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One important factor for bloggers to consider with respect to SEO is how often their blog is updated and how “fresh” the posts are. It has been my experience that after about six months (possibly somewhat sooner if you have many backlinks), Google’s little spiders begin to give special attention to your most recent posts. In other words, after a blog becomes established and gains a certain amount of trust with the search engines, any posts from the past week or so will tend to get indexed quickly and will initially enjoy relatively high rankings and stay out of the supplemental index.

As a savvy blogger, you can use this knowledge to give new life to some of your older posts and bring in that search traffic you’ve always wanted. Here are some tips for specific things that you can do to bring more attention to your older posts and increase their rankings in the search engines:

When writing a new post, simply link to the old post in the text. This is the easiest way to get the search engines to re-crawl your older pages. It can also give you a rankings boost even if you do not change any of the content on the old page. This often occurs with Google because when the older page gets crawled again, it may be bumped out of the supplemental index and into the main one, where it will be ranked much higher and draw more traffic. Using this method does not guarantee that your page will actually remain in the main index for more than a few days, however, so you may need to consider additional factors to give it more “stickiness”.

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The ever-popular advertising program AdBux sent out its first weekly newsletter today, hoping to generate more readership and interest in the site and its new features. Last month I reported on their new AdBux offers section that promises to substantially increase the earnings potential of the program. I can now confirm that they are approving offers; I have had two of them confirmed so far. Now I just need to increase my activity here and this should allow me to receive payment soon. Meanwhile, you can read the content of the newsletter below:

Our First Weekly!
This is our first “AdBux Weekly” update. With nearly 600,000 members and only 20,000 monthly newsletter subscribers, we felt it was necessary to let every member know what is happening with AdBux on a weekly basis as part of their membership agreement. Lots of you joined AdBux to see what the hype was about, viewed a few ads and then left. We want to change this. The earning potential with AdBux is amazing! We recently introduced the AdBux offer program which allows you to earn money by completing free registrations, free trial memberships, filling out surveys, etc. This has greatly increased the earnings of many users! Before the offers, the average payout was $10-$20 with a top payout of a few hundred dollars. Now, we expect the average payout to be around $30-$50 with a top payout of $600-$700.

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This is a collection of quotes that I have been gradually accumulating and storing over the past few years. Originally, most of them came from forum signatures, although recently I have begun to include quotes from other Internet and offline sources as well. Some of them are quite funny, especially when viewed from a modern perspective. Others are not strictly funny, but are “words of wisdom” kinds of quotes that I happen to agree with and believe are still relevant to current affairs.

Although this post may not do well in SEO terms because of duplicate content (most of these quotes have already been republished on other web pages), I would like to maintain this page as a continuously updated resource for the funniest and wisest sayings that we have discovered in our quest for enlightenment. Of course, you can contribute to this list too; if you happen to come across any really good quotes that would fit in here, feel free to post them in the comments section.

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Writing a rejection letter is not always an easy thing to do, although those of us who are freelance writers or have gone through many job interviews in other fields have probably received our fair share of them. This article by Pat Cuchens offers advice on how to write a rejection letter that will soften the blow of bad news and hopefully allow you to retain favorable relations with the other party.

Everyone takes rejection personally. No, you didn’t get the job. No, you don’t qualify for that credit card. No, you won’t get a refund. No, Mary doesn’t love John anymore.

And while taking the sting out of bad news is not always possible, you still want your reader to be well-disposed towards you and your company. John will be hurt by his lost love, for sure, but hopefully Mary will tell him goodbye softly and they will part amicably.

When you have to deliver bad news, such as rejecting a job applicant, but you want your reader to remain well-disposed towards your company, how should you write that business letter? Well, that depends on how your reader is going to react.

If your reader is a bottom-line person, then put that bad news in your opening paragraph: “We have carefully reviewed your application, but we need someone with more experience.” Using a direct strategy is certainly efficient but even if the applicant didn’t really want the job, the effect will be hurtful.

You can expect your job applicant to feel rejected and respond negatively, so you don’t want to sabotage your purpose by beginning with the main idea in that opening paragraph: “You didn’t get the job because we found someone better.” Ouch!

All business letters—good news or bad news—should follow a short-long-short paragraph arrangement. Busy readers want to skim, and this diamond arrangement helps them recognize that introductions, closings, and transitions are in short paragraphs and detail and explanations are in the long paragraphs.

Use the diamond paragraph structure and follow a four-part indirect approach with bad news business letters.

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Earlier tonight, my mother purchased two boxes of Theraflu in preparation for the upcoming flu season. In the store, each of the two boxes appeared to be different formulas of the same brand; one was designated as a “Flu and Sore Throat” remedy, while the other was supposed to be a “Nighttime Severe Cold” formula. The labels even had different background colors:

However, after looking at the labels, we noticed that the active Theraflu ingredients of the two varieties were exactly the same! Even the warnings, indicated uses, dosage directions, everything was the same. The two labels were exact duplicates of each other:

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This is another Thanksgiving-themed article written by Jessica Roop. She did a pretty good job with this one; it explains the tasks and challenges that come with hosting a Thanksgiving Day celebration. For more tips on how to prepare and serve Thanksgiving dinner if you’re running short on time, you can read Jessica’s other article here.

No need to back away anymore from the task of being the official dinner party host in the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration. No need to push the panic button and start calling planners and caterers to do the job for you. Just take a deep breath and read on as the secret to a calm and composed, but effective dinner hosting party is about to be revealed.One approach to Thanksgiving dinner party hosting is to divide the task into the following — guests, theme, venue, menu, and activities. As Thanksgiving is normally a family celebration with some close friends in town, a formal invitation will not be really necessary. A phone call and reminder a few days before the event will be sufficient.The theme of the celebration will tie all the preparations together. When you have already chosen one, the rest will be a breeze as you have already narrowed down your options. Make sure that the music, the decorations, and the menu complement the chosen theme.

Get a clear idea on the number of people who will be attending, after which you can proceed to choosing the place where your dinner party will be held. It may be in your own kitchen, in the backyard, or by the pool. Wherever you decide to hold it, just make sure that the place is big enough to accommodate your guests, and the facilities that you will be needing such as tables and chairs, sound system, barbecue grill, party ornaments, and the like. Keep in mind as well that a venue that is too big may not be suited for family intimacy, which is essential in most Thanksgiving celebrations.

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This article, originally written by a rather mysterious Constant Content author under the pseudonym of “Aannn”, describes what I would call the conventional methods for how to get rid of ants in your house or your kitchen. There are, however, some more environmentally friendly methods for how to get rid of ants naturally as well as home remedies to get rid of ants. I will spend some time discussing these alternatives below the second blue line that marks the end of the article.

You open your eyes. The sun is shining brightly. The kids are impatiently knocking on the bedroom door saying, “We’re hungry!” So you do the things you need to do to get up and get moving, like wash your face and brush your teeth. As you walk into the kitchen to get breakfast started, you are shocked - to say the least - as you notice on the kitchen floor a bunch of tiny moving creatures: ANTS!

You start thinking and then remember that, the night before, one of the kids ate a bowl of cereal and left crumbs on the floor. As you bend over to examine the situation from a closer perspective, you see two ants working in tandem, dragging a cereal flake from one location to another. The nerve! What audacity! What will you do to get rid of the ants in your house?

A major (and extremely important) first step is to make sure that your home is clean. That means sweeping floors after meals, snacks, and any other occasions which would require food to be consumed and eaten. Pay particular attention to sweeping right before going to bed; ants love to come out and scout when the lights are out and all movement has ceased. An additional help is to mop floors frequently, at least once a week, if not more. Using a solution of ¼ cup bleach to 2 cups water will be very helpful in deterring future visits from ants. If you have wall-to-wall carpeting, be sure to vacuum those areas every day. The less food that’s left on the floor, the less chance that the ants will be tempted to return.

If, however, your cleanliness is not deterring the ants from returning, more drastic steps must be taken. The next step is to purchase an insecticide spray for your particular house pest. When the ants return, spray the insecticide directly on the ants, being sure to cover the areas that they use to enter and to exit. Don’t forget to open all windows in the house so as to not breathe in more chemicals than necessary. After spraying, take a paper towel and remove the dead ants. You may want to mop the floor to get rid of excess insecticide, but be sure to leave corners, floor moldings, and the like untouched.

An additional safeguard is to spray outside the home. This will definitely be beneficial if the room that has the ant problem has no barrier other than the exterior wall to keep ants at bay. Pay particular attention to any cracks or crevices that may be apparent; this may require caulking or other measures to make sure you seal up any areas that ants could use as an entrance to your home.

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The traditional holiday season, which has become a period of particularly rampant consumerism for many Americans, can turn into a time management challenge as well. This article by Leigh Zaykoski examines some strategies that can make holiday shopping easier and less stressful.

Shopping for holiday gifts can be one of the most stressful times of the year. The stores are crowded, money may be tight, and you have a list of twenty people to buy gifts for. You could just buy them gift certificates and let them pick out their own gifts, but you feel that’s too impersonal. You really want to get each person something they’ll love and cherish so you can make everyone’s holiday special. You’ve resigned yourself to the fact that you’ll need to shop for these gifts, but dread facing the crowded malls and long checkout lines. If you follow these tips, you can simplify your holiday shopping and turn it into a less stressful experience.

Make a List

This seems like a simple piece of advice, but many people get so caught up in what needs to be done for the holidays that they don’t think about sitting down and making a list of people to buy gifts for. If you go to the store without a list of people to shop for, you run the risk of forgetting someone and having to run back to the stores at the last minute to buy that person a gift. Make your list when you have some quiet time to yourself to think about each person in your life. Remember to include family members, friends, and any coworkers you would like to buy gifts for. If you are participating in a Secret Santa program, be sure to include the person you picked on your shopping list.

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This article by Jessica Roop provides some convenient time management ideas for Thanksgiving dinner preparations. The date for this year’s 2007 Thanksgiving is steadily approaching and will occur on November 22.

Survive the Thanksgiving frenzy and preserve the season’s spirit with these time-saving tips designed to make Thanksgiving dinner preparation an absolute breeze for you.

The List Power

Have you noticed how others can stay calm and composed despite all the buzz about Thanksgiving? The secret actually lies in making lists! Start your game plan with a list of the things that you have to do. Keep your list always with you so that you can consult it or otherwise add items to it anytime you want, and at the same time, tick off certain items as you go along.

Go For Meals In Minutes

As everybody seems to be busy during the Thanksgiving holidays, it is always wise to keep easy-to-prepare meals on hand. Remember, you need not do all the holiday preparations in one whole day. You can opt for fast and easy preparations.

Pop Then Serve

No need to slave over the turkey and all the giblets all day. You can always consider the oven-ready bird from Jennie-O Turkey Store that will save you time, cleaning, and seasoning. Just push the turkey inside the oven and it will be done in minutes. Some grocery stores, such as Whole Foods Market, offer pre-cooked side dishes as well, including mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and bread stuffing.

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When most of us think about optimizing our web pages for the search engines, we usually think about getting high rankings in Google, Yahoo, or possibly MSN. But there is another search engine that sometimes slips below the SEO radar. With a market share that hovers between four and five percent of the total search volume, Ask.com is still nowhere near as prominent as the almighty Google, but some of its newer features make it worthy of consideration, especially for webmasters with larger sites.

One of the primary differences between Ask and most other search engines is that it has taken the lead on implementing what is often referred to as “universal search” in the SEO world. This means that they have been one of the first sites to move beyond displaying standard text content and have fully incorporated other media such as images, news feeds, blogs, and local business listings into the results.

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Rod Baker, owner of the Internet advertising site Share Ad Space, has put forward a potentially significant proposal today concerning the future of his program. The basic idea behind the proposal is to separate the current SAS into a network of individual sites, each with a specialized focus that would cater to a different advertising audience. The possibility of purchasing traffic packages that would allow members to receive 24-hour unique hits across all sites is also being discussed. Interestingly, according to the results of the current poll on the SAS forum, the majority of the membership seems to favor retaining SAS in its present form, so it is unclear whether the proposal will actually be implemented at this point. As usual, the details of the owner’s new idea are republished below:

I was thinking about this today and would like all of your feedback. This won’t happen right away (if we decide its the best way to go) but your opinion and the direction of the site moving forward is on my mind lately.

SAS, technically, is almost 4 different traffic exchanges in one.

My question is, should we split them up?

1. Trade Or No Trade game
2. Memory game
3. Traditional surfer
4. PTP surfer (but may drop this one as its own entity)

Several more features that I would like to bring to the table but feel they may best be served if separate sites are:
1. Paid2BeUnique (as was mentioned in my latest email)
2. Battle Surfer (medieval times where you choose your character: fighter, elf, dwarf, etc and build that character’s abilities, weapons and armor).

I feel if we separate the site into these own entities, new members won’t get overwhelmed with the options in one site, focus on the sites they are truly interested in (whether its one or all of them) and, the most important part, I can then offer upgrades/features that are specific to benefiting THAT particular site theme.

Example: upgrades on the ToNT focus on extra hints, shuffles, etc.
upgrades on the new battle surfer will focus on magic potions, health points, weapon upgrades, etc.
Memory game upgrades could focus on increased credit boxes, etc.

Now, the one truly unique feature in this “family” of sites is that they all SHARE the same advertise page table. That means, regardless of what site you use (one or all) you will still receive UNIQUE hits across the family of sites.

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Okay, I know some of you are probably thinking, “Oh no, not another stupid traffic exchange update!”, but I have been very busy with webmastering issues lately. I have added some new items to the sidebar: 1) You can now subscribe to Karlonia.com in your RSS feed by clicking on the ubiquitous orange chicklet symbol, and 2) I have joined two popular blog carnivals, BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. Their widgets have been added to the sidebar, and will hopefully improve traffic flow to the site. Several members of these networks have already added me to their “friends” list, and I am currently responding to their invitations and private messages.

Meanwhile, Royal Surf is finally undergoing the process of changing their jousting tournament game and has released this newsletter update that explains the details of the upcoming changes. In keeping with the medieval theme, I have included a video of scenes from a recent European Renaissance reenactment that displays various aspects of early medieval British life, including blacksmiths, fletchers, and carpenters. The song in the background is called “The Voice” and is performed by an Irish band called Celtic Woman.

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According to the latest email that I received from them, it seems that the World Limited Partnership Program (WLPP) will not be accepting any more new members. They don’t really go into specifics as to why this is the case, other than to simply state that they have a sufficient number of people to maintain their current programs.

However, the WLPP business itself is not closing. For current members, everything will remain the same, except that we will not have to worry about bringing in referrals anymore. The Romanian IT center seems to be doing fairly well and has posted profits again this month, although not as much as I would like. WLPP has also launched a new Internet advertising site called worldadgroup.com, and has decided to maintain bidhire.com as a free job posting site.

Meanwhile, Take the Internet Back (TIB), which WLPP partially owns, is still open to new members and is currently running a 50% off advertising special. Emails from TIB have been consistent and reliable so far, although I still need to get two referrals here to fully qualify for profit shares. Updates on a few other affiliated programs are included in the actual email release:

Hi everyone. Conrad here with some updates. First - we are going to close WLPP and leave it as is. You will be able to login and keep track of everything, including updates, but no one will be able to join any more. We have enough members now to keep our programs going. And now on to other updates.

The IT Center is doing quite nicely and we will have a profit of 0.22 cents US for all of our IT unit holders. That will be added to your accounts within the next few days. We also still have some IT units available, and the info to buy them is down below. We will NOT sell any more after this so please do not ask. There are still 92 units available and they are being offered on a first come-first served basis. Also - do not forget that we offer a 10% finders fee for any work that you refer to our IT Center. A $5k contract could easily net you $500.!!!

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The Libertarian Party products store LPStuff.com seems to have significantly expanded their selection of merchandise since I posted about them last month. This convenient e-commerce site has now added holiday greeting cards to its line of offerings, along with many other new items such as banners, necklaces, pendants, and an ever-growing variety of t-shirt designs. The latest email announcement from LPStuff.com is reprinted below:

We all love the holiday season: a time when everyone is joyous and willing to extend an act of kindness. The world seems to come alive with millions of lights and decorations hanging from windows to lawns.

As we try our best to be with distant friends and family during the holiday season, sometimes it just doesn’t work. A greeting card is a terrific way to send your holiday wishes far away.

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In case you are wondering about the funny title, I actually received a search query from Germany yesterday with the text, “post some owls”. The click came through to my last Owl Post update, which was in the #4 position at the time for this particular search term. I don’t know whether or not the searcher was ever really satisfied with this result, but for those of you who may have landed at this page while looking for information on owls and are confused by these program updates, here’s the scoop.

The-Owl-Post happens to be the name of a PTR (paid to read) program that was founded by Michele Ballard back in 2002. She seems to have borrowed the name from the postal system used in the Harry Potter novels. The program itself really doesn’t have much to do with owls, but it is still a good way to make a little bit of extra money if you don’t mind receiving a few emails and reading some of the members’ advertisements. Occasionally, these ads can be fairly interesting and may lead to other online money making opportunities. For me, the Owl Post (along with several other PTR programs that I joined approximately three years ago) has provided an important gateway into the online advertising and Internet marketing fields, and some of the lessons learned here eventually led to the creation of this blog.

The latest Owl Post program update brings some good news. As of October 29, PayPal payouts were finally caught up all the way through September, bringing them up to speed with the current month. Admin is also considering adding some entries to the cash paid-to-click section of the site by allowing members to redeem for these using their accumulated points or cash earnings. The actual email text has been reprinted below for your reading pleasure:

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