This is full of awesome.
This is literally a “church signs” debate, being played out in a southern town, between the Catholic church and a Presbyterian church that face each other across the street. From top to bottom, you will see the response and counter-response over time.
Thanks, Justa, for this awesome email.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=c9748c38-b813-4d47-8a0b-acda00d89927 "Dueling Church Signs")
Anyone looking for information on Vacations in Mexico AND Flu Pandemic? LOL. EPIC AD FAIL.
I have been blogging for a few years now, and would like to share a few tips on why some of my previous blogs have failed.
This is one of the hardest hurdles to overcome. No matter which niche your blog covers, if your content is poorly written or off-topic you will have trouble retaining readership. The best content is original content. Don’t be afraid to venture out and speak your mind. Often the most popular blog topics are some of the most controversial.
Back-Linking is essential to the success of your blog. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to get your URL out there. I have found great success in posting on niche-related forums that are directly related to my article. One thing you can do is build up your ‘reputation’ on the board before you actually push anything. Participate in discussions pertinent to your blogs categories/tags/posts and subtle link in your signature. A banner signature is often very effective as well.
What’s the point of having an RSS feed if you don’t advertise it? I’d guess that 90% of all stock WordPress templates have the RSS link all the way down in the footer. I’d recommend adding an RSS icon somewhere ‘above the fold.’ It does not hurt to add RSS links near the comment sections for following conversations.
Limit your monetary efforts to 1-2 ad blocks per sub-page. I find that anymore than 3 separate ad zones is enough to drive your pages-per-visit stats through the floor. Not only does this slow down your site, but it creates a great deal of user confusion when trying to determine which block is an AD and which is actual content. Don’t try to trick your users into clicking on ads, but rather give them the option to explore your sponsors as they please.
I launched a blog (which is no longer alive) that I updated about 10-20 times a day. It was great for search engine indexing, however my returning visitors dwindled due mainly to the saturation of content. I’d recommend not updating more than 2-3 times a day.
You must stay current with your article topics. This is not to say that an old article you post won’t be ‘revived’ by a surge of interest down the line. I have had 6 month old posts skyrocket due to the topic being mentioned in either the newspapers or on TV. The faster you can get your ‘hot’ article out, the larger your initial traffic gain will be.
Nobody will even look twice at your blog if it looks like it was designed 10 years ago. Unless you’re going for an uber-retro look-and-feel, you’ll want to stay current with the trends of typography, color theroy, and design. “The Web 2.0” design style of soft gradients, clean typography and ample use of whitespace are becoming old-hat. Try something experimental! A perfect example of post-Web 2.0 return to simplicity would be Twitter.
If you’re just getting started, you can easily get away with a cheap, virtual shared host. The catch is that you will inevitably outgrow your server, and be hit with rediculous overage fees. You can easily save on bandwidth by hosting images and videos elsewhere, but your blog’s ‘code’ traffic will add up quickly. Make sure you go with a host that will allow you to grow as your readership grows. Monitor your site’s transfer usage closely to anticipate the upgrade before you are denied service due to an overage.
The most popular integration surfacing lately is the ability for users to “Sign in with Facebook.” Also known as Facebook Connect, this simple API give your blog access to the millions of already registered facebook users. Anything that makes your blog easier to subscribe to is a sure fire way to increase readership and return visits. Also, you’re going to want to use Sociable, a tool that automatically generates icons with links to post your article’s permalink to Digg, Technorati, StumbleUpon, Reddit, ect..
This is the real meat-and-potatoes of any successful website. Careful coordination of your keywords, title, and h1,h2,h3 tags can yeild an egnormous amount of traffic. This is an ever-changing artform that requires constant research, tweaking, and statistical analysis. Using Google Analytics to hone in on your most effective content is the best way to verify your SEO work.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=745f42ef-34eb-4e24-8638-e7a3c60d417b "Top 10 Reasons Why Blogs Fail")
Here in Los Angeles, we’ve been having an extremely high amount of seismic activity. I’ve experienced several earthquakes of multiple magnitudes within the past 2 years and have begun to take an interest in the theroies and predictions of scientests and internet wackjobs alike. Here is one persons prediction for the next ‘Big One’.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=202adeca-6d79-4291-ac98-b29ad736c6a1 "California Earthquake Prediction For September 18, 2009")
One thing that many of you may or may not have noticed is, that I HATE MICROMANAGING. This video does a great job of explaining how to be a micromanaging asshole like many of the people I have worked for in the past. I see several of my bosses past in this video. Enjoy.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f341dd82-6707-4868-b5bd-290e2e9b120c "Micromanaging")
National Graphic has recently published two posts about new discoveries in the search for the missing link in evolution. The first of which is a skull fragment that was found in Ethiopia, Africa. It is suggested by scientest that this skull is at most 500,000 years old. Allthough the skull was missing most of the jaw, it was remarkably in tact compared to previously excavated artifacts.
“[This skull] shows the continuity of the evolutionary record, so in that sense it is a link [between Homo erectus and modern humans],” said Scott Simpson, a paleontologist from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. [source National Geographic]
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The second discovery is a suspected 47 million year old fossil othat has now been dubbed, Ida. Interesting anatomical features to note include the grasping hands with opposable thumbs.
“[Ida] is one of the important branching points on the evolutionary tree,” Richmond said, “but it’s not the only branching point.”
At least one aspect of Ida is unquestionably unique: her incredible preservation, unheard of in specimens from the Eocene era, when early primates underwent a period of rapid evolution. (Explore a prehistoric time line.)
“From this time period there are very few fossils, and they tend to be an isolated tooth here or maybe a tailbone there,” Richmond explained. “So you can’t say a whole lot of what that [type of fossil] represents in terms of evolutionary history or biology.”[source]
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=db1b3703-9734-484a-91d7-a7878c8dc99c "Missing Link Found")
It looks like Japan is next to fall in the Swine Flu pandemic. This is What Is Wrong With The World Today.
“Japan is definitely having human-to-human transmission,” Oshitani said yesterday in a telephone interview. “The WHO will have to take the Japanese cases into consideration when deciding whether to raise the pandemic alert.”
Margaret Chan, the WHO’s director-general, and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon are scheduled to broker an accord with executives from drugmakers such as Sanofi-Aventis SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc in Geneva today to ensure developing countries can gain access to pandemic vaccines.
The outbreak worldwide extended to 8,829 infections in 40 nations as health officials from more than 190 countries began a meeting yesterday of the World Health Assembly in Geneva to debate whether swine flu is spreading widely enough to upgrade the threat to level 6, and declare it the first pandemic since 1968.
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In recent news, we’re all fucked.
But that leaves parents confused and frustrated. Those whose schools remain open may fear that their children are in danger, and those with healthy children whose schools close may feel that officials have overreacted, burdening them with day-care costs and denying their young ones an education.
Even guidance from the top is ambivalent.[NY Times]