Is It Worth Being A Top 100 Digg User?

This is the question that Neil Patel brought up in a recent blog post. His post, which was titled “How to become a top 100 Digg user,” discussed what it takes to become a top 100 Digg user. The post revolved around the experiences of a Digg user known as aaaz. aaaz, whom Neil either knows or was able to interview, became a top 100 Digg user in thirty days. In less than three months, he become the fourth highest rated user on Digg. However, after all of the time that he put into achieving this ranking,. aaaz is retiring from Digg. Although this may seem shocking, aaaz himself admits that achieving this kind of status requires a ridiculous amount of time, and in his opinion, the sacrifices are not worth the benefits.

So what are some of the benefits that go along with being a top 100 Digg user? Instead of looking at a list of benefits, let’s see what you do not receive for being a top 100 Digg user. For starters, Digg does not provide any monetary compensation to any of its users. Although it is well known that people are willing to pay top Digg users to get their story to the front page of Digg, several highly ranked users have been banned in recent weeks for accepting these payments.

Even though getting your site onto the front page of Digg will cause a huge spike in traffic, this does will not translate into any long-term benefits for your web site. Unless you appear regularly on Digg, those huge traffic spikes are nothing more than a burden on your server. It seems like the best way to get on Digg regularly would be to achieve a high rating and then Digg yourself, but several studies have shown that the Digg community will catch on to this kind of activity.

So, once again, what are the benefits of being a top 100 Digg user? In reality, unless you feel a sense of satisfaction from wasting time or having lots of “Digg friends,” there are no major benefits to being a top 100 Digg user. In my opinion (and the opinion of many others), the time that it takes to complete this task far outweighs any potential benefits.

Internet Advertising Ideas For Carpet Cleaners

These days the internet is one of the best places to advertise. Still many carpet cleaners do not take advantage of this affordable advertising media. If you are looking to get into internet advertising you should read this brief article which will give you some tips on what to do to be successful on the internet.

The first thing you need to do is create a website. There are many ways to do this but the simplest is to just use a template. Do a search online and you will find templates readily available for free or for a low charge. Many internet hosts also offer easy website setup. Godaddy for example can set you up with cheap hosting and a site builder program to get you going in no time. When you build your website remember to keep it brief and to the point. DO not overload your visitors with useless information. Just tell them who you are, why they should use you and how to contact you.

Now that you have a website you need to move on to the next step which is promoting it. You can use traditional print media to advertise your website or use it on your radio or TV ads to give your customers more information but this will get expensive quickly. An easy way to get traffic is to get to the top of the search engines. You can do that by buying sponsored listings which appear at the top of the results. This is called pay per click advertising and the best one is Google Adwords. At first you might think that it is ridiculous to pay $1 or even $5 for one click (visitor) but remember that this is quality traffic. The visitors you get are actively looking for a carpet cleaner. Another option is to buy listings in directories. Do a search for "your city carpet cleaning" and see which directories appear. Then purchase a listing for your website in that category. Be careful not to choose directories that are so overcrowded or filled with ads that your listing will get lost.

I hope these tips have been of use to you. The internet is only going to get stronger over the next few years. Jump on board now or get left behind.

Finding An Internet Home Based Business Opportunity

Hundreds of thousands of people every month are turning to the Internet to find a home based business opportunity. Working from home for many people is a wonderful dream and goal. The lure of the freedom it offers appeals to many people, such as those who stay at home with small children, those who must remain at home because of their health, those who are limited in their careers by finances, credit and education, those who are in a dead end job and want to be their own boss, or those who just want to get out of the 8-5 rat race. In fact, over 50% of small business owners now work from home, and research suggests that revenue generated from home-based businesses will increase by 17% yearly.

There are many questions involved in a search for a home business opportunity such as:

Do online business opportunities work or are they scams?
Is an mlm business opportunity a good online business?
What are the best home based business opportunities and how do you find them?

It is no doubt that some people are making a fortune with their own online home based business. But for every person who making a good living online, there are many more who get caught in scams and lose their money.

If you are looking for an Internet home business, it is important to do your research. Learn as much as you can about the company you are thinking about joining. Be wary of business opportunities that promise instant wealth. It takes time to build a successful online home business. Shortcuts are usually too good to be true, and are most likely a scam. Remember that an Internet home business is still a business and it takes work and dedication, especially in the beginning, when little income seems to be coming in. Those who research, persevere and continue to learn are the ones who will become successful with their online business.

By Dianne Ronnow © 2007. All rights reserved.
This article may be freely copied as long as it is not modified and the resource box accompanies the article, together with working hyperlinks.

Cleaning Company – Positioning Yourself In The Market Place

Having formed your Commercial Cleaning Services Company one of the most difficult aspects of running it that you will encounter immediately is in getting your quotes correct. Correct from the point of view of the cleaning company in covering all its costs in doing the clean and making a reasonable profit, whilst pitching it at a level which is still attractive to the potential customer.

With small contract cleaning jobs taking place once per week it is not so much of a problem as you can charge a premium rate because of the infrequency of the clean, but as the contracts become larger the problems in finding the right level intensify and it is very easy to be left making very little money out of a particular contract if you get it slightly wrong.

Firstly as a company/business you have to decide at what level you are going to enter the market;

· Are you going to offer cut price cleans in order to secure contracts?

· Are you going for the higher end of the market offering quality cleaning but at a higher price?

· Are you aiming for the high end of the market offering extra services as well as top quality cleaning?

Be very thoughtful before you decide. If you are going for option 3 then you have to ensure that you can indeed offer all the specialist services that the customer may require. Commercial cleaning and contract cleaning is the most competitive area of the cleaning market.

Get yourself an edge over your competitors.
What can you offer that is unique?
Do you cover a wider area?
Do you always answer your telephone?
Do you respond to enquiries immediately?
Do you have a unique marketing strategy?

Having made your choice of where you are going to place your business in the cleaning industry the next important decision is getting your quoting correct.

Unless you have previously worked in cleaning this can be a mystery at the outset, and you will find yourself drastically under quoting or over quoting. There is nothing like experience in this area and you must be prepared to undertake a steep learning curve.

Build Links And Popularize Your Site

What is Link Building?
Link-building is the process of obtaining inbound links from external websites to your own site to improve both direct referrals (people visiting your site by clicking on your links) and search engine ranking. It can be very difficult to get quality inbound links so I am listing a few proven methods that you can use to build back links that will help you boost your sites search engine rankings.

1: Article submissions
Write an article on a topic related to your site, then submit it to free article sites. Your article can then be reprinted all over the web, always with a link back to your website.

2: Press Release
Press releases can be very effective tool for alerting the media to your website and getting publicity through media coverage. You may include link to your site in the press release, there are number of press release sites for example prweb dot com

3: Free directory submissions
You can receive a free inbound link by submitting to hundreds of free directories. Just make sure you follow their submission guidelines and then be patient as it may take several months for your site to be listed.

4: Paid directory submissions
Why pay for directory listings if you can get them for free? Many webmasters choose to buy directory listings, for several reasons. First of all, your site will generally be listed much quicker (in most cases usually within 24 hours). Also, you can often get a higher quality link from a paid submission than a free submission as most of time paid directory will higher pagerank.

5: Three way link exchanges
Link exchanges are arguably not as helpful as they once were, but 3 way links are still excellent. For example you own Site A and you will provide a link Site B and Site C will provide you with a inbound link.

6: Forum posting
Join forums related to your site and become an active member of forums. Of course, you can include a link to your site in your forum signature.

7: Blog posting
Find blogs to your site and leave relevant comments on blog posting and leave a link to your site within the comment.

The Exploding Popularity Of Blogging

The blogoshpere is exploding. For those who do not know what that means or whether it is a cause for concern in their lives, don’t worry. If you don’t know what the blogosphere is, you aren’t at any personal risk regardless of whether it explodes or evaporates. And you are also not alone.

Although there are now, according to Technorati 70,000,000 blogs online and 120,000 being started every day, a 2005 study done by the UK newspaper The Guardian indicated that 30% of those questioned who claimed to be frequent Internet users had never even heard of a blog, let alone the blogosphere.

But for the millions of Internet users who have blogs, read blogs, or both, the health of the blogosphere is of great interest.

With another US presidential campaign already underway, those who track such things will be interested to know that in the last half 2004, according to a study done by the American Life Project, the number of Internet users who reading blogs more than doubled from seventeen to thirty-seven percent, although the number of those writing them rose from five to only seven percent.

The Presidential race in 2008 will more than likely see another boost in the number of blog readers as those who were too young to vote four years ago have become the dedicated bloggers on MySpace and other social networking and will be perfectly comfortable with campaigning done in cyberspace.

The statistics from Technorati seem to be telling us one thing: blogs have been around for over a decade, yet their popularity is greater than ever, and as more and more of the 18-25 crowd so prized by advertisers turn to the blog as their preferred means of online communication, the blog seems to have very bright futures ahead.

The blogs of today are already taking full advantage of online video technology. All that remains is for the sites which currently index blogs like Technorati to find other ways to keep track of what is becoming, like our expanding universe, the ever expanding blogosphere

Persuasive Subliminal Images

Images are often used for instructing, illustrating, identifying, providing variation, authority, and information as a supplement to text and sound. In addition, images are used for content that is important, difficult to understand, and new to the readers. The effectiveness of any visual depends on the medium, on the type of information, and on the amount of time subjects are allowed to interact with the material. Images can also be affective and provide participants with entertainment, and underline an experience both positive and negative.

Subliminal images or images below the threshold of human perception can trigger subconscious associations and influence emotions and attitudes, especially in movies and television. Subliminal images can be used to persuade, compliment, tease, disgrace, scare, and even seduce the audience. In advertising especially, images may carry subliminal messages. Advertisements for liquor or cigarettes, for instance, sometimes use sex symbols. Images can be compensatory, making it easier for poor viewers to understand, learn, and remember things they read in text.

Proponents of subliminal vision claim it is capable of scanning ongoing structures and gathering more data than an alert examination lasting thousand times longer. With impartial sharpness our unconscious vision registers minute details irrespective of whether they belong to the figure or to the background. But it usually tends to retract the conscious preference for the shape and pays more attention to textural and backdrop elements.

Although solid research evidence suggests that our attitudes may be susceptible to subliminal visual information, those same research findings make clear the limits on such influence. Firstly, in laboratory studies of subliminal image effects, experimenters have to work hard to ensure that subjects focus closely on the region in which subliminal stimuli are presented. In the usual confusion of everyday environments, such dedicated focusing is unlikely, and so the messages probably would not receive even minimal processing.