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I was just about to write a post on the release of WordPress 2.0 and they’ve already beaten me to the publish button with version 2.0.1
WordPress 2.0.1 fixes a lot bugs from 2.0
And a few other fixes. For more information and to download this new version you’ll need to visit WordPress.org
Earlier this week I received an email from a company that claimed they could guarantee me a number one ranking on Google for a mere £1,200, then a few days later I receive yet another email from another company offering me a guaranteed search engine optimisation package (whatever that means, in English!). Neither of these companies got the reply they expected and for good reason to.
No one can guarantee you a #1 ranking on Google.
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimizer and in the internet industry we have what are called SEOs (Search Engine Optimisation experts). These are the individuals and organisations that provide a range of services and resources to allow website owners to improve their site architecture, content (copy) and so on. Unfortunately there are also a handful of rogue SEOs who whether knowingly or unintentionally are causing massive damage to the SEO industry and their client sites. Some tactics used by these rogue SEOs can get you banned from major search engines such as Google. So please be careful.
For more information and some simple guidelines visit:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/seo.html
Bandwidth and disk storage are the two main commodities of any hosting package, and just like most other commodities disk storage and bandwidth don’t come cheap for the supplier. So if this stuff isn’t cheap, then why are we seeing more and more unlimited offers these days?
First things first. Disk storage (web space) is the medium used to store all your website files on, and the amount available depends entirely on how much money the provider has invested in physical storage. Bandwidth (in hosting terms) is the amount of data your web site can transfer over a period of time. With web space once you reach your disk storage limit you simply wont be allowed to store anymore files, but if you reach your monthly bandwidth allowance then your site becomes unavailable to your visitors and you’ll need to upgrade your hosting package or wait until the end of the month before people can start viewing your pages again.
This is where unlimited hosting packages claim to solve that problem. Don’t be fooled though, unlimited bandwidth and web space simply isn’t possible in the real world. I’m not saying that providers of unlimited hosting packages are crooks or liars, but what they are offering simply isn’t sustainable long term. These companies/individuals will often have special terms and conditions relating to exactly what you get with your ‘unlimited’ package as well, which may include restrictions on file sizes, no video or audio storage, a maximum number of visitors per month and other restrictions which may make your hosting deal a very limited experience indeed. Unlimited doesn’t necessarily mean a poor service either, some of these providers are simply trying to get business and this is definitely one way to get your attention.
Bandwidth costs the supplier by the megabyte (which they then sell on to you), this means that if their claims were true and they had hundreds of clients then they’d be running at a huge loss every year. Just look at the big name hosting providers, they don’t usually offer unlimited bandwidth or web space because they’ve either learnt from past experience or simply have sensible business skills from the beginning. Most providers (even some of the big names) also rely on the fact that not everyone will use more than a few gigabytes of bandwidth per month, which leaves plenty left over for the hardcore users and a handful of bandwidth abusers.
Here at digitalSURGERY.net we keep things realistic, our hosting package has been tailored for optimum performance, it provides adequate storage for your files and offers a generous 5 gigabytes of data transfer (bandwidth) per month. We can increase bandwidth and disk storage when your web site needs it, this is to save you money and helps us keep our servers at optimal performance.
You can now get your Google AdSense reports sent to your inbox:
Now, new emailable reports offer you even more freedom: the ability to have your AdSense earnings reports sent straight to you. You select where and when you want your reports sent. Up to ten custom reports can be delivered daily, weekly, or monthly to the inbox of your choice.
To set up an emailable report today, visit the new ‘Report Manager’ page, under your Reports tab…
Google have also announced their ‘Themed Ad Units’, with seasonal images and colour schemes being displayed during holidays, the festive season and special events.
For more information on Google AdSense custom reports by email, Themed ad units, AdSense for search designs and new improvements to their Link Units visit the Google AdSense what’s new page.
One of the main key-ingredients to a successful blog is regularly updated content. But how can you write new content when you’re suffering from the dreaded writers block? Or as I call it ‘Bloggers block’.
Well for starters, you can either sit around all day wasting valuable hours staring at your computer screen waiting for inspiration to kick you in the knee, or you can make the most of these more productive tips:
Be inspired by someone else’s work. There is no shame in getting ideas from someone else’s blog, so long as you write it in your own words and you don’t plagiarise it, and remember to give credit where credit is due.
Check those archives. Get yourself a duster and be prepared to brush away those cobwebs on your old posts, look for old content which you might be able to reuse in a new post. I often go back over my old stuff and see if I can write an updated article on an old subject. Do the same for other bloggers archives, don’t just use their latest stuff for inspiration, get your hands dirty and dig deeper into their old archives.
Industry newspapers , websites and magazines. Keep your eye on the industry newspapers, magazines and websites. Here at digitalSURGERY.net we always keep a close eye on Googles various news and gossip blogs like googleblog.blogspot.com and adsense.blogspot.com, for example.
Pen and Paper. Put your hands where we can see them and move away from that computer screen. Seriously, grab yourself a pen and paper, go and sit somewhere quiet, as far away from your computer as possible and brainstorm ideas onto paper. Being stuck in front of a computer trying to rack your brain for new ideas can do more harm than good. Take a break from the PC and change your environment, you may just surprise yourself with the results.
Just type it. Sometimes your creative mind is bullied by your conscious mind, this happens a lot when you start reading over what you’ve just typed before you move onto the next paragraph/section of your post. My advice for you is just keep typing and don’t look back until you’re ready to PUBLISH (doing so will just hinder your creative thought process otherwise).
Get out. When you’ve tried everything in the book and nothing is working, then just get out of the house. Go for a coffee, visit the library or just take a walk in the park. Take your notepad and pen with you though, a change of scenery can be very effective for the creative mind.
Exercise. Stop laughing! I’m serious, you should aim for about 15-30 minutes of exercise per day , minimum. Whether that’s a brisk walk/run in the park, a yoga session or whatever floats your boat. If you’re healthy, your brain is healthy too. Most of my best ideas come during a daily workout.
Leave it. Only to be used as an absolute last resort. If all of the above fails to inspire new ideas in you, then take a break and come back in a day or so. Don’t burn yourself out, because if your no good to yourself, then you’re no good to your blog.
Why don’t you share your tips for dealing with Bloggers Block with us. Use the comments form to share your tips and advice with others.
We look forward to hearing from you.
This is an update to my post earlier this month about the Google AdSense Referral Program. You may recall that in this article I mentioned the Firefox plus Google Toolbar referral program wasn’t an option for international publishers.
All that’s changed and International publishers now have the option to refer their visitors to the Firefox plus Google Toolbar through the AdSense Referral feature. You can earn up to $1 for every user who downloads and runs the product for the first time, which obviously excludes users who already have it installed.
What is FireFox plus Google Toolbar ?
As described by Google
Mozilla Firefox is a web browser with pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, and privacy and security features. We’ve integrated the Google Toolbar into the Firefox download to offer you even more features: Google search, SpellCheck, and Autofill.
You can access the Firefox referral code from your AdSense account Referral Tab.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone running a blog can benefit from targeted advertising provided by Google AdSense or Chitika EminiMalls. Monetizing your personal blog for example wont necessarily get you that many clickthroughs, if any at all. In fact, unless your blog concentrates on at least one or more ‘niche subject’ areas I doubt it would make you much more than a few cents per week, at most.
I recently removed Google AdSense from one of my personal blogs because although it was displaying ads, these ads weren’t relevant to my journal entries and thus I decided weren’t of interest to my visitors. People weren’t regularly clicking my ads either, which was another indication that they just weren’t working.
Effectively monetizing your blog requires serious dedication, targeted content and a lot of research. If you find that your blog just isn’t niche enough and you’re getting irrelevant ads, then maybe monetizing your blog isn’t for you or to the benefit of your visitors.
iWEBTOOL is a FREE online internet tools resource. Some of the tools include gems like Backlink Checker that informs you who is linking to your site and gives you their page rank, Keyword Suggestion which displays the ten most popular keywords matching your suggested word or phrase and the Link Popularity Checker that finds out how many times you are listed on the three main search engines, Google, Yahoo and MSN Search.
The Google Rank Predictor is my favourite tool, but don’t take the results seriously as this is a just-for-fun tool. I also liked the Website Speed Test for testing the load time of your sites and the Spider View for seeing your web pages the way Spider Bots view them.
Since our launch earlier this year, digitalSURGERY.net has been experiencing a rapid growth in visitor traffic which is almost doubling each month. All kinds of people are visiting our site, from webmasters, designers and hosting providers to bloggers and industry professionals. So to celebrate this traffic explosion we decided to launch our Partner Link Exchange Programme, which aims to share this traffic with similar blogs and sites that meet the following conditions:
These conditions may change without notice. E&OE
Posted by Lee in Announcements |
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