About The Author Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one. Source: http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2006/02/terminal-dvd.html

The Internet is growing at an exponential rate, resulting from greater masses attempting to earn an income from the Computer Revolution. It doesn’t take long for a developer to realize the magnitude of increasing competition, when attempting to obtain more visitors. How much competition exists? The fact is, when this article was written, “Whois,” reported 65,443,044 active Domains existed. Additionally, 446,308 Domains where, “on-hold,” and 1,184,180 Domains where created by 18:00 EST (1). While this information does not illustrate direct competition for a given niche, it’s apparent that any type of Website created will have modest rivalry.

The Business model of an Internet Website is relatively simple; increasing traffic means increasing revenue. However, with the growing number of Websites, it will become more difficult to obtain greater traffic. So how is traffic disbursed on the Internet? Traffic disbursement can be isolated to two primary sources: Search Engine Queries and Incoming links.

Search Engines have evolved greatly in the past few years. However, the principal is still the same. A Search Engine Spider travels through virtual space analyzing Webpages’ encountered and assessing their premise. Spiders can quickly route through deeply routed pages within any given Website and index them within a Database. In addition, they can assess which Websites change frequently, and retrieve new data on a scheduled basis. Because of their ability to quickly assess pages and their changes, they offer the internet community one of the most valuable resources, “The ability to accurately locate documents of interest”.

Based on the fundamentals of Search Engine’s, developer’s can increase Search Engine traffic by offering more content and resources. As relevant pages and resources are added to a Website, the premise of the Website becomes more apparent. In addition, expanded queries will match relevant pages displaying new content.

The other source of Internet Traffic, “incoming links,” can benefit a developer in several ways. First and most obvious, we can achieve greater traffic from the visitor of Websites displaying the incoming links. Also, if used properly, incoming links that are text based (Anchor Text) help Search Engine Spiders determine the premise of a Web-page. Finally, the total number of incoming links improves rapport with Search Engines (2).

Because some Search Engines poses the tools and resources to quickly archive numerous pages and their data, they have begun to utilize, “Anchor Text,” to leverage their Search Engine Results. The most famous example, of this technology being implemented, is the Apple QuickTime Download page showing as number one in Google for a search query of, “Click Here”. The term, “Click Here,” cannot be found anywhere on the visible page or Source Code. So why is it number one? Because the Developer linked the words, “Click Here,” to the download page from many pages with good rapport (High Google PR). Naturally, this is pure speculation, as only the Google Engineers could explain exactly why it is number one accurately. However, most are probably familiar with the famous Google Bomb of, “Miserable Failure”. A large number of people linked, “Miserable Failure,” to the Official White House Web-page of President George W. Bush. As a result, George ranks number one on Google for the search term.

Text links can be acquired through paying for placement or through exchanges with other Webmasters. For the most part, paid links will generate a lot more traffic then exchange links. This is due solely to placement. In a typical link exchange, the incoming links are placed on, “Weak,” pages that receive little traffic. In contrast, advertised links will be presented on prominent pages with a lot of visitors. Moreover, a lot of speculation exists regarding how the major three Search Engines treat reciprocal links. Some believe they cancel-out one another, as a vote. This speculation suggests that, “one-way,” incoming links provide the greatest benefit.

Bombing, as illustrated in the above examples, has created a large market for the purchase of Text Links. As a matter of fact, text link advertising is soaring right now. A number of people now offer broker services, connecting text link publishers with people wishing to advertise. It has gotten so big the Major search engines are beginning to demonstrate concern. Matt Cutts, a developer for Google, has offered some insight on the matter (3). Acknowledging that many Websites rely on the sale of ad space for income, he explains how this method of calculating the premise of a page has greatly improved Search Results for all the major Search Engines, and selling links hurts this technology. Matt suggests that sold links should include an additional tag, “rel=nofollow,” to tell Spiders not to count the vote. The Consequences of not including the tag means that Google may not pass PageRank with links coming from the site selling the links. Essentially, purchased links that do not include that tag will eventually become worthless for Search Engine recognition.

Outside of paid advertising, it would require something really special to acquire incoming links. With practical reasoning, a developer would have to either create something very useful to the Internet community, or offer valuable information that will be referenced by others often. What ever method is conjured, it’s obvious in this point of time, the text link prevails for traffic generation.

(1) Whois Source: Detailed Domain Counts and Internet Statistic (http://www.whois.sc/internet-statistics/).

(2) Google: Google Technology (http://www.google.com/technology/).

(3) Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO: Text Links and PageRank (http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/text-links-and-pagerank/).

About The Author Michael Medeiros is the developer of Mjmls. Michael has an extensive background in Business and Advertising. He offers Internet Advertising Solutions through his free classifieds (www.mjmls.com), Website Directory (links.mjmls.com), and Internet bulletin (forums.mjmls.com/advertising/).

About The Author Magalie Noel Dresse is the Webmaster of http://www.mypsace.org which offers myspace layouts for free.

After picking up the bicycle on Thursday, I finally took my first ride on Friday afternoon through the beautiful residential area of Vedado. We had had a tropical downpour in the early afternoon, so the streets were a bit wet and it was about 4 pm or so by the time I got out. Of course, by that time, rush hour traffic had already started and there were thousands of people in the street, waiting for buses. The bicycle was a pretty new mountain bike, but it seems that all the gears and derailleurs were totally screwed up and I constantly had problems with the chain. 2 of the 3 chainrings in the front didn”t work at all and I had a pretty hard time getting along with the bike.

But even more so than the technical difficulties, the stares I got from all the locals were a really unnerving experience, especially since there were so many people in the street. You don’t see too many modern bicycles on the street, and even fewer are ridden by women. Of course the guys whistle at you at every turn, which, as I am told, is totally part of the culture and not a threatening gesture. Nevertheless, I did feel rather unnverved with this experience.

Bicycles in general are basic means of transportation here, not recreational vehicles. And considering that even a very basic new bike at maybe $100 or so is worth 5, 6 or even 10 months of state salary, it’s not surprising that they tell you never to let the bicycle out of your sight. And riding through the streets I almost felt as if I was surrounded by a group of lions that were ready to pounce to capture their prey.

So as a result I decided, I’d rather not attract that much attention to myself and I decided to hand the bike back to the owner. The last thing I wanted is for the bicycle to get stolen, so I decided I’ll wing it with regular transportation options and do more walking, getting some exercise at the same time.

In the evening my friend Pedro and I decided to catch the “GuaGua” again and we took a “Camello” (a very large bus with 2 humps, pulled by a truck engine) from around the Capitolio to the other side of Havana Bay to the old fortress of “El Morro” which was built in th 16th century. The Camello was so full that one of my feet couldn’t touch the ground and the hydraulic doors coulnd’t close because people were hanging out the door. Certainly an experience…..

Every day at 9 pm they have a ceremony at the fortress where they have a few men dressed up in old (colonial?) uniforms and they shoot off 2 cannon balls across the bay to commemorate La Habana’s military past. El Morro and Las Cabanas is an interesting area with a museum and numerous stores selling tourist merchandise. After the ceremony we caught another, much less overstuffed, GuaGua back to the western side of La Habana and we had another very affordable dinner in the Barrio Chino.

This time my intestinal system was okay and I caught a good night’s sleep to rest up for the weekend.

About The Author Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the t-ransitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys. Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River. “Life is a Journey Explore New Horizons”. The travel story with photos is published at Travel and Transitions – Travel Stories (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/hello_cuba_8.htm).

When was the last time you gave your readers a reason to devour your writing? If you suspect you aren’t capturing your readers as you should then you need to work on your introductions.

As the old saying goes: You never get another chance to make another first impression. This is even more true for introducing your essay or article than it is for introducing yourself. If your introduction does not capture the attention and interest of your reader then you have likely lost that reader. In ages past, people have a limited selection of reading material and they would read past the introduction to determine whether or not a particular essay or article appealed to their interest or taste. However in today’s fast-paced, media savvy culture a writer has only a few scant sentences to capture the attention of the reader and draw him into her work.

That is the primary reason why introductions are so important, but they are also important because once you have captured the interest of the reader you need to set the reader up with the necessary information and proper tone, in essence you need to establish a mood, for the remainder of the essay.

So it is important to remember these three keys:

~ Intriguing
~ Introductory
~ In keeping (with the tone)

Of course, creating an intriguing introduction isn’t easy. It takes practice, trial and error, and reflection. Don’t get hung up on the introduction before you begin writing though. Many of the most effective introductions are not written until near the end of the writing process.

The first rule for creating an intriguing introduction is to avoid the announcement. Don’t tell the reader what you are going to write about, but instead show the reader. This means using literary devices such as the anecdote or story; problem or question; description; or eye-catching statistic or quote. The best, and most effective, introductions lead the reader right into the essay or article and make it easy to work in your thesis, or main point, either explicitly or implicitly.

An introduction should be more than simply intriguing. It should also be utilitarian. Make sure when you get to the meat of your essay or article that the reader is not shocked to discover the topic and purpose of your essay. If you wish to strategically withhold certain information that is certainly your prerogative as the writer, but while surprise may be good shock definitely is not. So your introduction should announce the topic, prepare the reader for the main points the essay will cover, and reveal your purpose.

When brainstorming and working on your introduction it is also important to match the tone of your introduction with the type of essay or article you are writing as well as the tone of the body of the piece. If your main essay is meant to be very factual and informative then probably light humor is not appropriate. Similarly if you plan to write a humorous, satirical essay then you probably want to avoid a more scholarly introduction that quotes from a Greek philosopher.

Good introductions are rarely discovered by accident, but rather painstakingly planned. Remember, good introductions are intriguing, introductory, and in keeping. However the more you practice your introductions and if you keep these three points in mind then you will be able to create a strong first impression with your writing.

About The Author Deanna Mascle shares more writing tips and advice at http://AnswersAboutWriting.com.

Celebrities are not like everyday people. They have busy schedules, drive expensive cars, and wear jewelry that others can only dream of owning. Maybe it is because celebrities are so far removed from normal life that they often give their babies unusual names.

Some names are just a little different. John Travolta and Kelly Preston have two beautiful children. Their daughter’s name is Ella Bleu. Their son’s name is Jett. Jett is different, but anyone who knows anything about John Travolta knows he has a love for flying. Gwyneth Paltrow, pregnant again, came under scrutiny for naming her first child Apple. While it is unusual, it is somewhat cute, like in the “apple of their eye.” Chris Martin, her husband, tired of the controversy over the name Apple, has jokingly stated their second child, whether male or female, will be named Banana. Another cute name is Dandelion, the name of Keith Richards’ daughter. Julie Roberts recently gave birth to twins – a boy and a girl – and received flack over the names she chose. She received almost as much grief over the choice for her daughter’s name, Hazel, as she did the more eccentric choice of Phinnaeus for her son.

Many people speculated what Madonna would name her first child. Lourdes Maria seems a fitting name for child who’s mother’s name is Madonna, but she often goes by Lola. Her son is named Rocco, which sounds a bit like a cartoon character, but at least it is a tough sounding name. Actor Casey Affleck and fiancé Summer Phoenix recently had a son named Indiana August, which leads one to wonder what state and month their son was conceived in. Toni Braxton has two sons, Denim and Diezel. While both useful products, they make somewhat strange names for children. Rob Marrow decided it would be cute if he named his daughter Tu Simone Ayer, calling her Tu Morrow. Wonder if she will think it is cute 20 years from now? Actor Jason Lee named his son Pilot Inspektor, but magician Penn Jillette may have topped them all. He named his daughter, Moxie Crimefighter, saying “because when she’s pulled over for speeding she can say, `But officer, we’re on the same side, my middle name is CrimeFighter.”‘

If you think it is a new trend, think again. Back in 1971, David Bowie and his then wife Angela decided to name their son Duncan Zowie Heywood Jones. He soon became known as Zowie Bowie. Cher named her children Chastity Sun and Elijah Blue.

The Phoenix family is well known for their unusual choice of baby names. Summer Phoenix’s siblings are the late actor River Phoenix, actresses Rain and Liberty Phoenix and actor Joaquin Phoenix. Joaquin felt his name was so out of place with his siblings, that when he was four, he decided to change his name to Leaf. By the early 1990’s, he had reverted back to using his birth name. Another family infamous for their choices of baby names is the Zappa family. Frank’s children are Dweezil, Moon Unit, Ahmed Emuukha Rodan and Diva Muffin. While many people think that Dweezil is his given name, his birth name was originally Ian Donald Calvin Euclid Zappa because the hospital refused to register the name Dweezil. Always called Dweezil, when he was a child, he wanted to make the name official and his parents took him to have it changed legally. Paula Yates, former wife of Sir Bob Geldof and girlfriend of late rocker Michael Hutchence, also had a knack for giving her children unusual names. Among her brood are Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa, Heavenly Hiraani Tigerlily, and Little Pixie.

Some celebrity baby names make sense if you know the story behind them. Eurythmic’s Dave Stewart named his son Django after jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Stevie Wonder named his son Mandla Kadjaly Carl Stevland, however Mandla means “powerful” in Zulu and Kadjaly means “born from God” in Swahili. Helen Hunt just gave birth to a baby girl she named Makena’lei Gordon. The name Makena’lei is from a friend’s dream and means “many flowers of heaven.” Gordon, an unlikely girl’s name, was to honor of Helen’s father, television director Gordon Hunt. Nicolas Cage just named his new baby boy Kal-el. Because Nicolas took his stage name of Cage from comic book character Luke Cage, he decided to name his son Kal-el after one of his favorite comic book heroes. Kal-el is Superman’s kryptonian name.

So, do the children like these unconventional names given them by their parents? In some cases, they do. The Phoenix’s seem to love their nature-inspired names and the Zappa children seem to have had no ill effects from their eccentric names. However, some children tire of the peculiar names quickly. Zowie Bowie had had enough of his moniker by the time he was 12 and asked to be referred to as “Joey.” Although Dandelion Richards does not seem too bad, she has since started referring to herself as Angela. Recently, Peaches Honeyblossom Michelle Charlotte Angel Vanessa Geldof has been the most outspoken about the odd choice her parents made in naming her. She has been quoted as saying, “I hate ridiculous names. My weird name has haunted me all my life.”

While having an unusual name might be difficult for any child, the celebrity of a child’s parents may enhance it even further. Thankfully, celebrity children who decide they don’t like their given names can switch to a nickname or even eventually have their names legally changed.

About The Author Julie Parker is a successful writer and publisher providing valuable tips and advice on finding the top baby names, unusual baby names, and baby name meanings. http://www.about-baby-showers.com.

About The Author Shahryar Badar of this article is the Director of http://glad2teach.com ( an online Math tutoring center ). Glad2teach is a pioneering approach to make Math learner-friendly ( i.e. easy & interesting ) for the students. It helps the student to master his syllabus easily and speedily. For any Math related help or to have more such easy updates, check out http://glad2teach.com.

Never used ‘em. Not likely to start now.

OK, so I just lied a little bit. (Is that anything like being a little bit pregnant?) I really didn’t mean to. (Hmmm, that comment could be applicable to the pregnant thing too but actually I was referring to my lying.)

I guess the one positive affirmation that I commonly use is not so much a phrase that I repeat or think about periodically throughout the day – it’s more like an answer to a question. The question? “How ya doin’?”

My answer will likely be “Super! And you?” Once in a while it may slip to “Really good!” and occasionally it will pop up to “Fantastic!” but most of the time I cruise through the day at a “super” level. Do I mean it? Well, of course I do. I wouldn’t lie about something like that. And no, I wasn’t always “super” – but many years ago I started saying it anyway because I had heard that if you start thinking more positively your life will be better. So I tried it and it worked – well, sort of. Once I figured out – with help naturally – that I really had to do something to make some changes in my life so that it would be “super” – it became “super”. I’m still doing things and making changes so that I can be “double super”. I think that probably equates to somewhere close to “fantastic”.

So I guess when you get right down to it, I do use a positive affirmation – along with positively oriented actions to do those things I want to do. But that’s it. That’s the only positive affirmation I use!

OK, except for maybe another exception that I just thought of. When I get out of bed in the morning and am having my first cup of coffee, I do think about what a great day it is (yes, no matter what the weather is or what I need to do that day) and how great it is to be alive and to be able to experience just living. I think about that for awhile and then I chat with my spiritual director and say “thanks” for allowing me to be me and permitting me to have the opportunity to learn and enjoy this great creation. Then I usually have another cup of coffee and think about this a little more as I make plans for doing those things I believe I should do during the day. But that’s it. That’s the only other positive affirmation I use!

Well, maybe except for the times that I experience something really neat during the day. Like meeting someone new – or just getting to know an old friend a little better. Or like seeing a situation develop and realizing that the odds of it happening just coincidentally would be totally astronomical. Or like noticing the strange little plant that popped up just outside of the flower bed has really cool leaf markings. Or like feeling the morning dew on my bare feet as I walk across the front lawn. Or – well, you get the idea. But since I’m “fessing up” here, I know I have a pile of good, positive thoughts at these times and I suppose you could say these would be a type of positive affirmation. But that’s it. Those are the only other positive affirmations I use!

Well, maybe except for when I’m getting ready for bed and I take a few minutes to think back on my day and all the really good things I’ve seen and experienced and I take just a minute to thank my master teacher for giving me the opportunity to enjoy another day. I guess you could consider that to be a type of positive affirmation.

But that’s it. That’s the only other positive affirmation I use! I just don’t believe in ‘em…

About The Author Gene, through NuPathz.com, provides an easy reading self-help blog, articles and links along with affordable books and materials written to help folks find the road to a more enjoyable lifestyle, to pass on some of life’s “secrets for survival” in a chaotic world & offer a few smiles along the way. It’s a down-to-earth, simple approach to discovering a better life. You can visit Gene at http://www.nupathz.com/ gene@nupathz.com

About The Author Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one. Source: http://thedvdreport.blogspot.com/2005/02/under-tuscan-sun-dvd.html

Yes, anyone can create a Website, it is not as hard as you may think and it will not take a long period of time to get done. If you can not afford for pay for a professional to create one for you, there are other options you may not have considered.

Most people today that have a PC (personal computer) at home today also have some sort of ‘office’ program, either from Microsoft or some other company of the same level. You may even want to take advantage of the offers from the big search engines themselves, such a Google’s new page creator, and have an additional websites on the internet.

These programs come with additional programs that make life easier, such as Word, Publisher, Power Point to name a few. Since many are well versed in one of these programs, they often use it’s ‘website’ function as their first tool for creating a website. It all depends upon the level of the master program you install, and that depends upon the value you think the program will have for you at the time of purchase. For instance, you can get Microsoft office ‘pro’ or ’student/teacher’, which will have only certain programs included. The ‘pro’ version has Access, FrontPage and Publisher, where as the ’student/teacher version does not.

You will just have to try them out and select the one you feel is best suited for your level of expertise. You can always at a later time,use one of the others and even a ’stand alone’ program of some sort to make your website better, if desired. There is nothing wrong with any of the mentioned programs,I used Word as my very first website creation tool once Microsoft added that function to it. I have been active with computers since the early 70’s when I took computer science in college and majored in programming. At that time is was all ‘main frame’ languages since the internet as we know it today did not exist. There was one but it was not available for public use and many did not know about it, only the colleges and government.

We know the search engines love to ‘re-visit’ your site and check for changes in order to have the latest changes you have made to your site. There will be changes during the course of time as many change associations, add links or pictures and text. I too go through this and get tired of having the same old page jump up at me when I go to my site. If you are like most of use, you visit your site much more than anyone else. You like to check things like your ‘hits’, ‘page views’, and links ( to see if any are no longer valid ).

Here is where having an advanced editing program (the more common are ‘Dreamweaver and Frontpage’) comes in very handy or having a working knowledge of html code as you will need one of them to get your ‘meta tags’ in place. Do you have to do this? No, you do not, but if you do not then you may never get listed with some of the better engines since the ‘robots’ they send to check out your site for listing may not find the information they require.

The key to any website when creating it is to detach yourself and think about what others will like or think about what they see when the visit your site. There are physical aspects to this, not only mental ones. You will find in a room of many people they each will have input on what ‘they’ like. You will have to get the common factors and use those as your basic ones as the starting point for your site. You can always ignore this and do what you like and that is ok too. With the millions of new people getting on the internet every month, the chances of ‘like minds’ like yours that will love your site just as you created it grows. It will be seen no matter what, so don’t become overly concerned and get your site up as soon as you can.

When Google came out with ‘Adsense’ they found many neglected certain aspects called site page ‘hot spots’. These ‘hot spots’ should never be overlooked when creating a website or any of it’s ‘related’ pages. Google has a set of articles about this.

I, like many of you, love to ‘do things myself’ and got advanced programs such as Frontpage to use for my website creation and up-dating once I had the initial site up using one of the basic programs such as the ones mentioned above. I am even more into learning how to use them myself by relying on the ‘help’ aspects. I have found that for me, trial and error brings more rewards. I also just have not the time to attend a night class or private class on the program, although I do think most should do this before attempting to do a site with an advanced website program.

Once your done, you will face another challenge and that is ‘up-loading’ it to your domain for the rest of the world to view. There are several ways you can do this or you can contact your hosting company and they will assist you or do it for you. If they charge will depend upon the level of site you have with them or other factors. I have found it is better to create the site first, then get your hosting. Let them know you have a ‘web’ ready to up-load. In the process you will also find it will take up to 72 hours before your domain will be viewable across the whole internet or for your hosting server to get what is called the DNS active.

The bottom line is to get your site up as soon as you can and start making money with it if that is what you desire.

Good Luck,

About The Author Robert Nixon has been active on the internet since it’s start. Had a successfull shareware distribution business. Now dedicated to helping others with site improvement and avoiding scams. View their website at: http://www.cpucash.net robert@cpucash.net