Archives for May, 2008
Posted on May 27, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Protected areas are needed to prevent damage from the expansion of Brazilian sugar cane, the WWF says.
There have been many instances or occasions when I have rented several DVDs during my holidays and was not able to watch them all. I almost wasted my money for getting these DVDs on rent until I was suggested to look at this cool software Imtoo DVD Ripper by one of my friends who suggested I should rip all my DVDs to another format which can be stored on my laptop for a later watch.
I was thrilled with the way he described this software can do as it was great to hear about all of its features. I immediately downloaded the software and installed it in very easy steps on my laptop running windows XP. All the files were installed correctly without any errors and once I opened the application interface it appeared as if I had a DVDs case sitting right inside my laptop’s monitor.
It was an amazing experience looking at the stylish looks of the application. I read through the readme.txt file which was very informative about the things this software can do. It can convert my DVD VOB formats to a VCD, SVCD, DivX, WMV, ASF, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, Xvid etc. I believed my friends verbatim and considered giving a shot at my favorite DVD movie to be converted into an AVI format.
It took me less than a minute to click on the source (that was my DVD disk) and the destination (a folder on my local computer) and hit the start button. It took a lot less time than other ripping software existing today as I was tired of experimenting with many conversion tools with dissatisfaction rate growing every time. But as a matter of fact, I loved this utility as it took 45 minutes to rip my DVD into a 615MB AVI format with DVD quality picture and sound.
I was amazed how less importance this software has got today. To me this is the best software I have ever found for ripping my DVDs into other convertible formats.
While I was experimenting with this software I learned abut many other features which include:
· An easy to use application interface which we have already learned above. · A tool for any age group as long as the interest lies in ripping the DVD into another storage format. Give it a shot and you will find a satisfactory experience every time you use it. · The software automatically performs CPU checks to make sure it gives priority to your DVD ripping than any other application without any operating system hang-ups or crashes. · A preview mode which could act as a status bar for the user to know the level of DVD ripping software has reached. You can watch the movie at the same time it is being ripped on to your local hard drive. · Another cool feature is the chapter collection process which allows the user to pick and rip the chapter they like along with the subtitles, movie menus, DTS audio, languages etc. You can also pick and choose only an audio track to be ripped as well. · An excellent batch conversion process allows users to use good multi threading CPU feature to rip more than one file at a time.
Overall a great piece of software which allows the DVDs to be ripped into various different formats with good quality audio and video. A must download program! Try it for FREE
Ted Peterson writes for .
Web Optimisation, Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing
www.goodbetterbestaudio.com
Chess Web Optimisation Specialists
Posted on May 25, 2008 under Uncategorized |
More than half of the world’s ocean-going sharks are at risk of extinction, says the world’s official conservation agency.
Freelancing is definitely one of the most sought after industries in the market today. More and more professionals and skilled people are getting into the bandwagon because the industry offers a lot more opportunity compared to the usual 8-hour job. Aside from giving you enough freedom from all the hectic office schedule, being a freelancer also enables you to manage your own time and choose your own path, so to speak.
Illustrating or graphic designing is one of the industries where freelancing is abundant. Because the job can be arranged in a per project basis, more and more potential clients prefer to hire freelance illustrators or graphic designers because they don’t have to pay the artists just like the regular employees.
Simply defined as “self-employed, sub-contractors who market their design by the job to several buyers,” freelance illustrators or graphic designers also serve as the boss, the office manager, the secretary or secretarial pool, a member of the sales staff, the head and the staff of the marketing department, the maintenance staff and the mailman all rolled into one person.
If you are in the field of illustration or graphic designing and you would want to accept freelance jobs or projects, then you should start building, promoting and marketing yourself by now. According to most freelance illustrators and graphic designers who are into the field of freelancing, a freelance artist of graphic designer should be possess a dedicated passion for a demanding job and clients as well.
If you are a full time illustrator or graphic designer and you are planning to go freelance, here is a set of considerations you might want to contemplate on before indulging into an adventurous yet demanding job.
1. Determine and set your goals
Just like in any job, becoming a freelance illustrator or graphic designer will require you to set and determine your goals before finally jumping over a new set up. Since becoming a freelance artist will eat much of your time especially if you are just starting, you need to contemplate if you should drop your day time job and if you can handle meticulous and demanding clients at hand.
Part of determining and setting your goals is asking yourself what you are getting out of the career shift and what made you decide to do this.
2. Assess yourself
Going freelance would mean that you have to have enough experience, discipline, knowledge, and expertise in the field you are in. If you think you have, then you should also assess if you have the drive and ambition to turn your skill into a success.
Also, you have to ask yourself, if you have the willingness and the patience to start anew. It is also very important that you have the talent, drive, and motivation in order to generate more income from your potential clients.
3. Check your business acumen
Knowing different business routes and knowing how to run a business will definitely help you become a successful freelance illustrator or graphics designer.
4. Gauge your capability to decide
Decision-making is a very important aspect in going freelance. If you are really planning to go freelance, then you should have the heart and the mind to decide. Since you will be making a lot of decisions eventually, you should start learning to decide wisely as early as now.
5. Your Overall Attitude
Check your overall attitude towards shifting to a new working environment. Before finally jumping into freelancing, you should ask yourself how to handle stress, possible rejection, and competition.
Article provided by .
Baron Turner’s Linked In
http://www.richarddeverell.com
Chess Articles
Posted on May 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Thousands of NHS patients are seen every year without doctors having access to their records, an investigation has revealed.
If your readers don’t care about your characters, you’re sunk. Readers don’t necessarily have to like all of your characters, but they have to care about what happens to your main character, or there’s no reason for them to keep reading.
Which means you have to care about your characters, and you have to know them, maybe even better than you know yourself. To create characters that live and breathe on the page, you must first create characters that live in breathe in your psyche. This is why you need to know much more about them than you’ll ever have to include in your completed story.
One way to achieve this authentic character history is to put your main character(s) in as many real-life situations as possible. And because thinking is only the first stage and can only get you so far, write these situations out, considering all sorts of details.
When you can imagine your character in different places and with different people, beyond people and places your story requires, you make your fictional people exponentially more realistic within the confines of your own story.
Start by deciding on the basics: your main character’s date of birth and favorite things (such as food, color, activity, place, song, movie, book, friend, family member, possession, game, animal/pet, amusement park ride, season). Remember: these are details you’ll want to work out, even though they may never need to be discussed in your story.
The basics is great place to start, but to create the most vivid, memorable characters, you’ll need to stretch your imagination and go beyond the basics.
The following exercises will get you started in developing rich, believable, interesting characters. Choose the exercises you’re most drawn to, and really let yourself go-don’t worry about polished sentences or grammar or mechanics. (You can’t plumb the depths of your imagination when you’re worried about comma placement.)
STRENGTHS/WEAKNESSES: List emotional, intellectual, and physical strengths and weaknesses for your character. Include any special talents or aptitudes. Get your hands on an IQ test and take it from your character’s perspective, not yours. (Tricky, but fun and worthwhile.)
DINNER AT OUR HOUSE: Imagine a family meal at your main character’s dinner table. Write a short descriptive scene revealing the average evening meal at your main character’s house.
Now revisit that meal scene and add tension. (After all, tension makes fiction go ’round.) Perhaps the school principal called Mom that afternoon and therefore Mom has some serious lecturing to do (or some serious disappointment to relate). Or maybe Dad lost his job that day and — over meatloaf and green beans — tells the family that they’ll have to be uprooted (again). Perhaps the teen daughter brings home a dinner date who only Mom (an undercover detective) recognizes as a convicted felon.
The point is: think of an emotionally-charged piece of information that will make this meal very different from the one above. Write this scene, paying attention to specifics.
WHAT WOULD S/HE DO? Imagine an ethical dilemma that your character finds himself/herself in. Maybe your character was offered a job promotion or a large bonus based on a task s/he didn’t carry out alone. Does s/he tell the truth and share the credit with the colleague or keep quiet about it and bask in the glory solo? Choose a moral quandary, plunk your character it in, and write a short, thorough, descriptive scene. Be sure to tap into your character’s thoughts, fears, conflicts, and ultimately how s/he arrived at the final decision.
DEAR DIARY: Write three diary/journal entries from your main character’s point of view, fully in his/her voice and in his/her head. Make the entries occur on different days and have them deal with different events and emotions. Try to include a whole range of feelings-joy, sorrow, rage, uncertainty, anxiety, to name a few.
DOCTOR, DOCTOR: Write up your character’s last physical exam report, as it would be written by the family physician. Include all relevant details, along with any physical complaints the character might mention.
Then write up some clinical notes from a psychologist who has been seeing your character in therapy. Perhaps your character has discussed his/her worst fear with the doctor. Reveal as much background to that fear as you can: when and why it began, how it’s manifested, how your character struggles to cope with it.
DEAR AUTHOR: Your character writes you (the author) a letter, instructing you quite specifically in how s/he wants to be portrayed in the book. Make your character’s personality come through loud and clear in this letter. Try to set yourself aside as you write it.
JOB APPLICATION: Get your hands on a job application (or create one of your own), and fill it out from your character’s point of view. Include work history, schooling, references, as well as the character’s statement explaining why s/he would be perfect for the job.
Always remember to have fun with these. The minute you’re not having fun, stop. The looser and more relaxed you are when you try these exercises, the more you’ll get from them. You’ll discover things about your character you never thought you knew, which translates to a more fully realized, believable person alive in your story.
To discover more ways to infuse your writing with life, visit and sign up for “Write Through It,” a free, monthly e-newsletter that offers tips on writing more clearly and effectively.
Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Her fiction and poetry have been published in various national literary journals, and she has taught writing at the high school and college levels.
Thecommuter
Gps Base Froogle Or Whatever Theyre Calling It Today
Gadget Articles
Posted on May 22, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as well as local and regional perspectives. Also entertainment, business, science, technology and health news.
Time. It’s a concept that’s both abstract and real, the currency of our days (we talk of how we’ll “spend” our time).
“If only I had more time! Then I’d really write.” If you’re like most writers who need to earn a living doing something other than write, that thought is the thorn on your rose.
The fact is, you might be more productive if you had more time to devote to writing. But you might not. Many writers find that when they have all the time in the world, they get far less writing done than they had hoped (but their closets suddenly get organized and their gardens weeded).
Still, you may not be able to test that. Odds are, you have obligations you can’t push aside when the muse crooks her finger. You can’t tell your young children you’ll catch up with them after high school; you can’t expect your employer to pay you while you take an indefinite “writing sabbatical.” That means you need to apply the creativity and ingenuity and resourcefulness I know you have (you’re writers, after all) to uncover pockets of time for writing.
Ways to shoehorn a writing habit in to your daily life:
~Learn to blend things.
“If you need something done, ask a busy person” is oft-repeated because it’s true. But how do busy people take on so much and follow through so often? By learning how to maximize time and increase efficiency, by combining tasks wherever possible.
For example: Keep a small notebook in your coat pocket. When you’re waiting for your appointment with your accountant or your turn in the dentist’s chair, be open to ideas that might hit you. If none are hitting you, write anything that comes to mind: little details about your surroundings, eavesdropped bits of dialogue, what you’re hoping in that moment, what you hope for next week.
There’s no better way to cultivate an idea than write anything when you think ideas are miles away. Take advantage of all the waiting we need to do by filling up that dead space with words.
~Learn to prioritize.
Learning this valuable skill also means learning to say NO.
Most of us spread ourselves too thin, usually because want to please others and to contribute to the lives going on around us. But we have a finite amount of energy (mental and physical) and a finite amount of time. Don’t let yourself get railroaded into non-mandatory obligations you have no interest in or that don’t coincide with your core values.
Draw a pie chart illustrating how your time is spent now. Then draw one illustrating how you want your time to be divided. Do everything you can (i.e., hiring Merry Maids or a dogwalker) to re-shape your days to approximate the latter chart.
~Learn to simplify.
Set reasonable expectations for yourself. Is it really necessary for the floor under the bed to be as eat-off-it clean as the countertop?
And when you do sit down to write, don’t expect your output to be stunning, breathtaking, or even useable. Declare a victory when you get something on the page. Polishing can come later.
~Learn to enjoy the moment.
Although writing is hard, it can be exhilarating, too. Try to focus on and delight in writing as a pursuit in and of itself, not as something that pulls you away from other tasks. Enjoy what writing does for you now instead of how your efforts might pay off down the road.
~Learn to set deadlines for yourself.
Deadlines keep us “honest” and help us focus on finishing. You may be one of those writers who works best under pressure. The pressure is the deadline, and you might wonder how you’d ever get anything done without a due date, without someone waiting for what you’re producing. If you know that about yourself, manufacture your own deadlines.
However, if you’re like most people (me included), you’ll need other people to help with this. You’re far more likely to take someone else’s deadline seriously than your own, so lean on your friends and family here. Choose the due date, then ask them to mercilessly enforce it.
Much of a successful writing practice is maintaining momentum, and you can only achieve that if you make a commitment to regular writing time.
I don’t mean three hours a day. I don’t mean two. I don’t even mean one. If you’ve got that much time, fantastic. But if all you have is a half hour a day, five days a week, and if you stick to it, it will become habit. You will be amazed at how much — in the long run — you’ll actually accomplish. Even fifteen minutes a day, stretched across hundreds of days, will produce an impressive number of pages.
The research shows that short, consistent writing stints are more productive and build more creative momentum than highly erratic, longer ones. So if you can squeeze out two hours per week for your craft, try to evenly distribute those hours over the course of the whole week rather than taking it in one lump.
As Charles Buxton said, “You will never ‘find’ time for anything. If you want time you must make it.”
To discover more ways make writing a meaningful part of your life, visit and sign up for “Write Through It,” a free, monthly e-newsletter that offers tips on writing more clearly and effectively.
Lucia Zimmitti, a writing coach and independent editor, is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Her fiction and poetry have been published in various national literary journals, and she has taught writing at the high school and college levels.
http://www.beerandyoung.com
http://www.beerandyoung.com
Cartoonist, Graphic Artist
Posted on May 21, 2008 under Uncategorized |
An armed forces public holiday is recommended by a study on improving public recognition of the military.
Personal branding is, simply put, what used to be called “your reputation.” However; in today’s faster, stronger, more competitive world you end up with a personal reputation that is also “more.” What do I mean? Your personal reputation has always been what people think of you.
If you were a car salesman, did your customers recommend you? If a doctor, do people tell their friends that you are great doctor when they are looking for a new one? If you work on the factory floor, do your co-workers say that you are the one to go to if you need something done right?
However, the company name was what was on the billboard, or stationary, or advertisement. How things have changed! Two factors have greatly effected the old scenario… technology and job-hopping.
Let me speak of the latter first. Most experts will tell you that one will hold many times more jobs in their lifetime, than in any other time in history. Job-hopping is sometimes a choice and sometimes not. Sometimes a bad thing, and sometimes not. However, it is happening. So the need for an excellent reputation becomes even more valuable. Whatever your field of work, how much easier does job hunting become if you are well known in your field?
What do you think about technology today? Did you realize that technology has taken the newspaper ads, billboards, and other traditional advertisements; shrunk them and placed them on web pages, blogs, emails, and eNewsletters? Anyone can now run hundreds of different ads, twenty four hours a day and seven days a week for no or almost no cost.
So the personal reputation, or Personal Branding, can now be done through your own advertising. How do you do this? There are numerous resources to answer that question. However, you can start with an email signature.
Are you the New Car Commando? The Career Czar or the Maven of Medicine? Sound corny? Yeah, sure it is. But after five years, when everyone is calling you that, (presuming you are actually good at what you do) it becomes synonymous with expertise in your field. A well known expert who commands top dollar for your reputation alone.
So… Do you practice Personal Branding? What do you? What resources do you use? Get your personal brand out and get yourself known.
Want to see more on this issue? Try http://www.passionforbusiness.com/teleclass/alicia-smith.htm or http://www.personalbrandingsummit.com/ for great written and audio resources. Personally, I love toting around audio files on my mp3 player and listening to them through my car radio.
Michael Cortes is the Technology Coordinator at the Fort LeBoeuf School District, a speaker and a self-proclaimed “Life-long Learner.” Working with computer technology requires constant education, as technology is constantly evolving. In schools today, the staff always refer back to the thought that our children are growing up in a world that requires everyone to be a “life-long” learner. Michael has long ago realized that this applies to adults, as much as to the children and he proudly proclaims and shares it. He has taken a new look at life and examines each day for the lesson it contains.
Do you want to improve yourself? Michael can help you reach your goals. Do you want to be a better presenter? Need to add that little extra that allows you to rock your presentation, whether it be a sales proposal or report to the board of directors? Maybe you just need to polish yourself up in front of your constituency. There are many steps you can take to be more persuasive, more genuine, and create a better connection between you and your audience. By using more technique and less slides, Michael will help you create more power in your presentations.
You can visit Michael’s website at http://www.michaelcortes.com
http://www.goodbetterbestaudio.com
Reviw of Car Audio Systems
Car Speakers, Car Audio
Posted on May 21, 2008 under Uncategorized |
As Iceland’s whale hunt begins, its foreign minister warns of damage to the country’s long term interests.
Search engine optimization is a complex business and not for everyone.
Each search engine has its own way of ranking sites. Each search engine has certain key things that it looks for. Therefore, optimizing for all search engines is just not possible. Focus on the top 3 and you will have yourself covered for about 75% - 80% of all searches.
What we are going to discuss here are some of the concepts and methods to help you rank your site(s) higher through the organic search results.
Organic vs. Paid Search
What are natural or organic search results? First, you have to understand that search engines are not in the search results business. They are in the advertising business. If you understand this, understanding organic vs. paid search is much easier.
Think of the results page of almost any search engine. The top of the results page and down at least one of the sides are reserved for the paid search results. Each of the links shown in these areas must bid on their place on the results page. The higher the ranking in these areas, the more the owner of the site had to bid. If you click on one of these links, the site owner’s account got hit for the amount they bid.
Therefore, the quickest way for a new site to rank on the search engines is to pay for the ranking. Depending on the keyword you want to rank for this can cost as little as $.05 and go way up from there.
Organic results are those down the middle of the page. Usually, you see 10 results per page. It has been widely discussed and proven that if you are not in the top 30 (3 pages) results that your site will probably not be seen.
Keywords and Keyword Phrases
They may sound alike but they can be a huge key to your SEO success.
Keywords are just that. Individual words or maybe a pair of words that you might want to optimize your site for. For example, on our Gift Basket site you might think that we want to rank well for “gift baskets“. While this may be true, the competition for this specific keyword is immense. The top-ranked sites have been entrenched for several years. A new site has little chance of ranking well against these.
Keyword Phrases might be a better choice for ranking against the entrenched players. Studies have shown that the average user of search engines have evolved over time to use more words in their searches in an attempt to narrow the huge amount of search results. If you think about it, having over 2,000,000 results sounds good until you try to work your way through them to find exactly what you are looking for.
Using searches of 3 - 5 keywords in a phrase is the search user’s way of narrowing the search before they click “Go”. Understanding this, you can then optimize your site for keyword phrases instead of simple keywords.
In our case, instead of optimizing for “gift baskets” and fighting the big boys we optimized for the keyword phrase “gift baskets under $40″ and we not only rank high (# 1 at this writing), we get a better qualified visitor to our site who is truly looking for something we have to sell.
On Site Optimization
Get as much education as possible to learn what Meta Tags are. Title, keyword and description tags are the most important. Depending on the type of software used to create your site, you may need to learn some html programming to make changes to these tags.
Simply put, on Google, the results shown are:
- Title tag is the 1st line of a search engine result
- The site description is the verbiage that follows on lines 2 - 3
- The page URL is the bottom of the result listing
Other important factors for on-site optimization are:
- Heading tags in the body of the page. These would be h1, h2, h3, h4 and h5 tags.
- The use of strong tag for bringing emphasis to key words
- Keyword saturation. Using the keywords a number of times per page, but not overloading.
- Beginning the page and ending the page with the keywords for that page.
- Alt tags in images. That is giving a name to every image on the page that has the keywords in the name.
- Links to other sites. This is one that caught me off-guard. Google raises your status with links to other relative sites. Not linking to sites sometimes called “link farms”. Rather links to your competitors, for instance, would be considered a good thing by Google.
Landing Pages
Quite simply, a landing page is specifically designed to highlight a keyword or keyword phrase for which you would like to draw traffic.
On this page you should focus on the keyword phrase. Either write good content or search for off site content to bring in to bring focus to your keyword phrase. Make this page a complete authority on your keyword phrase. Use images, article links, rss feeds and any other resource you can think of to highlight the keyword phrase. Remember, search engines are looking for good, original content to enhance their search results. Give them what they are looking for.
Off Site Optimization
A good way of looking at this is to think of pointing people to your site much like posting signs around town. How often are you driving around and see realtor signs pointing you to a home for sale or to a new neighborhood? How about other small signs advertising a new business or other local small business?
Off site optimization is a fancy way of saying you need to post signs around town to draw attention to your business. Only your “town” is nothing smaller than the entire planet!
Inbound links are regarded highly by Google and other search engines. Think of an inbound link as a vote for your site as being of interest. Search engines want interesting sites to enhance their results. The more links (votes) your site gets from other interesting sites, the better. Remember to avoid link farms as sites are sometimes penalized for their links to these sites.
Here are some places to post your signs around town:
- Free classified ads. There are several sites that allow you to post free classified ads with links to your site. A word of caution here. Only use reputable sites. There are several that are spam sites. Check each out carefully before proceeding.
- If you are not a blooger, become one. Place your website link in the signature of each posting. Actively contribute to blogs and you will be amazed at the responses you receive and the traffic that is generated.
- Write articles. Make no mistake. The primary reason that I am taking time to write this article is obtain inbound links to our sites.
- True link exchanges. While not as important as even a year ago, exchanging links with a related site is still a good thing. A related site would be a site that compliments your site or even competes with it on some level. Completely and utterly avoid links to sites that has a primary purpose of exchanging links.
Site Submission
There are any number of sites offering to submit your site to over 1,500,000 search engines. Folks, you don’t need that many submissions. The vast majority of those sites are nothing more than spammers looking for your E-mail.
Google, MSN and Yahoo all have their own site submission pages. Yahoo does require that you have an account to submit the page. Other than that, it is a pretty simple procedure and doesn’t take a huge amount of effort. They are easy to find. Use the search engine to find it! Enter ’site submission, MSN’ into Google and see how fast the site submission page is found.
Time Frame For Results
It varies. There are so many factors to consider to give even a ‘guesstimate’ is wrong, other than to say that whatever effort you put into SEO will return some level of results.
What I am confident in promising is that if you concentrate on providing the search engines with original and quality content presented in a logical and understandable manner they will respond by ranking your site. Each of our sites were ranked within weeks of the site going live for certain keyword phrases and we continue to climb in other areas.
Yes, you do have to work at SEO. However, the results are well worth the time, and you keep the dime.
Nathan Lewis has over 25 years of experience applying technology to solve complex small business problems.
Mr. Lewis is a Platinum level author with Ezinearticles.com and has been publised in print and internationally on the Internet.
Please visit some of Mr. Lewis’ recent launches:
Articles for SEO
RSS, SEO
SEO, SEM Blog
Posted on May 20, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Vulcan, the world’s most powerful laser, heats matter to a truly sweltering 10 million Celsius.
Good graphic design is important to any website wishing to attract and maintain the interest of users. But website owners should be aware of some of the implications of over-zealous graphic design for search engine optimisation.
Most people would agree that graphic design is an important element in web design and development. Part of what good graphic design adds to a webpage is aesthetic, a somewhat subjective area where a webpage either looks good, OK, or plain bad. Aesthetics can be important, as the general look and feel of a site can affect its credibility and the likelihood that a visit will convert to a sale. Another aspect of graphic design is utilitarian, meaning that good graphic design can simplify communication, navigation and the overall usability of a website.
So, graphic design is important, but there are good reasons not to allow graphic designers a free hand in your web development process, especially if they come from a strong print or multimedia background rather than a web background. The problem is that, too often, graphic designers do not adequately understand the nature of the web medium and of internet search engines in particular. This can lead to a situation where the potential performance of a website in search engine optimisation terms is seriously compromised by “features” such as Flash presentations, excessive graphic content, and excessive javascript. Used inappropriately, each of these can have serious consequences for where your website will eventually rank in search engines.
Flash is a great tool, and used appropriately it can certainly add visual and audio interest to a site. For some websites, perhaps those specialising in art, music, video and the like, it could even be argued that Flash is indispensable in some cases. But on far too many sites, excessive gratuitous use of Flash effectively renders those sites unindexable by search engines. The worst examples are those where a complete page, and often the most important page (the home page), consists entirely of a Flash presentation. Such pages usually hold little or no indexable text at all, with the content all tied up inside the Flash presentation … which the search engine simply cannot see, read or index! Humans get a great show while search engines get nothing.
Excessive graphic content works similarly to a Flash presentation. Some websites consist of pages made up entirely of interlocking graphic images, with the images themselves containing the textual content of the page along with other important elements such as titles and headers. Again, the search engines see none of this as they cannot “read” graphics, so all they find is an effectively empty page.
Javascript is another great tool, and is virtually indispensable on most complex modern websites for a great variety of tasks. The problem with Javascript from a search engine optimisation perpective is when it is used to create things such as link menus. Again, from a graphic designer’s point of view interesting visual effects such as roll-overs and pop-up menus can be achieved using Javascript. But as is the case with Flash and graphics, search engines do not do Javascript, so that any links that are locked up in Javascript code cannot be followed and those pages will not be indexed. In this respect search engines are quite different from web browsers.
The point here is not that the baby should be thrown out with the bath water … Flash, graphics and Javascript are all part of the modern web development toolkit. But it is important not to lose sight of the ultimate goal of most business websites: sales. If the primary goal of your website is entertainment, then by all means give your graphic designers free reign. But if sales matter, then search engine ranking matters, in which case your graphic designers will need to be a little more restrained, resourceful and creative. In fact, this is an area where real graphic design skills come to the fore … following the old minimalist adage less is more, a really good web designer can achieve highly effective and satisfying designs without resorting to technological overkill.
Miguel Scaccialupo writes regularly about topics.
SEO, SEM from Linked In
SEO, SEM Blog
Computethat
Posted on May 19, 2008 under Uncategorized |
A new study explains how the tiny ancestors of humans, apes and monkeys may have taken to the trees.
Meta tags are used to add information to the HTTP header of a webpage. It also contains hidden information in the coding that the search engines will pick up on. Example: author’s name, title of web site and “keywords” Meta tags can help improve your placement in search engines and can therefore help increase traffic to your Web site. Most likely, if your site does not have “keywords” in the head of your html code, the engines will not find your website.
Choosing your keywords carefully: Choosing the keywords used in your meta tags are very important. If you do not choose the proper keywords, submitting your site to the search engines will be useless, because those keywords are major factors in determining how a site visitor will locate your site in the engines. Lets take a look from the searcher’s point a view…
A searcher goes to Google, Yahoo or Excite, looking for topics or products relating to what your company (or site) is offering. He comes up with 10 to 20 search results on the first page of the engine. Your company listing is no where to be found. After skipping to the next 3 page results . . . Your company is still no where to be found. Why? Most likely you have not inserted the most effective keywords relevant to your website. Example: You have decided to insert your companies name in your “keyword” meta tags, instead of listing your products or services in your keywords. Searchers do not look for company names, unless they are looking for a specific major company on the web.
Tips on choosing the most effective keywords or phrases for your webpage. Start with using General Keywords, then by adding specific keywords. Example: Your company is selling CD’s. Take the general keyword of “CD’s” and add a specific title or word to it, based on the CD’s your are offering. So, your keyword phrases may be “CD’s for Clay Aiken” or even the title of the CD “Measure Of A Man”
List your main products, services or purpose, that surfers will use in their keyword search.
If not selling products, then list a specific topic relating to your sites content in your keywords.
On your website index or home page, be sure to include specific phrases or topics, that a searcher may use to look for your site in the engines. (The engines may pickup on these words in your sites content).
Consider regional keywords- If your company or site only caters within specific locations, you may want to list this in your meta tags. Example: If you have a company only sells products within your state or city, be sure to list the city or state in your meta tags. If your site ships products anywhere in the world, state global distribution in your meta tags.
Choose the most effective title for your webpage. (keep in mind that visitors will be searching for specific topics in their search, not the name of your company). Exception: (If they are looking for a major company or name brand item, song, book, etc.). Meta Tags with Frame pages: Did you know that search engines often times do not pickup “keywords” used in frame sites? Most engines do not support frame sites. It is suggested that you have an “Introduction or home page” (for your index page), which does not use frames, before entering a site with frames. This way the search engines will pick up on your meta tags and you will have a higher chance of your “intro/index page” showing up in the search engines.
Written By Donna Snyder, CEO Of American Association Of Webmasters -
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Posted on May 18, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Gordon Brown calls on MPs to back research using human-animal embryos, ahead of a Commons vote on Monday.
When thinking of taking a personal loan, you want it to come in your hands in without delay for its timely use. This is what instant decision secured personal loans are all about. These loans are meant for the lender taking instant decision on the loan application. This results in timely approval of the loan. Clearly you can have information of the loan approval early so that you are able to make expenditure plans for home improvements, buying a car, wedding, going to holiday tour or debt consolidation.
The lenders take instant decision on these secured personal loans mainly because of online facility. These loans are provided by online lenders on a simple application. Just when you have clicked the mouse the application is with the lender. Experts with the lender instantly take a deep look at the details in the loan application and judge if you are a candidate for the loan or not. If they think you deserve the loan then you are immediately told about this online. Once the loan application approval comes, it is only some verifying that is to be done. For instance the lender will go for evaluating the borrower’s property pledged as collateral.
To get instant decision over secured personal loans, you should fill loan and personal details correctly in the online application. So, better, you should first do your homes work. You must before hand know what amount of loan will be approved without trouble as per your circumstances. Your good or bad credit history, repaying ability, repayment duration etc may be taken into account by the lender in deciding a loan. Let not the lender do all those calculations for you if you want instant decision on secured personal loan.
Note that instant decision secured personal loans are of lower interest rate with a larger repayment duration ranging from 5 to 30 years. And instant decision on the loan also comes for bad credit people as well. But compare lenders for a suitable deal.
Johns Tiel holds a master degree in Commerce from JNU. He is working as financial consultant in Chance For Loans. To find
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Posted on May 17, 2008 under Uncategorized |
Contract talks between the actors union and the Hollywood studios will resume by 28 May, according to reports.
“It’s something very personal, a very important thing. Hell! It’s a family motto. Are you ready Jerry? I wanna make sure you’re ready, brother. Here it is: Show me the money. SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Jerry, it is such a pleasure to say that! Say it with me one time, Jerry.”
-Rod Tidwell, “Jerry Maguire” (1996)
“If I’m an engineering major, how can I get into finance? Show me the money!”
I find myself answering this question a lot, possibly because I’m from a non-finance background myself. Or maybe just because everyone wants to get into finance.
How you can leverage your technical background to land a job in the jungle of finance? As a technical person right out of school, you have two ways of breaking in:
- Get an investment banking analyst position in the technology or TMT (Technology, Media & Telecom) group of a bank. You will use none of your quantitative/analytical background and instead use your interest in the industry/work ethic to get in.
- Get a quantitative job at a hedge fund or doing trading/fixed income at a bank. You will leverage your quantitative and probability skills to get in.
Of the two, the second is easiest for most engineers. Wall Street has never been more quantitative, and it’s only getting more quant-focused each day. Even with some recent problems in the credit market and some high-profile difficulties at prestigious funds such as Goldman Global Alpha, this trend will not stop anytime soon.
Hedge Fund And Related Jobs
On-campus recruiting for these positions is less common than it is for banking analysts, but it’s there if you seek it out. Citadel, one of the largest hedge funds in the world, does undergraduate recruiting for its rotational program, as does Jump Trading, based out of Chicago.
The good news is that if you’re an engineering major at a top university, you have a good chance of landing one of these jobs, even with no previous finance experience. If you’re in this position and go through on-campus recruiting, you need to emphasize your interest in finance because this is how they select candidates. Here’s a direct quote from a Citadel recruiter:
“To be honest, we know you’re all pretty good quantitatively… after all you got an engineering degree at one of the top programs in the country. You need to show us that you’re interested in finance because that’s what differentiates you.”
During interviews they will ask you quantitative questions but it’s crucial that you show them you have had a strong and consistent interest in finance. Have some good stories prepared, especially on personal investing and why you’re particularly well-suited to be a trader.
For trading jobs the “fit” part of the interview is even more important than it is for banking. If you don’t trade stocks in between classes and wake up early each morning to read financial news, gambling is a good hobby to mention. I was asked if I played video poker/online poker and other casino games when interviewing for hedge fund jobs. You want to emphasize hobbies/interests that show you can think about risk vs. reward.
No Thanks, I Really Want To Be A Banker
Full disclosure: you can do this, but the hours are going to be far worse than trading, the pay won’t be much better and you’ll have to do truly menial, low-value-add work. The advantage is you do have a wider variety of exit options - doing engineering and then banking sets you up very well for venture capital, for example. And the perks are nice.
As a technical person, you have several things going for you right away: no one will question your intelligence, and they probably won’t ask you brain teasers or math questions. If you can get a degree in Electrical Engineering, you can do Excel calculations in your sleep. And no one will question your attention to detail (or at least not as much as if you were an English major).
What you will need to focus on in recruiting and interviewing is demonstrating your 1) interest in finance and 2) ability to handle the hours/stress of the job, which are considerably worse than those of an engineering/tech company.
A few more specific tips: when you discuss your interest in finance you need to mention tech companies if you’re applying to a tech group in a bank. And don’t just mention Google or Facebook. These are the most visible tech companies by far, but anyone can learn about them by reading TechCrunch or by listening to friends.
You need to show real interest in the industry, which means taking the initiative and talking about less well-known companies. Before my interviews at tech groups in banks I made a list of less well-known startups/other companies I found interesting and had a story prepared around each of them. You should do the same.
As far as the second point about handling the stress/hours, as an engineering major you should have had many extended project classes… these are all good to mention, as are any internships where you launched a product that required “crunch time” at the end.
For more on getting a finance job, see , a blog dedicated to career advice for ambitious recent graduates and college students.
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