Earlier today, a good friend of mine was struggling to get high quality ads placed inside posts (not on the sidebar) of WordPress. While it’s easy enough to incorporate photos and the like, and get your text to wrap around said items, two highly used sources (videos and ads) continue to drive people crazy when it comes to wrapping their words around them.

YouTube videos and ads from Pulse360 are just two examples. Often one is forced to leave blank space and start the next paragraph underneath. No amount of playing around with obvious methods seems to satisfy your requirements. However, thanks to remarkableblogger the solution is super easy. (It just takes persistence using the search engines, yes your answer is out there.)

Here’s a screen shot of the highlighted code you would enter around say a YouTube video (you can visit the remarkableblogger above to actually see its placement): (more…)

It’s hard enough nowadays without some separate entity deciding what’s worth printing and what’s not. I’m not going to mention this third party company by name, but it’s fair to say my frustration level with them is rising by the second.

Typically some bloggers do make posts for other companies in return for payment. This blog occasionally posts these types of promotions after careful consideration. I don’t just post willy nilly, it has to make some sort of sense for me to share it with you. However, when stupid “rules and regulations” get in the way, making a post invalid, it is immensely frustrating. The average advertiser wants 100 to 200 words. I regularly post 300 to 600 words about their company. (more…)

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!

I’ve been so darn busy that it’s been a few days since I had the time to stop and do what I love… post something new on this blog.

However, it was worth the wait since we have several new resources you’re sure to find worthwhile, including information on how to start or get a job offline or on.

The first is Knol: A Unit of Knowledge. Not unlike a blog or wicki (or maybe just like a blog or wiki lol), Knol is a byproduct of Google where you can “share what you know and write a knol.”

With a PR of 7/10 (it’s Google’s own remember) and Alexa rank of 1 (again, it’s Google’s own), you can’t go wrong posting stuff you know and getting it listed and indexed in Knol.

The second item we’d like to share is a resource called Big Hit System, a pushbutton marketing resource run by a great guy named Steve Russell. Steve has put together the tools and resources you need to get the job done online. The best part? I’ve spoken with Steve and discovered another (gasp) online marketer willing to – yes – pick up his phone! He’s also been online long enough (since 2003) to know of what he speaks – another rare commodity and huge bonus for you! They even provide you with no obligation information on the home business right for you.

And while this next one is not new, if you’ve been hearing about the canonial tag and are still confused about whether you need to use it or not, that bolded link will take you straight to Google itself to read all about it. Best to get information like this straight from the horses’ mouth versus trying to interpret a third party’s interpretation. Website owners, article writers, and anyone with possible duplicate content on the same domain should read up on this “new” tagging system.

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Last but not least, if you’re looking for a job or a change in career, head on over to this information found at the AARP website. You do not have to be of retirement age to benefit from these job suggestions. They provide 10 ideas to help you make extra money fast. Again, these ideas are for ANY age and they even suggest “going rates” for what you can charge, how to get started, and more. Remember if you found this or any of our other posts and pages of interest, please comment. We love comments! (And it’s free marketing for you.)