admin Hello from California

This past and next week I’m on vacation in California. Everywhere I go I can’t help but to notice bicycle facilities, but who can blame me when they’re as inspiring as the Berkeley Bicycle Boulevards?

South Lake Tahoe Bicycle FacilitiesOn an…


Bloggers use Technorati to look for stories to write about

Written on August 28, 2008 – 2:51 pm | by admin |

Internet search allows you to retrieve information at lightning speed. Although search engines such as Google and Yahoo are the most common forms of search sites, there are many Web sites that specialize in organizing very specific types of Web sites rather than trying to index the entire Internet.

Getting your site exposure on these moretargeted search engines can send extra traffic or allow you to target a niche that may be too competitive to rank for in the major search engines. Technorati is a popular search engine for searching blogs. If you can get your blog to rank well on Technorati, you can gain considerable exposure and traffic.

Moreover, other bloggers use Technorati to look for stories to write about. In this way, getting your blog ranked on Technorati can be used as an effective link-building strategy. Del.icio.us is a popular social bookmarking Web site that allows users to share the sites that they visit most frequently and allows other users to gauge which sites on the Internet are most popular. Many users like to browse the bookmarks of other people with similar tastes, so showing up on these lists is essential to your success.

Be sure to build out your own del.icio.us profile and become part of the community. Google Images is a popular service for searching images. Getting Google Images to index your images can potentially lead to significant traffic, especially because Google recently began to show their image results at the top of their regular organic listings.

If you sell products, chances are you can benefit from having your products listed in shopping search engines, such as Shopping.com, Shopzilla, and Shogging.com. Shopping search engines accept product feeds from online retailers and allow users to search and sort these lists by various criteria.

Keep in mind that most shopping search engines require you to pay them on a cost-per-click or cost-peraction basis. Whether potential customers find your products on auction services such as eBay and classified services such as Craigslist greatly depends on whether your listings are optimized for the eBay and Craigslist search engines. Your title and description for both services should include keywords that someone looking for your product is most likely to use. Moreover, you should include text to describe each of the images you use to promote your products.

Affordable web hosting is the goal

Written on August 28, 2008 – 2:44 pm | by admin |

When searching for a web host - affordable web hosting is the goal, but it is also important that you choose the plan that best suits your needs. Affordable web hosting is easy to find if you know what you want in web hosting and you compare the prices of a web host and many of their competitors.

Affordable web hosting is wonderful, but only if you are getting all of the qualities that you need from your web host. Another important consideration in choosing an affordable web hosting is the customer support services.

You can get a lot of help from webhosting rating websites. One of the best in this niche is webhostingrating.com.

They have a Top 10 list for:

  • Unix Hosting
  • Windows Hosting
  • Reseller Hosting
  • VPS Hosting
  • Dedicated Hosting
  • Collocation Hosting
  • Managed Hosting

They also have a great web hosting related articles section. You can learn a lot of stuff from tehre.

So, for all your web hosting needs go and visit webhostingrating.com!

Writing original content is the most obvious way to avoid duplicate content

Written on August 28, 2008 – 2:36 pm | by admin |

Creating well-written, original content is absolutely critical to your long-term search-engine-optimization success. Content is what visitors use to determine value and one of the primary factors that search engines use to rank your Web site. Whether your Web site ends up on the first page or the one-hundredth page of Google largely depends on the quality and relevance of your content. Although you should keep SEO principles in mind when you create content, the key to building long-term ranking on search engines is to write content for people, not search engines.

Content that is original and naturally flowing provides your readers with a positive, enjoyable user experience and greatly improves your chances of top searchengine rankings. Avoid writing content solely for searchengine- optimization purposes and you can greatly increase your likelihood of long-term SEO success.

When you write content, you must avoid duplicate content. Duplicate content occurs when your Web site contains content that already exists on the World Wide Web. Duplicate content issues can have a detrimental effect on your SEO success and should be avoided at all costs.


Read the rest of this entry »

Creating a community such as a blog or forum

Written on August 25, 2008 – 2:45 pm | by admin |

Creating a community such as a blog or forum on your Web site is one of the most effective ways to keep your content fresh, while helping to establish your site as an authority for your given area of business. Search engines such as Google favor Web sites with fresh content over similarly authoritative Web sites that do not update content as often. Starting a community is easy and inexpensive.

A clear benefit of creating a community on your Web site is the fact that communities promote interaction and content creation among your users. User-generated content from blogs and forums is a great way to build a reputation as an authority and provides you with opportunities to gain additional, unanticipated search-engine rankings. A blog is an online journal or diary that is frequently updated by an author and typically allows readers to interact by providing comments after each blog is published.

Regardless of what kind of Web site you own, having a blog is a good idea. First, a blog provides clear search-engine-optimization benefits through controlled content creation and usergenerated content via user comments. Second, a blog helps to establish you as an expert.

 As an expert, other Web sites will link to your content, which helps to improve your search-engine ranking. Third, blogs are sticky. In other words, your users will want to join your RSS feed and come back to your Web site frequently to check for new content and learn about your products and services.

Blogs are a great tool for communicating special offers and deals to loyal readers, and they allow you to go into detail about specific products that might require detailed explanation. For example, if you are about to launch a new product that includes a new, revolutionary way of doing something, a blog allows you to make the case for the benefits and usefulness of the product versus oldergeneration products. Unlike a blog, a community forum is a discussion board where members and forum moderators interact by posting questions and answers and discussing common problems.

A forum encourages your visitors to return again and again by allowing interaction and information sharing. Because forums are ultimately message boards where people ask and answer questions, a forum can provide a great place to refer a customer who has a question that may be shared by other members of the community.

If a visitor has a question about the durability of a particular product or is unsure about one product over another, a forum provides a venue to get feedback and to generate interest in your products. Having a forum on your Web site allows you to understand more about your visitors by reading the conversations and discussions between them. You can use this type of information to minimize demand placed on your customer service by addressing a customer concern before it spreads.

Additionally, you can use a forum to ask your customers about what products they want that you do not currently have. Regardless of whether it is good or bad, consumer feedback can be invaluable and can help you market your products or services more effectively. Keep in mind that a forum on your Web site does not solely have to be about promoting your products and services. Equally valuable is the information that you can get from your customers to improve your overall Web site initiatives.

Want something special for your big day?

Written on August 20, 2008 – 10:46 pm | by admin |

Picking your wedding invitations will be one of the most interesting things that you do for your big day. You will want them special and stylish as they announce your big day to friends and relatives all over the world.

1st-class-wedding-invitations.com is one of the best websites offering wedding invitations. They offer the finest selection of wedding invitations and service available.

on their homepage you have to click on the “browse invitations” button, then you’ll be forwarded to the page where you can search all their wedding invitations: by theme, by color or by paper type.

Let’s have an example: I want a green floral wedding invitation. I clicked on “floral” under the “Invitations by theme” tab and on “green” under the “Invitations by color” tab. The search returned two results:

  • Green Flowers In Relief Floral Wedding Invitation
  • Light Green Scallop Vellum Wedding Invitation

If I click on the 2nd one, the website makes available for me a nice description. They also provide a ZOOM feature! This will allow people to see the quality of their  wedding invitations in great detail. This is something no other wedding invitation site has.

You can request a sample or continue and add to your cart this awesome wedding invitation.

Visit 1st-class-wedding-invitations.com today!

PS: The mirror effect was created my be. :)

Want to Spend Sixty Hours in Gridlock? Or on a Beach? The Choice is Yours

Written on August 20, 2008 – 10:20 pm | by admin |

An appropriate story for DC’s first CarFree Day: A new study by the Texas Transportation Institute reveals that traffic in the Washington, DC metro area has gotten so bad that we are now tied for second worst commute in the nation.

The Washington Post’s coverage of this study reports that drivers in the top three areas sit in “gridlock for an average of 60 hours a year, equivalent to a week-and-a-half of work - or vacation.”

Some other numbers might make you consider sitting behind the wheel:
Washington area drivers annually sit through “more than 127 million hours of delays at a cost of $1,094 per rush-hour traveler.”
Gas wasted while sitting in traffic: 91 million gallons of fuel.

And a grim assessment of the future of this area if traffic congestion continues to multiply at this rate: “A projected 218 lane miles or 74 million more transit riders would have to be added each year just to maintain current congestion levels.”

For tips on reclaiming your time, money, and eliminating road-rage, check our “how-to” section for ideas on how to go car-free. It might be easier than you think.

Where can I buy a walk in tub?

Written on August 20, 2008 – 10:09 pm | by admin |

Remainactive is an online distributor/seller of walk in tubs for our homes and all assisted living facilities. Remainactive provides complete bathing independence for the handicapped and the elderly.
Remainactive’s walk in tubs are designed and created with confort and luxury in mind.

Their walk in tubs are designed to not only be attractive and confortable but to provide you with the utmost in safety, independence, quality and of coyrse functionality. The objective at Remainactive is to maintain the independence of any person’s bathing experience and to improve your quality of life.

To ensure their customer satisfaction all Remainactive’s walk in tubs are designed using the highest grade fiber glass molds.

Remainactive’s walk in tubs come fully equiped to offer you with the highest level of safety and luxury. Their elegant design will compliment your bathroom while offering a spa type ambiance as well as ensuring your safety.

So if you are asking yourself “where can I buy a walk in tub” You have just come to the right place. Make your purchase with remainactive.

Bike to the Future in China

Written on August 20, 2008 – 8:55 pm | by admin |

Rental Bicycles in BeijingIts a little strange to read about the promotion of bicycle transportation in China. While once heavily reliant on this affordable, clean manor of moving goods and people, China’s throngs of bicycles began to be displaced by motor vehicles during economic expansion.

A friend of mine who recently returned from Beijing and Shanghai lamented that there were far fewer bicycles on the polluted city streets than she expected.

Apparently reversing this trend, there have been a number of heartening developments in China in recent years. Previously we’ve blogged about carfree days in China, air pollution and the Olympics in 2008. This fell into my inbox a couple of days ago: bicycle rental in Beijing.

So its not automated like the smart bikes DC is getting, but they are looking to ambitiously expand their program. So is a Green China on the horizon? Or is it still more talk than walk (or bike in this case)?

CreditLoan searvices are easy to understand and incorporate

Written on August 20, 2008 – 8:46 pm | by admin |

A credit report is a consumer report that contains data about where you work and live and how you pay your bills. It may also show if you have been sued or arrested or have filed for bankruptcy.

Companies called consumer reporting agencies (credit bureaus) create, mentain and sell your credit report to businesses.

Because businesses use this data to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, and other purposes, it is important that the information in your credit report is complete and accurate.

Some financial agents suggest that you periodically review your credit report for inaccuracies or omissions. This could be especially important if you are considering making a major purchase, such as buying a home.

There is a company, CreditLoan (creditloan.com/free-credit-report/) which offers personal loans, credit reports and many other financing options. The good part is that persons with bad credit report are accepted.

Because more than one credit bureau may have a credit report (offered by CreditLoan) or you may want to review your credit report from all three major national credit bureaus, from a service called consumer info.

Visit their website to get access to all data and informations you may need. I’ll give it a try.

You can contact each credit bureau directly to purchase your credit report. Do a search on Google to find their websites, or alternatively call the credit bureaus listed in the yellow pages under credit.

You may also consider using a credit report monitoring service. These services monitor your credit reports ath the major credit bureaus and inform you when there are any significant changes.

CreditLoan was founded on July 30th, 1998 and their purpose is to help people with financial issues.

CreditLoan searvices are easy to understand and incorporate to help you repair your own credit. If you want to learn how to raise your credit score for half the cost and in half the time that an attorney or credit counseling service can do, then check out creditloan.com to get all the information. More in depth articles on this subject cand be found at the following link here: creditloan.com/free-credit-report/.

CarFree Planning Meeting Wednesday

Written on August 19, 2008 – 12:30 pm | by admin |

If you haven’t been to a carfree planning meeting in awhile, or ever, now is a good time to start.
With little over a month left until the CarFree Day(s), there is much to do. There is room for creativity too so please bring any fun ideas you have for the day of September 22, or promotional ideas. Here are some of the things on our carfree plates:

Coordinate Volunteers for September 18 Sticker Distribution
Get More Organizations
Get Canvassing Volunteers - We need many volunteers to help us scour 17th St getting hundreds of signatures starting this weekend
Start collecting Donation Website for Individuals ($1 donations +)
Outreach
Tell Everyone you Know
Find GoGo drummers/strolling minstrels
Organize e-cycling
promote clothing swap

questions? ideas? don’t hesitate to get in touch: planning@carfreedc.info

About CarFreeDC

Carfree Day is a lesson in options. Carfree Day is not anti-car, and there are no political strings attached. We acknowledge that gasoline engines currently are still needed in our society; however, we also believe that our citizens do not need to chain themselves to a single transportation philosophy. Carfree Day prompts us to think outside the lanes and curbs that conduct our movement and to explore other varied and efficient ways to see our city. You may find a new mode of transportation that fits better in a facet of your life, or you may not. The important thing is to be aware that the options are available, and that you are free to choose.

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