SNSD 2010 Korean Wave Performance Pictures

SNSD 2010 Korean Wave Performance Pictures taken on the 29th of August at the Incheon World Cup Stadium during and after the concert. Other Top Pop artist performers groups were also on the concert stadium like BoA, Se7en, Taeyang, KARA, Supernova, Super Junior, 2PM, SNSD, SG Wannabe, SHINee, U-Kiss, CNBLUE, MBLAQ, BEAST, Son Dambi, and After School. The concert was hosted by the team of Oh Sang Jin, plus Yuri and Tiffany from SNSD.

Read More

South Korea Invaded by Kpop Groups

South Korea has been invaded, not by it’s neighbor from the North, but from troops of long-legged girls in the guise of carefully manufactured Kpop groups. The small peninsula of around 50 million people has seen an explosion of Kpop girl groups in the past year who all pretty much look and sound alike (arguably) but somehow manage to maintain popularity among a shared fan base. While it might be easy to dismiss this as eye-candy for teenage boys (of which there is some truth) they appear to have considerable staying power among a diverse demographic of both men and women -

In the past, one or two similar bands won fans and massive popularity, while the rest disappeared quietly after a month or two. What we are experiencing is a brand new phenomenon in which several girl bands are sharing fans and popularity among themselves – Kim Hong-in

What differentiates this new generation of starlets is their ability to cross multiple mediums such as TV dramas, movies and talk shows in addition to their musical endeavors, possibly accounting for their increased longevity and ability to dominate online as well as offline. Digital downloads have brought in a new era of affordability for casual and fanatical fans alike.

Of course behind all the glamor are entertainment conglomerates with money to burn and who work tirelessly to tweak and perfect each groups image (including the copious use of cosmetic surgery). Most groups spend as much as 2-4 years preparing for their debut and with such demanding schedules nearly all have suffered casualties from fatigue and ill health. Whilst their compexions may be perfect accusations of plagiarism are rife within the industry with lawsuits regularly being filed and many questioning the originality of locally produced content (mostly bubblegum pop).

Whatever the reasons for this uprising it’ll be interesting to see if such a large number of groups can be sustained in a relatively small market and if this trend spreads elsewhere.

To see what it’s all about for yourself videos are provided after the break in HD (apologies to Chinese readers – YouTube is blocked so you wont be able to see them directly). You can also find more info on allkpop.com.

Wonder Girls

Wonder Girls (원더걸스) is a band with five members (Min Sun Ye, Park Ye Eun, Kim Yoo Bin, Sun Mi and Ahn So Hee), formed under the guidance of male R&B singer Rain. They are signed to South Korean label JYP Entertainment and debuted in the beginning of 2007 on M! Countdown, singing Irony, the title song of their debut album, “The Wonder Begins”.

Girls’ Generation

Girls’ Generation (소녀시대), also known as SNSD, the acronym of So Nyeo Shi Dae is a large nine member girl group formed in 2007 by SM Entertainment. The group debuted on SBS Inkigayo in 2007, performing their first single, “Into the New World”. The members are Yoon A, Tiffany, Yu Ri, Hyo Yeon, Soo Young, Seo Hyun, Tae Yeon, Jessica, and Sunny. Some members speak multiple languages as they were raised outside Korea.

2NE1

2NE1 (투애니원; pronounced “to anyone” or “twenty-one”) was created by YG Entertainment. First appearing in a Cyon commercial campaign with Big Bang for LG Telecom, their debut single “Fire” was released on May 6, 2009. The group’s name stands for “New Evolution of the 21st Century”. The group consists of Lee Chae Rin (CL), Park Bom (Bom), Sandara Park (Dara) and Gong Min-ji (Minzi).

4minute

Consisting of Ji Hyun, Ga Yoon, Ji Yoon, Hyun A, and So Hyun 4minute (포미닛) was created by Cube Entertainment. Their debut song, “Hot Issue”, was released on June 15. Their style is called “The Candy Funky Style” which apparently mean their music, fashion, and performance will “show sides of sweetness and funk while being rebellious and carefree at the same time” (try saying that out loud with a straight face).

KARA

Kara (카라) debuted in March 2007 under Daesung Entertainment (DSP). Kara comes from the Greek word “chara” (χαρά, lit. “joy”), which the group interpreted to mean “sweet melody”. After losing a member in 2008, Kara regrouped to become a 5-member band and eventually achieved their first #1 song with “Honey”.

After School

After School (애프터스쿨) is managed by Pledis Entertainment and debuted on January 17, 2009 with their first dance song, “Ah”. They were also recently featured in a digitally released single titled “AMOLED” for a new Anycall Phone (Amoled Haptic) with Son Dam Bi whom is part of the same entertainment company.

For even more check out f(x), and Brown Eyed Girls. Via randomwire

Read More

K-pop girl idols draw young Japanese with Net blitz

Thanks to the Internet and an early fascination with South Korea’s boy bands, young Japanese girls and women are shifting in droves to the latest pop idol sensation—Korean girl groups.

Rio Nagasaki, a 15-year-old junior high school student, is among a growing number of fans smitten by South Korean pop music—dubbed ‘‘K-pop’’—performed by artists of about her own age.

‘‘I learned about KARA a year ago before their debut via the Net,’’ she said, referring to the all-girl five-member group that is so far the most visible K-pop girl group in Japan.

‘‘They are very cute and dance well, and I like the fact that they are not that familiar with the Japanese language,’’ said Nagasaki after making a purchase from one of the stores selling K-pop goods in Tokyo’s Okubo district, which has become a focal point for K-pop fans.

Barely a minute’s walk from JR Shin-Okubo Station are several shops selling K-pop paraphernalia such as notebooks, mugs and accessories that shoppers flock to.

Lee Keun Hang, chief of Hanryu Hyakatten (Korean Department Store), said, ‘‘Customers have grown threefold now from last year, and almost 100% of our customers are female.’‘

‘‘Female fans in their 30s and above are already customers because of their love for South Korean dramas and boy bands, but recently I’m seeing more and more teenagers and those in their 20s coming here,’’ Lee said, noting that for avid fans visiting the Okubo district is like experiencing a ‘‘little South Korea.’‘

Masayuki Furuya, a radio DJ, journalist, and TV celebrity who is an expert on Korean pop culture, explained that the boom in K-pop girl groups stems from two factors—the captured fan base of popular South Korean boy bands and the accessibility of information via the Internet, especially the YouTube video-sharing site.

‘‘What happened was when fans of boy bands such as TVXQ and BIGBANG were searching the Internet in 2009, there was so much information about K-pop girl groups, which were becoming increasingly popular, and as they learned more about K-pop they discovered the charm of these girl groups,’’ Furuya said.

As if to illustrate his point, two women in their 20s, who were shopping for Girls’ Generation items, said they were fans of the five-member TVXQ, popularly known in Japan as Toho Shinki, and this had ‘‘extended’’ to their fascination with the nine-member Girls’ Generation.

Furuya also pointed to the crucial role of YouTube, where the artists’ official music videos or songs have been made accessible for promotion, a far cry from the situation several years ago.

Realizing the potential of this industry, the South Korean government has thrown its full support behind its K-pop artists and Korean TV drama actors, and now their celebrities and the products they endorse are well-known in China, Vietnam, and Thailand, said the Japanese trade and industry’s June report, which noted the tough competition Japan now has with South Korea in terms of capturing the Asian market for pop culture.

According to Furuya, Japanese girls are attracted to K-pop female idols as there is currently no real Japanese idol to look up to, unlike in the 1990s with the likes of pop sensation Namie Amuro, and these idols have perfect bodies, can sing and dance, and perform songs that have catchy lyrics and can be sung easily in karaoke sessions.

According to the Korea Creative Content Agency Japan Office, exports of broadcasting content from South Korea in 2009 amounted to $183.59 million, up 1.9% from 2008. The main market is Asia, with Japan accounting for more than 60% of it.

Exports of music alone, based on the agency’s latest figures, were worth $16.50 million in fiscal 2008, of which the Japanese market accounted for 68%. The agency predicts the fiscal 2009 figures will higher due to the surge of K-pop girls’ groups around that time.

Since last summer, KARA and Girls’ Generation have made forays into the Japanese market. Their singles have ranked in Japan’s Oricon music charts, their concerts were jam-packed, and they are being featured in fashion magazines and on TV. While some of the members can speak Japanese, some fans said that when it comes to performing they prefer to listen to them sing in their native tongue.

Miho Matsumoto, a 31-year-old resident of Shizuoka Prefecture, said she prefers to listen to the Girls Generation’s original version of ‘‘Gee,’’ their debut single in Japan.

‘‘Korean songs have melodies that are not in Japanese songs, and when they sing it there’s already so much emotion in it, so I prefer them singing in Korean,’’ said Matsumoto, whose love of K-pop and all things Korean has made her take up studying the language.

Cha Yu Jin, one of the managers of KoreaPlaza, which has a vast collection of original and Japanese versions of K-pop songs, said that a great percentage of the original CDs have been sold.

But whether this phenomenon will grow to embrace the whole of Japan remains is to be seen.

‘‘In terms of music sales, the K-pop girl groups and boy bands are doing well, but on the other hand their popularity is more concentrated in one area, mostly in the metropolis and big cities, and this has yet to gather steam in the rural areas,’’ Furuya said.

Via dkpopnews

Read More

Earning Hands Free Income with AdSense

Google Adsense is the most tried, true and sturdy form of website monetization on the internet. Even if your website is already monetized through other methods like affiliate programs, PPS, banner and text ads, there is still room for Adsense. There are some internet entrepreneurs who have figured out how to use Adsense as their sole source of full time income.

If you approach it correctly, anybody can realize that goal. Here are a few ways that you can utilize Adsense to help you achieve your financial goals as well as gaining a real understanding of the ins and outs of the program.

In order for relevant ads to appear on your site you must take a few things into consideration. So how do you get relevant ads. All you have to do is write tightly themed content that relates to your keywords. When you think about how AdSense works you’ll understand how easy it is to get relevant ads to appear; Google uses a sophisticated program to read your content and they place ads on your page that is relevant to your content.

When you have the right content with the appropriate keywords, you’ll obviously start getting ads that are more targeted. If your content is good then your readers will want to read other pages of your site. So everything connects and falls in place when your site has content that is good not only for the search engines, but also for your human visitors.

Keep adding fresh, relevant content to your website so that you can have more pages where you can add AdSense. Google likes to see fresh and unique content on sites when it crawls them for page ranking purposes as well, so use this as just another reason to keep your site consistently updated. You can add this content based on a new keyword variation or an extension of the main keyword. So you can have the content based on your main keyword on the homepage and all the other pages can have content based on related keywords. The more content you have on your site, the higher will be the number of ads being displayed on your site. And the more ads you run, the higher will be your income. It is all about using your existing knowledge and some common sense to build your income every day.

Also, never just concentrate on Adsense as your only means of income. This is important because you never know when Google could ban you or your ads quit showing on your page. If you have other ways to make money, instances like that won’t matter very much. Just keep in mind that Adsense isn’t the only way to monetize your site, as you can sell affiliate products, put text link ads up or even banner ads for extra income streams. You must take some calculated risks, but you need to make sure your income remains the same.

In conclusion, before you jump into Google AdSense, keep in mind that it will take some time before you see results. But keep your motivation high and don’t think like that. Just do a little bit at a time and once you start seeing income, keep doing what you’re doing so that the money flow will only increase. Eventually, what matters is how much you’re making at the end of the day, and with AdSense this figure will only increase with time.

Read More

Safeguarding Your Adsense Account

Google AdSense is one of the easiest and the most effective ways to monetize your website or blog. One reason so many people go with Adsense is simply because of they know the source and feel confident about using it. As you know, you simply must have a decent to great amount of traffic visiting your site.

Do be aware that Google is probably the strictest company on the planet, and you will suffer account deletion if you try to game their system. It is understandable that you should be interested to know the landscape and rules so your account stays open.

The Internet is filled with sites that have one sole purpose – get clicks on the AdSense ads. Made for Adsense sites can be smartly made so they do not really look like MFA sites; however, many of them do look pretty crappy. So if Google finds out about an MFA site, then it is de-indexed rather quickly because they tend to provide no real value. Making a serious go at Adsense will require you to be willing to be patient and put in a lot of effort to see it through. Really, the only way you will be successful is if you treat it like a real business.

Keep things relevant at all times and not just with Google because when you think about this it really is all about being targeted. They want your website to be updated with the most relevant content that is not deceiving in the least and provides highly valuable information to the visitors. This will ensure that the ads that are displayed are relevant, which will automatically increase your ad’s click through rate and give you high returns. You really do need to take care that you do not overdo it with ad blocks. Simply create your site with a reasonable amount of content before you try to run Adsense ads.

The one particular metric you always need to track is your click through rate, or CTR. There is an average CTR which is between one and five percent, and if it exceeds that then you need to investigate. We mention this because if all of a sudden it is very high, then that means someone, somewhere, is clicking too much on your ads. You simply just want to protect your business, and that is why this is a concern you need to address. If you want to succeed with Google AdSense, then, it’s important to pay attention to many different issues to protect your account.

Marketers who achieve the best results with AdSense are those who have figured out that the best strategy is to work with Google and not against it, and who learn how to get the most lucrative ads on their sites rather than trying to cheat in some way. As long as you’re aware of Google’s rules and policies, you shouldn’t have any problems keeping your AdSense account in good standing.

Read More

Writing Effective SEO Copy

SEO copywriting can be viewed as one of those skills that can take your website higher in the search engines. We want to discuss this more and offer some helpful tips so you can see better rankings.

How does a writer produce good SEO copywriting? The reason why many people fail at creating effective SEO copy is because they don’t focus on the content and rather look at other factors. You need to have content that is compelling and good so your readers will actually want to continue reading the material. The life blood of search engines is user satisfaction, so they really only want to rank content that is of good quality and useful. If you provide the highest quality content, then some websites may want to link to you on their own. Your website must either have something extremely interesting, funny, or otherwise very informative for this to happen, though.

The truth about that is it’s a bit rare and not the way to go when it comes to getting backlinks. Apart from that, when you’re creating your content, make sure that you use keyword variations so that you don’t end up keyword stuffing. Ok, when you find yourself really needing to repeat a keyword too many times, then just the appropriate synonym for it – no problem. Keywords used with too much frequency can look like keyword stuffing and you could get penalized by Google and others. Using appropriate and relevant keywords becomes a totally new picture with the search engines, and it is looked upon favorably. Then you’re talking about LSI, or Latent Semantic Indexing, and then it’s all well and good with Google. So this all has to do with the degree of relatedness of the various words on your site relative to the main keywords you’re optimized for, etc.

Another SEO copywriting tip that you can take home is the use of bullet points in your content to make it more organized, readable and above all, appealing. Be sure to list your bullet points and make them short and to the point. It also adds a lot of white space to the page, making the content more scannable. The net result is your readers will understand pretty fast what the most important items are in your article, or copy. Is there an SEO benefit here? Search engines view bullet points positively when ranking pages, which means using them would definitely help you boost your search engine ranking.

Never, but never do fluff – every word in excellent copy has a reason for being there, so never violate that principle. Of course every word of the copy must be part of your plan for that sales page, in other words – it must be relevant. The readers of your copy appreciate relevant information as much as the search engines. That has nothing to do with the quantity of your copy, in fact that consideration should never enter your mind. It’s not hard to write with enough quality and still hit your target for length. The length can vary with the situation, but a good rule of thumb is to aim for roughly 400 words. However, this is subjective and really it is your call. For example, if you’re trying to explain something that’s taking you more than 1,000 words, then by all means keep it that way. Just like with keywords, don’t pad your writing just because maybe it looks more impressive, etc.

Just try to provide good information and help for your readers, and that just usually works out best. Always continue your learning and build on what you’ve read today. But do keep in mind that you should never stuff your keywords anywhere, Google is heavy on that one. Keep moving forward and improving your SEO copywriting skills and you’ll be fine.

Read More

Marian Rivera's 2013 Sexiest

Filipina actress and commercial model Marian Rivera heats up the cover page of one of the famous men’s magazine FHM Philippines for the month of January 2013 issue.

The 28-year-old ‘Marimar’ and ‘Darna’ star covers the magazine for the first time and became the FHM Philippines 150th issue cover babe.

According to Marian Rivera, "Siguro it's time na rin na may bago akong i-offer sa mga nagmamahal sa akin na matagal na nilang hinihiling.”

Read More

New Tablets Expected on 2013

Last year we have seen a bunch of new tach gadgets that we’ve never seen them before, and the same we can expect from this year too. This year too will give us a lot of new tech gadgets with some amazing new technology and lots more with this. Here we are going to share about the upcoming Tablets which are going to hit the market in this new year. We’ve compiled a list of the upcoming expected Tablets with some of its key features. Let’s grab them.

Tablets to be expected on 2013 :

1. iPad Mini with Retina Display :

Last year was tremendously good for the giant Apple. Apple has launched some of the coolest devices of it, unveiled some features debut with these devices and an all new advanced os , iOS 6. And Apple stepped in in to the Tablet range with its new member Apple iPad Mini in the last year. This year Apple has the same strategy to unleash such devices with some updations.

Apple to unleash the new iPad Mini with Retina Display in this new year. Well, rumors suggesting so and thus a lot of people start expecting the new iPad Mini with Retina display. If all goes the same this Apple iPad 2 Gen-2 would have 2058 by 1536 resolution and 326ppi display with more resolution, 9.7-inch with two LED light bars on both the sides of it. This next generation iPad would be more lighter and thinner than the first generation iPad Mini.

2. Acer Tablet :

There are a lot of people expecting Tablets between the range below $ 150. This year would praised us all with such amazing new tablets which cost below the expected price. Acer’s new Tablet would be unleashed in this year for $ 99 only. Acer to reveal this Tablet in the very first quarter of the coming year. Acer plan to launch this Tablet in the Asia first than after the other regions of the whole world. There is no signs from Acer to launch it in the US first.

Apple’s iPad might to costly for many consumers and hence Acer thought to launch this low cost Tablet in the very first quarter. Acer Iconia B1 tablet, it might be called as. This Tablet would have a 7-inch display with 1024 x 600 resolution screen and 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor. This Tablet would have a better battery life than the other Tablets and Acer have done some good job to make people happy with this device.

3. HTC Windows 8 Tablet :

Surprised? Yes, HTC to launch the very first device and would start the new range with its first Tablet named as HTC Windows 8 Tablet. Rumors suggest that HTC to launch this Tablet with 7 inch Tablet which is runs on Windows 8 operating system and enough to beat the Apple iPad Mini’s new generation. HTC plans to unleash this Tablet in the fall of the current year. Sounds like too late! HTC Windows 8 Tablet made by Nvidia and it also makes ARM chips for Windows RT tablets, including for Microsoft’s Surface RT device.

About Author: David Work for robustbuy which is largest China Wholesaler web store where you can find everything from Windows Tablets to Windows smart phones and wide range of accessories for digital cameras, iPod, iPad, Android devices and for PC.

Read More

10 Common Childhood Illnesses

Even though the holidays are over, there are still several more months on winter remaining before spring starts the season of renewal once again. For parents, the winter months mean a higher chance of their little one getting sick with any number of common childhood illnesses. While vaccines have made the chances of a child getting some illnesses increasingly rare, others remain an unpleasant fact of life.

Depending on the age of your child, the illnesses can vary from easily curable ear infections to more serious ailments like whooping cough. Even though many parents have a tendency to suspect the worst, most of these illnesses have specific symptoms that allow parents to distinguish one from another. With that in mind here are some common childhood illnesses every parent should know.

RSV

The most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants in the U.S., the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, begins by manifesting flu-like symptoms, which can include cough, fever, and runny nose. Approximately 40 percent of children suffering from their first RSV infection will develop apparent wheezing, and around two percent will require hospitalization. Fortunately for parents, the older a child, the less serious the symptoms of an infection become.

Ear Infection

Because young children have tiny Eustachian tubes (the tubes that connect the throat to the ear), they have a higher risk of developing ear infections. The Eustachian tubes can easily become blocked when a cold virus causes inflammation to occur, which results in fluid becoming trapped inside the middle ear. As the fluid begins to pool, germs begin to breed, and infection develops. Symptoms of an ear infection can include fussiness, fever, and frequent tugging of the ear. The majority of ear infections are the result of viruses that your child’s immune system will deal with over time.

Croup

The signature symptom of this common childhood illness is a harsh cough frequently thought to sound like a barking seal. The cough is usually the result of a virus that causes the upper airways to become inflamed. While most children will recover from the virus in about a week, if your child’s breathing becomes severely impaired, you may need to seek treatment at a hospital. Children under the age of five are most likely to develop croup.

Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease causes a child to experience fever and blisters that appear on the inside of the mouth, buttocks, soles of the feet, and palms. For children living in the U.S., the disease is often the result of the coxsackievirus A16, which tends to spread most frequently during the summer and early fall. The majority of cases don’t present any serious danger and a last roughly a week.

A surefire way for a child to get sent home from school, pinkeye, or conjunctivitis, cause redness, itching, tearing, and crusty eyelashes. Pinkeye is often caused by the same types of viruses as the common cold. If your child develops pinkeye, you need to consult with your doctor to determine the appropriate treatment method. Usually the condition clears up within a week.

Kawasaki Disease

A strange illness that doctors still don’t know the cause of, Kawasaki disease afflicts children under the age of five. Symptoms of Kawasaki include patchy rash, redness of the feet and hands, swelling, chapped lips, bloodshot eyes, and a high fever. Kawasaki’s can cause permanent heart damage and could be fatal if a child doesn’t receive medical treatment.

Chickenpox

While once a childhood rite of passage, the varicella vaccine now makes chickenpox preventable. Even though the vaccination isn’t required, parents can spare their child the experience of suffering through the uncomfortable blisters the virus causes. Chickenpox can also cause serious complication in pregnant women and newborns, and used to send 11, 000 Americans to the hospital a year prior to the development of the vaccine.

Scarlet Fever

Occasionally a red, rough rash known as scarlet fever accompanies strep throat. The rash starts to develop on the chest and abdomen before spreading throughout the body, causing high fever. Without antibiotic treatment, scarlet fever can cause rheumatic fever, and in some cases, heart damage.

Timothy Lemke is a freelance writer. To read more of his work, visit the blog of Dr. Greg Williams, a dentist in Tigard, OR.

Read More

Breast Augmentation

Many women decide to go for breast augmentation surgery for various reasons. Women want to improve their looks and, for some, this starts by improving the appearance of their chest. Plenty of emphasis has been placed on women’s breasts and this has made quite a number of them opt for breast augmentation operations in order to regain their attractiveness. The issues they have with the breasts may be due to their small size, un-even nature or sagging appearance.

No two women will undergo the same breast augmentation surgery, for instance, one woman might want their breasts reshaped while another may want them re-sized or made bigger and another might prefer their breasts to be made stiffer or smaller. Prior to the surgery, the doctor will perform a series of tests in order to determine what is best for the patient – enabling the surgeon to make plans for the operation.

There are two types of implants that are used in this operation; silicone and saline implants. Even though both implants produce the same outcome, the main difference lies in their costs and their appearance. Saline implants are known for their natural appearance compared to silicone implants and are usually preferred by many women. In fact, saline implants are considered much safer and allows the woman to have total control over her appearance. More importantly, saline implants are much cheaper and lighter thus providing the best possible comfort.

For most women, this surgery is usually their first cosmetic procedure and, therefore, they often don’t know what to expect – some may be even afraid of going under the knife. If you are nervous about undergoing surgery, it is important that you are open with your surgeon. Make sure to discuss what you expect from the operation and also know beforehand if there are any side effects associated with the procedure. The surgeon will offer you the necessary advice and give you the confidence you need to undergo the operation.

One of the common questions surgeons are asked by these women is the area of the incisions – most women usually wonder if the incisions will be visible and where will they be made. In most cases, the incisions are made on invisible areas such as beneath the breast, in the umbilical area or the armpit. Whatever your reasons for considering the procedure, it is advisable that you book a consultation to discuss your breast augmentation surgery in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire or Nottingham to discuss the operation further.

By Sarah-Jayne Culver; a Search Consultant at http://www.fdcstudio.co.uk/ providing Digital Marketing Services throughout the UK.

Read More

How To Write Articles For Success

Anyone can write for the internet. If you can talk, then you can write. The only thing that you need to understand when writing articles online is how people perceive them. If you have ever written for newspapers or magazines, for instance, you know you should be focusing on the people who read you, and both of those even have varieties.

It’s not necessary to write like a scholar in order to get a readership. You only need to create articles that are short and concise and that provide information others can use. You will soon learn about some article writing techniques that you can use to write content that’s of good quality.

The easiest thing to do when you approach writing is to just allow your thoughts to come out no matter what they look like – editing will fix them up. Never stop or worry about what it looks like, you can always go back and edit everything. When you’re working on your first draft, it is extremely important that you turn OFF the internal editor. For the first draft, if you edit at all it will only slow you down. After that, then you will take care of mistakes, proof reading, editing, etc.

The next thing to keep in mind is that you need to organize your article. People who are reading content on the web don’t have much time and usually scan through articles to get a gist of it first before they actually read it. Bullet points will serve nicely in this position due to the fact that readers can get the information in an easily comprehendible way.

This also makes it easy for the reader to digest the information that you’re passing on. An article that’s written in huge blocks will not do as well because readers may get lost.

As an article writer you should always pick a relevant topic for your articles. You’ll need to do research on your market so you know what is important to them. If you fail to do that, then the expected and natural result will be no one will read your articles. Always create an outline based on research, and then focus on one topic in your article. You have to decide what is important to your market, but try to add variety to maintain interest.

To write great articles, you need to put in the effort required.

Keep your articles understandable and let the reader know right away what the article’s about. A reader is going to want extra space between chunks of text so that reading it is easier. And finally, your articles should be created using simple language. Keep them simple and to the point. Give away quality info and at the same time hold something back so that the reader visits your site or blog.

Read More

Copywriting: Mistakes You Should Avoid

Copywriting is a vital skill you must master if you dream of making your online business a successful one. You can make great money when you have the skills to write excellent copy and sell it. Copywriting is a big topic when it comes to online marketing, search engine optimization and anything that deals with direct response selling. No matter what your business, you must convince your customer to buy your product whether that may be a physical product, a service, or MLM. It isn’t even necessary to be as cautious about the grammar that you learned while in school when copywriting.

The biggest thing to remember is to write like you speak. This allows you to produce copy that flows very naturally. Like all disciplines, there are several guidelines that must be followed to write effectual copy. Not surprisingly, if you only loosely follow the rules you will end up hurting the response you receive from your leads. In this space, we will offer an examination of methodologies you can use to dodge common blunders made in copywriting.

Your headline should contain whatever it is that is special about your product or service, many people overlook this simple tip and it is a copywriting mistake. Since it is the first thing seen, the headline is more important than any other part of the copy and needs to demonstrate what you offer. If they don’t get a clear idea about your product when they read the headline, then the chances are that they won’t be reading any further. If your headline isn’t effective, then it doesn’t matter how amazing your sales copy is. It is best to hook peoples attention with all the things you are offering within your title. Don’t try to be secretive or mysterious when writing a headline for your copy. A lot of marketers for some reason believe that they can slowly build interest with a bit of mystery. However, few actually feel this way so any ambiguity in your headline will at best cause disinterest and at worse drive away viewers. Many people skim over articles to see if they are of any interest to them, so it is important that your subheadings are also clear. The copy itself needs to keep its focus on talking all about what the product can offer.

Another important element of copy neglected by newcomers is the importance of leaving “white space.” They may write one huge section of copy and not break it up into easy-to-read paragraphs or sections. They just write their copy one huge never ending block, which goes on forever. When the reader becomes overwhelmed at the amount of information on the page, they stop reading the article, and the copywriter loses a sale. It is important that the reader always understands what you are saying so be concise and transparent. By breaking your article into pieces and spacing them a bit, you make it easier for your reader to understand your product. This is accomplished in a number of ways. Using techniques such as subheads, testimonials and images will help. Otherwise, the reader may feel overwhelmed by too much text and stop trying to understand it. To summarize this point, break your article up into pieces your reader can digest. This is a huge step in increasing the results seen from your copy.

But overall, in order to succeed, you need to really avoid these simple mistakes that plague many who copy write. Eventually there may be programs to do this work for you, but right now you have to do all the work yourself.

Read More

Centering Blog Header Image

How to center your header image.

By default, Blogger aligns your header image to the left. But some might want their images to be centered. There are a couple ways to accomplish this depending on how you've setup your header.

If your header is set to "Behind title and description"

Add the following code to your CSS:

1 2 3 4

#header-inner {     background-position: center !important;     width: auto !important; }

If your header is set to "Instead of title and description" or "Have a description placed after the image"

Add the following code to your CSS:

1 2 3

#header-inner img {     margin: 0 auto !important; }

Read More

Removing Images borders and box shadow

How to remove the borders and box shadows from images on your Blogger blog.

Most of the default Blogger templates display a white border and box shadow frame around every posted image like the example below:

There are two ways to accomplish this depending on whether you want to completely remove the effects for every image or just on specific images.

Method 1:

If you want to remove the borders from all of the images on your blog, add the following code to your CSS. Design > Template Designer > Advanced > Add CSS:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

.post-body img, .post-body .tr-caption-container, .Profile img, .Image img, .BlogList .item-thumbnail img {     border: 0px;     -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .0);     -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .0);     box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .0);     border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;     background: none; }

Method 2:

If you want to selectively remove the borders from specific images, add this code to your CSS.

Design > Template Designer > Advanced > Add CSS:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

img.noborder {     border: 0px;     -moz-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .0);     -webkit-box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .0);     box-shadow: 0px 0px 0px rgba(0, 0, 0, .0);     border-radius: 0px 0px 0px 0px;     background: none; }

Then in your post editor HTML tab, edit the img tag(s) for each of the images you want to remove the borders from by assigning them to the "noborder" class like this:

1	<img class="noborder" src="http://YOURIMAGEURL">

Read More

LinkWithin vs nRelate vs Outbrain

If you've been blogging or reading blogs for any amount of time, then you've probably noticed, or might even already have installed a related posts widget. They are a great idea and an effective method for increasing page views and reducing bounce rates by encouraging visitors to stay on your blog longer by showing them a list of other enticing posts that "They Might Like".

In my opinion, the choice of whether or not to install one of these widgets on your blog is a no-brainer. There are no drawbacks, unless you maybe have a small and infrequently updated blog with a limited amount of posts such as this one. In that case, you might want to hold off on it until you've built up a decent amount of posts or articles. However, if you have an established blog with a healthy number of posts, then you are missing out if you don't have a related post widget.

The only real question, and one not so easily answered is, of the many available solutions out there, which one do I use?

LinkWithin? YARPP? Outbrain? IGIT? nRelate? SimpleReach?

As you can see, there are several competing widgets designed to display related posts on your blog, and at first glance all the most popular ones do look similar and seem to be worthy choices. However, as I will point out below, there are some important differences to be aware of when making your selection.

I've been blogging for about 18 months now, and for most of that time I've been using a related posts plugin on my blog. Over that time, I've thoroughly examined a few of these offerings, namely LinkWithin, Outbrain and nRelate. The most of the others are designed exclusively for Wordpress blogs, so I couldn't consider them for my Blogger blog. In this post I will share my overall experiences with those three to help you choose the right one for you.

LinkWithin

No doubt currently the most popular related posts widget around, LinkWithin is an established presence and brand that practically everyone in the blogosphere is aware of. When I was starting out, I saw it on quite a few other blogs, so naturally it was also the first one I tried out.

To its credit, LinkWithin is a very simple and easy solution to add to your blog. You don't have to sign up, and with just a few effortless clicks you can be up and running. If a simple set and forget solution is what you are after then LinkWithin is an excellent choice.

I used it for the first 3 months or so of my blog's existence, and was completely happy with its functions. However, as I started to get the hang of things, I began tinkering more and more with my blog, learning how to customize various things from within Blogger, I also began to become frustrated by the lack of options offered by LinkWithin, and it's lack of tracking statistics. I found its simplicity to be a curse, as the only thing you can easily change is the amount of posts shown.

So I began the search for an alternative to try out, which led me to...

Outbrain

I don't recall how exactly I came to discover Outbrain, whether I saw it on another blog or found it by Google, but I was glad I did.

What initially attracted me was the cleaner default layout, one with only a tiny unobtrusive [?] in the bottom right corner, and also their claim of a more advanced widget, one that promised increased traffic by personalizing the links shown according to advanced algorithms, instead of simple random selections like LinkWithin.

Outbrain also had the same option of an easy-to-add free widget with no signup required, but I was enticed to sign-up in order to gain access to advanced features like a ratings system (since removed) and most importantly, reporting statistics to track the effectiveness of the widget.

Not all was roses though. After installing the Outbrain widget, I discovered that it was showing up in an odd position, on top of my Read More jump-links, not exactly the optimum placement for it; also there was very little whitespace between the widget and the post body, making it look cramped and cluttered; furthermore, each of the post titles shown also unnecessarily included my blog name at the end.

In the hopes of resolving those three issues I went over to their support forum and to no surprise found existing threads created by other bloggers with the same problems. What was unexpected and impressive though, was the rapid and friendly responses I received from multiple members of the Outbrain staff who worked quickly to fix the widget for me within hours of my requests. Until this point, I had never experienced such rapid and effective personal support, from a private company for a completely free service.

Unfortunately though, it seems they haven't kept up as well with this side of their business, as I have a more recent, less satisfactory encounter with Outbrain's support that I will get into a bit later.

Anyhow, I happily used the Outbrain widget for the next 9 months. During this time, I ran into no further issues with their widget, and everything continued to work nicely as my blog steadily grew. I especially loved using their neatly laid out dashboard to periodically check up on my stats reports.

Although I was seeing a decent CTR (Click Through Rate), with an average of 4.75% between January to September 2011. I couldn't help but begin to wonder about the true effectiveness of these 'personalized links', links which often appeared to be completely unrelated to the current post. So I started looking around to see if there might not be an even better alternative to Outbrain.

Enter the latest challenger nRelate...

nRelate

While researching for a new widget I noticed a lot of positive buzz for nRelate, a relative newcomer to the content recommendation game, offering yet another simple to use and easy to install widget, with claims of a 5-12% page view increase, and a very impressive amount of widget customization options. I decided to give them a 90 day test run at Pakitong.

Just like the others, nRelate gives you the option of installing without signing up, but then you don't get access to their superior customizing features, nor do you get to see the all important usage statistics.

One point to be aware of here, installation on your blog is not nearly as immediate as the others. nRelate says it takes about 2 hours after installing for the widget to begin to show up on your blog. In my experience it was more like 8 hours.

But once it does appear, you can login and change a wide array of settings that none of the other guys offer. Such as: the choice of several different thumbnail sizes; the ability to use your own custom default image; a half dozen different preset layout themes; the ability to completely disable the nRelate logo if you wish; and the most interesting one, you can toggle the degree of relevance you want your resulting links to have from low, medium, or high.

On my blog, I found the high setting was not very practical, returning only a limited number of links and sometimes none at all. The medium was slightly better, but still quite often didn't come up with the maximum 4 links that I had it set to. I had to settle for the low setting to guarantee a consistent amount of link results. Of course your results will vary depending on the amount and type of content on your blog.

All of that fancy stuff is nice, but ultimately what I was after was an increase in CTR over what I was previously getting from Outbrain. So most important for me was access to nRelate's reporting features to keep an eye on things.

Unfortunately, a couple of weeks after installing the widget, nRelate rolled out a system update which inadvertently caused me to lose the ability to see my stats. After failing to find a support link via the dashboard menu—there currently still isn't one—I finally noticed a nondescript support email address published in the welcome screen after you log in.

I sent an email to this address detailing my problem and received no response or acknowledgment for days. Eventually I discovered a link to their support forums in the footer of their main site and made a post there which was answered relatively quickly and got my problem taken care of. If anyone from nRelate ends up reading this, you guys may want to consider adding a link to the support forums in a visible location somewhere within the logged in partner dashboard.

With access to the stats restored, things rolled along smoothly for the remainder of my time with nRelate. I did find that the nRelate stats reports are much simpler and not quite as detailed (for example there is no way to see which of your articles is the most popular), and the charts and tables are not as visually fetching as Outbrain's very well designed reporting screens. Also, if you are an advanced user, they lack the ability to export your numbers into an Excel spreadsheet.

After 90 days, my average CTR from nRelate ended up being a disappointing 3.29%. A 1.5% drop from Outbrain. That might not sound like much, but for every 10,000 page views, that is an extra 150 hits lost. Of course this wasn't any kind of controlled scientific experiment, and there are many factors that could have contributed to this lower CTR, but the positive experience I've had with Outbrain in the past, combined with the more user friendly interface and advanced stats prompted me to switch back.

I do still highly recommend nRelate though, especially for its very extensive customization features, and for one other thing I haven't mentioned - the fact that they do not perform any redirection on the links in their widget. I'm not entirely sure of the SEO implications of link redirection, but both the LinkWithin and Outbrain widgets briefly redirect your visitors to their internal sites before bouncing them back to you. Although I personally have not found this to be a problem, some have claimed that this is in effect 'stealing your link juice' so it is something to be aware of.

LinkWithin is good if you want to keep things simple.

Outbrain is my widget of choice for performing slightly better in CTR and providing a great interface for stats.

nRelate remains just a nose behind Outbrain, but still an excellent choice with the most superior custom features of all.

Conclusion - Return to Outbrain

I switched back to using the Outbrain related posts widget on January 1, 2012 and immediately noticed a problem with the wrong thumbnails being scraped from my latest posts. I headed straight for the support forums where I had great results in the past and opened up a ticket.

Knowing it was New Years and the holiday season I didn't expect a lightning fast response, nor did I get one. I eventually got a response on January 4 that didn't quite solve my issue, but at least I had acknowledgement. After I replied back for clarification, I uncharacteristically did not receive any further communication until almost a month later. Finally on February 2, just as I was about to throw in the towel and head back to nRelate, someone from Outbrain came to my aid and fixed my problem. Hopefully things are back to normal now, but I haven't had any issues since, so I don't know if their response times have improved.

Despite the support delays, I will be staying with them for the time being, especially since my click rates have returned to what they were before. But I will also keep a close eye on nRelate as they remain an extremely viable alternative that with a few improvements could easily become my first choice.

Via stupidblogtricks

Read More

Marketing Through Facebook

The popularity of social networking has increased immensely in recent years in all circles. The Internet has exploded global communication. However, social networking is the feature that really got everyone connecting. People are successfully utilizing social networking to get jobs, influence friends, and generate truly new social connections. Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites that the Internet has seen. These days, it seems that people don’t really have an online identity unless they’re Facebook members.

Every day, people use their Facebook profiles to network with other people that have the same interests, play games together, and communicate on an unparalleled level. This must obviously sound like a proverbial gold mine for you to find new customers in. It would be perfect! Now that people everywhere are realizing what an amazing advertising medium Facebook can be to attract targeted customers, the popularity of Facebook marketing has soared. There are millions of users on Facebook and they have varied interests, which is a perpetual Goldmine for online marketers. This article will be talking about how Facebook can help you promote your business in the best possible way.

The social ads service on Facebook is the most prevalent method of Internet advertising that’s done through that particular service by businesses. Social Ads are the simplest and most direct method of advertising on Facebook. With social ads, you have the added advantage of gearing your ads to whatever demographic you need, depending on their interests, age, gender, etc. This turns a normal ad into a super targeted one, which means you won’t be having random people clicking your ad, and your click-through-rate will naturally increase.

When you have a high CTR, you’ll have more visitors coming in and get a better return on investment. You can also include a picture in your promotion, and that can also improve your CTR. So how does this work? Well, an ad with a picture will grab the audience’s attention more readily, and give you better responses. You should also try your best to make the ad into something that will catch the attention of someone just browsing through. You can always hire a professional to create your ads if you don’t know how to do it.

If you want to go the free way, instead of spending money on ads, then you can try creating groups or fan pages on Facebook. If done correctly, you and your product can gain popularity and a large audience. It seems users of Facebook are addicted to joining groups that represent what they are interested in, or possibly becoming a fan or a certain page. So make use of their compulsions by writing appealing fan pages and attracting people to it. Best of all group pages allow members to invite other Facebook users to the group. However, in order to get the most out of your fan pages is to advertise and promote them through the use of Facebook’s Social Ads and other marketing tools. Even though Facebook fan pages and groups can expand by thousands of members literally overnight, you will still have to have a plan for converting them into traffic for your site.

If you want to go beyond what your competition is doing, and if you want to reach a larger audience, then give Facebook a try. It will do nothing but assist your company in reaching new heights. Not everyone likes taking risks and experimenting, but ultimately that’s what determines how far you go.

Read More

Social Bookmarking To Generate Targeted Traffic

Even if you are new to Internet marketing and don’t have much experience yet, you would probably have heard about social media and how it’s growing more and more these days. Social media websites allow people to mingle with like-minded people about a chosen topic and there are an ever increasing number of these sites springing up on the internet these days. On these sites, communication usually embraces various forms of messaging, sharing, tagging, and commenting. But how can you use these social media sites to your advantage as an Internet marketer?

Many Internet marketers have already discovered how beneficial these sites can be for generating targeted traffic to their own websites and blogs. You could also be able to achieve an increase in sales, as these social media sites have gained a reputation for attracting converting traffic. In addition to increasing your traffic and sales, you could also leverage these social sites to establish your brand name.

If you don’t know much about generating traffic or establishing your brand, then you may have a slight difficulty in trying to understand exactly what you need to do to make effective use of this marketing tool. All businesses, big or small, can benefit from using social media marketing to generate greater traffic that will potentially make a purchase, and improve their standing in the market. Twitter is an excellent example of a micro-blogging website that allows you to keep your followers posted about activities and events happening in your life, by posting frequent short updates.

Can you imagine the impact this could have on your business if you were to post an update discussing your new product or service, or a great deal that you have found? The potential is really unlimited! Even if only 10% of your online following checked your posts, that’s still a big boost in visibility for your product or service. The more people that see your posts, the greater the marketing impact could be. Plus, how much time does it take to post a short simple update – probably only a minute or two. Therefore, just a small amount of effort and time could produce some wonderful results.

However, you will need to employ effective and tested strategies, if you want to have an successful social bookmarking campaign. The first thing you should do is bookmark your own website pages. This is quite easy and simply involves signing up to as many of these bookmarking sites as you can. It is really up to you to determine just how many bookmarking sites to join, but the more bookmarks you have, the more traffic you can generate. Don’t be afraid to ask your family and friends to bookmark your pages, every little bit helps. Make sure that you take part in the social networking websites, in other words, be active.

There are some bookmarking services that don’t have features for you to interact very much with other members, but others allow you to invite your “friends” and “colleagues” to share bookmarks. Bookmark other people’s pages, tag their bookmarks, and be a friendly person in general; you will find that people will usually return the favour.

In summary, you can really build a good sized audience for your website through social bookmarking. However, you will certainly need to have good content to really succeed with this method. Your content should be rubbish, but bookmark worthy, in other words it should be informative, interesting to read and fresh. So start yourself down the road to increased brand recognition and greater traffic by using some of these social bookmarking tips.

Read More

Using Twitter To Generate Website Traffic

‘Twitter Traffic’ as some call it, is a great way to get some targeted visitors to your websites. Twitter is simply a social networking site that allows small updates of 140 characters long to be posted for anybody viewing your Twitter account. You also have the option to use Twitter in conjunction to your cell phone or Blackberry, making the whole promotion of your content and traffic generation easy. Whether someone writes a blog or if they have a business online, everyone wants to attract more people to their website.

You will find that your company or blog has more and more followers that are eager to see your updates on Twitter. It’s as simple as signing up for Twitter and posting messages. The possibilities are endless for how well you can use Twitter to your advantage. Twitter can get the word out quick about a new product, an affiliate product, a company event or anything else you may want to announce.

If you want to generate good traffic try not to abuse the benefits of Twitter. The regular tweets that you send across do make a big difference to your account but at the same time, as a marketer, you have to be aware of how much time you dedicate to each method and be efficient. You want to automate the process as much as you can. There are websites available that can help you accomplish this, including socialoomph.com which allows you to send micro messages to your entire list at one time, or at set intervals. In this way, you can spend the bulk of your time growing your account, because you will be saving approximately 30 – 60 minutes per day, by not having to type each message separately.

This is a good way to start taking things to the next level. Since Twitter lets you tweet links you can use it to link to your website and drive traffic. This is also an example of a feature that should not be overused, and it is recommended that you limit your posting of promotional links. You can also generate traffic directly from your profile because followers can see the relevant links that are posted there. You must first have a good understanding of who or what your intended audience is, in order to make the most of the opportunities to generate traffic from Twitter. Gain your followers trust by regularly providing accurate information and you will have good luck increasing the traffic to your site or your promotional deals.

If you have done any degree of homework on Twitter marketing, you will be aware that increasing the number of people that follow you and staying in contact with them is one of Twitter’s most significant traffic generating components. However, these aren’t the only ways to drive targeted traffic to your website or blog. The best part about Twitter is that you can tweet your updates and include a link in the update that leads people directly to what you are talking about on your site. If you want people to know about a product of yours, all you have to do is tweet a link that will take them to the page the product is on. Over time, you will be able to design new strategies for promoting your business or blog and find more creative ways to introduce links into your tweets on Twitter, which will help draw more visitors to your site.

Twitter is new but it is powerful because of its fast growing. The amount of people you can reach through Twitter is astounding, and is only growing. The opportunities Twitter offers are boundless. All you need to do is put a bit of common sense with an effective marketing strategy to see real time results.

Read More

Effective Blog Design

Every successful blog has at least one thing in common – and that is a powerful blog design statement. Below are a few tips on how you can go about making such a blog design statement yourself on your own blog.

Your readers should see some of your personality in your blog. This has been said many times before, you need to show your readers who’s behind the curtains to get them excited. Because the web is a personal place, getting to see the person or persons behind the blogs you visit can make a big difference.

So, create a strong “About Me” page by going into detail about who you are. What you put there is a representation of you and your personality.

This is an area that you can play around with the design and use your picture to enhance the overall look of the page. Your aim here is to build a level of trust and loyalty with your readers which will take your blog a long way.

Secondly, have a real plan of monetization up your sleeve as far as the blog design is concerned. Be sure ahead of time how you’re going to monetize your blog. Some bloggers put up ads here and there without planning anything out, but you should go the other way and imagine how your blog will look with ads and what kinds of ads you plan to run before you finalize your blog design.

You could run banner ads on your blog or use Google AdSense. You will need to think of how to incorporate the ads into your design no matter what type of ads you choose. This way, your blog is much more enjoyable and this can lead to a better conversion rate.

Lastly, remember to utilize the favicon to your advantage. Although favicons are not that important, they can have a strong impact on readers. Readers will see favicons in the tabs right beside their bookmarks and in the browser’s address bar. So, a lot of people will view your favicon and identify you with it.

You should spend some time to make a favicon that not only grabs someone’s attention, but also gets good results. This is another good strategy for making your blog design unique and making your blog brand better known.

In order to grab your readers attention, concentrate on the basic blog design fundamentals.

Read More