Blogging for Riches

10 Web Design and Usability Blunders to Avoid

Looking for that web2.0’sh look for your website? It is now a trend everyone is now converting their pages into CSS and standards compatible pages, but still the majority of pages that you find on internet are badly designed. There are few of the biggest mistakes that one can make while creating website designs.

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The Simpsons Lessons on Life and Blogging

What can you learn from American's longest running sitcom?

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Britons, Kings of Facebook, MySpace

More adults in Britain use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace than in any other European country, a report published by its communications watchdog said Wednesday.

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Blogging Utility: JS-Kit to Deploy Navigator

JS-Kit, a Web 2.0 startup competing in the commenting app space with the likes of SezWho and Intense Debate, CoComment, and Disqus. Later today, at the Widgety Goodness conference in London, they’ll be announcing the launch of Navigator, a lightweight web service that is intended to simplify content managment and raise quality traffic for ...

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Julian Beever's Latest 3D Sidewalk Paintings

Julian Beever, the chalk artist who draws 3-D illusions in city streets, has been busy making some new amazing paintings.

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The Bill Clinton Secret to Writing

You’ve probably done this with crosswords, too — but did you ever think to adopt the same strategy with writing?

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Can Calligraphy Improve your Creativity?

We all know that Steve Jobs is the world’s second most successful college dropout. But here’s something you didn’t know. After Jobs dropped out of Reed College, he went back to school as a drop-in and studied a subject that turned out to be vital to the development of the computer as we know it… He took a course in calligraphy.

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What’s Your Long-Term Blogging Strategy?

Unless you have a staff of full-time writers, a professional designer, an existing audience you can leverage and money to pour into promotions, the process of becoming popular rarely happens overnight. Or in a matter of months.

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Internet Marketing news, tools and resources

New Internet Marketing Website that offers free training, tools and articles.

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5 Reasons Why You Might Not Want to be a Top Stumbler | SU Comments

A year or so ago, I was totally focused on becoming Top Stumbler. I was in the third position, behind two veteran stumblers, Wiggy (who has since left StumbleUpon) and Starspirit (who has been one of the very top stumblers as long as I have been on SU).

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Article Submission and Your Reputation

The Internet is a wonderful place to browse and get some really good information. It’s also riddled with out and out garbage. Here’s how to make you article submission work count and contribute to the brighter side of Internet content.

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Using Testimonials

How to boost sales with testimonials the right way.

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A Behind The Scenes "Consultation"

Preview a couple of great mind maps from Jay Abraham of a recent conference. Excellent information on planning and using mind maps to be more effective.

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See How Easily You Can Increase Traffic

Increase your blog traffic with bloggingzoom.com

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Why Digg Is Still The Best

Michael Arrington wrote on Saturday about a new Digg competitor called Mixx, and how it was attracting “Digg Refugees.” Digg clones or similar social voting sites are far from new, but given this new competition does Digg still come out on top?

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Conversation 2.0: Social marketing and "the neverending conversation"

Oddly interesting look at "Social Marketing and You." ---- Conversation 2.0, that is, the Web 2.0-enabled conversation, shifts places and times; it is ubiquitous and doesn't pause--it is, in all senses of the meaning, a "never ending conversation."

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Social Media is "The Godfather" of the Internet

The Godfather showed us a world of beauty and corruption. Alliances were made and broken. Those who were good to the family were rewarded, while anyone who stepped in the way was hit.Social media works in much the same way.

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Social networking . . . all in a good cause

As the big three battle it out, MySpace is handing over a platform to charities. So whatever next? Social networking sites are becoming the battleground for the heart of the internet. They represent the convergence of all the key trends in technology and media - personalisation, aggregation, media-sharing, communities and targeted advertising...

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Lessons From FedEx, Schwab, eBay, On The Customer-Driven Web Economy

It's about communication with your customers..... not just having a killer website.

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The Economic Idiocy of Blocking Social Media Traffic

By now most of you have probably seen the site 'Why Digg is Blocked'. For those that haven't come across it, the site is on a mission to convince webmasters and content producers to reject social media traffic. Here's a look at the incredibly flawed logic the site uses to justify its purpose.

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"Kiss Your Ass Goodbye Airline Safety Demonstrations"

YOU Get Told Exactly What The Airlines Thinking Yet Are Too Chicken Shit To Reveal . . . 'How To Kiss Your Ass Goodbye In A Crash' . . . and Assume The Worse!

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Social Media: Experts Offer Tips for Success

There are always articles about getting started in or getting better at social media, but this week was flooded with some great ones written by talented, respected authors. Here, I have compiled some great resources, some “must reads” for anyone wanting a leg up.

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How to make $1.6 million in 7 seconds...

A funny article anout an upcoming webinar with Trevor “Toecracker” Crook

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Are You Sabotaging Your Social Media Stories?

Are You Sabotaging Your Social Stories?Posted by Ben Cook as Blog Marketing, Blogging, Social MediaI’ve been a participant in the social media scene, both as a reader and content producer, for a quite a while now. I’ve had several stories I’ve written become popular and I’ve had even more submissions make it. But no matter how many stories I read or submissions I see, I can’t get over the fact that people make the same mistakes over and over again when it comes to their social media stories. They dream of the exposure social media can deliver, work hard at creating viral content, and then they make one of these critical mistakes that kills their story before it even had a chance. If you have hopes of social media success, avoid these all too common mistakes and actually give your story a chance for a change.

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The Social Media Manual By Muhammad Saleem

I get so many questions from people about Digg, Propeller, Reddit, Stumbleupon and other social news sites every day, that I decided to write this little "manual" as something to read before you jump in head first into any social site, and to keep by your side as you progress through the ranks. It should not only help you succeed with your social media marketing efforts, but also help you avoid some of the mistakes I've made.1. Before you even think about signing up with a socially driven news site, consider this: Have you spent some time browsing the community (reading the content and the comments, learning about popular sources and players)? Do you understand how the site works and the niche it serves? If so, is the site for you?While all socially driven sites have the same basic elements (reading, submitting, voting, and commenting) not all of them function the same way and they definitely don't serve the same niche (remember it is not a zero-sum game, and it is with good reason that so many socially driven sites have managed to not only co-exist but also grow at the same time). If you don't invest time in determining whether a site is right for you from the start, all your subsequent hard work likely won't pay off and you will have to

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Effective Networking 101

Great Tips on How to Effectively use the power of social media

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Effective Networking 101

Great Tips on How to Effectively use the power of social media

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Croc Shoes and Thrilla Copywriting

Now what would Croc shoes have to do with Copywriting I hear you ask. Well, actually nothing, or not these ones at least. I heard on the grapevine that Trevor “Toe Cracker” Crook, a fellow Aussie, Pay it Forward entrepreneur and the master of copywriting himself, is hosting a free webinar for TaggZilla

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The Ultimate Guide to Blog Usability: 36 Tips and Resources

To help attract more readers to your blog, we’ve generated a list of 36 tips and resources for you to implement in order to ensure maximum usability. If your blog is easy and fun to visit, you’ll notice more readers flocking to your site.

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Copywriting Knockout Punches For Serious Entrepreneurs”

This bloke reckons that he's the 'Crocodile Dundee' of copywriters and he'll give clients the biggest advertising knife! Then they can slash their competitors leave them feeling like a one legged swimmer in a crocodile infested creek... maybe something for an everyday blogger like me to learn!

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Is Copywriting Important to Bloggers?

I'll save you the trouble of reading the entire article right now, and just answer the question: yes. Absolutely, without a doubt, copywriting is extremely important to bloggers.

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Five Incredibly Cool and Useful Blogging Tools

Here are 5 really helpful blogging tools that are simple to use and add a cool factor to any post.

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66 Ways to Build Links in 2007

If “Content is King“, then links are what put that king on the throne. Build links and you’ll be able to display your content to the world. Don’t build links, and your King won’t have a kingdom.

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Copywriting: Can you learn this valuable skill?

Copywriting: Can you learn this valuable skill?copywriting.jpgCopywriting is often looked at as an art. Some folks think it’s something that you either have or don’t have. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just write the great headlines and articles with little or no effort?If you already have copywriting skills and can write those great headlines and articles with no effort, then good for you. I for one, am envious of anyone who can do this. I have work really hard at getting that perfect headline. Then it’s still not always like I want it. You see since I have been blogging, I continue to learn the skills of copywriting. What I have found is the more I do it and the more I read other blogs and articles the better I get. I also try to find as many videos ,podcasts and webinars I can about the topic.Creating a great headline and a great article can make the difference between you actually MAKING MONEY online or NOT making money online. For instance, just by changing one word in a headline one of my old sites actually had a 400% increase in traffic and a 175% increase in visitors that converted to buyers. The initial headline that was used was: “Increase your traffic by 100%”. This head line worked well and I had a lot of traffic as well as visitors that converted to buyers. But when I added the word “Today”, the traffic went through the roof and the buyers did as well. Keep in mind there were two other tests where I used “2 months” then “30 days”, but just the word “today” was the home run.This is what copywriting is all about. Finding the right words to say that not only sound good, but will make potential visitors click on your Google results and become buyers. You want your headline and article to be sooooo good that everyone who sees it will read your copy and buy what ever it is you are selling.If you have read my site for anytime at all, you know that I am always finding great things in the Blogshpere for my readers to take advantage of. My latest find is a site named Taggzilla. I just found out about this FREE Copywriting Webinar they are sponsoring which is hosted by Trevor Crook. Trevor Crook helps business owners and entrepreneurs to ignite their sales and profits using sizzling sales copy for online and offline marketing strategies. I apologize for such short notice, but this Webinar is Tuesday, November 20, 2007. So go to Trevor Crook copywriting expert to sign up for this FREE Copywriting Webinar

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Consumers Worry How Mortgage Challenges Will Impact Auto Loans

As the challenges in the subprime mortgage market continue to play out, a new survey indicates that Americans shopping for car loans and other forms of credit are beginning to get nervous

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The Secret To Big Profits Selling Affiliate Products From Your Blog

A very detailed explanation of the dos and don't to affiliate marketing through your blog.

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68 Helpful Tools for SEO

68 Helpful SEO Tools and Resources Evaluate Your Site, or Your Competitor'sFirefox addonsSeoQuake - obtain and investigate many important SEO parameters of an internet project on the flySEOpen - provides some basic tools to help with search engine optimization including google backlinks, yahoo backlinks, PageRank check, http header viewer, and moreGoogle Analytics - Provides deep analysis on all traffic, including paid search.IBP - Several tools for checking rank positions, basic SEO page analysis and link building tools.WebCEO - Site optimization, promotion and analysis.WeBuildPages - Free software for SEO analysis, back link and anchor text tool.Link Building 101 - Basic link building instructions and tips.Link Baiting - Good link baiting tutorial.Google Webmaster Central - Statistics, diagnostics and management of Google's crawling and indexing of your website, including Sitemap submission and reporting.Pay-per-Click ToolsWordTracker -Data is based on the Metacrawler and Overture search engines.KeywordDiscovery - Data is based on the number of search engines.Keyword Optimizer - Enter a list of keywords and this tool will remove any duplicate entries and re-order the list alphabetically.Google Analytics - Provides deep analysis on all traffic, including paid search.Google Suggest - As you type, Google provides the top 10 most popular keywords that begin with the keyed-in letters, in order of popularity.SpyFu - Find out what competitors are bidding on, estimates for the cost of PPC advertising and other bells and whistles.Hittail - Finds and easily groups the actual terms being used to find your site into an Excel format. Great for finding niches and long keyword strings.Google Trends - Graphs historical trends of various Google searches.Google External Keyword Tool - Historical trends in keyword popularity.BidCenter - A good tool for comparative analysis and easy to use.SEO Sleuth - Find what AOL users search for (AOL produces 2x the retail conversions as any other engine).ROI Calculator - This calculator measures the ROI (return on investment) of a CPC (cost per click) campaign.Site ToolsC-Class Checker - Use the Class C Checker if you own several cross-linked sites.Code to Text Ratio - This tool will help you discover the percentage of text in aFuture PageRank - This tool will query Google's various data centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a given URL.Internet Officer - Checks for redirects.Live PR - The Live PageRank calculator gives you the current PageRank value in the Google index, not just the snapshot that is displayed in the toolbar.Keyword Cloud - This tool provides a visual representation of keywords used on a website.Keyword Difficulty Check - Use the Keyword Difficulty Check Tool to see how difficult it would be to rank for specific keywords or keyword phrases.Page Size - This tool will help you to determine HTML web page size.Site Link Analyzer - This tool will analyze a given web page and return a table of data containing columns of outbound links and their associated anchor text.Spider Simulator - This tool simulates a search engine spider by displaying the contents of a web pageURL Rewriting - This tool converts dynamic URLs to static URLs. You will need to create an .htaccess file to use this tool.Keyword Misspelling Generator - Allows you to generate various misspellings of a keyword or phrase to match common typing errors. Useful for creating keyword lists around your most important keywords to bid on.Keyword Density Analysis Tool - Finds common words and phrases on your site.Hub Finder - Finds topically related pages by looking at link co-citation. Post about tool.Page Text Rank Checker - Tool allows you to check where each phrase or term occurring on the page.XML Sitemaps - Makes free Google Sitemaps for sites up to 500 pages in size.Google ToolsGoogle Webmaster Central *Tool - See how Google crawls and indexes your site and learn about specific problems they're having accessing it.Google Labs*Tool - Cutting edge Google tools that are currently in betaSpyFu for Google Bidding*Tool - Lets you see which keywords your competitors are buying and which ones they optimize their site for.Google Future PR *Tool - This tool will query Google's various data centers to check for any changes in PageRank values for a given URLGoogle Sandbox *Tool - Enter the URL or keywords in the box, and you will see up to 20 sample AdSense ads for the URL or keywordsGoogle Dance Watch - Google Datacenter Search ToolGoogle Page Rank Formula and Sandbox Explanation - Check link popularity on Google, Yahoo and MSNGoogle Google Information and FAQGoogle Reinclusion Request *Tool - Remove information from search requestsGoogle Advanced Search *Tool - Quick explanation of different search parameters.Google Page Rank Check (All DC's)*Tool - Look up any site's pagerankGoogle Keyword Ranking Check*Tool - Find where a site ranks for keyword searchesGoogle "Need-To-Know" Info- Start here if you're not familiar with GoogleBeginner Adwords Tips *Instruction - Learn how to utilize AdWordsHow Google Analytics Work *Instruction- Interpret Analytics resultsCheck Google Keyword Prices *Tool- Keyword price researchHit Tail *Advanced Adwords Tool - Reveals in real time which keywords people use to find your website.Hit Tail Documented - How to use HitTail to your advantage,Even More Tools!Getting into DMOZ - How to get a website listed in the Open Directory ProjectMeta Tag Generator ToolRoboForm - A MUST-HAVE! - Completely automates password entering and form filling.Keyword Density * - Helps webmasters and SEOs achieve their optimum keyword density for a set of key terms.Web CEO - SEO Software *Tool - Great SEO software package.IBP Pro - SEO Software *Tool - Another good SEO software packageRobots.txt Generator *Tool - Allows you to hide files or directories that you don't wish the search engine spiders to findDomain Age Check *Tool - Use this tool to find the age of any domain, including your competitors' or ones you might want to purchaseWho Supplies Who with Search Results*Tool - Search engine relationship chartAdwords Click Fraud Study *Information - In depth study on click fraudIP Information *Tool - - An online DNS tool suitePPC Hijacking *Information - Info on Pay-per-click hijackingComprehensive Link Building 101 *Tool - Link building is the single most important element to obtaining high rankings in all of the major search enginesLink Baiting *Instruction - How to create the most link-worthy content

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Mozilla responds: We Call The Shots, Not Google!

Yes, Google pays Mozilla $56 million per year, Google is the default search engine, and supplier of many of the browser's features (anti-phishing, anti-malware, incorrect URL resolution). Shaver insists that in spite of these ties, Mozilla still calls the shots over Firefox's development.

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Google has you fooled; the negative impact of PageRank.

It’s Friday Morning, 3:38am, and Googlebots everywhere are in frenzy mode. The databases are stirring, and someone, somewhere is receiving a PageRank update. AND IT DOESN'T MATTER... Are you excited yet? Google’s definition of PageRank PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value.Translation:In the most simplistic approach every website has multiple votes. Each vote is an external link. If 50,000 websites link to this article with the anchor text “Google has you fooled”. Google would look at this article as the authority on “Google has you fooled”… that is if no other website has links to it with the anchor text “Google has you fooled”. You can see how this might get complicated if there are 1 million websites competing for that search term. Combine this with the fact that Google takes this “total vote” strategy and smashes it together with the value (PageRank) of the websites voting themselves; you’ve got a hairy situation here and one hell of an algorithm.Google goes on further to state that: Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines dozens of aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.

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5 steps to social networking success

Social networking has set the online world on fire over the past two years, with the likes of Facebook, MySpace and YouTube enjoying explosive growth in revenues and users.

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Giving 2.0: Using Social Networks to Raise Money for Charities

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- GeorgeAnne Smith was one of the lucky ones. The San Diego resident and her family weren't displaced by the wildfires that ravished the area in the fall.But the 42-year-old accountant wanted to help those who their lost homes, giving them comfort in the form of handmade blankets made by her and others throughout the country.Web 2.0 reshapes givingWho we donate to is now influenced to a greater extent by the Internet and its social networking.• Businesses get creative• Loeb: Make your dollars count• What we give, and who gets it• Giving wisely this holiday She organized a drive for eight-inch squares that would be pieced together as blankets for people who lost everything in the fires. Requests were posted on Web sites including Ravelry.com, an online knit and crochet community, and the blog 25 Things for Charity. Smith is a member of both. Visit Ravelry.com. Visit 25 Things for Charity. Smith also started her own blog for the project, the San Diego Wild Fire Blanket Project. Visit the San Diego Wild Fire Blanket Project. Before long, squares were flooding her mailbox and she was posting pictures of them online, sewing them together and getting the blankets ready to distribute to those less fortunate.

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Sales Training - How to Screw Up a Good Thing.

Quick sales training. Don’t take shortcuts. Don’t assume anything. Get the prospect involved at an emotional, not an intellectual, level. Use the system, qualify completely and get that sale!

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Beware Of What You Send Before Your Sales Meeting

Beware of what you send to prospects before you meet. The ideal situation is not to send anything, to let your skills in asking questions and probing for the prospect’s pain give them the desire to see you. But if you must send something, . . . .

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Iraq, Afghan wars have cost each US family $20,000

President Bush's six-year invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq will end up costing Americans about $1.5 trillion, or nearly twice as much as the White House has actually spent to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation, rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans.

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10 Things to Stop Saying Right Now

Note: I am guilty of saying 30% of these myself. I need to stop, too.

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Law Blog Trademark Trial Of the Day: Tiffany v. eBay

Who is responsible for the policing of counterfeit products on eBay?If you think that's an interesting question and you're here in Gotham, hightail it down to Judge Richard Sullivan's courtroom in the Southern District where a bench trial gets underway today pitting Tiffany against the online auctioneer. Legal experts say a win for Tiffany [.]

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Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Classical Education's Past

The contemporary classical Christian home schooling model was born in antiquity. Nearly 3500 years ago, Yahweh (The Great “I Am” of Exodus 3:14) chose a special people, Israel, and commanded the fathers to teach their children His Law in both morning and evening, whether they were at home or away. Torah was their primary text of study. As they...

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Ann Curry Lands At the South Pole NBC New Team

At 6:56 a.m. ET, just four minutes before we went on the air, TODAY producer Matt Carluccio called the control room to let us know that Ann and the crew had successfully landed at the South Pole. Moments after we went on the air, Ann spoke to Matt, Meredith and Al on the phone, getting a standing ovation from the studio.

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UT researcher working on life-saving drugs for next flu pandemic

A Univ of Texas scientist has $5 million in fed money & a mission: to save lives during the next influenza pandemic. Robert Krug, a UT professor & chairman of molecular genetics & biology, rcvd 1 of 9 federal grants to develop drugs that serve as a 1st line of defense against deadly flu strains like the 1918 pandemic that killed 50 million people

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OpenSocial - What a Difference a Day Makes Google Beats Facebook

Hitwise Intelligence - Bill Tancer - US« OpenSocial - Can it Compete with Facebook? | MainNovember 01, 2007OpenSocial - What a Difference a Day MakesToday Google made its official announcement (NYTimes coverage) of the networks that have joined their OpenSocial initiative. By adding sites not yet named in Tuesday's NYTimes piece, namely the addition of MySpace, we have a completely different picture of the combined OpenSocial sites compared to Facebook. By popular requests here's an updated chart:opensocialv2.pngEmail this • Subscribe to this feed • Add to del.icio.us • Digg This! (684 Diggs, 98 comments)Posted by Bill Tancer at 06:42 PMPosted to Social Networking

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Facebook unveils Ad Strategy!

Facebook Unveils Ad Strategy - Users Become MarketersWritten by Josh Catone / November 6, 2007 / 10 commentsAt long last, Facebook today finally unveiled its much hyped advertising strategy at an invite-only event in New York. Their three pronged attack has already been reported on ad nauseum, so beyond a quick overview, I won't get into the reporting side much.The company's approach to advertising boils down to an attempt at conversational marketing, where users become product promoters and are encouraged to spread the word about things they buy and use among their group of friends and contacts. "Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a small crowd of a few hundred ad execs and press, with his usual Jobsian hyperbole in full effect. "For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do."Facebook's ad strategy has three main components: * Business pages - Businesses can build profile pages on Facebook that users can interact with. I'm not sure what the benefit is here over the Facebook sponsored groups that businesses have been paying large fees to have for months. 100,000 business pages supposedly launched today, though. * Social Ads and Beacon - Ads targeted by user profile data -- everything from favorite music to relationship status, and the ability for people to publish product interactions from third-party sites to their news feed (Beacon works more or less as rumored). * Insight - Marketing and usage metrics for advertisers about who is clicking on their ads and how to better target them.

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Polygamous-Sect Leader Warren Jeffs Attempted Suicide By Hanging While in J

Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs attempted to kill himself in jail by hanging eight months before he was convicted on sex assault charges, according to an evaluation by a mental-health expert.

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Ann Curry Lands At the South Pole NBC New Team

Ann Made it to the South Pole!Posted: Thursday, November 08, 2007 7:25 AM by Dan FleschnerFiled Under: Live from Studio 1A, Ends of the EarthAt 6:56 a.m. ET, just four minutes before we went on the air, TODAY producer Matt Carluccio called the control room to let us know that Ann and the crew had successfully landed at the South Pole.Moments after we went on the air, Ann spoke to Matt, Meredith and Al on the phone, getting a standing ovation from the studio. WATCH VIDEOAfter six days of unsuccessful trips from McMurdo Station to the South Pole, Ann and company finally made it -- and arrived to people holding "Welcome Ann!" signs. It sounds like she and the crew were a little queasy when they arrived, which stands to reason -- in about a three-hour span, they went from sea level to an altitude of more than 9,300 feet. That'll mess with your body.

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Twin born second is the older of the two; click here to solve the puzzle

A North Carolina woman gave birth to twins: Peter emerged first, then came Allison. But it's Allison who is the older of the two.

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What you can learn from the Presidential Primaries

What you can learn from the primariesClintontriangle This year, the presidential candidates in the US are going to spend a fortune (or perhaps two or three fortunes) marketing themselves in the primaries. Any product or service that is being launched has to deal with its own 'primary.' Here are a few universal lessons any marketer can take away: * Primary voters pay attention. They need far less yelling than the typical consumer, and many of them will go out of their way to poke around. Go where they are, and they'll listen.

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Fred Thompson's scarlet 'L' - GOP Presidential Candidate

Perceived by some as laid-back to a fault -- even lazy -- the GOP presidential candidate is projecting a more vigorous style.

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CHANNEL ISLAND: Fox sees dollar signs in picket lines

Thanks to shows such as 'American Idol,' a Fox exec says money it will save on salaries offsets any lost ad revenue.By Scott Collins, Los Angeles Times Staff WriterNovember 12, 2007STRIKING writers had a special message for Fox executives Friday morning.An estimated 3,000 picketers massed outside Fox's Century City headquarters, where they were serenaded by guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, an anti-corporate, far-left band that has made a career of telling listeners how to stick it to the Man. One sign bore a doctored photo of Peter Chernin, president of Fox parent News Corp., extending his middle finger over the legend, "Write this!"

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Rescue operation aims to save a wounded warrior - James Blake Miller

Despite concerns of overstepping, Times photographer Luis Sinco feels compelled to help the Iraq vet he made famous. James blake miller was in a world of pain, and I figured I should be by his side. Photographer/Reporter who took PIC in 2004 Helped Soilder in Photo Heal!

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When P T Barnum Took Manhattan

When Barnum Took ManhattanBarnum MuseumSleighing in front of P. T. Barnum’s American Museum at the corner of Broadway and Ann Street. * Sign In to E-Mail or Save This * Print * Single Page * Reprints * Share o Del.icio.us o Digg o Facebook o Newsvine o PermalinkArticle Tools Sponsored ByBy JOHN STRAUSBAUGHPublished: November 9, 2007SINCE 1766 St. Paul’s Chapel at Broadway and Vesey Street has been one of the best-known and most revered landmarks in Lower Manhattan, associated with events from George Washington’s inauguration in 1789 to the destruction of the World Trade Center just behind it in 2001.Skip to next paragraphRelatedRelated Venues and Events (November 9, 2007)Audio Walking TourNarrated by John StrausbaughThe tour is available in audio format, as a set or as separate mp3 files. * Download Audio Walking TourBarnum MuseumHe may not have uttered that "sucker" line, but he said, "The people like to be humbugged."VideoMore Video »For almost a quarter of a century in the 1800s it shared the intersection with another extremely popular, and not altogether welcome, landmark. Opposite the church, in more ways than one, was P. T. Barnum’s American Museum.Today New Yorkers may think of Phineas Taylor Barnum only when the circus comes to town. But for almost 60 years he was one of the most celebrated figures in the city. He entertained and amused tens of millions here. When he died in 1891, The Washington Post called him “the most widely known American that ever lived.”There’s no statue in any of the city’s parks, no Barnum Square, almost no visible sign of his once ubiquitous presence in Manhattan. But in a city where marketing and advertising are major industries, a city that has revitalized itself as a center of amusements and entertainments in recent years, who can deny that P. T. Barnum’s spirit of humbug lives on?

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Cellphone Straitjacket Is Inspiring a Rebellion

A rebellion is brewing in the communications industry that is expected to pit wireless carriers against Silicon Valley powerhouses like Google.

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PR is part of the product design: Ford's social media news release

PR is part of the product design: Ford's social media news releasePosted by Tim Leberecht 4 comments(Credit: Ford)I know this blog is about product design and innovation but let's talk about PR for a minute. Why? Because the way you talk about your product should be part of your design process. The product design ought to incorporate the product story you want to tell. Sometimes, the story even becomes the product. Moreover, some may think PR is immune to innovation, but is in fact a field that is currently going through a series of pretty radical disruptions. The rise of social media has challenged the old way of promoting messages, and today's PR practitioners face the daunting challenge of doing effective public relations when it's more and more the public itself that does all of the relating for you.Enter the social media news release (SMNR), originally conceived by SHIFT Communications, a viable new format to spark and cultivate online conversations about a product. Todd Defren, Shel Holtz, Chris Heuer, and other bloggers have been on the soapbox preaching about SMNRs for almost a year now. The list of companies that have used the SMNR includes Coca-Cola, BEA, SAP, Novell, and Belkin, among many other smaller companies.And now--hat tip to Geoff Livingston--Ford has released an especially glowing example of a SMNR for its new 2008 Focus. It's quite a production and includes a vast array of social media elements. Flickr-sized Images, RSS feeds, suggested meta-tags, YouTube videos, PDF fact sheets, bulleted facts, and a variety of executive quotes make this release eye and conversation candy--lavish yet informative.

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Mario Calls GameStop Customers to Remind Them to Pick Up Super Mario Galaxy

So, there I was, minding my own business, when my phone rings. It’s a number I don’t recognize, so I’d normally ignore it, but I went ahead and answered it anyway. Next thing I know, Mario’s on the phone telling me to come into GameStop tomorrow to pick up my copy of Super Mario Galaxy. Let me tell you, it was surreal and really hilarious. It looks like GameStop managed to get Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, to record a message to send out to people who pre-ordered the new game reminded them of when it comes out. I guess he’s been doing that for some other Mario-related releases, but still, it was pretty cool. I’m going to be pretty freaked out though if one of the guys from Kane and Lynch gives me a call tomorrow. You can read a full transcript of the message I got after break. I assure you, those misspellings are not typos; that’s just how it was said, especially the “woo-hoos.”“Hi, I’m Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, and you may know me a little better like this:Hello, it’s-a me, Mario. Woo-hoo! And I’m-a calling you because I’m here at the GameStop where they telling me you pre-ordered my newest and greatest game, Super Mario Galaxy! Woo-hoo! It’s an amazing game, and it’s-a going to be here tomorrow at your local GameStop. You can come and pick it up at the GameStop store where you originally reserve you copy. Whoopee! I’m-a can’t wait for you to see me flying around in my bumblebee outfit. I’m-a out in space trying to rescue the princess. Ah, she makes my heart go bada-bing-bada-boom-bada-ba. Oh, and you know what else? GameStop will let you bring in your old gameses to trade in for credit. Yah, credit to help you buy you copy of Super Mario Galaxy, with-a me, Mario. Oh and if you have any questions make sure you call you local GameStop store where you pre-order my game, and they going to be happy to help you out. Okey dokey? Okey dokey! Happy holidays! And thank you very much for buying my new game, Super Mario Galaxy, at the GameStop. Woo-hoo!”

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Former pilots and officials call for a new U.S. UFO probe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich may have been ridiculed for saying he had seen a UFO, but for some former military pilots and other observers, unidentified flying objects are no laughing matter.An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials called on the U.S. government on Monday to reopen its generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other strange sightings."Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns ... which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters," they said in a statement released at a news conference.

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Intel Launches next generation Micro Chips

A sophisticated new process crams up to 40% more transistors onto their 16 new chips.The world's largest semiconductor company expects to start shipping 16 new microprocessors _ which also boast inventive new materials to stanch electricity loss _ for use in servers and high-end gaming PCs .A customer leaves a Wal-Mart in Mountain View, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2007. The outlook for the holiday shopping season grew bleaker Thursday after retailers announced disappointing October sales results due to consumers' ongoing worries about housing and higher energy prices. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)DiggNewsvinedel.icio.usStumble It!RedditFacebook» Links to this articleThe most complex chips being launched Monday have 820 million transistors, compared with the 582 million transistors on the same chips built using the current standard technology. Intel's first chips, introduced in the early 1970s, had just 2,300 transistors.

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4 Free Tools for a Fool-Proof Wordpress Backup

Keeping an up-to-date blog backup copy, is one of those things that every one would like to do but are either too lazy to actually do it or have no clear idea of how it can be done. I have read at least a dozen of articles about it, but have never really found anything that would provide an all in one guide. So, I decided to share my method...

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4 Free Tools for a Fool-Proof Wordpress Backup

Keeping an up-to-date blog backup copy, is one of those things that every one would like to do but are either too lazy to actually do it or have no clear idea of how it can be done. I have read at least a dozen of articles about it, but have never really found anything that would provide an all in one guide. So, I decided to share my method...

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Member Media Services - Home

a team of individuals that while running their own internet business found the process of getting a membership site very expensive and difficult... will make sure that you have all of the tools that you need to promote your business to the max.

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Zune 80 Better Than iPod Classic? Bye Bye Monopoly!

Gizmodo summarized the first Zune 80 reviews from CNET, Wired, Dean Takahashi, PCWorld and YahooTech. Their verdicts? The cup has not yet been breeched, but Microsoft is making very solid improvements on the brand. And some think it blows away the iPod classic.

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The Evolution of Car Design Over Time

A list of cars that had their design changed drastically over the years. A must see for the car fans.

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zaibatsu vs. msaleem: The Race to 1000 is ON

They do a podcast together.They are two of the top 3 members of the most powerful social news website in the world.They've shut down their share of servers for a day.This month, they are going head to head.

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"Don't taz me, sonny" - Chicago Police Tasered 82 - Year - Old Woman

Chicago's Police Department is investigating an officer's use of a Taser last month on an 82-year-old woman who police say was swinging a hammer when they arrived.

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Stuff I like

Here I will put articles and videos I like.