The Besat shopping site

What is the best shopping site on the Web?

See Published Reviews

The Readers' Choice Awards showcased the best content, sites, and services from ten categories, including Best Shopping Site. The nominees (as chosen by readers) were as follows:

• eBay
• Amazon
• Groupon
• Zappos
• Etsy

Do you have a favorite shopping site that didn't quite make the cut? Do you agree or disagree with reader-chosen nominees? Share with the About.com community your favorite shopping site, and why it deserves the title of Best Shopping Site.

The Best Web Searching On The Planet: How to make extra income...?

The Best Web Searching On The Planet: How to make extra income...?

The Best Web Searching On The Planet: The Best search Engine

The Best Web Searching On The Planet: The Best search Engine

The Best search Engine

Write a Review: What is the best search engine on the Web?

See Published Reviews

The Readers' Choice Awards showcased the best content, sites, and services from ten categories, including Best Search Engine. The nominees (as chosen by readers) were as follows:

• Google
• Bing
• DuckDuckGo
• Dogpile
• Yahoo

The Best Web Searching On The Planet: How to get more traffic to your site

The Best Web Searching On The Planet: How to get more traffic to your site

How to get more traffic to your site

1. Create link clusters within your blog

A link cluster is a group of links that you can point at a post or page to improve its search engine ranking. Let’s say you have a post that’s ranked for ‘stupid business ideas’. Edit 10 of your other posts to create links (using ‘stupid business ideas’ as the anchor text) to the ‘stupid business ideas’ post and you will surely move up in Google for that keyword. This process can be implemented in about 10 minutes and can be used for any keyword your site ranks for or is trying to rank for.

2. Rework HTML title tags of trafficked posts

By watching your stats, you can often identify posts that get search traffic from a keyword, even though the keyword isn’t listed in the HTML title of the post. By editing your posts’ HTML titles to add the keywords they cover, you can strengthen the rankings and therefore the traffic that the post generates. You can easily make a difference with this method in less than 20 minutes. This method combines very well with #1.

3. Invite your readers to connect with you on StumbleUpon and Facebook

You can never ever have too many friends on SU and Facebook. Inviting existing readers to find you on these services with a post should take less than 20 minutes.

4. Save your best posts for the best times of the week

Writing a home-run post on a Saturday afternoon will probably happen from time to time. However, does your blog have good traffic on Saturdays? Analyzing your blog’s stats to determine when it naturally has the most traffic can get more eyes on a great post, which will translate to more social votes and more links. If you have created the post of your life, wait for a good day to publish – it will cost you about 1 minute on a later date to put it up.

5. Edit your post one more time

How can you improve your title? How can you improve your first paragraph? Small details in your post, especially in the beginning of your post, can make an enormous difference in its ability to draw social traffic and links. You can definitely improve your title, first paragraph, formatting, and grammar within 30 minutes.

6. Stop writing about yourself. Start solving problems

Surfers become readers when a blog provides something that is wanted. A casual visitor may read your blog because they find training, answers to problems, entertainment, or something else they want. This more than likely will mean that they won’t want to read about you, your girlfriend, your cats, your kids, or your catastrophes (unless you have a personal blog that your friends read). Discontinuing the off-topic posts will help you to develop more repeat traffic and takes exactly 0 minutes to implement.

7. Subscribe to the feeds of your industry’s major players

That way, you won’t miss important news releases. When news breaks in your industry, there will be a lot of extra traffic searching for information on the event. Adding your thoughts will almost always generate extra traffic. Subscribing to the feeds of your industry’s top sites should take no more than 15 minutes.

8. Give a great post to a prominent blog

Let’s say that you took the time to write something great. Donating your post to a great blogger can help you to create a win-win. The great blogger gets a great piece of content that will bring him social traffic and links and you can create exposure for your name and brand. Emailing your post to a great blogger or blog takes less than 10 minutes.

9. Go to the store

Look at magazines. Pay special attention to the types of titles that are used on the covers. Write down the most interesting titles and think about what makes them interesting. In order to generate buzz around a post, a great title is an absolute necessity. More on this topic here: The Cosmo Headline Technique for Blogging Inspiration. You should be able to find some good title ideas in about 30 minutes.

10. Answer your email and comment questions

Nothing will show a reader that you care more than answering an question (even if you have already answered that question 100 times on your site). Why do people read your blog? Because you solve their problems. Why will they come back again and again to your blog? Because you solve their problems. Answering a person’s email or comment question should take less than 5 minutes.http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/04/13/10-ways-to-improve-blog-traffic-in-30-minutes-or-less/

Web Design or Graphic Design ?

One of the most frustrating things for me within design is my seemingly misplaced sense of job title. What I just don’t get is why a web designer is different than a graphic designer? Other than the mediums being used, what is the real difference and what do multi-discipline designers like me refer to themselves as? The only solution that I have come up with so far is the title of Art Director, which while true in my case but is really just a way to avoid the problem. The title is also very vague towards those who know nothing about our industry. In the past I have even been asked if I work at a museum when I tell people what I do.

Why is a web designer not a graphic designer?

What is the distinction that keeps a web designer from being labeled a graphic designer as well. Why is it that “graphic designers,” in the context they are referred to, are not “print designers?” In a logical world, both web designers and print designers would belong to the parent category of “graphic designer.” This is at least the way that I look at it. Are both disciplines not the practice of graphic design, just separated by medium?

Why does the medium make the designer

I may be an “art director,” but I will always be a graphic designer, regardless of what medium I am currently working in. I think the distinctions being drawn between what type of designer you may be is good for defining a niche, but at what cost? There are numerous articles floating around the web debating what designers should call themselves or others that go against titles all together, but people use them to quickly understand what we do.

How the titles affect pay

For whatever reason if I am a starting designer and I refer to myself as a web designer, I am potentially qualified to receive roughly $10,000 (Coroflot survey) more than my “graphic designer” peers. Individuals like me who work within both mediums are then forced to decide between choosing to be called a web designer (and potentially giving up print work) or forgoing the increased salary that it entails.

The negative connotations surrounding web design

When I was in design school it was apparent that not many of the students wanted to be web designers. The negative connotations surrounding web design included a perceived notion of lack of creativity in the medium, extreme technical limitations, and the idea that you would be more of a developer or programmer than a designer. While some individuals such as me enjoy web design, many seek to avoid the title in order to pursue the more “creative” formats such as poster design or identity work. Either way it seems like there is a large prejudice against the medium present amongst design students, which in and of itself may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. I however will not be giving up the medium.
For the time being, my fellow multi-discipline designers and I will continue to struggle with an accurate job title. I’m just looking to find a suitable description of my service within this time of rapid development and innovation. Until then I will continue to refer to myself as an art director to those within the industry, and a graphic designer to those who are not familiar with our industry.
If you are in a similar situation what is your solution? Is there something that I am missing or am I just concerned with something most people don’t care about?

How to Make Extra Income

When you train your mind to look for opportunity, it is amazing how much income you can make solving the problems of others.

There are a lot of great ways out there to make money, both short-term and long-term. The Internet in general has opened up the ability for an average person to do really well, and fast-paced lifestyles have opened up the opportunity for other people to fill new needs in service-based side businesses.

Here are what I believe to be some of the fastest and easiest ways to make money. Not all of them are glamorous, but they can help you gain extra income for a better life:

Sell Online:
Whether it's Ebay, Amazon, Craigslist,or your own site, the ability to have a store that never closes is why this appeals to a lot of people. You can make extra money while you're physically at work or even asleep. They do take work, but they're flexible enough to fit into most people's lifestyles. Just do some research ahead of time so you know you are selling something in demand.

Start Your Own Writing Business:
You can do this more than one way, based on your skills and background. There's article writing for sites such as Ehow.com, Helium.com and Associated Content. There's also the option of e-books if you're an expert in almost anything. I personally do both and enjoy it.

Clean Houses:
I know people who make great money doing this. Basically you can do this by word-of-mouth and build up as many clients as you can handle. If you're willing to do the work and build a reputation, you'll never have a shortage of customers.

Mow Lawns:
This is more of a summer side job, but again it's something you can build up into a steady stream of income if you have enough clients. This is assuming you have your own mower or have the ability to use one belonging to the home owners.

Babysit:
Most of us have friends with children who would like to have a break every once in awhile. They would most likely rather have someone watch them that they know as opposed to someone they have to screen. Just let people know you're available and charge a reasonable rate.

Offer to Teach Something You Know:
I've had some wonderful older people ask me if I would teach them enough about personal computers to get them caught up on how to send e-mail, download photos from a digital camera, etc. If you have any type of skill that's in demand (computers, foreign language, music, etc), you may be able to turn it into extra money.

Build Web Pages for People:
If you have this skill and do it well, it's another field that has a lot of demand. You can do it on your own time and charge a rate based on the complexity of the web page. You can market this to individuals, churches, businesses, schools, and other community organizations.

Build a Web Page for Yourself:
Design a site about something you're passionate about and sign up for affiliate programs such as Google Ad.

Making extra money solutions

Short on cash? Many single parents find themselves in need of extra income, but don't have a lot of free time available to take on a second--or even third--job. When this happens, it's time to get creative and find job opportunities that work for you. Consider the following options to help you earn extra income while working from home in your spare time:

Become a Child Care Provider
There are many families out there who need quality child care at odd hours. So even if you work full-time during the week, you could still pick up a few extra dollars by caring for other children on the weekends, or even during occasional overnight hours. See your list here www.babysitters.com


Freelance
There are a lot of freelance jobs that can be done from the comfort of your own home and will allow you to work around your existing schedule. Consider a part-time job writing, typing, or proofreading. Such as :
Internetindo online money maker
Free work from home solution
Sell or Buy solution

Become a Virtual Assistant
What skills do you possess that make it easy for you to do something that might take others three or four times as long? Put those skills to use as a virtual assistant. For example, a small business owner might contract with you to regularly develop and send their monthly newsletter, or update their database.
virual assistant

Use Your Creativity to Earn Money
Consider how you might transform the unique skills you possess into an opportunity to earn extra income. For example, if you love scrap-booking, try offering to complete other parents' unfinished scrapbook pages. Consider your gifts and what you love to do, and the possibilities are endless.
Sell crafts and gifts from home