How many of you saw the film “The Perfect Storm” based on a true life fishing boat tragedy? Let’s see your hands people. Aside from whether (no pun intended) you thought the film was good or bad the story was fascinating nevertheless.

The reality of the event was a culmination of natural phenomenon and human frailty. The basic story was a storm had brewed out of merging storms to make the mother of all storms. Which this is called the perfect storm since it is the convergence of multiple weather conditions that rarely find there way to meeting each other and creating the ultimate storm. But when it does happen it thankfully and usually happens in the open seas. Which brings in our fisherman.

The story behind them was that they were in need of a big catch and they started doing well for themselves. They started getting greedy as a result and following their dreams of more. But there pursuit of the fish led them into the area where the perfect storm was brewing. The rest was a total disaster and a complete tragedy. However this can story can also have a happy ending. What?

If you were paying attention you would have seen the perfect storm building in the E-publishing and as a domino effect the E-reader sales. Oh yes, the flourishing and growth of the Internet has been the perfect storm. Yes the communication “front” has met the corporate “winds” and the marketing “high pressure” system has jumped in with them. Then you add the independent “disturbance” and you got the explosion of activity we see on the web.

Publishing has been truly amped up into a perfect storm. Random House reported that ebook sales have increased three fold in 2009. Some publishers project sales to reach over $9 Billion by 2013 based on the demand now. The US Trade Wholesale study has ebook sales ending at just around $17,000,000 and by the end of the 3rd quarter in 2009 reaching over $45,000,000. Stock up baby!

These numbers are for the USA alone: From 2002 Through 3rd Quarter 2009!

Part of why his is the perfect storm is because of the E- reader. According to Forrester Research sales of E-readers rose from 1,000,000 in 2008 to 3,000,000 in 2009. And the research was done before 2009 had ended!

Now at the slim chance you don’t know what an E-reader is, it is basically an digital “player” for books. Yes you can by an ebook and have it loaded onto your E-reader and “presto change-o” you’re good to go! The E-readers like music players can hold a number of downloads.

The payoff for purchasing an E-reader is the convenience and the cost. E-books are often less expensive than a traditionally published book. Plus you are can carry a small library with you wherever you take your E-reader!

This perfect storm gets better too. For it impacts the writers and the sales force out there. This can include the areas of freelance writers, e-tail sales, and e-publishers. All of you pursuing these fields should be ecstatic. And anyone pondering whether you should get into the market should take notice. The stock is up and rising. Believe that.

So what does this mean? Well I am sure you figure that out already. The fact is the Internet had already opened up a brand new world for writers and/or publishers. Yes be it a story or a full blown novel there are more and more web sites that will assist you in publishing. Regardless of whether you are simply posting you creative work for on line reading and/or for downloading the opportunities are increasing.

This available in host publishing sites or in on line companies available to help you in self publishing. Your writing can be fiction, non-fiction, tutorial, informative, and so on. The demand continues to grow and so does the accessibility of publishing. The easier it is for you to publish combined with the ease it is to purchase is a perfect storm for us freelance writers and/or publishers.

For those in the e-tail market you may look into carrying a product like the E-reader. It is a wonderful item and appealing to all ages. In fact the Internet has rejuvenated peoples interest in reading and the E-reader has only compounded it many times over. Yes the “old fashioned” book had lost its luster a bit over the recent decades of electronic stimulus and technological advancement. But the handy on screen version is bringing back the love of good old reading!

It’s your turn and my turn to cash in on it! You hear me?

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Some may be asking or screaming at me “are you serious?” Yes I am. There is a reason to take a look at the stock market and the relationship of the market and the Internet. So let’s do it.

The concept of E-trading is indeed nothing new at this point in time. But with the economy in the toilet and many linking the disaster to Wall Street people have turned a blind eye to the market. The fact is that when peoples stock take a plummet that equals an opportunity for others to make some money. E-trading has made finding these opportunities much easier.

Now while there is no guarantee in the trading of commodities that doesn’t make it untouchable either. In fact many of the tragic stories come from greedy investors and greedy brokers. The E-trading market helps avoid that.

In a nutshell here is the net impact of the E-trading market.

• It can reduce costs of transactions – cut out the bottom feeding brokers or the high priced “experts”. Now this does not mean that a trusted broker cannot or should not be solicited. It does mean that you don’t need them for everything you once needed them for.
• Liquidity – a broader market and electronic transfers allow faster and more efficient deals.
• Competitive edge – With access to a world market and the ability to by-pass the exchange floor it makes a more competitive trade market.
• Information – the Internet makes more information available. You need to be cautious also to filter through the true and false.
• Bottom line – You can see up to the minute details on potential stock. You can see a track record and projections.

All of this will help you make a sound and informed choice.

With the increased desire to use the Internet as a forum to trade there has been a “can’t beat them so join them mentality.” Yes many brokers and insiders are jumping into the business. Which is fine but also a reason to do your homework.

In fact there are more and more sites devoted to stock trading on -line than ever before. Of course you should do research about the ones you wish to consult to verify the accuracy and value. This is not as difficult as it sounds.

Naturally too, we should proceed with caution and soundness of mind. Don’t confuse the simplicity of the process with the reality of the stock market. It would not be wise to pour massive amounts of money in anything you have not thoroughly researched and tested for its trustworthiness. Don’t try and make the killing with every trade. People who are truly successful and make a living in the stock market are patient and methodical people.

But this is more than a discussion of stocks. This is about the impact and opportunities that the Internet has brought as a result of E-trading. Aside from making money from the market you could develop E-Trade related businesses.

Maybe you don’t have a clue about the market but you may be a strong developer of web sites. Yes maybe you are good with algorithms, charts, data tracking, and so on. E-trading sites are always going to be looking for better graphics and easier methods of reviewing trade information and stock performance. This may be your gig.

There also is a market for writing reports and doing research in the commodities and stock trading field. This is an excellent income possibility for freelance or hired writers as well as Internet research specialists. Of course the research in the stock market would also include off line reference material. But the Internet is an integral part of the research and communication needed to keep a step ahead of the competition or to be on top of the trends.

So while the stock market may not be everyones cup of tea there is strong incentive for many of us to see if there is an income earning project or job for us in and around the E-trade business. There are many lucrative gigs out there too. And hey, there are people who make money from the actual trading end of it.

The fact is that the economy has made it possible for more people to get in on buying favorable stocks that had fallen dramatically as a result of the economic crunch. Again there are many variables to consider when reviewing whether or not to purchase stocks. The reality is there are people making money through the wise use of the stock commodities trade.

In conclusion we are simple saying that the increased use of the Internet in stock trading has opened a door for work and potential income beyond the stock market themselves. Yes sir re-bobby the stock is up in the stock e-trading. And all of this is worth your time and examination.

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Many of us recall the early installments of the famous Star Wars trilogy. We enjoyed the film presentation of fictitious fight of good in evil in the intergalactic world. We remember how the story line was about an evil empire that had began dominating and oppressing the known universe using a “dark” version of an ancient indivisible power that existed and was intertwined with all of life.

And then there was the original and good side of this power called the force. Could the good reassert itself and conquer this nefarious dark power? Yes, according to some implied prophecy that foretold of a young man who would possess a higher capacity for the use of this force. But he would have to be protected as a young lad and later trained as a Jedi.

In the stories and in the film the character Luke Skywalker was this so called “one”. Part of the challenge was to teach him that his destiny was not guaranteed and that he could be swallowed up by the evil dark side of the force.

As the story develops the young Skywalker is being trained and he is also being tempted to rush ahead of his present preparedness. Luke is not satisfied with what he perceives as a slow rate of progress. He wants to conquer now!

But his mentor and a wise old Jedi Master warn him of the damaging effect of impatience and unrealistic expectations. What am I talking about? What does some old movies have to do with my life you are asking?

Focus my young apprentice, focus. No, seriously, many of us do not grasp the potential of Internet business and also the gradual development that is involved. While building an Internet business is not rocket science it is not like flipping a coin either.

In a similar vein we need to understand that progress is incremental. It is unlikely and unrealistic to expect that we are going to have instant monster success. It is not wise to assume that you are going to know and fully understand the inner workings and applications of the Internet in a short span of time.

Yes you may even be the brainiac among us. Maybe you are a genius. I mean all know I am. LOL. Remember Luke Skywalker? He was the chosen one, he was born to take the role of redeeming the universe from the hands of evil. And yet he needed to time to master the whole Jedi art.

Okay so that wasn’t real, but it was basically a dramatic metaphor for how life actually works. Honestly rarely, and I mean rarely does anyone just stumble into a speedy success; whether you are a gifted musician, talented athlete, business entrepreneur, or a sheer natural smarty pants or not, it is not your entitlement to be successful. Success is not going to happen through osmosis or from the natural order of nature. In fact even gifted people have to work at their craft to really get anywhere.

Bringing this full circle to the main point of emphasis, don’t get easily frustrated by your perceived lack of success in your Internet endeavors. For one it is always a possibility that you may need to rethink or change your career plans because a percentage of us are not cut out for the Internet business world. But you aren’t going to know that without giving it an honest and reasonable amount of time.

There are in fact many business models that state that you should assume that you need a year until you begin to get a gage of where things are heading. I know when it comes to opening up a restaurant or a retail store there are formulas like this.

When it comes to your Internet business the principle is the same. You need to time to build you business. Until then the returns will be frustrating at times and you will question whether you should continue. What should you do if things are not going well?

Ask yourself how much time do I commit to learning what I need to know to my field? How much time do I spend doing all of the things necessary or seeing to it that those things get done by a qualified and trusted assistant? How competitive is the market I am in? How realistic are my goals? Am I reaching my short term goals? Am I realistic about my short term goals?

You can set a goal to make $500 a month in my first 6 months of business for example. Is that a reachable goal for what you are doing? Are you honest with yourself examination? Am I dedicated to making my Internet business work?

Hey young padawan, my young Luke Skywalker. Take it easy, be patient. You need to keep steady at the wheel and be determined to put in the effort and wait for the rewards in there due time. Trust me many of you will become a Web Master.

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Everyday businesses fail and more often than not people give up. Why is that? And what about you?

We are inundated daily with advertising and testimonials strewn all over the Internet telling us how easy it is to start your own Internet enterprise. And the money? It is going to flow like a river flowing with milk and honey, according to the “how to get rich” experts.

While there is no specific answer to why people fail or give up, there are factors to be identified and to be learned from. In fact one reason people fail or give up is tied to what we just mentioned. That is the “get rich” proclamations and the “snake oil salesman” hawking their “get rich” programs.

The impact of the reality that most, if not all, of these methods do not work and are a complete waste of time, naturally turns many people off. Thus the people who give these programs a whirl are destined to fail and are led to inevitably give up.

Then you have a percentage of people who consider a setback or a series of mistakes a failure. Whereas most people that are successful are not intimidated by stumbling, floundering or even facing rejection. Realistically and practically speaking what separates those who quit from those who forge ahead, is focus. And nothing creates an urgency and desire to remain focused more than having goals and objectives.

What is it that you want to accomplish with your Internet activity? The thing is, no matter where you are on the business landscape, whether a beginner, novice, or a seasoned pro you need to lay out attainable objectives. Then you need to follow a solid game plan to achieve your objectives.

A misconception that some of us fall for is also something we should try and avoid. Your marketing and management game plan should cover the entire basis. This includes online and offline applications, but there are more simple steps that people mistakenly overlook or have a misunderstanding of.

Many companies and individuals continually fail to grasp that not everyone has the same computer capabilities as they do. Yes, many of us have the bandwidth and the more recent technology to enjoy the glitzy glam of an electrifying web page. But many of us do not. So we would like to warn web masters out there that it is better to have a little less flash than to have a lot less viewers. What good is an eye pleasing extravaganza if many people do not have the loading capacity?

Another “must do” is to have someone or learn how to submit your site to search engines. There are professional Internet marketing services that can help you and there are web sites that provide free help. Simply type in search engine registration in your search engine bar of choice and you will see some of the helpful sites to choose from.

What about those who have a web page that invites people to join through a subscription or as a member?, or what about those who are building a mailing list? The experience of many marketing veterans and numerous studies suggest that people do not like being asked too many questions; so keep the information collecting to a bare minimum, as little as possible in fact. Some people have estimated that for every question you ask after their name and email (contact) information, you lose up to 15% of the people you got to go that far. So it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the more questions you ask, the more people that are going to bail on you.

Finally it is imperative that we remind you to let common sense direct your enthusiasm and emotions. Do not be hasty and do not be afraid to make a mistake. Of course, as this discussion implies, the trick is to avoid as many mistakes as we can. Most of all do not hesitate to get assistance or additional opinions.

Listen up Internet nation, we all need reminders, yes even the simplest of reminders. This is the part where you stop reading and start reviewing your strategy to see if there is something simple that you have overlooked. This is also the part where I tell you to stay in the course and don’t worry about the past. Then I tell you to keep your focus, try and avoid the mistakes, but above all don’t give up!

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Let’s continue from our previous post, where we…

1. Activated the “Akismet” plugin.
2. Installed the “ All in One Seo Pack” plugin.
3. Converted the url’s of our blog into search engine friendly url’s.

Our next plugin is “Google Analyticator”

From the Google Analyticator website:
Google Analyticator easily adds Google Analytics tracking support to a WordPress-powered blog. Google Analyticator also comes with an easily customizable widget that can be used to display specific information that is gathered by Google Analytics using the Google Analytics API. It supports all of the tracking mechanisms that Google Analytics supports such as external link tracking, download tracking, tracking without counting administrative users, and any other advanced tracking the user wishes to add. Google Analyticator works with a majority of themes as long as these themes provide the proper plugin hooks.

Please note that that you will need to have the following to apply all our steps to your own blog:

• Google account: https://www.google.com/accounts/
• Google Analytics account: http://www.google.com/analytics/
• Google Adsense account: https://www.google.com/adsense/

If you have the above, please continue:

1. Go to the dashboard of your blog. Install and enable the “Google Analyticator” plugin (You can refer to this post if you forgot how to install a plugin).
2. “Dashboard=>Settings=>Google Analytics”
3. Enable logging for Google Analytics
4. Fill in or edit all the information appropriately. Some fields come with a default value, which most of the times you won’t need to change; also every field has an explanation next to it.
5. Click on “Save Changes”.

Our next plugin is “Google XML Sitemaps”

From the Google XML Sitemaps plugin website:
This plugin generates a XML compliant sitemap of your WordPress blog. This format is supported by Ask.com, Google, YAHOO and MSN Search.
Note: The XML-Sitemap format was introduced in 2005 by Google and adopted in 2006 by YAHOO, MSN Search and Ask.com so that’s why it’s often called “Google Sitemaps”.

Plugin Installation:

1. Go to the dashboard of your blog. Install and enable the “Google XML Sitemaps” plugin (You can refer to this post if you forgot how to install a plugin).
2. “Dashboard=>Settings=>XML-Sitemap”
3. Fill in or edit all the information appropriately. Some fields come with a default value, which in most of the times you won’t need to change; also every field has an explanation next to it. It is also good to get the YAHOO API key in order to notify yahoo of the changes we make on our blogs.
4. Click on “Update Options”.
5. On the top part of the same page, click on build/rebuild the sitemap.
6. Done

There are many more plugins that we could install at this stage, but we will wait to pick the plugin that we want to install as the time passes and the plugin features become more essential to our blogs. Our choice will be based on factors like, theme design, functionality and security among others.

In the next post of this series we are going to work with the design of our website, in other words we are going to make it nice-looking for our readers and match the subject of our blogs.

Stay tuned for the next steps to create your first online business and make money with it.

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This time we are going to work with the plugins for our blog.
When you first visit the plugin section of your dashboard you will notice that there are two plugins already installed: ‘Hello Dolly’ and ‘Akismet’. There is also a short description next to them.
For now we are going to activate only Akismet.

Extract from Akismet.com: Automattic Kismet (Akismet for short) is a collaborative effort to make comment and trackback spam a non-issue and restore innocence to blogging, so you never have to worry about spam again.

To enable Akismet, click on “Activate” located on the right, next to its description.
We now need to get an API key from wordpress.com for our blog.

1. Go to wordpress.com and create an account.
2. Login to your wordpress.com account and click on “My Account => Edit Profile” (located on the top left corner). There you will see the wordpress.com API key you need for your blog.
3. Copy the key and come back to your blog dashboard.
4. Make sure you are at the “Akismet Configuration page” of your dashboard.
5. Paste the API key in the field provided.
6. Select “Automatically discard spam comments on posts older than a month.”
7. Click on “Update options”
8. Done! We are now protected against spam.

 

The next thing we are going to do is make our blog search engine friendly; some webmasters call this work, search engine optimization or seo.
Let’s do some seo work!
To make our blog search engine friendly, we want to change the way the urls of our blog are displayed in the browser.

We don’t want to have http://www.bevyhost.com/?p=1152 when we can have http://www.bevyhost.com/creating-your-first-online-business/
Also, for personal taste, we prefer to include the www at the beginning of our urls.

To have the urls of your blog like this:

1. Go to your blog “Dashboard=>Settings=>General”
2. Fill in your WordPress address (URL) including the www. So it looks like http://www.bevyhost.com but with your own domain.
3. Fill in your Blog address (URL) including the www. So it looks like http://www.bevyhost.com but with your own domain. Now that you are at this window, it would be a good time to update your blog by filling all the fields in this window accordingly. Every field has its own description next to it.
4. Click on “Save Changes”.
5. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Permalinks”
6. Select “Custom Structure” and write “/%postname%/” without the “”
7. Click on “Save Changes”.

Now let’s install some basic plugins on our blog:
There are two options to install a plugin in from WordPress 2.7 onwards directly from your dashboard.

First option

1. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Plugins=>Add New”.
2. Fill in the search term you want to use and click “Search”.
3. Look for the plugin you want to install and click on “Install”.
4. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Plugins” and click on “Activate”

Second Option

1. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Plugins=>Add New”.
2. Click on “Browse” and look for the plugin as a zip file on your computer.
3. Click on “Install Now”.
4. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Plugins” and click on “Activate”

You can also install a plugin for your blog via FTP (file transfer protocol).

1. Using a FTP program, upload the plugin folder (including its content) that you want to install to the plugin directory of your blog. Usually found on /public_html/wp-content/plugins/
2. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Plugins” and click on “Activate”

There are some other options to install a plugin in your wordpress blog, but we won’t cover them for now.
We also want to make a good use of the title, description and keywords on our blog. For that we are going to install a plugin. This plugin is called “All in One SEO Pack”

Extract from the All in One SEO Pack website: This plugin is streamlined for some best practices for Wordpress SEO. While it gives you many options the defaults reflect the settings I recommend using.

Installing the “All in One SEO Pack” plugin

1. To install this plugin just follow one of the installation steps described above. If you are going to use the first option (installation from the dashboard) write the search term “All in One SEO Pack” and the plugin will appear as one of the first results for your query.
2. Click on “Install”.
3. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>Plugins” and next to the “All in One SEO Pack” click on “Activate”

Now we need to customize the All in One SEO Pack plugin

1. Go to “Dashboard=>Settings=>All in One SEO” and fill in the information about your blog accordingly. Note that some information is already filled by default. Change that filled information only if you know what you are doing.
2. Click on Update Options
3. Done

In the next post we are going to install a few more plugins.
Stay tuned for the next steps to create your first online business and make money with it.

This is a post from the " Creating your first online business " series of articles.

Other posts from this series:

• Creating your first online business #1
• Creating your first online business #2
• Creating your first online business #4

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Let’s have a little fun and provide some FYI at the same time. We live in a society that is saturated with acronyms and colloquialisms. For example we all have heard of the American branches and businesses such as the FBI, the CIA, or the NFL, the MLB, the NBA, or dare I say the IRS.

Well the Internet is no stranger to using acronyms and “stenographer” like cryptic talk. As an Internet user it is important and a benefit for you to learn what some of these acronyms mean. Let’s check some out.

Let me emphasize up front that there are many, many more examples than the ones we are going to consider. For practical purposes I picked at a few of the main ones. It is also worthy of mention that these acronyms are universally accepted across the Internet. (in English.)

First let’s consider a few that apply to Internet use in general.

ISP: Internet Service Provider. If your using the Internet than you have a service provider.

ASP: Application Service Provider. A company that offers access to software and related services for a network or Internet

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions. A very useful tool to offer would be on -line customers and subscribers

DMS: Document Management System. Allows easy management of blogs and content related sites.

CMS: Content Management System. Also useful in article writing and other publishing related applications.

HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. Useful in text writing and layout.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. Practical application in moving files and info to connect or assign to other sites.

IM: Instant Messaging. Very popular in a number of settings by way of a number of providers.

RSS: Really Simple Syndication. Helps alert others of your web activity without them having to look for it or be on your site.

CPC: Cost Per Click. A method of determining compensation in affiliate marketing.

PFP: Pay For Performance. Relates also to on line advertising and compensation.

PPA: Pay Per Action. Also a commission’s based payment method.

SEO: Search Engine Optimization. A marketing approach to maximize the occurrence of your web page appearing on search engine result pages.

KPI: Key Performance Indicators. This is a term to describe tracking marketing success factors.

Not to be overlooked is the unprecedented use of text communication. Whether it is over our cell phones or on line messaging it is enormous. And it too has churned out a language of its own; although it is not just an acronym based language. It has plenty of acronyms and a cryptic style mixed together.

“R U coming over 2nite?”

“AAF(As A matter of Fact), yes.”

“OMG (Oh My God) that’s awesome.

CUL(See You Later).”

More examples.

?4U: Question For You.

B2W: Back to Work.

BF: Best Friend (BFF: Best Friend Forever)

BRB: Be Righ Back

LMBO: Laughing My Butt Off

LOL: Laugh Out Loud

XME: Excuse Me

WUP: What’s Up

WRU@: Where Are You At

TTUL: Talk To You Later

NOYB: None Of Your Business

MYOB: Mind Your Own Business

YABA: Yet another bloody acronym

And believe me this is just a fraction of the slang, abbreviations, and acronyms used in digital messaging. Amazingly enough, as you use these “terms” more often you can become quite adept and familiar with these colloquialisms. Frankly it can be a lot of fun.

New to the Internet world? Then you better get ready to learn a new language. Just remember to go back to speaking correctly when you are in the real world.

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Here we are closing out the year 2008 and the age of computers continues to expand at breakneck speed. Technological advances, new innovation, and a wider variety of applications fill the computer landscape. It’s no surprise then that the passing of time has also brought about dramatic development in the area of mobile computing.

Of course the laptop has revolutionized the concept of computers on the go to a large extent but there are more and more options becoming available. In 1996 it is estimated that only only 17% of the computers sold worldwide were laptops. This was largely due to the expense and relative availability of a laptop. However some computer retailers anticipate selling more laptops than desktops as soon as 2009. And the laptop is far from being the only mobile option around in this day and age.

In the past , however, there were some key obstacles to having mobile computing. This prevented having to many options other than the laptop. The main hurdles to overcome were:

• Insufficient bandwidth – many of the systems available were very slow
• Security issue – if you are on the move then you are in need of public networks
• Need of power – reliance on battery power creates difficulty. Expense concerns included
• Interference – much like the challenges of a cell phone moving, mobile means you confront various forms of physical transmission/reception obstructions
• Unhealthy use – again like cell phones the more options available the more people will use these options at inopportune times(ie;while driving)
• Small screens – how much smaller than a standard laptop can you get before you say “this is too small?”

While items like the laptop were becoming of age there were other forms of mobile computers being made available nonetheless. One such item was what is called the wearable computer. These types of machines are just that; computers that you wear on your person. The watch calculator for example. These types of computers also include devices geared for health related applications.

By 1994 a couple innovators at the University of Toronto, Edgar Matias and Mike Ruicci, debuted a “wrist” computer. It basically was a glorified palm style electric notebook that you strapped on your forearm. There have been head mounted and even virtual retinal displays developed as the new century opened its door.

Mobile computing continued growing beyond the wearable versions. Gradually the mobile concept really hit a stride with what is called a PDA. A personal digital assistant. We made a reference to it when we mentioned the palm style notebook. The PDA market has exploded in many ways. An early breakthrough style was what one company called the palm pilot. You had a notebook style palm computer that also featured touch screen technology. More recently many cell phone companies have integrated this concept and have built a PDA out of a phone. The smartphone is a name many people have come to know.

And as the above obstacles to mobile computing were slowly averted, these devices came to have so much more to offer. They often include audio capability such as a built in MP3 player. Along with the touch screen you can get a keyboard or a virtual keyboard. Email and web service is available as is GPS (Global Positioning System) due to the amazing technology of bluetooth or upgraded wi-fi and so on. Some PDA’s even have USB (universal serial bus) connections!

Almost everyone has heard of a Blackberry or an Iphone nowadays for example. They are truly a mobile computer. The capability is very cool. And we are just hitting the highlights. If you were to do a casual search of the various PDA style gadgets you would be amazed out just how mobile a computer has become.

Another area where the mobile computer has become more visable is in your car. The Car PC is cropping up all over. Probably the most practical car computer is the use GPS. More and more cars are making that available. There are also some models of vehicles that allow you to set your cell phone into a saddle and the phone will be integrated with your cars audio system. Voice activation will allow you to make and receive calls.

The days of having to get behind a desk or carefully situate your laptop are over. Now you can carry your computer in your pocket or wear it on your wrist. Yes there are still a few improvements needed for some applications and the small screen will turn off a percentage of potential users but the options are there. Perhaps you just want sports updates or email accessability. Maybe you just need directions or a weather report. Or maybe you need to do some business on the golf course or while your waiting at the dentist. You don’t need or may not need to carry a laptop anymore. Times really are a changin’.

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People in the web site business are always looking for ways to increase traffic to their web page. Whether it is a business site or just a vanity page, you want subscribers to visit your page. It goes without saying that search engine optimization (SEO) is at the top of the list.

And even if you don’t know what that is you probably are participating in it or hope others are using it to find you on the internet. Whenever you search something via a search engine like Google or Yahoo, for example, that search engine conveniently narrows down your search through key words or phrases. Thus showing search result pages. So being selective with the words you choose for your web page or with the content on your page, you can increase or optimize the number of times your web page will appear as part of a narrowed down result page of Google or Yahoo, etc.

And this is not unprecedented practice by any stretch. Long before the internet, advertisers employed this same principle in similar fashion. For example if you chose to name your company with a name starting with the letter “a”, than your company would appear near or at the top of the list of the companies listed in the phone book that provided a similar service as you; therefore, increasing the amount of people that will see your advertisement.

And any way that you successfully got people to consult the phone book to look for a company like yours was a bonus and it increased the chances that you would be called. Of course there is an endless list of tricks of the trade we could discuss in this vein but it basically all leads to the same discussion. Finding ways to grab people’s attention and make your business more accessible is the primary objective.

So it goes with internet traffic. The idea of SEO is exactly that: to use it to your utmost advantage, to optimize the search engine process. As of late there have been webmasters trying a clever idea in this regard. It has been called by some ‘the internet world web funneling’.

It is less complicated than it sounds but it does take a little effort and thought to pull it off. Here is the basic premise:

Let’s say you are a musical band who wants to sell your own rock music cd’s. You call yourself The Honey Beez and naturally you have an awesome web site that features your music, a cool biography, great live pictures and dates of live shows, how to buy your cd and so on. Your site is thehoneybeezrock.com.

A casual search of honey bees may bring up your site on a result page and that is a good thing. But what many webmasters are doing now is broadening the target so to speak; or increasing the odds of people finding your site at thehoneybeez.com. They set up what is called mini funnel web pages, which is literally, usually, just a single short page. And all it features is a page that will have a link directing people to the actual site you want people to go to in the first place. Or multiple links in the case of you have more than one web page. So how does it work? And how can it help?

Well the idea is to have these mini funnel pages set up to appear on a broader range of search engine result pages. So since you are The Honey Beez you would set up a mini funnel page for honeybees, one word for instance. Also note using the correct spelling with an “s” in the word bees. If that catches someone’s eye or curiosity they will be directed to a mini funnel page. Continuing from there, they will come to your mini page which will in turn directly invite them to the “home page” and provide the link. For example it might simply read: “Want To ROCK? Come check out The Honey Beez!” And have the link to thehoneybeezrock.com.

Also you can widen this as much as possible; for example, honeybee.com without the “s”. You can set up a mini funnel page titled rock.com and the searcher will read there “Come ROCK with The Honey Beez” at thehoneybeezrock.com. You could try just honey.com or bees.com and so on and so on. And some have tried to cover every possible scenario including misspelling possibilities. So The Honey Beez may have a mini funnel page called hunnybees.com or hineybees.com for example. And as with all their other mini pages, when clicked on, the curious searcher will be invited to thehoneybeezrock.com.

The secret is to remember the mini site is just a stepping stone to get the person to your main domain site. So keep it simple and on point. Which, in our example, that would be easy to do. Just keep in mind you are not selling anything or advertising a product on the mini site. You are just trying to entice persons to go to your main site.

However it has been successful to add some additional features on these mini sites, like an email this to your friend option. Perhaps an attractive photo, artwork, or some graphics will enhance your easy to digest presentation. Don’t overdo it though. Be tasteful and yet inviting. The proverbial dangling of the carrot concept, done in a professional manner.

The beauty of this clever, yet simple idea is you may come up with a small twist of your own. Depending on what your site is for, you may be able to hint on your funnel page at something a person can gain or be eligible to win by going to your site. Some have added puzzles or quizzes. Others have added polls and surveys as an option. The possibilities would require another article entirely.

Another positive aspect of this approach is, even though it is impossible to quantify just how effective this will be in increasing the traffic to your site, it certainly will not decrease it. And money is not a factor in doing this. It is a case of nothing to lose with maybe something or everything to gain. After all getting people to your site is the whole point of having a web isn’t it?

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Basically anybody who owns a blog with the commenting feature turned on has to deal with spam especially those visitors who comment just for the sake of getting backlinks. Most of the time, comments are often junk and non-related to the content, with no value added towards the blog post.

Therefore the question that usually comes up into mind here affecting the blogosphere has always been whether blog owners should or should not turn on the blog commenting feature in the first place.

Blog commenting on do follow blogs is one of the fastest way to get quality backlinks and this actually helps a lot towards a newly-started websites or blog to ensure that they get indexed quickly. Because of this, webmasters are always on the lookout for high PR and traffic sites and use blog commenting as part of their link building strategy.

Being a webmaster myself, I think that having this feature on is recommended and one should evaluate the pros and cons of switching it off completely. The main reason for it is because there are always different approaches which one can take in order to deal with the spam problem.

Below is a list of things blog owners can do:

• Switch off the blog commenting feature for a certain period of time and then turn it on again. Doing this actually prevent spammers from specifically targeting a particular blog. In other words, this works something like a psychological approach.
• Enable only blog commenting on certain blog posts but not others. Again, this works the same as the above by having it alternately turned on and off.
• Install captcha to prevent robots from taking advantage. It also adds an extra step to keep away the spammers.
• Turn the moderation feature on. However, this may be time consuming and not recommended for bloggers.
• Have the commenting feature turned on only when there’s a huge audience to the blog. Basically it’s a wait-and-see approach until the traffic builds up to a certain level.
• Set a requirement that ask the commenter to register as member and thus help to build up your mailing list as well.

Looking at the list above, there are indeed many options which one can choose from rather than simply turning everything off. After all and although some people think otherwise, it is a blog and to take full advantage of its platform you should consider allowing your visitors to leave ideas and suggestions. Nevertheless, it is essential to create a certain level of communication and interactivity between the blog owners and the audience. A good relationship with your audience will definitely create the foundation for the success of your blog.

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