Karlonia.com

Yesterday I managed to pick up a pack of 10 articles on the topic of debt consolidation from a Canadian writer posting as “x_master” on the DigitalPoint forums. Since this is a popular topic for our debt-ridden American consumer culture (not to mention a very high value AdSense keyword), this looked like a pretty good deal. This particular article discusses the differences between debt consolidation programs and ordinary personal loans while not surprisingly mentioning that the former is more of a long term solution.

Recently I came across a website which was rambling about debt consolidated loans without understanding the true meaning of debt consolidation in this context. Such websites not only misguide people but also give people a false sense of security. These websites described debt consolidation as being similar to taking a personal loan and paying the creditors. Even though taking a personal loan to pay back your creditors may be a good option for some individuals, for others it may just be a form of delaying the inevitable.

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This is Eru Chawla’s piece on one of her favorite topics, article writing for Internet marketers and SEO enthusiasts. For both webmasters and writers, this has become a very active market over the past few years as each party hopes to profit from informative content that can generate revenue when it is published on websites that can attract significant amounts of traffic.

Disseminating information about your niche keywords through articles that are further posted to the online article directories is an effective Internet marketing technique that has been known to SEO professionals for a long time. An inbound link to your website is mentioned in the author’s bio given at the end of all these articles. This is the most basic procedure of article marketing campaigns over the Internet. Hence, in a way article marketing is a part of link popularity SEO technique.

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Search traffic is still holding up nicely, with the overall number of site visitors now averaging 800-900 per day. Notable traffic bursts include another batch of approximately 300 hits from StumbleUpon to my redundant words and phrases page and a surprising 42 visits from the DigitalPoint forums.

My theory on the DigitalPoint traffic is that it’s coming from other posters who have a link to one or more pages of this site in their signature links. Earlier this week, one of the authors whose articles I have published here recently added one of my pages to her signature link as a way of demonstrating writing samples to prospective buyers on the forums. This is one benefit of article outsourcing I had never thought about before — free backlinks and traffic from forums without actually having to be an active participant!

Now let’s see what kind of keywords we can dig up from this week’s search data.

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Last year the IRS was besieged by telephone calls regarding treatment of the 2008 economic stimulus payments. Complicating matters even further was the fact that some people who did not get a stimulus payment may still be due one, as this article by Anthony Ventre explains. It remains to be seen whether the Obama administration’s attempt at a stimulus will cause similar confusion, but it’s interesting to see how messy and complicated income taxes have become.

There were so many questions stemming from the 2008 Bush administration economic stimulus package that the Internal Revenue Service had to detail extra people to answer the barrage of questions from people who received it and people who didn’t. According to the IRS, there were 119 million tax payers who received these payments. Owing in part to the tough economic times, the Internal Revenue Service has noted an increase in early filers and a concomitant increase in tax errors in the current 2008 filing year.

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This article by Rohit Patel is supposed to be a description of Chicago’s five biggest attractions for tourists. Note that the original version of the text that was sent to me referred to Chicago as “a wonderful state in the United States of America”, so you might want to take this one with a few metaphorical grains of salt. Meanwhile, if you happen to live in this particular region and want to nominate another one of this city’s attractions as a top place of interest, you can do so in the comment section at the end of the article.

Chicago, as we all know is a wonderful city in the United States of America. It is often called ‘The Windy City’ owing to its location, which is exposed to the Lake Michigan, one of America’s 5 greatest lakes. It is the largest city in the state of Illinois and the area that is still often referred to as the “Midwest” of the United States. It is also the 3rd highest populated city in America with more than 2.8 million dwellers. This city attracts an average of 45 million visitors per year. Here are some of the places, which will prove why you need to visit this beautiful city Chicago.

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After a long history of working with market research organizations and sending out payments to members, the paid survey company Opinion Outpost sent out its first ever newsletter today. Interestingly, the company actually responded to member questions and explained how their sweepstakes and instant win games work, including revealing the actual odds, something that I have seen very few other survey companies do. The newsletter also explains how to qualify for more surveys and mentions that they are switching over to a faster check processing system.

Meanwhile, if you are interested in earning some extra money and have not joined this one yet, you may do so from the banner link below (yes, registration is free).

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This article by Zoltan Gyalog provides a tutorial for some of the basic navigational controls in ZBrush, a computer graphics program that allows its users to practice advanced digital sculpting techniques and create remarkable works of art in a digital format. For those wanting to fully master the ZBrush experience, there are a variety of full length tutorial books available, including ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting and Introducing ZBrush, both of which can be purchased through the Amazon.com portal to the left. Even if you’re not looking to buy either of these guides, however, you might want to click through to the Amazon page anyway because it contains an excellent review of the software by Scott Spencer that lists 11 useful tips for how to optimize your use of this particular application.

ZBrush is a unique application that also comes with a unique interface. New users of the software often experience difficulties concerning basic navigation, such as panning, rotating, or zooming the view. ZBrush deeply relies on the left Alt and left Shift modifier keys to give you access and fluent control of these essential interface maneuvers.

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This tutorial article by Zoltan Gyalog focuses on the Pen tool of Adobe Illustrator. It includes an explanation of different kinds of anchor points, refinement by adding and removing anchor points, and changing anchor point types. Additional topics addressed include basic navigation in Adobe Illustrator, the fundamental of Fill and Stroke attributes, and an explanation of vital differences between Selection Types. Meanwhile, if you would like to buy the latest version of Adobe Illustrator (currently CS4), just click on the image to the left to visit the correct page from the ever-popular Amazon.com.

Adobe Illustrator is a sophisticated vector based application, yet there is nothing to prevent new users from learning their way around with one of the most versatile tools the software offers: the Pen tool. Vector drawing is based on the creation of intricate line segments. These are the underlying elements you either use to create customized Strokes out of, or to Fill an area that the segments are bordering. This tutorial will show you how to create line art efficiently, using curves and straight lines you have infinite control over. This infinite control of the individual components lets you create what you have in mind with ease and mathematical accuracy.

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With many of you wondering about how payday loans work according to my recent search data, Eru Chawla has written this article that explains some of the basics about this particular niche industry. This genre is certainly not without its critics; in fact, many people have compared payday lenders to loan sharks online who charge usurious rates of interest and manage to entice borrowers into a revolving cycle of debt. Nevertheless, my preliminary market research has revealed that this is a very lucrative business, not just for the lenders themselves but also for affiliates and partners who can assist with targeted advertising and share in the profits. Now I just need to find a reliable affiliate program.

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Our traffic is humming along nicely into February, with just over 5,000 search visits coming in for the week. Meanwhile, AdSense revenues have improved slightly and are on track to exceed the $100 minimum payout threshold for the month. If this trend holds up, it will mark the first time that I will be able to receive AdSense checks for two consecutive months without having to wait for the earnings to roll over.

The traffic stats on my new Lemon-Info.com site are starting to show some noticeable improvement. We’re actually starting to pick up a fair amount of search engine visitors even though the site has only been active for about two weeks. We seem to have a relatively high proportion of keywords that are asking questions, many of which I don’t really know the answers to at this point. If I can collect enough questions and find out the answers, I might include some of them in future “Search Query Sunday” posts for informational purposes.

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Earlier this week, Amazon.com officially entered the realm of video game downloads with a new online store that offers over 600 casual game titles at prices ranging from $6.99 to $9.99. You can check out the selection by clicking on the banner below:

For the remainder of the first week after launch, Amazon is offering three of the titles as free downloads: “Build A Lot”, “The Scruffs”, and “Jewel Quest 2″. After the initial launch period, these titles and all other games can be played for up to 30 minutes as a kind of “try before you buy” free trial. After this time expires, you will need to purchase the full version to continue playing.

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