Win “SPEED RACER” Premiums!

Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch), who was born to race cars, is a natural behind the wheel. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized—the legendary Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill.

When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company’s maniacal owner (Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secret—some of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. Royalton intends to see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line.

The only way for Speed to save his family’s business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his one-time rival—the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox)—to win the race that had taken his brother’s life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as The Crucible.

“SPEED RACER” stars Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, Matthew Fox and Rain (Jeong Ji-Hun). It is directed by the Wachowski brothers.

“SPEED RACER” zooms into cinemas 8 May 2008.

Here’s your opportunity to win “SPEED RACER” Premiums. Just answer two simple questions and complete the tie-breaker! Contest ends 7 May 2008.

We’ve given you many optimization tips over the years, and, as you know, it’s important to consider how your ad implementations affect not only your click-through rate, but your users’ and advertisers’ experience as well. To support this, we’d like to remind you of the following two guidelines when optimizing your site.

1. Ads shouldn’t be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads.
For example, ads shouldn’t be placed under titles such as “Dallas Business Opportunities” or “Today’s Hot Deals”. Placing ads directly below titles such as these implies to your users that the links in the ads are publisher-created content. The example below shows a placement that does not follow this guideline.

2. Ads should be easily distinguishable from surrounding content.
Similarly, you should not place an ad unit by a group of links that has identical colors and line spacing. Doing so may cause users to think the ad unit is content created by you. In this situation, we recommend using a different color for the ad titles or indenting the ad unit to help distinguish the ads from your own content. This screenshot shows an implementation that does not follow this guideline:

As you can imagine, users who click on ads that they think are publisher-created content may lose trust in your site and decide not to return in the future. It’s important to keep their interests in mind, as well as your own.

Also, advertisers can tell which sites have a high conversion rate for them using Placement Performance reports. A conversion occurs when a click on an ad leads directly to user behavior that the advertiser deems valuable, such as a purchase, sign-up, page view, or lead. Advertisers have the option to exclude your site from their campaigns and may do so if it is not leading to conversions.

We believe these guidelines invest in the long-term health of the relationship between AdSense publishers, AdWords advertisers, and your sites’ visitors, and that they will help ensure your continued success in the AdSense program.

Posted by Meridith Major – AdSense Publisher Support

Crucial Factors In SEO By Ryan Simpson (c) 2008

There’s no shortage on advice regarding what people should do to improve a web site’s position in the search engine listings. It is easy to become confused when you consume all the information that is available, because some folks agree with others while some totally disagree and provide dissimilar advice.

You should be extremely suspicious of any advice given by someone that tells you to use search engine submissions, employ traffic exchanges, or use FFA sites. That is so out of date it’s not funny.

What is pertinent for excellent rankings in the search engines was highlighted not too long ago via a survey done by SEOmoz of a collection of SEO professionals.

In short, below are the 4 most important search engine optimization ranking factors, in accordance with the experts’ consensus views.

Using the correct keywords when crafting the title tag of a page is of extreme importance. It does not only promote higher rankings, it also helps with the click-through from the SE listings to the destination page. It is of lesser value to be listed high in the results without receiving that many clicks. The ultimate purpose is to gain as many targeted visitors to your site as possible.

The keywords that were used by the searcher are bolded in the results of the search. When the right keyphrase of the page title is bolded, it gives the listing a higher opportuníty of being seen and receiving a click. Nevertheless, highlighted keywords are not the only thing to think about when writing the page title tag.

Lots of additional clicks can be attained from a smartly written page title tag, especially when it invites the searcher to click. It is better to attract a hundred clicks from position number five with an eye-catching title tag than fifty clicks from position number three with a badly written title tag, correct?

Anchor Text used by Inbound Links

The anchor text that is employed in the link that points to your web site from an external site counts a lot in the search engine algorithms to figure out what your site is all about. Additionally, what your site is all about defines to a large extent what keywords it will rank for in the search results.

If you can influence in any way the anchor text that other web sites employ when they link to you, then it’s an extremely prudent way of investing your time.

A larger number of external sites that have links to your site employing a certain set of keywords, or alternate versions of that keyword, will prompt the SE’s to more readily compute that your site is all about that specific keyphrase.

It’s far more advantageous if the content of the destination page on your site contains that particular keyword and phrases similar in meaning.

The Universal Link Popularity of Your Site

Search engines figure out the relative importance of a site from the volume of hyperlinks that point to the web site. They include both quality of hyperlinks and quantity of the hyperlinks.

The more different web sites that have links to your web site, the higher the SE’s will calculate the deemed importance of your site.

Learn What It Takes to Get Top Google, Yahoo and MSN Rankings!

Link building is a never-ending process. One can’t ever have a sufficient number of backlinks pointing to your site. It’s true that it is possible to build links too fast and that can raise some alerts in the algorithms of the search engines. But, if it’s done as an ongoing effort with a long-term outlook, every backlink deserves the resources spent in acquiring it. They all add up to an improved deemed importance of your web site.

Link Popularity in the Site’s Internal Link Structure

The fact is that some of your web pages will get more external links than others. Those that do not get a lot of external links could be the actual money pages that you would wish to rank well in the SE indexes.

The internal linking structure, in addition to the anchor text employed in the internal links, is the way to disperse PageRank inside your site.

Some search engine optimization professionals say that an internal link to a page has the same value as a link from an external page. That doesn’t mean the site will rank with nothing more than internal links. What it means is that you could cause a page to be ranked by having internal links pointing to it even though it does not have lots of external links, on the condition that the remainder of the web site has acquired enough trust from external links.

Conclusion

SEO might appear daunting when one views it as a whole. However, when viewed as individual focus areas, there are a select number of relatively easy areas one can concentrate on to achieve the largest benefits.

About The Author
Do you own a WordPress blog? Get expert WordPress blog search engine optimization help at www.wpseosniper.com .

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we’re kids? If you’re less than 10 years old, you’re so excited about aging that you think in fractions.

“How old are you?” “I’m four and a half!” You’re never thirty-six and a half. You’re four and a half, going on five! That’s the key

You get into your teens, now they can’t hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.

“How old are you?” “I’m gonna be 16!” You could be 13, but hey, you’re gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . You become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There’s no fun now, you’re Just a sour-dumpling. What’s wrong? What’s changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you’re PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it’s all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone.

But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn’t think you would!

So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You’ve built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it’s a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday!

You get into your 80’s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30 ; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn’t end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; “I Was JUST 92.”

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. “I’m 100 and a half!”
May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

HOW TO STAY YOUNG
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay “them.”

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop.” And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it’s family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don’t take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county; to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10.Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,but by the moments that take our breath away.

And if you don’t send this to at least 8 people – who cares? But do share this with someone. We all need to live life to its fullest each day!!

A customizable dashboard, multi-file upload, built-in galleries, one-click plugin upgrades, tag management, built-in Gravatars, full text feeds, and faster load times sound interesting? Then WordPress 2.5 might be the release for you. It’s been in the oven for a while, and we’re finally ready to open the doors a bit to give you a taste.

Read more…

Software: WordPress Sneak Peek – WordPress Verson 2.5 Release Candidate, Upgrade 1 is out!

Starting a site design or re-design project for your company’s website can be overwhelming with all the details you must decide on and consider. In doing so, the issue of SEO and web usability is quickly forgotten or placed low on the priority list. Whether an e-commerce or business-to-business lead generating site, it is critical to the long-term performance of the site to implement not only the SEO factors in a site design, but to consider all elements of website usability in the equation.Following are some helpful tips for SEO, web usability and higher web site conversion on a new site design or re-design project:

• Site design: EASY always wins-out over good, smart or even better. If the site is EASY to get around, visitors will stay longer.
• Visitors like small packages of info.
• Visitors like structure.
• Better design means Less Eye-Movement. Less eye-movement leads to higher conversion.

Design Site Pages W/Visual “Roadmaps”: a. Have points of high contrast to attract the eye.
b. Utilize different font sizes (i.e. larger fonts for headings).
c. Use faces – faces are visual anchors for users. They are comforting.
d. Blue underlined links.
e. White space – surround text, images and clickable links w/white space.
f. Utilize pictures for color contrast.
g. Use captions on pictures.
h. Use motion (flash or video).

Be Consistent:

a. Alignment – use alignment to separate different information from different sources i.e. Headers separated w/larger font and white space.
b. Navigation – i.e. same nav on each page.
c. Same visual anchors on each page.
d. Same use of white space on each page.
e. Same use of headers and small text “chunks” – easy for visitors to spot and read.
f. DON’T mix with too many font styles.

Navigation:

1. If you have long left navigation or menu bars, use Headers/Headings for visual “anchor points” – improves “find-ability”.

a. Use no more than 7 items under each heading.

b. Users will use and remain on navigation longer if you group navigation w/Headings.

c. Organized Navigation Will Enable Find-Ability.

2. Avoid top navigation that has mouse-over drop downs. Not SE friendly, users do not prefer them because the drop downs often obstruct page content.

3. Users still prefer left navigation on larger sites.

4. If using graphic navigation, code embed alts and titles for Search Engines.

Product Pages:

1. Don’t forget to use SEO best practice on-page optimization on all product pages (page specific meta data, H1’s, unique content).

2. Position Add to Cart button in close proximity to product price – either directly under or next to.

3. Add to Cart button should stand out in color and appearance (i.e. 3D).

Checkout Pages:

1. Utilize “button gravity” – users will always be drawn to the last button on the page.

a. Position Checkout button LAST – easy to find.
b. Position Continue Shopping button next to Checkout button.

2. Offer multiple ways of payment – with specific selection function, i.e. pay by phone – have phone number listed, credit card, PayPal, etc.

3. Allow “Guest” checkout (no registration required to checkout).

4. Avoid requiring registration before checkout.

Lead Generation Forms:

1. Provide free informative white papers in exchange for contact info/filling out form .

2. Keep online forms targeted and as short as possible.

3. Include a privacy policy link / secure email link near “submit” button.

Other SEO Site Design Tips:

1. When using flash, position and limit flash to specific, strategic areas for color and contrast. Avoid all flash site pages and avoid embedding relevant, keyword rich content in flash.

2. Whenever possible, position main keyword rich content w/H1’s within prime site real estate (top, left).

3. Users still rely on logo to be positioned top left – and as a link to Home page. An SEO best practice hint: use your page.

In addition, while implementing SEO and web usability to your site design – redesign, test, test, test. Hire a usability testing company or do A/B testing in house to obtain proven statistical results. Ongoing testing even after the site design project is also recommended!

In conclusion, implementing SEO and web usability in a site design produces tangible business results in the big picture. Keeping the big picture in mind during the site design – re-design process is essential.

About The Author
SEO and web usability expert Valerie DiCarlo helps companies large and small – worldwide – enjoy a long term improvement in website visibility, increased brand awareness, a continuous flow of new sales leads and higher revenues. To discover how you can improve web presence, visibility and conversion with improved web usability for your website, go to: www.seo-web-consulting.com .

I am not able to bear all these people alone, because the burden is too heavy for me. Numbers 11:14

God’s answer to Moses’ cry for help was for Moses to share the responsibilities of leadership with a select group. We don’t know a lot about the seventy elders Moses called to aid him. The Old Testament mentions them only twice, both times to witness God’s presence, power, and glory (Exodus 24). But the second time the elders are called, God expanded their role. This time they were called to participate-thus revealing something remarkable about how God works with leaders. “I will take the Spirit that is upon you,” God told Moses, “and will put the same upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, that you may not bear it yourself alone” (Numbers 11:17).

When a leader called by God has a burden that becomes too great, God provides help . . . if the leader will ask for it. Not only will the Lord provide helpers to share the load, He will anoint them with His power, just as He did the seventy elders of Israel.

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