Search Engines and Blogs

Public Domain

2008-12-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Most artwork is copyright protected, which means you can't use it without permission and that usually means paying for the right to use it -- on your website, on a coffee mug, whatever.

But, if you look you can find public domain artwork. Public domain just means you can use the works in your own work (website, coffee mug art, etc).

Here's some public domain playing card artwork.

Page Rank

2008-12-04T11:18:00.000-08:00

Google's Page Rank explained.

Random email

2008-12-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

A press release from Northwestern University

Rational or Random? Model Shows How People Send E-Mail

In the last 10 years, e-mail has gone from a novelty to a necessity. What was once a pastime is now an essential form of communication, with many people opening their inboxes to find dozens of e-mails waiting.

But how do people respond to those e-mails? Do they act rationally, responding to the most important first, making sure the process is efficient? Or do they send e-mails randomly, when they are at their computers or when they have time, without any regard to efficiency?

These are questions that Luís Amaral, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University, and his collaborators set out to answer. After studying e-mails sent and received from more than 3,000 e-mail accounts at a European university during a three-month period, they created a mathematical model that shows people send e-mail randomly, but in cycles.

The findings are published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Amaral said he was inspired to create such an e-mail model after a recent paper said that the rational model -- where people respond to e-mails in the most efficient way -- was the correct model.

“I was not convinced, since I don’t do it in a rational way,” he said. But if a random model was correct, there would be a typical interval between e-mails -- which, when Amaral looked at the data, wasn’t the case. He wondered if it was possible for people to send e-mail randomly but still have non-random intervals where they didn’t send e-mail.

The answer, it turned out, was fairly simple: People don’t send e-mails when they are sleeping.

“During the day, you send e-mails, but then you go home, or go away for the weekend, and you don’t send e-mails,” he said. “These data were from a few years ago, and in Europe, this was especially the case, since many people didn’t have the Internet at home.”

The result was a model in which people send e-mails at random, but the probability of them sending e-mails during a given period depended on what that period was. If it was in the middle of the night, the probability was near zero. If it was during the weekend, the probability was much lower than during weekdays.

“The model explains all the data, and it shows that people have cycles in which they use certain services,” Amaral says. “You can then make predictions based on those cycles to know when people are going to request a service. Even though it’s random, there are peaks in demand that don’t look random.”

Other businesses and services could use such a model.

“If you know how people access that service, you can better plan how much capacity you need, when you need it, and how to best engineer your system to supply that capacity,” Amaral said. “It also teaches you how to interact with the system -- a good time to send an e-mail is just about the time that the person has arrived at work.”

Using email

2008-12-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

A press release from University of Chicago

How to improve email communication
Developing strategies to mimic face-to-face interactions
In a new article in the current issue of American Journal of Sociology authors Daniel A. Menchik and Xiaoli Tian (both of the University of Chicago) study how we use emoticons, subject lines, and signatures to define how we want to be interpreted in email. The authors find that “a shift to email interaction requires a new set of interactional skills to be developed.”

Unlike face-to-face conversations, email interactions leave out tone of voice, body-language and context, which can lead to misunderstandings. While these authors agree that there are difficulties, they believe that no way of communicating is actually superior to another.

Menchik and Tian argue that face-to-face and internet-based contexts each require a set of distinct interaction strategies. “People can cultivate ways of communicating in online contexts that are equally as effective as those used offline,” they write. “The degree to which … individuals develop unique conventions in the medium will determine their ability to communicate effectively.”

The research focuses on “the case of a well-known scientific organization that decided to replace occasional meetings of a research panel with ongoing email interaction.” The panel encountered numerous problems conversing via email. But the researchers identified several ways people were able to overcome these barriers.

“People innovate in response to the challenges of a new context for the communication of essential elements of language,” the authors write.

Capital letters, use of quotations, emoticons, exclamation points, punctuation, bullet points, style and even color help the sender communicate the meaning of a word or message. For example, “I feel betrayed” reads differently from “I FEEL SO BETRAYED!! ;)” where the capital letters and winking smiley face indicate sarcasm.

Participants also maintained their conversational flow by cutting and pasting from previous emails and using subject lines that referenced previous discussions. In email listservs these devices help address comments to a certain individual and help the discussion to stay on topic.

Signatures, disclaimers and other information about the person’s state of mind were also commonly used when writing an email. The authors found that subjects felt more comfortable communicating once they knew a little about each other, like the information included in a signature. They also found that indicating the frame of mind as a disclaimer, (i.e. “I wrote this at 5AM” or “on a blackberry while on vacation”) helped prevent the email from being misinterpreted.

Developers have picked up on these cues with the advent of linguistic monitors such as Eudora’s MoodWatch feature. This program tries to indicate to the sender that their email might be considered inflammatory, and to the receiver that they are about to receive such an email.

Daniel A. Menchik and Xiaoli Tian, “Putting Social Context into Text: The Semiotics of E-mail Interaction” American Journal of Sociology 114: 2.

Links

2008-12-01T07:49:00.000-08:00

One of the things search engines look at when they're evaluating a web page is links -- links into that page from other sites.

So it can pay off to have multiple blogs and and few independent sites to create a round robin of self-referential links.

To help boost the search engine interest in Diet and Sugar I created a page on a website I have called 400 Blogs. Registering that URL costs $8 a year. Of course I need hosting services also, which costs about 6 times that but the hosting service cost can be spread across other sites.

I called the new page My Diet Page and it's just a page of links to the Diet and Sugar blog and other related websites. It's a small thing, but every little thing helps.

Generating content for a blog?

2008-11-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

My Diet and Sugar blog looks like it has potential. So I'm going to have to look into this deeper.

My first goal is to try to attract some traffic. There are a lot of ways to attract traffic. My preference is simply content. That can be hard to do, but I think that is what pays off in the long run. Content that lasts can be a nice annuity.

My background is in operations research and I have a successful blog that combines an interest in that field and an interest in poker called Math and Poker. Operations research is an applied math field that's about things like optimization theory.

One thing I sometimes try to do is blog on subjects that have overlap potential. An old problem in operations research is called The Diet Problem. That's a mathematical formulation of a minimum cost diet that provides needed nutrients.

I decided to start working on The Diet Problem for the special case of diabetics with hypertension and kidney problems -- which is my current health situation. Boom, I all of a sudden got really prolific on blog posts for Diet and Sugar. It seems to pay off to stumble on a topic that I have both an expertise in and a special personal interest in.

Working on revenue improvement for Diet and Sugar has a twofold benefit. It has the direct effect of improving the revenue stream from that blog. But it also has the potentially beneficial effect of providing material for this blog. This blog gets almost no traffic and hasn't made me a nickel in the last few months. Maybe actually posting some content will help here too. You never can tell.

A blog with potential

2008-11-29T00:52:00.001-08:00

I don't post to this site much, and don't get much readership. I kind of use it as storage place to keep relevant links I want to save. I need to start using it more as a vehicle to seriously bring myself up to speed on Search Engine Optimization issues and monetization of blogs.

I use tags on my google ads to tell me what blogs are generating any revenue.

I took a look at one of my blogs, Diet and Sugar. The focus is mostly on the intertwine between food and diabetes. I have diabetes so the topic is one of personal interest.

This blog doesn't get a lot of traffic, but what traffic it does get looks promising. It has a google ad click thru rate of 14%. I pretty much consider anything over 1% as good. So I consider 14% excellent. It's revenue per 1000 exposures is $27. The problem is that it takes a really long time to get 1,000 visitors.

I need to figure out how to raise the profile/interest of this blog. It looks like it might be able to turn into a rent payer.

RSS Feeds

2008-11-20T11:00:00.000-08:00

I use Feedburner but there seems to be alternatives.

Links

2008-08-11T02:11:00.000-07:00

BuzzMachine points out that content doesn't count for much without links.

Poker search phrases

2008-03-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

One of my more successful sites is mathandpoker.com
According to goggle webmaster tools the top 20 search terms that visitors use to reach the site are

# % Query Position
1 29% poker math 4
2 8% math in poker 2
3 8% football models 5
4 8% mathematics of poker 5
5 4% math and poker 2
6 4% poker mathematics 6
7 3% big bet per hour expectation 2
8 3% poker math simplified 2
9 3% shortstack math 2
10 3% math poker 3
11 3% mathematics in poker 4
12 3% poker maths 4
13 3% poker stove 6
14 3% poker statistical analysis 7
15 3% the mathematics of poker 7
16 3% mathematics of poker review 9
17 3% law of total probability 10
18 3% random walk gambling 10
19 3% poker blog 21
20 3% borel poker 26

Creating a circle of links

2008-02-17T14:35:00.000-08:00

One of the things that search engines look for when evaulating a site are links into the site. Outgoing links count something also. Search engines are about links. Keywords also, but in particular keywords that link to relevant sites are top of the line.

You can create relevant links among your own sites even if they aren't on related topics by creating intermediate sites that are related to each of the others.

For example, I have a blog on veterans benefits. I have another blog on domestic travel. So to create some links I've built a small web page listing veterans museums around the country and linking it to both the veterans blog and the travel blog. It's far from finished, and I probably won't get it finished for a couple of months.

I'll probably spend 5 minutes a day for the next couple of months finishing the page, and it will then just sit there for a couple of years collecting a few pennies of adsense revenue. But, that's not really the point. The point is that with very little effort I've created related links between two unrelated blogs that I will be investing some effort in.

Search engines are important. Search engine visitors tend to be looking for information, not entertainment, and they're more likely to click on ads than your regular blog readers.

Telling Them About Me

2008-02-16T13:33:00.000-08:00

I have a few websits and a bunch of blogs. Probably way too many blogs. But it doesn't cost anything to start a blog and it's so easy to throw some Adsense ads up that I just can't resist. Whenever I think I have something to say about some potential niche topic that I think might have broad interest (veterans benfits, diabetes, etc) I just through up a blog at blogspot.com

But this post on writing an About Me page reminded me of something I'm doing wrong.

My first blog was about poker. I've written a couple of books on poker and my blogspot.com About Me page tells about my poker background. That's not really relevant when I'm blogging about mortgage loans. My experience as a banking officer and my master's in business is relevant to that topic however.

So I need to stop using a generic About Me page and start putting together unique bios for each blog that puts an emphasis on hiw my background relateds to that particular topic.

I'll get right on that tomorrow.

The importance of having a voice and sticking to it

2008-02-15T13:19:00.000-08:00

BloggingTips has a post on Top 10 mistakes new bloggers make.

Four of the ten mistakes he lists are variations of the general theme of the importance of having a unique and consistent voice. That should indicate to you how important that is.

It's a mistake to
Repeat what other bloggers are saying It's good to talk about the same topics other bloggers are talking about. It's not good to just parrot the thoughts of others. If you don't have something unique to add to the conversation then don't bother.
It's a mistake to
Be afraid to rock the boat. It's okay to voice unpopular opinions if you can back them up. In fact it's not just okay, it's one of the best ways to get your voice heard.
It's a mistake to
Spam other blogs with comments. Make yourself noticed with a few comments on other blogs. But don't call attention to yourself as a bore with nothing to say.
It's a mistake to
Blog on too many subjects. Stick to a focuses subject that you have a consistent point-of-view on. You want your readers to know what to expect and to get what they expect.

Read the whole post for the other common mistakes.

Five ways for your blog to attract attention

2008-02-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

A blog is more than a webpage and it's more than a collection of webpages. Blogs have a social content, a successful blog doesn't just attract search engine traffic, it also attracts readers. In fact, the way to attract search engine traffic to your blog is to attract readers first. If you attract the readers, if you give the readers what they want, then the search engines will find you.

There are millions of blogs, probably hundreds of blogs just in your small niche. You have to call attention to yourself to be noticed in that wilderness. Here's a few ways to do that.

1. Have a voice. Have a clear, discernible bias. A voice will attract readers who share your bias. They'll tend to agree with your positions and will spread the word about your brilliant thoughts.

2. Read your competitors. Link to them from your site. Leave comments on their posts on their sites. Don't pimp your own site when you leave comments, readers will find you.

3. Encourage comments. Reader comments are free content for you and they are strong indications to other readers that your blog is popular. Don't engage in heavy-handed moderation of your comments. Keep the spam out, but let the critics in.

4. Use titles and tags. Search engines like descriptive titles, they like descriptive keywords in anchor tags in references to other sites, and they like tags based on common terms used by other blogs. Cooperate and pay attention to your titles and tags.

5. Use analysis tools. Use analytics to track which pages or posts attract attention. Replicate those topics. Use keyword services to identify search keywords relevant to your topics that are in common use by users of search engines. Target those keywords.

Related link:
The Bloggers Guide to SEO
The basics of SEO

Adult pay per click

2008-02-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

I'm trying out a couple of adult related (porn) sites but adsense won't generate ads for them. It's just generating public service ads, I guess they check for explicit language. So that's not working out well at all although I'm getting good traffic.

So, I'm trying Exoclick. It's a pay-for-click ad service that does service adult site publishers. Their adult advertisors are mostly of the "meet a girl in your town" type, not really porn, and they don't pay much at all. A penny or two per click. But that's more than I'm getting from Adsense with those sites. I'll see how it goes.

Tips for finding good adsense topics/keywords

2008-02-10T12:48:00.000-08:00

This is a good article on finding good keywords or topics for blogging as adsense bait.

Are there Any Ads? - This is a good first question. Despite the many thousands of advertisers using Adsense there are some topics where the answer to this question is no. A simple way to check is to head to Google and do a search for the key words you’re wanting to blog about. The results page will bring up not only a list of other sites writing about that key word (they are you competitors) but on the right hand side there will be a list of ads - these are the same sorts of ads you’ll get on your site if you write on the topic. If there are ads there, it is a good sign. If there are not - maybe its worth finding another topic to write on if you’re hoping to attract ads.

Adsense words

2008-02-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

Nobody really knows what the best paying adsense words are.

It appears that legal related terms are good payers. Things like DWI, sexual harrassment, personal injury, asbestos injury, etc.

But really making money on the internet is not that much different from making money in general. You really just need to start with doing good work. Good work isn't going to be enough, and you can make money without actually doing good work. But just doing a good job at whatever you enjoy doing is really the best start. Pick a topic you like and focus on it, do a good job at it.

My best money maker is a blog on math and poker. I know something about both topics, the intersection of the topics interests me, and it's a nice little niche for me. It's probably not a niche that would work for you becuase it's probably not something that interests you. Find what works for you.

Poker and Golf

2008-02-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

Poker and Golf are the top two search terms on this weeks Lycos Top 50.

I used the adwords keyword tools resource to generate 200 related keywords and phrases based on poker and golf.

Then I put those 200 phrases through the traffic estimator at Adwords.

Based on estimated CPC the top ten are

las vegas golf
poker party
poker stars
online poker
internet poker
free online poker
putting greens
online casino
online texas holdem

Based on estimated clicks per day the top ten are

games
real estate
vacation
golf
cards
las vegas
money
baseball
fishing
poker

Based on estimated cost per day (the traffic estimator looks at things from the viewpoint of the advertisor buying clicks)

real estate
vacation
cards
las vegas
games
money
golf
poker
casino
fishing

Adsense and porn

2008-02-07T19:18:00.000-08:00

One of my blogging buddies is Ten-Mile Thane. He links to me, which makes him a lifelong friend. He usually blogs about poker stuff, this post he had some interesting observations about Adsense.

I have always had the ads keyed to subject matter, mostly because I enjoy trying to run the spider crazy finding ads to fit the writings. Indeed, I do that. A cheap form of entertainment.

I have gotten that spider to put up ads for everything from porn sites to humming birds - come to think of it, those two aren’t that far apart in terms of quickness are they? The porn ads came two days after writing about the reproductive organs of flowers. The humming birds after including a link to such a site.

I didn't know adsense did porn sites. I'll have to work on how to get those ads.

Finding valuable keywords

2008-02-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

I have a few paid advertisors, who pay for ad placement by the month. That's the bulk of my ad income but I also get some from Google Adsense ads. I'm trying to increase the ad revenue from Adsense.

Keywords attract ad revenue by attracting visitors from the search engines and by attracting ads relevant to those keywords. Then we let nature take it's course and let the visitors match themselves up with the ads that interest them. Traffic from search engines tends to be good traffic becuase they are people actually looking for something specific and they follow the ad clicks if the ads are on topic for whatever the visitors interest might be.

Adwords is the advertisor side of the Google ad business, where Adsense is the publisher side. By opening an Adwords account you get access to some tools for searching out keywords of value.

The Keyword tool will suggest a couple hundred permutations or related phrases for a given word or phrase.

The Traffic tool will estimate cost (cost on the advertisor side of the equation is revenue on the publisher side) and traffic for a list of words and phrases.

affiliations

2007-10-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

bodog (cash)
Interpoker (cash)
pokerlistins (cash)
google adsense
Commission junction
Vista Print
Yahoo
USA Today
Friend Finder
PlayDate
poker stars

Carnivals

2007-08-23T20:21:00.000-07:00

erase racism carnival (keywords: racism, antioppression, antiracism, justice) A carnival dedicated to ending racism, White Supremacy, and unearned privilege

Blog traffic

2007-08-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

A list of articles on building blog traffic through rss subscriptions

Bloglines has about 11% of the total rss readers.

Poker names

2007-08-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

Starting earlier this year, searches for Brian Townsend got real popular.

Christian keywords

2007-08-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Keywords Search Estimated Avg. CPC Estimated Ad Positions Estimated
volume
Clicks / Day Estimated Cost / Day
lower upper upper lower lower upper lower upper
bible 4 $0.60 $0.79 1 3 3,597 4,499 $2,170.00 $3,550.00
christian 4 $0.81 $1.22 1 3 7,470 9,376 $6,060.00 $11,400.00
christian creation story 0 $0.74 $0.98 1 3 0 0 $1.00 $1.00
genesis 3 $0.67 $1.00 1 3 1,138 1,424 $760.00 $1,430.00
jesus 4 $0.31 $0.44 1 3 1,620 2,026 $520.00 $900.00
life of christ 2 $0.25 $0.38 1 3 5 8 $2.00 $4.00
new testament 3 $0.49 $0.65 1 3 71 98 $40.00 $70.00
old testament 2 $0.33 $0.47 1 3 41 57 $20.00 $30.00