Link Building Mistakes that Most People Do



Optimizing you website for visitors and search engines as well takes a lot of effort but it creates better results in return. That's why, you have to do it properly and if you can, you have to ask for some supervision from an SEO expert. Well, there are many SEO companies that offer services in this field and you won't have any problems in finding one. However, you have to make sure that it's worth every penny. After this, you have to make a diverse portfolio - one way incoming links, to help you progress in your targeted traffic. This is where link building comes in - a simple process and a challenge to accomplish. It's very important that you take a white hat approach in this field. This means, no link exchanges, farms, spamming blogs, cloaked text, and so on.

There are many things that you can do to avoid these things, but the problem is - you could still mishandle your link building campaign even if you're avoiding any black hat strategies. In fact, there are popular mistakes that are usually done by people and here are some that you should know about.

One Keyword Only
Do you think that people around the world search for the same thing in the same way? Actually, this doesn't really happen. In fact, there are many variations on how people search for something from the web so you have to understand how this thing works. Well, people may have used the same terms but they're actually different in terms of organization. If you apply this idea on your website, you must apply it in your link building campaign as well.

You might want to incorporate a mix of anchor text keywords to keep your link building diverse. Otherwise, search engines might think that you're just trying to spam them. Aside from using a primary keyword, it is best that you use branded keywords as well as secondary keywords in your campaign.

Linking to your Homepage Only
Of course, you want your homepage to be the landing page. However, it doesn't mean that it must be the only page that you should build up links to. It's really good if you can build up links to your product and services as well. Build up quality links to your internal page to provide more value to visitors.

Most of the time, people tend to be overwhelmed by your homepage and take off once they saw it - without actually browsing your product and services. This greatly affects your brand recognition, failing to incorporate your brand to your link building campaign. If you build quality links for your internal pages, you might let visitors stay on your page a little longer than expected. With a good internal linking system, it will contribute to the trust factor of all pages in your website - increasing your online brand presence. Always remember that linking to internal pages helps in distributing the link juice evenly.

Going After Every Link Sources
You're very familiar with this line - Quality over Quantity. It does apply in your link building campaign since it greatly affects the kind of audience you get from your website. It is true that more links to your website is great, but the question is - are the links valuable enough for your website? For example, you have a website dedicated for furniture but you end up building a quality link from a website about food. Just because you can build quality links from a website, it doesn't mean that you can always do it. Always remember that you have to make a valuable connection from website to website and this is not a good example of a good link building strategy. You have to make sure that to links are going to provide value for your company by inviting your target audience, not the other way around. It's really better to have fewer quality links that will actually help drive targeted traffic than thousands of links on off-topic sites that won't help you at all.

These things are going to help you a lot in your link building campaign and it’s great that you follow the rules. That way, you won't have to start from scratch from having different audiences for your website and invisible brand on the web. There are many things that you can do to accomplish your target web traffic - you just have to avoid mistakes that might bring you down in the long run.




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Viral Marketing and Campaigns



When we talk about a virus, it’s something that creeps up to your computer system and multiplies in seconds. The next time you open your computer, it’s already filled up with something that makes everything crash. When you incorporate this idea in marketing, it’s a very powerful tool that makes everything possible. From making lots of profit and being popular in online communities, you will be able to get a lot of benefits using viral marketing. So, what is viral marketing and how do you incorporate it to your business?

♠ Viral Marketing
It’s a very powerful marketing strategy that compels customers to give or pass advertising materials to their friends, family members, and colleagues. It multiplies fast and it’s an efficient way of promoting anything – brands, products, idea, and services. It provides something that people can use for free and in return, they have to promote products or brands to other people. Good examples of a viral marketing campaign are brands that offer free email service that can only be signed up for an invitation only. That way, more and more people will have to forward and receive email invitations containing the brand.

When you do a viral marketing campaign, it will put your name or brand on a great place in the industry. Videos are often used since it allows people to input the idea on a detailed way at a fast pace. Once it become viral, it will multiply in millions in days of web exposure. Most of the time, viral marketing campaigns are planned. Sometimes, web campaigns happen by accident. 

♠ Good Examples of a Viral Campaign

Quality
The use of great technology and nice editing offers a great experience to the viewers. It is also ideal that the video isn’t shaky and the audio is clear. The best thing is – you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars to create a nice and informative video for your business. With the technology nowadays, lighting equipments and high-def cameras isn’t that expensive anymore. 

♦ Consistency
YouTube is a great place to start your viral marketing campaign. Always remember to be consistent to make people come back over and over again. This is done by producing not only one, but multiple videos about your product, brand, or services. Keep the production continuous – providing unique contexts, to build up loyal followers on the web.

♦ Brand
Building a brand on a web channel is quite a challenge – butt it will always create a great deal of traffic over time if done right. Incorporate your brand in a smart way; get it working immediately on your videos right from the start.

♠ Optimize Your Viral Marketing Campaign
The highlight of a viral marketing campaign is a great return of investment. You can always spend a thousand bucks for it but the returns can’t be compared to the amount you have spent. Here are some of the things that you can do to optimize your viral marketing campaign.

♦ Incentives
Incentive offers – this is how viral campaigns work the best. It encourages individuals to forward email messages to others. However, you don’t want to have a spam-like distribution so you might want to cap the incentives. Avoid open-ended incentives if you don’t want to end up with problems – financial, customer service, and privacy.

♦ Personalize
It’s all about experience – you don’t really respond to emails without any knowledge about its source. So, you have to make it personalized and make sure that it’s coming from a recognizable source. That way, people who receives emails responds – causing traffic and everything. 

♦ Analyze the Results
As done in any marketing campaign, tracking the result is very important. This will provide information about the results of your campaign – if it’s effective of not. It will also give you an effective tool to broaden the horizon of your campaign over time.

There are still many ways to have an effective marketing strategy that might guarantee positive results over time. Following these steps is very important to jumpstart your viral marketing campaign. Knowing about the advantages and limitations is also necessary to have a solid idea to make it more effective in the future. Check out great examples of a good viral marketing strategy and incorporate it with your own business, brand, product, or services. Knowing the trend and people you want to reach out – their behavior and characteristics, is a good way to start your campaign. Take a look at the things that most people are doing nowadays and provide reasonable incentives along the way.




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Great Ways to Achieve More Facebook Likes




Social networking sites are not only used for communication tools nowadays – it’s already used for marketing. If you have a product or brand that you want to offer and let more people know about it, infusing social networking sites is one of the best moves you can do. In Facebook, you can do it by making a brand page and letting it “liked” by other people. The more “likes” it has, the more popular your brand will become. It is one of the most important factors in making your brand popular but it’s also one that quite a challenge. Of course, you won’t have hundreds of “likes” in a day but it will surely produce great results over time – if done appropriately. 

First, you have to set up a Facebook page that provides information about your brand. It may be a product, service, or idea – you just have to provide the necessary details. Once you have done this part, you can start your journey on acquiring the “likes” for your page. Here are some of the things that you must remember to be successful in this marketing strategy.

Bogus Liking Services
Always remember – Facebook likes happen naturally. You don’t acquire “likes” from people instantly by telling them to do so (unless they are your friends and family). One of the most annoyed scams nowadays involves companies that try to sell merchants more like button hits. Most of these services are bogus - they’re nothing but fake accounts that are set up to look like real profiles. Some of these tricks even take advantage of lured people and take away their money right away. 

You don’t want to do this mistake. Well, it will certainly earn you some money but it will never last long. Once people are aware of your scam, you’re out of the system. It’s always great to play fair and provide information that interests people. It will always create best results in the long run.

Branding Your Business
Building up a huge amount of followers in Facebook will be very hard if you don’t have a brand to incorporate with your website or services. When users follow a Facebook page, they are not really following a website – they follow a certain brand! They make a connection with it and they share it with others. Figure out the best way to connect with your target audience – it may be an emotion, promotion, or discount. You need to find something that will let people connect to it.

Facebook Like Box and Fan Page
Facebook is so useful that you can even infuse its use to your website – by using the Facebook like Box. You just have to let it sit on your website template that will make your visitors hit the button. It’s a great way to create Facebook fans and you can only do it by placing it in a strategic location. Plan your website well and make sure it’s noticeable once people visit your website. With the use of a custom Facebook landing page for your fan site, you can allow your brand to stand out just a little bit more – compared to dropping people off in your wall. 

Give Your Audience a Reason
Why do you “like” a Facebook page? You must ask yourself this question first to understand the things that will allow your target audience to “like” your page. Once you have the idea, you can add some flavor by offering discounts and promos for your latest product or service. You’ll be surprised on how you got a thousand “like” for a single day. Make your page more interesting and create a buzz out of the social networking site. Having a contest is also a great way to improve your fan page. You just have to make an agreement that they can only enter the contest once they have liked your Facebook page. 

FB in Newsletters
The use of newsletters will not only provide information, it will also give you a chance to attract more Facebook followers than ever. You just have to put in your Facebook page and invite recipients to visit it to know more about your latest services. 

Start Writing
Most people surf the internet because they want to see or read something interesting. If you have a blog that interest a lot of people, you can always place your Facebook page in it. Engage in social media by writing interesting stories in your content engine. Once you have achieved a lot of traffic in your blog, your Facebook “likes” does the same. 




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Catering On a Budget



Whatever type of party you decide on, you will have to consider the party catering. Whether it’s a silver-service 3-course meal, a buffet, or a fancy reception with champagne down the lawn, among the biggest bulk of the party budget goes into food and drinks.

The provision of food and drinks during parties can be done in various ways. The couple can decide on hiring a professional caterer, in-house catering service on the venue of the party, or by having it done by a local restaurant. For some on tighter budgets, it may even be more practical to make the party for on their own. Whatever you decide on, you may have to have a lot of decision-making and pondering to do.

If you decide on hiring a party caterer, since there are definitely a lot to choose from these days, it will be important for you to ask them of the service they can provide, if the cost fits your budget, and if the service is reasonable enough with its cost. This is significant especially if you want to have minimum costs within your budget. The party caterer can work on the budget, if you decide, and get out your desires and ideas to them.
However, a lot of brides decide to choose to cater for their own party menus. This is surely a cost-cutting move, as the costs for the catering will surely lessen.

To do this, consider the number of guests on your party. Whether it will be 50 to a hundred, you do not really need to cut down just to lesser catering expenses. Instead, plan for the right party menu. This way, having a bigger number of guests would not be pricey. This is because the type of food that you choose to be served for the party affects the catering expense, regardless if you choose to have either a sit-down menu, or a buffet. For some, it can be a mixture of both types, a combination of sit-down meals for a few guests, then later a buffet meal for the larger number of guests.

To have a sit-down meal is definitely a more costly choice than having buffet meals, although, it can definitely add up to the class and elegance of your party. For sit-down meals, the most of you can make to fit the limited budget is to tri down the guest list. But then, you can actually emit doing that, by having a few guests have the sit-down meal, while others are served with buffet later in the reception.

Chicken and pork are usually the budget-friendly choices, as compared to lamb and beef. Serving them with side dishes such as potatoes with cream, or rice is a good way to bulk out the meal. However for some who does not like the idea of all the guests having to have one meal serving, it will be a good idea to have the waiters serve two different options, and have each of them choose which they would want; or serve them alternately to each guest on the table. They can also exchange plates with some other people in the table, if they wish. This way, you can serve chicken to half of the guests, and beef to others. For your cake, make sure you have some wonderful ideas to incorporate such as an edible cake image to accentuate your cake which you can easily make on your own for cost-cutting.

The choice to have a buffet-style is cheaper. Also, servers and waiters are not needed, thus, cutting down on the cost. But then, you have to remember that as guests get food for themselves, some may tend to get bigger portions of the food. The worse that could happen is running out of food, or spending for the excess on the food and drinks. This can be avoided by having a server on each dish, to give out equal portions of the food to each guest. Many would definitely want a full meal on a buffet-style, but this option can be very expensive. Thus, choosing on limited meat, fish, or vegetable choices; then choosing one among pasta, bread and potatoes, is preferable. Serve plenty of salad and vegetable, as this will keep the guests’ plates full. Generally, guests would want a little bit of everything. It is more likely that guests won’t really get a lot of the few expensive things on the menu, which is a good thing. Choosing the buffet style will still definitely be cheaper than sit-down style, despite the quality of food to be served.

Creating a party menu on a budget is truly all about knowing when to cut back and when to indulge. Using party menu ideas that balance good selections with expense can really help you save some money on the entire party and especially on the party reception.




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Reasons to Write Blog Posts Everyday




Writing content in your blog post has a lot of advantages – it really depends on how you do things. Whether you write about something once or twice a day, it’s always better than doing nothing. Once you have done something, the results will always reflect on how important the contents are to your target audience. The catch is – you don’t have to be a great writer to make people come back to your website over and over again. To be blogger, you don’t have to be an expert – you just have to know how to connect with other people. 

Although blogging does not require you to be an expert writer, you must love and be passionate about writing. Of course, blogging requires a lot of writing and you won’t like it if you’re not very interested about writing. One great thing about blogging is – you improve over time. Once you started writing blogs, you’ll always make better contents over time. Here are some of the things that you must remember when you’re just starting to write blog posts.

 Blogging is all about sharing information and interesting stories for your audience, unless it is a personal blog. If you’re on the business field, you have to understand this issue. One characteristic of a good blog is that it solves problems – you might want to write about something that most people look for. 

 Care for your readers. Always try to help your readers with your content. That way, you can infuse your services or product into your blog posts that will help them and earn profit at the same time. 

 Provide an interesting title. When you browse newspapers, magazines, and blogs, you always come across titles – if you don’t like it and it didn’t gain your interests, you usually skip it (right?). So, you have to make sure that your title creates a buzz and gets the attention of readers. 

 Uniqueness is the key! There are lots of blogs out there and most of the time – they are all similar (in context and layout). You have to make sure that it stands out and creates a different impression compared to other blogs. 

 Lastly, make it easy for readers to scan. Most people nowadays are so busy and you don’t want them to skip your blog posts because they are overwhelmed by it (because of congested patterns and wording). You need to make your blog post well formatted that it’s easy for people to scan it and get the idea immediately. That way, you can make your point easily and let them share it to others.

Being consistent is the key to a successful blog post. If you like to write, you won’t have any problems of writing interesting articles for a day. It will also let your target audience know that you are committed on sharing valuable information. Most people ignore this but there are many reasons why you should write blog posts every single day.  

Fresh Content
Every time you make a fresh content in your blog post, you get the chance of inviting your target audience to visit your website. That’s why, it’s very important to write interesting contents every day. However, you must know that it must be well planned so that readers won’t find it weird to read about something that doesn’t really make sense. Create a plan by putting together a list of bullet points and ideas about the topics that you can write about and will help your audience in some way. 

♦ Page Ranking and Visibility
If you create your blog post correctly and incorporate search engine optimization techniques, the odds of being visible in search engines will become significant. Plus, you will also get the chance to progress in your page ranking. If you have made something interesting, your inbound web traffic will definitely increase over time.  

♦ Social Networking and Communication
Social media marketing and blog posts work together and produce great results if done correctly. If you write blog posts on a daily basis, you get to increase web traffic if you use social networking sites along with it. This is probably one of the best reasons why you should write blog posts every day and you don’t want to fail in this category.

♦ Business Personality and Branding 
Blog posts give your business a voice and personality. As a daily journal for your business, you let your target audience see and read something about your business that’s not really competitive in context. You can allow your business to distance away from competition and stand out. That way, you can also boost your brand into something reputable and known by many people.




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Online Freelancing as a Career



Technology has brought many things that gave comfort to society in many aspects. From entertainment to convenient shopping, many people are taking advantage of computers, mobile phones, and electronic tablets to access the internet. Nowadays, professionals are entering a new way of career opportunities – online careers. More and more people nowadays are earning profit by doing jobs with the use of their skills in the comfort of their own house. They don’t have to wake up early in the morning and do the same thing over and over again – they just have to sit in front of their computer and finish tasks assigned by their employers located in different parts of the globe. But, how can you succeed in this field?


While more and more companies and businessmen are entering the online market, your chance of having an online career is increasing too. If you try to search for online jobs, you’ll notice that there are many websites that offers online careers – it’s not impossible to find one that suits perfectly to your skills and abilities. Once you have found one in your desired pay-grade, you can be very successful as long as you’re honest and professional with your online career.

Looking for an Online Job
Starting with your online job search is quite a challenge (well, it’s the same with applying to a job position in a normal job setting where you compete with others). In addition, there’ll be lots of misleading online job applications that would lead you to a “training program” – not a career opportunity. Here are some of the things that you can do to be successful in searching for an online job.

You have to be careful with websites that offers jobs. Sometimes, you’ll be asked for a lot of information that won’t lead you to the job – do not be fooled! Examine the website carefully and make a background check with previous visitors or clients. If you are asked to pay for application fees and background checks, it’s a big red flag. There are some websites that requires fees but they disclose it prior to your application but it’s really best if you can find one with no charges upon application (these websites actually offer more job opportunities).

Make sure that the job posting makes sense. It’s because some postings aren’t really reasonable (with price ranges that’s very high for the job).

You must take note of the job posting date – is it a current posting or not? Be updated and apply on new job postings on the web. Hooking up with online job alerts is pretty good in having the current and the most updated job postings on the web.

Get to know the employer – If you have seen a job posting on a blog or an anonymous website, go to the source immediately. That way, you will be able to know whether the job posting is legit or a current posting. On top of that, you will be able to know more about the employer and the job requirements.

Lastly, an online application is just the same with a normal job application – you have to tell the truth. Don’t ever make some stuff out of your resume that you don’t really posses. It might get your chances of an online interview higher but it will never give you the chance to earn the position. You might even get into the blacklist of online job websites.

Be a Successful Online Freelancer
A home-based work is really great for people who want to stay in the comfort of their own home with their families. On top of that, you don’t have to go outside and do morning rituals over and over again – riding the bus, subway, 30 minute drive, and so on. Being a successful online worker isn’t really hard, you just have to do the things that the job requires you to do and be good at it. That way, your employer won’t look for somebody else that can do the job better at the same cost. Still, you might want to do these things to progress in your online career.

Follow directions accurately
Be open for comments and suggestions
Be honest and professional with what you do
Allow yourself to learn more skills
Asses yourself and decide whether you deserve to have your pay-grade increased
Have some break (this is really good if you’re so stretched at your current project).
If you’re working, avoid distractions

Although working habits differ in every person, these things are really good to remember. To be a successful online freelancer, you have to know yourself first and discover how you want to play in this field.




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Dealing with Food Addiction




Addictive habits all share general factors from strong desires of one thing, to feelings that lead to uncontrolled actions, sickness and life hazards. Food addicts cravings are in the forms of food items, sugars, flour and fats. These types of food provide fulfillment, they taste mouth watering linked that good feelings. They can conceal emotions which are distressing similar to pain, rage or sadness. Addicts are not able to manage the behavior, physical body starts without thought about repercussions. You will find several types of food addictions; many may be life-threatening if left untreated.

Types
Compulsive eating or binge eating is someone who eats whether or not they are starving or otherwise. This specific eater has a tendency to slim down just to gain more back, with thoughts of cynicism towards themselves, which causes very low self-respect.

Bulimia involves purging; the eater often binges and afterwards purges in an attempt to stop weight gain. In the long run this particular food cravings is deadly because of the outcomes this behavior has on your physical body. Emotions associated with bulimia are despair, mood swings as well as becoming keen about body figure and weight.

Anorexia is the most lethal of those problems, as a type of starvation. The eater is obsessed with preserving a slender physique and sees themselves as over weight even if they are incredibly skinny. Physical behaviours connected with this particular addiction are seclusion, avoidance of nourishment, excessive physical exercise in some cases.

Intervention
Curing food obsession can be done, it takes time and it also needs support, which is intervention. A support staff might help control and eliminate the desires. Intervention can fix the emotional sentiments, it needs time to psychologically know the factors as well as the triggers. As soon as the patterns of tendencies are understood, the healing begins.

This isn’t a straightforward path it’s will be complicated and life transforming. Intervention is going to open up inner thoughts not just from the food addict, but as well the members of the support team. Discussing those thoughts and emotional baggage are of help to the food addict, they have to comprehend the outcomes their particular addictive problems have on the group not just themselves.

A competent interventionist helps you to prepare the mediation, establish the strategy and select the perfect time and setting to intervene. These professionals really are trained and informed about dealing with food dependency, and can prep the assisting individuals for the meeting. In many instances this really is regarding protecting a life, that requires transforming actions, a professional interventionist provides a larger possibility of success.




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Another Untold Story of Butuan



Once upon a time before the Philippines was discovered by Ferdinand Magellan. A beautiful place where mountain hills, river, sea shores and water can be seen in that time. The seashore is at the foot of the mountain and hills.

The early civilization started life in upland and high level above the sea and along river banks. Time passed and due to erosion of the mountain, soils cover the seashores, the plain land grows bigger and wider. The seashores were now far from the mountains as it was used to be.


Agusan River (got its name from the word "AGUS" which means "flow of water") is one of the longest river in the Philippines during that time. The river gently flows in the foot of the mountains. People are using the river as their means of transport and communication. They uses the river for delivering and trade their crops to the mainland. Most people who travel along the river, they always pass a narrow part of the river which they find very difficult to navigate because of a big formation of rock that is blocking the river. Thus, this place was locally know as "PIT-OS" which means "Narrow or Difficult". "Pit-os was then called "Bit-Os".

The civilization in the main land was growing and the place was known to be the Trading Capital of Asia. Many merchants from China and other places brought their products for barter and trading with the natives which also trades goods like gold and their crops.

Sadly, Agusan River happened to be in a volcanic fault line. By the time there was a massive earthquake, the rock formation which was known as "Pit-Os" was shaked and fell down to the river and blocks the narrow creek which most people used as their passage to the main land. Due to the earthquake,  the Agusan River system was rerouted and the old narrow creek was gone. This happened when people heard a loud explosion due to the erosion of the rock formation along the narrow creek known as "Pit-Os".

Because of what happened to "Pit-Os", most of the traders were stranded and cannot find ways back to the sea. Thus, that loud explosion heard was the origin of which Butuan got its name.

During the early part of 1970, many artifacts were found from digged ancient boats at Libertad, the place were most of the traders were stranded during the time when the narrow creek called "Pit-Os" was block due to the explosion cause by a massive earthquake. These boats were called Balangay which happens to be a trademark for Butuan's rich culture and history. 

* The rock formation that block the river during the earthquake was called Bit-Os Moon Rock, this name was given by the person who discovered it, Ramon P. Carampatana. Archaeologists said that the rock was 2 million years in existence.





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Great Ways to Incorporate Internet Search Engines and Social Media Marketing



Marketing strategies is in the midst of development. For the past years, internet search engines have been a vital component of online marketing. Still, search engines are great sources of internet traffic but social networking are also integrated in online marketing nowadays. The best thing about these two forces is that they are not competitive in nature. Instead, you can use these two strategies for marketing to create bigger results.

Information discovery is one problem that both social media and internet engines work on – Most people use Google to find answers; but others use social media to discover ideas they haven’t thought of. Although the differences of the two forces are fading with the release of Google+1 (a social networking site made by Google), how can you use these things in your marketing strategy?

☞ Sharing Applications
It is a common strategy for online marketers to use sharing buttons to increase internet traffic. As a marketer, you need to use these sharing applications that plays an important part not only in social media, but internet search rankings as well.

☞ Search Engine Keywords
This strategy is commonly used in search engine rankings. Earning profit from it has been one of the motivating factors of online marketers. Nowadays, you can already use your keyword strategy in social media too. By infusing keywords in your social media content, you can reach a certain amount of internet traffic. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to flood your tweets with keywords. Of course, be creative about the wording of your social media contents.

☞ Social Profile and Links
The links in most social networking site updates are usually no-follow links. Now, not anymore! You can already take advantage of the extra links in your social media profiles. Your social media profile can also act as an extension of your website. You can incorporate keyword strategies that will contribute to your internet search ranking.

☞ Video and Presentation Links
YouTube is one of the most powerful social media networking sites in the world. With billions of viewers every day, this is a great place for online marketing. If you share interesting videos, you can attach a link to your website and increase traffic easily.

☞ Social Media Links and Reach
If you can make sense out of your keyword strategy, it’s possible to have many followers or fans of your social media account. With this, you can be assured that your internet traffic will be high. Quality content isn’t hard to do but you can always hire someone to write interesting articles for you.

☞ Social Media Relationships
Social networking sites are avenues for online communication and relationships. Doing great in this category will provide opportunities for guest blog contents and link building that usually create a huge inbound traffic.




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What's Your Engagement Dream



engagementI used to believe that all girls have already imagined since they were at least 7 years old how they want to be engaged and then have played with the thought of prince charming and marriage altogether. I am guilty of that, I have played scenarios and dialogues in my imagination that I wonder how many times my boyfriend would propose to me for all my imagined scenarios to come true. But then I have a friend from college who haven't thought of a marriage proposal. I mean, she does want to get engaged and get married but she hasn't imagined how she wants her prince to propose, how she'd say yes, what her ring would look like, etc. That broke my long streak of friends who have imagined where their future husbands would propose at least to those who are like me who already imagined even the whole dialogue at most. How about you?

Are Engagement Stories Important?

I have made up the whole wedding proposal scenario in my head not solely because of how sweet and wonderful it would sound to others when I share the story to them, that is just a bonus. I thought of it because that is how I want it to happen, that is how I prefer things, that is what I think would make me melt like butter. I know from my friends who are already engaged how completely surprised they were how their boyfriends proposed to them. The proposal wasn't that much of a surprise since most of their relationships are more than 3-6 years already, it's how the guys proposed that caught them all off guard. There were things done that made them wonder how the guys did it, where did they get the time to prepare, who helped them and where did they get the ideas. Engagement stories are important for memories, something you can treasure and go back to if you want to feel the joy of that moment that got proposed to. And well yes, something to share with your friends who are all too excited for you and maybe even lend a hand to your boyfriend with the proposal thing.

Got Ring?

The most important thing when proposing: the ring. Depending on the girl's preference, the guy proposing would at least have an idea (or ask the girl's closest friends to help out, that works too) on what ring best suits his girl. It's sweet how guys really take time and exert effort on deciding and looking around for their girl's engagement rings. But if the girl would have to choose she'd probably choose a customized engagement ring, or something with a name like Tiffany, I personally find it more thoughtful if the guy would buy one from what he knows about me, that'll be sweet. Aside from the classic Tiffany choice, David Yurman rings are also a popular choice if you have the budget for it. Just an idea.

The Proposal

How did you imagine your boyfriend to propose to you? Where? When? Do you want it in a restaurant while having dinner? Do you want it just the two of you or with a few close friends? On Valentine's Day, your anniversary or some other special occasion meaningful to both of you? However and whenever the question "will you marry me?" pops out, it will surely be a memorable moment!


Maria Constantine
Written by Maria Constantine:

David Yurman provides a style that is uniquely its own: classic, edgy and modern in one. This is true for all its jewelry lines including its rings. With a consistent theme, it isn’t afraid to explore the possibilities of its philosophy. Find out more about David Yurman Inspired Jewelry here.




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Help Yourself and Your Business with Link Building Virtual Assistants




As a known Search Engine Optimization technique, link building is time consuming in nature. If you decide on doing this yourself, expect a longer time-span regarding your business progress. With the help of an experienced virtual assistant, you can make it easier for you and your business to succeed in creating high internet traffic. 

Link building assistants or simply LVAs are online workers who know the methods of incorporating quality links back to your website. You can always hire someone for other link building methods, but hiring someone who can deliver best and quality results must be your primary concern. Here are some of the advantages of hiring LVAs for your business.

 If you own a business online, creating and managing social media accounts will definitely take most of your time to do other stuffs. Of course, these social networking sites play a big part in your business strategy and failing in this part is not acceptable. There are lots of social media you can use and creating profiles and managing it will definitely be hard. LVAs are great to help you in this field. Now you can work on something else without worrying about updating your profile in popular social internet sites you’re in.

Blogs are very important to make some sense in what you’re selling. It’s a way turn visitors into someone who’ll purchase your products. The best thing about hiring LVAs is you don’t need to do the blog contents yourself. An experienced and creative LVA will be able to provide unique and creative blog posts that Google will love – getting a high page ranking as a result. 

It’s ideal to split the blog posts with your link building virtual assistants. You can write about the marketing side of the blogs and they can focus more on the consumer side. 

 LVAs are good at directory submission strategies. If it blows you off, you can always address this task to your LVAs. Experienced ones already have an idea of the directories to focus on and how to deal with it – takes you away from the trouble and get the best results anyway!

 There are lots of things that you can expect from link building virtual assistants aside from building quality links. Writing posts, blog commenting, and SEO tasks are some of the things that you can count on from LVAs. 

In the long run, tasks for effective marketing will end up with big results. This is because you’ve hired LVAs - aside from increased product sales and high traffic generation, you’ll be able to work on other important stuffs in your business without worries!




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Building Links: The Important Ingredients of Link Juice



Image from Volacci
If you’re quite new to the term, defining “Link Juice” to incorporate link building is a very difficult task. A promising Search Engine Optimization expert – Greg Boser, created the phrase to define the pass-through ratio of your website. There are actually thousands of techniques in SEO that are widely accepted as good practice to improve your page ranking. Link building is one of the most popular and the most effective methods – which is challenging as time-consuming as well. On the other hand, “Link Juice” refers to the benefits and quality of the links created to and from your website.

Search engines view link building as a system for popularity. The more votes you acquire in your website, the more popular you are considered by the algorithm, making your website to top the ranks. If the contents of your links get the attention of many, your website will most probably have more visits. Here are some of the important ingredients in an effective link building campaign.

 Targeting the most appropriate keywords is the foundation of this system. Thus, you will need to have great ideas of the most effective keywords that your prospect consumers will most likely look for in search engines.

 You have to create an engaging and unique page that will prove popular for web browsers who search for useful information. 

 If you’re already done with creating a great page and content, it’s best to link it to relevant sites to gain some more popularity and exposure. You can do it yourself, but it’s also great to have someone to help you with this rigorous task. You can hire a professional from link building companies or you can also hire an experienced link builder from outsourcing websites.

Social networking sites have evolved from a way of communicating with your friends to an effective tool in SEO. Nowadays, you can attach link building in social media too. You can establish yourself as an important source of information where sharing is very important. You can even ask website owners for links to your site that they normally accept if the contents are pretty relevant to their field.

The importance of link building will always be addressed by SEO professionals especially if you use it in your marketing strategy. However, you must be wary of backlinks from irrelevant sources – you might get penalized by search engines such for trying to cheat the system. Be careful in choosing votes for your website and aim for the ones who have a good reputation and high page ranking. Always remember that it’s not practical to create links to and from unpopular or disregarded sites. In addition, search engines are clever enough to detect whether you’ve paid for links in high position – not something ideal to do. 

To boost your ranking in a legit way, placing an immense dose of “Link Juice” is the only way. No matter how clever you are in using inappropriate techniques, search engines will always find the way to chase it – fast! If you’re having a hard time in choosing the best linking services on the web, there are lots of reputable SEO companies that will offer an affordable link building service that ensures great results to businesses like your own. 




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Increase Your Sales with the Use of Internet



Targeted marketing sales will be achieved if you are reaching people who already have the knowledge of what you offer. To do this, you have to use the internet in the most effective way of reaching your target audience and turning them into consumers. You might even double your sales if you were able to deliver quality contents in your website. Still, there are many ways to increase your market sales and here are some ideas to get your target audience out in the open.

  Specialized Forum Websites
These are online communities where people share likes and interests about a specific field or subject matter (pets, cars, places, gadgets etc.). One quick way to increase your sales is to target forums that are related to something you offer such as services or products. You just have to make a good strategy of letting forum members know about the things you offer, how to get it, and how good it is to have it.

  Social Networking Sites
These places contain millions of possible consumers for your services. Thus, it’s also a great place to promote your products and invite possible consumers. Facebook for example, have 750 million members and it’s not impossible to find your target audience. If you tied up your business with your Facebook page, you can easily invite your friends and family to it and see it grow once it has reached your target audience.

Social networking sites are founded in a network concept. That means, once your business has reached your audience, it can easily invite other parties in the website. It will eventually grow into a much bigger concept that even your target audience will be promoting the idea for you.

  The Viral Sensation
If you have a creative video of your products, why not upload it on video streaming sites? A video site such as YouTube is very useful in distributing viral contents on the web (such as very funny shorts and clips you often see on Facebook). That’s right! You can even tie up YouTube in social media which is a great tool for online marketing.

The best thing about videos is that it explains ideas and concepts in a very efficient and effective way. For people who don’t like reading, video marketing strategy is the best to use. If someone liked your presentation, the information and link you attached in the video will surely create instant traffic for your site.

  Write Ups
Most internet users are readers. Writing unique and creative articles about your products is also great to increase sales. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to make it a ‘hard sell’. Of course, creating informative content is better to make people interested about what you have to offer. You can distribute it to article directories or even newspapers to reach a larger number of audiences.

  Pay Per Click
Getting 1000 new buyers tomorrow isn’t impossible with Pay per Click advertising – a form of advertising where you pay for performance. This means that you only have to pay with the advertising if someone has visited your site or just clicked the advertisement.

 It’s far more different than newspaper ads since newspaper advertisements are paid upfront and they won’t even care if you have sold your products or not. Pay per Click advertising is really great because you only have to pay when someone clicked your advertisement (if millions of audiences saw your advert but didn’t bother clicking it, you don’t have to pay for it). With a smaller budget for this advertisement, you’ll get better results.




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A Good Example



It’s in Filipino point of view and feelings that once they would be fanatical to a certain people because of some achievement made or accomplish good reputation towards the public or the country, they will idolize and loved that person. Who is your favorite celebrity? Did he/she persuade you? In what way they encouraged you? Did you know the Philippine Boxer King? In fact, he is one of the most famous sport icon and celebrity. I know pretty well that either women or man admired him because he brought pride towards our country every time he fought for the country.

Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao contributed a lot of reputation towards Philippines, right? He’d always brought his awards (belts) when he came home. When he would undergo his fight to United State of America, all his fans here in the Philippines will update his progress all throughout his fight. Why most of the people will do the same way if Manny has a fight? All the people all throughout Philippines as well as the world will always witness as the fight of Manny begin and happen to an end—the result? He always won the fight. Wheher Manny would won or lose, he always be the winner and the pride of all Filipinos.

Manny Pacquiao is a lowly man like the way he expects in front of the camera or off camera. He is the men that really represent the bravery in all fights. He is a low-profile type of person. He is the man who is easy to talk to and willing to impart his blessings to thousands of people around Philippines as well as to the world. His is so religious every time he will fight for his title, he kept on signing the cross before the fight will begin and after the whole fight, he will make a sign of the cross again. Our father will always be with him throughout the whole fight because he prays in-depth as well as his mother Dionesia Pacquiao.

Manny is an example and a role model to every people. With all his positive attitude and characteristics, he is the perfect man that people would truly inspire. Manny has encourage me to do so such as being courageous, religious, humble, low-profile and a lot more. With his perfect combination of attitudes, people who admire him would serve his good attitudes as an inspiration to all people.

Manny Pacquiao has encouraged me to accomplish everything in such a way that positive approach in life plus it also inspired me to perform well with all the self confidence and don’t ever give up as what Manny did on all his fights. He also encouraged me to turn out to be brave or strong enough whatever trials might come into my life. Manny is an example of a good leader and as an inspiration to everyone




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Substance Abuse: 10 Warning Signs




These indicators are 10 symptoms usually associated with drug abuse. They aren't meant as a replacement for medical assessment. They just function as an indication that qualified intervention is necessary to diagnose and treat the condition.

Higher Tolerance When it comes to Drugs or Alcohol. Alcohol together with drug addicts usually need more of the medication to acquire the similar impact that the smaller quantity once offered. This particular elevated tolerance is a manifestation of drug abuse.

 Preoccupation With Drugs Or Alcohol. Alcohol and drugs addicts take a lot of time contemplating their drug of preference. Preoccupation on the drug develops into their obsession or compulsion.

 Loss Of Control. An additional manifestation of substance abuse is the addict’s inability to create borders or limits in their drug or alcohol usage. In terms of their drug, they are out of control.

 Loss Of Memory. Substance abusers normally undergo several memory loss. They've got difficulty remembering recent activities or recalling simple facts. They might also experience blackouts.

 Get away. When issues occur, substance addicts often blame anyone and anything but the drugs. They may move, change jobs, or find brand new buddies in an effort to get away their worries.

 Negative Options. Addicts as well as abusers normally slide in to unethical attitudes and actions. Lying, stealing, sense of guilt, as well as low self-esteem are examples of a number of the bad alternatives they could make.

 Bad Consequences. Negative things take place whenever substance abuse occurs. Busts, divorce cases, job losses, and battles are a few cases. Generally, the user perceives this as bad fortune instead of the direct result of drug use.

♦ The Comments Of Others. When individuals discover drug or alcohol abuse or addiction, they start communicating. Friends and family normally identify a problem before it is visible on the user.

 Occasional Abstinence. Generally, an alcohol or drug abuser will attempt to stop using for a time, merely to demonstrate they do not have a difficulty. However, the reality that they are working to manage their drug use implies a difficulty.

 Full Reliance. Psychological as well as physical dependence are the most effective indications of substance abuse. An individual has crossed the line once alcohol or drugs become a necessity rather than a desire.

If audience recognize these drug abuse indications in a family member or friend, or perhaps in themselves, it's time to get help. Drug and alcohol abuse always continues on the way to addiction. A doctor, counselor, or any other professional can assist a person beat the addiction and obtain back in line.




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Rethinking SEO, in a Better Way!



SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a vital part of an online company’s reception. While some use it as an advantageous tool for creating high internet traffic, most marketers often miss a lot of things. They only focus on a few keywords and forget about how people search for services and products online. By extending the use of SEO strategies, your business will reap bigger results in the future. Here are some of the things you need to consider too in your Search Engine Optimization strategy.

 You might be concerned about traffic, but turning visitors into customers is better. Focus on the keywords that will provide consumers. If you have a good standing in page raking systems, earning profit from sold merchandize of products will bring better results. 

 You have to know your market well. Having a couple of keywords won’t help you a lot in achieving qualified visitors into your website. You will have to dig deeper and go beyond one or two phrase keywords. Misspelled keywords and more specific ones often create huge traffic since people are most likely bound to it. Of course, always make sure that your content is rich in context.

 Geographical approach may not be very useful if your business is global. However, it will be very advantageous for local markets. It’s best to add geographical keywords to your website content. Just make sure it makes sense to make an avenue for your business on other local platforms.

☑ Social media is in the midst of development nowadays. Links from social networking sites provide credibility in your own website and you can already optimize profiles just like you can optimize websites. Thus, it’ll be easier for your target market to find you.




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Top Favorite Filipino Food



Filipino FoodFilipinos are very well known for their hospitality, positive values, hard working and their positive attitude in dealing with life’s challenges – still with a smile in their faces. In addition to that, Filipinos are very well known worldwide for their passion for great tasting foods.

As a Filipino, let us talk about food, your favorite Filipino foods. Every Filipino has their favorite and comfort food. To name a few, here are some favorite Filipino foods that are always present in any celebration or fiestas in the Philippines.

. Pork Menudo
It is undeniable that this dish is always present in all gatherings and town fiestas. Every region in the Philippines has their own version of this dish. Whether with hotdog, liver spread, raisins, green peas or garbanzos, it all boils down to its good tasting meat cooked perfectly in the tomato sauce. 

Pork Binagoongan
Pork in shrimp paste is a dish wherein the pork was tenderized and cooked in bagoong or shrimp paste to enhance the flavor. This is considered a main dish by Filipinos wherein they eat it with lots of rice.

Dinuguan and Puto
Dinuguan or blood stew is a main dish, which is made up of pork meat and pork innards like small and large intestines. Southeast Asia and Europe have their own version of Dinuguan; however, the Filipino version is unique because of the use of long green pepper, vinegar and brown sugar.

Moreover, dinuguan dish will not be complete without the complement of Puto. Buttered puto is the most popular steamed rice cake. Dinuguan and puto are usually eaten for the mid-afternoon snack.

Leche Flan
In the Philippines, celebrations and fiestas will not be complete without the Leche Flan as dessert. This dessert is not only popular in the Philippines but all over the world; however, with different variations.

Pancit Molo
Pancit molo is actually a type of soup recipe which is made from combination of shrimp, ground pork covered with wrapper along with shredded chicken meat. This can be relatively a lot like Oriental wonton soup however with the touch of Filipino ingredients make it stand out. This particular recipe had been believed to come from the town known as Molo in Iloilo. Although, having its dish name as pancit molo, surprisingly, Pancit or noodles is not present in the recipe.




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Get High on Alexa Ranking in No Time



If you own a blog, turning it into a profit earning tool is quite easy. You just have to create a high traffic along with thousands of popular websites you can find in the internet. The amount of internet traffic you produce is measured by a ranking system called Alexa – owned by Amazon.com. Your blog’s popularity in the internet will reflect to the amount of profit you earn. That’s why; most people try to come up with ranking strategies that often pay off in the long run. 


When a person visits your website, you earn an Alexa point that contributes to your ranking. If there are lots of people who installs an Alexa toolbar and visits your website, you’ll be able to progress in the ranking system. Competing with Yahoo and Google (who seems to share the top spot) is quite senseless, but improving your ranking will greatly affect the income you produce. Advertisers will pay you more if your website is included in the top 100,000. 

Affiliate companies such as Sponsored Reviews, ReviewMe, and Text Link Ads often use the Alexa ranking in determining pay outs. If you start improving your ranking along with these companies, you’ll be able to earn so much more. With the millions of websites in the internet, how can you at least be included in the top 100,000? Here are great ideas (and also sneaky ones) to improve your websites Alexa ranking.

1. Install the Alexa toolbar in your web browser. Set your website/blog to be your homepage (at least you get some points every time you browse the internet!).

2. Encourage people you know – your friends, family, ex-girlfriend, boyfriend, ex-wife, divorce lawyer, and whoever you know to install the Alexa toolbar. Then tell them to set their homepage into your website/blog.

3. Write contents in your website that will invite webmasters and techies. It might be a little difficult, but they’ll always have an Alexa toolbar on their websites to contribute to your page ranking.

4. Of course, you should blog about Alexa ranking system. That way, you’ll be able to get lots of attention from people who are very interested in page ranking who are most likely to have an Alexa toolbar installed in their web browsers.

5. Write guests blogs and forum comments that contains the URL of your website. If you’ve written something useful, you will always have great results.

6. Post on East Asian websites and forum sites (most people there are Alexa users too).

7. Buy some ads from Google and invite keyword researchers in your websites.

8. Social networking sites are also useful in making your website popular (Facebook, twitter, Digg, MySpace, and many more.)

9. Lastly, create useful contents that will be enjoyed by readers and make them visit again.




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DTI on Blog Contests: The Good, the Bad, the Law



Department of Trade and Industry is one of the Philippine government's departments to serve in the promotion of Philippine trade, businesses, investments, and pay-grades of every Filipino citizen. They are also the ones who regulate the country's trade and business activities. If you're so familiar with business advertisements and promos that you can see on TV and prints, you might have noticed the DTI permits along with it - which is usually announced in the ads and promos too. Why do entrepreneurs who conduct promos are required to have DTI permits? Of course, DTI will always see to it the promos and contests are fair. Thus, you will have to apply for an accreditation if you are to conduct a sales promotion in your business. 

The recent discussion about the implementation of DTI permits on blog contests caused a lot of noise over the web. DTI states that if there's a product purchase, broad consumer participation, promo period, use of tri-media, and a promise of gain, the promotion activity requires a permit. For bloggers, this is simply a matter of common sense and there is really NO NEED for them to require permits.

Is this an act of resourceFOOLness in the part our government agencies?
  • BIR once asked pedicab (padyak) drivers to pay taxes (it's really funny of them trying to target small-scale profit earners rather than monstrous tax evasion of business elites.
  • SLEX and NLEX toll free increases
  • And many more

This is really something that says - the government needs more money and they will hunt down every people who earn profit whether it's off-line or online who don't want to share the cut. Seriously, if they will continue to implement this kind of rule, the results are rather insignificant. In fact, the rule on DTI permits doesn't apply on bloggers who just want to promote their blogs, not products. If you have some time to spend on DTI's senseless preposition, you'll find out that most of the things stated don’t rule over blog contests. 

One thing is for sure, we need a reliable cyber law that can rule over anything done online. I believe that bloggers are intelligent creatures and will always find a way to straighten up DTI's unbelievable act. Let's just hope that legislators create something that'll be of use by the modern Filipino. 




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