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Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

October 15, 2008 in general | No comments

Today October 15th, 2008 is Blog Action Day. This year thousands of bloggers around the world will blog about some aspect of Poverty and what we can do to stamp it out. I’m very pleased to spend a little time and share a little space for this concerted effort to make a dent in the number of people affected by poverty.

It’s a huge subject, for me to make it somewhat manageable I choose Soup Kitchens as my focal point. I’m pretty sure everyone knows at least tangentially what a Soup Kitchen is but do you know where they are in your community, have you ever visited one to put in a couple of hours of work?

Soup Kitchens can be found in most communities big or small, local churches and community groups come together to offer a few meals a day to those in need of food. Millions of people across the US and around the world utilize these meager resources made available to them by caring and concerned people. Yes we must end Poverty but until we do we need to help those who are struggling with Poverty everyday.

In New England where I’m located the need grows as the weather gets cold. I’m listing 6 Soup Kitchens, my hope being, you will visit at least one of their websites and leave them a couple of bucks or maybe stop on over to see what you can do.

In Maine you’ll find groups like Waysde Soup Kitchen serving hot and nutritious food to hundreds everyday. In Nashua New Hampshire the Nashua Soup Kitchen is working hard to turn grocery receipts into food for local residents. In Boston you will find the Boston Rescue Mission, working to help people since 1899. In central Vermont there are dozens of daily Soup Kitchens listed at the Secretary of States website. In Connecticut you will find the Shoreline Soup Kitchen that served over 400,000 meals in 2006. In Rhode Island you will find volunteers at Judy’s Kindness Kitchen making and delivering food to the Soup Kitchen

I want to thank all the bloggers who have taken part in Blog Action day 2008 Poverty. The more we bring things into the open the quicker solutions will be found.

Time Keeps Moving

September 29, 2008 in general | No comments

Some say time stops when a new idea is born, it may be true but what happens after the new idea is born? Do you put it on a shelf with all the other good ideas that never seem to see the light of day or do you jump out into the spotlight holding your new fresh faced idea up for everyone to see?

If you have an idea simmering in the deep recesses of your mind now is the time to being it forward and not just to show the world, show it to Google and you may get the cash to make it happen.. You only have till Oct, 20th 2008 which is the closing for entries. Get over to Googles Project 10to100 today.

See Me Better - Business Opportunity

August 31, 2008 in general, opportunities | No comments

It’s not without a bit of irony that I noticed this morning that Google is about to make better pictures available on their Google Map program, for a long time I was against the increased resolution that I now embrace. Their new pictures have more detail and can map an area the size of the United States in 30 days.

If your business can take advantage of satellite mapping results on your website then now is the time to get on board and jump ahead of all those businesses not looking at this technology. The new pictures have eye popping resolution and will bring a strong emotional impact to even the most jaded customer-client you have. Check out more in the ZDnet article and do have a look at the example.

Google Earth to license new satellite imagery by ZDNet’s Garett Rogers — Google has agreed to license imagery for their mapping products from a satellite due to launch on September 4th.

Visual Previews w/ Snap Shot

August 21, 2008 in general | No comments

Introducing Snap Shots from Snap.com

I just installed a nice little tool on this site called Snap Shots that enhances links with visual previews of the destination site, interactive excerpts of Wikipedia articles, MySpace profiles, IMDb profiles and Amazon products, display inline videos, RSS, MP3s, photos, stock charts and more.

Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.

Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.

A Clear Look Wednesday

August 20, 2008 in backlinks, general | No comments

Wednesday

A couple of blogs entries to take note of, over at John Battelle’s blog he let’s us know “Apparently Bill Gates is still engaged at Microsoft, at least on one issue: Search. From a piece covering the integration of Powerset into Microsoft’s search index:” Check it out.

Over at We as humans always want the best… the top… the supreme… but in link building, that doesn’t always matter. Yes, if you can get some good PR 6+ links, it’s going to help you out in a pretty tough niche. But, if you have a fairly uncompetitive niche, then go for any backlinks. Link Building Bible postulates some good common sense “We as humans always want the best… the top… the supreme… but in link building, that doesn’t always matter. Yes, if you can get some good PR 6+ links, it’s going to help you out in a pretty tough niche. But, if you have a fairly uncompetitive niche, then go for any backlinks.” Check It out.

Finally Arron Wall over at SEOBook.com shares some thoughts about being real and being polished. Check it out.

Strategy and Tactics

August 13, 2008 in general, tips | No comments

The first question to ask when interviewing a prospective SEO or Marketing firm might well be one you had not thought of. The question is, “what do you see as the differences between strategy and tactics?” The answer will enable you to weed out the pretenders quickly and move on with the interview for finding a firm that will serve your best interests.

So are there really differences between Strategy and Tactics, absolutely. A Strategy is the overall view of where you are going and what you will find when you get there. (read more about Strategy at wikipedia) The Tactics tell you what tools you will use to execute and bring to fruition your strategy. (read more about Tactics at wikipedia)

Success demands that you have a clear and extensive long term strategy. Having a well laid out strategy will then allow you to know exactly what tools and resources you need to assemble to be successful.

Washing The Windows

July 26, 2008 in general, offline marketing | No comments

Setting out on the path of marketing can seem at times like a path full of danger. Either you do your own marketing or you hire a firm to do it for you but either way there are few if any guarantees the money you spend will create positive results.

In the end marketing really can be no more effective then shooting dice in Las Vegas except your not dealing with vacation money. The money you spend to market your business is an expense that needs to be accounted for.

I suggest before you do a large spend on outside marketing you step back and do all the simple things you can to burnish your companies image in-house. Think of your business as being on a street corner with people walking past looking in the windows all day long. What is is you want people to see when they look at your business? They could be looking at either your website, brochure, billboard, waiting rooms,trucks, balloons or hundreds of other items and ideas associated with your business.

What do people see when they look through your windows? Wash your street level windows everyday.