Have You Experienced Pandora?

It has been a while since I have added a Cool Tool. Today I was introduced to Pandora. Pandora is a very cool site based on  Music Genome Project

You give Pandora a starting point (group/song) it builds a completely customized radio station of similar groups or songs.  You can vote on each song to help the process fine tune your playlist.

If you like the song, you can purchase it from Itunes or the album from Amazon.

It really is cool!

John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

7 Tips for Choosing the Right Blog Software for Your New Blog

Choosing the right blog software for your new blog requires that you ask yourself some questions and make a list of all of the features and tools you need as well as your budget. Once you have this information written down you will be prepared to start shopping for blog software. However, keep in mind the following seven tips for choosing the best software for you.

Tip #1 Ping Updates These allow you to update your blog and are very important in blog software. Make sure the blog software you are interested in provides automatic ping updates.

Tip #2 Comments Whatever blog software you choose, you’ll want to make sure that it has an area for comments from visitors. This will help you understand what is successful in your blog and what is not, as well as guide you in future blogs. This is a really great tool and should be part of your blog software.

Tip #3 Trackback If you are discussing your blog on another blog, or simply adding information to another blog, trackback will allow you to update this information. This is a little confusing, but trackback allows you to talk on your blog about information on another blog and ping the writer of the other blog to let them know what is going on. Trackback is certainly a feature you want in your blog software.

Tip #4 Pingback Pingback is similar to trackback, but it just sends a URL to the other blog to let them know you are talking about their blog on your blog. This is not used as much as trackback, but you will want a blog software that has at least one of these two functions. Tip #5 Web-based The point of a blog is you can post information instantly online, so you want your blog software to be similar to a word processor and web based without a shadow of a doubt.

Tip #6 Archiving You want a blog software that supports archiving, and most of them do. The reason for this is you will want to save all of your past blogs by the date they were published and archiving allows you to do that.

Tip #7 Categorize Another great tool you will want in your blog software is the ability to categorize. You want to keep your blogs organized and in categories, if you have them, so this option is really a great one for most bloggers.

There are lots of types of blog software available. You just need to do the research and compare what you find with what you need and then… start blogging!
About the Author

Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Page Rank Tool: Show PR of every link on a page

This cool tool scans the url of your choosing and visually shows the page rank of every link on the page.

 

Page Rank Tool
http://www.webmastereyes.com/

John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com

 

Google Cheat Sheets?

This two page Google Cheat Sheet lists all Google services and tools as well as background information. The Cheat Sheet offers a great reference to grasp of basic to advance Google query building concepts and ideas.

http://www.feedsforme.com/google/

 

 

John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com

 

 

Page Rank Watch – See Future Changes to Your Page Rank.

This is a cool Google tool.  It lets you check your sites page rank and the major Google Data Centers
You will be able to see when your page rank is in flux.
Page Rank Watch
http://www.pagerankwatch.com
John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com

Contextual Advertising Software Adsense Preview

Contextual Advertising Software enable you to preview various ads from different contextual advertising company, for example YPN and Chitika malls., and there is a side by side comparison, which is good if you’re wondering which ads would be better suited for that particular post.

AuctionCloud – Visualizing Popular eBay Keywords on Demand

Introducing a different way to shop eBay! Utilizing technologies from XAJAX, Web 2.0, and the eBay API, AuctionCloud exposes an innovative way to navigate the eBay auction listings for the most searched for products being auctioned.

AuctionCloud shows popular keywords used by eBay users when searching listings

As you navigate, popular keywords are updated live via AJAX with no page refreshes

Technorati Tags: , ,

Microsoft playing serous Catchup with Google in PPC Advertising

Last week Microsoft announced the launch of  Microsoft AdCenter to compete with Google Adwords.

I just learned that Microsoft has purchased DeepMatrix (a company that specializes in products that gather real-time data about users accessing web sites) This could be an attempt to take on Google Analytics directly.

Microsoft also announced the purchase of Massive—a company which handles the sale of in-game advertising for video game titles, and Vexcel—”a worldwide leader in photogrammetry, imagery and remote sensing technologies.”

 

John Hocking
http://www.lookwhatjohnfound.com

 

$1 Million in Google AdSense Earnings

They are calling him the million dollar man. Jason Calacanis recently revealed in his blog that he is on track to earn a million dollars from AdSense over the year ahead.

And if that number doesn’t wake you up and have you sitting on the edge of your seat, consider for a moment that he reached this level in less than a year. His company only started using AdSense in September 2004.

Calacanis runs Weblogs Inc., a network dedicated to creating trade weblogs across niche industries. And he’s quickly proven that AdSense is a credible advertising partner.

As their network has grown, so has their AdSense revenue. In January 2005 they earned an average of $580 per day. In March it was $737. In May it was $1,585. One day in July, just before he made the blog entry referred to above, they earned $2,335. Remember that is just for one day. If they can take that daily average to $2,740 they’ll be earning a rate of $1 million for a year. And Calacanis predicts that reaching daily earnings of $3,000 or even $5,000 is quite achievable.

That’s quite an achievement. Keep in mind that Calacanis has 103 bloggers on the payroll and nine staffers. Even so, many webmasters would give an arm or a leg to have even a third of that.

Google’s AdSense has been revolutionary. It has become firmly established as the darling of the online advertising industry. Although rumors are heard of major competitors launching a similar service, AdSense’s premier position seems secure for now.

In essence, AdSense has made it possible for almost anyone with a web site or blog to earn some revenue from advertising, without having to employ sales people or spend precious time searching for advertisers.

AdSense works like this. Webmasters sign up for an account in just a few minutes. They receive a small snippet of code to include on their web pages. Google will then automatically serve advertisements that are relevant to the content on the webmaster’s pages. When someone visits the webmaster’s site and clicks on one of Google’s AdSense advertisements, the webmaster earns a fee. Advertisers can pay anywhere from five cents to a hundred dollars per click, and the webmaster receives a percentage of that fee.

Many webmasters are content with earning five to ten dollars from AdSense to cover the cost of web hosting. But many, unsurprising, have higher ambitions. At a popular WebmasterWorld forum, participants share tips and encouragement on reaching a goal of $300 per day from AdSense. So it is no wonder that Calacanis created quite a buzz when he made his million dollar blog entry.

Google have proven once again that they excel at designing innovative Internet services. If you are in the web industry and have not yet used AdSense, then perhaps you should try it out. Or if you are already using it, perhaps Calacanis’ impressive results will encourage you to track the performance of your AdSense units more closely, fine tune their positions and formats, and take your earnings to a new level.

Calacanis’ million dollar blog entry can be viewed at: http://calacanis.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000403051129/
About the Author

Scott Adams is an internet entrepreneur, and earns a living by marketing affiliate programs on pay-per-click search engines, including Google’s AdSense. He explains the remarkable system he uses in his book, Affiliate Adventure, which is available at http://www.AffiliateAdventure.com . To find out more about increasing AdSense revenue, visit: http://www.Altavado.com/AdSenseSecrets.htm

Technorati Tags: ,

WordPress Themes