Thursday, June 30, 2011

Saturday, August 29, 2009

2009 best site

The best site of 2009 !


http://madstop.com/2009/04/13/using-git-rebase-to-clean-development-histories/?dsq=15562624#comment-15562624
http://madstop.com/2009/02/05/summary-of-february-2009-puppet-developer-call/?dsq=15562630#comment-15562630
http://madstop.com/2009/03/23/railsmachine-releases-puppet-rails-tool/?dsq=15562646#comment-15562646
http://madstop.com/2009/06/04/restful-puppet-and-you/?dsq=15562665#comment-15562665
http://baratunde.com/blog/archives/2009/06/volcano_erupts_on_russian_island_plume_blocks_flight_path_thus_im_in_anchorage_not_tokyo.html#comment-14716457
http://www.psp-forum.com/psp-homebrew/14666-game-could-not-started.html
http://blog.sojo.net/2009/04/09/be-not-afraid-faith-and-reason-in-the-notre-dame-scandal/#comment-15563045
http://blog.sojo.net/2009/03/12/action-alert-victory-department-of-justice-to-investigate-arizona-sheriffs-racial-profiling/#comment-15562741
http://blog.socialmedia.com/fred-wilson-john-borthwick-video-highlights-from-social-media-boot-camp/#comment-15562709
http://blog.wattzon.com/2008/12/11/one-of-the-best-ideas-of-2008/#comment-15562689
http://madstop.com/2009/06/04/restful-puppet-and-you/#comment-15562665
http://madstop.com/2009/03/23/railsmachine-releases-puppet-rails-tool/#comment-15562646
http://madstop.com/2009/02/05/summary-of-february-2009-puppet-developer-call/#comment-15562630
http://madstop.com/2009/04/13/using-git-rebase-to-clean-development-histories/#comment-15562624
http://www.imediapress.com/rp/2008/11/24/treasury-bolsters-citigroup-with-capital/#comment-15562212
http://madstop.com/2009/04/13/using-git-rebase-to-clean-development-histories/#comment-15562624


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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

You Need To Write-Write Now!

I've been shouting it for years, and I will probably keep shouting for many years to come. If you want to get some quality, free visitors to your website-You Need To Write An Ezine Article!

You can go ahead and admit that secretly you been toying with the idea anyway. You've fantasized about one day checking your email and seeing your name in the table of contents of your favorite ezine. You've imagine what it's like to know that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people are reading YOUR words. And then there's the glorious payoff: Some of these people will visit your website. People who through reading your article have already established a relationship with you and are therefore more likely to pay real attention to what your website has to offer. Ahh, what a lovely dream...

But I'm telling you today to STOP DREAMING. Open your eyes, open up a new Word document and get started writing!

Of course, you need something to write about. I suggest one of two choices:

(1) Write about whatever subject your website covers. If your website is about Internet marketing, write about some of the ways your website suggests marketing online. If your website sells chocolate brownies, write about chocolate brownie recipes. If your website is a Drew Barrymoore fan site, please send me the URL immediately. Just kidding! Actually you could write and article about Drew's latest movie or her fight with alcoholism. The point is, if you have website-you have a topic.

(2) Write about something you know. We all have areas where we excel, as well as subjects that interest us. For instance, I know a lot about ezine articles so I write about them. One of the benefits of writing about something you know is what I like to call the 'Expert Factor'. If you write enough articles about a certain subject you will eventually get known as an expert in that field online. People will then trust what you say and will be even more inclined check out any websites or offers you endorse. In a nutshell-you gain credibility. And online that's a GOOOOD thing!

I'll just go ahead and blurt this one out because I know it's on your mind: Don't worry about being an expert writer. Don't shy away from writing ezine articles because you think you might misplace a few commas, semicolons or dashes. This is the Internet, not the Oxford Journal of Medicine. You're not trying to win a Pulitzer Prize. Just write your article the best you can, re-read it several times, run spellcheck, and then go from there. I also recommend waiting at least half a day and then coming back and re-reading your article. This allows your brain to basically re-boot and you may find some errors you overlooked before. But don't stress; You should see some of the typos I have made.

I'm not going to bombard you with everything there is to know about ezine article writing today. This article was designed to just wet your whistle a little bit. To get you in the mood so to speak. To get you wanting to write and to give you ideas on what to write about. I assure you there will be other article in the future that touch on all the other aspects of ezine article writing. For now, though, I'll leave you to your writing; Me, I've suddenly got a taste for some chocolate brownies...

Friday, January 23, 2009

8 Facts on Promoting your Business with Articles

Business owners have the greatest potential for writing successful articles. Most people usually start a business because they have a particular interest in certain products or services. Business owners usually have already gained much knowledge in their particular market. They can optimize their potential by setting aside time to research and study their area of interest to become even more knowledgeable in their market. One good resourceful book can help ignite the enthusiasm to gain more and more knowledge. Business owners can use this knowledge to write informational articles and will easily obtain their title as "expertise" once they do so.

Articles highly target your potential customers. Writing articles is actually something that anyone can easily do even if they have never really considered themselves as a "talented" writer. A little effort to compile some valuable information, can produce great results in targeting your potential customers. If you write articles related to your business industry, the visitors you receive from your articles will usually be highly targeted, eager and ready to see what else you have to offer. With your articles, you have already established yourself as a means of a "professional" in your visitor's mind. For this reason you can create open-minded potential customers ready to seek what you have to offer them.

Resourceful information should be included about the author. Marketing with your articles work best when you give them away to be redistributed and used for webmasters seeking content for their sites, blogs, ezines, etc. When your articles are submitted to free article directories and groups for distribution, a resource box or area below your article is always included. You may give your name, a small piece of information about you and your business (make it short and state directly what you do), and your URL to your website. Having your article hosted on numerous other sites and blogs is a great way to gain many "incoming" links to your site. The URL that you provided is also a great tool to generate traffic to your site.

You only have one small chance to catch the eye and interest of the reader. Time should be well spent on creating a interesting title and introduction paragraph for new articles. The world is full of information...newspapers, magazines, commercials, flyers, mail, bill boards, emails, banners and text ads on websites. All competing to catch our eye. We have learned to quickly tune out what does not interest us and proceed on. Do not try to use a title that you believe will catch "everybody's" interest. It just cannot be done anyway. Target only your potential customers and what information they are looking for. If you are targeting people who are fascinated with their hair, they want great hair...forget the clothes...forget the makeup....it's the hair! You've got the answer! You provide hair care products. Don't write in general about "beauty tips" trying to catch every woman's eye. Write to those hair fanatics. Provide specific articles targeting those hair fans. "100 Ways to Poof your Hair". (And...um...of course you've got the product they're looking for to make this happen. Include the exact link in your author's resource area.)

The length of your article does not have to be long. Some people feel they must practically write a book to complete an article. Four to six paragraphs can complete a well-written article. Instead of trying to cover a whole topic about "Work-at-Home Moms" try narrowing your articles into more specific pieces, for example, "How Work-at-home Moms Manage their Time", and perhaps next, "Three Simple Ways Work-at-Home Moms Relieve Stress". Creating one huge article that covers a broad subject can take a lot of time and effort and may end up losing the interest of your reader. Distributing smaller articles targeted on a specific subject will allow you to write and distribute more articles and will target the interest of your reader much easier.

Articles can bring you large amounts of traffic when distributed frequently. "Frequently" is stressed when speaking of generating large amounts of traffic through article marketing. Generally, one article will not do this wondrous deed. For this reason, writing numerous, narrow-targeted articles and distributing them with frequency will create the results you want. On the other side, don't overdo it. Creating articles like you are some vending machine and popping out one article after another, may cause you to lose focus on quality. Quality takes more time and effort, but produces much better results and greater chances of having your articles sought after and read.

Articles are successful when they are not advertisements. Use your articles to give your reader valuable content and information that will have them coming back to you for more. Don't try to be sly and sneak in a couple of ads here and there. People sense right away what is intended to be an ad. Some may continue to read on, but others won't. Save your ads for appropriate places on your site and not in your articles. Take time to check your spelling and grammar. If this is an area that you lack in, then find a family member or friend who can help you proofread and determine what sentences may need improvement.

Use small fragments of time to write your articles Most business owners are extremely busy. They do not have much extended time just for writing articles. Today you can have time to start writing your first article. You can use very small fragments of time to write successful articles. Keep a notepad with you at all times and you will be surprised at the numerous opportunities you get to jot down some ideas for your articles. Whether you're waiting at the doctor's office, stuck in traffic on the way home, or simply lying in bed at night trying to calm down and relax before turning out the lights...you've got the potential of creating success with your tidbits of time. Write one paragraph at a time if that is all the time you have. You will soon see that this will actually energize your thoughts more into the process of writing articles. You will find yourself coming up with new ideas at odd moments...and glad that you have your notepad to jot it down. Right now take a small fragment of your time and start your way to successful article writing.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

6 Ways to Leverage Technical Articles

Technology vendors often contribute bylined articles to trade journals. The articles are great exposure for these companies but they don't come cheap – the trades rarely pay for these articles but the vendors spend time and resources to assign pieces, write them, approve them and submit them. Your PR agency can help your clients leverage their investment by wringing top value out of these articles. Here are some possibilities:

  1. Reprints
  2. White papers
  3. Product briefs
  4. Booklets
  5. Speech outline and handouts

Reprints

It's pretty galling to contribute a byline to a publication, only to turn around and spend major bucks for reprint rights. But reprints are good things: they significantly increase your client’s exposure to the market. Make sure you use the reprints anywhere you can, including press kits, presentation handouts and conference take-aways. Post them on your site too. Even if you haven’t paid for electronic rights you can probably link to the publication’s URL, assuming they’ve posted your article online. (It doesn’t hurt to ask.) If you’ve got digital reprint rights and are posting the article on your client’s site, avoid using a scanned hard copy of the printed article – the resolution is poor and not very readable. Create a .PDF file and use that for posting and downloading.

White Paper

Please don’t use the published article as is for a white paper -- even if you retain all rights it's shamelessly self-plagiarizing, and if the publication retains all rights it's rather criminal. However, you can use the article text to form the technology section of a white paper. Edit for length as necessary and re-work the text to emphasize your client’s product and technology take. Then add white paper elements like a beginning executive summary and a problem statement. Follow these with your technology section, and then add details on how your client’s product will solve the problem, a customer case study, and a conclusion on how great the product is. (You can always switch the order by writing a white paper first, then editing the technology section into a bylined trade journal article.)

Product Briefs

The article can serve as a great basis for expanded product briefs – say the front and back of an 8-1/2x11, or a longer technical brochure. Edit the article for length and jazz up the text, and you’ve got a solid technology basis for the marketing document. (Good marcom can explain what a NAS gateway is, but not by yammering about “enterprise-wide intelligent data management portals.” Puts readers right to sleep.)

Booklets

One of the best press kits I ever saw included a sharp and informative booklet on the vendor’s technology. The booklet explained the general technology’s development and background, presented the vendor’s product, and listed clear customer advantages. It impressed both journalists and customers in a way a press release or even a white paper wouldn’t have done. Booklets are labor-intensive, so use your trade journal article as the basis for writing your own.

Speech Outline and Handouts

Use existing articles as the basis for client speeches and presentations. Since trade journal articles are usually vendor-neutral, they’ll work as-is for similar talks. When the presentation is about a product you can still use the article outline for the background technology and analysis then add product details, customer case studies, and Q&A’s. You can use article reprints as a handout, or turn the outline into speaker’s notes and use that instead.

If your client gulps at the cost of developing a trade journal article, don’t leave them gasping for breath – list all the ways they can leverage it to increase market exposure and profits.

Monday, January 19, 2009

6 Best Places to Submit Your Articles

You know that writing articles is the best free way to promote your business and gain credibility. You understand the importance of articles containing actual information and not being just long sales letters.

Do you know the absolute best places to submit all of those wonderful articles you have written?

Here is your list of the top 6 places to submit your articles:

1. Idea Marketers
With an Alexa ranking of 13,015, this site is one that you definitely don't want to miss submitting to. You have to sign up for a free account. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.ideamarketers.com

2. Go Articles
This one has an Alexa ranking of 17,504. You have to sign up for a free account. This site is part of the Jayde Network. Instantly accepts your article. http://www.goarticles.com

3. Article City
Article City has an Alexa ranking of 20,024. No account is required. http://www.articlecity.com

4. Article Announce
This group has 2,712 subscribers (June 2004). Provides content to hundreds of newsletters, magazines, and websites. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/

5. Free Content
This group has 1,557 subscribers (June 2004). Hosted by Website101.com. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Content/

6. Publisher Network
This group has 686 subscribers (June 2004). Lets you swap articles with other newsletter publishers. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/

By all means, submit your articles anywhere and everywhere it is appropriate. But there are certain websites that should always be included on your list. These places have a high number of visitors and/or subscribers.

Friday, January 16, 2009

5 Free Time-Saving Tools for Article Authors

You can save time and make your article writing and promotion easier by putting some very great tools to use. Below I've included 5 tools that can help you.

1. Article Formatter

If your articles aren't properly formatted before being submitted they have a very high chance of getting rejected. Formatting your articles also shows respect for the publishers you are submitting to. The following tool will not only format your articles to any line length you desire, but give you a total count of characters, words, and lines. To format your articles very quickly, just visit http://www.fwointl.com/FWOFormatter.html.

2. Tracking Software

As you start writing articles, and especially when you have been writing them for awhile, you will need a way to keep track of everything you've written. You can do this using a free program called Writer's Database. Writer's Database is a program that will keep track of everything you've written, potential publishers, submissions to those publishers, writing that hasn't been submitted yet, and more. You can find it at http://www.ultima-thule.co.uk/

3. Text Converter

To make it simple to add your articles to your website you need a simple tool for converting them to HTML. Using such a tool will greatly reduce the time you spend getting your articles up on your site. You can find a free one at http://www.cyber-matrix.com/txt2html.html.

4. SP*M Checker

Whether you submit your articles directly to publishers or to article directories, you can increase the chances of them being picked. Every time you write an article, run it through the checker at http://www.lyris.com/contentchecker. This will check your articles for things that have a probability of triggering SP*M filters. Once the check is finished, you get a detailed report that will show you what you need to change.

5. Spell Checker

I know that this seems pretty obvious, but checking the spelling in your articles is a must. When you submit articles that are full of spelling errors you project a very unprofessional image and turn people away from what you have to offer. Tiny Spell is a free program that will allow you to check the spelling of words in any Windows application. http://www.megspace.com/computers/tinyspell/

Using these tools will not write your articles. That is completely up to you. But using them will dramatically decrease the time you have to spend writing your articles and getting them ready to submit.