Search Like A Geek

Friday, November 27, 2009

Some people search the Web like a Neanderthal standing before the Library of Congress steps grunting, “Me want food!” While other, more sophisticated searchers, act more like a person actually entering the Library of Congress, approaching the librarian, and saying, “Pardon me, please lead me to your books on agriculture and growing food, and while you’re at it, please show me your books on fine dining in the Washington D.C. area.”. Who would you rather be?

Back in high school there was the ‘in-crowd’, often populated by the jocks, and then there were the geeks, among other social clicks. Today, many of those ‘geeks’ are wildly successful; while some of those unfortunate others are asking us if we’d like fries with our burgers.

So it’s not so bad being a geek today, especially since so much of our lives and economy are dominated by computers, software and the Internet. It is wise to learn how to use the Internet as best you can. By understanding how search engines and directories work, like many geeks already do, you will find the information you’re looking for more easily, quickly and with a lot less frustration. Knowing how to pinpoint specific bits of information quickly will give you an advantage over most other people who do not have these skills. And this advantage can turn into big money by saving you time in your day to day business. And learning about how to search will help in your search engine optimization efforts if you run your own website too.

So, I invite you to pull up your pants to make high-waters, apply some masking tape to the bridge of your eye glasses, and insert a pocket protector in your front shirt pocket, and join me in learning how to search like a geek.

The more appropriate words you use the better.
Let’s say I want to find tickets to a new Broadway musical show called Wicked next weekend in New York City. If you just type the word ‘tickets’ into Google’s search box, you’ll get 99.6 million results, which is very unwieldy. The first result is ticketmaster.com. It took 4 clicks for me to get to their listing of Wicked tickets, but they were out of inventory up to 6 weeks from now, so it was a dead end since I want to go next weekend.

The next result was Tickets.com, and when I searched for Wicked on their site I found tickets available to Wicked in Toronto only. Another dead end, I need tickets to the NYC production.

The third result only sold airline and cruise tickets, not what I’m looking for either. After clicking on another 4 websites, I still hadn’t found what I was looking for. I was getting frustrated, impatient and was just about ready to toss my PC out my window and give up totally.

If instead, I used a few more appropriate words in my search, my results would have been much better. I tried typing the words ‘new york city broadway wicked musical tickets’ in the Google search box and came up with 230,000 results instead of 99 million, which is slightly more manageable.

The first result was www.musicalschwartz.com which offered ‘Ticket Tips - Wicked on Broadway, Seating info’. So I clicked on that and learned a number of things about purchasing Broadway tickets, NYC travel tips and other information on Wicked the musical.

The next two Google results were http://www.eagletickets.com and http://www.bestshowticketslasvegas.com , and they both offered tickets for the Broadway musical Wicked in New York City on the weekend I wanted. So by carefully choosing appropriate words to search with and using more than one or two words, I found what I was looking for much more easily and quickly than just searching using the word ‘tickets’.

I am not suggesting you use lots and lots of words willy nilly. The best method is to think of very specific words related to what you’re looking for, be a little creative, and watch what order you put the words in. Searching for ‘broadway wicked musical tickets’ and ‘tickets broadway wicked musical’ will give you different results.

Never search using one word. Avoid only using two words. Try to use 3-7 words. This search rule follows the law of diminishing returns however. So searching using 25 words will probably get you little or no results. So there is a “sweet spot” you’ll have to discover for any given search, but it is almost always using more than 1-2 words.

Use more than one search engine.
When I search on the Web, I use more than one browser and more than one search engine or directory. The difference between the two is that search engines are run automatically while directories are run by humans. Google is a search engine and show search results of websites that no one has actually looked at in advance. Directories on the other hand contain websites that have actually been reviewed by a person. Therefore, the results you get will differ. A good list of directories can be found at http://www.directoryarchives.com.

Open up your browser and click on ‘File’ in the top left of your browser and select ‘New’ > ‘Window’. Do this a couple of times until you have three or more browsers open on your desktop at the same time. Choose your search words carefully, use more than two words and try the same exact phrase in Yahoo, MSN, Google, and a favorite directory using a different browser for each. That way you can compare results to find the best ones. You can also try a new site I found called http://yagoohoogle.com/ which lets you perform a simultaneous search on both Google and Yahoo.

Use modifiers in your searches.
Going back to the tickets example, let’s say I wanted to find airline tickets, but each time I performed a search on tickets, most of the results had to do with sports and theater tickets. I could weed out all those irrelevant results by using the minus (-) sign next to the word ‘theater’.
Bad search: tickets
Better search: tickets to New York
Even better search: airline tickets to New York –theater

So if you are getting a lot of extraneous results in your searches, try adding a minus sign to words you don’t want showing up in your results.

Another good tip is using quotes around your phrases. By doing this you are telling the search engine to find the exact phrase and in the order you are specifying. By adding quotes, you are being much more specific. You’ll get very different results using quotes. If you searched for ‘2005 NBA playoff tickets’ (without quotes) you are asking the search engine to look for sites that have the words 2005, NBA, playoff, and tickets associated with them. So you will probably come up with airline tickets, football playoff information, NBA history and so forth. If you put quotes around your phrase you’ll get much closer to what you want.

Use the ‘Find’ function.
Trust me; this one suggestion is worth the price of admission alone. You will save lots of valuable time if you do this. Ever get to a Web page that has a lot of text on it, and quickly scanning the page doesn’t immediately produce what you’re looking for? In fact, the scanning just makes you dizzy.

Try this: while holding down your ‘Ctrl’ key hit your ‘F’ key (this works on PCs only). A ‘Find’ dialog box should pop up. Simply type the word or phrase you’re looking for in the box and hit ‘Enter’ and it will immediately find each and every instance of it on the Web page you’re on. This will truly save you time if you remember to use it.

One can get lost on the Net. There is so much information, and almost all of it is not applicable to what you want at any given time. If you use the Net for your business, pinpointing appropriate and relevant information quickly will put you ahead of the pack every time. By following these simple suggestions, you will find more accurate results which will reduce your frustration, save you time, and give you an edge over others who are still searching for information like a caveman at the steps of a library.

How To Find Cheap Internet Access

Have you ever wondered if what you know about Access Cheap Internet is accurate? Consider the following paragraphs and compare what you know to the latest info on Access Cheap Internet.

After the first free month, it is $21.95 per month, which is not cheap internet access. If you went to broadband for £29.99 per month its hardly cheap internet access. We are cheap web hosting, domain hosting, budget hosting, reseller hosting, linux hosting, internet Access provider. mission is to combine the cheap high speed internet access provider of choice with ... Whether you want a free isp provider, cheap internet access, or to compare discount internet service providers, All Free ISP can help you out. SurfBest provides quality, cheap dial up internet access and a fast dial up internet that enables you to start surfing the web quickly. Sign up with UKO2 now for a free ISP account and start to get the benefits of cheap internet access. We simply provide you with a reliable, cheap internet access account. This is because dial up internet access tends to be the cheaper than broadband services such as DSL or cable Internet. In the end, he finds cheap, reliable Internet-access backup for the next time his broadband cable connection goes down. a purpose to provide an easy way to find and review free or cheap Internet access. There is no reason to pay this much for internet access when there are fast, reliable and cheap internet service providers.

It seems like new information is discovered about something every day. And the topic of Access Cheap Internet is no exception. Keep reading to get more fresh news about Access Cheap Internet.

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Sometimes it's tough to sort out all the details related to this subject, but I'm positive you'll have no trouble making sense of the information presented above. http://www.access-cheap-internet.com

Website Statistics with Cpanel

Monday, November 23, 2009

If you own one or more websites, it is vitally important to know how many people are visiting your site and where these visitors originate from. Analyzing website statistics should become a regular habit for every webmaster who wishes to improve website traffic over time. You'll be able to test and track the popularity of your updated site content and even see how visitors find your site in the search engines.

There are many web statistics programs on the market, each one unique in price and features, but did you know that some of the best website statistic programs already come free with most web hosting plans?

If you have a hosting account for your website that includes cpanel, then you probably have a whole bunch of web statistic programs built in. Cpanel is by far the most popular control panel for web hosting accounts today. It is extremely easy to learn and use for regular website administration.

There are usually 3 different types of statistics you will find inside cpanel. These are known as Analog, Webalizer and Awstats.

Webalizer is a statistic program that shows you in a graph form how many visitors have visited your site month by month. This type of statistics is very basic and only takes a quick glance to receive your web site information. If you want more detailed information you will probably need to check out the other two statistic programs.

Analog and Awstats each offer different presentation styles. All the essential visitor information you probably wish to see is listed on Analog, but most people have difficulty finding it as it is primarily text based and requires close attention.

Awstats on the other hand, is usually the favorite web site statistic program on cpanel. Not only does it give you plenty of visitor information, from number of hits per day and month, it also tells you where they originate from, how long visitors stayed at your site, the country from which they are viewing your site, what browser they are using and much more. Basic colored graphs and simple to read layout make it a quick and easy task to find the information that you are looking for.

So if you have a website and would like to know more about your visitors check out your cpanel statistic programs inside your website hosting account. They can be extremely helpful in analyzing your site and drawing more traffic to it.

Writing Your First EBook is a Piece of Cake

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

If you've noticed on the internet it's hard to find a website one visits that doesn't have an eBook of some sort
that’s being offered for sale or for free. Let's face it the internet survives by being the world’s greatest source of information.
As someone once said," If you can't find something on the internet chances are it doesn't exist". One of the reasons EBooks
have become so prevalent is that they have the ability to go viral and subsequently direct increased traffic to an authors
website. If you've never written an eBook because you’re not sure how to do so is understandable. However it’s really not that
difficult to achieve if one follows a few simple steps.
Obviously the first thing to do when attempting to create an EBook is to decide what you wish to write about. To avoid
the dilemma of writers block choose a subject you have prior experience in. Pick a topic that brings out some passion in you.
The more passionate you are about a topic the easier it will be to write it. That passion of yours will be felt by the
readers and add strength to the EBooks value.
After determining what topic you wish to write about you need to do some preliminary organization. Start by taking the
time to create a title that has a little pizzazz. List more than one and consult with friends as to their opinion which one
seems to jump out at them. How you phrase the EBooks title is important. It's like the bait on a hook. If you catch a
potential readers curiosity it will be easier to reel them in to investigate the rest of your writing. Once a title is
chosen it's time to organize in what direction you wish to take the reader. Make another list of sub categories which will
end up being chapters. It's important to keep in mind not to over kill. Unless your a scientist who needs to list all the
facts a topic has available there is no need to over explain ones content. Keep it simple. Write your information in a
manner that an eighth grader could understand. Like it or not the majority of Americans do not read at a college level.
Now before you actually start to write ask yourself a few questions. What do you want the eBook to accomplish? Is your
intention to share new information? Does the information being shared help the reader solve a problem? Who are you writing
too? Are you writing something for ladies only or are you trying to reach a specific group and type of person? Are you trying
to make your mark as an expert? Is the purpose of writing this EBook to generate more traffic? Along with pondering these
type of questions decide if your project is to be sold or if it's going to be a give away. Knowing for sure what you’re up to
will help you to stay focused. It's easy to get side tracked when writing. You don't want to be wandering all over the place
and ultimately leave the reader confused.
Finally, don't forget to apply basic grammar practices. Be sure to spell check your work. Misspelled words can
undermine the integrity of your writing. Make sure the size of the print is easy on the eyes. If possible add pictures to
the EBook to make the books environment more pleasing. If you think of the EBook as a series of small stories being shared
with a friend it'll take no time at all to accomplish the task. Don't let yourself get burned out. If you start to get tired
when writing and that natural creative flair of yours seems to be on the downside simply walk away from it for a while.
Writing your first EBook should and can be a rewarding experience. If you still feel a little unconfident as to your ability
to take on such a challenge just go online and find resources that will help you. Remember nothing succeeds like success. Get
that first EBook under your belt. Once you do chances are the only problem you'll have writing the next time
is not trying to write two EBooks’ at the same time.

Google Wants To Help You Succeed

All too often, we see Google pictured as the "evil" company who’s just out to get you, and to make your life miserable.

While at times it might seem that way, it's just not true.

No… Google is not going to come banging on your door to sit down next to you and help you design your website, but they do provide a wealth of traffic assistance for the webmaster who’s willing to look for it.

Take the Google sitemaps program for example.

Google wants to know about ALL your pages. When you consider the billions of webpages that are on the Internet now, that’s a daunting task. The way that they discover YOUR pages is by "spidering" your website. This is also called crawling. This is done through automated robots that will look through your website and follow the links to discover other pages. When it does, it puts those pages into a database, which they will use to ultimately decide which page will get listed and which one doesn’t.

If you make this process easy for them, they can reward you with much faster spidering of your website. This is especially advantageous if you have a large website.

Google has a program called their "sitemaps" program. What you do is place a specially formatted XML file on your computer that includes links to all of your web pages, and other information related to your website, such as how often you update your website and so on.

We’ve found that compiling the datafeed the way Google requires it can be a little bit intimidating.

There are programs available that will help you to do that.

When you’re building a website, it’s very easy to make a mistake in a link, especially when building a large site. This can be disastrous when Google comes around to view your website and it can hurt you tremendously. The better programs not only spider the site as Google would and builds your Google sitemap.xml file automatically, but if it encounters errors, it gives you an error log so that you can correct the errors BEFORE you submit your sitemap to Google.

This is VERY important. If Google tries to spider a site that has bad or missing links in it, then your chances of being listed in their search engine are VERY slim.

Google’s official website on this subject is at this URL: https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/login you’ll find a good explanation of their sitemap program.

Google sitemaps should be a part of every webmaster’s website submission plan. It does not necessarily help with your search engine positioning or ranking, but it will help you to get all your pages spidered quickly, which is the first step to getting your pages listed in the search engines.

5 Tips For New Internet Surfers.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Everyday, thousands of new surfers open their browsers for the first time, it is confusing in the beginning, but if you have some good advices in the early beginning, you can surf easier and faster with a friendly browser...

Tip 1: Surf in security.
The first action that you will do if you are new to the net is to open your browser to surf. If you have a PC, like most of the Internet population. You will have Internet explorer installed in your computer, but it is not the best browser available on the net, and it is in fact limited. You may think that it is hard to surf on Internet.
When you will discover Mozilla Firefox, you will be even more happy to surf on Internet, for sure.
One of the first reason you should use Firefox is the integrated Firewall, which protect you against spyware and other adawares.

Tip 2: No need to tape http://www.---.com all the time.
The second reason to choose Firefox is that you save time; for instance, when you went on ebay.com yesterday, you wrote: http://www.ebay.com with Firefox, you just tape “e” in the address bar of your browser, then http://www.ebay.com will appear in the drop down menu, it's like magic, and it's fun too.

Tip 3: See all your pages in only one window.
I really love this one; you can surf in tab. That is really powerful.
For instance, with Internet Explorer, whenever you click on a link, you have 2 choice: open the page in the same window, or open it in a new window. Firefox enable you to open several pages in one window.
Let's explain: you are now looking yahoo.com, and you want to see the news, you just right click on the link, select open in a new tab, and you have now two pages in only one window. To switch between your pages, you just need to click on anyone of the page you want to look in, all that in the same window. You can open fifteen windows in one time if you want.
Better, you can bookmark(in Internet explorer, bookmark is favorites) a tab, and open it later. It is a very intelligent way of surfing. It is very efficient when you are doing some researches on a subject, on google for example.

Tip 4: All your downloads at the same place.
The fourth reason to choose Firefox is that when you download a file on your computer, sometimes, you want to open it, but you face a problem: Where did you save that file? With Firefox, just click on tools, and then you select download, and a pop up window appear. You just scroll to find your program. It will save you time and a lot of headaches.
However, it is recommended, for the first time, to save your download on your desktop, then after save your file in the folder you choose. You can download firefox for Free. You just type firefox in google.com and you're done.

Tip 5: Don't forget a good anti virus,
While you surf on Internet, some hijackers will attempt to damage your computer, by introducing a virus in it. If you don't take your precaution, you may loose all that is stored in your hard disk. You can download AVG, which is excellent at download.com.

There is a lot to learn when you start on Internet, but take your time. And everything will go smoothly.