03.27.08
Make a Cylon contest
Battlestar Galactica contest to be judged by Cylons Number Six (Tricia Helfer) and Boomer (Grace Park)!
You gotta be a Battlestar fan to get it…
04.09.07
Kitten Plays With Mac Laptop
Even Kittens Can Use Macs (from YouTube)
Thanks to my good friend C! and her daughter for passing this one to me!
02.08.07
google and paid link morality
The Morality of Paid Links and Google’s ‘Intent Algorithm’
By Bill Platt (c) 2006-2007 Links And TraffÃc, from SEO News February 8, Issue #155
It is Google’s fault actually. No one can be blamed for this matter more than Google itself. Google came up with a brilliant plan for determining the best web pages to show in their search engine results. And then without telling us the intimate details of their plan, they told us about part of their algorithm by explaining the importance of inbound links — the Google PageRank (PR) system — in their calculations.
Google itself planted the seeds of its own future headaches. Nobody did it to them; they did it themselves.
I am sure the fault really lies in Google’s marketing department. They wanted to tell the world what made their search engine algorithms more powerful than the competition. It probably was an innocent mistake on their part. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.
So, now the whole world knows that if you want to get good search rankings in Google, you must have links pointing to your website from other websites on the internet. Everyone also knows that if you want better search rankings in Google, then you should strive to create even more links with the appropriate keywords in the anchor text of those links.
Building Links
There is always more than one way to skin a cat. There are many methods that people can employ to build links to their websites.
1. Register frëe websites so that you can create inbound links back to your own site.
2. Register new domains where you can place other links back to your website.
3. Leave comments on blogs.
4. Link Exchanges.
5. Getting your own listing in any of the directories that are available (dmoz.org, yahoo.com, etc.).
6. Signature File - getting involved in discussion forums and actually adding value to the discussions.
7. Submit product and service testimonials to those product distributors and service providers.
8. Social Networking - bookmark web pages through social bookmarking sites.
9. Link Baiting - creating a resource that people will want to link to for the benefit of their website visitors.
10. Article Marketing - writing an article and giving webmasters the opportunÃty to use your content on their website, IF they agree to post your link on the page with the article that they are using.
11. Press Releases - writing and distributing press releases online.
12. Buy advertising on a website.
13. Buy Link Placements on a website.
Good Links Versus Bad Links
I have always focused my attention on practicing White Hat Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, instead of Black Hat SEO techniques.
Most of you know what I am talking about, but I have been surprised a number of times when people did not understand what was meant by white hat and black hat. So, for those of you who do not know what I am talking about, here is a brief description. White hat and black hat are references to the old serial cowboy westerns. The good guys always wore white hats, and the bad guys always wore black hats.
By far, the link building techniques I employ most often are article marketing, press releases, and link baiting. I still frequently participate in forums and buy advertisements on other websites, but I do those for public exposure and not for search marketing.
A Black-and-White Issue
I have always been extremely concerned with White Hat techniques for building links to my websites and from my websites.
Providing good quality content as the foundation for my linking activities has always been my golden rule. And, it still is that main driving force behind everything that I do.
I like a black-and-white world where everything makes sense, and I had no reservations about my thoughts on this topic.
The Morality of Paid Links
A couple weeks ago, I was reading Matt Cutt’s thoughts about paid links on his blog. Most folks in internet marketing know who Matt Cutt’s is, but if you don’t, he is a software engineer that works behind the scenes with Google in their quality department.
Generally, if Matt Cutts says anything at all about improving your rankings in Google, you can take his words to the bank.
Now, Matt has made it more than clear that we do not want to buy paid links to our websites as part of our link building campaigns. Paid links are a big no-no according to Matt. That is his advice, and I have always trusted it at face value.
That is why I have focused my entire link building activities towards content-driven linking. I was reading a discussion of paid links in Matt Cutts’ blog and after I read Matt’s thoughts, I continued reading the comments on the page. Many good points were made and responded to by Matt. It was an interesting read.
And then, my black-and-white world was turned upside-down when I read the comments presented by Dan Thies of SEO Research Labs.
Here is what Dan said:
Search engines are frëe to develop their algorithms as they see fit. They’re frëe to decide which links they want to trust. Maybe I’m the heretic here, but I don’t see anything wrong with Google identifying sites that are selling text links, and dealing with that however they like.
I just hope Matt and his co-workers aren’t expecting this to solve their problem. He’s already seen that people are looking for better ways to game the system. I hope Matt and his co-workers don’t seriously expect the entire web to start labeling paid links for them.
The Google ideal may be that the best links are earned and given by choice, but what does that mean?
If I add text links to my favorite florist, favorite online casino, favorite unlicensed pharmacy, favorite travel site, etc. will Google decide that my site isn’t worthy to participate in developing their democratic search results? If I vote for George Bush or Michael Moore as a miserable failure, am I no longer qualified to vote?
What’s the algorithm for determining intent, Matt?
Intent Is Abstract and Important At The Same Time
There is the rub. How can Google know the heart of the webmaster? They can’t, unless the webmaster pointedly describes their intent.
If the webmaster calls those links paid links or sponsored links, then Google can know that webmaster accepted monëy to provide those links.
If I buy advertising on a website, to attract potential buyers to my website, how does Google know my intent? Did I do it to get traffÃc from that website, or did I do it to game the Google results? They cannot know my heart.
Even if the webmaster does not call the shown links paid links or sponsored links, does the suspicion of the pay-for-placement model label the webmaster as a bad egg? How does Google really know if Dan is linking to a site because he wants to, or whether he has accepted payment for that link? They cannot know.
And the final example on this topic comes from a poster named Shelley who participated in the discussion at: phil ringnalda [see comments].
Shelley stated that she allowed two paid links on her well-respected blog, because she had a car payment to make. She traded on her brand name to get enough cäsh to make the car payment in tight times. Will she be penalized for selling link space to advertisers on her website?
In Conclusion…
Based on the comments that I have read from Matt, Shelley should not be worried about her acceptance of paid links on her website. If I have interpreted his comments correctly, her site will not be hurt by her outbound links.
However, we are meant to believe that if you and I were to buy links on her page, then we should be concerned about our future in connection to the Google search results.
So these questÃons remain for the search companies to figure out…
Webmaster’s Intent:
1. Which links are paid links, and which links are freely given links?
2. Who is selling links to pass on their PageRank value, and who is providing a useful or valuable link for their visitors?
Link Buyer’s Intent:
1. Who is trying to game the Google results, and who is trying to attract buyers to their website?
2. Who should be treated as a spammer, and who should be treated as an honest performer?
This last question is the tricky one. We all know a spammer’s website when we see a spammer’s website. But, how can the search engines deal with the spammers, without damaging the innocent in their quest for search results perfection?
Yes, that is their problem, not mine. But, if Google’s paid links policy hurts my own placement in the search engines, then the paid links equation becomes my problem too.
More QuestÃons Than Answers…
Yes, it is true. I have posed more questÃons than I have presented answers. But sometimes, the questÃons are more important than the answers. This is one such case.
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About The Author:
Bill Platt owns and operates the Links And TraffÃc Link Building program. Bill’s team utilizes content-driven link building processes to develop links to his client’s websites. People like this system and methodology, so much so that Bill has doubled his staff in the last eight weeks. If you would like to learn more about Bill’s Links And TraffÃc program, feel frëe to visit his website at Links And TraffÃc.com.
Editorial Note (SEO News): Drop by the SiteProNews Blog to read regular posts by two of the Web’s top SEO writers, Jim Hedger and Jerry Bader, or listen to The Alternative on WebMaster Radio, the new weekly, hour-long live broadcast hosted by Jim Hedger, covering the world of independent search engine alternatives and, of course, developments at the Big 3.
Find ongoing issues of SitePro NEWS on this blog at site pro seo news feed.
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Connie Moses– Blog: petArtistWithPeaches
website: PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
01.22.07
Yahoo SEO Techniques
I just came across this SEO tips site Tips To Make Money Online by Sushith Mundayadan, chock full of many intersting site optimization articles also blog techniques. I especially like these… Yahoo Seo Techniques, Displaying Adsense on Wordpress (which I am reading myself!), Social Bookmarking (for ex., del.icio.us, digg).
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Connie Moses– Blog: petArtistWithPeaches
website: PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
01.15.07
newsreaders explained short and long
SHORT: Online Newsreaders (aka News Aggregators or Feed Readers) are like having your own free homepage, which you can customize and set up to track the latest news on your favorite topics and blogs (most blogs offer feeds.) You can subscribe to news and blog feeds and follow news groups and forums. (This is what the funky RSS Feed/Syndicate buttons are all about on blogs like my petArtistWithPeaches.)
You can read and access all this pre-organized information at your convenience, on your own homepage online, without having to get email newsletters. Some make photo albums such as Flickr handy for your use (Netvibes.) A big benefit is no spam.
To get started with easy-to-use, simple basic online News Readers, sign up with one of these: MyYahoo — Google Reader (Google or gMail account) — MyAOL — Netvibes — Bloglines — NewsGator — Rojo — Windows Live (MyMSN) — feedlounge ($5/month)
LONG: What are Newsreaders? Why would you want one? What are newsgroups and Usenet? article from GUBA, Gigantic Usenet Binaries Archive
Newsreaders are programs that let you read newsgroups, thus I will start by defining them. Newsgroups are forums for discussion that are most comparable to e-mail lists, except that the messages go to the public (unless the group is a local group) and one does not need to be subscribed, in the mailing list sense, to participate.
For example, if there is a group called “rec.widgetmaking” (a group for widget making enthusiasts) that you are interested in, you would tell your newsreader to subscribe you to that group. (You would find the group by looking or searching through the full list of newsgroups on your server, or perhaps a friend also interested in widget making told you about the group.) This has no impact on the group itself, it just tells your newsreader to put that group on your subscribed list. Your newsreader program then makes this group more accessible and stores information about which messages you have already read, etc.
When you open this newsgroup to read, there should be a bunch of messages from various people. (If not, see if your newsreader has a command for loading all messages in a group; some newsreaders seem to default to showing no messages for a group newly subscribed to, as opposed to showing all messages still on your news server). You should have something that looks somewhat like a mailbox in your e-mail program. You can read these messages just like e-mail messages.
The difference is that the message is not addressed to you. It is addressed to “rec.widgetmaking”. Similarly, if you choose to post a message in response to a message you are reading, you need to decide (and be careful) whether to reply (or “followup”) to the newsgroup, reply to the author (almost all newsreaders have ability to send e-mail messages), or both. (This can be a “netiquette” question. If someone is asking advice, I tend to respond to both the group and the person. But there are times when it is best to take things off the group, and there are some people who prefer not to get responses in their mailbox, since they will see the response in the group anyway.)
That is the main difference between newsgroups and mailing lists. Whereas mailing lists get e-mailed to a certain group of people and the messages exist only in their mailboxes, newsgroup posts get sent to your news server, which then forwards it to news servers around the world (except for newsgroups which only exist on your local server, called local groups).
Usenet is the main source of newsgroups. Just as ABC is a source of television programming, Usenet is a source of newsgroups and newsfeeds. Sometimes people refer to Usenet as newsgroups and vice versa, but strictly speaking, this is incorrect. First, there are other sources of newsgroups that are widely distributed. For example, Clarinet is carried by many ISPs and subscription-based newsfeeds. Second, there are many semi-private newsgroups that are not propogated beyond their own server. You need to point your newsreader to that server rather than the one you normally use; in some cases anyone is allowed to access the newsgroups on that server, but in other cases one needs a password to access the server.
Why would people want to use newsgroups instead of mailing lists? The best answer is to just try newsgroups and see if you like using them. No law that says everyone has to prefer it. But some people prefer not having messages arriving by e-mail all the time. Others prefer being able to drop in on groups when they feel like it, rather than feeling they have to read every message. One nice thing about newsgroups are that if you use a “threaded” newsreader, then the messages show up in logical order; replies to a post show up after that post, usually in a collapsible thread.
Lastly, you should be aware of the difference between “online” and “offline” newsreaders. Online newsreaders assume you maintain an Internet connection during the time the program is running. When you run the newsreader, it polls the server to see how many new messages there are in the groups to which you are subscribed. You can then enter a group, and the newsreader downloads just the message headers, and you see what looks like a mailbox. The messages themselves, however, are not on your machine. As you access a particular message, the newsreader gets it from the server. When you are done reading a message, it is not stored on your machine, unless you save it specifically.
Offline newsreaders, on the other hand, connect to the server, download all new messages for the newsgroups to which you are subscribed, upload any posts you wrote since the last time you connected to the server, and then disconnect. You can then read the messages as you wish, composing replies and new posts to be uploaded next time you choose to connect.
Lastly, a word about expiration. Given that newsgroups are perpetual, how do you wade through all the posts? You don’t. The news server “expires” posts after a certain amount of time, determined by the person running the server. Could be 2 days, 7 days, or whatever that person wants. So the first time you enter a newsgroup, or if you use your newsreaders command to access all articles on the server, you are just getting the unexpired posts.
Go here for general install info and use of a newsreader program.
Related: Online Feed Readers comparison of features
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Connie Moses– site: PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
Blog: petArtistWithPeaches
blogging book naked conversations
My Christmas gift from my daughter, pertinent for anyone with a blog or thinking about blogging. Insight into how blogging has helped different businesses.
naked conversations How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, by Robert Scoble/Shel Israel at Amazon (where else?)
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Connie Moses, petArtist– self-built website: PortraitsWithHorses.com
(horse and pet portraits)
Art vs. photography vs. computer art
This is to invite artists and art lovers to discuss a question I have heard more than once, whether artworks created digitally are TRUE ART??? A related question concerns paintings derived from photographs and whether the artist is cheating (so to speak) when a photo can be copied electronically as part of an artwork.
This issue begs firstly for a definition of ART (defs. of fine art included as more specific than art):
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art –noun Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - [first five definitions only]
1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.
2. the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.
3. a field, genre, or category of art: Dance is an art.
4. the fine arts collectively, often excluding architecture: art and architecture.
5. any field using the skills or techniques of art: advertising art; industrial art.
fine art –noun WordNet -
the products of human creativity; works of art collectively; an art exhibition; a fine collection of art [syn: art]Â
fine art –noun Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) -
a visual art considered to have been created primarily for aesthetic purposes and judged for its beauty and meaningfulness, specifically, painting, sculpture, drawing, watercolor, graphics, and architecture
fine art (fīn)  n.  American Heritage Dictionary -
1 a Art produced or intended primarily for beauty rather than utility.
b Any of the art forms, such as sculpture, painting, or music, used to create such art. Often used in the plural.
2 Something requiring highly developed techniques and skills: the fine art of teaching.
fine art American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms -
Something requiring highly developed techniques and skills, as in He’s turned lying into a fine art, or The contractor excels in the fine art of demolition. This term alludes to the fine arts, such as music, painting, and sculpture, which require both skill and talent. It is now often used to describe anything that takes skill to do. [First half of 1800s]
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One must consider if Art (especially when/if defined as beauty) depends on the eye of the beholder. And are the viewer’s personal tastes paramount; do YOU like a piece or not, does it move you, invoke emotion, bring you pleasure, stimulate thought and reflection, help you live or relive specific moments, inspire you, etc.?
Artists have always sought and used various and unique methods to express themselves. Different forms of art are recognized and accepted by some and not others, with the degree of said recognition variable at any given point in time… this includes styles of expression as well as the media employed.
Technology’s progress continues to change cultural expression. Ongoing revolutions in the graphic arts and photography as well as in computers and the digital fields redefine how communications are conveyed and what they mean.
If we accept that art is an individual’s personal expression of and reactions to the surrounding world, can we fairly put restrictions or qualifiers on that expression? I would argue that the tools do not define the end product; I would argue that the artist’s personal statement is just that, personal. I would argue that any original thing, that is unlike any other thing, is a creation born of imagination.
Is photography ART?? Because it may be precisely representational, ie. photo-realistic, does that make it non-Art? Most people would agree that innumerable photographs are true works of art, so where do we draw the line? Do they become Art only when the photographer gains a wide-enough reputation to be considered successful?
I feel that the reactions of the beholder– together with the passion felt, the originality of approach, and the satisfaction gained by the creator– are one set of standards by which to gauge the value of a work of art. My definition of art is very broad. We could discuss where to draw the line between crafts and art constructs. I would ask, why does there have to be a line at all?
A portrait artwork is particularly personal and specialized, being more personal to certain viewers (the subjects and the client) than it is even to the artist who creates it. If this portrait happens to be photo-realistic or expressionistic or abstract or somewhere in between, yet elicits emotional response from its viewer, is it successful in achieving some of its purposes?
Is it less than Art because pigment was not applied by hand, or because it has actual photographic characteristics, which might be termed a true likeness? If pigment IS applied by hand on top of the digital canvas, does that make it Art?
Or could one say that the life and expression of the originating photograph has been amplified and augmented, that distracting areas of the originating photo have been subdued or removed or transformed into complimentary elements? Has the essence of the subject has been portrayed?
Have areas of darks and lights and color been used to a purpose– ie. is there an effective composition– serving to attract, direct and focus the attention of the viewer? Is the creation more expressive than the originating photograph, or equally expressive in a different sort of way? Is it more interesting in some ways or more pleasing to view than a photograph? Does it speak more to the viewer?
Are the above results, when attained, so different from copying from life, or hand-painting from a photo, or using aids to hand-painting such as drawing out a grid (which artists have done over the ages), or using a projector to assist sketching and achieving likenesses?
Are these end results reached by use of a skilled hand guided by an artistic eye? Does it really matter what kinds of tools are used?
PLEASE add your comments!
__________________
Connie Moses, petArtist– self-built website: PortraitsWithHorses.com
(horse and pet portraits)
free web monitoring
Site monitoring/notice when down is highly useful and recommended to do; if nothing else, it gives you feedback on your host server’s reliability. (I have not tried out these guys but I do use a site monitor…)
Free Web Monitoring, found thru Site Pro News–
_________________
Connie Moses, petArtist– self-built website: PortraitsWithHorses.com
(horse and pet portraits)
site pro SEO news feed
Articles on Search Engine Optimization strategies, updated often, including blogging tips…
(If this doesn’t fit properly on your screen, just click the SitePro/SEOnews logo to go to the source— it’s almost always worth reading!)
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Connie Moses– Blog: petArtistWithPeaches
website: PortraitsWithHorses.com (horse and pet portraits)
12.21.06
DMOZ near death web history
A concise and very informative overview of web and search engine development over the years, by Jim Hedger for SEO News– (Archives, 2006, December 21, Issue #149)
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Connie Moses, petArtist– website since 2001:
PortraitsWithPets.com (homepage) aka PortraitsWithHorses.com (art galleries)
