http://www.dailywritingtips.com/

     I’ve been looking over this site for the last couple days. Its basically a site with great writing tips for bloggers or just about anyone that writes. Now far be it from me to point out that there are many Bloggers who actually write as though they are texting from their HelloKitty phone. I’ve found many good tips over there, if nothing else, just for brushups for my non-sentence structure having self.

Iphone Iphone Iphone. It’s all people are talking about. The IPhone is released today and like the release of any other must have electronic, lines formed last night to get one.

     Lines formed as early as late Thursday night at the Apple store in New York, with the first in line there a full 109 hours before the actual release, to be sure to secure his place in cellphone history.

     To illustrate the ripple effect of this product:

• Searches for information on the IPhone on the Internet have caused a noticeable spike in search engine traffic providing a boost of 6.9 million queries on the Iphone this year
• 274 thousand searches per week in 2007.
• In the week after Jobs unveiled the iPhone at the Macworld Expo, 1.1 million searches for information on the device were performed.
• That week was second only to the week of 24 June, when iPhone madness sparked more than 1.2 million searches.
• The searches also generated more than 7.8 million click-throughs. Some 2.3 million of these went to Apple, while gadget sites Engadget and Gizmodo each enjoyed more than 270,000 click-throughs from iPhone related searches. 
• Among the most popular terms for the search were ‘iPhone price’ and ‘iPhone release date’.
• Profiteers offer $1000 to stand in line for people to purchase an iPhone
• Playboy.com has already launched the iPlayboy channel just for the iPhone.
• Phishing sites have already become fully opertional sending out emails to get people to register for their ‘Free iphone’

God I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.

     Since the summer of ‘76, Ron Leung thought his stolen 1956 Ford Thunderbird was ‘Like the Roman Empire - history’, That is until he got a call from palo Alto, California Plice last week, almost 31 years to the day after it disappeared.

     Now he’s anxious to get the car back to palo Alto from Southern California where it was recovered, reportedly in good shape.
     the port windows, purring V-8 and continental wheel kit in the back have haunted Leung since the car disappeared. he’d spy a ‘56 T-Bird at a car show and melt, thinking of the one he had restored and then lost. Now he’s curious to see what it looks like.
     In some ways, Leung said, the car was alwways meant to be his. In 1976 he was searching for a 1956 T-Bird, the only year with the chromed spare tire holder, only to find one for sale, just three doors down from his father’s Palo Alto restaraunt.
     “I fell in love’ he said.
     The then 28 year old got busy. He stripped off the Sea Spray Blue paint and replaced it with white, making it match the T-Bird that mystery blonde Suzanne Summers cruised around in during American Graffiti.
     Three years later, Leung parked the restored car in the lot of his auto shop in Palo Alto. The next day th echain blocking the lot was cut and the car was gone.
     From his perch at the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s department, where the retired deputy worked at the time, Leung would check th e computer system to see if his car had turned up. Nothing - for weeks and then months and then he quit checking.
     Last week, the car showed up at a California Highway patrol office in Southern California. A woman who bought the car through ebay from someone in Ohio, bought it, Sea Spray Blue again, to the CHP, according to Palo Alto police officer Brian Philip, onec CHP officers found the VIN, they relized it didn’t match the number on the title. The yran the car through a state database and it came up stolen.

     “I feel bad for the woman who bought it,” said Lung. He’s not sure how much she spent on it, but similar cars on eay can sell for as much as $20,000. Leung spent about $1,500 for it in ‘73. The CHP reports it is still in cherry condition, the odometer reads 24,979 miles. Said Leung, now 59, with a laugh, ‘it’s karma’.

Here’s a picture of Mr Leung’s car, very nice. I can see why he was attached to it.

     I NEED to say something about Florida drivers. I live in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. This is home to beautiful beaches, beautiful women and some of the most inept drivers on the planet. How hard is it to use a turn signal? It’s not some new alien technology we just brought back from the moon, and its quite useful to those behind you who arent driving 35mph on a 4 lane highway in a semi truck sized SUV enjoying a double mocha frappa lattachino or whatever while backing up traffic for miles.

     And if its not the 110 lb soccermoms that absolutely require a 6 door personell carrier for their tiny frame plus their 1 offspring, then its the retirees. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with old people, I plan on being one myself one day. But when I am an older and hopefully retired person, I will be aware of the fact that not everyone on the road is retired with the singular goal for the day of getting to the piggly wiggly to get in on that one day sale of sugar free cookies.      
     There is nothing more frightening than seeing a 1973 Buick driven by someone who can’t see over the steering wheel, en route to a sale.

    But by far the worst type of driver is the SUV driver who think’s they’re driving a Porsche. There is nothing more butt pucker inducing than looking in your rear view mirror and seeing an Escalade bearing down on you on the highway at speeds that are obviously more than it’s brakes will be able to cope stopping fast enough to keep from tearing the rear end off your vehicle if required. The only thing more fun than that is having the same drivers swap lanes and dodge in and out of traffic in a 5000lb+ while sipping a coffee, on a cellphone and reading a newspaper.

I want to have a law passed so that we can carry weapons in our cars. Not to shoot people, but to disable their cars. A nice shot to the tires will atleast disable them long enough for the rest of the peple on the road to find safe shelter
traffic

     Search engines can help get your site the traffic it needs to survive. Unfortunately there are a lot of variables to search engine submission. By ‘variables’ I mean mysteries, shrouded in darkness, wrapped in enigmas.
      When submitting to search engines, most of them tell you right away that they dont guarantee when or IF  you will have your site added to their directory if you do the free submissions. That’s the part that gets me about search engine submissions. The search engine’s themselves dont know if their software will ‘crawl’ (a.k.a. add) y0ur site to their directories, or when this will happen. How do you program a piece of software, have full control over the system it runs on, be able to view all activities within your system, yet dont know when or if it will work? But amazingly if you pay for the submission services, either directly to the search engines themselves or through pro submission sites (that may or may not be reputable) then there is more solid information available, but none can give you an exact date as to when your info will be searchable through any specific sites.

How do they work?
The Basics
Search engines essentially are programs designed to make what is best described as a Yellow Pages for the web. Search engines ‘crawl’ the Internet and create copies of every webpage they find and put them in a database. THen all of these webpages are analyzed so that when a user goes to a search engine’s website and searches for a phrase, the search engine looks through its database of websites and picks the most appropriate sites.
How did they start?
The three first modern search engines where launched in 1994, starting with Webcrawler that was created at the University of Washingon. The second was Lycos which began at Carnegie Mellon University, and finally, Yahoo!. The king of all search engines, Google, did not officially launch until September 1999, and was originally programmed by two individuals from Stanford (their original workplace was a rented residential garage). As you can see, the majority of search engines started with educational roots. The search engines themselves, are actually very complex programs, hence the secrecy and just general lack of knowledge about how they work.
How do Search Engines find you?
1.) Crawling. Crawling search engines, such as google, will find websites by following links from other sites. If there is a website out there that has a link to your website onit, and Google knows about that page, then they know about your site as well. Crawling search engines follow link after link to (in theory) find every page on the Internet.
2.) Submission. You can wait for the search engines to find you or you can go give them your information through submissions. Some search engines will only find your website if you submit to it, or will take much longer to find you if you don’t. Some will also charge you to submit your site’s information

Here is an excellent list of search engines with links and information about submission. Search Engine List. And here is an outstanding graphical interface to give you a visual of how search engines are related http://www.search-this.com/search-engine-decoder/

Paid Advertising.

Google Adwords
Google sells sponsored listings that appear above and to the right-hand side of its regular search results, these listings are called Google AdWords.

Paid search programs allow site owners to “bid” on the terms they wish to appear for. You agree to pay a certain amount each time someone clicks on your listing. This is why sponsored listings are referred to as “pay-per-click” (PPC) or “cost-per-click” (CPC) advertising.

Google AdWords ranks sponsored listings based on a number of variables including the CPC (bid price), click-through-rate (CTR) and landing page quality. This page explains how ads are ranked in more detail.

If your goal is to build visibility on search engines quickly, then Google AdWords is an essential option to explore. It can put you in the top results of many major search engines within a short period of time.

Google distributes its paid ads to other partners, with some major sites listed on the Search Engine Results Chart . This provides you with exposure to more potential traffic. When setting up an AdWords campaign, you may choose to have your ads appear in the Search Network and/or Google’s Content Network (AdSense), or you may opt-out of either.

It is worthwhile for anyone to open a Google AdWords account and experiment with how paid listings may help drive traffic to a site, or use the service as a keyword research tool. Google’s self-service AdWords program charges a per-click fee, in addition to a $5 activation fee, but there is no minimum monthly spend.

As you continue to participate in paid search advertising, you may find that the editorial or “free” listings generated by your submissions to directories and crawlers have kicked in. While some marketers elect to eliminate their paid search ad spend when this happens, you may find that you want to continue spending, or perhaps even increase your budget, to target terms for which you don’t receive good editorial placement.

Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed How Google Works page that guides you even more through the process of how AdWords operates. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

Yahoo Search Marketing
Yahoo Search Marketing (YSM), formerly Overture and GoTo, also allows sites to “bid” on the terms they wish to appear for.

Up until the recent “Panama” improvement, YSM ranked sponsored listings based on cost-per-click. For instance, if you wanted to appear in the top listings for “running shoes.” You might agree to pay 25 cents per click. If no one agrees to pay more than this, then you would be in the number one spot. If someone else later decides to pay 26 cents, then you slip into the number two position. You could then bid 27 cents and move back on top, if you wanted to.

Yahoo Panama brings YSM’s ranking algorithm for paid ads more in line with Google by considering additional variables such as click-through-rate and landing page quality.

If your goal is to build instant visibility on search engines, Yahoo Search Marketing is an excellent option to explore, putting you in the top results of many major search engines within a short period of time.

Again, it is well worth it for anyone to open a YSM account and experiment with paid listings. An account requires a $5 minimum deposit, and you set your own daily budget. By carefully selecting targeted terms, you can stretch that money out for one or two months and get quality traffic.

As with Google, you may wish to eliminate your ad spend or continue for terms not receiving good editorial placement once your initial deposit has expired.

Search Engine Watch members have access to a detailed How Yahoo Search Marketing Works page that guides you even more through the process of getting started with the service. To learn more about becoming a member to access this information, visit the membership information page.

Microsoft Ad Center

Microsoft adCenter launched in May 2006. Like Google and Yahoo, it allows advertisers to “bid” on the keywords they wish to have their ads show up for. The system uses what is called the “black box” bid and ranking method, similar to the way Google and now Yahoo determine Cost Per Click (CPC).

The CPC is a combination of how much you are willing to bid (max bid) and your Click Thru Rate (CTR) in comparison to the others bidding for that particular keyword.

Upon launch, adCenter distinguished itself from competitors by being the first to offer geographic, demographic and daypart targeting. It requires a $5 service fee for account setup. After that, you pay the cost of the clicks.

Bidding starts at $0.10 minimum. Sometimes $0.05 bids go through. You can increase your bid to reach a targeted audience through Targeted Bidding. This allows you to target based on (1) users in a specific geographic location, (2) users searching on specific days of the week or during specific hours of the day or night, and (3) users of a specific gender or age.

While initially pleased with adCenter, marketers would like to see more traffic. The consensus is that traffic performs well and is growing but is still not at the level of other search engines.

Experienced Search Marketers also like the targeting tools. These tools allow them to narrow the ad buy, resulting in audiences that convert better, allowing marketers to put more of their budgets into other ad buys or into additional keywords with Microsoft. The help section is very detailed.

That’s the basics for Search engine submission. Search engines have way more to them that what’s covered here, but this article and these links should get you going in the right direction. Watch for an upcoming post on Search Engine Optimization to help make your website more easily readable to crawlers.

     Well that’s the name of the game right? Many people who have blogs and blog regularly are trying to get a little income started out of their efforts. Nothing wrong with that. And on the other end of it, there are many companies and sites out there that would love to have a popular blog..such as this one write about their site to help generate traffic. There are quite a few sites that can make this happen. One of them is PayPerPost <a href=”http://www.payperpost.com“> ads on blogs</a>. Basically you sign up, and select the specializations of your blog, or your specific interests, and offers are made available to you that relate to those interests. Offers range from as low as $5.00 per post, up into the hundreds depending on your site’s traffic and your google rank.

     I had heard a lot of good reviews on this site from fellow bloggers and other blogging sites, so I thought it might be worth checking out. The sign-up was easy, the site is clean, concise and easy to navigate. So far it seems pretty straight forward. I just signed up today, and THIS is my first post for pay per post, so I can’t comment on their payouts, other than they come through paypal. I will keep everyone updated on pay per post, and other pay to post sites that I come across.

At this point, I would say PPP is worth signing up for if they follow through with their promises. Check them out

Pay Per Post

Well I can honestly say I’ve had better weeks. Saturday was my birthday (6/23), so that was good. I got to see Fantastic 4, and was somewhat disappointed, had a few drinks with friends, and generally had a good time. On the downside there was a standard issue Florida summer storm, complete with lightning that hit on the night of my b-day and fried my computer by sending a electrical hit through my cable modem, killing it as well. So I have to basically build another PC. Such is life.

I started this blog as sort of an experiment. I’ve been interested in Internet marketing for quite a while, so I really do have an interest in the subject matter and I’m not just updating a C&P blog. I started the blog because in the years that I have played with various facets of marketing on the ‘net, I have picked up a few tricks along the way. I have also seen that there is a constant stream of first timers who either just got their very first PC or have suddenly gotten it in their head that they want to start a business on the ‘net and run headlong into the mire that is ‘marketing information’ on the Internet. There are sources for great information for the beginner on the Internet, this blog being one of them. I don’t try to shove some half-baked ‘program’ down the throats of my visitors, or try to sell some fantastic line of crap about how the information in this site will make you a multi-millionaire in 24 hours. I try to get out good information for those who are smart enough to actually try to gather information before throwing money at their marketing efforts, or people who want to be aware of the options available to them to get their site or business’s message to their current and future customers.
     I’m still tweaking and tuning on the site as you can see, and probably will be for quite some time. Most of the tweaking I am and will be doing is the same techniques that I put out in this blog. So I’ll give an update on what the site is doing.

     This is the first month that the domain of digitalbattlegrounds.com has been changed to its current blog format. Before that it was a gaming oriented site that was a mix of an html front page with a php forums package. I dont know if I’m going to keep this blog on this domain or move it. The domain name is working for the moment for my tweaking and tuning purposes, so we shall see. When the DB website/forums were in their ‘heyday’ the traffic MIGHT have reached 120-150 visitors a month. Nothing spectacular by any means.

Dec 2006	19014	6963
Jan 2007	18299	6022
Feb 2007	10589	5562
Mar 2007	55053	5496
Apr 2007	57318	3922
May 2007	10674	6575
Jun 2007	16160	5391

     In this first month in blog format, according to the site stats, there were 5391 requests for pages. The best the DB domain has every done was in December 2006 with 6963 requests. So for a first month, only 1500 or so short of the high for the site, thats not so bad.

     Google adsense reports that the adsense ads have generated a whopping .39 cents of revenue. I should be retiring to fiji sometime next week, check back for pictures of my grass hut being built. I have Kontera scripts installed, but apparently they dont work with the google adsense ads on the front page, however they do seem to be coming through on the pages, but not the posts. There is a plugin that will make this work, but because my PC is currently in critical condition all over my desk, I cant update the site with that particular script, so I’ve not really seen anything positive out of Kontera, though these issues will be resolved shortly…hopefully.

I do notice that requests for RSS feeds are dramatically increasing since I put the RSS button out there (go figure). There are 206 RSS feeds for DB..woohoo!.

So for the first month of db in blog format, the ’stats’ are

5391 page requests
206 RSS feeds    
.39 cents revenue generated. (adsense only)

So that’s the baseline, obviously a lot of room for improvement. Every month I will update the stats to track progress.

Whether you are selling products or just blogging, content is the driving force behind your website, and ultimately any revenue streams attached to it. Content is King. It doesnt matter if your website is just a personaly blog, or an ecommerce site, at the very least if you dont have interesting and relevant content, it will be hard for people to find you and to stay if the content of your site isnt relevant, poorly written or poorly formatted, it probably wont keep people at the site if they come at all.

Writing Articles
Articles are excellent tools to generate web traffic and product interest. Writing articles, may sound easy enough, but it is important that you write the proper types of articles to attract interested readers. Follow these simple steps to create compelling and interesting content.

Compelling Titles
Think of article titles as news headlines. They must strike a chord with the reader and encourage them to read on. Article titles are the writer’s opportunity to grab the casual web browsers interest. Consider using a play on words or slightly modifying a common phrase to make the reader pause. Use a provocative title. Consider making the the title a question, and the article the answer. Questions are particularly useful as an article title because readers are naturally curious and will be enticed to read more. Titles can also be calls to action.

While it is important that titles be compelling, they should also not lead the reader astray. The title should relate to the general subject of the article.

The first letter of each word in the article title should be capitalized for emphasis. Articles should not only be thought of as educational tools, but also a benefit to your search engine ranking. With that in mind authors should include relevant keywords in the articles title.

Examples of compelling titles:

Types of Articles
Articles that are timeless have the longest shelf life. Consider “How-to” articles or instructional articles that explain common questions in simple terms. Authors should always keep in mind that the types of articles that tend to be the best received contain useful original content.

Articles that are portrayed as educational articles should not be infomercials, but should contain objective information and tips that will genuinely assist readers.

Keep It Real
People will not be impressed by complex sentences that make little sense. Readers are looking for relevant information. Focus on topics that allow you to provide concrete helpful information.

Article Length
The ideal length for articles that are to be syndicated is between 600 and 800 words. If you have some content that is considerably longer, break it into a two-part article.

Proof Read
Articles that are embraced by publishers are well-written. Like it or not, grammar and punctuation do matter. The quality of your writing will impact how the content is received. Double and triple check for typographical errors and incorrect grammar usage. Edit each article for spelling and grammatical errors. Typos reflect poorly on the author. Regardless of whether the information contained in the article is accurate, articles that are poorly formatted or include spelling errors, will be quickly discarded.

Article Formatting
The article should be written in such a way that it can easily be broken into small paragraphs, making it easy for readers to skim. Small paragraphs will also increase the article’s overall readability. Each paragraph can include a mini-keyword rich title that will highlight the information contained within that paragraph. A bulleted list, highlighting important points, is another way to draw attention to a specific section of an article.

Archive Articles
All articles should be archived onto a stable and persistent webpage. Each article should have it’s own page, and the page should be optimized for keywords related to the contents of the article.

Resource Box
Use the author resource box to show expertise in a specific area. The author resource box should include the article author’s name, company, web address and any call to action items that relate to the article contents.

Seo Tutorial     This ebook is made for people who want to investigate how rankings can help their site and also how to get their site to climb in the rankings of search engines. While it is created for experienced webmasters, purely because experienced webmasters seem to be more interested in the topic of SEO, beginner webmasters will benefit from this one as well.

1. Let the customer see ’shipping charges’ on your site without registering. Nobody likes suprises.

2. Don’t just use Paypal for payments. There are many options out there, and people like options.

3. Keep your ‘products’ page light and easy to read. Use ‘more info’ links for the people who want detailed info.

4. Be sure to include links to your privacy policy, shipping and return policy. Be honest or it will come back to haunt you.

5. If you use Search on your site. Test it out, make sure it works with part numbers, names, and SKU’s.

6. Make yourself known to your customer. You dont need your life story online, but introduce yourself, let your customer get an idea of who they are dealing with.

7. Don’t make your customer have to ask about the status of their order. Let them know before they ask.

8. Invite customer feedback. It lets you know what you’re doing wrong and lets new customers see what you do right.

9. Be on top of your customer emails. 48 hour response time is too long. 8 hours is a good response time. Nobody likes waiting for a response when they feel someone should be on top of their problem.

10. Never mention that you are new, its like a lighted bullseye for scammers.

11. Get a real 800 number. Not 866 or any of the offshoots. It looks more professional.

12. Make your graphics clear and sharp. Learn how to use basic image editing programs. Nothing will make a site look cheezy faster than a pixelated graphic.

13. Calling the customer and personally thanking them for the order creates trust.

14. Have a ‘best seller’, ‘popular product’ or ‘people who bought this also bought…’ links. They help tremendously.

15. If you use thumbnails to link to images, give your customers larger images if they click.

16. Create deals. Promo offers for repeat buyers, first time buyers, bulk..etc. Also referall deals. People like free, and most times the business you get will more than pay for the reduced price of any deal you give them.

17.  Help links are your friend. Not everyone visiting your site is going to be experienced. Make your help section or FAQ’s easy to get to.

18. If you are personally shipping products. Ship fast. Nobody wants to wait for their purchase.

19. Use proper ssl certifications. Also being involved with sites such as BBB and showing their seal, instills confidence

20. Use Newsletters to let your users know about site updates, upcoming deals and/or features.

21. If you’re using a carrier to ship, like Fedex, send the customer an email with tracking number.

22. If you have a contact phone number, actually have a person answering the phone, not a message machine.

23. Offer a good guarantee. If you show your customer you back your product, your product must be good.

24. Dont forget Servicemen and Servicewomen. Give them deals. It will not only be good for you because of the amount of service people, but many people like a site that helps out soldiers.

25. Test everything. Nothing is worse than an awesome site with broken images, buttons that dont work, or bad links. Your site is your business’s face.

These are just a few tips, there are so many more. If you have any of your own, please add them as well.