The concept behind CSS (a.k.a. cascading style sheets or style sheets)
is really simple. CSS allows you make changes to all of the web pages
that link to the CSS file at once by changing a style in the style
sheet, instead of having to manually
change every style in every HTML file.
CSS allows you
to create a single document of code, similar to an HTML file, that lets you specify the colors,
fonts, backgrounds, etc. of a web page. The CSS file is then linked to from the web page(s) that
you want to have the same styles that you specify.
If CSS did this and only this, they would save you a lot of time to say the least, especially if you
have a large or multiple web sites. This alone is worth learning CSS, however, style sheets allow
you to do this and much more.
CSS also allows you to:
position text and graphics precisely where you want to
add rollover effects to links
control the spacing between letters, lines, margins, web page borders
specify the units such as centimeters, pixels, points and more
hide content from certain web browsers in certain situations.
An example of this is when you have some content that you want to appear only in
your web pages, but not in print.
In the end, CSS can save you a lot of time and effort and is very easy to learn.
There's no doubt, one way links work for search positioning. But, have
you considered that what works today may not work in the future? One
exciting aspect about search engines is that nobody really knows
everything. That leaves room for webmasters who are willing to
research, test, and put into practice the best search engine
optimization techniques.
These five rules for one way linking can help steer you in the right direction.
Rule #1:
You have to be proactive. Google considers a high quality link
something you have to earn. You earn these links by partnering with
sites. In order for a partnership to work, you have to develop a
relationship. I think more webmasters are open to establishing vital
community relationships. It takes trust and a lot of patience for these
relationships to build. Focus on what you can do for someone else first.
Rule #2:
Keep an open mind. High PageRank still lingers in most webmasters'
minds. But, by concentrating on high PageRank sites, we miss out on
other linking opportunites. Most of us understand that PageRank doesn't
happen overnight. That's why it's important to seek out lower PR, high
quality sites. The advantage is that these webmasters are more open to
establishing partnerships.
Rule #3: Site age is a big
factor. I've put together my owning ranking system for evaluating a
site's linking "worthiness". One big factor is site age. Any site that
has been around since the late 1990s is going to have a higher "score".
These sites have weathered search engine updates, bad economies, and
bad press. All else being equal, I tend to lean towards site age as the
determining factor for a potential link partner.
Rule #4:
Stop worrying about what you can't contol. I get questions all the time
from people wanting to know if they can re-design their sites, or link
to other sites, or change hosting companies. They want to know if these
activities will ruin their search engine rankings. My response is
always the same: do what's best for you and your customers. Don't NOT
do something because you're worried it will ruin your SEO work. If you
have a solid customer base, your search engine rankings won't be as
crucial. The viral aspect of the web is extremely underestimated.
Search traffic is only one source of traffic.
Rule #5:
Can you be trusted?. Having a solid client list, establishing
relationships with other webmasters, provding great customer service.
These activites are all based on trust. Can you be trusted to follow
through? If you are trustworthy, your link building will be
trustworthy. If you're in it for the short term, like all spammers,
then you can't be trusted.
The web is wide open for those
webmasters who are willing to develop relationships for the long run.
In the future, one way links will be graded on trust. So, you need to
ask yourself, am I trustworthy? It's give and take. Are you willing to
give before you can take?
Blogging has become a popular way to make a bit of money and make
yourself known as an expert in your particular niche. But too many
bloggers think they can just put up any old site, write a few posts,
and watch the money come rolling in. This is not likely to happen for
most people.
If
you want to really make money with your blog, it needs to be organized
and well-written. Do you want a few tips on how to make your blog
better? Keep reading to find out how you can have a better blog in just
7 days.
Day 1: Get Organized. Get a notebook that you can keep
on hand to jot down possible topic ideas as they come to you. Create a
folder on your computer that's dedicated to your blog writing. You may
even want to make special bookmark folders in your internet browser for
different websites that can help you (e.g. one for sites about
blogging, one for other blogs in your topic, one for research related
to your topic, etc.)
Day 2: Think about your readers. Who is
reading your blog? Male or female? What age? Where are they from? These
factors should all affect the style of your blog and your writing. For
example, certain people may not like an informal writing style, while
others may be put off by a professional style. If you know your
audience you can cater to them. Also, think about what types of things
your audience needs and what type of information they don't have.
Knowing this can help you come up with things to write about or
affiliate programs that you should think about promoting. Make sure
you're writing all of this down either in a notebook or in a file on
your computer. You don't want to forget these ideas.
Day 3: Find
similar bloggers. Spend about an hour looking for other blogs that are
similar in topic to yours. Pay attention to what sort of style they
use. What are you going to do to make your blog unique? Can you create
a niche-within-a-niche? Bookmark all of these blogs in a special folder
so that you can visit them frequently. It's good to keep tabs on what
other same-topic bloggers are writing about. You wouldn't want to miss
a time-sensitive piece such as a news story. You also can use these
blogs to study what affiliate programs others in your niche are
promoting.
Day 4: Keyword research. Today you should research
keywords. Do this using a keyword research tool. Your job is to find
keywords within your niche that are large enough that people are
searching for them, but small enough that there isn't too much
competition already. Make sure that you write down all of these
keywords, even if you may not use them for awhile. You never know when
inspiration might strike.
Day 5: Brainstorming. Get out that
notebook (or open that Word file) and start writing your ideas out onto
the paper. Don't censor yourself. Everything is OK here. Nobody but you
is going to see this. Once you've got your main ideas down, see if you
can break them down any further. For example, with this article, I
thought "How can I make my blog better?" then I wrote down each of the
ideas. This made it much easier to actually sit down and write the
article.
Day 6: Do your research. Do your blog posts need
additional research? Today's the day to focus on that. Take a look at
your brainstorming lists from yesterday. See where there are holes and
fill them in with a bit of research. It's going to make tomorrow much
easier.
Day 7: Get writing! Today, write several blog posts and
store them on your computer. These should be very easy to write because
you have followed the steps in the previous days. If you write a few
articles in one day, you can post them throughout the week without
spending much time each day. This streamlines the process and makes it
much easier.
Some of these steps may seem unnecessary to some
people, but I assure you that doing all of them will only make things
easier for you. In just 7 days you can get organized and start writing
the blog masterpiece that I know is inside you.
Every year for Google has been a breakout year for the eight- year-old company, but 2006 was a blockbuster. Besides adding user-generated video phenom YouTube to its roster for $1.65 billion in stock, Google remained a favorite of Wall Street, with stock catapulting over $500 per share. That spike was more than enough to cover the cost of purchasing YouTube.
And then they moved in with NASA.
2. YouTube If Google was a winner just for acquiring YouTube, then YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steven Chen, who created a site and flipped it for major moolah in just a year and a half, without even demonstrating how the site could turn a profit, are the biggest table scrap winners of the year. They still run their company and still got those stock certificates.
3. Broadband
Dialup Internet access has become akin to having outdoor plumbing. In the US, broadband access hit nearly 80 percent of the population. Because people no longer had to begin downloading a large file and then go to dinner while it finished, they spent more time actually enjoying video and audio content on the Web.
4. Lawyers
Happy days are here again for the corporate attorney. As Internet companies become Web giants, the window for lawsuit, valid or not, frivolous or not, gets a lot bigger. Google settles with advertisers angry over click fraud for $90 million - that's $60 million in advertising credit for the advertiser and $30 million cash for the attorneys who won that case. Yahoo's lawyers are so good, all they had to say was 'sorry about that' and write a check for $5 million to the complainant's attorneys. 5. Social Media
For the end user it's been all about friends' lists, blogs, wikis, amateur videos, vlogging, podcasting, and instant messaging. From the consumer end, it's been a communication bonanza and the official creation of the citizen media. Ideally, the elite and powerful only provide the means by which the people communicate, not control the communication itself, and the people are eating up. And for the professional media, if we hear the words "MySpace" or "YouTube" one more time...
6. Podcasting
The word "podcast" may have been Oxford's word of the year in 2005, but nobody really knew anything about it until 2006. Now organizations of all types - newspapers, corporations, educational institutions, radio stations, kids - have started their own virtual radio stations. Though Apple made threats to those audacious enough to use the term "podcast," a trademark infringement Apple said, all it took was a tongue-in-cheek one-dollar check to Apple head Steve Jobs to get official approval to podcast at will.
7. The Man
In all his incarnations, in government, media, or corporate America, The Man came out far ahead of the rest, even if he were scratched and bruised on the way. The G-Man, and his DOJ minions, strong- armed all the major search engines for their search data and got it, even from Google. Phones were tapped, records were seized, and online gambling, except that which is preferred by The Man, was banned. In China, The Man again forced Google to alter its search results to match the imposed cultural hegemony
