Web Screenshot

whin — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 07:49:25 +0000

My New Skechers

whin — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 02:08:04 +0000

Model: Skechers Triumph 50119

Product Description: Designed with leather upper on a lightweight EVA midsole sure to add even more height to your game.

Fit: True to Size

Size: 9 1/2

The Rise and Rise of Article PR - What are the Implications?

whin — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:28:55 +0000

Already a very popular method of achieving a high search engine ranking, article PR (aka article submission) has now entered the mainstream. As such, its popularity is increasing at a dramatic rate. While this is great for SEO copywriters like myself, there are some side-effects that need to be addressed if article PR is going to remain a viable search engine ranking technique. This article discusses some of those side-effects, along with how they might be addressed.

But first, a little on article PR

Article PR is the process of writing ‘free reprint articles’ and submitting them to the 250+ established article submission sites on the Internet. An article submission site is simply a repository of free reprint articles - a place where authors can submit their articles free of charge, and where webmasters can find articles to use on their websites free of charge. In return for free use of your article, the webmaster includes your author bio and its links to your site. Every time your article is published, you get another link to your site and a boost to your ranking. If the quality of your article is high, it can be published hundreds of times. (See How to Top Google with Article PR for further details on this method.)

The rise and rise of article PR

Because article PR is such an effective way of generating a high search engine ranking, it has now entered the mainstream. As an SEO copywriter, I get several requests each week for quotes to write articles. These requests come almost exclusively from business owners and marketing managers who know little (if anything) about SEO. They obviously didn’t go looking for article PR; article PR found them…

As a result of its newfound mainstream popularity, the number of articles being written and submitted has increased by between 100% - 600% in the past year! Christopher Knight, owner of the biggest article submission site, EzineArticles, tells me that the number of article submissions to his site increased by a staggering 600% from 2004 to 2005. In 2004, EzineArticles was averaging only 1416 article submissions per month. In 2005, it was averaging 8482 article submissions per month!

Similarly, at the end of 2005, when I spoke with Mel Strocen, owner of GoArticles, he reported a doubling of article submissions in the second half of the year. “In the last 6 months article submissions have increased by 100%, going from about 1,000 submissions per week to 2,000+ per week,” he said.

Jason Lynch, owner of ArticleBlast, reported similar increases; between April ‘05 and January ‘06, submissions to ArticleBlast increased by over 300%.

The web traffic to these sites tells the same story. According to Alexa statistics, at the end of 2004, EzineArticles had a reach of approx 100 users per million Internet users per day. Just over a year later, the site is reaching over ten times that many Internet users. (If we take the total number of Internet users worldwide to be 964 million, EzineArticles traffic has increased from around 96,000 per day to over 1 million visitors per day.)

Alexa stats for GoArticles report similar increases in traffic. At the end of 2004, it had a reach of approx 50 users per million Internet users per day. Just over a year later, it’s reaching approx 10 times that number of users. (Again assuming 964 million Internet users worldwide, GoArticles traffic has increased from around 48,000 per day to around half a million visitors per day.)

Figures for ArticleBlast are more difficult to ascertain as the site is younger and has lower overall traffic.

Even if Alexa’s figures are a little inflated (as I think they tend to be), they still provide a consistent measure for the period. As such, the percentage increases should be relatively accurate.

The side-effects of the rise of article PR

A number of writers have voiced the fear that article PR will die through ‘over-use’, just as keyword stuffing and link farms died. But I don’t agree. Why? Because article PR isn’t just useful to authors and SEO copywriters. The success of article PR is based on the premise that our articles are also useful to READERS. So long as the majority of articles remain useful (i.e. helpful, informative, and easy to read), readers will still want to read them, publishers will still want to publish them, and article PR will remain a viable link building method.

This is true no matter how many people are writing and publishing free reprint articles. Frequent use of a tool doesn’t make the tool ineffective. (Just look at traditional forms of advertising - millions of businesses engage in radio, print, and TV advertising, and those methods remain very effective. The fierce competition simply encourages advertisers to improve the quality of their ads in order to stand out.)

No, in my opinion, there’s no such thing as too many articles. However, there is such a thing as too many BAD articles. Readers want helpful, credible information; they don’t want badly written articles or empty words (’article spam’) which simply carry a link.

Just as importantly, webmasters don’t want to spend hours trying to find the right article to publish. At the moment, there are literally hundreds of article submission sites out there. Most of them are generic, fully automated affairs that involve no human moderation. They don’t distinguish between good writing and bad, they don’t cull article spam, and they don’t categorize their articles very well. As a result, publishers have to wade through a sea of poor quality to find a handful of useful articles.

These issues are the real hurdles that need to be overcome if article PR is to survive.

Overcoming the problems

The article submission sites will overcome the problems. Here’s how…

As mentioned above, readers aren’t interested in bad articles or article spam. This means that, in the long run, there’s no real value in publishing such articles (either for webmasters or article submission sites); readers will frequent the sites that publish useful articles and ignore those that don’t. Likewise, publishers will frequent the article submission sites that post useful, easy-to-find articles and ignore those that don’t.

This means we’ll see an increase in the number of human-moderated article submission sites. And once this happens, the article PR landscape will change forever:

Human moderated article submission sites will offer a higher percentage of quality articles, and those articles will be easier to find;
Human moderated article submission sites will attract more publishing webmasters, and, as a result, more authors;
We’ll see a decrease in the number of un-moderated article submission sites because they won’t generate enough traffic to make AdSense profitable;
We’ll see a decrease in the overall number of article submission sites (anyone can launch an automated article submission site, but it takes real commitment, business sense, and a dedicated budget to run a human-moderated article submission site);
The spoils will be greater for the surviving article submission sites, so they’ll go to greater lengths to ensure the high quality of their articles; and
We’ll witness the decline of article spam and poor quality articles simply because they won’t be accepted at the good article submission sites.

All in all, it’s a positive outlook for authors and publishers of quality articles.

Happy writing, publishing, and posting!

Baboo - Green w/ Sleepy Eyes

whin — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 05:01:08 +0000

Baboo - Green w/ Sleepy Eyes

Inspiron 640m

whin — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 04:58:35 +0000

Powered by Dual-Core Technology

Do more with dual-core power. The new Intel^® Core^TM Duo processor puts dual-core power into your everyday life, giving you high-performance processing wherever you take your notebook.

Multitasking on the Move

The Core Duo processor leverages two execution cores on a single chip to help increase your PC’s ability to run multiple applications smoothly.

A Professional-Grade Operating System

Genuine Windows^® XP Professional gives you all the ease and compatibility of Genuine Windows^® XP Home with added security and networking features built in to make it Microsoft’s leading operating system for business users. In addition, with 1GB of dual-channel memory (with two 512MB memory module DIMMs), the Inspiron 640m is Windows Vista^TM -capable.

Added Control Features

Genuine Windows^® XP Professional puts a variety of controls at your fingertips to help you protect data, stay connected and share resources within your company.

Go Wireless

The Inspiron 640m is designed to let you stay connected. It comes standard with Wi-Fi^® for connecting to any 802.11 b or g network. That way¹, you can remain productive in taxis, airports, parks or wherever you do business. Another optional feature of the 640m is the Dell Wireless 350 Bluetooth^® module. This gives you the ultimate in mobile flexibility, allowing you to use wireless mice, keyboards, PDAs and other Bluetooth-enabled devices without the hassle of cords and cables.

Full-Size Features, Pint-Size Package

With its estimated weight starting at just 2.41kg² (5.30lbs), the Inspiron 640m keeps a very low profile on the road. But it never compromises features. Its 14.1-inch widescreen display is packed into a compact design, so you can comfortably use your notebook on planes, trains or anywhere space is at a premium. Plus, with its full-sized keyboard, it handles like a much bigger notebook than it is.

See All Inspiron 640m Tech Specs

Copyscape: Website Plagiarism Search

whin — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:48:13 +0000

Copyscape: Website Plagiarism Search Definitely a double edged sword but an interesting twist nonetheless. Find websites and blogs that are copying/reblogging your content. Similar results can be had from blog search engines such as Technorati but Copyscape serves up the same dish with a different twist of lemon.

WP Hack: AjaxWp

whin — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:47:31 +0000

WP Hack: AjaxWp Enhance and adorn your Wordpress blog with AJAX goodness. From the documentation that I could find on the site, it looks like AJAXWP will add AJAX functionality to your existing theme without any required modifications but you can get a lot more from the package by delving under the covers. The author’s blog is an example of AJAXWP’s capabilities.

WordPress 2.0.4 Beta

whin — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:43:05 +0000

WordPress 2.0.4 is imminent. The Testers List has been testing a beta release of 2.0.4 for the last few days, and now it is your turn to test. Grab the zip or tar and upgrade as you would for any other release. If all goes well the final 2.0.4 release will follow on soon and be identical to the beta.

Busby SEO Test

World’s Tallest Dog