Here is what I found interesting this week.

Unit tests are for functionality, not code!
The prevailing philosophy in regards to unit testing is writing your tests before your code. In practice, this happens a lot less than it should. Why should we write our unit tests first?

Turn Google App Engine into your own Personal Content Delivery Network (CDN)
As anybody who has run a growing website or blog knows, response time is going to get worse with the more users you have visiting your site. The users come from all angles, RSS feeds, homepage visits, search engine visits, people sealing your static files that you host, and pretty much anything else that can be served over HTTP. The solution to this problem is to off load your static content on to a Content Delivery Network or CDN. CDN providers cost a lot of money though, so it is nothing for us mere mortals with one server can afford.

But thanks to Google anyone can now run their own CDN for free on Googles servers. Lucky for you and me Google has made the process really painless and you can even have the CDN under you own domain name. In my case static.coderjournal.com.

10 Universal Truths of SEO
Google is great. I use its services on a daily basis and love the traffic it sends to my websites. As smart SEO professionals point out, however, Google isn’t the only search engine around, and may not be the biggest, baddest search engine on the block forever.

Well do you? SEO is such an important part of running an application or a website. If done properly it can rocket your site to success but if not done properly you can be left in a dazed heap of failure. So what is SEO?

SEO stands for Seach Engine Optimization and means setting up and marketing your website in a way that maximizes your exposure on seach engines. This involves using the proper semantic HTML markup to begin with, writing your content using specific keywords you want to be found for in searches, and getting links back to your site from other popular sites to improve your seach ranking.

This may sound simple enough but it is a huge task and requires a lot of insight into the SEO market. So what do you do?

Take Dan Durick for example. Dan focuses on car dealer SEO. That’s right the SEO market is large enough to allow for specialization. Each market requires special knowledge and insight to promote a site to it’s full potential.

It is clear from reading the articles on Dan’s blog that he knows what he is talking about when it comes to promoting a car dealership website. He demonstrates in one article how the decline in search traffic for dar dealerships is directly representative of the lagging economy. His data shows that sales are down this year and the search traffic follows a similar curve.

This skill is important to an SEO. Firstly, it will help you keep your job when you can present the hard, cold facts to a disappointed manager that wants to blame him for the decline in seach traffic. It is also important for the customer so they can understand how things work and how they can adapt to the ever changing seach market.

Here are some interesting stories from this week.

IE 8 strict mode doesn’t allow for CSS opacity?
So the fact that this has been labeled as by design suggests that IE8 will be the only browser produced in the last 10 or so years that will not support opacity in its strictest mode. Thats rediculous.

Google Will Sell Performics, SEOs Exhale
Exciting news from The Official Google blog today that reveals Google will stop scaring SEOs everywhere and will sell off Performics, the search marketing company that they accidentally acquired when they bought DoubleClick last year. To avoid the conflict of interest that comes when you’re a search engine selling search engine optimization services, Google will split Performics into two companies – an affiliate marketing company and a search marketing company – and then sell the search marketing half.

Webforms is dead. Long live MVC!
Scott Hanselman’s fourth screencast *confirms* that the interfaces and abstractions made as part of the MVC (HttpContextBase, IHttpRequest, IHttpResponse, etc.) will not be put into the existing Webforms model. That means that once MVC is released, the old HttpContext object in WebForms will *not* inherit from HttpContextBase, nor will the WebForms versions of HttpRequest and HttpResponse objects implement the interfaces.

But I’m not moving my mouse!
The IE team reacted correctly: the bug has been solved in IE8b1. When the mouse does not move any more the mousemove event stops firing, as it should.

However, this same bug was recently introduced in Safari (Windows) and Opera!

Safari 3.0 and Opera 9.26 support mousemove correctly, but Safari 3.1 and Opera 9.5b have copied the IE bug.

Here are some stories I found interesting this week. Enjoy!

Graham Langdon, Have You Been Naughty?
There is some bad blood boiling as someone is out to smear John Cow. I also blogged about it here.

Killer Writing Strategies
Alex Shalman shares his secrets on how to write killer articles, and make money doing it.

Microsoft Submits Windows 7 for Antitrust Review
Is the Windows 7 beta just around the corner and can Microsoft recover from their embarrassing Vista debocal?

Tough Times for GoDaddy
Are hard times a head for GoDaddy after these disturbing accusations?

Google has laid the smack down on a number of sites which has affected a lot of companies, websites, and blogs all over the Web. They have made changes to their algorithm that determines and passes PageRank to the sites it indexes.

The Smack Downs

This alone would be enough to get people buzzing and even some hopping mad but what has really got the blogoshere up in arms is the manual penalties it has handed out to many sites, bloggers in particular.

It seems nobody is out of Google’s reach. Top bloggers like John Chow have been virtually removed from Google’s search results where they once were on the first page for their keywords.

Bloggers that use PayPerPost have seen their PageRank wiped out essentially killing their value to PPP.

So what is the reason for these attacks?

Well it is simple. Google has laid out the rules regarding manipulating their PageRank and search result systems. The people that got smacked were clearly in violation of these rules. they gamed the system and finally got caught. Yes there was some callateral damage to other sites related to or affiliated with the penalized sites but we all knew what these guys were doing was in violation of Google’s rules.

So stop whining already. Yes you may have been wiped from the face of the Google Earth but if you had half a brain you’d have seen it coming. John Chow saw it coming. He has said from the beginning not to put your eggs in Google’s basket. Luckily he follows his own advice and has reported an increase in revenue since the changes even though he doesn’t even rank for his own name!

I don’t want to hear anymore about PPP their whole business model was built on Google’s PageRank. Not only did it defy all the guidelines Google set it was a stupid business model to begin with. Sure it made lots of money for a while but when you build your business on an ever-shifting foundation like Google’s PageRank then you are just asking to get whooped!

Come on people have a little sense and look at the long term picture!

Tough changes to AdSense

On the other side of the coin AdSense publishers have been brutally hit and from no fault of their own.

Google has drastically reduced referral commissions in just about every area, reduced CTR by narrowing the click area of the ads, and in a shockingly stupid move alienated a huge protion of their publishers by refusing to pay bloggers outside of North America, Latin America, and Japan.

I fail to see the reasoning behind why the bloggers pysical location has anything to due with it. If they are trying to target specific areas for their advertisers then why not only pay for clicks from USERS in those areas and ignore the others. That alone would be a big hit to publishers but to deny based on geographic location is just dumb!

They are slapping some of their biggest promoters and publishers in the face, like ProBlogger.

There are theories that Google is trying to prop up poor profits but we’ll have to see. At least advertisers will be happy as these changes save them money.

Content is the king of any site. There are instances when your article does not get picked up by search engine in spite of having a strong content. In this case, article linking will be very effective. If you link your site to any other popular site, then there is the maximum possibility of your content to get noticed. Marketing of your site can only make your content read by a large number of visitors. Article syndication is nothing but a powerful marketing tool. It is totally different from search engine optimization. By adopting this method, you can popularize your article and your site. For this reason, it is very important that you keep your content original.

Article syndication links up your article to various well known sites. For this, it requires an informative content. However, there are many writers that pay a foul game with content. They use those keywords in their content which are widely searched but do not have anything to do with the original content. If this is the scenario, then that site will not be picked up by any popular sites and in the later period of time it will be banned. While writing content, the content writer should be well versed with keyword density, meta tags, alt tag etc. An article is a very strong weapon of any site. If an article is not interesting and informative then adopting article syndication also will not be make your site visible. So, it is very important that you make your content highly readable, interesting and up-to-date. Always try to freshen up your site.

If your site is not noticed by any one then your effort to write new content will ended in smoke. Article syndication will link your article to another site and make people noticed your article and read it. In this way, the site and the article will become popular. To start with it, a site should hire a content writer to write articles for their website. After writing the content it is necessary to post the article in all the well known sites. The article should have the link of its site. It is very important that the article is submitted in all the popular bookmarking sites. Even if a surfer does not have any idea regarding your site, through bookmarking he will able to reach your site. In this way, your site will get a new visitor.

Article syndication will increase traffic and increase sales. It is all about marketing your article in all the popular sites. Before writing article, one should do some basic research on the keywords. There are many keywords tool that can be make into use while writing content. If your article has required number of keywords than only it will get picked up by popular site like Google, MSN, Yahoo etc. There are many websites that do an extensive study on how to advertise its article. One can also take the help of those sites and get ideas from them as how to advertise their product. By adopting this method, one can popularize its article as well as popularize its site.

Author Info:

Steve Waganer has specialization in web marketing. He is expert in search engine optimization,article syndication,search engine marketing firm,social media optimization.To get the SEO tips from,SEO firm for your website to get high rank and top position in major search engines visit www.cometsearchenginemarketing.com

By Shelley Lowery

If you spend any time surfing the Internet, you’ve probably encountered a few error messages.

Error messages have numerous causes, such as misspellings, outdated links or internal server errors. When an error is encountered, your server will display specific generic error pages according to the error. These error pages are not only dead ends, but they are also very frustrating for your potential visitors.

When your visitors mistype your web address or click on an outdated link and receive the dreaded error page, they’ll most-likely click on their back button and never return. However, you can recover a majority of your lost visitors simply by taking the time to create some customized, user friendly error pages.

As servers run different types of software and do not function in the same manner, there isn’t a simple method for creating custom error pages that will work with every system. However, if you have your own domain and your site is hosted on a Unix/Linux server running Apache, this article will assist you in creating custom error pages.

If you’re not sure what type of server you’re on, visit the following web address to find out:
http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/

Before we begin, keep in mind, editing your server files is serious business. Even one small typographical error can wreak havoc — make sure you make a backup copy of any file you’re planning to edit.

Guidelines for creating your error pages:

1. Create your error pages in standard HTML — just as you would create any other web page for your site.

2. Don’t alarm your visitors. Never include the word “ERROR” in large, bold text. Your visitors may immediately become alarmed and think they’ve done something to cause the error. Instead, be apologetic and encourage your visitors to click on the navigational links to locate additional resources and information.

3. Your error pages should look just like the rest of your web pages. Each error page should contain good navigational links, a search feature, and provide information in regard to the specific error they received.

If you’d like to see an example error page, visit the following web address:
http://www.web-source.net/error.htm

Once you’ve created an error page, save it as the error name. For example, if you’re creating a customized error page for a 400 Bad Request error, your page should be saved as 400.html.

Here are some of the more common errors:

400 Bad Request
401 Authorization Required
403 Forbidden
404 File Not Found
405 Method Not Allowed
500 Internal Server Error
501 Method Not Implemented
502 Bad Gateway
503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

Once you’ve created your pages, you’ll need to access your server via FTP and create a new folder called “errordocs” where you store your HTML files. Upload your new error documents into your new folder.

Your next step will be to locate your .htaccess file and download it to your computer. (If you use FrontPage to publish your web pages, you cannot customize the .htaccess file, as FrontPage uses the .htaccess file. Editing the file may cause errors in your configuration.) The .htaccess file should be located on your server where you store your HTML files.

If the .htaccess file isn’t visible, you can create one within a plain text editor. However, you must first make sure your server isn’t configured to hide the file. Your FTP program should enable you to choose to display hidden files and folders on your server.

Once you’ve downloaded your .htaccess file, open it within a plain text editor, such as Note Pad, and add the following lines below any other text that may be present:

ErrorDocument 400 /errordocs/400.html
ErrorDocument 401 /errordocs/401.html
ErrorDocument 403 /errordocs/403.html
ErrorDocument 404 /errordocs/404.html
ErrorDocument 405 /errordocs/405.html
ErrorDocument 500 /errordocs/500.html
ErrorDocument 501 /errordocs/501.html
ErrorDocument 502 /errordocs/502.html
ErrorDocument 503 /errordocs/503.html

If you’re creating your own .htaccess file, open a plain text editor and add the above lines.

When typing in the information, make certain you type it exactly as it appears above. You can include the error documents of your choice.

Once the file is complete, save it as .htaccess and upload it to your server, via FTP in ASCII mode, where you store your HTML files.

For additional information on File Transfer Protocol (FTP) you may visit:
http://www.web-source.net/ftp_basics.htm

If you have a Windows operating system, you will be unable to save the file as .htaccess. You’ll need to save it as htaccess.txt. Once you upload the file to your server, you can rename it to .htaccess.

That’s all there is to it. When your visitors click on an outdated link, your custom error page will now be displayed.

Creating your own custom error pages is well worth the time and effort, as they will enable you to recover an unlimited number of your visitors. If you follow this step by step guide, you can have your pages up and running in no time.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book. http://www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, “Killer Internet Marketing Strategies.” http://www.web-source.net

by Shelley Lowery

When you’re ready to launch your web site and you’re trying to select a good domain name, there are many factors that need to be taken into consideration.

Select a Domain Name that Reflects Your Web Site

Above all else, your domain name should reflect what your web site is all about. For example, if your web site is about grooming a dog, you certainly wouldn’t want to select a domain name like ‘mybusinessname.com,’ as this would have nothing to do with your web site’s focus. You would want to select a domain name that tells the world what your web site is all about — something like ‘doggrooming.com.’

Select a Domain Name that Contains Your Web Site’s Keywords

Another consideration of great importance are your keywords. Try to select a domain name that contains your most relevant keyword phrase, as some Search Engines place relevancy on them. A keyword phrase is two or more words that best describe your web page. If your web page is focusing on grooming a dog, your best keyword phrase will be “dog grooming.”

Select a Domain Name that will be Easily Remembered

With millions of web sites accessible on the Internet, it is also very important to select a domain name that will be easily remembered. As in the ‘doggrooming.com’ example above, ‘doggrooming.com’ is very easily remembered, contains the most relevant keyword phrase and describes the web site in explicit detail. It is the ‘perfect’ domain name for this particular web site.

Select the Best Domain Extension

Another consideration of importance is the domain name extension. Although there are many new domain extensions available, dotcom is still the best choice. When typing in a web address, Internet users automatically want to type in a .com extension, as this is the extension that has been embedded into our brains from the start.

Avoid Using Numbers in Your Domain Name

Although you may be tempted to do so, avoid using numbers within your domain name. Including a number within your domain name can cause problems, as when you tell someone your web address, you will continually have to tell them it’s a number and not the word. For example, if you selected a domain name like number1host.com, if you were to tell someone your web address, they may try to type it as ‘numberonehost.com’ instead of ‘number1host.com.’ This type of domain name would cause confusion.

Avoid using Dashes and Underscores in Your Domain Name

Although many people do it, don’t make the same mistake I made when I first started out. Avoid using dashes, underscores or any other characters within your domain name that may cause confusion. When I registered my domain name, Web-Source.net, I actually wanted websource.com; however, it had already been registered. So, I settled for Web-Source.net. Now, when I tell someone my domain name, I have to say it like this: web dash source dot net.

Don’t get me wrong, www.Web-Source.net is now a high traffic web site, but I can only imagine how much traffic I’ve lost over the years due to my domain name. I have received many emails over the years from visitors who had a hard time finding my site. They said they couldn’t remember the domain name and kept wanting to type in websource.com.

Avoid using Abbreviations within Your Domain Name

Although well-known companies, such as IBM, can get away with using abbreviations within their domain name, most companies can’t. As a rule, try to avoid using abbreviations or anything that will be difficult for your visitors to remember. Not only will this cause confusion, but it can also cause your potential visitors to make spelling mistakes when trying to type in your web address.

Avoid using Long Domain Names

Although you may now register long domain names, it’s really not a good idea. I learned this lesson the hard way. I registered ‘www.workfromhomebusinessguide.com’ and the sad thing is … I can’t remember the domain name half the time. How can I expect my potential visitors to remember it? Try to keep your domain name as short as possible. The longer the domain name the harder it is to remember and the more apt your potential visitors are to make a typo when typing it into their browser.

Ensure Your Domain Name is Not a Trademark Infringement

Prior to registering a domain name, you may want to consider searching the Trademark Electronic Search System, http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm to ensure your potential domain name isn’t infringing on any trademarks.

Please don’t take this point lightly, as trademark infringement could cost you your entire business. It is your responsibility to ensure that your potential domain name doesn’t infringe on any registered trademarks, as the trademark laws that apply in the hard copy world also apply on the Internet. Any company that registers a trademark has the right to protect their trademark and has the right to notify you that your domain name is infringing upon their trademark.

When you’re ready to begin, create a list of a dozen or more potential domain names, as chances are, your first choice will already be taken. With any luck, one of the domain names on your list will be available.

Take your time and select a quality domain name that will grow with your business. It will be well-worth your time and effort in the long run.

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery. http://www.webdesignmastery.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for your complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of Shelley’s acclaimed ebooks, “Killer Internet Marketing Strategies” and “Work from Home: A Complete Guide…” http://www.web-source.net

CNET has published an article on the 2007 Top 100 Most Pwerful Brands results done by researcher Millward Brown Optimor.

This year Google has beat out Microsoft for the top spot by doubling it’s rank from last year.

“Google is an absolutely phenomenal brand in the sense that it is very clear what it stands for and it has perceived leadership and innovation,” Peter Walshe, global brands director at Millward Brown Optimor, told Silicon.com.

Microsoft came in third this year with a brand value of $55 billion. Fellow tech companies in the top 10 are China Mobile, in fifth place, and IBM, in ninth.

It’s the second year in a row a tech brand has beaten household names such as Coca-Cola, Marlboro and Toyota.

Top 10
1. Google–$66.4 billion
2. General Electric–$61.9 billion
3. Microsoft–$55 billion
4. Coca-Cola–$44.1 billion
5. China Mobile–$41.2 billion
6. Marlboro–$39.2 billion
7. Wal-Mart–$36.9 billion
8. Citigroup–$33.7 billion
9. IBM–$33.6 billion
10. Toyota Motor–$33.4 billion

By: Andrew D. Ive

The dot com era proved that just building it isn’t enough. The chicken and the egg issue exists -you need customers to get customers… and attempting to launch a web site, is that issue on steroids. So, how to get traction?

Here are Ten FREE Traction building Ideas we are trying:

1) Email Your Friends:
Find everyone you know that relates to your target market and introduce them to your website via email… as you know them, leverage every piece of emotional capital you have with them to encourage them to take a look at your new site and join.

2) Ask Your Friends to Refer Others:
If you send an email to people who are your target market, clearly articulate why it is valuable to ‘THEM’ (not just you) to join your site… and then ask and make it easy for them to refer people they know. Here’s an example of an email I wrote that asks for a referral -

“Please forward to anyone that may be interested… entrepreneurs, advisors, people with Blogs, press contacts etc! Even forwarding to four or five contacts will make a big difference for us!

Happy New Year and thanks!

++

I’ve just discovered a new web service bringing potential business advisors together with entrepreneurs and early stage businesses. For Advisors - It’s a great way to discover new deal flow and get involved in a hot new company. For Entrepreneurs - a great way to take your business to the next level in 2007!

The site is called Advisor Garage - http://www.AdvisorGarage.com and was recently featured in Business Week!

Please sign up and forward this email to great advisors and entrepreneurs.
++

After three or four weeks of steps 1 & 2 we found that we had begun to get a few people onboard… So now what?

3) Write a Press Release and get it OUT there…
I can almost hear a few folks swallowing and already considering looking for the next blog… it really isn’t that tough and it isn’t expensive. In fact, its FREE! Don’t believe me? Consider signing up to PR Leap (http://www.prleap.com/learn_more). Not only do they have some good articles which explain for dummies (like me!) how to write a press release but they also offer a free submission service to multiple channels such as Google News, Google Search, Yahoo! Search, Topix.net, Technorati, MSN, Ask News, Moreover, NewsNow and others. According to their website - PR Leap is the best way to send your news release(s) to all major search engines, newswires, and websites. And basic accounts are free!

So what happened with us? Well we signed up, created a one page press release (took about 30 minutes), submitted it and it was approved earlier today. It will appear tomorrow. If you are interested, the link to the press release is: http://www.prleap.com/pr/61185/

The basic plan (read… Free) comes with stats, so I’ll let you know in a few days if the press release was actually read by anyone and if it was picked up by any sites, bloggers, press etc. Let’s see how good PR Leap and our press release writing skills are!

4) A Personalized Toolbar:
A great startup called Conduit (http://www.Conduit.com) offers people the opportunity to create their own, personalized toolbar for FREE. Conduit has a wizard embedded within their website which takes you through the setup process step-by-step. It took about twenty minutes and once you’re done, they create a link to your toolbar download site which you can then share through an email signature or through a click through download on your new networking site. There are a number of cool ways to tailor the toolbar… your branded search, create links to particular pages on your own site, add weather, a radio and so on to make sure its a value download for your customers.

5) Design Your Site with the Customer In Mind and Make Inviting Others Easy
If, like us, your marketing budget is measured by the quarters rattling around in your pocket, then do your site a favor and design it so the ‘Invite Others’ button is never far away. No matter what page the users happen to be on. Bold it, make it big, underline it if you have to but referrals from happy customers are always easier to get than attracting new customers.

6) Friends & Contacts Revisisted:
Do any of your friends know anyone in the press or people who have blogs ? Well you won’t know until you ask… ASK!

7) Join Linked In (http://www.linkedin.com)
If you haven’t already, consider joining linked in. Yes, its another networking site, and you could consider them the compeitition (In your dreams!)… but after joining you can search through the directory and find people that may either a) be interested in joining your site or b) encouraging others to do so. If you aren’t a member already, take a look

Groups & Forums:
Are there Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com) or Google Groups (http://groups.google.com) or other online forums that include the types of people you want to attract to your new networking site? If so, join them but beware… most groups want members to contribute to the discussions and no groups appreciate spam. So find the best forums for your target customers, join and spend some time getting to know what subjects are being discussed. Give it a week or two then jump in and add some value… and make sure that your post includes your email and perhaps the web address. If it is valuable, then members may check out your new site…

One last thing, if there aren’t any good groups with your target customers… consider creating your own… and make it it feeds your new networking site. Here’s one I started and yes… I know it only has a few members… but its more links in the internet for your website which appears in your google or Alexa results: http://groups.google.com/group/Harvard_Entrepreneurs_Startups?lnk=oa&hl=en

9) Write to your Existing Members:
Do you have a few members? If so, email them occassionally (Not every day!) and remind them of the value of your site… perhaps highlight a particularly useful tool or feature of your website. Maybe reach out to some of the individual members and ask them if you can write about them joining the site, a person feature if you will. At the bottom of each of these emails… give them a few sentences (above for example) to send on to others they know. Stress how much you would appreciate their help and how important they are to you and your young business.

10) Drum roll… .badda badda badda… .Create a Blog!
Here’s hoping that a blog is the tenth and most valuable means of getting the message out there about a new networking site. (Wordpress.com is FREE)