Google Braves the Slow Down… But How?

As one of the world biggest online companies Google Inc. is also facing the economic slowdown. Google has been showing increasing profit in the last couple quarters when almost every company was showing a decline. How is that possible?

Well… I have to hand it to them on this one. Google’s majority of revenue comes from Adwords, which is its pay per click advertising program. At any given point of time there are millions of services and products being advertised on Google search and through Google content partners (Adsense publishers). Whenever an advertiser creates a Adword compaign on Google, the campaign by default is also listed with the content partners as well. However if an ad is clicked on Google search, Google keeps 100% of the revenue from the Ad. but if it is clicked on any content partner page, then Google has to share a percentage of that revenue with the Adsense publisher.

This delicate balance between ads clicked on searches vs. ads clicked on content partners can lead to significant revenue changes if we alter the percentage of each. Now to show value to Google’s shareholders Google is keeping more ads to itself and giving away less to its content partners. They have also moved the ads close to their search results so that the chances of ads being clicked increases.

I am not saying that their move is wrong, but as a result millions of publishers who rely on Adsense to make them money have to suffer as their CTR and CPM has significantly dropped over the last few months as a result a major decline in their profits.

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Hot & Sticky Desktop Post-It

If you have ever used the 3M sticky notes in your work place, then you are no stranger to their usefulness. I found a online version of the same, its works just as well and the best of all… its comes Free! HottNotes.com has developed the desktop version of the popular 3M Post-It. My laptop has Windows Vista as its operating system and came with a widget sidebar which has Windows own version of Post-It pre installed but is it so basic that I hated using it. HottNotes has so many features packed in that you will not need to look elsewhere.

List of Features.

Remind: Place notes on your desktop, reminding you of important events everytime you use the computer.

Scribble: Draw crazy pictures to decorate your desktop, or use your Tablet PC to write notes with a stylus. Scribble notes can be any size and stretched to your liking.

List: Create checklists to keep track of what you’ve done and what you have left to do.

Style: Hott notes have a simple, yet pleasant interface. Choose any color, font, or translucency level for your notes. Also, create and use themes.

Edit: Editing notes is easy and non-obstructive. Just double-click the note body, edit it, and hit “Done” when you’re finished.

Manager: Managing a large number of notes is easy. A Note Manager allows you view your desktop, wastebasket, and archived notes and perform batch operations on them.

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Happy Holidays!

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Top 5 Free Blog Directories to Submit to

I have compiled a list of top 5 free blog directories you should submit your blog to. They are free and won’t cost you a dime but they will work wonders for your blog authority and traffic. I recommend you do this submission yourself as it will not take anything more than an hour.

1. Bloglines.com (PR 9): Bloglines is a free online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content. With Bloglines, there is no software to download or install — simply register as a new user and you can instantly begin accessing your account any time, from any computer or mobile device.

2. Technorati.com (PR 8): Technorati was founded to help bloggers succeed by collecting, highlighting, and distributing the global online conversation. Founded as the first blog search engine, Technorati has expanded to a full service media company providing services to the blogs and social media sites and connecting them with advertisers who want to join the conversation, and whose online properties introduce blog content to millions of consumers.

3. BlogCatalog.com (PR 7): Blog Catalog is the premiere social blog directory on the internet. Whether you’re looking to promote your own blog, find blogs on various topics, or connect with other bloggers this site is for you.

4. BoingBoing.net (PR 7): We depend on the suggestions we get from you folks for the raw fodder for Boing Boing.

5. Blog-Directory.org (PR 6): listing 19183609 blogs in our blog directory and growing every day!

Once you are done with this, you may want to do free directory submissions as well.

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Is Free Directory Submission Worth It?

I have started quite a few website in the past and I will admit that one of the first things I would do after its launch was to go and submit it to a lot of free directories. If i did not have the time to do it myself then i would use professional directory submission services. Usually submission packages start at $40 for about 250 directories which is good enough to get your website going, however if you are serious about your website / online business, I would recommend submitting to at least 1000 directories.

Though it may take about to a month to see the results but they could be remarkable if the submissions are done in a proper way. The most important thing to keep in mind while going in for free directory submission is to have at least 2-3 different titles (relevant and not stuffed with keywords) made out for your blog. Title comprises of 4-5 keywords which describe your website and which would be used to link back to your blog. If you are going for a 1000 submissions, make sure you split the submission as per the number of titles (e.g. submit 500 directories each if you have 2 titles). The more the better… but do not make it less and 200 submissions per title. There are a few reasons for the above.

1. If you submit to 200 free directories, chances are your blog will be only listed in 100-150 and for anchor text in the title to work effectively; you would need at least a 100 links on a title.

2. By submitting different titles, it makes search engines believe that it is an organic link as opposed to a paid one. Think about it, if 1000 people link to your blog, would they use the same words to make the link? No! Some would link to your blogs name; some would use some keywords which your blog is about etc. Using different titles makes the link look genuine to search engines.

3. Having different titles increases the chances of your blog being found on the search engine as every title will have 4-5 different set of keywords, this will in turn increase the traffic to your blog.

Lastly, keep the title, the description and the keywords relevant to your website while submitting. Do not try to stuff in keywords unnecessarily or the directory will reject your listing. Link building is a continuous process and you should not stop it anytime… links have a direct correlation with traffic, the more you have them the more popular your blog will be. Do not submit it to just any directory; make sure you don’t drop a link in a bad neighborhood. This is why you should not go in for cheap directory submission service, search for a review on them first and then decide. I recommend iNetZeal.com as it is a directorycritic.com company.

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