External inbound links are an important tool of search engine optimization (SEO), but how do you go about creating them? The definition of an “external” link is one inbound to your web site from someone else’s web site. You don’t control the content of someone else’s web site, so how can you create such links? Here are several ways you can do this.

1) Write articles containing links to your web site and submit them to publishers online, such as EzineArticles, iSnare, etc. If the articles are well-written and interesting, they have a higher chance of being accepted and also of generating traffic through the links, which will improve the quality.

2) Participate in and-and-answer blogs or discussion sites and (without spamming, of course) incorporate the link to your site into your contribution. One way to do this without it being spam is to put the link into your signature. This makes it appear in every post, without making your actual posts one-note symphonies.

3) Contact the webmasters of high-traffic web sites relevant to yours, and arrange for them to link to your site. You may have to pay them for the privilege, or sometimes you can trade link references. Be careful and selective in doing this, however. Search engines are becoming pretty sophisticated about determining whether an external link is coming from something that has anything to do with your site, and if it doesn’t the link will not be rated as high-quality, precisely because this method is often abused.

4) Create a blog on a blog site such as Blogger or WordPress. Contribute to the blog frequently, and incorporate links to your web site into the text. Again, be careful about spam. If the blog gives the impression of existing only to create links to your web site, that will often be recognized by search-engine algorithms.

5) Write high-quality, unique content for your web site.

This last is actually the best way. If your site is high-quality, people will tend to link to it and, over time, you will develop an array of incoming external links from web sites run by people you don’t even know about. But this takes time, creativity, and hard work, and it also relies on people finding your web site before it has any external inbound links to speak of and thus before it is likely to appear very highly in search engine rank.

For that reason, you would be wise to make use of some of the other methods as well. That can generate traffic into your site and allow people to know about the wonderful content you have on it – which in turn will generate more external links, and push your site higher on the search rankings. It’s a nice self-reinforcing spiral.

Before agreeing to partner up with a blog site or other webmasters, do a free people search. Don’t give your site a bad name but letting it be associated with the site of a dishonest person.

Nowadays blogging is one of the most famous ways using the web worldwide, thousands of people daily update their personal blogs while millions are following them, tweeting about them and like them!
Every blogger or web master can potentially use a handful of tools, free and paid, available to make their job easier and faster. I thought to create a post where I m going to list 10 free and must use tools that will make your blogging or web developing more efficient and fun, so here we go:

Fontstruct

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Find beatiful and free to use fonts online and create colorful and pleasant to read content. Fontstruct lets you build, share, and download fonts directly from their website where you also can create your own fonts using their FontStructor font editor.

GIMP

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GIMP is one of the best open source raster graphics editor that lets you edit your photos and graphics as easy and professionally as other paid graphic editors like photoshop and fireworks

Pixlr

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Pixlr is an online photo editor that has a really useful firefox and chrome addon called Pixlr Grabber that lets bloggers to grab screen shots on the fly and paste them directly to their content editor or just save them for later use.

Adobe Browser Lab

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Adobe browser lab offers webmasters and web developers a free service to test their website layout compatibility against all available browsers in many resolutions and o/s.

Color Scheme Designer

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Color Scheme Designer will help you find color schemes for your theme, in addition it has some other interesting tools such as Colorblind filters and export schemes in various formats like xml, html+css, text, ACO(which is the palette for photoshop) and GPL(palette for Gimp).

Gazup

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Gazup is a mirror file sharing tool that lets you upload simultaneously your website files like images and pdfs in multiple hosts around the world, that way you achieve far better speed results for your website files while at the same time you save precious bandwidth from your hosting account.

Embedit

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Easily embed documents in your website, no code needed.

CSS Type Set

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handy online css preview editor that lets you test your css code nice ‘N’ sleazy!!!

Wordoff

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Wordoff is an online tool that strips special characters, like empty elements, s and

Favigen: Favicon Generator

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Every website that respects its visitors should have a favicon installed! If you don’t know how you to a create a favicon or just don’t have the time or needed software to do it you should pay a visit @Favigen. This website automagically creates your favicon, you only need to upload your to-be-a-favicon image, choose preferred size and click “Create a favicon”.

Video content in 2011 achieved a tremendous growth following statistical reports showing that video converts to a sale and returning visitors far better than any text content. Every website no matter how small is trying to keep up this trend and re-design their themes into a more video friendly ones. Below I m going to post 15 of the best WordPress themes for video websites, since WordPress is the most popular open source CMS in the world used by thousands of webmasters around the web.
Choose your favorite one and convert your website into a video friendly website for 2012.

Gigawatt WP Video Theme

Review | Demo | Download

The Gigawatt video theme for WordPress is designed to showcase users finished videos along with accompanying text. It comes with options of organizing videos into two- or three-column portfolio pages. A big advantage to this theme is its compatibility with several third party video hosting sites such as Vimeo, YouTube, and Blip. The gigawatt theme is also adjustable enough for bloggers to use it as a standard template with added still images instead of videos.

Wootube video theme for WordPress

Review | Demo | Download

Woothemes is a source for a variety of high quality themes geared for multimedia, business, and portfolio blogs. This vendor also has a limited collection of free themes for site authors with limited budgets. The Wootube theme is the vendor’s built-in engine for uploading and playing back videos making your website a native video website with endless functionality.

Premiere theme for WordPress

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The Premiere theme is another offering from Woothemes, and it also gives video bloggers the chance to showcases their work with their own choices of colors and font styles. This theme has a very user-friendly video archiving page, and its video home page includes a one-click option to keep blog followers updated by emailing them links to new posts.

Videozoom WP Theme

Review | Demo | Download

Videozoom theme has an advantage of placing text entries next to videos rather than underneath them, which is a layout some visitors prefer. Videozoom also gives blog visitors the option of adjusting the reading layout to their liking.

Tarnished Blog or Business WordPress Theme

Review | Demo | Download

Tarnished is the name of a grunge-themed layout that is has a polished enough appearance to make it appropriate for both business and personal blogging use. It comes with a range of skins and background colors that can be changed easily to fit a wide range of preferences. The theme also supports self-hosted videos and a variety of different slide show options. Video bloggers who want to stand out from the online crowd often consider Tarnished one of the best video themes available.

This Way WP Full Video or Image Background with Audio WP Theme

Review | Demo | Download

This Way WP is a theme that has been optimized for mobile viewing on Android devices as well as on the iPhone and iPad. It features full screen video playback along with scrollable image gallery options. This theme also has a highly customizable video portfolio page with thumbnails of each entry. This Way WP themes has a dynamic slideshow feature with zooming, panning, and included text descriptions for each video entry. The layout includes easy connecting features for social media such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon.

Foundation WP theme

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The Foundation theme has a clear layout that can host either a big image or a video in its homepage making it great for websites that want to have clean and straightforward content. This theme is just one available option for purchase at organizedthemes, a vendor specializing in WordPress templates for churches and various non-profit agencies. Many of these themes can be adapted for fundraising efforts and for easy communication of activities such as group meetings. The developer behind organizedthemes has also created layouts for small business owners in artistic fields such as photography. Some of the best features of these themes include clean design and visually attractive layouts.

EcoHD WordPress Theme

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Idesigneco specializes in magazine style WordPress layouts for collections of photography, videos, and other types of creative work. This vendor also offers blog themes that can be adapted for news, travel, and a range of other topics. One of its most popular and user friendly video blogging themes is known as EcoHD, and it features cinematic quality along with added text captions for each video.

Motion Picture VLog theme

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The Motion Picture theme for WordPress has been optimized for high definition video embedding. This theme is compatible with oEmbed that allows bloggers to simply paste each video URL into its placeholder to generate the needed embed code automatically. The motion picture theme is also noted for its attractive use of white space, though it is available with a dark background as well. Bloggers and website owners who select motion picture over other video themes find that it makes their content stand out visually.

Born Theme suitable for media websites

Review | Demo | Download

Video bloggers who record events for an organization can also select from other options such as the Born theme, which has added widgets for text entries and call to action buttons where needed.

Groovy Video Theme

Review | Demo | Download

Another option is the Groovy video theme that has a more contemporary look with solid colors rather than the gigawatt’s vintage appearance. Bloggers have the option of selecting a featured video in the left column and an archive of recent video posts in the right. One click on any of the recent videos will open it up on demand, making navigation quick and easy with this WordPress video theme. Users can also add extra information in a text widget and link to images in their Flickr accounts.

WPShow Theme

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WPShow is a theme similar in function to Videozoom, though with a different default layout and a dark blue background. This theme has a video landing page that allows site owners to feature rotations of their best work. It can also be arranged with regular text posts either as video descriptions or as stand-alone entries. The right column features placeholders for additional videos, enticing visitors to watch more once they have played through the featured video.

Wave WP Video Theme

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The WordPress Wave theme is another visually appealing option with a focus on organizing and showcasing videos. Collections of videos can be embedded in differently-sized placeholders, and the layout is characterized by an off-white background with prominent green text for creating video titles and descriptions.

Video Flick for WordPress

Review | Demo | Download

Video Flick for WordPress is available from a vendor called press75, and its main selling point is its gallery layout for a multitude of videos on the same landing page. It also has a featured content widget for videos of note as well as plugins for advertisements. For bloggers with large numbers of videos to categorize, the theme has an easy content tagging system located by default in the right hand column.

On Demand WP Theme

Review | Demo | Download

On Demand for WordPress is a theme that takes some inspiration from Hulu’s video pages, and it also offers bloggers the option to host their own content. This theme is available from press75 and has a lot of flexibility in terms of customized page layouts, widgets, and social media connections.

Anarchy.info is one of the rare premium .info domains for sale that is related with form of government.
Perfect fit for the .info extension, can be developed on a huge informative portal about anarchy that will features, quotes, articles, rss feeds and a community about anarchy.

This domain is your doorway to own and manage a successful website, take advantage of this auction and make it yours.

Domain Creation Date: 30 Dec 08

Expiration Date: 30 Dec 2012

Google Term frequency: 21,200,000

Google Search popularity: 251,250

Keyword: anarchy

Avg CPC: $0.72

I tried to gather some of the most well know domain privacy service providers making it easier for you to compare prices between them.

• NameCheap.com WhoisGuard Domain Privacy Protection from $2.88 per year
• Dynadot.com Domain Privacy Service $2 per year
• PrivateRegistration.com Domains from $1.99 for the first year
• Moniker.com Domain Privacy $1 per year
• GoDaddy.com Domains By Proxy $9.99 per year
• Enom.com ID Protect $8 per year
• NetworkSolutions.com $9.99 per year
• Register.com Private Domain Registration for $11 per year
• Name.com Whois Privacy for $7.99 per year

First of all I must say that I feel embarassed simplifying a country’s potential tragody, I hope that Tuvalu wont sink for their and our sake.
So, lets get to the point of this article; there is an urban legend saying that .tv domains will stop existing just after Tuvalu sinks making this cctld absent since its future is attached with Tuvalu’s future as a country.

I m sure many companies or individuals are hesitant to invest their money with .tv’s because of this reason but not only(.tv’s cctld bizarre pricing model gets almost all the credit).
In order to clear this myth, once and I hope for all I tried to search related info on the web and I got lucky finding some good answers coming from trustworthy sources.

As my reply in a comment I received about John.TV some months ago same question about .tv’s and what will happen if Tuvalu sinks has already been asked by a USA Today journalist Kevin Maney,back in 2004, and replied by Verisign’s spokesman Tom Galvin is that “… a defunct country’s Internet domain lives on. For instance, you can still find addresses on .su — the domain for the Soviet Union.“

Thats a clear statement coming from Verisign which conrols among other tld’s .tv cctld leaving no doubt about what will happen if a country like Tuvalu stops to exist physically. I should add that perhaps Tuvalu would be the first cyber-country on this planet making room for other to follow.

It seems like some domain brokers are now trying to sell online properties aka websites as well. They are probably following a trend where domainers get more and more into buying websites instead of domains and reselling them for a profit. Since I ve been there myslef I thought its time to write down a short analysis of a website I got interested in buying hoping that it will help you making the right choices when trying to walk the same path.

These last few months I m receiving a newsletter by Latonas with website he puts up for sale, I have to admit that sometimes I feel surprised by the revenue some of those website claim to have because being a mini developer myself I know how to estimate a domain and a website that comes along with it and how hard is to make money through adsense if you dont have any type in traffic.
After spotting a website I was interested for I went and researched a bit deeper about it; CancerInsuranceInfo.com.
Latona claims the following stats in his broker page:
- Approximate Annual Revenue $6,181
- Page Views Per Month 12,867
– Uniques Per month 5,776

I also noted that the time that Latona listed this website it a had a PR of 1 and Alexa rank of 23,322,093 while yahoo links where around 37(all this data has been taken from latona listing page). Anyone that is involved with domains can understand that these numbers dont justify annual revenue of $6K for a website build on a non type in domain so I had to seek more info about this listing and so I did.
Currently domain and website has a PR of 3 while Alexa global rank has been upgraded to 2,410,483 and yahoo links multiplied to 634 making a huge progress from the time this website was 1st listed by Latonas.

After seeing this upgrade I wondered why did it happen since its difficult to get these results in such a short period of time, thats why I run a report for yahoo links for CancerInsuranceInfo.com and saw that yahoo logged tens of backlinks coming from article directories(the ones that Google phased out in the last giant update called Panda update) and other websites like this one that are hosted under the same server as CancerInsuranceInfo.com having the same whois details as well which makes me think that owner is developing a ring of website to backlink one with the other(something that is not neccesserily bad but its loved by Google as well).

Until now I see a website that doesn’t have enough reliable data to support its price and traffic so I have to search further in order to find more about it and so I did:
After trying an exact google search for CancerInsuranceInfo.com I found a flippa listing for the same website by Latonas and below you can read stats provided by Flippa:

- Page Views Per Month     3,106
- Uniques Per Month     703
- Gross Revenue (avg per month)     $506
- Net Profit (avg per month)     $506

Flippa auction ended unsold with 7 bids, highest for $750.

If you follow the same steps for any website you are interested in buying I m sure you will eliminate many of them because they cant justify their numbers. Of course research can get a lot deeper and compliacted if you wish I just tried to show the way to start and you can enrich it using your experience and personal taste.

Below I m listing some interesting tools for researching domains and websites:

- FlippingEthics.com analyzes in bulk flippa domain listings keeping an archive for any sales that happen over there.
- Market Samurai(30 day trial period) this is a universal tool for both developing and buying domains or websites. It shows you which keywords pay the best, it analyses given urls and lets know any backlionks they have, PR, Alexa Rank. It also shows in what position a website ranks for a given keyword, a really useful tool that saved my ass repeatedly.
- Traffic Travis(Free or $1 for 7day trial) which similar to Market Samurai, I suggest you try them both and buy the one you like best. I bought them both and compare their reports to get a better estimate

Hacks.info

Traffic(previous 31 days): 742 UV

Traffic proof: SEDO
Useful info: Hacks is a popular word for software or hardware tips and tricks, for example:
a. Windows XP Hacks
b. Smart Home Hacks: Tips & Tools for Automating Your House
c. Mind Performance Hacks: Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain
Hacks fits domain tld like a charm making it one of the best .info domains available.
Google frequency for “hacks”: 56,200,000
Google search for “hacks”: 91,020
Registrar: Moniker
Domain creation date: 13 July 2002

Send your offer

Via.TV

Traffic(previous 31 days): 742 UV

Traffic proof: SEDO
Useful info: Via can can be used for the following:
1. By way of: went to Pittsburgh via Philadelphia.
2. By means of: sent the letter via airmail.
Via is also popular in other languages such as Greek and Spanish(meaning is almost identical as in English language) and Italian(means “road” and used as “by”). That said this lll.tv domain really fits the .tv domain cctld; Via.tv can be used for “Through TV”.
Google frequency for “via”: 100,000,000
Google search for “via”: 370,230
Registrar: Dynadot, this domain has a normal renewal price of almost $24 per year and can only be transferred to another dynadot account.
Domain creation date: 25 March 2010

Send your offer

Calyptra.com

Traffic(previous 31 days): 821 UV

Traffic proof: SEDO
Useful info: Calyptra is an english dictionary word that can be used for:
a. The protective cap or hood covering the spore case of a moss or related plant.
b. A similar hoodlike, lidlike, or caplike structure, such as a root cap.
Google frequency: 179,000
Google search: 725
Registrar: Dynadot
Domain creation date: 09 January 2011

Send your offer