Strangely enough, just before this “story broke” (actually it was hidden in a tiny little section of our local business paper which I detest – the paper and the hiding), a friend of mine running WorldNewsVine and I were talking about the people’s right to news and how it’s used on their websites and blogs.

I won’t get into the whole convoluted mess, but here’s the little snippet of information that, if anything, should get you to take a look at your own web site or blog if you provide feeds:

Google said it will allow publishers to set a daily limit on the number of articles readers can view free through its search engine.

What the…?!

So I went digging, and suggest you take a look at:

o News.Sky.com

o Sliceofscifi.com

Or just do what I did and type in “google limits articles” into their search engine.

Freedom is getting slimmer by the day people… we best be sticking up for ourselves – fair warning.

Hopefully you are running some statistical accounting method on your website and/or blog like Google Analytics. By tracking the information in and out of your site, you will also be made aware of pages that either got lost in the shuffle, were eliminated completely but still referenced elsewhere on your site (that you forgot to remove the link to), or pages seach engines like Google (for reasons unknown) expect to be there, but aren’t.

These are known as your 404 page errors, and letting them pile up can be a time consuming task to set straight and (potentially) hurt your standings.

Mostly they are just a pain in the neck to get search engines like Google to stop seeing. In fact, years ago on a completely different hosting server, I did use the cgi-bin (we don’t now). And, even though the hosting had changed numerous times, those cgi-bin 404 errors kept haunting me. So when I saw a recent incoming newsletter about this problem, I figured it’s a good time to give everyone either a heads up or reminder to track these down and eliminate them.

In fact, Mary Peng of Web Analytics World has recently put out an article on how to make the most of those inevitable 404 errors. She writes:

No matter what type of site you may have, 404 errors may cost you something. It might not be money, but it’s costing you something. Retail sites could be losing money. Other types of sites, however, may be losing something just as valuable… pageviews… return visitors… things like that….

The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don’t benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they’ll leave and bring their money to another site.

Within her article, she also suggests another resource that gives you some great suggestions on how to fix up your 404 errors.

You’ll also discover some very interesting and creative ways you can make those dreaded 404 errors more entertaining. Here are more cool ways web owners have created their 404 pages.

So don’t wait too long. Do stay on top of these “lost pages.” Put them to valuable use and never lose another visitor to your site again.

Comments Welcome! Please Add Yours!

This morning cruising through Social Spark, I happened to come across a new search engine that is so simple to use, yet highly effective.

Find.com Search Engine

Find.com – how easy is that to remember! – has no intentions of being the next Google. However, what they pride themselves on is enabling you to take the shortest route between two points. (more…)

For anyone using RSS in any way, shape, or form, it’s always been highly advantageous to turn your feed into a Feedburner feed. With an Alexa ranking of 399, as I write, well that just speaks volumes in and of itself.

However, “recently” Google has acquired Feedburner. Yes, the huge search engine giant has taken over yet another website that started life online in a small way, but built itself up into something as awesomely huge in the RSS feed world as Google is to online searching.

Does this mean the service will suffer?

Well according to (more…)

By now you know how much we harp on commenting on blogs. Not only is it easy to do, but it’s absolutely, positively the best free form of marketing for yourself and your website – and a great way to gain a backlink (in most cases) in the search engines to your website link.

And now, especially for bloggers, there’s no reason not to… if you’re a member of Entrecard.

Entrecard and SezWho (a comment rating system) have joined forces to not only encourage your comments, but reward you for your efforts.

Here’s an excellent post that outlines the details (why reinvent the wheel?):
Top 10 Reasons Why Entrecard-SezWho Partnership Is Important For Bloggers

Frankly, we love comments and we love commenting – and we love free marketing!

And, for all you affiliate marketers and website owners without a blog, don’t think that commenting isn’t for you, too! Commenting can be incredibly lucrative – both in short and long term internet marketing and search engine linking… (and did we mention it’s free!).

Let’s face it, people pay big bucks to purchase a spot on websites and blogs. But commenting is FREE and gets you the same – actually even better – results! You get to pick and choose. Your comment remains on the blog forever. And no one will disconnect your link at a whim (or if you stop paying).

Of course the idea is to provide insight or feedback or a pat on the back to the blogger. Or to (kindly) dissent when appropriate. Your quality comments get you visitors to your website.

People are curious animals and a good comment always makes me click through to see what’s on the other end. Visitors that didn’t cost you a dime, just a bit of time.

And, if you use Firefox (we’re partial to Firefox), and have the Alexa addon, you’ve got the perfect tool to check for traffic ranks on the blogs you stop on and comment on (keep in mind it’s just a tool, who’s to say where your next client or customer might come from?).

So… Why purchase them, when commenting provides a natural (organic!) link for yourself on quality blogs?

It really is a no brainer.

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Your Turn! Have your say right now! Comments welcomed!