photo credit: ►Voj►

Here recently I have been writing alot about about Social Media and I wanted to show how much Stumble Upon can increase your traffic. I decided to use this great tool to find 10 Top websites about this topic

Could Stumbleupon Help To Revolutionize Online Search? - Out of all the online social networks I have tried, the one I always continue to use on a regular basis is Stumbleupon. Clicking that Stumble button is like a drug and many a hour has disappeared without a trace while I find sites that … holy StumbleUpon! - Its StumbleUpon. Someone put my “admiration and inspiration” posts into the playlist and now all these Stumblers! Thanks for coming everyone. If you love fashion illustration as much as I do, please feel free to poke around and check … Searching the Web with Stumbleupon - I came across this article today and it made me think of how different I’ve been doing research since I installed my Stumbleupon toolbar. I’m able to “Stumble” a word as a means of searching. This method of researching the web allows me … The dish on the next StumbleUpon: Ffwd - At Tuesday’s Under the Radar conference in Mountain View, Calif., start-up junkie Patrick Koppula took to the stage to pitch his latest effort called Ffwd. I briefly mentioned it in a roundup of other companies, but it’s worth digging a … Stumble Upon Bribe machine - USD 37,00 - Introducing.TheBribe Machine StumbleUponVersion1.0 AutomatedSocial Networking Software Attracts Thousandsof HighlyTargetedVisitors To Your Websites Using Ethical Bribes! You Are TheFIRST To See This Brand New Viral Tool! … Stumbleupon: Cleaning Up. - Have you ever been just… stumbling along and you accidentally stumble upon the absolutely gross picture? All of us have I’m sure, and there’s some things you can do to prevent this…. Use the “Report Last Stumble” Feature. … C is for a StumbleUpon cookie - I rarely use the Stumble! button on the StumbleUpon toolbar. Basically, what it does is when you press it, it offers you a random site that others have “stumbled,” or voted for, as good sites. It’s actually pretty fun to discover these … StumbleUpon : A Top Tip for Getting Caught in Traffic ! - First of all, visit Stumble Upon. Register (free) and install the little “thumbs up” toolbar. When you click the thumbs-up button on one of your favourite listings from DaWanda for example - you submit it to be recommended to other … StumbleUpon Site Scanner - Does anyone know of a tool or service which I could use on Jeffro2pt0.com that would tell me which pages have been stumbled and perhaps tell me how many thumbs up or thumbs down that particular article received? … StumbleUpon Alerter - A few months ago I moved from Digg and focused my energy on StumbleUpon (click here to view my profile). To my surprise the site had a much friendlier community but lacked in some basic functionality. As someone who actively searches …

Thanks goes out to all the different website owners for publishing such awesome articles about Stumble Upon.

photo credit: WorldIslandInfo.com

An authority blog or an authority site is one of the main places people go to for information on a particular niche or topic. If you are looking to dominate your topic, then becoming an authority in your niche is what you want to do. Let’s take a look into the inner workings of these types of blogs.

What Makes an Authority Site?

One of the main characteristics of an authority site is the fact that it has more content or pages than any other site in that niche. The search engines love content, so if we give them more content to crawl all over, then they will look more favorably on your blog. Lots of content that is well formatted with proper headings and html tags are a crucial for the search engines to crawl successfully over your content.

The real secret behind ranking well and becoming an authority in your niche is backlinks. When search engines see one site linking to another they look at this as a vote for the site. Each “vote” is not weighted equally however, because the more links the first site has going to it, the more that site’s vote will count.

How Do You Establish Your Site as an Authority?

One of the easiest ways to begin this process is to simply add more content. The more useful information you can provide to your readers, the more people will naturally link to your posts. If you continuously think of your readers first and search engines second, you will dominate the rankings.

Do some homework and find out what your competitors are talking about. This is a very common practice, but the key to doing this well is presenting the information in a new way or perhaps going further in depth. It’s not necessary to reinvent the wheel, just repackage it or make it better.

Now that you know the topics you need to cover, it’s time to create more pages. If you are like most people, then patience is not a strong virtue of yours. You do have other alternatives such as giving the task to someone else or you can hire someone to do it.

How Can My Content Make Me an Authority?

When you write, be mindful of the things you have already written, and link to helpful posts. This will point your readers further into your site, and the search engines love a site that links to itself. Writing a series of posts on a particular subject will keep your readers engaged and will give you great credibility with the search engines.

When writing your new posts, remember to link out to others in your niche. Not only will they possibly link back to you (giving you that extra vote), but it will also once again point your readers to useful content. It may seem ridiculous to link to your competitors; however the search engines will put more weight on a vote from a page that is related to your page. This is also a great way to build a relationship with your fellow bloggers.

Becoming an authority blog or site takes some time and forethought. With some calculated steps, such as the ones I’ve outlined, you will one day become an authority site. Remember the cliché is absolutely true “Content is King”. If you want to be #1, then you have to earn it with top of the line content.

Q: What is Rick Roll, Rick Rolling, Rick Rolled?

A: (courtesy of Yahoo! Answers)

An internet prank or joke. Rick Roll, Rick Roll’d or Rick Rolling is an internet spam trick in which people

post a link to a Rick Astley video on Youtube, but say the viewers of the video are

being led to another video, usually proof of unconfirmed gaming news or trailers.

So what is this Rick Rolled craze going around the internet? A prime example of link bait. I was going through some of my favorite social sites, and a site had been sent to me by a friend of mine with the words “I’ve been rickroll’d” This obviously sent me into a wild research frenzy because I had to know what this joke was all about. Here are some of the sites I found including the official Rick rolled website.

Here’s some kid’s reactions when they get rick rolled in person.

Here are some more Resources and great “You just got Rick Rolled” Videos

we just got rick rolled at kar… - we just got rick rolled at karaoke. Originally published at notetoself.net. Please leave any comments there. This is how I (Rick) roll - I recently attended a good friend’s wedding. And yeah, during the reception, I Rick Rolled him. Rick Rolled When a song by a Gay guy fails you! - Rick Rolled When a song by a Gay guy fails you! Comments. A short video - Capt Picard gets rick rolled - I come bringing a new little video! Captain Picard gets rick rolled by Admiral Janeway. And he’s left speechless. Link to the video as well as another rick roll (DW) video at my journal. What Is Rick Rolling? - If you click the link, then you’ve just been Rick Rolled. Some Internet users think that this is funny. Others are merely annoyed by the deception. Either way, Rick Rolling is currently a common Internet prank. … You’ve been Rick Rolled… - April Fools day helped to bring legendary 80’s pop star Rick Astley back to life, after millions of people across the world were “rick rolled” while trying to access videos on Youtube. His video “Never gonna give you up” popped up in … HAHA! I got rick-rolled! I was expecting muppets, but really the… - HAHA! I got rick-rolled! I was expecting muppets, but really the way they match up Beaker’s mouth is inspired! Mets got RICK ROLLED! - Mets got RICK ROLLED! My University just got Rick Rolled - Someone got into the Uni’s network today. For the exam timetable under every module theres a notification: “Important exam information: http://tinyurl.com/2q9j9y” Whoever did this is a genius but its also kinda worrying that the network … new rage: getting rick rolled - i got rick rolled… straight up. whoever thought of that is a genius. if you don’t know what it’s all about… it’s worth checking out, but you really need to watch the entire clip to get it… watch this clip from Serra vs. …

Thanks goes out to Dull-summer for opening my eyes to a new link bait.

This should clear up our question of what social media is, and also will give some inside tips and tricks on how to optimize your marketing with this new outlet.

photo credit: Stabilo Boss

Social Media U: Take a Class in Social Media
Social media. Web 2.0. You know what these things are and you take advantage of them every day on the net. Whether you’re socializing on Facebook, updating Twitter, or just adding a new bookmark to Ma.gnolia, social media has become an …

Can social media be measured?

The question was the focus of this week’s Third Tuesday Toronto (which actually took place on a Tuesday!). A panel of experts in social media measurement and web analytics assembled to tackle this contentious issue: how do you measure …

How to Use Social Media for Social Change

Instead of watching Twitter’s ups and downs, we the members of the tech community could be using our social media super-powers to make a real difference in the world. We know how to spread news fast, share images and videos, …

photo credit: pingnews.com

Future social media could be the new “one small step for mankind”

Questions:. What do you think will be the future of personal privacy as more aspects of our lives go online? What’s the next big thing to take off in regards to social media/the online world?

Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media

He advised that we ‘fish where the fish are’ and that by sticking to the principles of conversation you’ll have success in social media. Interestingly, he didn’t bring up the Walmart blogging scandal until asked about in the Q&A. …

IM Etiquette: 8 Tips from Top Social Media Users

“Don’t waste my time on IM. If you need something - let me know right away. Be cordial but don’t be annoying and try to “force” a conversation.” Chris Winfield.

Social Media Marketing vs Direct Marketing…who is integrating all …

Direct marketing vs social media marketing–rarely have I seen campaigns that elegantly integrate both. Often, the direct marketing approach (normal mail/post, email, etc.) and social media approach (forums, communities, etc. …

The shift from social media to semantic web

‘we were wrong’ businessweek essentially say, ‘the blog frenzy turned out to be something a lot bigger than we thought - it’s the social media madness’. it’s nice of them to ‘admit’ a mistake, though a bit surprising that they are …

A Journalist’s View on Social Media

A study from Brodeur and Marketwire discusses a reporters view on social media and the results show that journalists are warming up to the idea of social media and its impact, but are still cautious to admit to the high quality of blogs …

Money Talks! ROI for Social Media

So with all the uproar and struggles to leverage on social media by PR and Marketers to build consumer relationship and to reach and understand them on a community level , how do we tell the finance guys we need more money for our next …

Lately it has become a major trend in the blogging arena to add interactivity with your readers. By doing this, it not only show your human side, but also let’s your readers connect with you. Hopefully with these Social Media Tips and Articles, you will be twittering while you stumble upon. Digg It!

If you’re blogging with the goal of marketing advertisement,
there are two more common methods that you will be able to approach
recruiting sponsors who would like to place advertisements on your web site;
You’ll be able to allow somebody else do each of the legwork, or you will be able to perform the work yourself and save all of the money.
Within the first group, a lot of folks earn income
blogging by marketing space through Google’s AdSense
program. The rewards of this program are numerous,
Because it requires very little effort on the part from the blogger
or webmaster to start out shoveling in profit. However, near
people come across that they attain lower income by this
Technique than they had went for that their blog would earn.

Selling advertising direct to companies who would like to
put banner advertisements or sponsored links on your blog could take
quite a bit of time, but they are frequently somewhat profitable. Whenever you’ve many contacts in industries that are related the
Subject of your blog, you may prefer to try to go this route.
People who have a solid background knowledge in sales and is
Knowledgeable at pitching proposals could earn quite a a bit
of profit by leasing blog space to interested companies.
The most difficult problem with this example is that you
Oftentimes have to establish quite an ample readership before you could attract advertizers, which may mean that you have to
do a few weeks of work before you begin to earn
Income blogging.

As blogging becomes an increasingly profitable
Line of work, many established companies are debating
how they could get in the action. One method that
companies are taking advantage on the web log front are by
having blogs that provide a sort of friendly face as
their corporation. Frequently, a company will hire an
established blogger to create an blog planned
specifically to appeal to that company’s clients and
to create positive ties with the brand name in
consumers’ minds. More than one author who never
even dreamed that he or she could earn money
blogging has been approached by a company and
offered quite a pretty penny for this sort of gig.

HTML Tags

Search engines like order since they are machines. If we make things easier for them, they will reward us with higher rankings in the search engines. Using correct HTML tags will do just this for us.

• Reserve H1 Tags for your main Title only

The size is way too big for a human reader to see more than once, and we have trained ourselves to see the titles larger anyways,

• Use H2 or H3 tags for section headings

The human eye scans down the page to pick out the pertinent information before reading the screen. If you tell them what the sections are about, they will be more inclined to continue reading. The search engines will also recognize these section headings as key phrases as well, so it is important to always use them.

Readability

Our eyes are like the Charlie Brown cartoons when we see long blocks of print. BLAH BLAH BLAH. We cannot focus and maintain our concentration on large groupings of text. Making smaller paragraphs will ease the readers eye, and will be more visually pleasing. Try using a 2-4 sentence paragraph as opposed to a full paragraph of 5-6.

Proper English

Remember back in high school, your English teacher told you about intro paragraphs and conclusion paragraphs? Well, in case you slept through that part of class, let me refresh your memory, because your readers are expecting it.

1. Introductory paragraph

Here you will tell them what you are going to tell them in a few sentences. Basically just list the topics you will cover. Remember those section headings?

2. Body

Use 3 -4 sections and order them with your section headings, much like I have done in this article. Tell them your main information. It is ok if you happen to need more than one paragraph to cover your section, just remember to use section headings.

3. Conclusion

Tell them what you have already told them. This is much like your intro paragraph, except you wrap everything up.

Writing content for search engine optimization is not difficult to do once you understand the very basic rules. Use your HTML tags properly to point out the main ideas, use smaller paragraph lengths, and structure your content in a logical order. Keep it simple, keep it orderly, and keep it readable.

• “Do Follow” Blog Directory Is a whole directory of blogs that also have the “nofollow” removed for your commenting pleasure. There is Everything here from Arts to Soccer, there’s bound to be something in your niche.
• Do Follow Plug In- If you still haven’t joined in the movement, you can here
• Ultimate list of “dofollow” plugins This site not only has several version of this plugin, but also has removal for our Blogger friends. Sorry I just found this, I searched everywhere for it for you guys.
• DoFollow Community This is a great community of bloggers who have removed the nofollow tag.

Remember comment responsibly

D-Listed

Have you heard of the D list? The original creator of the D List is GeekySpeaky.com Most blogs by deafult use the “nofollow” tag in their comments. These blogs including this one, instead do not use the “nofollow”, so in essence they do follow. What does this mean for you?

Backlinks

If you give thoughtful comments on these blogs, you will have a one way backlink to your site. On top of that, most times the blog owner will also come to visit your site, and possibly the visitors will as well. So there is free traffic as well. As we all know, backlinks are like gold.

Can I be D-Listed too?

Of course you can, and it isn’t hard either. On this blog we used the DoFollow plug in for Wordpress. Install, activate in your plugins section of your Wordpress blog. Then copy the following D List to your blog with a great intro paragraph.

Spam is not cool

Spamming is not cool and your comment will be deleted if it is obvious spam. It is more beneficial to you and your site if you offer something of value to this blog and its readers. If you give them something they like, chances are they may want to see what else you have on your site.

This is an adaptation of theDoFollow Blog list is courtesy of Courtney Tuttle and was created originally by Coleen as the D-List.

Content123
Affordable Internet Marketing
SimpleRandomness
ArticleSnatchBlog
CutieGadget
EricSocia
LcdLove
MenstrualPoetry
WomanTribune
OnARidge
FatLadySingz
PixelHeadOnline
Revellian
Logon
TriathlonTraining
YourWebsiteProfit
HowToWakeUpEarly
LondonerLife
LaughOutLoudDogs
BillHartzer
FootbagShop
NeoMeme
Marenda
SavingMoney
SunlightFlavor
TheBuffaloRiver.com
MeloVillaReal
Jakeldaily
TallFreak
BaseballInvestor
TheDarkLightOfLove
LifeInTheRough
TheDailyFuzz
ErikKarey
RobertaFerguson
MarketingASolicitor
BloggersJourney
SecretsOfUnlimitedProsperity
Amorphism
Jenny’sCorner
JadeHat
News Notion
BrilliantCheers
Achille
ChrisHoyt
LinkItForMe
RamblingThoughtsBlog
BlogThatOutside
Tobsy
SweetAgring
LayerCake
PajamaProfessional

RoadLessTravelled
Derek Semmler
Zr5
SmartWealthyRich
CrayonWriter
BlogRaters
TagsKitchen
TradeMacro
Brian Pratt
Best Real Income
A Writers Words, An Editors Eye
Advertising for Success
Andy Beard
Ang’s Chicken Coop
Army Mom:New Jersey
Axplay
BloggingTips
BMonaco
BodyFitnessInfo

BuyMeBlog
By the Sea
Colloquium
Community Building Blog
Curious Cat Science
Craftblog
Dont Fear the Truth
Ecomm Tips
EMoneyMarketing
Jones PC
JOIN - Do Follow Bloggers **
Just Not Martha
Kansha Shite
Last Blogger
Life in the Fast Lane
Life Is Risky

Life Passion Travel & More
Life through eyes of Krissy
Lifecruiser
LittleAmerica.us
Live Life Organics & Your Health
Magical Rose Garden
Marketing Blagger
Master Cleanse
Midlife Musings
Mom is Nutz
MomReviews.net
Mothering Many
My Credit Group
My Dandelion Patch
My Home Recipe
My Muddled Mind
My Opinion Counts
My Thoughts, Ideas, and Ramblings
Nanashi-Inc.net
New Century Politics
No Average Mom
Odd Planet
On the Horizon
Open Road Biker
Patrick Says v2.0
Paula Mooney
PBriscoe.com
Pegs AZ Life
Pencil Thin
PimpMyPageRank
Pink Poison Store
Pond, The
Ramblings Of An Undisturbed Mind
Randa Clay Design
Raw Vegan Momma
Reasoner, The
Rotten Bananas
Sassy Southerner, The

Scribble On The Wall
Scuttlebutt Pipeline
Selena’s Travel and Culture
SelfHynosisProgram
Shopping Flavor
ShowMeHealthBiz
ShowMeMoneyBiz.com
Simple Kind Of Life
Simplify Every Obstacle
Skeets Stuff
Sophistishe.Org | Personal Blog
SQKIKs Simple Tech
Super Blogging
Sun-Flower Family, The
Table for Five
TeaScoop
TechieZone
Teenage Angst Regression
Texas RV Travel blog
Thermal
TimeForBlogging
Tricia\’s Musings
Utterly Geek
Wanders World
Web Files, The
WebStyle
Wild & Crazy Ride
Winding Threads
Wired Kayaker, The
Work At Home Mom Revolution
Yoga Blog

photo credit: St0rmz

Recently a friend of mine, Pentad, was the victim of a content thief. Someone stole her content from her RSS feed and basically created a whole blog with it. This is bad news for a few reasons.

• Stealing your Identity

This is almost like identity theft because you created the content with your imagination and creativity. This is in essence you. So, when someone steals your content, plaster it somewhere else pretending to be you, it can be a very scary thing and confusing to your readers.

• Duplicate Content

The search engines despise duplicate content like the plague. They consider this a terrible sin when it comes to search engine optimization. The Google Blogstates that “you shouldn’t worry about occasional snippets (quotes and otherwise) being flagged as duplicate content.” But copies of the entire document is plagiarism.

What if my content is stolen?

First you have to understand why the person is stealing your content. More than likely they are using it to reap large amounts of Adsense money or other affiliate monies. With that in mind, you can take some fairly simple steps to put a stop to this thief.

1. Notify the friendly folks at Google about what is going on

If they can’t make money, then the show is over for them and they would not want to keep it going. It only takes a few minutes to cut off his income with Adsense

2. Take a look at all the sites or blogs you may own on the social sites

Take note of how many have odd or suspicious comments your sites and blogs have. Also write down a few titles you have written. This will come in handy.

3. Do a search in Google for your titles with “quotes” around them

This looks for exactly that phrase. So, you should be able to find out if someone is stealing your articles or posts. In this step once you find the culprit it is time to email them.

4. Email with threats

Remember what they are doing is plagiarism. This carries a pretty hefty fine to the tune of up to $25 million and 20 years in jail. A small who is might reveal their address and at the very least their hosting. Include all of the information you have on them in this email. Either they remove your content or else the proper people will also receive this information.

If you come across any sites that are spammy or you know to be complete rip-offs, then I would follow theContent Theft Reporting Process.

What can I do to protect my content?

There is a great site called Copyscape.com which will not only show you if there is a copy of your site somewhere, but will help you defend it as well. They have banners much like the one you see on my site which let the potential thieves know that you are watching. Copyscape has a program that has automatic web monitoring that will watch for the content thieves for you.

If you are curious as to how my friend Pentad made out, you will be happy to know her content is hers again. This is something that everyone who has a blog must know. So, I ask if you know someone who has a blog, or if you are on any of the social sites, then please share this with everyone you know. Because these thieves may be after you next.

photo credit: russelljsmith

So you’d like to try your hand at getting paid to write for the web, but have no idea where to start. Well, there are many different online communities that cater to just your situation. I have personally tried the ones I’ll talk to you about as I know they are both reputable and they also pay out, which is vital when getting started.

Helium

Helium is a great starting point for anyone wanting to get involved in the writing business. This community has over 100,000 writers and just as many different topics to choose from. With all the different topics to choose from, there is bound to be one that you know something about. The community will read your article and rate it giving you solid feedback on how to improve your articles. All that is needed is your creativity and talent.

So, you might be asking yourself, how do I make money from this site? There are 3 different ways you can make money. When someone reads your article they may click on the Adsense ads that are automatically placed on the page. A good example of this would be the article Why is Helium potentially better than Wikipedia or Digg. Helium also holds weekly contents that pay out in cash based upon several main subjects.

These can become quite competitive, but also very rewarding. Another avenue is the Marketplace, where publishers will give the specifics of the article they are looking for. Writers then write articles based on the subject and the publisher chooses the article they wish to purchase. All three avenues will pay, and teach you how to write better for the web.

Hubpages

HubPages is a unique type of comminuty where you can create “hubs” or linked categories of articles. There are a couple of options when writing your next article. You can come up with your own subject matter, or you can respond to the Latest Hub Requests which are requests to create a new Hub that provides specific information or advice.

Making money from your hubs comes in a few forms.

• First through Google Adsense.

If you do not have an account then first Sign up for Adsense. This will allow relevant ads to be shown on your hubs and hub pages. Adsense is one of the most used income streams on the internet.

• Amazon Associates

There is no better way to show your audience what book or cd you are talking about than with Amazon Associates program. There are several types of widgets that you can add into your pages to bring you income. Choosing which one that would fit in best with your content is completely up to you and how you wish to deliver it to your viewers.

Qassia

Qassia kills two birds with one stone. Here not only do you get paid for your Adsense ad clicks, but you also create backlinks for whatever site you wish. Some people direct it back to their main page so that maybe they can get more sign ups. Right now they are in beta and not open to the public except through a referral link like the the one above, however, I have found they not only pay but they pay fairly well.

Associated Content

Associated Content is like Helium in that it is a community that has A LOT of different topics. What makes this community different is that you can publish whatever subject you want to cover, but they also have “Calls for Content” where publishers ask for a certain type of content for authors to submit their content for. Associated Content handles more than writing, because they accept and look for audio and video as well.

Making money with Associated Content is pretty difficult if you know nothing about search engine optimization (seo) because you get paid per thousand impressions. If you already have a lot of traffic from your site that you can direct to your articles or are pretty good at seo, then perhaps Associated content is for you.

Getting started making money by writing for the web can be rewarding, exciting, and it might pay pretty well too. Getting started is easy, and may only require an account or two. Either way, you are sure to have some fun and maybe even delve into some new areas of knowledge to explore.