free counters

Monday, November 29, 2010

What A Newbie Webmaster Should Know About Domain Registration

What A Newbie Webmaster Should Know About Domain Registration

Source: http://readbud.com/Articles/Domains/What-A-Newbie-Webmaster-Should-Know-About-Domain-Registration

Domain Name Registration

Affordable domain name registration was extremely difficult to be found in the past. In fact, all domain name registrars used to charge a flat fee of $70 which was to register your domain name for two years.

Now there has been an explosion of companies that offer affordable domain name registration. Some will register your domain name for less than $15 a year, especially if you are registering multiple sites for a number of years at the same time. Be aware that you may have to have a number of variations of your ideal site name as you often find that the more popular terms have already been registered or reserved for future use.

If you are serious about your online presence then it is essential to consider a bulk domain name registration. The most obvious benefit of having a bulk domain name registration is that your site will appear higher on the search engines. That may be incentive enough but registering as a .net, .biz, http://.co.uk, .la or other domain names too has a far greater benefit which many people do not think about.

A major benefit of having a bulk domain name registration for your site is to prevent the more unscrupulous cyber sitters from piggybacking on the success of your website. Imagine if you could register as a google.au and benefit from the millions of people who use a Google site every day? You see how this could work to someone's advantage if Google hadn't performed a bulk domain name registration to prevent this. The extra cost to have a bulk domain name registration can be minimal and there are a number of web domain registrars who offer bulk discounts to their customers.

Wholesale domain name registration is an increasingly popular way for webmasters to register multiple domain names at the same time at a fraction of their individual costs combined. A new marketing technique has been sweeping the World Wide Web recently where webmasters create hundreds of websites with only a small amount of text to attract visitors by keyword searches and wholesale domain name registration has led to this process being simplified.

in Domains

Learn How To Dress Up Your Presentation The Easy Way

Learn How To Dress Up Your Presentation The Easy Way

Source: http://readbud.com/Articles/Customer-Service/Learn-How-To-Dress-Up-Your-Presentation-The-Easy-Way

Honoring individuals for their achievements may say a great deal about the person but can also demonstrate the sincere appreciation of the one awarding and recognizing the recipients' success. Everyone enjoys receiving awards and being recognized for their efforts. Many times our trophies and plaques are proudly displayed in a prominent place in the home or office. This may be a wall, trophy case or fireplace mantel that in some environments can represent a small shrine.

Reflecting back on awards that have captured my attention, it's always been the logo or graphic picture that first caught my eye. After looking at the design (or the structure of the award itself), I then focus my eyes towards the inscription engraved on the plaque.

There are numerous types of awards from appreciation, acknowledgement, retirement, sports and more. One of the easiest ways to dress up your presentation and make it stand out among others is done by simply applying graphics to the item you are presenting. By adding or implementing a cool design, you will give more personality to the award and make it more attractive to the recipient and the individuals who view it.

Adding clip art or logos to your presentation can be done at a small expense and at times even free, while adding value to the award. Usually the organization or company giving the presentation has their logo available in print or in a digital format that can be reproduced easily. Simply request to receive their insignia in the computer format you need. Now days, more and more company's have their logo already available on CD that will work within the environment of your graphics software. Many times this is easily downloaded from the associations website or may be emailed directly to your address.

If for some reason a logo or design you wish to reproduce is not readily available, you can always have it created or have one "digitized" to meet your needs. By digitizing someone's logo you enable it to be used with certain computer software programs while at the same time giving way to numerous other applications as well.

For example: If you were in need of reproducing a logo for use with a laser engraving process, you may have it digitized and supplied to you in an .EPS format. This particular format is one of the more universal files of type, which many of your leading software programs can import into their layout screen. Additionally, this type of format can be used for other types of applications too. The key to creating any image is to better understand the application (or process) in which the design is going to be reproduced. If you are unsure, it's always best to contact a professional digitizing company to assist you with the production or reproduction of the logo.


You can find many sources on the World Wide Web that can help you from beginning to end, with logo design or clip art images all ready to engrave or print for most any application. The quickest way to locate some of these vendors is by typing in a "keyword" at any of your favorite search engines search bar.

Example: goto MSN.com and key in the words "laser engraving", "logo company" or refine your keywords to a more specific industry such as, "wedding clip art" or "religious clip art".

By using search engines to "search" for a specific type of logo or desired application for creating your awards, this enables you to locate numerous choices much faster and compare their services and/or products on line.

Once you begin to settle in on a company to assist you with your award creation or logo digitizing process, ask them what other type of industry applications they service. One of the reasons you want to acquire this information is for future uses of your digitized image. You may only need to have your logo laser engraved today however, next time you may need to have a banner created with the same design. If your vendor can create your logo to work with both applications without a re-work, it may same you time and money for up coming awards and presentations.

You don't need to know every finite detail for dressing up your presentations. My suggestion is that by adding logos or a graphic design to your awards, it adds value and makes your item more attractive. Connecting with a cutting edge technology companies will help you create these types of designs and have your recipients proud to display their trophy for all to see.

in Customer Service

Reduce stress before exams

Reduce stress before exams

Source: http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Stress-Management/Reduce-stress-before-exams

At the beginning of your term you give yourself a promise to study hard and succeed in whatever you have planned. But things just happen to distract you from doing serious tasks and you start postponing: till next day, till next weekend, till next month, year and so on. You start getting interested in the present day only, your nearest future stops being your concern and you live happily and spend your days having fun with your friends. Every weekday you come to university and peacefully sit there, not concentrating on what your lecturer says. Suddenly a word "exam" appears in this monologue and you become very interested in it. While your tutor is talking, you feel a strange feeling tickling you in your belly and it doesn't stop even when you have a break for lunch. This is the first sign of getting worried. It is not a top secret that people, both tutors and students become stressed out before exam. This is a dangerous state of organism that may hurt others that are around. Here is some practical piece of advice for those who are tired of this feeling but can't help having it.

What is the reason of stress? When thinking about exams you worry about not passing it. If you have not enough knowledge on the topic, you will fail and have to take the course again. It is the fear to fail that makes us so nervous and stressed. Having not enough knowledge is not a problem for the one who is willing to study. Start your preparation from the first class. If you listen attentively, take notes, complete the assignments on time, you will not have to sit days and nights before exam and worry about some part of information that you've missed. A slight revision would be enough to refresh your memory. If you have problems with your assignment writing you can perform a custom term paper order and be a hundred percent sure that everything will be fine. You can order custom term paper that will be written on a high level with creative approach and duly completed on time. That will leave you some time for yourself and maybe your studies if it is a way you use your free time.

And here is one more thing. If you failed to do the above mentioned and still feel that horrible strain, there is one more advice. Cheating will not help you on your exam and in your future life. It is you that is cheated, not your tutors. The best way is to be honest with the examiner. Don't lose your face when answering; you have to stay focused every second. Nobody has died of passing an exam yet and hopefully nobody will. Teacher's aim is to teach you, not to fail you at your exam, because students are a credit to a teacher. If you still need some time to learn and study more, do it systematically, not chaotically and everything will be alright and you'll go home on vacation a happy person with good news to you parents.

in Stress Management

Operating Mutual Funds - how these profit exploding money makers actually work

Operating Mutual Funds - how these profit exploding money makers actually work

Although investing in mutual funds isn't the type of subject associated with wild parties and celebrations - it is something the serious investor should consider as a way of increasing their total worth.

"But what EXACTLY is a mutual fund" I hear you ask - "how does it work, who does what and how much do they cost?"

Hang on, slow down - one question at a time please.

What exactly is a mutual fund?

Mutual funds are sold in shares to the public, allowing them to own different percentages of the fund depending on the amount they invest.

Pay more = own more. Own more = get more $$ back again (theoretically)

Simple.

Stocks, bonds, money market securities and the like are purchased through the assets of these mutual funds in the financial markets. Shareholders indirectly own the assets held in the mutual fund, but the fund is guided by the investment company that finds the best way to earn the biggest return. (Indirectly owning the assets through these funds allows them to avoid the big tax hit.)

How does a Mutual Fund work?

Usually, mutual funds are also known as open-ended investment companies. This means that they constantly issue new shares and redeem existing shares, but not all mutual funds are open however. Some mutual funds are 'locked' where they no longer will take on new investors.

The fund's Net Asset Value is the key concept to understanding how a mutual fund operates. By this value you can determine the value of a share of the fund at any time. The market value of the fund's assets less any liabilities, divided by the number of shares outstanding is the formula to understand Net Asset Value.

If you work through that it will show you exactly how much each share in the fund is worth when you are looking to invest in them. By comparing this number over time you can see the returns earned in a percentage. This is generally all done for you on a funds website or on any of the mutual fund sites that feature stats.

Who does what?

Mutual funds basically take your money, combine it with the money of other investors like you and then invest the total pool of money in investments with the best possible return. The returns from the fund are then split to the accounts that bought in by the amount of shares that each person owns. The fund managers then take their cut based on the fees that they charge you and you get your return. These guys are worth it for the money they make you, so why not let them drive the car for a while and let you get the glory?

Different investment plans are a staple of the field, allowing investors to do so on a regular amount weekly, monthly, or however else you want to set it up. Continuously invested accounts tend to get a higher yield on average, but if you don't have the ability to do that, you can still make money. Dollar cost averaging should be your goal; it is the strategy of the top investment experts in the country.

How much do they cost?

Different mutual funds have different types of fees involved with them as well. Some will charge you an up front percentage of your investment (front load).

Some will charge you a percentage of the investment when sold, this is a back end load. Then there are no-load funds which charge you nothing more than the annual operating fees. An individual should seek to only use the no load funds since it saves a lot of your money. There are really no advantages to using a loaded fund unless it offers some incredibly returns. But normally you can find the same returns by several different fund companies.

So hunt around, compare not only price but also service and past record to date. And remember - a mutual fund is still based on products themselves that can reduce in value as well as increase - so never invest more than you can afford to be without, just in case!!

in Mutual Funds

Source: http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Mutual-Funds/Operating-Mutual-Funds-_45_-how-these-profit-exploding-money-makers-actually-work

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Morphology - The New Technology Jargon

Morphology - The New Technology Jargon

I chanced upon this book titled "The Morphology  of Modern Linguistics" at the recently concluded 2006 World Book Fair in Singapore. Intrigued, I browsed Wikipedia, my favorite people's encyclopedia, for "morphology" which is featured under linguistics, mathematics and even biology.

What about technology, especially in the current midst of trend changes, and especially in the case of information technology?

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is one obvious platform that experiences the technological morphology. No longer must VoIP users be confined to their own voices while talking to families, discussing business matters or conducting long-distance interviews. Voice changers could conveniently morph natural voices across many ranges, like age, gender, or both.

Another information front that epitomizes this new morphology concept is the personal absorption of multimedia clips. Forget the debate over Blu-ray DVD or HD-DVD; this is about the listeners and viewers being empowered to edit audio and video quality at will. More technically said, DVD morpher software offers an ability to morph music and movies, adding special audio and video effects to the tracks or removing unwanted scenes from favorite videos.

In addition to all the above, the latest I have heard of is that you could as well change your webcam image, without even a need for a webcam while live chatting. People are now able to add animated texts and pictures to the webcam image, or fake it with another face accompanied by real gestures and expressions, which is made possible by something that might be called webcam morpher.

The way computers are applied to the world has, since the vast construction of undersea fibre optic cables and the constant development of complementary software products, been transformed into more than just a routine work-study template, but an experience of networking and entertainment.

And, right in the heart of that phenomenal marvel lies the morphology of technology, which connotes the manipulation and modification of end-results by computer tasks.

About the Author:

Josh Nowell is a press correspondent for Media Morpher. He is an observer of technology trends and is keen on analyzing how technology could enrich the human life.

He could be contacted at media@audio4fun.com (Attention to Josh Nowell).

in Audio Video Streaming

Source: http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Audio-Video-Streaming/Morphology-_45_-The-New-Technology-Jargon

Friday, November 26, 2010

The Truth about Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Website

The Truth about Driving Qualified Traffic to Your Website

Source:
http://www.readbud.com/Articles/Site-Promotion/The-Truth-about-Driving-Qualified-Traffic-to-Your-Website

Companies large and small are constantly seeking creative, high return strategies to increase visibility on the Internet. The quest for a high ranking position seems to be a never ending process. With most people there seems to be an endless search for the one answer on how to drive traffic to their website and turn those visitors into buyers.

There are countless methods to increase your visibility and revenues. Some are tremendously effective while others are a complete waste of time and money. Some require an extremely high financial investment while others require no money, just an investment of time. The goal of any company is to convert website visitors into buyers. Before you can do this, you must create a value for them.

The first method starts with becoming a resource before you are a vendor. This means creating credibility with your potential buyers before you ever ask for the sale. Hands down, one of the best ways to accomplish this is by offering something of high perceived value at no cost to visitors from your website. This could be a white paper, a content driven report, a how-to MP3 file, or an invitation to sign up for a seminar or business briefing.

In order to access the information or sign up for the seminar, have your visitors leave their contact information. It can be simply a name and email address or full contact information. The visitor will receive your free product and you will have gained a new contact.

The question then becomes, "How do I drive qualified visitors to my site?" It's great to offer something from your site, but as with anything, you must know how to market your site to potential buyers.

One of the most cost-effective strategies to drive qualified traffic to your site(s) is through article writing and distribution to forums, discussion groups and Ezines that are specific to your market.

The articles must be content driven, not a blatant sales piece. With most online resources you can add what is referred to as a "resource box" at the end of the article. A resource box contains 2 – 4 sentences about you with a link back to your site.




A second effective method to drive traffic to websites is with solo ads in specific locations. Rather than trying to sell something in the solo ad, offer your free resources by giving a description of the item with a link back to where they can download or register.

Solo ads are very cost-effective and work well when placed in the right publications and sites. Again, it is based on knowing your market rather than randomly placing an ad and hoping for a result.

A third effective method in generating site traffic is to participate in Joint Venture (JV) Campaigns. In JV Campaigns, one person sells a product and dozens of other people offer a valuable bonus product with the purchase.

Basically, a bonus eProduct is offered as an incentive to buy another eProduct, book, product or service. With this type of campaign each JV Partner agrees to send a message to their readers about the campaign.

In order to have access to the bonus product, customers visit a landing page where there is a description of the bonus as well as a place to leave a name and email address in order to get the bonus.

The cost is minimal and yet the market reach is incredible, often exceeding millions. Only participate in JV campaigns with people who are reputable and their product fits with your market or message.

Regardless of which strategy you use to gain opt-in subscribers you must make sure your backend marketing systems are in place. Many businesses fail to utilize the power of Internet marketing to the fullest potential because they have no backend marketing systems. To not do this is a waste of time, money and energy.

By keeping in touch with current and potential customers you build trust and name recognition. You will be recognized as a resource before you are a vendor, putting you miles ahead of the competition.

in Site Promotion

The Truth About Emotional Intelligence

The Truth About Emotional Intelligence

There is so much emphasis on emotional intelligence  these days that it appears that people are suppressing their emotions and problems in an effort to "fit in," to keep their jobs, and using "positive self-talk" to muscle through the rough spots in their lives.

Recently, I had a friend over who has suffered enormous job stress during a time when his wife's father was dying of cancer. Of course, quitting his job didn't seem like an option during this difficult period, particularly since his wife returned to her parental home for many months to say good-bye to her dying father. That left him at home to take care of their children, pay the bills, and so on. Who can forge positively into a new job-search with all that going on?

After his father-in-law passed away his wife returned home and he lost his job - as did many of his colleagues - and his wife decided she no longer wanted to remain married. What else could go wrong? OH! Of course! His father could be diagnosed with cancer: He was.

Now he is living a complete hell, with all of this turmoil, and two sweet children looking to him for stability. Is it any wonder that people are cracking under the strain?

He is all alone and he tries to be "emotionally together" but that only causes more harm than good. We (society), in our need for order and stability, don't want people with all these problems in our lives. We don't want them working in our office. They're broken!




Well, the truth is, our (society) expectations around emotional intelligence, and together, full-functioning adults, is what is breaking them.

I spent three hours with him the other night, acknowledging his horrific circumstances, his emotional turmoil, and gave him permission to embrace it all. He's not broken, he's experiencing emotional pain and it needs to be expressed, embraced, and worked through (processed.) It's not enough that he embrace it either. Community is required to surround, love, heal, and regenerate.

So, when we see hurting people, don't look at them as broken people who haven't got their act together. Look at them as someone who needs a bit of kindness, generosity, and loving support. Watch the power those simple things can have in their life.

Caveat: This does not condone people remaining disempowered victims for the rest of their lives. Our role is to embrace and still to empower, leaving the "wounded one" to take responsibility for their recovery. Embrace, love, and challenge.

in Grief

Source: http://www.readbud.com

Top 10 SEO Copywriting

Top 10 SEO Copywriting

What would happen if…? I'm a person to always ask that question. I love testing and tracking to see what factors can improve or worsen a situation. So, it was only natural for me to track the moves of a little experiment I did involving SEO copywriting recently. I'll gladly share my findings with you.

Before I do, however, I want to make a couple of things very clear. The outcome of this experiment will not be the same for every keyphrase on every page of every site. There are too many unknown factors at play in the overall SEO equation. Not to mention, all keyphrases are not the same, and all sites are not the same. In addition, this experiment takes no account of link popularity, which is a huge factor in achieving high rankings. With that said, let me show you how I took the home page of one of my sites - that didn't even rank in the top 50 - and caused it to rank in the top 10.

First of all, I'm not a big fan of checking rankings on a regular basis. I don't run ranking reports for all my sites to be sure they are all in the positions I want them in for every given keyphrase. I'll do it from time to time just to satisfy my own occasional curiosity. This experiment began when I noticed the home page of one of my sites was ranking highly for a keyphrase that didn't seem to appear anywhere in the text. Upon further investigation, I saw that the keyphrase was included in the ALT tags (a.k.a. image attribute tags) and that it was also included in the title tag.

I knew ALT tags previously carried a lot of weight with the engines, but had been downgraded in importance because site owners had badly abused the tag. Had ALT tags been reinstated in their level of importance? I decided to find out.

Keyword #1 was currently in the ALT tags and the title tag, so I decided to eliminate the keyword in the title tag. This would let me see if the ALT tags alone could hold the position in the search engine results pages (SERPs). To make things more interesting, I also decided to research and find a keyword that was a little more competitive and insert it into the title tag. On the same day I removed Keyword #1 from the title tag, I inserted Keyword #2. My home page was not ranked in the top 50 at that time for Keyword #2.

A few days later, the Googlebot came by and boosted my home page to position #18 for Keyword #2. Not bad! The page fell one spot (from #17 to #18) for Keyword #1 since the removal of the phrase from the title tag.

Keep in mind, these are not the most competitive keywords ever known. They each got between 100 to 200 searches a day. Also, the home page of this particular site had been (and still is) well ranked for years for other keyphrases and had a positive legacy with Google

Five days later, Keyword #2 was moved up three notches to a ranking of #14 while Keyword #1 stayed the same. Things remained in their status quo for roughly 10 days and then began to shift again. Keyword #1, the original that was previously in both the ALT tags and the title tag, vanished completely. It was not found in the top 50. Keyword #2, that was only found in the title tag and nowhere else, dropped to position #25.

Four days later, Keyword #2 was back up in the rankings and was now at #16. To see if I could improve rankings further, I began to make small tweaks to the page attributes. I added Keyword #2 to the ALT tags (taking the places where Keyword #1 had once been), and I also added Keyword #2 to the body copy. The keyphrase was added to one, bold sub-headline and at three places within the body copy: none of which were above the fold. It was not added to any primary headlines that used tags, and no keyword density formula was followed for the body copy. No other pages on my site used this term as anchor text in links pointing to the home page. That gave the page keyword placement in the:

· Title tag

· ALT tags

· Body copy

Seven days later, the home page hit the top 10 for Keyword #2!

So, what does all this mean? Simple. There is no single primary factor in search engine rankings. It takes balance, testing and tracking to find out what works for your particular pages. Your best bet is to do exactly what I did… begin one step at a time and track your progress. Did something cause a positive movement? Keep it. If something causes a negative shift, take it out.

I'm not finished with this page yet. I'll keep trying different things from time to time just to see what happens. Maybe I'll add anchor text links from the internal pages to the home page. I might try writing articles with keyword-rich anchor text links to help boost the rankings more. There are many acceptable practices I can implement for this page (or any page) that will allow me to observe the shifts in ranking. As the old saying goes, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." A diversified approach to SEO copywriting that includes tags, copy and links is always a wise start down the road to top 10 rankings.


in Copywriting

Source: http://www.readbud.com