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Is Apple trying to disrupt the anticipation, hype and excitement over Google’s announcement of the Nexus One by announcing their own announcement of the Apple Tablet? None other than the Wall Street Journal reported and sort of confirmed that Apple is indeed launching its much talked Apple Tablet , which is due for launch not until March 27. While Google is about to officially unveil the Nexus One in a few hours from now. Are we looking at the opening salvo of the much awaited Google vs. Apple which we called an epic battle of Droids, Tunes and Systems? Funny how Apple is trying hard to raise awareness on its Apple Tablet wherein fact, prior to Google’s rumored launch of the Nexus One, Apple has been mum about it. But with the media hype and buzz that Nexus One has been getting as early as December, with predictions saying that Nexus One might steal a great deal of mileage from iPhone, Apple has every reason to be weary. Adding perhaps to Apple’s anxiety is Gartner’s prediction that the Android will dislodge iPhone from being the number smartphone operating systems in 2010. Now here’s the best part, there is also some rumors circulating the past few days that aside from the Nexus One, Google is also planning to announce its own Android tablet. The rumor is so good that HTC was even mentioned as a partner again. If this rumor is true, it would give Google some more time to gain mileage over the Apple Tablet which is due for launch March 27. Or perhaps, this might prompt Apple to launch the Apple Tablet earlier. So, now the waiting game begins. Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Apple Tablet: Apple Bites Back at
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anticipation,
apple,
apple-tablet,
from-the-nexus,
over-the-apple,
search engine news,
search-engine,
seo,
street-journal,
tools
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The hCard is a one-to-one representation of the vCard in XHTML format. It is served to turn contact information into a semantically correct HTML, Atom, RSS or any arbitrary XML file. I won’t try to describe why to use it. Quite a few people have done a great job detailing what hCard microformat is and why people should consider using it. One of the best step-by-step guides that any newbie will understand is “The hCard Microformat” tutorial published in 2007 . For those people who won’t learn anything until they are told this will affect rankings, I will only add that hCards are used by Google to create search snippets , (obviously) to rank businesses in local and geo-targeted search and is rumored to use the format more and more extensively. Besides, it helps search (and other) bots to aggregate all the web information about any specific person or business . This post shares some most useful and easy-to0use hCard tools for you to learn how to format n hCard, where to use it and how to take advantage of it. hCard
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Business,
creator,
download,
firefox,
hcard,
learning,
live,
opera,
person,
plugin,
tool,
user,
yahoo
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As we all know, unless you are fortunate enough to have content on a client site go viral due to its sheer brilliance, link building is a time intense activity. Positioning yourself in a niche, building great content, approaching a webmaster for a link– these things don’t happen in the blink of an eye. But I’ve established an excellent way to work on link building campaigns that takes less time than it would to do all the work alone. The answer is simple – university students. These anxious young minds are jumping for work experience, and link building is a relatively simple task where their success can be easily measured as you give them a head start in the marketing industry. University students are Internet savvy, decent writers, and cheap in comparison to link-building companies and consultants. The saying “you get what you pay for” does spring to mind, but they aren’t hard to train – they’re used to learning new material. It’s important to note that especially in this economy, university students are having a harder time finding work experience – which can work to our link-building agenda’s advantage. Step 1: Find the Career Office of a Local University Universities are eager to reach out to local businesses in order to connect their student with opportunities. Take advantage of this! Most schools have intra-net job sites, where you can post your “Link Building Trainee” opening at no cost. Step 2: Explain Link Building to Your New Charge Once I’ve selected Link Builder, I email them link building resources and explain that links from reputable sources are a significant part of a search engine’s algorithm. The more they understand what an important part of SEO links are, the more empowered they’ll feel to do their job well. Step 3: Identify Linkable Content The student must understand what parts of the site make for strong content and to whom they appeal. Have them write a quick line or two about which target audiences are interested in the content they have identified and why. Step 4: Proposed Websites Depending on how much control you want to exercise, it may be a good idea to have your student draw up a list of websites they propose to contact BEFORE they do it. If the student has understood the target audiences, this step should be easier for them to get the hang of. Step 5: Email Template or Phone Script If you’re going straight for the kill and contacting webmasters directly, show your student examples of past emails you’ve sent when link building. Naturally, they should be to the point, personalized, and demonstrate your site’s involvement/relevancy enough to convince a webmaster. If your student is phoning the website, run over with them who they should speak to and how they should present the content – it’s worth writing a script to ensure there is no confusion. Step 6: A Log It is important your student keep a log of their communication with different bloggers and webmasters. Be sure this data is in YOUR control, so if the student leaves for summer holiday or gets ill, you know who they’ve conversed with. Before I end this, I must say a word about student salary. While cheap, be fair and compensate university students for their time; at the very least reimburse them for travel and lunch when they come into the office. That said, go find yourself an aspiring Link Builder – while freeing up your time to focus on more important tasks, your Builder will be gaining valuable employment experience. Chelsea Blacker is a London based search consultant currently working at Base One Search With a background in SEO & PPC cultivated at Promediacorp in NYC, Chelsea focuses on engaging B2B brands in social media and online PR. If you want to further procrastinate from getting on with your real work, check out her current Marketing Pilgrim post You Know You Work in Search When… or say hi to her on twitter @ChelseaBlacker Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . How to Hire a University Student for Link
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builder,
Business,
career,
communication,
data,
link building,
nyc,
office,
search,
search-engine,
seo,
student,
tools,
university,
work
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When the clock struck midnight on January 1st, I began running. It was a 5k run in Philadelphia, along the Schuylkill River, to be more specific. During this run, I passed a homeless man. Rather than running past him, I stopped. I gave him $100. Later that day, I stopped to think in greater detail about that incident. What was it that compelled me to engage him? I think the answer to that question, in this case, should be fairly obvious. The night was cold and rainy. No person should be outside and homeless, regardless of how they got there. How does this story relate to my thoughts on many folks on Twitter? Before I continue, please understand I am in no way making light of the homeless. I’m simply offering background as to what inspired the following thought: Many individuals all around the social media world are simply asking for handouts. Think about that for a second. How many people do their best to be placed prominently in front of you, but really do very little to offer a value proposition? How many individuals clamor daily about social media strategies, and the need for engagement, yet fail to offer an answer to the simple question of why you should contribute to their success? I find more and more redundancy invading my personal space. Less substance, less value, less originality, more noise. While there is overwhelming concern about those that are not participating in social media ‘correctly’, there is a disproportionate lack of concern for those that are considered social media ‘geniuses’ and really offer minimal value. If you’re going to be successful long term using social media, you must be certain that your product can back up your mouth. With that in mind, follow along and below you’ll find a small list with tips to help you, or your product, offer a compelling value proposition. 10 Ways to Translate Social Media Success into Real World
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cruise-critic,
media,
media-success,
personal,
product,
schuylkill,
seo,
social,
Social Media,
social media marketing,
thoughts,
tools,
virtual,
your-product
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Ever since my last year’s post on the differences between the Facebook fan page and Facebook group ( which needs an update by the way ), people are contacting me with various questions related to the topic. One of the most frequent questions is about the most effective ways to promote a Facebook fan page. So here you go: the most effective, not really difficult to implement and quite obvious ways to promote your fan page : Round 1: Create fresh content for people to want to
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Business,
facebook,
facebook-static,
fan-page,
friends,
internet,
personal,
search-engine,
seo,
tools
