The Importance of Meta-tags: Providing the Human Touch
For the uninitiated, meta-tags are pieces of code within your website that contain information about each page. These tags are supposed to tell search engines and users what the page is about.If you’re a little rusty on your Internet jargon, here’s a primer. There are essentially three types of meta-tags that concern most marketers:· Title – This is the text that appears in the title-bar of your web browser · Description – This is a quick summary of the information on the page · Keywords – These are words that are important in the articleUp until about 4 years ago, there was a tremendous focus on meta-tags as a method of improving search engine rankings. Webmasters could stuff all sorts of words into the meta-tags to improve their search engine rankings for the words they wanted to rank well for.It wasn’t long before the search engines caught on to this little trick, and as a result the efficacy of “keyword-stuffed” meta-tags dwindled over time. Posts on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) boards heralded the demise of the meta-tag with posters claiming that Google all but ignored the meta-tags. It seemed that there was no use for meta-tags anymore – at least from the perspective of the online marketer.Meta-tag Re-emergenceBut then a funny thing happened. The search market started to fracture. Yahoo and MSN both spun up their own search engines and dropped Google’s results from their engines. Both Yahoo and MSN’s new engines seemed to use content from the Title and Description meta-tags to display in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).These observations appear to be the case even today. By running a query for the term, “Online Advertising” on MSN, I got some interesting results (screenshots available at http://www.profitchoice.com/articles/support/meta_msn.asp)Now, if you look at the screenshots in the link above, you’ll notice that the clickable link on the search engine matches the page’s title tag verbatim, and the site’s description in MSN starts off with the first sentence of the description tag. Yahoo operates in a very similar fashion. Many of the results on the SERPs of both search engines will use the content from the meta-tags heavily (as long as the pages have meta-tags at all).Google is less predictable with regard to the use of meta-tags. Google often uses the title tag to deter

Crashes & Slow Reaction? Discover Simple Steps to Restoring Your Computer's Power
It happens to many of us: We buy a shiny computer, the fastest available at the time, and find ourselves rubbing our hands together happily while installing applications at lightning speed. But a few months later, the computer becomes a bit sluggish: response times are longer, and you seem to have enough time to wash the dishes and do the laundry while it turns on. Is it time to throw the poor machine away? Not quite! There are many things you can do to bring it back to its former glory. Here are a few:Control Startup Programs: Many applications add applets to your startup procedure. These applets run every time you turn on or restart your computer, and take up memory and time to load. The truth is, you don't even need most of them! Removing a program from the startup sequence doesn't mean you remove it from your computer; it means it will run only when you open it. In Windows Vista you can change startup programs at the Control Panel, for other OS's seek assistance. Uninstall programs: More than once we install apps we use only once or not at all. They clog up the registry and take up hard disk space. Every once in a while, go over your apps list and remove the ones you don't need. Removing applications should only be done via the control panel. It's also recommended to use Uninstall programs that remove files and registry entries left on your computer by applications you uninstalled.Remove Crap & Save Disk Space: We have so many files on our computer we have no use for and we don't even know exist. A great (and free) tool that I use to clean my computer is Crap Cleaner. It cleans the registry, temporary files, startup programs and more. Also, simple methods such as Image & Video Compression, Removing unneeded installation files, and turning off System Restore using Windows Disk Cleanup can save much space.Use an Anti Virus, Anti Spyware & A Firewall: Keeping your computer safe plays a large role in keeping it running smoothly. Viruses & Spyware can burden your computer and compromise its security. The good news is, you don't have to spend lots of money on any of the above. There are many freeware programs that will protect you just fine. My advice is to get a single program th

Is Your Laptop or Home Computer Wireless Enabled?
Built in wireless capabilities are becoming almost standard equipment on most laptop and home computers these days for a couple of reasons. One of the primary reasons is cost. Adding wireless capacity is so inexpensive that it would be silly for the manufacturers not to add it. The perceived value of any machine with wireless capacity far exceeds the cost to add it. Wireless is the wave of the future, so if the manufacturers want to stay ahead of the technology curve they need to add it to all but there most basic models.If you're like most people you probably can't even check how much memory your computer has, let-alone if your computer is wireless enabled. Throw in the fact that you may not even know what wireless networking is and it's easy to ignore even trying to determine if your computer has that capacity.However, since you bought your computer you've probably heard more and more about "going wireless" because it's becoming the hip thing to do. If that's the case with you or I've simply peaked your imagination then read a bit more because I've outlined a few things you can to do to check if your computer has wireless capabilities.Laptops - Intel Centrino Mobile TechnologyComputer manufacturers do less than a perfect job at explaining what this means but if you if your laptop came with this built in then that's good news for you! In a nutshell, it means that your laptop has wireless networking built right in and you don't have to do a thing. Intel Centrino Mobile Technology is a marketing name for a combination of the Intel Pentium M processor and Intel's' Pro Wireless card.If you have Intel Centrino Mobile Technology then your computer should have a "Centrino" sticker on it somewhere. If you can't find a sticker but you suspect you had one at one time then simply do the following. Right click on your "My Computer" icon. It's probably on your desktop but if not then go to your Start Menu, find My Computer, right-click and select Properties. When the menu opens look at what it says after or under the word Computer.On a side note, Intel Centrino Mobile Technology also increases battery life and allows manufacturers to build computers smaller. If you can't find anything referring to Intel Centrino Mobile Technology under the word Computer -- don't worry because as long as your laptop has a free card slot, install

Feed Your Desire To Become Debt Free
You want to escape from your debts, right? But before you make a start, let me remind you that it won’t be easy. In fact, it could be one of the hardest things that you’ll ever do in your life.Don’t be under any illusions about this. Enormous self-discipline is required from you. The more you owe, the harder this will be, and the longer it will take.You must genuinely desire to become completely and utterly debt free. Achieving such a difficult task is only possible if you’re 100% committed to it. Clearing your debts is an all or nothing decision. Ninety-nine percent is no good!If you’re at the stage where you’d ‘like’ to pay off all your debts, I can tell you now that you won’t get very far. That’s nothing more than a vague pipedream that ranks up there with ‘I’d like to go to the moon’.Make a promise to yourself to repay your debts as soon as possible. Get the bit between your teeth and keep plugging away at it until you’re completely and utterly DEBT FREE! Then vow never to borrow ever again!Feed your desire to become debt freeRemind yourself how hacked off you are that you could have allowed yourself to get into such a mess. If you aren’t annoyed by the very existence of your debts, then I suggest you do whatever it takes to become that way, because:1) If you still passively accept the fact that you’re in debt, you won’t have the motivation to get the job started and see it through to completion.2) If you think that your debts ‘aren’t too bad’ you won’t have the willpower to keep chipping away at them when times get tough, and3) If you still believe that debts are inevitable, then you’ll never be debt free. That, I can virtually guarantee!You must be ready to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes. And once you’ve started, you must be prepared to keep going until you owe nothing. It could take months or even years. But that shouldn’t matter, because your sole focus should be on the day when you become free of debt.There’s little point in trying hard for three weeks and then blowing all the extra money that you’ve saved to reduce your debts, on some ‘treat’ that you ‘deserve’.Everything that you put towards reducing the size of your debt makes a difference. It should be enough of a treat to know that your tota

Deja Vu, All Over Again (and Again...)
During every correction, I encourage investors to avoid the destructive inertia that results from trying to determine: "How low can we go?" and/or "How long will this last?" Investors who add to their portfolios during downturns invariably experience higher values during the next advance. Yes, Virginia, just as certainly as there is a Santa Claus, there is another market advance in our future.Corrections are part of the normal “shock market” menu, and can be brought about by either bad news or good news. (Yes, that’s what I meant to say.) Investors always over-analyze when prices are weak and lose their common sense when prices are high, thus perpetuating the "buy high, sell low" Wall Street line dance. Waiting for the perfect moment to jump into a falling market is as foolish a strategy as taking losses on investment grade companies and holding cash.Repetition is good for the brain’s CPU, so forgive me for reinforcing what I’ve said in the face of every correction since 1979… if you don’t love corrections (and deal with them like visiting relatives) you really don’t understand the financial markets. Don’t be insulted, it seems as though very few financial professionals want you to see it this way and, in fact, Institutional Wall Street loves it when individual investors panic in the face of uncertainty. Psstt… uncertainty is the regulation playing field for investors, and hindsight isn’t welcome in the stadium.A closer examination of the news that’s fit to print (but isn’t printed often enough) should make you more confident about the years ahead, whatever your politics.The good news is very, very good: 1. Employment, jobs, and unemployment numbers are as good or better than they have been in years. 2. Manufacturing numbers are stronger and trending upward. 3. The “core” inflation rate is historically low. 4. Interest rates are also historically low. 5. Durable goods orders are trending upward. 6. Corporate earnings reports have been strong. 7. Corporate dividend payouts have been increasing. 8. Equities, as an Asset Class, are considered the most fairly valued, when compared with Real Estate, Fixed Income, and Commodities. 9. Income Tax Rates are at low historical levels, particularly with regard to investment income. 10. Gross domestic product is growing.The bad news isn't all that bad, pretty much the same ole stuff: 1

Viral Marketing Tips: Greeting Cards
When we speak about viral marketing, we are not talking about the newest disease. We are not talking about a Mad Cow Disease variant or something that you need to be vaccinated for. In fact, we are not referring to a disease at all.What we are talking about is literally the most powerful traffic generation technique available on the internet. Viral marketing is so powerful that it makes the search engines look small and insignificant in comparison. Even link exchanges, as powerful as they can be, wilt into oblivion in comparison.What you do with viral marketing is create something, anything, that visitors will want to give to other people. This thing, whatever it is, contains a link and perhaps a short advertisement for your website, ezine or ebook. So far so good, this is just good marketing. The viral part comes in because the people who receive these items want to give them to other people, who in turn want to give them away also.So you see? What you get is an explosion of marketing for a very small price. It's actually kind of like an avalanche, in that you throw a snowball down a slope and it just grows and grows until the whole mountain of ice and snow is tumbling down.One very cool viral marketing technique that any web site can take advantage of is greeting cards. I'm sure you've run across these all over the web. You select a graphic (a drawing, photo or other image), perhaps a sound file and add some text. This is sent to one or more people via email. These people open the email and click on a link to view their card. They, of course, have the option from here to visit your web site and perhaps send additional cards to other people (or back to the sender).If your cards are good enough, you can find this technique alone will generate an incredible amount of traffic. Of course, you have the same problem with greeting cards that you have with your web site - you have to get people to it to begin with. Once you do that, however, you will find that it becomes more or less self maintaining. The more traffic you get the more you generate. Just make sure that all of your greeting card pages are listed in the search engines, well displayed on your page (and perhaps all of your pages) and advertised elsewhere as much as practical.In fact, it's a good idea to spend as much or more time marketing the greeting cards as