That Payday Punch

To link or not to link? That is the question we face when we receive e-mail from people asking us to make a link to their website, or when we are looking for link partners ourselves and find a prospective site. How can we decide if it is worthwhile to take the effort to make a link for such site? If we look at the fundamental reasons for making link exchanges in the first place, then it is easy to decide which link possibilities we should pursue and which we should drop.

So what are the most important reasons for exchanging links? They are as follows:

1. To get more traffic to our websites:

People just love to follow links on the Internet. They love to poke around and follow their interests and see where it will lead. I know this from my own taste but more importantly, when I look at traffic logs for various websites, I see that link pages are very popular on many sites. So, if your site is well placed on link pages around the Internet you can definitely expect some additional traffic from these links.

Keeping this in mind. When you are reviewing the site of a potential link partner, take a look at how that site displays the links. Is the links page visible, and linked to the other pages of the website? Some people want to exchange links but they don’t want people to leave their website through links to other websites, and they do not even provide a path to their link pages or make it very difficult to find. You can never get any additional traffic from a listing on a site like this, and if this is the case, you should just forget about linking.

Also, if the links are haphazardly arranged, 200 links on one page with no apparent order, your chances of getting traffic is also reduced. Will your link be buried in a huge directory, many layers removed from the main pages of the site? Look at the possible placement of your link, and judge it from the standpoint of visibility and its capacity to generate traffic to your site.

2. To add value to your website:

Your website is valuable to your visitors if it provides information that they need. The articles, products and other content that you publish is your first source of material for satisfying the needs of your visitors, but the links you provide can also make your site an important source of information and a convenient place for people to visit and revisit.

Accordingly, choose your links from the standpoint of satisfying the needs of your clientele. If your site is offering web hosting, for example, then it is likely that your visitors will also be interested in web design, graphics, software, website promotion, etc. By providing a directory of links to such products and services you will be adding value to your website.

Just as you carefully consider what products you are offering or what your own information articles contain, consider the value that the various links offer. Do the products or services look shoddy or below the standard of your website, if so then do not go after the link. Is the product or service completely unrelated to your website? If so, then it doesn’t really add much to the site.

A well constructed directory of valuable resource links that complement your own offerings should be your goal, and you should judge potential link partners on how well they fit into that picture.

3. To Build Link Popularity and Boost Ranking in Search Engine Results:

Results in search engine queries are determined by the material you have presented on your web page, and by other off-page factors, such as, how many other sites link to your site. The concept of link popularity got a huge boost from Google whose Page Rank system, not only weighs the amount of links that point to your site, but the quality of those incoming links.

Indeed, if you make a query on Google as follows: link: www.yoursite.com . You will get a list of sites that link to you. But in this list are not all the links that you have. Currently they are only from web pages whose Google Page Rank is 4 or higher. From this standpoint, in order to increase your results in Google, you need links from sites whose main pages have a high Google Page Rank and whose link pages are similarly well ranked.

Does this mean that we shouldn’t link to sites if their Page Rank is less than 4? Not necessarily. Remember, a page that is 0 today, can get higher ranking tomorrow. Also, just as you may be starting out from scratch, other sites are similarly beginning their life on the web and we should take this into account, and be generous.

Finally, weigh all the factors when considering link candidates, and balance it against the time you have to do for this task, and choose your link partners. If you do this work diligently and carefully you will be rewarded for your efforts.

Copyright 2003

Donald Nelson is a web developer, editor, and social worker. He has been
working on the Internet since 1995 and is the proprietor of A1-Optimization,
http://www.a1-optimization.com, a firm providing search engine optimization,
copywriting, reciprocal linking, and other web promotion services. He
publishes a monthly ezine, A1-Web Promotion Tips, available at
http://www.a1-optimization.com/newsletter.html

Trying to get good page rank for your website can be a most frustrating experience for webmasters. After all, what is page rank and why should you care about it?

In the simplest terms, page rank (PR) is how much of the Google toolbar for page rank that is filled in with green. If the page you are looking at has a PR1 then 1/10th of the bar will be filled with green. If it has PR4, then 4/10ths of the bar will be green. Mostly only Google gets all of the bar filled green for a PR10, which is the highest possible rating.

To get the Google toolbar, which has the page rank bar, go to http://toolbar.google.com/ and download Google’s toolbar. It will sit on top of your browser. The toolbar will not only provide you with lots of Google resources but it will also give you the page rank bar so you can see the page rank of your site and also that of any other site that you visit it.

But what exactly is Google’s page rank system? Well, Google doesn’t tell us exactly. However, we do know page rank relies primarily on Google’s algorithms for determining the “importance” of the site or individual pages. The higher your site’s PR, the more often it will show up in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

I can’t speak officially for Google, but what webmasters have learned is that page rank is based primarily on the links to your site (called backlinks) that determine for Google how important your site is.

Google relies on a fairly democratic system by using its vast link structure to determine a page’s value. Very simply, if your page gets a link from another site, that’s a “vote” for your site. The more votes, the better.

However, Google also analyzes where the “votes” come from. If your site gets links from high-quality, authority sites with high PR, then your site benefits more from links from those high PR site sites than from links from non-authority or low PR sites.

Furthermore, if you put your link on another site with thousands of other links to other websites, then just be aware that Google will take that into consideration and will give your link its relatively small slice of of the other site’s PR divided amongst all of the other links, if the site has any PR at all. So putting your site’s link on a page that has a lot of other links may not do you that much good.

It’s just good business to always check the PR of the sites with which you may want to exchange links by using the Google toolbar. Also, be sure to check out the page the other site wants to put your link on so you know how many links they are publishing. Less than 100 links is what you are looking for and less than 20 links is ideal.

Also, realize that reciprocal links (where your site links to their site and they link to yours) is less valuable in Google’s eyes than one-way links to your site.

Once you get the Google toolbar and start seeing the PRs of other sites, you will be able to see the sites that get good PR and be able to model your site after those. I can’t stress enough the importance of having the Google toolbar …

Karen Kirby has over 25 years’ experience in the computer industry and an MS in Computer Science. She has been helping people with Internet marketing since 1995. For more tips on generating website traffic, see http://www.belowtheeight.com/Internet-Marketing-Strategy.htm
— get a free copy of “Internet Marketer’s Guide to Free Traffic” at http://www.aimbright.com/survey2.htm.

Gaming laptops used to only be obtainable from certain resellers. Sure they were never manufactured in large qty’s but companies did make a lot of money on them. Everyone wanted this kind of laptop, but it was too expensive. They the the most advanced technology and basically the best laptop computers. Laptops for gaming would get people excited about what’s to widely available in a few years but I do not think they would buy laptop computers like this whilst be wary that the price is going to fall quickly. Nowadays things vary a lot with tier 1 brands also launching gaming notebooks.

I think they could categorize it as a premium item and make a lot of money on these particularly with their economies of scale. These companies have probably been losing some money on average systems so this should be a welcomed opportunity. I am pretty sure that numerous people would buy laptop computers if mass marketed by these large companies. I have no guess what this will do to smaller retailers but it will have a negative effect on them. Plainly what I see happening here is that the established companies reducing prices in the beginning to cut out the competition from smaller resellers. Obviously the power of a well known brand name comes into play here.

Surprisingly, the notebook computers they’re making are some of the best laptop computers to present. Still however, for the small time retailers this should prove to be positive. Specifying the spec is a thing all the geek’s love. Educated in the technology, these sort of people are savvy to what specs to look for. In deciding between specs and looks, these people usually pick the former.

This would be pretty advantageous from the buyers position. Advanced technology will be more purchasable in the future for most gamers as it will act to force costs down even more. Who is to envisage what will occur. I am really not that certain. Prices will be held high as a result of the constant creation of new portables. It is difficult to tell what will happen now that the global manufacturers have gotten involved in making gaming laptops.

Yes, indeed conventional fax machines are dying, and will be out of the business very soon. We are now living in a digital world – emails, cell phones, instant messenger, GPRS systems are everywhere, slipping themselves into everybody’s life. Ask yourself: When is the last time you post your mail through the postman? And, when is the last time you click on that reply or forward button to send out an email? Technology change, so does our life quality.

Faxing services are quite similar with email. When first email services were introduced, not much people get hooked on and they still think the posts sent out thru their office boy are more secure and reliable. But as soon as people find the convenience of emails …the heat just spreads out and affects every single person’s life.

Internet faxing, or sometimes known as online faxing, or efax or fax to email or virtual fax, is a technology that enables you to send out and receive faxes in email forms. Modern internet services had made faxing easier and faster in a cheaper way compare to conventional facsimile transmissions. “We are eliminating the need for a fax machine,” says Janice Kapner, director of marketing and corporate communications at eFax. eFax is one of the pioneer in internet fax business that offers a free fax-to-e-mail service to more than one million subscribers.

By signing up with eFax services, you will get a real fax number at which you can receive faxes, which are then forwarded to an e-mail address of your choosing. You can as well send faxes out to normal fax machine through the service. Click here for more readings on eFax service reviews.

Internet faxing has caught the attention of both large and small businesses. More than 14 billion pages had been sent over IP-based networks in year 2002 and the number is keep on increasing, yielding more than 20 billion pages sent at the writing time of this article.

Why internet faxing service is growing this fast? Answer: the cost. Internet faxing requires less cost compare to conventional fax machine, which required user to buy fax machine, fax machine toners, extra fax lines …and the list goes on. With internet faxing, you don’t have to invest in equipment; you don’t need to pay for a dedicated fax line; you don’t have to allocate extra budget to maintain your fax machine.

Often, Internet faxing services require only a flat fee to use. As for eFax, with subscription fees range from $0 to $19.95/month; you can receive faxes up to 200 pages for free; you can then send out faxes with a low price of $0.10/page; you get a local or a toll-free number; you get additional services such as voicemail-to-email services.

Further more, internet fax doesn’t give you a ‘busy’ tone. You can always receive faxes as it will just drop into your email inbox. Faxes can be received even your PC is offline or the phone line is being used- it’s always on and you will never miss a fax with internet fax. “The `always on’ aspect of a Web-based fax service means that numerous faxes can be received simultaneously at the same number,” says Leslie Morgan Nakajima, director of corporate communications at Onebox.com.

Convenience is another plus point for internet faxing. With internet faxing, your faxes become digital files automatically. This in turns helps you manage your files easily. Just as other files in your computer, you can now copy, forward, and organize it in your PC hard disk – simple and clean. With most Internet faxing services, your faxes become digital files that can be copied, forwarded, and archived. There’s no learning curve for the service, one can just subscribe and start using it to improve your daily job.

On the other hand, there are a few limitations to Internet fax: You need online access and a scanner to fax paper documents. That’s why Dataquest’s other numbers show traditional faxing sticking around for years to come. However, the economy and manageability of Internet faxing will allow an increasing number of savvy home office workers to do without a fax machine.

The author, Claudia, is one of the expert writter in office tools and technologies. Read more about her new writting assignments in Online fax and CallWave call alert technology.

History has a lot to share with children in piano lessons. Although modern piano education for children is supported by technology, there is still a lot to learn from piano lessons from the past. Here’s some time honored keys to success from some great composers of the past that your kids can still rely on.

Ludwig van Beethoven - “To play without passion is inexcusable!”

Children have what it takes to bring their music to life. Once kids know that it’s okay to let their personality shine through in their music they discover an essential element of piano artistry. This takes a willingness to be vulnerable and to communicate each note as they would tell a personal story of interest to their best friend. It takes hard work and planning to learn to play the piano, but it also takes a little personal magic.

Franz Joseph Haydn - “Young people can learn from my example that something can come from nothing. What I have become is the result of my hard efforts.”

Children need vision and perspective as well as talent to achieve their musical dreams. Having a plan for success means setting meaningful goals that will last and following through over the long term is how dreams are achieved. There is no such thing as a genie in a lamp waiting to grant your wishes. Success has a history – a Beginning and a Follow-through to Achievement, where failure is not an option because you just get to try again. History tells us that the key to achieving success is planning and persistence.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - “Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.”

All human activity is goal driven. Those who love what they do are more likely to be successful simply because they’re more motivated! Learning how to love what we do and to do what we love is still an important element of success. It takes creativity to make learning a difficult instrument such as the piano fun as well as challenging, but that’s what the great composers knew how to do best. Learning to replace the words “I have to” with “I get to” is key to helping kids develop a creative perspective that has the power to overcome challenges.

Frederic Chopin - “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

How many times do we overlook what appears at first to be simple. In the modern world kids get the idea that if something doesn’t flash at them it isn’t important! This is sad, because so often what creates complexity of beauty is simplicity.

History tells us that it only takes a few basic ingredients, for example, to create all the beauty and complex diversity that exists in the world. “Intelligent design” theorists can’t belive that such diversity could come from anything so simple as elements. That’s what modernity has done to our perspective. We just don’t get it – complexity is simple!
So take a lesson from the past and help your child in piano lessons pay attention to the basics, like hard work, love and sacrifice, and the big stuff will manifest itself when it’s supposed to.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child – right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

When is a good time to introduce your child to a dentist? I would strongly suggest that you introduce your children to a dentist before they had any problems with their teeth. You want them to start out with a positive experience – thus, lessening the possibility of any dentist phobias. Go ahead and laugh – I’m one of those people who developed an early fear of dentists.

My First Experience

I was very young, and one of my baby teeth became abscessed – not a pleasant feeling. Anyway, it was my father’s duty to take me to the dentist. In the dentist office, I was told to swish some strong, green liquid in my mouth and spit it out. I was to do that until all the liquid in the glass was gone – then go back to the dentist chair and sit down.

I, being the obedient child, did as I was told. I swished and spit, and once done, climbed into the dentist chair. I did not have a clue of what was going to happen next, until of course, the dentist told me to open my mouth and began to pull my tooth out. Low and behold, the green liquid I had swished in my mouth was the antiseptic! Well, surprise, surprise – it didn’t work!

With my father holding me down in the chair, I felt every pain, heard every grinding sound – and the experience remained alive and strong in my memorya memory that followed me throughout my childhood and into adulthood.

After that experience, my love for the dentist and the very sound of a drill would put me into a panic. No matter how I rationalized it, no matter how much I told myself how stupid I was for feeling the fear – it would not go away.

My Experience As An Adult

It took me a long time to overcome my fear of dentists. I finally found a dentist who I could talk too, and say, “Hey, this is the experience I had – this is the fear I have – can I trust you not to hurt me.” Well, my dentist understood my fears – and I’m happy to say that I felt that if he could calm my fears I could trust him with my young boys.

When To Take Your Children To The Dentist?

When do you take your children to the dentist? Before they have any cavities or any other ugly problems. Take your children to the dentist to have their teeth cleaned and looked at – let the comfort level build between your child and your dentist. So when there are any problems with their teeth – they know the dentist won’t hurt them.

That is what I did for my children. I set them up with my dentist before they had any problems. I did not want them to have the same fears that I had. And it seemed to have worked.

If you don’t have dental insurance, look into discount dental insurance, such as DentalPlans – you can choose a plan that meets your budget – and in most cases the cleanings are free. You can take a look at Dental Plans at http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz/Affiliate_mydentalwebsite.htm. And if you have dental insurance, and you have children, give them a positive experience to remember – it will make the next visit to the dentist an everyday occurrence, instead of a stressful visit to hell.

Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles, affiliate opportunities, products and services.

Property Index is an online platform that gives buyers access to thousands of properties www.propertyindex.com. Property in America is currently booming so browse the range on offer at Property Index.

Even if the Property Index service is seen as a recent organisation, doing business since March 2007, they have established their expertise very quickly. On closer look, they’re a extremely easy going organisation devoted to helping anyone contemplating to sell estate in the most popular regions of the world. What they affirm is to aid you determine dead-on what you have need of fast and, too, unproblematically. Real estate is at your fingertips no matter where at present, arguably the elite area being properties on the market in the USA. It should be easy as ABC to write up the mega cool property for sale in the USA, one rationale for selecting estate here being the houses and apartments on the market and the option of living between such a robust and animated populace.

This is one of the truly well-liked markets at present, and with the lovely landscape and sunshine surrounding you, how could you conceivably be wrong… Real estate in the USA is rich in history, this geographical region is and has always been home to a good number of sophisticated nations. Just 25 years ago there was a mere dribble of British people who are looking for property in the USA. Just ask any one single person who has chosen to relocate to the USA and they’ll tell you the same. Lots of people would descry it as a short-lived vogue and others descry it as a that’s quite a fetish! Buyers that are looking to repair over here generally range from newly weds in search of some new challenge in life to older generations who want to relax and enjoy themselves.

There may be drawbacks when trying to buy property in a foreign market – there are hundreds of different actions be it when working out a plan, touring or signing the documents. Even if a single minute step is missed that is liable to kick up impassable drawbacks as well as, preeminently, a failed investment. As everybody will expect with this fashionable area, property can be high priced in this place which is, of course, simply a consequence of the steep buyer demand. This notwithstanding, the patron is doubtlessly rather spoiled in a location characterized by ripping terrain and sunshiny view. It offers the whole thing a customer might hunger for, and then some.

Keeping a Franchise Team motivated is not easy. You see Franchisees are people, people from all walks of life and each one is different. However you can motivate a franchise organization to run like a well-oiled machines or a world class sports team. How so you ask? By constantly reviewing your system, going over your marketing play book and evaluating what you are doing wrong and what you are doing great.

As the Founder of a franchise company I always made sure to do this and I offered a financial incentive for those team members who wanted to join the collective brains of the company and strategize and innovate to do it even better. Below is an excerpt of a common type of email sent out to my franchise team to help evaluate and motivate our team’s performance;

“We are instituting a royalty reduction program for January. I need everyone to write down their goals in definite terms and dates through out the year when you want to hit certain mile markers. For instance, if you want to increase sales by $3,000.00 per month in the first quarter, then we need to know that goal. If you believe you will need a certain type of account to accomplish this then write down the name of that account(s). Have alternate account possibilities. If you want a $5,000.00 per month increase then also write down who you might need to hire to do the additional work, write down their names. Additional Equipment necessary; then write down what equipment you will need to do this increase. It is okay to make hard to get to goals, if you do not then you should transfer and sell your franchise since you at that point would lack significant team spirit.”

This always increased our per unit sales volumes and got our franchisees to set real goals. We learned a lot about our selves and our team, as we motivated ourselves to win and stay efficient. This is a great way to motivate your franchisees, dealers or team. Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Finding a stunning unique wedding reception location is one aspect of your wedding theme. Since the wedding reception generally follows the theme established throughout the ceremony, invites etc, it is usually best to plan for the wedding and reception to follow the same general themed format, although this is not written in stone. Aim to make the reception a place to ‘let loose’, a place to bypass the formal setting often created in the ceremony.

Unique wedding receptions usually begin with an unusual, creative location. A drab and lackluster location for your reception, no matter how well it is decorated, will not ‘wow’ your guests. A unique setting will inspire you to create wonderful ideas, to ‘break out of the box’ and create something totally your own.

No matter where you choose to host your reception, there are essential details you need to look after when planning:

1. Weather / Environment – is the wedding reception inside or out?

2. Setup – Is this a non-traditional location? Will it have sufficient power for the entertainment? Adequate parking space for guests? Also consider distance – most guests do not want to drive into the deep woods to attend your reception.

3. Cleanup, setup – Most ‘traditional’ wedding reception venues have cleanup in place. Make sure to inquire about this when selecting the venue. Otherwise, you may need to draw on family and friends to help with this aspect.

4. Theme – Does the location fit the theme you have chosen for your wedding. Keep in mind, you do not need a theme for your wedding, but it does help to keep things on track.

5. Does the location invoke ‘wows’ from friends? Take a small group of friends to the location, and ask them what they think.

Truly Unique Wedding Reception Locations:

Corn field clearing. Now don’t laugh, I seen a stunning Western wedding theme done up perfectly in a cornfield clearing. Complete with rented gazebos, a fire pit and a Country band for entertainment, the event went off very well.

Sports Venue. Why not host your reception at your favorite sports venue, if you are a sport fan? Theme the reception with sport favors.

Building Top / High Rise. A wedding reception on the top of a city skyscraper can be both exhilarating and memorable, although this might be on the ‘pricy side’ depending on where you live.

More common wedding reception locations might include Barns, Gardens / Display Gardens, Ranches, Beaches. Since the wedding reception is only limited by your imagination, take the time to sit down and really brainstorm some great ideas. It will be well worth it in the end

Jen Carter is owner of My Wedding Blog, a free wedding planner. The above article is found in our wedding receptions category.

Throughout history creative genius has been connected with mental illness. Edgar Allen Poe died in the streets, drugged out and dried up. Emily Dickinson created poems secluded in her room, seeing only family and a few friends. It became fashionable to suffer for your art.

Psychologists have discovered a link between those who are highly creative and the tendency to develop bipolar disorder. Indeed, the very process of creating may sometimes seem to be a manic depressive episode. When inspiration hits it is a recalcitrant child. The need to create sits at your feet and kicks its heels until you pay attention. Then, when the ideas start flowing, they come at a pace any sprinter would envy. Often it is difficult to write fast enough to keep up with the thoughts as they tumble out. Once the poem is written, or the painting is finished, there is an exhaustion. If you are not emotionally stable at the outset, it would be incredibly difficult to deal with this inspirational cycling.

When you consider the emotional turmoil the creative genius often experiences, you must wonder what possible advantages there could possibly be to creativity. In reality, these cycles of inspiration don’t occur with everyone and the benefits of exercising your creative muscles far outweigh the disadvantages.

Creative people tend to be more intelligent and curious than the average person. Pablo Picasso once said, “I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Never stopping to rest on his laurels, he died in his 90’s, some of his greatest work created the last 25 years of his life. Ironically, Picasso was afraid to paint. Creative persons face their fears head on.

If you are wondering how to develop your creativity, odds are you aren’t interested in creating The Mona Lisa or writing the next Great American Novel. You are probably far more interested in how creativity will benefit you in business or personal life. If you’ve ever tried to solve a problem that seemed to have no solution or dealt with a contrary child, you definitely understand that creativity is an essential tool for success.

There are certain personality traits creative people possess that you can learn to develop and nurture. By mastering these, you will not only become more creative but your self esteem will blossom.
Someone who is creative tends to be flexible and easy going. They do not rattle easily and tend to take life in stride. They are motivated and tend to be very knowledgeable about their field of expertise. Risk takers by nature, they aren’t afraid to try new things or, when fears begin to plague them, they plow ahead regardless. These are the people who bring about change in the world.

One of the most admirable traits of the creative is the ability to be a nonconformist. It is probably also one of the most difficult to emulate. Wisdom is one of the end results of creativity, and true wisdom is impossible to achieve if you are constantly concerned with the thoughts and actions of those around you.
Creative genius is one of those rare commodities bestowed upon a blessed few at birth. Only in the last two decades have scientists been able to determine what it is and discover those who have it. However, creativity dwells within each of us and taking the time to nurture it will reap you many rewards.

Beth Ferree is the author of two ebooks and numerous print articles. She currently works as a ghost writer on a fantasy novel and as a virtual assistant for an online clothing company. Her third ebook, Tickle Your Muse, will be coming out shortly.