I have to inform all blog readers that I will be on my vacations from 30.7.2008 to 14.8.2008. During that period there will be no posts.

Hope you will visit my blog when I get back.

My regards, Goldmoney

Read More...

Debt reduction may be defined as any process, which helps debtors to reduce their debt burden. The debt reduction process may include debt settlement, debt solutions, debt relief as well as any method, which is an alternative to declaring bankruptcy. Debt consolidation programs are of immense help when debt reduction is called for.

Debt reduction may be effected in any one of the following ways.

Debt consolidation loans

Debt consolidation loans allow a debtor to compile all his debt accounts into one single loan and become debt free in just one single payment. In this case, the debtor has to deal with only one creditor.

Self repayment plan

Under the self repayment plan, individuals can put in effort to repair his credit score. The various ways in, which he may do, so are mentioned below.

• A debtor having multiple debt accounts should not take any more loans unless it is very essential.
• From time to time an individual should evaluate his financial position and work out an expenditure plan accordingly.
• These days, there are plenty of options for investments and savings. An individual should consider saving some money and look out for such opportunities.
• An individual should have a fairly good knowledge of the debt accounts he is dealing with. He should also have sound knowledge on investment and saving options.
• The credit card companies put in all effort to sell their products to as many customers as possible. They may offer schemes, which may appear to be very economical but they may have many hidden costs. So one should be alert.
• Last but not the least one should try his best to make payments as per the schedule no matter what it takes. He may have to compromise on a dress or a weekend party to pay up but that is more essential.
• An individual may monitor his spending habits from time to time. A little introspection is not harmful.
  

Debt consolidation programs

Debt consolidation programs help in paying off ones debts in one single payment and at a lower amount. Debt consolidation programs have helped many to regain their peace of mind and lead a debt free life.

Debt settlement

Debt settlement allows debtors to become debt free. They do not have to pay the entire unpaid amount and can negotiate with the creditors to lower the payments by as much as 40% to 60% of the unpaid or outstanding amount. This may be done either by contacting creditors directly or by hiring the services of a debt consolidation agency that will negotiate on behalf of the debtor.

Benefits of becoming debt free with the help of a debt reduction program:

There are many benefits of availing debt reduction programs. Some of the benefits are enumerated below:

• One has the facility of making lower payments
• Can avail of lower rates of interest
• Avoid harassment and abusive behavior of the collections agents.
• Wind up the debt account in one single payment.
• Get out of debt.
  

Debt reduction calculators:

A debt reduction calculator is used to find out how much money a debtor is required to pay to the creditors every month.

Authors’ Bio:

Jason Holmes has authored many articles addressing various problems related to debt consolidation. Her articles may also be viewed at Debt Consolidation Care Community. Some of her articles include debt reduction, debt solutions, debt relief.

Read More...

WidgetBucks is expanding its cost-per-click (CPC) network, giving publishers and bloggers two ways to earn revenue from their Western European traffic. The expansion begins today in the United Kingdom, with Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Belgium coming online over the next two weeks.

When publishers serve WidgetBucks ad widgets on their sites, users based in the UK (for example) will now see a short-duration CPM display ad followed by a CPC shopping widget featuring UK-based merchants and products, listed in British pounds. The CPM-CPC hybrid gives publishers two revenue streams from the same ad widget instance. Before today, only CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) ads were served to visitors outside the U.S. and Canada.

From a reporting standpoint, this CPC expansion is seamless. In addition to current CPM impressions, additional impressions will simply and automatically be tallied into CPC roll-up and daily totals, as well as resulting revenue. At this time, we are not breaking out by-country CPC impressions and earnings.

This is good news for all money makers and I hope WidgetBucks will gain its popularity back!!!

Read More...

Search Engine Optimization companies have been around as long as there have been search engines. In the early days, I ignored SEO contests as a tasteless attempt to spam up the search engines, especially when I saw target search terms such as: nigritude ultramarine, seraphim proudleduck, and v7ndotcom elursrebmem. But, my initial attitudes towards SEO contests have changed.

The first SEO contest was the nigritude ultramarine competition, and it offered an iPod as the grand prize for the contest. That contest was actually offered by the Search Guild at: http://www.searchguild.com/tpage10157-0.html This contest ran for 60 days. At the end of the competition, whichever websites held the top two listings in the Google search results, for the target keyword phrase, would win the top two prizes.

The conceptual purpose of the SEO contest is to bring the sharpest minds in search optimization to the table and give them a chance to prove themselves on a level playing field against their top competitors. At the end of the contest, most contest sponsors ask the winners to share some of their secrets for success. By design, it will produce two outcomes: those who really know their stuff get to shine in a public spotlight, and it may help industry practitioners improve their technique.

All was happy in the SEO community, until they saw the v7ndotcom elursrebmem contest, which was offering cash prizes. Many people felt that the sponsor of that campaign acted in poor taste when he admitted that he was putting up the money for the contest, on the premise of actually driving link popularity to his own website. Read more about that controversy here: http://www.seroundtable.com/urlrchives/003044.html

These days, it does not seem to be such a bad thing for people to sponsor SEO contests that help pass link popularity back to their own websites. In fact, the practice seems to be pretty commonplace. Personally, I don't see it as a bad thing really, since the person putting up the money for the contest is seldom a person with the simplest of altruistic motives.

While the Search Guild was no slouch, I did not actually pay attention to SEO contests, until which time I had seen that http://www.searchenginejournal.com was playing the game. All of a sudden, I started paying attention.

I searched the target keyword phrase in Google and realized that the contest was so new that only fifty web pages were competing at that time. One of the top ranking posts was one made by the Search Engine Journal, so I read their post. I had been expecting them to be slamming the practice, but I realized that they were playing the game along with everyone else.

Of course, I have an axe of my own to grind. I have told people for years that if they used article marketing smartly, then they could successfully utilize article marketing to influence Google, Yahoo and MSN's search listing for specific keywords. For a time, I had even operated a SEO link building service at http://www.linksandtraffic.com for the purpose of selling folks a service that enabled them to get the same kind of ranking value I was getting for my own websites.

Links and Traffic was a successful enterprise until which time Google's Matt Cutts started to question paid links and to inform the Internet marketing community that paid links were a big no-no in Google's search algorithms. But, customers never really understood that Google views links derived from article marketing differently, than links purchased on high PageRank pages, solely for the purpose of buying PageRank value.

I left Links and Traffic in place, but I took my own link building services off the table, until which time the marketplace began to understand that links derived from article marketing were different from links that were outright purchased. If I were to tell you how many inbound links I have successfully derived from article marketing for my websites (as evidenced in my Google Webmaster Tools console: http://www.google.com/webmasters), you would fall over.

So, I had my own axe to grind. I saw the Blackhat Fish contest (http://urlrticle-blog.thephantomwriters.com/whitehat-vs-blackhat-fish-for-links-or-die-trying/2008/06/10/) to be a perfect opportunity to showcase how I actually practice what I preach, and deliver what I promise by moving my websites up in the search results for my target keywords, utilizing article marketing as a primary tool in my SEO arsenal and SEO philosophy.

We are still a couple of weeks from the conclusion of this particular contest, and my full rollout is still in progress, but I am bouncing between page one and page two of Google's search results, against what is at this time 233,000 results for this keyword phrase in Google (http://www.google.com/search?q=blackhat+fish).

If you fancy yourself to be good at search engine optimization, or if you are like me and you want to test your own skills against the big boys, then bookmark the following website (http://www.seocontests.info) and visit often enough to keep up on what is going on in the SEO contest world. Of course, not all SEO contests get posted on this website, so keep an eye to the various forums as well, to catch the news of upcoming and current SEO contests.

Wouldn't it be so cool if we the people could outrank the professionals in a few of these SEO contests? I don't actually think I will win this competition, but it would be more than awesome if at the end of this contest, I was sitting on page one of the search results, while all of the pro's are sitting scratching their heads as to how they were outperformed by a person they have so many times referred to as an amateur.

At the end of the day, it really does not matter to me if I win this competition or if I gain the respect of my peers. What matters to me is that I know how I can help my websites win in the search ranking game, for the keywords that matter to my business and my bottom line. In the long run, I will make much more money selling my products and services, than I ever will make winning a single SEO contest.

Read More...

Webmasters are given the advice that they must attract links, but the key is not just to attract links... they need to attract good links. But what is the perfect link? The search for the perfect link need not be a quest in vain. Consider the following when attempting to attract links...

• Related

The best links should come from related websites which contain similar and related content, but not the same type of material or content. For example: A link for baby clothing would benefit from a link that discusses baby care.

• Anchor

The anchor text (the "text" that is used in the link) should include keywords that relate to the topic covered on the web page that is being linked to. Anchor text should be varied; links that all have the same anchor text will appear manipulated and contrived to the search engines. Therefore, the text links should contain a variety of related words.

• Deep Link

The links should direct visitors to a related page within the website. Do not make the mistake of directing all of the web links to a website's home page. Deep linking, and directing visitors to material that corresponds to content that is closely related to the text link is key. Deep linking appears more natural to search engines, whereas links directing all visitors to a single page or the home page seem unnatural, and could be interpreted as an effort to manipulate search engine ranking.

• Domain And Page Authority

Search engines trust some websites more than others. Links from "authority" websites have more weight than links from lesser-known websites. Google is said to use PageRank as an indicator of authority. Keep in mind that PageRank is not the only factor used to determine a website's authority. Authority websites should still relate to the website it is pointing to.

• Nix NoFollow

Links should not contain the NoFollow command. The NoFollow command directs search engines to not "follow" the link. If a link contains "NoFollow" there is no search engine benefit from the link; the only benefit to having the link is any organic traffic that results if the link is clicked. As a result, NoFollow links are nearly worthless.

• Mix It Up

Links should come from a variety of sources. Fewer links from a larger number of websites will generally "weigh" more than a large number of links from a small number of websites.

• Surrounding Text

Some search experts claim that the text surrounding a link can influence ranking. Whether this is true or not is difficult to determine. It is more likely that links containing surrounding text are more likely to be relevant, and as a result those links tend to be worth more.

• Link Position

The location of the link on the page can also influence the value of the link. Some search experts claim that footer links carry less value than links which are integrated into the actual web page content.

• Type of Link

There does not appear to be a difference between a "text" link's value and an "image" link's value, if the image link contains ALT text. The search engines use the image ALT text in the same way they use the anchor text of a text link.

• Number Of Outbound Links

A page with fewer links is better than a page with a large number of links. This is because a webpage passes along what is referred to as "link juice". The more "link juice" passed along, the more valuable the link is. The link juice is divided up over all the links on a webpage, so popular websites with few outgoing links are more valuable than those with a large number of links.

• Link Age

Search engine critics cannot seem to agree as to whether older links or newer links carry more value. When information is vague, it is best to garner both aged links and new links to websites.

• Vintage Domain

The age of the domain is said to influence link power. More than likely the age of the domain simply contributes to the trustworthiness of the website, and links from trusted websites tend to have more value.

• One Way Links

Links that are not reciprocal carry more weight than those which are simply link-for-link exchanges.

• Page Content

A web page that is mostly just a list of links has less value than a web page that contains a mixture of links and content.

• Updated Pages

Web pages that are updated frequently will typically be spidered by search engines on a more frequent basis. The update will not influence the power of the link, but it will mean that the link will be picked up more quickly by the search engines.

• Link Surges

Webmasters should be encouraged to gradually build links over time, rather than all at once. The gradual increase is more natural and will have a stronger impact on organic search rankings.

The quest for the perfect link can be frustrating and elusive, but the fact is: the perfect link is logical, appears natural, and grows over time. Best of luck in your attempt to find the perfect link.

Read More...