Geek Dreams: Best Ideas for a Silicon Valley Vacation

A vacation to Silicon Valley can be a dream come true for Geeks of all ages. While a journey to the birthplace of technology may not be on quite the same level as a religious pilgrimage to Jerusalem or Mecca, it is a significant event that a Geek will never forget.

A sea captain may want to travel and see all of the historic lighthouses along the Eastern Seaboard. Kids would consider a trip to Disneyland to be a dream vacation and other people would be thrilled to spend a week on a tropical island in the Caribbean. While Geeks may like to go to amusement parks and lay out on the beach like their less tech-savvy friends, what they really would love the best is a trip to Silicon Valley.

Not all of today's innovative technology takes place in California's Silicon Valley, but it is the home of technology giants like Apple, Google and Hewlett-Packard. Silicon Valley is filled with venture capitalists looking to fund the next Google or Facebook. Silicon Valley will always be the heart of the industry.

If you want to get a first-hand look at the earliest stages of the digital age on through the latest developments in our digital world, there is no better place to take a vacation than the Silicon Valley. So pack your bags and come out to see where technology began, where it is today, and where technology may go in the future.

Computer History Museum

Upholding the honorary title of Geek makes it almost mandatory that part of your tour of Silicon Valley includes a visit to the Computer History Museum. Home to the largest collection of computer-related artifacts in the world, it is quite amazing to journey through time and see how far technology has come from the early days. Even though you may not have been born back in 1956, you will appreciate the contribution that IBM made to data storage technology by replacing the punched cards with the first disk drives.

Your time in the museum will be like taking a walk through time. As you make your way from exhibit to exhibit, you will have to see the step-by-step advances in technology in what is a relatively short period of time. From the first microchip to the introduction of Atari's Pong game you will move forward in time to see the introduction of the Apple computer and the IBM personal computer.

Moving forward, your tour will feature the brand new Internet and let you see how computers have continually changed to keep up with the times. Explore everything and when you are done, stop by the gift shop and pick up a souvenir for yourself and maybe a gift for one of your geeky friends.

HP Garage

Close to the Palo Alto campus of Stanford University, in a small, quiet neighborhood, stands a structure of great historical significance. Back in 1938, Stanford classmates, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard rented out the 12x18-foot modest space and started a business. The detached garage served as a research lab, workshop and manufacturing facility for some of the first Hewlett-Packard products.

In 1989, the garage was officially dedicated as the Birthplace of Silicon Valley. In 2007 it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. HP purchased and restored the Garage and adjacent home to its original 1938 appearance. Geeks and plain old curiosity seekers are welcome to get a view of this historic site from the sidewalk but are not permitted on the private property. You are welcome to come by and snap a few pictures, but please respect the privacy of the neighbors.

Original Apple Store

Take out your smartphone and use your GPS to find the shortest route to Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino. The company store is open to the public, but is not like the local Apple store you might have visited in your home town. They do not sell iPhones or computers at this store, but it is the only place you can buy an authentic Apple logo t-shirt, cap or other accessories.

Google Garage

Garages must hold a special place in the hearts of all those people who aspire to become the next famous Geek in Silicon Valley. Today there are probably hundreds of tech-savvy teens working in their garages to come up with the next great product that will change the landscape in the Silicon Valley. If you were interested in the HP Garage, you will also be interested in seeing the Google Garage. It was 1998 when Stanford grad students Larry Page and Sergey Brin came up with the world's most popular search engine and housed their start-up business in the home of Susan Wojcicki's Menlo Park garage. If you are a Geek, come and gawk at the original company home of the Internet's most influential company.

Weirdstuff Warehouse

If you need anything computer or tech-related you will probably find it in this 10,000 square foot store. You can find almost anything from cables, printers and software to artistic mouse pads and old parts for your vintage computer.

Google's Android Statues

Standing proudly outside of Building 44 at Google's corporate headquarters is a collection of iconic figures. Each plastic Android statue has a code name based on a new version of the popular mobile operating system. Come see the newest Android - KitKat, who joins Cupcake, Gingerbread Man and the others.

Intel Museum

Although this is a small museum, it contains the complete story of Intel and its history of making the brain of the personal computer. Plan on spending a couple of hours and bring the kids along because they will love the many interactive exhibits. This is a fun and educational experience that should not be missed and admission is free!

Annual Shareholder Meeting

If you have a 401-K plan or invest in the stock market, you probably own some of these high-tech companies. If you own a share of Apple, Google or Facebook, and are in town at the right time of the year, you can attend the annual shareholder meeting. What a treat it would be for any Geek to see Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) or Tim Cook (Apple) and maybe even ask them a question.

Silicon Valley is great for Geeks of all ages. While it is a real place with real hard-working people, you will feel like you are in an enchanted land. Visit the tech sites, stop by Stanford University, have lunch at a fabulous restaurant and take a little time to let the magnificence of this area take your breathe away.

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Top Ten Tips For A Successful Insurance Agency Blog

Why take the time to create and maintain an insurance agency blog? There are many benefits to blogging, from showcasing agency expertise, to improving insurance agency search engine optimization. Suffice it to say, an insurance agency website is missing a vital component if it lacks a blog. Here are ten important tips to ensure your agency deploys a successful insurance agency blog:

1. Be Consistent - Publish at least one blog a week, and do it every week. Gaps impact credibility for both your readers and your insurance search engine optimization.

2. Speak To Your Audience - It's about them, not you. What topics interest them? What impacts their businesses?

3. Vary Content Fulfillment - Blogs should include complimentary digital content when possible. This might include a link to a video, and infographic, a webinar, a case study, or new regulations (ACA, OSHA, etc.).

4. Don't Make It About Insurance - I can save you money on your commercial insurance is not the type of blog that agencies should publish. As noted in Tip #2, stick with topics that will interest your target market.

5. Educational, Timely, Elucidating - The more educational your content, the better your insurance agency blog. Focus on regulations, updates, news and interesting topics relating to your readers. Make sure each blog includes a "knowledge nugget", a valuable take away that your reader will remember.

6. Leverage Social Media - Whenever you post a blog, make sure you share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+.

7. Include Social Media Sharing Icons - Make it easy to share your blogs by including "chiclets" (sharing icons) at the bottom of every blog.

8. Don't Just Blog, Vlog - A short video or recorded webinar can be used to make a great blog. These look very professional when sharing on social media.

9. Include Images - Blogs always look more professional when an image is included. Images make blogs more likely to be read.

10. Make It Easy To Find - Make sure your blog is easy to find on your insurance website. At a minimum, have your blog accessible from your main navigation, but it's even better if it's also accessible from a Call To Action button on your home page.

An insurance blog provides owners, agents and producers with a great opportunity to showcase expertise. Many agencies can blog on their own, utilizing their internal staff. Those that lack the time or resources, can outsource their blogging to a proficient insurance agency marketing firm.

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Best DoFollow Sites for Building Backlinks in 2014

What is a DoFollow link?

For many businesses, having a strong online presence is a necessity in today's market. Likewise, if you have anything to market, it is important that you use all the tools available to you to give the website as much exposure as possible.

If you've started your own blog or have a presence on social media and you want to increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) ranking, you've probably done some research on link building and have run into the terms "DoFollow" and "NoFollow". Both terms refer to a form of backlinks, which are external links from other websites which point back to your website. Backlinks are important as they are one of the factors which Google and inferior search engines use in considering the ranking of your website. That's right, DoFollow and NoFollow have an affect on your site's PageRank. The quickest way to determine a site has DoFollow links is to look for the little icons, usually at the top or bottom of a page which you can click on to share the website's content on social media websites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. DoFollow links can come from sources such as websites, social media platforms, blogs and forums. You can recognize DoFollow links in HTML coding which is encrypted in hyperlinks.

To determine if a site's links are DoFollow or NoFollow, simply right click on the site and view the source code. Check out the HTML and look for the following code after the link's website reference.

rel="dofollow" or rel+"external
Search engines track DoFollow links and their value (also referred to as juice) also gets transferred to the search engine. Okay, so what does that mean? It means that Google bots will follow the link and enter your site. This will help Google in indexing your page and getting credit for the backlink as opposed to the site using "NoFollow" which means that Google bots would not follow the link to your site. In that case, the link may as well not even exist. Verifying whether a link which appears in the search engine results pages, or SERPs is a DoFollow link can easily be done with a couple of clicks. Simply right click on the link you want to check in Mozilla or Chrome and select the "Inspect element" option from the drop-down menu. A window will open at the bottom of your browser with a highlighted link including the complete html code. We will go over one real-world example together so that you fully understand this concept if you havent mastered it already.

Can You Get a DoFollow From Facebook?

For example, if you wanted to find out if Facebook allows DoFollow links, you would perform the following steps:

1.) Visit Facebook.

2.) Right click on a post with a link in it.

3.) Click on "Inspect Element".

4.) Look for the HTML code containing either "DoFollow" or "NoFollow" right next to the URL being shared.

If you performed this little 4-step experiment, depending on what link you checked, you most likely found out that Facebook does NOT allow DoFollow links. This is a terrible waste of potential as Facebook is a PageRank 9 (PR9) site and could give your site a nice boost with that kind of backlink juice. No worries! If you want a backlink from a PR9 such as Facebook then it is my duty to deliver information to you on how you can achieve this. However, now is not the time for this so I will save it for the next article as we have bigger fish to fry first.

I do promise you that it is possible and I am not just making it up!

What are the Advantages of DoFollow Links?

One of the most obvious advantages of DoFollow links is that they give your site backlink juice. Especially if you bait some good ones. Ultimately, you want a nice mix of all types of PR backlinks (PR0-PR9), but that is a discussion for another day.

Backlinks tend to help attract more visitors to your site, increasing the amount of traffic and the overall PageRank (PR) of your site.

DoFollow links also encourage comments from other bloggers and users seeking backlinks and the more people comment on your blog or website, the better it is for your SEO. DoFollow links can have advantages and disadvantages depending on what your goals are and whether you are the webmaster or just a user of a site that honors DoFollow. Enabling Dofollow links on your site or blog can help you as a webmaster due to the fact that you will attract users that will be leaving comments on it. This also increases SEO and the ranking of a blog in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

How Do I Stop Spammers?

The main disadvantage to Dofollow enabled websites is that they are an opportunity for spammers to post irrelevant links on your site which will take time to moderate and delete. It can get annoying quick, but there is good news. WordPress blogs come with the Akismet plugin preinstalled now-a-days. Akismet is a plugin that will stop spammers dead in their tracks. Even though it is pre-installed, you will still have to activate it and provide your API for it to work. Fortunately for you, doing so is no big deal and only takes a few minutes.

What are the Best Sites to Use for Getting DoFollow Backlinks?

Let's look at a few websites which allow dofollow links ordered in relation to their Google PageRank.

Google Plus

Because the social network is owned by Google, Google Plus is the perfect place to interact by integrating all of the tools available to users including Gmail, Google Drive and Blogger. Users can link to content placed on other websites with each backlink enhancing the SEO ranking. Since Google is the most widely used search engine, it is likely that they will give preference to links on one of their platforms compared to other media. Google Plus allows users to email contacts in their circles, another important feature for content creators and marketers. It also features Hangouts which are a place for people to interact using live video streaming enabled by YouTube.

Although Google Plus may not currently have the large following that other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have, it has shown significant growth since its release and is expected to grow even further. This makes it vital for marketers who want to make the greatest impact and get in early to catch new users.

YouTube

YouTube was purchased by Google in 2006, which is why it continues to have a high page rank. The video sharing platform has more videos uploaded daily than any one person can watch in their entire lifetime. Backlinking from the website has become increasingly popular due to users' awareness of the power of the network.

The best way to use YouTube to promote your products, services or brand is to post interesting content and point backlinks to your other websites and social networks. A method of increasing the number of views is by posting the link to your video on related videos. Do not spam people with irrelevant material and ads. These comments will likely end up being deleted. You can also post your video as a video response to someone else's video in order to increase your chances of exposure.

Pinterest

The image sharing website works like an online pin board on which users can pin images with accompanying details of ideas and things they like and sort them into various folders according to categories. Pinterest draws content from online sources and allows users to also post new content. The site allows backlinks to other websites and social media platforms.

Especially for people in industries involving design and art, this is a good place for sharing ideas with others and benefiting from their shared ideas. Pinterest is also linked to other websites which display icons representing backlinks to to Pinterest, on which a displayed image can be shared. The website works as a form of bookmarking system for users enabling them to later look back at liked and saved images.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional network focused on connecting people for employment and business opportunities. Users create profiles on which they can display an online resume detailing their skills, credentials, education, experience and job history. This makes it simpler for companies to hire people and allows users to search for opportunities related to their information and skills.

The website is primarily focused on career building and opportunities which makes it a good resource for employers and employees alike. Content can be backlinked to other social media websites such as Facebook and twitter in order to increase the exposure of a user's profile or share existing opportunities. Users can also join groups of people in their related field and industry in order to share information, events and opportunities.

Reddit

Reddit is an online message board on which users can share links. It differs from social networks such as twitter in that each link can be upvoted or downvoted by users. This results in the highest quality links having the highest ratings making it simpler for users to judge the value of the content posted. Reddit is not as simple to use as sites such as Facebook which usually deters people from becoming involved in it, however given a good amount of time working around the site, it can be an invaluable tool for marketers. Like any other social media site, good and interesting content is key in gaining more votes and comments which boost the ranking of posts.

StumbleUpon

True to the website's name, StumbleUpon provides a platform on which users can stumble upon interesting websites. The website introduces users to new websites which they otherwise might not have found by looking at the users previous likes and searches in order to customize their profiles.

In this way, users are continually exposed to new information and resources relevant to their needs and interests which provide a personalized web experience. Users can also connect to each other based on preferences and share content with other users. StumbleUpon also allows users to search for content. The website relates the content to the users specifications and provides only quality images, making the search quicker and more relevant than one performed on a regular search engine.

Digg

Digg was one of the first websites to make it popular to vote content up or down. The social news websites allows users to search for and organize category specific news such as current events, science, technology and politics. Digg was founded in 2004 and prompted the establishment of similar sites such as Reddit. The website was redesigned in 2012 to support sharing content with other social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. The website also released a news reading app called Digg Reader in 2012, in response to public complaints about the shutting down of Google Reader.

Diigo

Diigo describes itself as a "multi-tool for knowledge management". The social-bookmarking website enables users to tag and bookmark pages as well as highlight content and attaches sticky notes to webpages with highlighted content. Diigo is a simple research and sharing tool which allows users to organize information in a manner which is effective for referencing and note-making. Diigo stands for "Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other Stuff" and is ideal for anybody who wants to search and take the most out of any information which they read. Backlinking allows for sharing on other websites so it is a great tool for cross-referencing and sharing interesting information which is relevant to your niche.

Slashdot

Slashdot was originally started as a blog in 1997 and is now a media website featuring science and technology news. The website's tagline is "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters." The website features user-submitted and evaluated stories with comments sections for users to interact and share their views on stories. If you have a blog or offer a product or service in the technology industry, this will be a useful tool to gain followers by backlinking to relevant information on your website and sharing stories on other websites or social networks which you use.

Mister-Wong

The comically named website is the most popular social bookmarking website in Europe. It may have attracted users due to the controversial image of a wise Asian cartoon. Users refer to the site to get useful and personalized information and searches. Much like Diigo, the site allows users to search for, save and share websites. It is the most popular bookmarking site in Europe and is available in six different languages.

If your target market is primarily in Europe, Mister Wong is probably an ideal platform to use and promote your offering or content.

Squidoo

Squidoo is a type of search engine which allows users to create single webpages (referred to as lenses) for topics which interest them. These pages can be used to make money for companies, individuals or users by selling products. Squidoo is particularly popular because of its potential income-earning feature. Squidoo awards 50% of revenue to users, called lensmasters, for created content and relies on advertising and affiliate marketing for revenues. Lenses or pages can be shared on other social media to increase exposure and income-earning potential. If you are selling something unique which can be offered on the platform, this is probably an option you want to explore.

Hubpages

Hubpages simplifies blogging and content sharing for users who want the opportunity to earn money from writing content. Users post content on any selected topic and are encouraged to make articles, which are referred to as hubs on the website, as engaging, content and media rich as possible. Hubpages works on its page ranking and optimizing the SEO for content posted on their website. Users can link their accounts to a Hubpages Earning Program which gives them a share of the money Hubpages receives from Google AdSense for their content as well as edit hubs to feature additional links to Google ads linking back to user individual AdSense accounts which they can subsequently earn from. Users can also earn by posting Amazon and eBay listings on content, which maximizes their earning potential for earning as the online stores pay certain amounts per click and per referred purchase. Hubpages also has affiliate systems which enable users to earn by referring new people to the website.

Dofollow enabled links also give users the opportunity to market their own content. Hubpages is a good platform for writers to gain experience and exposure in content writing, whilst earning a little money on the side for their efforts.

Why these websites?

Websites with high PageRank have been included as theoretically it is believed they will provide the most exposure to your site and the most backlink juice through DoFollow backlinks. As this may have some truth to it, as I mentioned earlier, ideally you want an evenly distributed mix of low and high PR backlinks as that is what appears to be most natural to the search engines.

Although many DoFollow enabled sites exist, there are too many for us to get them all. Nonetheless, we will sure try as we will continue to provide you with similar articles in the very near future. I believe that there is only one issue left for me to address and that is the issue of enabling DoFollow links in Facebook links. I will begin working on an article that describes the process and will update this article with a link as soon as the other article is published.

How to Buy Brand Name Merchandise For Cheap

This article will provide some information on where one can buy designer products for much less than traditionally found in department stores.

Bargain retailing is already a big business, and it's still growing exponentially. The reason - every one of us wants quality designer merchandise but not the hefty price mark-ups that come with the goods. The question therefore is: where can you get the stuff cheap? That is, where can you buy discount designer clothes, belts, hand bags, perfumes and colognes without compromising the quality and integrity of the products?

The answer is not department stores, or flea markets. Nor is it an appeal to your patience -you don't have to wait for annual or semi-annual sales. The place to buy the designer products is the Internet. Right now there are several web-based stores that offer a variety of designer merchandise at heavily discounted prices.

My goal is to build your confidence in shopping online, to show you that is not only acceptable, but that it is the current and future trend of commerce. There is a reason why corporate giants like Best Buy, Wall-Mart, Costco and others are closing down stores every day. The reason is that competition from discount web based businesses is increasing, and these brick and mortar giants cannot compete with the web stores in terms of cost of doing business. If I can help you see that buying online can be safe, fun, and significantly less expensive, I will have achieved my goal. I will also provide tips to confirm the integrity of the web-based store as well as to ensure safety and security in your shopping experience.

Here is another way to look at the current vicissitudes of buying designer products - Every business is competing for your hard-earned dollars. And you are competing against the world to be as caught up with the fashion as the next young, smart and trendy individual. The only problem is - buying everything that is hip and in-style is not cheap. You want to know how to look "designered" up without having to sweep out your bank account. So what is the solution to your dilemma? Shop around online until you get comfortable with the online store that offers you what you are looking for at a price tag that is within your budget.

You can find almost any item of any brand online these days. Although it's true that not everyone can afford the Armani or Gucci items every single time he or she wants to buy something, if you know where and how to search you will find something that fits your budget every time. Having said that, getting good deals on names like Armani and Gucci is not uncommon at all. However, don't expect Armani or Gucci at low prices every time you search! This is because some big name designers have quantity control in place to create a tightly regulated market in which they monitor their product quantities very closely.

So what if Gucci and Armani are not within your budget every time you search? There are several other cheaper designer items available which will allow you to create the image you are going after. I will write an article in the near future explaining the supply and demand as well as the price elasticity as it relates to the marketing and supply of designer merchandise. Add this in somewhere later on

The new trend in discount shopping has been made available by the existence of the Internet through sites such as eBay and DealNews. On eBay a consumer can bid on products other people and businesses have for sale. Many times you will find some very good deals and very good prices. However, the challenge with sites such as eBay is that not all sellers are honest. There also have been many hackers and spammers that have used Ebay's name to con people into taking their money. Careful due diligence is necessary when bidding on items on auction sites such as Ebay. In contrast, DealNews is my personal favorite bargain hunter site. The site functions as a watchdog in where you type in a search for an item (mainly electronics) and the site crawls the entire Internet universe to provide you with the product you are looking for at the best price. For example, if you type in a search for "Casio Exilim", the site will provide you with all the stores that carry the camera at the best prices. You may then click on the item/price that you choose to and the site will route you to the original seller of the product. I like this site because it provides you with fresh results every time you search given the ever-changing prices in the retail environment. It's just too difficult to keep track of all the bargains and sales so I let this site handle the dirty work for me. No matter where you shop, the best bargain shopping is achieved by shopping around and getting comfortable with vendors you buy from. This site does just that for me.

Designer items don't always have to be luxury items that can't be afforded by many. One must understand the supply chain between the manufacturer and the end consumer, you, to realize that it does not really cost that much to manufacture designer goods. You can find heavily discounted designer items and the Internet is the main avenue to find them at. [Whether you need the new low cut white tops for the next club outing or just want to smell and look good at the right price, the solution is to shop on the web with some cautions discussed in this article.

The next section will cover specific tips on how to get comfortable shopping online and what to look for in an online retailer.

TIPS ON SHOPPING ONLINE

When shopping online, always look for recommendations from the store and the user community. Many sites will also give you comparison shopping tools or simply list the retail prices for you compared with their prices. If the site does not provide any reviews, go to Google and search for reviews on the product you are searching for. Look for links to bulletin boards and discussion forums in which consumers write about the product. Also look for Blogs that discuss the product you are looking for. User generated content is definitely your best bet in gaining familiarity and comfort with both the product and the web-based store.

Use sites like Froogle as a comparison benchmark

Froogle is Google's bargain search helper. Instead of typing in Google, type in http://www.froogle.com on your web browser. What you will see is a product finder site where you can type in the product you are looking for. Be as specific as you can when searching for products. For example, do not just type in Armani if you are looking for an Armani perfume. Instead, type in Armani Mania 3.3 OZ Eau de Toilette. Or if you are looking for a specific Calvin Klein perfume, do not just type Calvin Klein but rather type in CK One by Calvin Klein 3.3 OZ. Froogle allows you to arrange listings by Relevance, Price, Seller rating and Product rating. Each store that is displayed by Froogle is approved by Google in advance. Froogle is a very good resource for discount shopping.

SSL

Shop on websites that are committed to making your shopping experience safe and convenient.
Look for the privacy disclosures on a website and ensure that all personal data received by is kept private and confidential. Your personal information must be protected by a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), a technology that fully encrypts and protects all of your personal information (name, address, credit card number) so that it can not be read by anyone over the internet. To further protect user identity and unauthorized usage of financial information, ensure that the site does not store credit card information in their databases. Haven't you heard about the recent breach of security in the US Military technology that allowed hackers to access hundreds of thousands of credit card and social security numbers? I am personally wary of sites that "auto-bill" you automatically by storing your credit card information on file. Also look for disclaimers ensuring no personal information is sold or rented to a third party and that information will only be provided to a third party with the customer's advance consent.

To ensure that the site is secure and protected look for a small icon of a lock on the lower right hand side of the webpage anytime you are required to enter personal information and/or conduct a money transaction. For example if you go http://www.myperfumesforless.com and click to Log In link on the top right of the page, you will notice a small icon of a Lock appear on the bottom right of your screen. The lock ensures that your information is safe and protected. Do not enter any information or conduct transactions on sites that do not have this icon.

Integrity of product backed with company guarantee / (FAQ) section

The FAQ section has become a staple online. Through this section, web-based companies convey their message to the customer as well as answer several frequently asked questions that a customer might have. A good company updates the FAQ section regularly by adding questions that are commonly asked by their growing user/customer base. Through the FAQ section a company can explain its product in greater detail as well as provide you with additional confidence that they are willing to stand behind the performance and integrity of their products by providing a good warranty/guarantee program. For example, when a customer visits our company's website, the first question that often comes to his or her mind is whether the products are genuine. I myself would have doubts if I were to see designer perfumes and colognes at such low prices. This is a completely normal and rational reaction. It is the company's responsibility to educate its customers and inspire in them enough confidence in the company's products for the customer to be comfortable enough to pursue a transaction. If you click the About Us and FAQ sections of our company's website, you will see a complete description of where we get our products and how we are able to provide them for prices that are initially difficult to believe.

Sunil is the author of the Dubai Information Site, Easy Extra Money Online and Sue the Airlines; comprehensive content focused websites. Having created and sold two successful websites in the past, the Author's focus on these websites is strictly educational. Information is provided in a casual instructive format and is 100% Free.

Big Match Temperament for Size-Conscious Homo Sapiens

Homo sapiens get spectacularly hung up on size. We'd love to see our business become an inter-continental, ocean-spanning, towers-in-the-cloud world leader, but at the same time, we're terrified of competing on such a big scale. Sports teams representing their countries at international contests are taught a lot about how to deal with this dynamic. They are taught: The psychology of big-match temperament.

Let's begin your drive to develop big-match temperament, and ultimately own your industry, by overcoming the scariest possible size parameters...

If Paramount Pictures is to be believed, our potential target markets will one day include Klingons, Vulcans, and, if we can dissuade them from their psychotic need to assimilate entire species, the Borg. But until that day, our market is rather more limited. It's this spinning blue marble and its seven billion human inhabitants. Just that. That's as big as it gets.

As you strive to develop big-match temperament, find a good picture of our earth, as seen from space. Find a breathtaking shot that really appeals to you, because you're going to be spending a lot of time looking at it. Now print it out, stick it on your wall, and caption it: My Target Market.

Why? Well, there are two reasons for this little interior-decorating escapade. The first is that it gets you thinking big; beyond the limits of your town, province or country. It electrifies the bit of your brain that handles possibility-thinking, nudging it toward entertaining the bold prospect of world domination. Looking over the enticing shapes of continents, your subconscious mind will start ticking away at the mechanics necessary to achieve it.

The second reason is just the opposite of the first. When you stare at the entire world, as one small, round object, defined and finite, it somehow deflates the fear associated with that size. Staring at it, you can observe: There's the world, and it's all I'll ever have to worry about. It never gets any bigger than that.

Now let's chop it up a little further. In your bid to own your industry, you are not actually competing against 7 billion others. Not by a long shot.

For starters, you are reading this article. One in five people on earth couldn't manage that feat. Exclude children and people too old to work, and those who are not allowed to work because of restrictive cultures, and you will find yourself among a fairly small swathe of people. And of those, how many are involved in your industry?

Let's continue: Of the people involved in your industry, how many do you suppose are proactive enough to seek insight and education on how to become prominent; to reach the very top of the pile; rather than simply doing enough to get by?

The fact that you are reading this article means that you have already wiggled your way into a very small demographic indeed. By virtue of your desire to place yourself among the best, you may be competing against a few hundred people; a few thousand at best.

AND IT'S NOT ABOUT WHO'S THE BEST

Do you have to be the most technically proficient, in order to 'own' your industry? The answer, surprisingly, is no.

Consider the number people who, to a greater or lesser extent, know how to cook. The figure must run into the billions. That said, are Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Gordon Ramsay necessarily the best cooks in the world? Highly unlikely.

While it is important, technical proficiency does not equate to domination of an industry. There are people on earth who are better cooks than the names above, who are less known, and who earn less.

That shows us that there is something else at play, and it's called 'positioning.' Top industry icons are using a combination of publicity, personality and wide-spread presence to become household names.

Similarly, the best products also do not necessarily become the best-selling products. Sometimes presence and publicity can raise the sales of a merely good product over a great one, as was the case in the VHS, Beta battle of the 1970's and 80's, in which the essentially 'worse' product ultimately took the market.

SOMETIMES, ONE KEY VARIABLE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

It's frustrating, but it happens: One entrepreneur spends years on his craft. His work is impeccable, his standards unimpeachable, his industry knowledge unparalleled. He prospers to a certain degree.

His competition, however, becomes the most easily found on a Google search, and consequently, utterly dominates the industry.

Sometimes one key variable determines the difference between proficiency and market success. A prime example was the 'as seen on Oprah' factor, which launched many a multinational career.

So what conclusions can we reach? Firstly, the world is not as big as we initially think. You are competing against a few hundred - perhaps a few thousand - key players.

Secondly, if you desire to position yourself at the top of an industry, and genuinely strive to accomplish that feat, you are already well ahead of a great many practitioners who have no such desire, which in itself is an encouraging thought.

Thirdly, there is no need to be awed and put off by highly skilled practitioners. While important, technical proficiency is not necessarily the deciding factor. Prominence and positioning can often count for more, and sometimes, one key variable, such as visibility, can make all the difference to your efforts.

Homo sapiens do get hung up on size. We're easily awed by competition, easily psyched out by the perceived enormity of an industry.

But there are those who are not. There are those who simply get on with the task of working their way up the rungs of the ladder; who simply look for the leverage and then activate it.

Do you have the big-game temperament necessary to own your industry? When you kick off your campaign with the right mindset, you're already well ahead of the competition.

How to Use the Google Keyword Tool For SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a terribly frustrating experience, especially for the hobbyist. The web is littered with systems, tools and so-called cheats all angling for the right to move your site to the top of the search results - for a fee, of course. Separating the quality advice from the rubbish is a tall order for the inexperienced and intermediate webmaster alike, and going it on your own seems an even more daunting prospect.

That's where the Google AdWords Keyword tool comes in. It won't handle your SEO for you, but it will give you an excellent idea of which keywords are worth your time and which can be resigned to the SEO dust heap. The tool is free, and available to all users, regardless of whether or not you have a Google AdWords account.

You get a sense immediately of how powerful a tool this is. Drawing on the massive search data set of Google, the tool gives you a rough monthly estimate of the search traffic for various terms, and provides you with a list of potential terms based either on your website or on any keywords you're already considering. Now instead of wondering whether your flower shop should focus on "fresh flowers delivered overnight" or "overnight delivery fresh flowers", you can know - or at least make a more educated decision - based on the data Google provides.

However (it seems like there's always a 'however' in these articles, doesn't it?), the Google Keyword tool (let's just call it GK for short) is saddled with one massive caveat for those who would use it for SEO. It's not intended for that audience - rather, it's intended for people who are running advertising campaigns with Google. That might seem like a small distinction, but it's more significant than you might think, and it leads to my first rule of using GK for SEO:

Rule One: Always Use Exact, Not Broad, to Filter Your Results

Remember, GK was made for advertisers, not webmasters. In Google AdWords speak, 'broad' means searches that come close to a particular word or phrase. 'Exact' means... well, exactly that.

Let's go back to our flower shop example. You're curious about the search volume for "mother's day flowers", so you enter that term into GK. If you have 'broad' selected as your filter (it's the default setting on GK), GK will return a search volume number for "mother's day flowers" that includes the traffic for that term and a host of related terms. Why? Because GK is attempting to tell an advertiser about how many impressions their ad would receive if they targeted that keyword - not how many times that specific term is searched for.

That's interesting data for advertisers, but useless to you as a webmaster. Make sure your searches are filtered by 'exact' match (the setting is located toward the bottom of the left column) and you'll get accurate search data for your specific terms.

Rule Two: Confirm Competition With Common Sense

Here's another quirk of GK that you can chalk up to its advertiser-centric nature. That little bar that displays estimated competition for a keyword looks like a handy tool, and it is. Trouble is, that bar reflects competition among advertisers to purchase said keyword, and not always the difficulty of ranking well for that keyword. While the two often are correlated, it's far from a slam dunk that they will be, so a little cross-checking is in order.

Luckily, it's a simple enough task. Search for the keyword (just click the icon next to the term and Google will launch the search for you) and scroll through the first page or two of results. Evaluate the quality of the quality of the pages and how focused they seem to be on the keyword in question. The junkier the pages and the lower the apparent focus, the more conquerable the keyword.

Rule Three: Remember What Data Google Doesn't Give You

It's very easy to get caught up in the mountain of data provided by GK, but it's almost as important to remember what data GK doesn't provide. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way - I can't count the number of times I've been scouring the data from GK and found what looked to be a juicy keyword - high volume, low competition. Recently, I was researching some poker-related keywords and noticed several seemingly overlooked keywords in the free poker money genre. I immediately jotted them down and began drafting a plan of attack in my mind.

Only a day or two (and several hours of work) later did I stop to think about the inherent quality of the keywords. Suddenly I asked myself all of the questions I should have asked in the first place. What kind of traffic will this keyword bring? What type of conversion percentage is that traffic likely to produce? What's the likely value of those conversions?

Learn from my mistake - remember that the data is only one tool in your arsenal, and that your common sense and logic should always be a preset, active filter when you're evaluating possible keywords.

Visit the Google Keyword Tool

Chris is a writer for various sites, including PartTimePoker.com, an online poker magazine with strategy, humor, news, full tilt rakeback, interviews and a Rush Poker Guide

Battle Between Google Plus And Facebook

And so with the launch of Google+, it's safe to say that it's the clash of the titans up to scratch which is to settle the score for the throne of social networking. The reason why Google considered Google+ to be a project itself can now be understood why; Facebook had really set the bar high enough to leave any room for a potential competitor excel it, thus new innovative means required to be introduced within the field of social networking to turn the tables. And in a certain way, Google+ has indeed made its mark in doing so.

What a user is quick to notice is the large icon based interface Google+ has which shifts the usual trend from language base in most networking sites. Facebook has a complete reliance for interaction on the language for which it offers a long-listed variety to become a globalized vendor for social networking online, but language replacement with icons does give a feel of an enhanced level of understanding with the general user. Take educational background as an example, where the basic level of reading may not be deemed necessary for usage, and that is potentially going to lower the age bracket amongst users who are children for such sites. Perhaps it can be said that the Google team took a leaf from apple's success of using large icons in its GUI for iPhones and iPads.

The adaptation part for Google+ is easy due to this reason. Google+ has introduced drag-and -drop in its creation of friend's circles to ease the hassle as well as form networks, from where most of its functions do take place. That does not really ring a bell when one winds the clocks back in time to compare this initial stage of experience with Facebook, which frankly took some time to adapt with its new limitations of privacy, group interaction, applications variability and "wall" concepts after taking over orkut's market. Adaptation with Google+ becomes easier with profile construction of a user taking place in accordance with a pre-existing Gmail account.

Privacy limitations are completely leveled between the two websites, though in Facebook discriminate detailing can be carried out with respect to specified friends having access to certain posts, videos and pictures, Google+ privacy among friends in circle-based, with each circle capable of having its own limitations.

In Facebook, multiple privacy groups can share a specified wall or have a common chat amongst members while being group-specific, but when a user becomes a part of more than two such groups, notifications of interaction are limited to a few of them with whom the user has interacted with recently, while some groups just "die out" with their notifications not becoming visible to the user. That is completely not the case in Google+, which enables all these groups to remain simultaneously engaged. Google+ conquers over the likes of Skype in their specialized turf of video conferencing within their friendship circle feature. Google+ has a new feature by the name of Google 'hangout' in which simultaneous video conferencing can take place within a specific friendship circle, which handicaps Skype based on one-to-one video conferencing at one time and can support multiple channels only on audio basis.

Concerning other features on Google+, they remain very much the same with respect to Facebook. Google huddle takes the place of Facebook group chat, but Facebook surpasses Google+ over here in its own way by allowing its users to surf over its pages while typing out their responses in live group chat session(s) at the same time, while Google huddle takes an external independent window to do that. Same goes with Google stream working the same way as Facebook notifications bringing in their news feed.

As Google+ has no specified colour scheme of its own it appears to be in completely plain form in its mobile version in comparison to Facebook. However, Google+ offers an instant photo upload which makes its mobile web version worth noticing.