blogging 102

Reading time: 4 – 6 minutes

Anyone can get a website to the top of Google for random keywords that any sane person would never search for but true Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is quite an art and any company that can prove top rankings for a popular keyword can pretty much write their own cheque.

But for those businesses who are not involved in web design and just want their site to rank well and sell more of their products the thought of paying out for someone to optimise their site can be very daunting. How do they measure results? How long will it take? And, most importantly, How much should they pay?

So, how long will it take?

Unfortunately, It will take as long as it takes and asking for time guarantees will have any professional SEO firm walking away from the deal completely as there are no guarantees in the field of SEO. The biggest problem is the algorithm that Google uses to calculate your website’s ‘worth’ to the internet. It is not published, is a closely guarded secret and changes are made to it on a daily basis. This means that any company that offers search engine optimisation as a service has to rely on their arsenal of previous experience and market knowledge to achieve the best results they can.

There are a few different payment models that SEO companies tend to work from:

• A fixed monthly retainer – the SEO company will perform a set amount of work per month for an agreed fee and this tends to be the best approach for businesses who want to build at a manageable rate for an amount which is easy to budget for.
• Hourly Consultation – This is the simplest way for SEO companies to price a project. Rates in SEO vary massively with entry level companies offering £10 – £20 per hour, experienced consultants charge around £50 – £100 per hour and the top companies working for large blue chip enterprises charge in excess of £250 per hour. 
• Pay on results
  This is an interesting model and works well. The principle is that the SEO Company and the customer agree on predefined keywords. And there is a pricing structure for getting the customer onto page 2, and then per position on page 1. Normally there will also be a bonus for positions 1 – 3 on Google. This ensures that the customer is getting their results in a structured measurable manner.

So which way should you go?

There are many variables which need to be considered. Size of website, difficulty of important keywords, reputation of the SEO company

But in general:

-         For a proper website review and the consultation for the SEO a low end company will cost around £250, going up to £5,000.

-         To manipulate an existing site for SEO without re-writing it will start at around £1000 going up to £25,000.

-         To run a manual link building campaign for 50 links, £500 – £10,000.

-         To send a member of staff on an SEO training course, £400 – £6,000.

-         To have the keywords identified and analysed for your site, £50 – £1,000.

-         To have viral content (i.e. 10 press releases and 10 articles) professionally written and submitted across the web, £500 – £10,000

-         To re-write the website from scratch whilst optimising it for SEO and also virally market the site across the web, £2,500 – £50,000 +.

-         Monthly retainer for ongoing SEO, £100 – £10,000 +.

Unfortunately, there is a massive discrepancy between the different companies out there but you really get what you pay for. It may seem like a lot but to get your website to the top of Google for the top keywords will not happen unless investment is made in it.

But be careful. There are many adverts out there offering a guaranteed place in Google within an unrealistic time frame… I have yet to find one that works and I have been doing this for many years. Bear in mind that the top and most recognised SEO specialists out their rent their services to the big companies for up to £1,000 an hour!

Author: Michael Kitt
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Mobile device news

Reading time: 2 – 3 minutes

Up to a few years ago there were really only a couple of ways to promote your website successfully, link directories and requesting backlinks from other website owners. There was some mileage to be gained from article marketing but no one was really using it to its full potential.

Over the past few years more methods have appeared and been developed into efficient site promotion methods. The first of these was the infamous blog and ping method which basically consisted of adding a link to a blog and allowing the blog to ping various sites such as PingGoat and Technorati. This was sure to bring a load of website spiders to your site. Unfortunately this method was abused to the point that it was no longer effective.

Blog and ping was largely ignored once people realised that social bookmarking was a useful way of getting backlinks to your site. However the dreaded “No Follow” rule has taken some of the shine off this method although social bookmarking should not be overlooked.

Article marketing has been and always will be the primary free method of attracting visitors to your site. Article marketing benefits everyone , author, writer and article directory. It is a classic symbiotic relationship. Until now this type of relationship has been rare but that has changed and now RSS Feeds offer the same kind of mutual benefit.

RSS Feeds are the latest method that seems to be working extremely well. This is done by submitting your rss feeds to RSS feed aggregation sites. From there they are distributed to various people’s sites giving you both backlinks and actual visitors.

Without a doubt RSS submissions are set to be with us for a long time as everyone benefits just like with Article Marketing. The publisher has his feeds distributed and attracts visitors and backlinks. The person who places the feeds on his or her site gets free content and the aggregator site gets visitors and recognition and has the opportunity to make money. And if you don’t think there is money in RSS Feeds, Feedburner was bought for $100 million by Google.

If you are not submitting your feeds you are missing out on a very simple and very effective method of driving traffic to your sites.

Author: Mark J Thompson
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing

Reading time: 3 – 5 minutes

Many of us boomers are still trying to understand the basics of RSS feeds. So this article will discuss the four general types of newsreaders and some of the important features. Of course there are more features than I mention in this article. But I hope this article serves as a basic introduction to newsreaders.

Newsreaders are also called RSS aggregators, feed aggregators or RSS readers.
There are four types of newsreaders.

o Web Newsreaders

This type of newsreader requires no installation. It is really great for us boomers. Your subscriptions stay on the web and not your computer. You can access your feeds from any computer that has an internet connection. Most of the web newsreaders offer free service.

o Desktop Newsreaders

This type of a newsreader is a stand-alone programe that is installed directly on your computer. Unlike the web type newsreader your feeds are restricted to the computer where your program is installed. Some of the programs are shareware and others are commercial or free.

o Portal Newsreaders

A good example of a portal newsreader is Google and Yahoo. They provide an opportunity for you to subscribe to a newsreader while on the home page. Use of these types of services are free.

o Browser and Email

Let’s take Firefox as an example. This browser and it’s email program Thunderbird both support RSS reading. Firefox will see a RSS feed anywhere on a web page.it displays an RSS icon which invites you to subscribe.When you click the icon it creates a bookmark in the bookmark list. When you actually run your mouse over the bookmark will show entries that are in the feed. When you click on it you go directly to the entry. Both Firefox an Thunderbird are free. Check out other browsers for RSS readers.

If you click on the yellow icon on this site it will take you to the yahoo, google or bloglines newsreaders.

Which Type Should You Use?

If you use more than one computer it is probably best that you do not use a program that is installed on your desktop. Your feeds will not be portable. However, if you use a web based newsreader you can access them from any computer.

The portal newsreader is great for have powerful features do not place limits on the number of feeds that you can have.
One of the most popular web newsreaders, Bloglines, have loads of features like keyword search and folders. They arrange feeds in folders and will display the entries of any single feed.
Which Features Should Be Included in Your Newsreader?

o Folders

Folders will help you to organize all your feeds.

o Tags

Some services do not use folders but rather tags. It does not matter. The important thing is that tags also help you to organize your feeds. However, note that with tags one feed can be given more than one tags. For example if I have an entry on boomers the tags might be boomers, baby boomers,
If you want to revise your sorting choice be sure that the newsreader has resorting and retagging feature.

o Keyword Searches

Your newsreader should contain a search box that will allow you to search the net for content that lines up with your keywords. It is also good if they contain a list of popular feeds for you to search.

o Backtracking and Tracking

This really cool feature will in a newsreader will keep track of which items in a feed you have looked at before. loglines, for example allows you to look back in time.

o Feed Display Options

Sometimes you do not want the entire post to show. This is where having the option to have only excerpted entries really help. If you want to see the entire entry, all you have to do is click on the link. Bottom line you want a newsreader that will give you this display option.

Author: Rosemary Horner
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Digital TV, HDTV, Satellite TV

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

RSS, or rich site syndication, is sweeping the internet as the new content provider. For blog owners, this very useful function means two things, getting your content out there for the world to see and providing content for your blog when you don’t have time to write. Most bloggers prefer to write their own content and they use their RSS feed to promote their blog, rather than filling it with content from other sites.

It can get confusing for readers to jump from blog to blog, especially if some blogs don’t update frequently. Instead of going to each individual blog, the reader can subscribe to the RSS feed for each of his favorite blogs and view them all on a reader, such as Google Reader or FeedDemon. There, the feeds will appear for all the blogs, in one place for easy reading. They can also be separated into folders for easy organization.

The average RSS feed contains the post headline, plus a summary and a link back to the article. Some feeds will provide you with the full article, however. The choice is up to the blogger to decide whether to provide a summary or a full article. The summary has the advantage of directing readers back to your blog, but many won’t bother to click on the link unless the post is very interesting. However, if you provide the full post, you may miss out on valuable advertising time.

RSS feeds are created with a language called XML, which is somewhat similar to HTML. XML is tag-based, allowing bloggers to set their tags to be easily found by readers and webmasters looking for fresh content for their websites. Many blog platforms automatically generate XML feeds that can then be subscribed to by anyone with a reader.

The majority of RSS feeds are simply the URL for the blog, with /feed/ at the end, but not all feeds are generated the same way. To find out what your feed is, if you cannot find it on your blog, go to a feed reader such as Google Reader and type in the URL. If there is a feed in existence, it will appear there.

An RSS feed is a valuable tool for any blogger. You can use it to promote your content and you will have more readers by offering a feed that they can subscribe to, saving them time and effort. The more people subscribed to your blog, the more readers and more exposure you have!

Author: Michael Copper
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Cellphone news

Reading time: 2 – 4 minutes

Work from home women needs to keep up to date on what is happening on certain websites, in order to do that they will visit a site on a regular basis to find out what new content has been added since she last visited. This can take up valuable time while she waits for a site to upload, and if she has several sites that she needs to visit daily this can take even more time.

There is a solution to this that can save time that can be used to deal with other tasks, and she can be updated daily without fail. Its called RSS feed, if you have not come across this before you may ask what is RSS feed, depending on who you ask a simple definition is that RSS is an acronym for rich site summary or really simple syndication. Don’t let the two explanations confuse you they both refer to basically the same thing.

You have probably seen the little orange and white striped logo on many websites and may have wondered what it is. This simple logo is an RSS feed, it has a code embedded into the site which allows the visitor to subscribe to the RSS feed in order to receive regular updates as soon as they happen.

In order to be able to read the feeds you will need some feed reader software which you can download to your computer, once this is installed you will be able to access the information that is fed onto your computer via that simple logo that you subscribed to.

So how can the work at home women feed help work from home entrepreneurs, stay at home moms, and other people who use their computer to earn a honest buck?

Because the RSS feed’s updated information is uploaded directly to your computer, you don’t need to spend valuable time that you can ill afford searching web sites to get the information want or need, the information comes to you and you can do a quick check on the feed reader which will display a brief summary of the updated information. You can then just scan through the summaries and decide on which site or sites you wish to visit to get further information.

Almost all online entrepreneurs who are serious about their business will update their information on site as often as possible; you can take advantage of this when you subscribe to a work at home women RSS feed to keep you up to date on many sites and have your Work at home women RSS feed delivered to your computer to keep you informed of any updates immediately and in a timely fashion.

Author: Satya Narayan Das
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Latest trends in mobile phone