SEO, PPC, MSN, Google, Yahoo – Is that English?

If you don’t know what the following mean: SEO, PPC, MSN, Google, Yahoo then stop reading and go visit my contract management software post. Those are English and very important English at that.

If you know what those mean and love to learn more about what’s going on with those terms, then check out the Apogee SEO Blog. While I don’t personally like the green, brown, yellow color scheme of Apogee, the guys at Apogee search know how to get things done.

Their comment on Yahoo allowing advertisers on only Facebook and not all of Yahoo’s other spammerspartners is dead on. Yes, that of course does depend on Yahoo purchasing Facebook.

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September 25, 2006 I Written By

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Making Your Blog More Popular

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on the PayPerPost message board about how to get your blog more traffic. I’m definitely not an expert, but I’ve had some nice little successes. Who knows. Maybe one day I’ll be able to blog full time. If I did then I’d have to be more like Scoble who meets with people all the time. I just love people way too much. But, I digress!!

Well, until I find more time to share my own nuggets of wisdom I thought I’d share Pronet’s words of wisdom on making your blog more popular using content.

Break news

News spreads through the blogosphere like a wildfire. If the news is hot everyone else will start writing on it and link back to where they found it. In most cases it is not easy to break news due to thousands of people trying to do the same thing. But if you can find the time to break news people will link to your blog as well as read it on a regular basis so they can be up-to-date on the latest happenings.

Post on weekends

There is a good chance that your readers also read other blogs. Because of the sheer number of blogs that post on a daily basis they probably don’t have time to read all of them. If you post when your readers have time, such as the weekends, there is a good chance that they will read your blog. Look around at all of the blogs in your industry, there is a good chance that most will not post on weekends. I know that some may not agree with this idea, but it is something to consider if you have the time on weekends.

Write timeless posts

Try not to only write blog posts with a lifespan of 1 week, mix it up a little by writing on things that are timeless. Those posts might not be a smash hit right out of the gate, but they might become popular a couple months down the road. So try to also write things that can last for longer then 1 day or 1 week.

Teach don’t sell

A lot of people are starting to blog because they want to make money. There is nothing wrong about making money or even blogging to make money, but try not to make a sales pitch in your blog posts. If you try to educate and teach people through your blog, it is possible that people will think of you as an authority in your industry which can lead to all kinds of great opportunities.
Join in on conversations

Emailing out bloggers and asking them for links can be an effective approach to increase your traffic. But another good way to increase your popularity is by joining in on conversations. A good example of this is when Rohit Bhargava wrote 5 Rules of Social Media Optimization; after thousands of people saw it and started adding to it the list grew to the 17 rules of Social Media Optimization.

I’m fine with this list. However, breaking news is even harder than is described in this post. Don’t count on it. I also don’t personally trust the weekend rule. This depends a lot on the blog. On my EMR and HIPAA blog I see drops during the weekend because most people read that blog during working hours as the research the subject. A better lesson would be to know your audience, watch your statistics to know when your blog is most seen.

Timeless posts are important. Otherwise, you’ll have a spike in traffic before you go back to a deep depression that no one enjoys when blogging. I would suggest that 90% of blog traffic comes from 3% of your posts. The more you blog, the larger that 3% becomes.

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The One Universal Need: Document Management Software

In my career I have worked at a dozen of different places. In all of those places, I have come across one universal need for each and every business: Document Management Software.

Let me just highlight a few examples:

While in college I worked with a document management company where I first realized how great document management could be. I saw how the legal and real estate industry could not survive without some sort of Contract Management Software. If you could only see the piles of paper that lawyers and real estate agents created. Well, you can imagine if you’ve ever bought a home or been through any sort of legal issue how many papers those people go through.

The key isn’t to just have those documents electronically. The key is to have a document management software that is able to convert that scanned image into text and make it searchable. Then, you’ve derived the real power out of that document. Or as FineTooth Contract Management Solution says you’ve pulled out simple, searchable and actionable intelligence.

Well, I then proceeded to work at a couple University systems. Just imagine almost 30,000 students sending in applications, reference letters, transcripts, scholarship applications and you can quite easily see why document management was a great necessity in education.

I then proceeded to work in the healthcare industry. Me oh my!! I can’t believe how much paper doctors use. Even more crazy is how much paper gets sent between doctors. I thought fax machines were out of style, but I was wrong. I haven’t even gotten started on those stacks of papers that patients give you showing their past medical history.

What to do with all the paper?

Easy, it’s the universal need: Document Management Software. It’s worth every penny you pay for it.

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Record Any Computer Sound as MP3

I found a great little FREE program that is able to record the sound on your computer into an MP3 file. What a great idea. If you think about it, it really is just like you having a tape in your car and recording the radio. Should we call this tape recording 2.0?

The program is called MP3myMP3 Recorder 2.0. I could also see this useful for other things you might do online. If you are a business using skype to do business then you could easily record those phone conversations. For that matter if you want to make a phone call and have it recorded then you could easily use skype to call someone and then record it electronically.

Wow…the more I type the more uses I find for recording what’s coming out of your speakers. I will put 2 warnings. Be very careful of copyrights. Also, there are certainly many laws that regulate recording phone conversations with people. I’m not responsible for any of that. I would never record a conversation anyway. At least not of someone I know well and want to use that conversation to embarrass them at some future occassion.

Here’s a better description of how the mp3 recording software works:
Record internet radio and save to mp3 or wav. Record streaming audio from the Internet, microphone, or any other source for that matter. MP3myMP3 Recorder works directly with your system sound card – if you can hear it, you can record it! Use the scan tool to list all mp3, wav, aif, swa, or sun au audio files on your computer – then play and record portions of any of these files. MP3myMP3 Recorder offers customizable colors, timer, on top mode, and skinning.

his program is meant to be extremely intuitive to use, with enough features to get the job done quickly and easily…

1. Select the audio source you wish to record from.(Choose Stereo Mix or Wave mix or similar this will record all audio through your sound card.)

2. Open your favorite audio player. ie (WinAmp) and start playing something.

3. The combination of the settings below ultimately determines the overall recording input level. Fine tune your recording levels so that the meter on the right just hits the bottom of the red zone at the loudest point of the audio you are recording.
a)Player audio level
b)Master Volume Level
c)Recording Level

4. Click the Record button.

5. Click Stop when you’re ready to end the recording.

6. Click the Play button to listen to your recording.

7. Check your Mp3 Export settings.

8. Save your recording to a Wave file or an Mp3 file or both.

Use the scan tool to list all Mp3’s and Wav, Aif, Swa or Sun Au audio files on your entire computer. You can play and record portions of any of these files.

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