Joomla! Developer Network

The Joomla! Developer Network is a one stop shop for content and resources specific to developing for the Joomla! content management system. Whether you are looking for code samples, technical overviews, documentation, core team updates or any other information you may need on Joomla! development the developer network is here to help.

With the JDN we strive to provide you with a clear road map to understanding and working with the Joomla! API.

Third party developers have been asking for more transparency and we have been listening! Most of the ideas which are being implemented to build this site have come from them and we expect that the JDN will become a creativity and networking magnet.

Who is it for?

The information on this site is not for everyone. If you are looking for information for using or administering a Joomla! website then you should consult the user documentation at http://help.joomla.org. But if you are interested in developing custom extensions this site will be an essential resource throughout your development process.

Does it cost anything?

Just like all good open source projects, the Joomla! code and all of the resources found in the JDN are free and open. No fees, no cliques, no confusion.

What can you find on the JDN?

http://dev.joomla.org/

Create Your Blog and Earn While You're Blogging at Blogfreehere.com

To facilitate and promote exchange of information via online communities that will enable anyone to have their voice heard on the Internet - free of charge, is what Blogfreehere.com is all about.

“Blog and amateur writers are a growing community who need the platform to express themselves uninhibited and in an uncluttered space,” Managing Director, David Barry said.

Reminiscence about its origins, David said, “A group of like minded Internet enthusiasts first got involved with the web community as early as 1995 while working part time for an cyber company while at university. Sensing internet's potential and knowing well that communication was the way to future, we settled into the IT industry separately only to get together again in March 2006 and set up this venture – BlogFreeHere.com, a top in its class!”

Blogfreehere.com is a place where you can publish your own free blog using a powerful, friendly and easy-to-use interface. One can create a personal online journal, share knowledge and skills with like minded community.

Through Blogfreehere.com, almost anyone can enter online publishing – a service that is free on registration to help maintain your blog. It’s another way to help friends with your skills and domain knowledge that may come in good stead for your own and other’s future.

While Blogfreehere.com offers latest blogging technology to bloggers, Peter Barry added, “Although we don't have the budgets of the 'big brother' global company monolith sites, our strength speaks of individualism and INDEPENDENCE. The whole nature of the internet was freedom of communication, on an even platform. Sadly, as we can see with the last few major internet acquisitions, it is obvious that this is rapidly changing. The nature of the internet is stealthily changing from public domain to corporate domain.”.

“The blogging community will draw people together… bearing similar and opposing views and opinions - on every subject under the internet, unbiased and undeterred by mega monopolistic competitors,” quips Peter.

A Blogfreehere.com features list includes:
Instant publishing
Sub domain URLs (yourblog.Blogfreehere.com)
Immediate login after signup
RSS feeds
Blog pinging
Multiple weblogs
Maintain Journal.
Free expression of opinions, likes and dislikes
Recommend tours, restaurants, dishes, music, shows
Notify, warn communities quoting your own experience
Post comments on blogs and raise new subject or issue
Post pictures, music and videos
Register hints for your gifts
Log in your travel journal for your friends and family to follow your trip
Get connected, stay connected
Promote your business, books, music, talent, venues
Discover the budding poet, author, musician, model, actor in you
Find someone you lost contact with.
Find a flat, room partner, holiday mate
Get a job, find a product, buy or sell just what you wish
Simply Communicate!

In short, http://blogfreehere.com offers convenience and ease of setting up a two-way or multiple communication channels so far unexplored or never ventured into, to bring a wholesome experience in thoughts, words and deeds.

Create free blog in Blogfreehere with New Blog Service. Try This

SEO SEM Event 2007 Searchcamp.in chennai India

SearchCamp is a two day event aimed to bring together the best minds from the Search Engine Marketing space to talk about search engine advertising, including optimization and marketing issues. This event is the first of its kind in India and will feature workshops, debates and keynotes on the present state and evolution of Search Engine Marketing.

When & Where?

The event is scheduled for the 6th & 7th of October 2007, and the venue is at the Main Auditorium, Tidel Park, Chennai.

The Event starts at 9 a.m, with Registration and a Light Breakfast.

Who is organizing the event?Everyone is. SearchCamp runs as an unconference, where everyone is an organizer and there is no passive audience. So it is as much your event. The overall co-ordination is being done by The Knowledge Foundation, the same group behind events such as Barcamp Chennai, Blogcamp, WikiCamp.in and Proto.in.

Topics

Topics to be discussed

• Introduction To Search Engine Marketing
• Keeping track of Search Engine Algorithm Changes
• Getting rid of Search Engine Over-Optimization Penalties
• Essential elements of Search Engine Keyword Research
• Web Analytics & Measuring Success
• Generating Buzz With Link Baiting and Viral Campaigns
• Link Building Basics
• Writing Contents For Search Engines
• Measuring Search Engine Marketing ROI
• Alternative TireII PPC Search Engines
• Creating Traffic Rich, Search Engine Friendly Pages
• User Generated Content & Search
• Mobile Optimization
• Black Hat Search Engine Optimization : SEO’s Dark Side
• Image and Video Search Optimization
• Pay Per Click Management and Strategies
• Social Media Optimization and Search Engines
• Earning Money From Contextual Ads
• Intent based SEM
• SEO of Flash Site
• PPC/SEM Vs. Natural SEO

You can suggest topics. Feel free to add them. Topics page.

ParticipantsAdd your name in the participants list.

Cost

Rs.500 per person. It’s a door donation to meet the expenses towards venue, logistics and lunch. It’s still an unconference. Which means that each of us helps out by becoming a speaker or helping with the organizing or blogging/video blogging the event.

Sponsorship

SearchCamp is a non-profit educational event. We seek Sponsorship to help meet the expenses. The Sponsorship Kit page has more information.

Resources

• For additional reading, see resources page
• Here are the list of volunteers helping out.

Accommodation

For more details on nearest hotels and friends who will host you at their homes, visit the accomodation page

Visit for more Information: - searchcamp.in

Hakia - Search for meaning

About Hakia: hakia is building the Web's new "meaning-based" (semantic) search engine with the sole purpose of improving search relevancy and interactivity, pushing the current boundaries of Web search. The benefits to the end user are search efficiency, richness of information, and time savings.

The basic promise is to bring search results by meaning match - similar to the human brain's cognitive skills - rather than by the mere occurrence (or popularity) of search terms. hakia's new technology is a radical departure from the conventional indexing approach, because indexing has severe limitations to handle full-scale semantic search.

hakia's capabilities will appeal to all Web searchers - especially those engaged in research on knowledge intensive subjects, such as medicine, law, finance, science, and literature.

visit : - http://www.hakia.com

Mysql Vs Postgresql

My sql is good to use it provides also good features. But Postgresql is the best. MySQL does not support subqueries, stored procedures, subqueries, cursors or views, all of which PostgreSQL does.

The main Deferances are listed below:

Support. Support can mean many things. MySQL is much more widely used, so many more applications support MySQL, and there is a larger community ready to assist you with problems, as well as more books and resources on MySQL. MySQL AB, the commercial company guiding MySQL, and who employ most of the developers, offer various levels of support contracts. Of course, PostgreSQL has active mailing lists, and there are commercial companies offering support as well, so you are not likely to go too far wrong with either.

Ease-of-use. Another highly contentious issue. Debate usually goes along the lines of "A: MySQL/PostgreSQL is much easier to use because... B:You idiot. PostgreSQL/MySQL is just as easy because...". Often it is simply whichever one the person uses is the one that is easiest to use, which is not that helpful. An astronaut may find flying the space shuttle easier than writing a document on a PC, but that tells us more about them, not about how easier we would find either. If you are migrating to one of the databases, it depends where you come from. And, it depends on what you are doing. If you regularly use sub-selects or triggers, rewriting them in MySQL or a scripting language will seem unecessarily complex. PostgreSQL's extra functionality can translate into complexity if you do not require any of it. It also depends on what tools you are using - phpMyAdmin for MySQL is a well-developed tool, while phpPgAdmin is not as fully-featured. So if you are looking for a web interface in PHP, and for none of the features MySQL lacks, MySQL would be your choice here. But perhaps you do not need the extra features of phpMyAdmin? They both do everything you want!

Stability. MySQL claims in its press releases to be extremely stable, but the 'word on the street' is that this isn't true. It is easy to blindly repeat mantras, but again, it depends on your needs. Running a website with 10 users a day? Even MS-Access would be stable! I have used MySQL on high-volume websites, both its non-transactional MyISAM tables, and the transaction-capable InnoDB table types. And yes, I have experienced table corruption numerous times, but this could always (I think!) be blamed on faulty hardware, and I have never had a problem recovering (with the simple REPAIR TABLE command turning me into a master DBA). MySQL is used in extremely high volume environments without problems. PostgreSQL's advanced features are more likely to be stable than the newer MySQL equivalents, having been implemented for longer. However, replication is much newer in PostgreSQL than MySQL, so the reverse applies. But here again, the supposed commoditization of databases means that database stability is taken relatively for granted, and the software tends to be a lot more stable than the hardware it relies on.

Speed. MySQL aimed first to be a fast database, while PostgreSQL aimed to be a fully-featured database, and both are converging in the other's direction. Used appropriately, MySQL's MyISAM tables are indeed extremely lightweight.

Licensing. MySQL AB is often used as a model for Open Source companies attempting to make money. MySQL is released under the GNU GPL (General Public License), which requires derivative works to be similarly licensed, but also offers commercial licenses for those who do not want to be restricted in this way. PostgreSQL is distributed under the BSD license, which basically allows any use of the code as long as the credits are maintained. BSD vs GPL is another topic for a flame war!

Top 10 Business E-Mail Basics

When it comes to your business e-mail communications, you need to make an impression that can lend to the determination that you are someone that will be a pleasure to do business with.

For your consideration below are the "Top 10 e-mail issues targeted at business men and women. These are the issues business owners and their employees minimally need to be aware of in their day-to-day online communications.

1. SUBJECT: Field: The SUBJECT: field is the window into your e-mail and can many times determine even if your e-mail will be opened. If this is your first contact with a customer based on their request through your site or otherwise, be sure to have a short SUBJECT: that indicates clearly what the topic of the e-mail is. Never be misleading in this regard! Typos, all caps or all small case can give the impression you are a spammer.

2. Level of Formality: Never assume a position of informality in your business e-mail. Only time and relationship building efforts can guide when you can informalize your business relationships. And, in some cases that time may never arise. Do not assume that e-mail is impersonal or informal when it comes to your business communications. It is very personal - a window into the type of person you are and how you run your business. Remember, people do business with people not companies. One should communicate as if your e-mail is on your company letterhead at all times. This is your business's image you are branding!

3. Addressing: How do you address your new contacts? I would suggest initially that you assume the highest level of courtesy: Hello, Mr. Anderson, Dear Ms. Jones, Dr. Osborne, etc. Until your new contact states, "call me Andy" or "you can call me Diane. Keep it formal until it is clear the relationship dictates otherwise. You will also be able to get clues by how your contacts approach you and their tone. Most business people do not mind being called by their first name, however, in a global economy that can be perceived as taking premature liberties in the relationship if used too soon.

4. TO:, From:, Bcc, Cc fields can make or break you:

..In the TO: field make sure you have your contact's name formally typed. John B. Doe - not john b doe or JOHN B DOE.

..In the FROM: field make sure your have your full name formally typed. Example: Jane A. Jones. Not: jane a jones or JANE A JONES. The later two give the perception of lack of education or limited experience with technology. Always use your full name. By only including your first name or e-mail address you are giving the perception you have something to hide or do not know the basics of configuring your e-mail program.

..Bcc: use this field when e-mailing a group of contacts who do not personally know each other. By listing an arms length list of e-mail addresses in the CC or TO fields of contacts who do not know each other or who have never met is conducive to publishing their e-mail address to strangers. No matter how great the list of people may be to you, never make this decision for others! This is a privacy issue! With those you are forging partnerships with, visibly listing their e -mail address in with a group of strangers will make one wonder what other privacy issues you may not respect or understand. Not good.

..Cc: Use this field when there are a handful of associates involved in a discussion that requires all be on the same page. These business people know each other or have been introduced and have no problem having their e-mail address exposed to the parties involved. If you are not sure if a business associate would mind their address being made public, ask!

5. Formatting: Refrain from using it in your business communications. Unless you would type something in bold crimson letters on business letterhead, don't do it when e-mailing for commercial gain. Even something as simple as using a different font makes your e-mail's display contingent upon the recipient having that specific font on their system or it defaults to their designated default font. The recipient may not have their e-mail program configured in such a way as to display your formatting the way it appears on your system - if at all.

6. Attachments: Do you think your relationship with a potential new customer is enhanced when you send them that 5M Power Point presentation they didn't request and you fill up their inbox causing subsequent business correspondence to bounce as undeliverable? Nope. And, if they don't have Power Point they couldn't open the file anyway! Never assume your potential customers have the software you do to open any file you may arbitrarily send.

If you need to send a file over 200,000 in size, business courtesy dictates you ask the recipient first if it is O.K. to send a large file. Next, confirm they have the same software and version you do and what is the best time of day to sent it to them to ensure they are available to download the large file and keep their e-mail flowing. Do not send large attachments without warning, on weekends or after business hours when the recipient may not be there to clear out their inbox and keep their e-mail flowing.

7. Using Previous E-mail for New Correspondence: If you want to give the perception of lazy, find a previous e-mail from the party you want to communicate with, hit reply and start typing about something completely irrelevant to the old e-mail's subject. Always start a new e-mail and add your contacts to your address book so you can add them to a new e-mail with one click.

8. Down Edit Your Replies: Don't just hit reply and start typing. Editing is a skill those you communicate with will appreciate as it lends to reflecting a respect for their time and clarity in your communications. Removing parts of the previous e-mail that do not apply to your response including e-mail headers and signature files removes the clutter. In addition, by making the effort to reply point by point keeps the conversation on track with fewer misunderstandings.

9. Common Courtesy: Hello, Hi, Good Day, Thank You, Sincerely, Best Regards. All those intros and sign offs that are a staple of professional business communications should also be used in your business e-mail communications. Always have a salutation and sign off with every e-mail. Here again - think business letterhead.

10. Signature files: Keep your signature files to no more than 5-6 lines as this can be viewed as a bit egocentric. Limit your signature to your Web site link, company name, and slogan/offer or phone number. Include a link to your site where the recipient can get all your contact information from A-Z - that is what your site is for.

Don't forget to include the "http://" when including your Web site address within e-mails and your signature file to ensure it is recognized as a clickable URL regardless of the user's software or platform.

The above Top 10 items will certainly allow your business communications to rise above the majority who do not take the time to understand and master these issues. When forging new business relationships and solidifying established partnerships, the level of professionalism and courtesy you relay in your business e-mail communications will always gain clients over the competition that may be anemic, uninformed or just plain lazy in this area. Went it comes to business, regardless of mode of communication used, professionalism and courtesy never go out of style.

About the Author:
Judith Kallos is an authoritative and good-humored Technology Muse who has been playing @ http://www.TheIStudio.com for over a decade. Check out her popular E-mail Etiquette site @ http://www.NetManners.com

6 Tips for Getting More Mileage Out of Your Article Marketing

So you’ve gone to the trouble of picking a topic, choosing an audience, doing your research and writing an article. You’ve uploaded it to your website or your blog, and seen a bit of traffic to it. But are you really getting the full mileage out of all that hard work?

A well-written article can be a powerful resource if you know how to use it. You can reach out to existing clients, tap new markets, and present yourself as an expert across the Web. Here a few tips for getting the most out of that investment of time and effort:

Blogs

Full-fledged articles can be a great addition to the shorter musings, industry commentary or company news bytes you may be featuring on your blog. It will also impress your readers more than the latest coffee break ramblings, and a good article will entice them to comment back or even link to it.

Newsletter

Don’t overlook your existing client base. Current or past customers who are familiar with you are easier to sell by far than strangers hearing your name for the first time. If you've already got articles, it's a matter of a brief Internet search to find newsletter templates. This way, you can keep your customers up-to-date with information they can use.

Article Databases

Article directories are the traditional method of distribution for article marketing. Newsletter editors troll these for content, and your article could also pick up search engine results if you play your keywords right. Remember to get the keywords in the title and the first few paragraphs, and give it a couple of weeks to get into the search engines.

Link Partners

Articles can be used as enticing link-bait to forge new link partnerships. They can also strengthen existing relationships and give your company more visibility on existing partner sites. When you’re pitching these ideas, be sure to explain the important elements from their perspective: What’s in it for them? Why will their visitors be interested in the piece?

Directories

Directories are well-known for their SEO benefits. These are highly indexed sites that you should be looking to for more than just a simple link placement. Why settle for being Generic Company #253? With an article, you can set yourself ahead of the pack and gain credibility your competition would kill for.

Social Bookmarking

You can reach a wider audience of people who may not read the specific online magazines and knowledge bases you write for. Give your distribution an extra boost with social bookmarking sites. AddThis.com offers an easy-to-utilize service for making your article social-bookmark friendly. A note of caution: many people have tried to game Digg or other bookmark sites by faking votes for higher rankings. This can backfire on you and actually gain negative publicity for your company. People on these sites can tell the difference between genuine quality and fake rankings. Don’t try it.

It pays to utilize the full range of options for distributing your article. The more readers you can reach, the more people you can ultimately impress with your knowledge and expertise. Whether it’s solidifying existing relationships with current clients, or softening up new prospects, make sure you’re getting the full use out of your intellectual labors.

Source by www.webknowhow.net

SEO is More Important Than Ever

I do my fair share of web marketing reading on a daily basis and lately I have noticed more and more writers stating that search engine optimization (SEO) is no longer as important for online success. This spin may make sense to those writers (and their financial goals) as they try to push industry cash flow away from SEO but I disagree wholeheartedly and throughout this posting I will explain why. And I assure you that despite my own inherent bias it will all be very logical and undeniable.

Not As Important? No, SEO is FAR More Important than Ever Before!
Search engine optimization (SEO) "is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results" (src. Wikipedia). By this definition alone SEO is a requirement for any website that wishes to be successful within organic search results. This is especially true since the competition for online visibility is fiercer today; because previously uncompetitive terms have become over saturated with late-comers to the perceived 'gold rush' of Internet commerce. As a result, websites need the best optimization possible to have any hope of standing up to the competition.

Successful SEO has Evolved
As with any growing technology industry competent SEO companies have had to evolve their search engine optimization practices to include the latest tools that improve SEO results. For example, when a SEO campaign is conducted today StepForth Web Marketing Inc. has far more information to access and evaluate the success of a campaign with analytics sources like ClickTracks or Google Analytics. In addition, keyword research tools such as Keyword Discovery and WordTracker have revolutionized our capability to find qualified keyword targets and ultimately increase the effectiveness of campaigns. As a result, SEO campaigns can now be far more targeted and effective.

These invaluable new SEO tools aside, the search landscape has played a major role in the evolution of SEO as well. Nowadays SEO companies have been forced to adapt to new forms (formats) of search results and, as a result, less space now is made available in the traditional search engine result pages (SERPs). This is due to the inclusion of other forms of media (i.e. video, images) and personalization but the goal is still the same; targeted visibility leading to higher traffic volume.

The Revised Guide to SEO
With the addition of new tools and the search landscape constantly changing and evolving so much over the past 10 years the techniques of applying quality SEO has also followed suit, but the fundamentals remain the same. The addition of a SEO manual at this stage of my posting is not an option; however, I have provided a couple examples below. For a more diverse explanation please see The 10 Minute Search Engine Optimization which I updated a few months back with many of the best practices.

>> Example: Local Results
Over the past couple years Google has started showing differing search results to its users depending upon their locality; all a part of their bid to personalize search results to create a more effective search result. If the website to be optimized (i.e. www.victoriastuff.ca) would benefit from being found more readily by people searching from its locale then it is important to consider this when optimizing the website.

SEO Tip #1 for Local Rankings: Make certain that each page specifically includes in textual format, not as part of an image the complete address to the company's physical offices. This information can be added to the footer; there is no need to make it front and center which could take away from other, (perhaps) more important content.

SEO Tip #2 for Local Rankings: It is as easy as pie and totally free to add your business to Google's Local directory which will often provide you with a free top ranking if you do it right. Here is more information on getting your free Google Local listing.

>> Example: Blog Optimization
Over the past few years blogs have virtually become required for any business that needs to build online credibility and free incoming links (from those who reference posts). With this great new marketing tool, however, comes a set of best practices for optimizing a blog so that each post has a high chance of obtaining visibility. Indeed optimizing a blog is, in its nature, an evolution of SEO because optimizers have to consider how the content will perform on site as well as on other sites that may syndicate the content. Okay, optimizing content for syndication is not anything new but it definitely is far more common than ever before. Furthermore, SEOs now sit in an educational role more often than before because they have to teach the blog writers (who may be writing posts multiple times daily) how to optimize their content on the fly.

Again a complete tutorial on blog optimization and promotion is not practical at this point but here is a comprehensive three part tutorial on blogs; including setup, optimization and promotion suggestions.


Conclusion: Do You Have Doubts About the Importance of SEO?
So after all of that do you have any doubt that search engine optimization (SEO) is any less important than it was? Indeed, would you agree that SEO is more important than ever before due to the need to secure every advantage possible in a competitive marketplace? Either way I would love to hear your considerations in this regard.

Source by news.stepforth.com

Facebook Code Leak Continues To Trickle

Facebook isn’t having a good week. Yesterday a portion of its home page code was posted on a blog named Facebook Secrets and then last night the same blog put up Facebook’s search code for all the world to see.

Facebook has been firing off Cease and Desist letters to everyone who posts the code, though it remains unclear whether it’s actually illegal to post it considering no laws were broken in obtaining it. It’s also worth noting that what’s been posted so far is at least good-looking, well-organized code.

But that’s probably cold comfort for Facebook who no doubt would like to know who’s behind Facebook Secrets (the main site which hasn't complied with the C&Ds).

Although Facebook Secrets contains no hints as to who is in charge, last night’s code post very likely came from the same server malfunction that Facebook blamed for the initial code exposure.

Mashable claims that the source of the code leak is one Trae McNeely:

The code was later reposted by FacebookSecrets, a blogspot blog, and got thousands of Diggs. But a quick check on Digg (search for PHP or another unique term) shows that the wmdtalk story was the first chronologically. In other words: McNeely was the source and FacebookSecrets was a copy.

According to Mashable, McNeely also “claims responsibility for the posting of the Nicolas Berg beheading video and Kobe Bryant’s accuser’s information.”

There is however nothing that ties McNeely to Facebook Secrets.

On a separate note, in yesterday’s post I wrote that PHP is somewhat notorious for exposing code as text, which as it happens is perhaps a bit hyperbolic on my part. However misconfigured servers are common enough that the author of a book on PHP, which I am editing, devotes a whole chapter to setting up Apache.

However, as a technical point, the main way PHP ends up served as text is a fault of the Apache PHP module, not the language itself. I tend to take a holistic view of development environments and consider for instance mod_python to be integral of python and the same with PHP and mod_php, but as some readers pointed out, you can run PHP as CGI and probably never encounter this problem.

So for the fan bois I offended, consider “notorious” retracted, though the flaw still does exist whether you want to admit it or not — just ask the Facebook developers.

Source by blog.wired.com

How to Select a Search Engine Optimization Firm

There are a lot of very good search engine optimization firms to choose from, and there are a lot (too many) of firms that say they do search engine optimization but end up being a waste of time and money. I hope today’s article will help you separate the wheat from the chaff.

When you begin your vendor selection process, you should start by defining your needs and goals. So many people enter into the selection process with no idea of what their goals may be other than, “We want to rank on page one of Google.” Here are some other issues to consider.
What Are Your goals?

Are you interested in branding, or more likely, are you interested in how search engine optimization can help you grow your business? To me, growing your business at a good ROI should be the ultimate goal. Just like you would measure any form of marketing, you should determine what the ROI should be from your search engine optimization efforts.

If you are not an e-commerce Web site, but you have a lead form on your site, you can determine a value to place on each lead that comes through your search engine optimization efforts and measure against that. If you get a majority of your leads/inquiries through someone calling, perhaps your goal is an increase in relevant traffic to the site. In that case, you can determine the value of each “click” from your search engine optimization efforts and then tally up the total clicks per month, measuring this against the cost of the program.

Saying this, I should remind everyone that proper search engine optimization takes time, so it’s best to evaluate year-over-year increases. This valuation should occur after the recommendations from your provider have been implemented for a minimum of two to three months. It has been my experience that measurable increases from your search engine optimization efforts will occur no sooner than this timetable, but each Web site is unique.
Unique Challenges

No two Web sites are the same. Every search engine optimization project will have its unique set of challenges/needs. If there’s anything that irritates me, it is search engine optimization firms that have “packages.” Some Web sites are new to launch and will require a lot more work to get the ball rolling (link building, among other things). Some Web sites are high-quality but may lack visible text, so they may require copywriting assistance. And then there are some that have many technical challenges, which may require a talented Web development team to sort through the issues.

Another thing to consider here is your available human resources pool, or lack thereof. Do you have a Web developer who can take the recommendations provided by a search engine optimization company and can accurately implement these recommendations? Would your company allow an outside vendor access to your Web site to make changes that may be necessary to assist in the search engine optimization efforts?

The catch 22 of all of this is a smaller company will probably require the most amount of help. A smaller company would probably not have a copywriter on staff, a development team, a public relations department, or any other resources to assist in these efforts. That means you would depend on your search engine optimization provider to bring all of its resources to the project. The more resources needed, the more amount of time the provider would be involved in. The more amount of time needed, the more money you can expect to spend.

Once you have managed to match your needs/goals with a list of providers you would like to contact, it’s now time to ask some very important questions.
Experience

How many search engine programs has your provider managed? I’m not saying that a shear number of projects is the key in the selection process, but years of experience can be very beneficial. Knowing what works in the long term is key to your achieving results that last and are not overly dependant on algorithm updates.

A good rule is to avoid firms that work with Web sites in the porn industry or gambling. Chances are, these firms are accustomed to risky behavior and could get you associated with some bad neighborhoods. It’s like your parents used to say, “Who you hang out with says a lot about who you are.”

If they guarantee top-ten rankings, run. Don’t walk. Run. There is no such thing as guaranteed top-ten rankings in organic search engine optimization. We (search engine optimization companies) do not own the search engines. We are similar to a public relations firm in that we know how to best position you with the search engines, but the search engines – ultimately – will rank you based upon their criteria. A good search engine optimization firm understands the criteria and can, over time, help you to enhance your presence in the major search engines.

If they tell you they are going to submit your Web site to hundreds or thousands of search engines, you might want to consider another provider. Submission to the major crawler-based search engines, other than possible XML feeds, is not necessary. Quality link building (internally and externally) will get your site well indexed.

Can they show you live examples of their work and the results? Any firm worth its salt will be more than happy to point you to live examples of rankings and testimonials from clients. They should have a deep pool of references for you to call and speak with.
Transparency

I think this is one aspect of the selection process that is often overlooked. Many search engine optimization companies are not willing to divulge what it is that they do. Again, there are many very good search engine optimization firms that will want you to be educated in the process. The more you understand search engine optimization, the easier it will be to work with you.

After all, you will know why certain recommendations are being made, and you will become a champion in the efforts to get recommendations implemented and in pushing the program forward. There is little more frustrating than working with a large company that cannot seem to get the IT team to buy off on the recommendations or puts them on the back burner for weeks. So, the more you understand, the more you will be able to help the search engine optimization company do its job, and the more successful you will all be.

Hope this helps! If there are any topics you would like me to cover in future articles, please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Source by searchenginewatch.com

Offshore Software Development India (OSDI) venturing abroad.

After last year's success in Shipping Portal with shipping-exchange.com and Blog site of blogfreehere.com the IT Director of Offshore Software Development India (OSDI) visited Scotland, England and Wales recently for new projects. Offering a wide range of skills in IT Services. Mainly focusing in Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), Software Development, IT Consultancy, Web Designing / Web Development, Offshore Outsourcing, Multimedia, Customized Software Applications and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Returning back last weekend back to Ahmedabad from UK the IT Director said to the staff we have new challenges to meet and much to deliver to the UK based customers.

Technology is a wide arena, like our outer space in the galaxy. Enormous potential lies and just companies like us, Offshore Software Development India (OSDI), and clients like you can explore its zenith. Since long the days of Stand-alone PC have gone and the WWW or World Wide Web or Internet as we all know, has conquered every PC, Server, Mobile and Laptop we use. Plenty to explore from Web Pages, Online News which use RSS feeds, Pod cast and amazing YouTube.com has changed everything as far as online video is concerned. Imagine your website being one of millions website that sits on the .NET waiting to be explored. The hits on your website count. They generate business and inquiries. They would give you business and turnover which you have been waiting for. Offshore Software Development India (OSDI) can help you in your Website to succeed in this highly competitive market. Search Engine Optimisation is the way ahead.

Our Search Engine Optimisation service is the perfect fusion of linguistic skills, technical know-how and market sector research, blessed with a keen eye to customer needs. A business is only successful if the ROI is good. Hence we always say - "Deliver with Difference to Succeed" We are confident handling major technological brands. We understand what your brand means to you. We can work successfully with complex sites and diverse needs. We try to go that extra mile just for you.

We provide value for your money. Our Search Engine Optimisation service includes Keyword analysis, Solutions for non-search engine compatible sites, Competitor analysis, On-page optimisation, Deep site optimisation, Valuable link building, Brand protective approach, Solutions for catalogue sites, Fast, manual search engine submission, Optimisation for a re-brand, Position reporting and Page ranking improvement. We try to compete with the International Market of the Internet.

We are humble professionals so please ignore us if we are always on about your business needs. Our core expertise lie in few more areas of the IT sector like Web Development, Web Designing, Outsourcing Offshore Software Application Development, .Net Development using Microsoft, Shopping Cart/ E-store Development, Customer Relations Management Portal Development, Ecommerce Application Development, Auction Websites and Portals, Commerce Server based solutions, Content Management Systems (CMS) on the Web. Open Source is equally competitive solution we believe in Open Source Development. Services offered in this area could meet your needs for Web Applications / Application Re-designing, PHP Development (exploring the open source to enhance your business in turn lowering your maintenance cost), Joomla and Drupal based solutions which explore the Content Management Framework (CMF) Based Web solutions.

http://www.offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com

We just like to share and update the world on our actions hence if you feel like trying us out why not contact us on info@offshoresoftwaredevelopmentindia.com or just call us on +91-79-65457841. We like to talk about your business needs and it is free

Changes in PHP 5.2.3

• Security Fixes
  • Fixed an integer overflow inside chunk_split() (by Gerhard Wagner, CVE-2007-2872)
  • Fixed possible infinite loop in imagecreatefrompng. (by Xavier Roche, CVE-2007-2756)
  • Fixed ext/filter Email Validation Vulnerability (MOPB-45 by Stefan Esser, CVE-2007-1900)
  • Fixed bug #41492 (open_basedir/safe_mode bypass inside realpath()) (by bugs dot php dot net at chsc dot dk)
  • Improved fix for CVE-2007-1887 to work with non-bundled sqlite2 lib.
  • Added mysql_set_charset() to allow runtime altering of connection encoding.
• Changed CGI install target to php-cgi and 'make install' to install CLI when CGI is selected. (Jani)
• Changed JSON maximum nesting depth from 20 to 128. (Rasmus)
• Improved compilation of heredocs and interpolated strings. (Matt, Dmitry)
• Optimized out a couple of per-request syscalls. (Rasmus)
• Optimized digest generation in md5() and sha1() functions. (Ilia)
• Upgraded bundled SQLite 3 to version 3.3.17. (Ilia)
• Addded "max_input_nesting_level" php.ini option to limit nesting level of input variables. Fix for MOPB-03-2007. (Stas)
• Added a 4th parameter flag to htmlspecialchars() and htmlentities() that makes the function not encode existing html entities. (Ilia)
• Added PDO::FETCH_KEY_PAIR mode that will fetch a 2 column result set into an associated array. (Ilia)
• Added CURLOPT_TIMEOUT_MS and CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT_MS cURL constants. (Sara)
• Added --ini switch to CLI that prints out configuration file names. (Marcus)
• Implemented FR Fixed bug #41416 (getColumnMeta() should also return table name). (Tony)
• Fixed filetype() and linkinfo() processing of symlinks on ZTS systems. (Oliver Block, Tony, Dmitry)
• Fixed SOAP extension's handler() to work even when "always_populate_raw_post_data" is off. (Ilia)
• Fixed altering $this via argument named "this". (Dmitry)
• Fixed PHP CLI usage of php.ini from the binary location. (Hannes)
• Fixed segfault in strripos(). (Tony, Joxean Koret)
• Fixed gd build when used with freetype 1.x (Pierre, Tony)
• Fixed bug #41525 (ReflectionParameter::getPosition() not available). (Marcus)
• Fixed bug #41511 (Compile failure under IRIX 6.5.30 building md5.c). (Jani)
• Fixed bug #41504 (json_decode() incorrectly decodes JSON arrays with empty string keys). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41477 (no arginfo about SoapClient::__soapCall()). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41455 (ext/dba/config.m4 pollutes global $LIBS and $LDFLAGS). (mmarek at suse dot cz, Tony)
• Fixed bug #41442 (imagegd2() under output control). (Tony)
• Fixed bug #41430 (Fatal error with negative values of maxlen parameter of file_get_contents()). (Tony)
• Fixed bug #41423 (PHP assumes wrongly that certain ciphers are enabled in OpenSSL). (Pierre)
• Fixed bug #41421 (Uncaught exception from a stream wrapper segfaults). (Tony, Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #41403 (json_decode cannot decode floats if localeconv decimal_point is not '.'). (Tony)
• Fixed bug #41401 (wrong unary operator precedence). (Stas)
• Fixed bug #41394 (dbase_create creates file with corrupted header). (Tony)
• Fixed bug #41390 (Clarify error message with invalid protocol scheme). (Scott)
• Fixed bug #41378 (fastcgi protocol lacks support for Reason-Phrase in "Status:" header). (anight at eyelinkmedia dot com, Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #41374 (whole text concats values of wrong nodes). (Rob)
• Fixed bug #41358 (configure cannot determine SSL lib with libcurl >= 7.16.2). (Mike)
• Fixed bug #41353 (crash in openssl_pkcs12_read() on invalid input). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41351 (Invalid opcode with foreach ($a[] as $b)). (Dmitry, Tony)
• Fixed bug #41347 (checkdnsrr() segfaults on empty hostname). (Scott)
• Fixed bug #41337 (WSDL parsing doesn't ignore non soap bindings). (Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #41326 (Writing empty tags with Xmlwriter::WriteElement[ns]) (Pierre)
• Fixed bug #41321 (downgrade read errors in getimagesize() to E_NOTICE). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41304 (compress.zlib temp files left). (Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #41293 (Fixed creation of HTTP_RAW_POST_DATA when there is no default post handler). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41291 (FastCGI does not set SO_REUSEADDR). (fmajid at kefta dot com, Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #41287 (Namespace functions don't allow xmlns definition to be optional). (Rob)
• Fixed bug #41283 (Bug with deserializing array key that are doubles or floats in wddx). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41257 (lookupNamespaceURI does not work as expected). (Rob)
• Fixed bug #41236 (Regression in timeout handling of non-blocking SSL connections during reads and writes). (Ilia)
• Fixed bug #41134 (zend_ts_hash_clean not thread-safe). (marco dot cova at gmail dot com, Tony)
• Fixed bug #41097 (ext/soap returning associative array as indexed without using WSDL). (Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #41004 (minOccurs="0" and null class member variable). (Dmitry)
• Fixed bug #39542 (Behavior of require/include different to <>

Source by pt.php.net

Link Page Have A PR Zero - Five reason

Article Author - Krunal - Creeper SEO Member

there are lot of sites that request a link exchange from me may have a PR 5 or 6 on their home page and when click through to the links page there is a PR 0. we can’t link exchange with that site.

There are many things to consider when exchanging links. The above question asks whether you should consider linking to a PR 5 site when the links page is a PR 0.

Five reason for links page has not pr.
1 The links page is new and has not had a PR assigned to it in the Google toolbar (that does not mean it has no PR, just that the toolbar has not been updated to reflect its PR).

This case is easy to spot. Look at the URL of the links page. Then go to the homepage and View the source of the homepage in a text editor (from the View Menu in Explorer, select Source).

Do a search of the source for the links page filename. e.g. if the links page is called links.html, search the source code for links.html.

If you find a link on the homepage to the links page, chances are the links page is new and has not had time to be assigned a PR in the toolbar yet.

check that link to the links page in the source again. Make sure that there is no dynamic linking going on. While it is not always easy to spot, the introduction of the “nofollow” tag in recent months, has meant that many non-techie webmasters have been able to create dynamic links, quickly, easily, and without much technical knowledge. If you see the word “nofollow” in the link HTML pointing to the links page, then this webmaster is not passing PR to the links page. In fact, worse than that is the fact that the search engines wont even find and index the links page.

2 Links page is not being linked to, or is linked to using a dynamic link.

If you do not find a link to the links page on the homepage of the site, or the link uses one of the forms of dynamic linking, then I would not recommend you link to that site. The links page will get no PR, and wont even be found by the search engines, so you get no benefit. It is possible the links page does have a link pointing to it from another page, but let’s look at that as a separate issue.

3 links page is buried deep in the navigation of the website. Some webmasters bury the link to their links page deep within their site, so that the only way a search engine spider will find the links page is by following 3 or 4 links from the homepage. When this is done, very little (if any) PR flows to the links page. Again, I would not link to a site like this. You wont get much benefit.

4 Multiple links pages bury the page your link is found on.

On some websites, there are so many reciprocal partners, that links are often split across 10s (or even 100s) of pages. For a search engine spider to find the page you are on, it would require following link after link on these links pages until it reaches yours. Again, by the time it gets there, very little (if any) PR will have flowed to the page your link is one.

For points #3 & #4, my advice is simple. Start at the homepage, and see how many clicks it takes you to navigate to the page your link is on. If it is more than 2 clicks away, think carefully about exchanging links. You may not get much out of the deal.

5 a sneaky one here. Check for a robots.txt file on the site that is requesting the link exchange. If there is one, make sure that there is no command that disallows the spiders from accessing the links page. This is a technique that will prevent the search engines spiders from visiting the links page, so no PR, and no benefit, is passed to your site. This is a definite one to avoid.

By Creeper Seo - SEO News Provider

PHP Ajax Frameworks

1. AJASON : AJASON is a PHP 5 library and JavaScript client
2. AjaxAC : AjaxAC is an open-source framework written in PHP
3. Ajax Agent : powerful open source framework for rapidly building Ajax or Rich Internet Applications (RIA)
4. Cajax : A PHP class library for writing powerfull reloadless web user interfaces using Ajax (DHTML+server-side) style
5. CakePHP : Cake is a rapid development framework for PHP which uses commonly known design patterns like ActiveRecord, Association Data Mapping, Front Controller and MVC.
6. Claw : a convenient and intuitive way of development of PHP5 driven object oriented applications.
7. DutchPIPE : PHP object-oriented framework to turn sites into real-time, multi-user virtual environments:
8. Flexible Ajax : Flexible Ajax is a handler to combine the remote scripting technology, also known as AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML), with a php-based backend.
9. Guava : Groundwork Guava is a PHP-based application framework and environment.
10. HTML_AJAX : HTML_AJAX is a PEAR package for performing AJAX operations from PHP.
11. HTSWaf : The HTS Web Application Framework is a PHP and Javascript based framework designed to make simple web applications easy to design and implement.
12. My-BIC : My-BIC AJAX State of Mind for PHP harmony
13. PAJAJ : PHP Asynchronous Javascript and JSON
14. PAJAX : Remote (a)synchronous PHP objects in JavaScript
15. phpAjaxTags : phpAjaxTags is a port to PHP from java tag library AjaxTags.
16. PHPWebBuilder : PHPWebBuilder is a PHP framework designed following well-known object oriented designs and principles featuring a highly reusable components architecture, metadata based persistence and traditional GUI style programming support.
17. Qcodo : open-source PHP 5 framework
18. Simple AJAX : This tutorial demonstrates how to perform AJAX functionality simply and effectively, using the AJAX JSMX library, coupled with the JSON-PHP library.
19. symfony : open-source PHP5 web framework
20. TinyAjax : TinyAjax is a small php5 library that allows you to easily add AJAX-functionality to existing pages
21. xajax : Ajax-enable your PHP application with a simple toolkit that gets the job done fast.
22. XOAD : PHP based AJAX/XAP object oriented framework that allows you to create richer web applications
23. Zoop : oop is an object oriented framework for PHP based on a front controller. It is designed to be very fast and efficient and very nice for the programmer to work with.
24. Zephyr : zephyr is an ajax based framework for php5 developers.
    

Source

Brand Expert Shares Easy Ways to Raise Your Search Engine Rankings and Get More Traffic to Your Site

SEO experts have protected their secrets for years and convinced us that SEO is mysterious and complex. Not so. Brand expert Erin Ferree of elf design has blown the lid off all the secrecy and revealed that Search Engine Optimization is actually easy. In fact her new book, "Raise Your Ranking," lays out a complete system for small businesses to use to raise their search engine rankings, get more traffic to their websites, save thousands of dollars and have control of their own future.

Belmont, CA 7, 2007 -- Driving quality traffic to a website is one of the most important marketing tasks for small businesses. It is an integral element of brand-building, internet marketing, sales, and defining a business as distinct from the competition. It just doesn't matter what you put on your website if no one visits your site and sees the great products and information you offer. Getting people's attention and enticing them to your website can be accomplished in two ways. One of these methods can become very expensive very quickly. The other method seems to require insider knowledge of super-secret tactics. Hiring someone to work their magic to drive traffic to your site can also be very expensive. The trade winds, however, are shifting.

What, you ask, is this new wind blowing across the nation? It is the unprecedented revelation of the insider small business SEO secrets of a top branding and SEO expert. Erin Ferree, Principal of Elf Design, Inc. of Belmont, California, has broken the code of silence and revealed her very profitable and effective system for Small Business Search Engine Optimization (SEO). "I decided to lift the veil of secrecy," says Ferree. "As a small business owner, I understand the struggles of other small businesses," she says.

Ferree says, "Two primary methods for getting targeted Internet traffic to your website are to use paid Internet advertising, including pay-per-click advertising, on the search engines, and to earn high rankings in the organic search results." Pay-per-click advertising can become expensive, as we all know. Many people also recognize paid ad placements in the search engine listings. They choose the natural (organic) listings and trust the search engines to give highest ranking to the most popular, and presumably the best, sites. "The way to get the visibility and the traffic you want," she says, "is to earn high rankings in the organic search results listings. You capture the attention of a greater number of people and you don't blow your entire marketing budget in one place."

"Small businesses must budget carefully and spend valuable marketing dollars even more carefully," says Ferree. "Fortunately, organic search results are more effective in driving high-quality traffic to your website -- people who are genuinely interested in your products and services." Ferree's Small Business SEO system is geared to help small businesses rank higher in the organic results sections of the search engines' lists. She has developed a winning system of SEO for small businesses. "I've actually just taken everything I know about SEO and funneled it into this new product, Raise Your Ranking. I've made it as easy as possible. In fact, if you can write a sentence, you can do this. With Raise Your Ranking, any small business can successfully position their websites in the search engines for phenomenal success in the rankings, in turn driving more and more traffic to their website." Equally important, with this product, small businesses have the knowledge and the tactics to re-optimize their sites again and again as their business grows, as the market changes, as the words people search shift around.

The release of this product, specifically intended to help small businesses do their own SEO is unprecedented. Raise Your Ranking might be the marketing product of the year. To learn more about the product and about Elf design, visit www.howtoraiseyourranking.com

About Erin Ferree and Elf Design, Inc.
Elf design, founded by Erin Ferree, is a brand identity and graphic design firm that has been helping small businesses grow with bold, clean and effective logo designs for over a decade. Elf design offers the comprehensive graphic and web design services of a large agency, with the one-on-one, personalized attention of an independent design specialist. Elf design works closely with their clients to create designs that are visible, credible and memorable -- and uniquely theirs. For more information about elf design, please visit: http://www.elf-design.com

Hi Friend,

Guruji.com has launched a search and win contest,
where you can win a trip to Singapore, a Bajaj Pulsar,
Video iPods and more.

I played the contest and I liked it.
You will like it too. Click on the link below to play.

http://contest.guruji.com/?refid=c99c52124eadbd
358980f82bae5732ca

Guruji Contest Registration

Cheers,
krunal

10 Ways to Make Sure Your SEO Goes Out of Its Way for You

Author: Michael Murray

If they want to have success, companies should do everything they can to ensure that their SEO firm doesn't provide lousy service. Here are 10 tips to keep in mind:

1. Be realistic.

Don't waste your time or the SEO firm's expertise by arguing about broad search terms. Don't say you want to be in the Top 10 for "e-commerce." The SEO firm should ask: "E-commerce and what else? E-commerce consultants? Please be specific."

2. Think long-term.

If you can't help yourself and you want broad search terms, such as "toys," think through what it may take to pull that off. Variations on your favorite term may be best in the short term. If you start looking a year or two out, then make sure there aren't site design, programming and link popularity flaws.

3. Be open with log files.

Don't shield log files from the SEO firm. Admit if your web analytics capability is poor. How can the SEO firm do a good job if your host company can't provide decent statistics, such as the number of visitors from search engines and the actual search terms they use?

4. Change text.

If an SEO firm wants to change text, give the consultant lots of room. If a graphic can be modified so the words appear as text, be open-minded about the change. Chances are, it won't hurt the overall look of the web site. SEO professionals grit their teeth when clients say they want rankings and then resist change.

5. Don't sit on recommendations.

You may end up discouraging the SEO firm you're paying if you hire them and then fail to review their suggestions.

6. Reply to e-mails, voicemails and other communications.

If an SEO firm contacts you, especially for a scheduled meeting, make a point to return the e-mail or call. Really, it's a good idea to be available for strategic conference calls.

7. Stick to the program.

Don't ask the SEO firm to optimize the web site and then expect them to provide Pay-Per-Click (PPC) guidance as well. If you can't handle PPC on your own, pay the experts.

8. Keep statistics in perspective.

With many search terms and engines, it's always going to be possible for some keywords not to rank. Don't get hung up on what search terms didn't pop in the Top 30. Focus on your traffic growth and conversions.

9. Know your limits.

SEO firms appreciate informed clients - to a limit. Read the articles. Pick up an SEO book. Keep up with the news. But don't hire an SEO expert and then tell them you're an SEO expert. For example, you may be excited to learn about all of the SEO devices that could be at your disposal. Don't blame the SEO firm for failing to use them all at once. Measured, gradual changes are best.

10. Take your company name out of title tags.

Do yourself a favor and make title tags available for search terms, not your long company name. Only keep it if it's short and useful from a title tag proximity and density standpoint.

Source by seoarticlesweb.com

YAML - Just another powerful and easy markup language

YAML is a human-readable data serialization format that takes concepts from languages such as XML, C, Python, Perl, as well as the format for electronic mail as specified by RFC 2822. YAML was first proposed by Clark Evans in 2001, who designed it together with Ingy döt Net and Oren Ben-Kiki.

YAML is a recursive acronym meaning "YAML Ain't Markup Language". Early in its development, YAML was said to mean "Yet Another Markup Language", retronymed to distinguish its purpose as data-centric, rather than document markup. However since "markup language" is frequently synonymous with data serialization, it is reasonable to consider YAML a lightweight markup language.

YAML syntax is relatively straightforward and was designed to be easily mapped to data types common to most high-level languages (lists, hashes (mappings), and scalar (single value) data.). Its familiar indented outline and lean appearance makes it especially suited for tasks where humans are likely to view or edit data structures, such as configuration files, dumping during debugging, and document headers (e.g. the headers found on most e-mails are very close to YAML in look). Its line and whitespace delimeters make it friendly to ad hoc grep/python/perl/ruby operations. YAML uses a notation based on a set of sigil characters distinct from those used in XML, making the two languages composable. A major part of its accessibility comes from eschewing the use of enclosures like quotation marks, brackets, braces, and open/close-tags which can be hard for the human eye to balance in nested hierarchies.

Data structure hierarchy is maintained by outline indentation. The following YAML document defines a hash with 7 top level keys. One of the keys, "items", contains a 2 element array (or "list"), each element of which is itself a hash with four keys. The "ship-to" hash content is copied from the "bill-to" hash's content as indicated by the anchor(&) and reference(*) labels. An optional "..." can be used at end of a file (useful for signalling an end in streamed communications without closing the pipe). Optional blank lines can be added for readability. The specific number of spaces in the indentation is unimportant as long as the hierarchy order is maintained and parallel elements have the same left justification. Multiple documents can exist in a file and are separated by "---". Notice that strings do not require enclosure in quotations.

Example:

---!myDocument
logEvent: Purchase Invoice
date: 2007-08-06
customer:
given: Dorothy
family: Gale

bill-to: &id001
street: |
123 Tornado Alley
Suite 16
city: East Westville
state: KS

ship-to: *id001

items:
- part_no: A4786
descrip: Water Bucket (Filled)
price: 1.47
quantity: 4

- part_no: E1628
descrip: High Heeled "Ruby" Slippers
price: 100.27
quantity: 1

specialDelivery: >
Follow the Yellow Brick
Road to the Emerald City.
Pay no attention to the
man behind the curtain.
...


Source

10 Steps to Success on the ’Net Without SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as we know and detest it is obsolete in this day and age. When some while ago Philipp asked me to write an article “How do I optimize websites” I couldn’t do it: The way SEO works in Germany on Google.de can not really work for international websites in English. Moreover nowadays you do not need conventional SEO tactics to have success on the Net or in Google. In order to make a site succeed in these times you have to forget everything you know about on page optimization and link building first.

Now we can start our ten step guide to Google and traffic heaven.

1. Discover your niche
Be different, choose a topic or product that not everybody else already covers or sells. Discovering it is not to be confused with “keyword research” as in conventional SEO. You try to introduce a new niche not just obeying the Google users demands. Try a different angle. Even a very crowded place like SEO itself does have new ones. I am indeed the first blogger to tackle mainly the SEO 2.0 topic.
2. Use Wordpress
Instead of “on page optimization” you can install Wordpress that is search engine friendly out of the box. Wordpress is not only a blog software, you can use it as small scale CMS and it will suffice for most average websites. Also “search engine submission” even with XML sitemaps is not needed anymore with Wordpress. It pings Google Blog Search automatically so your blog posts end up in the Google index just a few hours later.
3. Create a killer CSS design and submit it to CSS galleries
Traditional SEO is all about link building or getting links. Sites doing SEO often look crappy. These days people link web sites that look great just for the sake of the design. Unlike some years ago nowadays CSS and web standards are the best way to design a site. Now it is not difficult to create a great design, especially with Wordpress. Create a killer design for your blog and you will be linked everywhere. Just check out this list at CSS Juice.
4. Allow trackbacks, use dofollow
Blogs thrive in connection with each other. The best way of connecting blogs is the trackback function. Install the dofollow plugin in order not to treat other bloggers like spammers.
5. Socialize, write comments and link other blogs
Link and mention other blogs and bloggers in your posts. Also commenting in other blogs is much appreciated as blogging is not a monologue if it’s done right.
6. Include social media on your site, use social media yourself
Include buttons to your favorite social bookmarking services like del.icio.us or Stumple Upon. Be careful with social news sites like Digg or Reddit. They may crash your server and/or cost you lots of money by driving tons of useless traffic in short periods of time to your site.
7. Write your own content, say something new, express yourself
Write about stuff out of your niche that you know about. Write your own content, do not just post links to other sites. Say something new that wasn’t already said by everybody else. Express yourself, do not repeat yesterday’s news.
8. Compile what you know or what others said and publish it
If everything was said and done already in a particular case, compile it and create a list. Top list are the best solutions as a “200 Wordpress plugins” list is just too big. “10 indispensable Wordpress plugins” is far better.
9. Contribute to your favorite online publications
Do not just publish at your own blog or site. Contribute to other publications that cover your topic. Try your favorite ones first, as you probably know exactly what kind of topic they would like. Most publishers will link to your site
10. Add new content at least every second day
Add new content often enough to create a stable readership. People that visit your site once a month might forget about it. It’s not always necessary to post every day but if you write a real blog do it at least 3 times a week.

As you see most of it is not very spectacular and you probably already do some of it. Moreover no SEO as you know it is really involved until now. If you are not satisfied by now, you probably need some advanced SEO or SEO 2.0 as I call it.

Source by blogoscoped.com

10 things a PHP IDE has to have

There are so many PHP IDE's out today and it is very hard to choose between them. In my investigations I have found that though there are many they all fall short when it comes to the basic needs of a PHP developer.
Before I continue and review some of those PHP IDE's here is a list of 10 things a PHP coding program has to have.

1. One-click project creation by choosing a directory with. Too many PHP IDE's have multi-step project creation. Some even have strange functions where you have to add files to the project and delete them. Adding and deleting a file from a project should be as easy as going to the file system and moving or removing the file. I don't want to delete a file from a project and find it hanging out in the project folder later. Some might think this is cool, but it is not.
2. Local filesystem viewer that shows the filesystem tree without having to enter a drive letter. If I cannot see the file system from the IDE it's uninstall and delete followed by some violent thoughts directed at the software maker.
3. A PHP debugger that works out of the box with a local webserver. No PHP IDE has this yet. I consider it the holy grail of the PHP software world. No matter how much support software manufactures offer it never covers this aspect of using an IDE enough. Frequently the only reason for purchasing or using an IDE rather than a text editor is to get debugging features.
4. A HTML toolbar. Why do PHP IDE makers think PHP developers want to type out and can remember all HTML? After all they are buying or downloading the IDE to ease the task of having to type things character by character. CSS is also much more important nowadays as is javascript, they should be included.
5. Price is in second place after debugging. When you think about it you might see that the top commercial IDE makers are probably guilty of price fixing. Why they think that PHP developers will pay $300 for their software is beyond me. I myself would not pay that kind of money for a Java program that is buggy and runs slow as molasses. You want three hundred bucks? Give me everything on this list in a blinding fast program written in C , Delphi or Visual Basic.
6. Drag and Drop text that does not bug out when used. All PHP IDE's seem to have this in common. Using drag and drop or marking long rows of text cause jumping, jitter and the disappearance of the pointer. Some even scroll to a "home" area on the screen when too much text is marked.
7. Fast start times. Okay, let's skip the slow Java debate and go straight to the core. I want my 2.5gz processor to start the IDE in the same time that it can start Word or Open Office. Waiting a minute is ridiculous. Again here commercial vendors may want to take note. If the program costs more than $300, I deduct $10 from the retail price for each second that it takes to start the program.
8. File backups on save and timed backups of working files. I cannot stress how important this is. Without backups the program becomes a danger to use. I always find myself making several copies of files as I work to give me a stepping back or history capability. I would be nice if an IDE had a savable history or versioning capability. But plain backup is a must.
9. A TO DO list function. It should be simple with a title and text body. The list should appear per project. I get tired of seeing TO DO lists functions that require that I do more than just jot down the thought in my head.
10. Intellisense. This is a must. But also one has to wonder why regular HTML is never included in intellisense. Intellisense I feel is being used as an excuse for not including the other things need to produce a proper PHP application

Source by phpopensource.blogspot.com

Submitting your website to DMOZ

Today more than ever, in the field of search engine optimization (SEO), there is a very important step that needs to be taken in order to help a website's visibility in the major search engines. That important step is to submit it to DMOZ, or sometimes called the Open Directory Project or ODP.

DMOZ provides a lot of search results for a good percentage of the most important search engines and directories, including Google. First, DMOZ is NOT a robot-driven crawler but rather a large, human-edited directory of the Web. For any submission to be successful, a few important points need to be taken ahead of time:

Step A)
Your full contact information needs to be there. Make certain that your full contact information is easily accessible, preferably with the help of a clearly identified contact button. An e-mail address is certainly not enough. Many ODP editors will tell you if they don't see a real physical or postal address or telephone number, then that website in its particular category is usually tossed away and probably will never make it inside the directory.

Most importantly, if you are wishing to sell anything, you need to build credibility and honesty with your clients. In such a case, giving proper and full contact information on the site is imperative.

Step B)
Do not attempt to SPAM the directory. You should only submit your site once and forget it for at least two to three months. According to DMOZ rules and regulations, you are only allowed to submit to one category. However, in certain isolated cases and if your website happens to be a very large one and offers lots of information, you may be able to submit a second section of it to a different category. As a rule of thumb, it usually takes time for most submissions to be processed.

This is especially true of categories where there are many daily submissions. It is not recommended to submit a website more than once, as it could end up on the lower bottom of the large list of sites to be reviewed and approved, since they are processed according to their submissions dates.

Step C)
Your website needs original and good content. During the course of your work, if you are only trying to publish an assortment of affiliate links or if your site happens to be a "mirror-site" of other websites that are plentiful on the Internet, then you are increasing your chances of your submission being rejected.

If in fact you really have to deal with affiliate products or services, we recommend that you add lots of new content, perhaps a product review category, an industry news section or any other additional information that will tell the DMOZ editors that your site has something original to offer and has lots of great content that will be of good use to their users.

Step D)
Double-check your website for spelling errors or typos. As much as the DMOZ editors are looking for great content, all are only human and will probably be irritated by some typos or spelling mistakes. Our experience with the ODP tells us that professionally written and carefully built websites with great content, usually always make it into the directory eventually.

Step E)
Keep good records of your submission to DMOZ. We strongly recommend in keeping a complete record of the date a website was submitted to the Open Directory Project and to which particular category it was submitted to. If the category you want to submit to has an editor, you should always make a note of who that editor is. Such information would be useful if later you need to inquire about the status of your submission.

Some of you might ask: "How long does it take to get listed?" Recently, we had one site listed within three weeks of submission and, on other less fortunate occasions, we waited over six months for other sites. It is extremely hard to predict anything.

Step F)
Select the proper category for any submission. In Google or Alta-Vista, when people submit a URL to such robotic search engines, there really is not much to think about, since their crawlers or "spiders" will visit and index your site automatically, normally over a rather short period of time. However, when submitting to a directory such as DMOZ, a critical part of that submission process is choosing the right category. One good thing that is recommended is to go online and look where other websites similar to yours have been placed in the directory.

When you get to the category that you think is best, press the "add URL" button. In other categories, sometimes the DMOZ editors might put a note mentioning certain restrictions to that category. It is recommended that these notes be read carefully and that you don't submit to these restricted categories if your site doesn't meet the parameters mentioned.

Step G)
Always contact DMOZ through the proper channels. Finally, a word of caution: if the category where you want to submit does have an editor, it will usually be written at the bottom of the page and you normally should be able to send that editor a message. There is another way to contact the DMOZ editors through their online forum.

Once there, you can ask about the status of your submission, but you must always give them the category and submission date of your last attempt. Additionally, you can always ask a few questions about general DMOZ procedures and rules.

Try your best to meet their rules and regulations and normally your site should eventually be included in their directory.

Source by rankforsales.com

Google's Matt Cutts: do not stuff your keywords

Keyword stuffing is one of the oldest spamming techniques on the Internet. Many webmasters still use that technique although most search engines can detect it nowadays.

Last week, Google's anti-spam engineer Matt Cutts made fun of a website that used keyword stuffing. Apart from the rather dubious content of the web page, the webmaster included a very long list of related and unrelated keywords in a small text box at the end of the page.

Google doesn't like keyword stuffing

"Keyword stuffing is considered to be an unethical search engine optimization (SEO) technique.

Keyword stuffing occurs when a web page is loaded with keywords in the meta tags or in content. The repetition of words in meta tags may explain why many search engines no longer use these tags." (Wikipedia definition)

Google doesn't like keyword stuffing at all. If Google detects keyword stuffing on a web page, that page will be banned from Google's index. Google's Matt Cutts puts it that way:

"Webmasters are free to do what they want on their own sites, but Google reserves the right to do what we think is best to maintain the relevance of our search results, and that includes taking action on keyword stuffing."

You might use keyword stuffing on your web pages without knowing it

While most keyword stuffing is done intentional, it can also happen that your web pages trigger Google's spam filters although you didn't want to spam.

For example, if you have very similar keywords that are used often on your web pages, this might look like keyword stuffing.

How to avoid unintentional keyword stuffing

If you're unsure if you use a certain keyword too often on a web page then use IBP's optimizer tool. The optimizer tool will analyze your web pages and compare it to the web pages that currently have a top 10 ranking for that keyword.

IBP will tell you in plain English sentences how often you should use your keywords on your web page so that your site can get top 10 rankings. IBP will also tell you in which web page elements you should put the keywords (and how often) so that you get the best results.

Spamming search engines is not a good idea. Although most spam techniques will work for some time, all of them will get your website banned sooner or later. Better focus on ethical search engine optimization methods to get lasting results.

Source by free-seo-news.com

Duplicate Content is one of the most perplexing problems in SEO.

15 things about how Google handles duplicate content.

1. Google’s standard response is to filter out duplicate pages, and only show one page with a given set of content in its search results.

2. I have seen in the SERPs evidence that large media companies seem to be able to show copies of press releases and do not get filtered out.

3. Google rarely penalizes sites for duplicate content. Their view is that it is usually inadvertent.

4. There are cases where Google does penalize. This takes some egregious act, or the implementation of a site that is seen as having little end user value.
I have seen instances of algorithmically applied penalties for sites with large amounts of duplicate content.

5. An example of a site that adds little value is a thin affiliate site, which is a site that uses copies of third party content for the great majority of its content, and exists to get search traffic and promote affiliate programs. If this is your site, Google may well seek to penalize you.

6. Google does a good job of handling foreign language versions of site. They will most likely not see a Spanish language version and an English language versions of sites as duplicates of one another.

7. A tougher problem is US and UK variants of sites (”color” v.s. “colour”). The best way to handle this is with in-country hosting to make it easier for them to detect that.

8. Google recommends that you use Noindex metatags or robots.txt to help identify duplicate pages you don’t want indexed. For example, you might use this with “Print” versions of pages you have on your site.

9. Vanessa Fox indicated in her Duplicate Content Summit at SMX that Google will not punish a site for implementing NoFollow links to a large number of internal site links. However, the recommendation is still that you should use robots.txt or NoIndex metatags.

10. When Google comes to your site, they have in mind a number of pages that they are going to crawl. One of the costs of duplicate content is that when the crawler loads a duplicate page, one that they are not going to index, they have loaded that page instead of a page that they might index. This is a big downside to duplicate content if your site is not (more) fully indexed as a result.

11. I also believe that duplicate content pages cause internal bleeding of page rank. In other words, link juice passed to pages that are duplicates is wasted, and this is better passed on to other pages.

12. Google finds it easy to detect certain types of duplicate content, such as print pages, archive pages in blogs, and thin affiliates. These are usually recognized as being inadvertent

13. They are still working on RSS feeds and the best way to keep them from showing up as duplicate content. The acquisition of FeedBurner will likely speed the resolution of that issue.

14. One key think they use as a signal as to what page to select from a group of duplicates, is that they look at and see what page is linked to the most.

15. Lastly, if you are doing a search and you DO want to see duplicate content results, just do your search, get the results, and append the “&filter=0″ parameter to the end of your search results and refresh the page.

Source by creeper-seo.com - Seo News Source

What are the Effects of Two Addresses in the Footer of a Website?

A web designer at Cre8asite Forums has an interesting predicament. She has a client who has a local store and a headquarters both located in two different states. Would it be bad to put two addresses in the footer of the website? Could it negatively affect organic and local rankings where it previously helped?

Nobody knows for sure. One member suggests that you should not put two addresses in the footer but the other address should be posted somewhere, like on the Contact Us page.

Or you can use Google Trends to see which location is more popular. Ultimately, the visitors come first.

But moderator EGOL says that this is a good question to experiment upon.

You have a chance to do a great experiment here…. run analytics to see what search queries come in for the current state, then tally the google rankings for those queries, and then run rankings for matching queries for the new state…. upload the new footer and see what happens to the ranks.

This reminds me of adding your address to Google’s Local Business Center, which can also help.

Forum discussion continues at Cre8asite Forums.