos etc. Becoming a standard in online newspapers and blogs. Some sites that promote user-contributed content: Judy's Book, Insider Pages; PriceGrabber; IRV2; BBC News, TripAdvisor.

Even conversations are occurring with regard to using the social web to make advertising more relevant.

How Users and User Experience Will Benefit from Web 2.0

1. More Competition Will Improve the Overall Web. Free services and an open source model that is going mainstream will mean more improvements aimed at remaining competitive. Google Maps and Google GMail (two "Web 2.0" applications) have pushed mapping and free email services into over-drive, not to mention desktop search.

2. Better Web User Interfaces Will Improve Subjective Satisfaction. Potentially being able to do more natural interaction (such as drag and drop or zoom) will give users a more intuitive way to interact with data. A focus on sharing will make the web seem more close to home or to a social circle (existing or created). Tagging will potentially create a user-centered "information architecture" that relies on context, semantics and personal labeling systems or so-called "folksonomies" rather than hierarchies or taxonomies.

3. More Trust and Credibility from Institutional Sources. Allowing self-publish or two-way publishing will give users more control, power and choice of data and opinions, views and decision-making resources. Blogs and ways to better integrate or share text, video and audio blogging will change what it means to be informed about a purchase decision or a visit to a destination.

Bottom Line: Web 2.0 seems to be reflecting the changes in the world and the way the current generation of web innovators interpret and re-purpose existing and newly used technologies. Web 2.0 or whatever you call it, is already here. For example Public Relations and Marketing savvy people use del.icio.us to monitor buzz; Technorati to track blog feeds and Epinions to monitor customer criticism, wants and needs. Pay attention to what is happening in Web 2.0, because it represents change at a micro and a macro level and whether you notice or not, change will affect your site whether you like it or not.

Defining the "average user"

2007-03-12T23:14:00.001-07:00

Average User:

1.1 A relative: someone in your family (mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, spouse, partner etc.) or what is often called "general population".
1.2 A person in a developing country: someone with no IT background and/ or no PC exposure in school.
1.3 A literacy-challenged person: someone who is new to or intimidated by a keyboard, mouse or to reading and writing in general.
1.4 A non-IT exposed person: a person who has not spent a lot of time with technology due to circumstance (an elderly person; a young child; a disabled person)
1.5 You? (Do you know all the ins and outs of every program you use?). Please note if you are reading this, "you are not the average user".
The "average user test" (can be performed on any family member that often asks you for help with technology).

1. Ask the person to open an attachment, edit it and then send it back to you. (Average users don't understand that this requires selecting a non-system file area of your hard-drive first; saving it and then replying with the document as an attachment).

2. Ask the person to take a picture (with a digital camera). Depending on the usability of the hardware manufacturer, the user might fail to get past transferring the images to the computer. If they figure this out, where they store images on the computer may be the show-stopper (Average users don't understand that a custom location needs to be defined and a novel name needs to be given to this "set of photos").

3. Ask the person to reduce the size or lighten the image and send it to you. Image editing is not layperson-friendly. The Mac OS 10 makes this a little easier than Windows XP but the average user is not using a Mac generally, so we're talking Windows XP. Also the average user is not installing all sorts of photo editing programs to find the "best one". By chance they have installed what was provided with the camera, the printer, or something a friend or relative gave them- or all three. The average user did not install the software on their system with volition.

Rules for playing nicely with your "Average User"
or the Alternative User's Bill of Rights (as originally proposed by IBM's Dr. Clare-Marie Karat)

1. Interaction with system level functions ain't going to happen. This means set-up, installation and all other "Out of Box Experience" (OOBE) aspects need to be considered carefully for average users. Decisions about what and how much of the "back end" administrator functions need to be made with caution. Where possible shelter the average user from "Preferences, Settings, Options" or at least centralize access to and from this area.

2. Customization and personalization behaviors are limited. Instead study default behaviors and spend time getting default functions right (this can not be over-emphasized).

3. Configuration is your average user's worst nightmare. See my article "Configuration Hell- The Case for the Plug and Play User Experience"

4. Anything not apparent, transparent, obvious, intuitive and explained may be problematic. Anything requiring understanding is not intuitive. Intuitive means it does not require understanding.

To simulate the cognition of the "average user" consume one alcoholic beverage and then try to focus on work (if you don't drink, sit at your desk for four hours straight and then try focusing on a new task). That state of distraction, de-focusing and inhibited response is close to how the average user processes your design. Conduct a usability test using the "think aloud protocol" and you'll quickly realize how true (and I hope, funny) this is!

5. Get sober about your technology- on purpose. It's easy to get pulled into the cool value of a technology, harder as a designer to step back and see the bigger business picture or user needs (gained from real observed user behavior). Usability and user advocacy techniques are not designed to under-value technology, but rather to make technology or specifically user interfaces -subordinate to user interests. User-centered designs historically have out-performed system-centered design.

6. Ignoring the average user can lead to self-fulfilling prophesies. I often hear product managers say "our users are power users" or "if they don't get this, they are not our users". These assumptions are largely self-preserving and seem to counter the usability attitude of "user advocacy". Promote a culture within your team of "Outside-In" design. Stop defending the merits of features and functionality without some independent outside verification from your users.

Remember user advocacy is as much realizing how technology or system-centric your own professional attitudes or behaviours are as much as those of your users.

Best wishes,

Frank Spillers, MS

Posted by Frank Spillers on April 21, 2006 at 12:16 PM in User Advocacy | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (2)

User Satisfaction (or the measurability of it)

2007-03-12T23:12:00.000-07:00

User satisfaction is often not studied in detail. It is usually just referred to in a paper or article. I am guilty of that, as is Jakob Nielsen in his writings.

"Two important aspects of the overall consumer satisfaction are: (i) the level of satisfaction associated with the final chosen product (e.g., Day, 1984; Spreng et al., 1996), and (ii) the level of satisfaction associated with the purchasing process (e.g., Arnould and Price, 1993; Oliver, 1993). The former has been referred to as the product satisfaction and the latter has been referred to as the process satisfaction. The product satisfaction can be measured in two aspects: (i) a holistic satisfaction towards a chosen product (Spreng et al., 1996) and (ii) the specific levels of satisfaction towards the product attributes (Oliver, 1993). A typical means to evaluate product satisfaction is to measure rated consumers’ affective responses to the selected products (Cole and Balasubramanian, 1993; Westbrook, 1987; Mano and Oliver, 1993; Westbrook and Oliver, 1991)".
Another excellent study that shows the link of user satisfaction to perception of pleasure and emotional aspects of a design (aka Emotion Design- my earlier post), too long to quote... "A systematic approach for coupling user satisfaction with product design" by Han, Sung and Hong, Sang in Ergonomics (2003) v 46. no 13/14.
Word of Mouth

"Jupiter Communications reports that word-of-mouth is second
only to a strong offline brand in building consumer trust.
Almost half of consumers surveyed by Jupiter, cite word-of-
mouth as a key influence in their online shopping habits...
The average U.S. adult online shopper now tells about 12
other people including family, friends, relatives and
co-workers about their online shopping experiences.Contrast this to the average of nine people who hear rave movie reviews or six who are told about great restaurants".
Reported May 27, 1999, Iconocast

"Word-of-Mouth expands the purchase cycle. Word-of-Mouth impacts customer value. Post-purchase actions drive evangelism. Advertising vs. Word-of-Moth "When Consumers Control the Message: When Real People are the Biggest Advertisers". Dave Evans et. Al. 2005, Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference slides. More info at the Word of Mouth organization: WOMMA
"A recent survey by Opinion Research discovered that online shopping escapades start more tongues wagging than either movies or restaurants". Latest research (2006) on Word of Mouth impact: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/sun.html

About the Poster Project

I am really happy how the poster turned out! Bryce Glass and I collaborated on this together. I was impressed by his earlier efforts to illustrate a "Flickr user model". Bryce's mastery of Illustrator is note-worthy, even if you think the poster is cluttered (If you do, take your time with it and don't take it too seriously- it's an inspiration piece).

How the poster was made

Users were interviewed, Bryce's earlier design was analyzed for what works and what doesn't work. We learned a lot from each other about visual design and the usability of flows... and the result is what you see above.

We have had some interesting feedback from users on Flickr:

"Great work, printed it out and it's up in the hallway of our UX group!" (fotografik)
"Suitable for poster-size printing and hanging in our development team area!" (Greg Bernhardt)
"I can only say: "WOW!" :-)" (szymonw)
This lead me to have the poster printed out to help teams evangelize usability! (production and design costs were paid for by my company, Experience Dynamics).

The point of the poster is to provide a learning piece (currently used by over a dozen universities throughout the world) and inspiration to design and development teams. Having this type of collateral on your wall might cause someone to actually pay closer attention to your efforts ;-)

This poster is an upgrade, if you will, to the UPA poster that hung on walls in team areas where I worked in the past and also the little IBM posters that you see around people's cubes.

Translations of the Poster

If you are interested in translating this poster, I will send you a free printed English version;-) (Inquire about poster translation). Since putting this shout out a few weeks ago, many people have expressed interest in translation- the result is below.

Download a free translation of this poster in the following languages: (see bottom left for latest additions)

French
Dutch
Spanish
Bulgarian
Swedish
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Chinese (Simplified)
Danish
Arabic
Greek
German
Coming soon: Turkish, Polish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Russian.

Practical definition of design and emotion

2007-03-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

So, what is emotion design?

1. The recognition that a sterile focus on function is not enough anymore in usability (emotion needs to be addressed as well). Here's more on Graphic Design vs. Usability...

2. The advances in neuro-science that keep showing us how emotion plays a crucial role in decision making. This research paper shows "proof" that emotion influences all things cognitive: Integration of emotion and cognition in the lateral prefrontal cortex [technical PDF]

3. The usability community waking up to emotion as something we can use to design better products, not just an "interesting" data point. We are finally developing a framework to channel emotion based data into the construction and definition of new *user experiences*...

Practical Definitions of Emotion Design:

As a Designer:

Emotion Design is when you take the feelings of delight (satisfaction, gratification, contentment, pleasure) you get from interacting with a design and apply it to your own product! By the way, I think that's what all the new Web 2.0 energy/hype is all about...

Designers (graphic, visual) are very good at getting into the "feel" of a design- that's why we call it the "look and feel". However, emotion design is not about advocating for your own preferences. It's about merging the empathy you have for users (user centered design teaches us to advocate for our user's feelings not our own), and applying those feelings to design decisions.

Some of the greatest designs have been created from doing "deep empathy". I have been seeing a lot of writing (including lately about how they made a girl cry) about Apple's design arrogance and apparently, they do a lot of this internal "deep explore" stuff, over user-centered design. The new i-pod shuffle (little box with wearable clip) seems to have been designed from studying the criticism of this highly insightful analysis (What's wrong with the ipod?).

As a Marketer:

Emotion Design is when you find the core of your product's value proposition, and what differentiates your product from an experiential perspective, and then align everything in your marketing efforts around feelings that help propel the product toward a good user experience (poster with research insights).

In fact, marketers, brand strategists and advertisers probably have a long history of valuing consumer emotional responses to product design or product experiences. Focus groups have been used since the 1950's to elicit and understand product appeal.

As a Developer:

Emotion design is when you help develop something that works for the user as they expect it to, and that makes no sense to you.

Developers tend to organize the world differently to end-users. Typically, a good developer will over-ride emotions (after all, coding is the science of "applied abstraction", or mathematics that produces tangible results).

Error messages (error handling is currently cited as in the top 2 user experience problems by Forrester Research) are typically an area where you can see that developers and end-users are from different planets!

A recent set of error messages at Flickr and YouTube utilize "on the fly" emotion design. Beats a lousy 404 error or SQL server DB crash!

As a CEO, VC or Innovator:

Emotion design is when you understand the marketing and business value of positioning a product around the emotional-based elements of product interaction and then empower your marketers, designers and developers to properly research and design for the user experience.

I have been hearing a lot of executives in the US saying "we want to be the Starbucks or Google of...". New innovations require changing unconscious behavior. Unconscious behaviour requires understanding that behavior. In order for a design to have emotional qualities, elicit emotional reactions and utilize the emotions a user has during and with a product interaction (See this technical paper with some thoughts from my five years of deep thinking and research in this area), you need to follow the principles of experiential bonding (free poster with the concepts).

Download Experiential_Bonding.jpg

Emotion adds greater context to the term "User Experience"

Remember, the term "user experience" was coined by Dr. Don Norman at Apple in the early 1990's for the chief reason of expanding awareness and scope of the usability of a thing. He wanted to define usability beyond the functional questions of "Is it easy?; Is it intuitive?". Norman understood that usability touched so many different areas, Sales, Marketing, Business team decision making, cross-channel impressions and events including but not limited to post-product and out-of-box experiences (for tangible products). "User experience" was the term that stuck. (Also called "Customer Experience, evangelized by Mark Hurst but first coined by Lewis Carbone in the 1980's).

Did Don Norman know that his hunch to look beyond ("It works! It's easy to use!") would be the quest that led him to the revelation that:

“Up to recently, however, I could not make the connection between usability and aesthetics - they were distinct spheres of my life. Now, however, I have figured out the relationship” -Don Norman around the time of writing the book Emotional Design.

Is Google ignoring its early adopter "base"?

2007-03-12T23:05:00.000-07:00

IT professionals who helped Google build the "base" in the late 1990's are starting to feel left in the cold by Google's simplicity (in a bad kind of way). Why? Because Google is like a box of chocolates that you have to explore to find the macadamia nut, because the little "contents map" is missing. User centered design pioneer Don Norman explains:

"Look, I like Google. It's a great search engine. But I am sick and tired of hearing people praise its clean, elegant look. Hell, all search engines have that clean elegant part to them: type your search terms into the box and hit "Enter."

"Oh," people rush to object, "the Google search page is so spare, clean, elegant, not crowded with other stuff."

True, but that's because you can only do one thing from their home page: search. Anybody can make a simple-looking interface if the system only does one thing. If you want to do one of the many other things Google is able to do, oops, first you have to figure out how to find it, then you have to figure out which of the many offerings to use, then you have to figure out how to use it. And because all those other things are not on the home page but, instead, are hidden away in various mysterious places, extra clicks and operations are required for even simple tasks — if you can remember how to get to them". from The truth about Google's so-called "simplicity" by Donald Norman, PhD

Norman speculates that this is reflective of the organizational culture. Matt at Signal vs. Noise agrees and further speculates that this un-tidyness is the "price you pay for innovation".

Progressive Disclosure as Business Model?

My guess is that Google is taking "progressive disclosure" too literally- from a business standpoint. Look at the problem: they are hiding what you don't need until you do need it. That is the spirit of progressive disclosure.

Reminder of the definition of progressive disclosure:

Progressive disclosure is an interaction design technique that sequences information and actions across several screens in order to reduce feelings of overwhelm for the user. By disclosing information progressively, you reveal only the essentials and help the user manage the complexity of feature-rich sites or applications.

The problem is, as a business- you don't know what Google has for you. Is this why Google Answers was shut down?? Google Answers was a great service for asking a question, answered by an expert. Just as Google announced it's shut-down, Yahoo! announced a re-launched "Web 2.0" style Yahoo! Answers with community features, intuitive user interfaces and more...

Google hides what it thinks you don't need until you, say, type in 'Vietnamese food portland', then you get enhanced results with Google Maps.

"BAM!"-- progressive disclosure to Google Maps... Any usability engineer would be proud. Except the surprise of it all is sometimes annoying (especially to IT professionals). And worse, the hidden WoW's are not consistent.

Even Google's 2-3 year private beta (wink, wink) release of Gmail (just officially launched last week) is a form of progressive disclosure. "It's here- let's get the tool out to your friends and colleagues, and if you really want it, they can disclose it to you". I would call this more of a clever marketing tactic but it seems to echo my analysis of progressive disclosure as a business model. I also use Google AdWords, Google Analytics and a few others and they do the same thing- for logging in to each- none are connected- each log-in progressively discloses another log-in...it can be really annoying.

Ironically, Jakob Nielsen is on Google's technical advisory board and he is a big proponent of progressive disclosure. Did Google misinterpret Jakob Nielsen?

I don't know, what do you think?

Best Wishes,

Frank Spillers, MS

Is Google Cheating With Us!

2007-03-12T22:58:00.000-07:00

I had a google account of late and it had genrated some clicks for me but no revenue generated on the other hand i am not happy with the google link strategy what it dose i put my site to 500 search engines and directories and no links on the other hand we had a blog and it produced page rank to 16 with only 100 directories.
So i think google is earning revenue with nothing to do.

Back Link Checker

2007-03-12T05:59:00.000-07:00

I had been trying out various tools, softwares, search engines for checking backlinks. Now this one I came across just a few days back is the best, so just thought of sharing it. the site is http://backlink-checker.de/ . It provides details of backlinks identified by google with PR of the pages that is backlinking to your page and also backlinks identified by yahoo & MSN.

Hey Check This Out

2007-03-12T05:57:00.000-07:00

I found a good google new resource, do keep a track of it SEO’s

http://www.googlified.com

Yahoo Ad Paltform known as Panama had gone live

2007-03-12T05:55:00.000-07:00

The much awaited Yahoo’s Ad Paltform known as Panama had gone live finally. It seems to have new features added, the most important one is ad placement will not be just based on Bids, however also from CTR (click through rate), termed as ad quality.

Oral Search Engine

2007-03-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

This could be a big leap in Internet Search Industry with a European research consortium recently getting €2.8 million boost from the EU’s research funding programme to develop a search engine that responds to questions asked orally. Once fully developed, the service will be multilingual with a focus on mobile applications so users can ask for and receive information on their mobile phones. click here for more…

Microsoft Again

2007-03-12T05:51:00.000-07:00

In 1997 we all saw Microsoft investing (US)$150 million in Apple Computer, this could be said to be the revival of Apple. Now is the turn of Linux. You would wonder what is this news doing in Internet Marketing blog. We see Google moving ahead, introducing new tools, buying Youtube and stuff like that. Such news keep pouring in. All these news say that the search engine giant is moving ahead with the technology and spreading wings.

Well here let me be very honest, I don’t like google at all. MSN struggling to compete with google and Yahoo. With this move Microsoft is also spreading wings and looking forward to where the trend is moving towards i.e. open source.

Soon in coming years we will see this agreement playing an important role in LIVE.com. May be I am wrong and the chances are that I am foreseeing what lies beneath.

Email Marketing Startigic Planning

2007-03-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

Now here is my question, what is e-mail marketing? What’s the purpose of e-mail marketing? Who is the target?

According to what I understand, E-mail marketing is all about hitting the mail box of a internet user and telling him that here I am standing for you with this offer, click here and its all yours.

We try saying this in different ways, today we see many spam email hitting our mail boxes. I will try and list out a few concepts used now-a-days:

E-mail with just a image that in turn links to their tracked webpage
E-mail with promotional text and a images again linking to their tracked webpage
E-mail with a gesture like “I found this, you also try, its good” kind of presentation with an affiliate tracking url attached to the link page.
The best I liked was a simple email template with small 4 liner, to the point, conveying it all.
Maybe the idea of what type of e-mails do we sent has many factors to look into:

Target audience
Their behavior pattern
Their age group
Their buying power
Is it B-to-B or B-to-C targeting
The template design inputs are more of influenced by these factors:

The team leader’s mind set
The target audience age group
The target audience profile
Some profiles like to the point reading, its like scanning the text, some get influenced by colors, some like to have offers associated with it, some like free stuff.

All in all everyone dances on the same lines “WTIFM”. You would wonder now what do you mean by “WTIFM”?

Your current thoughts are very closely associated with the answer and that is “WHATS THERE IN FOR ME”.

When an e-mail template hits this target of any age group, any profile, any audience, any behavior pattern, you get that click.

Before pitching any e-mail, test it by mailing it to the ones you know and that fall into your target list profile criteria, take inputs, definitely you will come up with opinions you might have never thought of.

Its better to sent mails to 10000 id’s once every week after following the rights and getting 100 clicks through, than mailing 50000 every week and getting 50 clicks through. You save your bandwidth, you have less chances of termed a spammer and the resultant effect is more fruitful.

Google grabs 60%

2007-03-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

Google grabs 60%

Here is something I just read an hour before. From the latest reports google became the all powerful search engine aquiring 60% of the search market with yahoo at 20% and msn at 9%.

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Meta Tags in SEO

2007-03-12T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hi, being an SEO its seems unfair to share some of my know how about this subject. So let us figure out 3 important tags for any SEO to have in the page script.

The Title tag: Pitch in your top keywords here followed by spaces or hyphen, characters should not be more than 70.
The keyword meta tag: "use your keywords here, see to it that you use more of phrases and the characters should not be more than 550"
The description meta tag: "this section is not for optimising, but for catchi phrases that can attract click throughs, should always end with an offer or puntching statement, also this should not be more than 160 characters"

Kindly do give your valued comments.

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Drive traffic from google image search

2007-03-12T05:40:00.000-07:00

Hi,
this is not mine and i have not tested it, but it is so tempting that i would like to share it with you all.
In google image search results you get thumbnails and when you click on one, it takes you to a frame page that says click here for larger view. This way one can see your image without actually visiting your site.
Now here is a small javascript i came across with on seoblackhat, that can actually drive this very traffic to your site. add this into your pages. If it works, this can be really great for ones whose images are viewed alot on google image search. get it here.

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New KFC Logo Visible From Space

2007-03-12T05:04:00.000-07:00

The Colonel has undergone a makeover (see his new apron?), and to promote the new logo, KFC has crafted a gigantic logo that is visible from space near Rachel, Nevada. You can see video of workers creating the huge logo from what looks like foam or plastic squares here. The logo appears to be several square acres in size, and if I hadn’t seen the video of the construction I’d think it was a quick Photoshop job.

Said Gregg Dedrick, president of KFC’s U.S. division, of the new logo, “This change gives us a chance not only to make sure we stay relevant but also communicates to customers the realness of Colonel Sanders and the fact that he was a chef.”

As if a giant Colonel Sanders face wasn’t enough, KFC has hidden a message in the logo, and if you can guess what it is, you can get a free KFC Snacker Sandwich. Woo Hoo!

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Olympic Logo Designer Paid 13 Cents for His Work

2007-03-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

Many people are surprised to hear that when Caroline Davidsion designed the Nike swoosh in 1971, the fledgling shoe company paid her just $35. But it might similarly be surprising to read that the man who designed the 2008 Olympic logo was paid just pennies by the Chinese Government.

Han Meilin, the 70-year-old man who led the teams that designed the 2008 Beijing Olympic logo, as well as the five mascots: a fish, a panda, a Tibetan antelope, a swallow and a “child of fire”, received less than $0.13 (1 Yuan) for his work. But Meilin, who also sculpts and paints, seems undaunted. “A little misfortune is not a bad thing,” he said. Who will get all the money from merchandise sales is yet to be decided, but it won’t be Meilin.

You can read the full story about Meilin and his designs in this Straits Times article.

While there are differences in cost of living between developed countries and China, this payment seems way, way too low, no?

Ten Best & Worst NBA Logos

2007-03-12T04:57:00.000-07:00

Two months ago we unveiled the NFL’s Top Ten logos as judged by our panel of expert designers, and since the response was so positive, we decided to do the same with the NBA’s team logos.

As before, the Designer’s Top Ten list was decided by our panel of expert designers, and topping off the list of the NBA’s best are the New Jersey Nets, followed by the Grizzlies and the Spurs. We’re also including a list of the Ten Worst NBA Logos, with the Clippers, Lakers and Bucks ranking low among both readers and designers.

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2007-03-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

In this latest episode, Paul Browning continues his in-depth analysis of logo design by discussing logotypes, which consist of minimal graphics, and maximum font. Paul discusses the benefits and drawbacks of these design styles and talks about how to manipulate fonts to create custom, great-looking logotypes.

As always, we welcome your feedback by posting comments on our Logodesign.com blog, or by emailing FEEDBACK@LOGODESIGN.COM, as well as by posting reviews on iTunes. Enjoy!

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