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If you’re a Wordpress fan too, then you should really check out this presentation by Matt Cutts, Head of Google’s Web Spam Team.

In his Wordcamp presentation, Matt mentioned and provided many good pointers, examples and tips for Wordpress users.

These are some that I really liked:

• In order to do well with your blog, you need to write about stuffs that you love – DAILY. This is really true because it’s really difficult to write about something we are unfamiliar with. It feels like forcing myself to drink Dr. Pepper.
• Changing the URL to rank for more keywords. See an example on this post.The title is Some really good Wordpress + SEO tips by Matt Cutts while the URL is some-really-good-wordpress-seo-tips-by-a-google-engineer. See how I changed Matt Cutts to Google Engineer on my URL. Before this presentation, I have never changed my urls coz I thought Google wouldn’t like it. But after the presentation, I actually tested it on a few of my other blogs and it did work. I got ranked for both keywords in the title and in the URL.
• Plugins Matt Cutts use. I learned about Cookies for Comments.

You can view the presentation on WordCampTV or even visit Matt Cutts post at Straight from Google: What You Need to Know

(Not my actual apartment )

Within 2 months of moving into the nice new apartment, I realized that I have overspent on many things. Instead of trying to save some money moving to a new place to cut on traveling expenses, I have instead spent more overall.

Anyway, I can’t go returning the new furnitures or get the contractor to undo the renovations. Instead, I need to find ways to pay off my credit card bills.

Since I owe the credit card company some amount in credit card debt, I did a balance transfer credit card and immediately I could save some money. In laymen terms, this translates to owing less money to credit card companies. If you’re wondering the sort of savings we’re talking about, it’s equivalent to about $100 or more in one year for every $1000 in credit card debt assuming 10% interest on the existing credit card.

One of the danger with credit card companies are unfair hikes and hidden fees. It’s like you automatically owe the credit card companies more without knowing about it. This is now a case of the past as recently, there is a new credit card protections : reforms to protect american credit card holders. So with this new reform, we as consumers are more protected from the dangers of credit card hikes and hidden fees. But if you are having some credit card debts now, it is advisable to perform a balance transfer now as the credit card ACT aimed to help consumers won’t be in effect for at least a few months. So, this means that your credit card company might have raised interest rates causing you to owe more.

If you’re interested to transfer some credit card balances, do check out this low apr balance transfer list. From this list, you should be able to select one which best suites your need. Also one important thing to note is that the length of 0% rates is declining from 1 year to 6 months. Hope it helps!

I told him that there are many web hosting out there in the market today. It all depends on one’s needs and requirements. For some, they would go for lower cost while some would go for one which provides unlimited bandwith.

So his next question to me, where is a good place to start looking for web hosting plans? And if possible, it should show him a list of top web hosting plans so that he could easily compare them side by side.

Without hesitating, I recommended to him a site that’s at the back of my head called FindMyHosting.com

FindMyHosting.com allows one to easily search and compare web hosting plans.

On the home page, you can view the top ten web hosting plan which is updated on a daily basis.

The comprehensive search feature also allows one to search for plans based on:

• Country
• Monthly price
• Platform – Linux or Windows
• Disk space
• Bandwidth per month

Another good feature of FindMyHosting.com is the directory of hostings. These directories are simply a group of similar featured web hosting plans. Say you’re only interested to look for plans which supports PHP and MySql capabilities, then clicking on the PHP/MySQL Web Hosting Plans shows you exactly those that are capable of doing so. Some of the directories includes

• PHP / MySQL Web Hosting Plans
• JSP Web Hosting Plans
• Adult Web Hosting Plans

For a complete list do check out  FindMyHosting.com!

As for my friend, he ended up going for JustHost.com simply because it was ranked #1 on the top 10 list. Fast, simple and easy. Sometimes people just need some simple recommendations to make some decisions.

Have you ever wondered how some organizations managed to print their logos onto a thumbdrive or even shape it to look as if the usb disk was manufactured by them?

These flash drives look really nice and neat and are great gifts.

If your organization is also considering to create a custom flash drive of your own, FlashDealer.com will be able to help you with it.

FlashDealer.com is able to create any custom usb drive in any material and colors that you can think off. If you’re creating one just to specifically give out to potential clients, you could include key information in the disk such as:

• Company profile
• Products and services
• Promotions
• Key contact information

With these information already embedded in the drive, your customers definitely won’t forget you. It’s definitely a good promotional method. And imagine if your customer passes the drive around to his / her friends and family members, they too will be able to view your organization’s information. How nice

Another of my favorite which I’ve never seen before in my country is a USB wristband. These wristbands are getting common especially among the younger generation. Having a usb storage in it would be really handy. But I wonder if it’s water proof!

If you’re in the US, you should really look into creating a Custom flash drive since the cost to create some of these are really affordable.

I’m thinking of creating a custom Micheal Jackson USB drive with year 2009 printed on it and add some songs on it just to remember MJ. What do you think? If you wana do the same then head on over to FlashDealer.com today

RevResponse allows you to promote business related content and make money from it. Some of the leading advertisers are:

• Oracle
• Microsoft
• Dell
• Adobe
• HP

How this works is really simple. Just sign up to become a RevResponse publisher. After you get approved, you will just need to search for business content which is related to your business area or industry and start promoting them.

Say for example, your organization is a software development company and you publish articles on your company’s blog site. One way to monetize the site would be to find the relevant content from RevResponse and promote it prominently on your site. This is an example of how the ads would look like.

If your readers sign up for any of the information they requested for and got approved for it, Ka-Ching! You will get paid. According to RevResponse, you can get paid up to $20 per lead. I have tried to promote RevResponse since early this year and can say that the average payout is only about $1.50 per lead. However occasionally I do get some which are above $5 per lead.

RevResponse only pays us when we have reach a minimum payout amount of $50. If you’re wondering if I’ve got payment from RevResponse already, yes I have and they do pay directly into my paypal account which I find very convenient.

So.. like I mentioned earlier on. If you’ve got a website or a blog site and it is related to business in way, you should try to join RevResponse and display ads which can benefit not just your readers and the advertisers but also yourself.

Check out RevResponse today!

It must be  a terrible feeling for those who are suffering from these unfortunate events.

But for those of you who are feeling down and depressed for whatever reason it may be, just remember:

• Your friends and family are always there for you.
• That there are people in this world who are homeless and hungry.
• You may have lost something important to you, but you still have your breath.

I have personally seen some rich people who feels miserable and complains all the time. Maybe they lead a complicated life and is not contented with what they have. A friend once told me… if only I had a simpler life. Photo by d70focus.

I told him, I wish I have the answer for you. But I’m not the expert. 

Instead, you should read this free ebook: Triving on less – Simplifying in a tough economy by Leo Babauta.

From the introduction:

The recent economic recession has a lot of people worried, about their jobs, their businesses, their homes and their bills. When your income is dropping or in jeopardy and you still have a mountain of bills to pay, things can get pretty scary.

However, tough economic times do not have to be a time of struggles! If you look for the opportunity in the middle of difficulty, as Mr. Einstein suggested, then tough economic times become an opportunity to transform your life.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. A Simple Lifestyle
2. Focus on the Essentials
3. Thriving on Less, Not Struggling
4. Focusing on Enough, Not More
5. Make Small Financial Changes First
6. Look at Large Expenses for the Long Term
7. Changing Your Spending Habits
8. A Guide to Getting Out of Debt
9. Tools for a Frugal Life
10. Resources

Hopefully this free ebook helps. Also, dont forget to check out Leo’s blog at Zen Habits

When I first subscribed to Yahoo! Domains way back in year 2005, it was on a real good promotion which cost only $2.95. 

For year 2006 and 2007, I was billed $9.95 which was ok and I still considered it affordable.

Today, without any email alerts what so ever, I saw a bill of $34.95 in my credit card statement. Ouch!

Without hesitating I quickly contacted the online chat support from both Bluehost and Westhost and asked them about the possibility of transfering my domain over to them since they are my web hosting providers. What I found out from both hosting provider was that in order to ensure a successful domain transfer from my current registrar, which is Yahoo!, I had to make sure that my domain:

• Has not expired or is not within 14 days of expiring
• Has not been renewed within the last 45 days
• Has not been registered within the last 60 days
• Is not involved in any legal or payment disputes

One thing for sure is that my site has expired and it has been automatically renewed within the last 45 days. So no matter what, I will still need to pay Yahoo! Domains $34.95! This is the price to pay for being ignorant about when my domain expires.

So for those of you whose domain are registered with Yahoo!, my suggestions would be for you to:

1. Decide if you want your domain to be auto billed via credit card.
2. Take some time to evaluate other companies which are able to register your doman for a price below $34.95. From what I found out, in order to transfer to Westhost, it’s just $10 for a one time transfer fees and $14.95 for a one year domain name, a total of $24.95…. still cheaper than Yahoo! Domains.

I think Yahoo! should have invoiced me earlier or even notify or warn me that the price will shoot up from $9.95 to $34.95 but so far I didn’t receive any notifications. If I has known, I would have switched.  From what I found out as well, if I choose not to pay Yahoo! for this domain renewal, my domain will be locked for a year. Meaning no one, including myself will be able to take over the domain via another host. Something I learnt today.

This rant must be because of the economic slowdown! I used to be generous Hope this post warns any of you out there who doesnt know when your domain expires and what the next renewal bill will be like. Don’t be a donkey like me!

Are you a webmaster who needs funds to keep your website running? Or is your website the only way for you to earn income? Whichever you are, for as long as you are a webmaster or a web publisher and you need cash, affiliate marketing may work well for you. With affiliate marketing, you may get a lot of cash pouring into your bank account easily. And if your website is rich in great contents and you want to earn more profit, why not get into the Google Adsense program as well?

Why Affiliate Marketing?

Well, simply because affiliate marketing is the easiest and probably the best way to earn profits online, unless otherwise you are a businessman and would rather sell your own products online than advertise other businessman’s products on your site. But even online retailers can benefit from affiliate marketing programs, because affiliate marketing actually works for merchants as well as it works for the affiliates.

Affiliate marketing, simply said, is a relationship or agreement made between two websites, with one site being the merchant’s website and the other being the affiliate’s site. In the relationship, the affiliate agrees to let the merchant advertise his products on the affiliate’s site. The merchant, on the other hand, would agree to pay the affiliate in whatever method they have agreed into. This would generally mean easy income for the affiliate, as he would do nothing but place the retailer’s ad on his site. This would also be very beneficial for the merchant, as getting affiliates to advertise their products would be a lot more affordable than hiring an advertising firm to promote their products.

There are a variety of methods on how the merchant would compensate the affiliate for his services, and for the webmaster, these methods simply translates to the method by which he would earn easy cash. Among the more common methods of compensation are the pay-per-click method, the pay-per-lead method, and the pay-per-sale method. The pay-per-click method is the method most preferred by affiliates, for their site’s visitor would only have to visit the advertiser’s site for them to gain money. The other two methods, on the other hand, are better preferred by merchants, as they would only have to compensate you if your visitor becomes one of their registrants or if the visitor would actually buy their products.

Getting much profit on affiliate marketing programs, however, does not depend so much on the compensation method is it does on the traffic generated by your site. A website that can attract more visitors would generally have the greater chance of profiting in affiliate marketing programs.

What about Google Adsense?

Google Adsense is actually some sort of an affiliate marketing program. In Google Adsense, Google act as the intermediary between the affiliates and the merchants. The merchant, or the advertiser, would simply sign up with Google and provide the latter with text ads pertaining to their products. These ads, which is actually a link to the advertiser’s website, would then appear on Google searches as well as on the websites owned by the affiliates, or by those webmasters who have signed up with the Google Adsense program.

While one can find a lot of similarities between Google Adsense and other affiliate marketing programs, you can also see a lot of differences. In Google Adsense, all the webmaster has to do is place a code on his website and Google takes care of the rest. The ads that Google would place on your site would generally be relevant to the content of your site. This would be advantageous both for you and for the advertiser, as the visitors of your site would more or less be actually interested with the products being advertised.

The Google Adsense program compensates the affiliate in a pay-per-click basis. The advertisers would pay Google a certain amount each time their ad on your site is clicked and Google would then forward this amount to you through checks, although only after Google have deducted their share of the amount. Google Adsense checks are usually delivered monthly. Also, the Google Adsense program provides webmasters with a tracking tool that allows you to monitor the earnings you actually get from a certain ad.

So, where do all of these lead us to?

Where else but to profits, profits and even more profits! Affiliate marketing programs and the Google Adsense program simply work, whether you are the merchant or the affiliate. For the merchant’s side, a lot of money can be saved if advertising effort is concentrated on affiliate marketing rather than on dealing with advertising firms. For the webmaster, you can easily gain a lot of profits just by doing what you do best, and that is by creating websites. And if you combine all your profits from both the Google Adsense program and other affiliate marketing programs, it would surely convert to a large amount of cash.

You can’t just put your website on the net with right keywords and all the right touches and expect your traffic and ranking will remain constant. As the web is an ever changing landscape, you have to keep track of your own web results like what is happening with the competition and also the best and highest ranked sites. There are many useful tools to help you find out what exactly is happening.

1. A tool which you can use to test your own website links or other websites for broken links: http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

2. With this tool you can check search engines for the number of back links to your URL i.e. other web pages linking to your site: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/backlinks/

3. It sometimes becomes important to know where the servers of your hosting company are physically located. Because, some search engines like Google have the ability to filter search results based on their physical location called geotargeting. This could be used to determine why your site is showing in only a certain country. This link can also be used to research the country location of a particular competitor’s website: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/website-country/

4. In order to track the location of the visitor or a customer to your website: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/geovisitors/

5. In order to check the Yahoo! web ranking of your’s or your competitor’s website use : http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/webrank/

6. Here is a link to check the web ranking of a website using a Mac or Apple computer: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/pagerank-mac/

7. You need a Google AdSense account for using this. This link provides you with charts and reports which will help you analyze traffic, clicks, and results from your AdSense advertising http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-charts/

8. If you have an AdSense account, you can analyze your website address or another website address to see what Google ads will be displayed when the customer selects certain website names or keywords: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/adsense-sandbox/

9. This link will take you to a cooperative advertising network where you can join to display and share your ads with other website owners: http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/ad-network/

10. You can add the Search Functionality on your website which uses Google. This works only if your site is listed in the Google Index. http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/search/

11. Here are some links to free website counters which you can use on your website to track your traffic and hits.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/counter/ http://www.amazingcounters.com/?ref=gad033 http://www.cyber-counter.com/signup.php http://www.statcounter.com/free_hit_counter.html http://www.free-counters.net/
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