4.29.2010

6 Tips to Improve Results of Press Releases

2:26 AM

Dr STUD

Post by Eric.

Press releases have been a method of marketing since before the internet was ever used for marketing. The benefits of a good press release are numerous when done well.

Benefits Available Through Press Releases

Knowing how to properly write a press release can make the difference between publishing a mildly informative document and getting solid branding with several benefits, including:

Distribution – Reach areas of your market that you would otherwise never be able to get in contact with.
Reputation/Credibility – When your information and quotes are seen in the news, you often gain large amounts of respect. This can improve your reputation in many people’s eyes.
Branding/Expertise – You’ll often be seen as more of an expert in the market you speak on, especially if some of your achievements can be touched on in your releases.
SEO Benefits – Online press releases, when done right, can be posted on several web sites on publication. These sites are usually news sites which have a much better reputation to search engines than average, and are crawled more often. The number of links and quality of links make online PR a valuable tool for seo.

Just putting together a press release is not enough. Putting together a good press release will make the difference between being viewed as an expert or as a joke.

Here are 6 tips on how to make sure your press releases are quality ones.

1) Keep your story “news friendly”

Be careful to not write on any random topic you want published. Talking about how great the product you’re trying to sell is is not good press release material. Find a topic that a news publication would want to publish. It’s a story of some kind that people will want to read about. Keep that in mind and you’re already a step ahead.

2) Do proper quality checking

Review your press release for any possible spelling or grammar errors. Either of these will not do well to improve readers’ opinions of your level of professionalism. In addition to this, be sure that the facts you state in your story are true. Any false information in a news publication is a big no-no.

A good way to check your story is to pass it on to a friend or colleague and ask them to judge your whole story, as well as checking it for errors. If they find it interesting, that’s a good sign.

3) Put links in place appropriately

The SEO benefits of online press releases are great. Just make sure you use your links properly. Do not put more than one link for every 100 words in your release. When you use paid press release services you can choose to put links with the anchor text of your choice.

Make sure that your keywords fit seamlessly into your copy. Putting a link with anchor text mentioning a local service does not fit so well in a press release about a national issue, unless you can tie it well to a person you are quoting or a specific example for the story that is in that local area. Keep it relevant.

4) More is not better

Anyone who is thinking of putting a press release into publication will not want a long story. For reporters, they’ll want to be able to analyze the story and hook as quickly as possible. Shorter stories are easier to digest.

In addition to that, don’t put out several similar press releases in quick succession. There is no reason any publications will want to put out similar stories rapidly.

5) Aim for proper timing

Timing your press release on a specific day can make a big difference in the effectiveness and impact of it. Most press releases are slated for Monday publications. In some cases the weekend is the best bet for your market. Research your particular market, see when most news stories are published. More readers will look for stories during those times, so you’d benefit more from timing your release during these days.

Also be careful about putting out your release at the same time as another story in your market that is bigger than your story. Putting a release out about the growth of your cell phone store will likely not do as well if you timed it to release the same day the as the official iPad release.

6) Choose the right press release service

There are many choices on how to do press releases. If you only want local coverage and don’t care so much about the SEO benefits, then you can often go to local newspapers with your story and submit it directly for little or no cost. You can also go with a paid service like PRWeb to distribute widely and with SEO benefits.

There are several services available, it’s best to find one that has all the benefits you are interested in that have a cost you can afford. Free press release services will not have the same benefits as paid ones but still will produce results.

Putting a press release together well by following these tips can make a large difference in how effective your release works for your company and site. Put press releases together with care and spend time to keep the quality up and you will see the benefits.

2:21 AM

Dr STUD

Ebooks Directories

Most e-books directories offer the best of e-books from different categories. A lot of people visit these sites to download books to enhance and boost their blogging career.

Compile some of your best and popular posts into e-books and submit them to some of the great sites listed in this collection. If you intend to monetize your blog, you can offer the short books you create for free on your site as a downloadable version, but offer it in exchange for the users’ email address. This way you can send them future products or free products and advertise to them as well.

Here are some great sites for your E-book submissions:

Blog Directories

Blog directories are useful places people search for blog posts. Don’t be left out when your target market in the results displayed in these sites. Make a conscious effort to send your blog to at least one blog directory every day when you check your blog traffic for the day. It’s the submissions that bring in the traffic you want to see increase.

Here are some great sites for blog submission:

Social Media Marketing

Almost every blog now has a way to share posts on multiple social media sites. This works for some niche sites but unfortunately it does not work for others. Mashable gets tons of traffic from social media sites. Posts are submitted multiple times to Twitter, Digg, Facebook and the new Google buzz makes it even better. Some of these sites you know already, I will not waste your time by repeating these links or sites.

But what I can say is that it depends on your niche. Choose and monitor your social media marketing carefully. Stumbleupon and hacker news works very well for my boostta.com site because users of the niche I have chosen. I expose plugins and applications that can boost and enhance your blogging experience. There are also a lot of How-to articles on my site.

Online News / Tools Aggregation sites

This category has a lot in common with social media marketing. Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Slashdot and Delicious all qualify for this category as well. You are familiar with most of them. Provide buttons to these sites on your blog and your users will bring you tons of traffic.

News aggregation is very popular in recent times; fortunately some of the sites allow users to submit their news or stories to their sites for their readers. Y combinator’s hacker news aggregation is not known for good design but it can send a lot of traffic to your site if your article or post will be useful for startup founders, or technology news readers. With compelling headlines and descriptions, you can quickly gain traffic to your blog.

Here are some great sites for news aggregation submission:

N4G.com is great for game news
BizHeat.com for business news
Y Combinator for tech news

Podcast Directories

Some readers prefer podcasts to reading your text online. Give them what they want when they them ta the places they find them most. You can convert your blog posts into podcasts with Vozmo.

Here are some great sites for podcast submission:

Video Marketing

Video streaming and downloading is very popular among some section of blog readers. You may have your videos scattered on multiple video sites. If you have not done that already and are wondering how to convert that top and popular post into a video, you can try ArticleVideoRobot, Camtasia Studio and here is a great site for video submission: tubemogul.com

Article Directories

Article directories work best for your popular posts. All you need to do is to submit your top posts to as many article directories as possible. Don’t waste your time on directories without a better page rank because they will do you no good. Make sure you sign off at the footer with your link. I will submit the content of this e-book to the directories I have provided below.

Here are some great sites for article submission:

Guest Posting

If a post is drawing a lot of traffic, then certainly a lot of your users are finding it useful. To generate even greater amount of traffic from that post submit it to authors of blogs in your niche for publication on their blogs, Some bloggers encourage guest posting and accept great post on their sites. This is one of the best ways to gain acknowledgment in your niche.

Document Sharing Marketing

Sharing your post on a PowerPoint could take a lot of time, but once that is done you can send or submit it to multiple document sharing sites. It has a significant impact on the number of people who could land on your blog from these sites. I use slideshare.com to distribute my slides and those posts keep sending traffic to my alltopstartup blog. Remember link back to your blog with your url when creating the PowerPoint slide. Putting hyperlinks on your slides makes it easy.

Here are some great sites for document submission:

RSS Feed Submissions

Many blog users immediately scan your blog for an RSS feed if they like your content once they land on your blog. RSS traffic constitutes some of your loyal readers. If your content is great don’t hesitate to publicize your feeds and provide a way for subscribers to sign on your feeds easily.

Here are some great sites for RSS submission:

Automatic Blog / RSS Submissions

Blogs can be submitted automatically with a single registration. Some sites provide this service for free, whilst other charge to submit your blog URL and description to multiple sites. The greater the number of your links scattered on the web on other sites, the higher your page ranks on search engines and sites like Compete and Alexa. There are other sites that are interested in pinging your blog or its RSS on other sites when you post new content. It helps to ping your blog from time to time.

Here are some great sites for multiple blog and RSS submission:

Submitterbot.com

Ping your Blog on these sites:

Blog Communities

Bloggers share ideas links, tips, and learn from each other on blog communities. Joining a community gives you the opportunity to interact with other bloggers and possibly share and exchange links. The most important thing is to make contact with other users and develop relationships when you join forums and communities.

Here are some great communities and Forums you can join:

If you are committed to promote your blog to the max, there is no denying of the fact that it will pay of finally when you begin to monetize it. Take time to build the blog and gain the traffic and the money will follow. Notwithstanding if you plan to monetize your blog introduce your ads as soon you think you are ready to sell ads.

Your users should be used to the ads whilst you still have time. If ads begin to battle for space when you finally introduce it, your faithful readers will read into your intentions quicker than you think. I hope you have submitted your links to at least 50 of the links above. If you have, you have done what is required of you as a blogger, but don’t stop its an ongoing process.

SEE YOU AT THE TOP WHERE WE BELONG.

Author Thomas Oppong writes about tools, applications and plug-ins

5 Great Tutorial Websites To Learn How To Do Something

7:36 AM

Dr STUD

The internet can be a very powerful tool to learn how to do things that you might need to do but don’t really know how to do it. Finding how to do something is much easier now then it was 20 years ago. The internet is full of useful resources and you don’t even have to leave your own home to get access to it.

No more driving to the library to find a book that’s not even there. No more reading the entire book only to find it doesn’t help you at all. Finding how to do something on the internet is as simple as typing what you want into a search engine and the results are right at your fingertips.

eHow

eHow is a great site to find out how to do something quickly. The tutorials aren’t overly descriptive and most of them are less than 10 steps, but they do get straight to the point. Want to learn how to play tennis? Just type the keyword “tennis” into eHow’s search engine and you will get heaps of results on how to hit a tennis forehand, or even how to build a court in your backyard.

Not only are there just text tutorials, eHow also provides many video tutorials.

eHow is a great website to learn the basics of just about anything. From The Internet, to Parenting, to Education, to Electronics and Business.

eHow

wikiHow

wikiHow currently has about 76,000 articles in its database, so there is a high chance that it covers a “how to” that you want to know. Similar to eHow, wikiHow’s content is created by the community. Say I want learn how to create a website. I did a search on “how to create a website” and I got some good results.

wikiHow

Instructables

Want to learn how to build something physical from scratch? Then you should definitely check Instructables out. The instructions are much more in-depth then the previous sites mentioned, and they have some nice tutorials on how to build things you wouldn’t normally build.

For example, there is a tutorial on How to Build a Multi Touch Surface. Although it will cost you $2,500, it is still something pretty cool to have.

instructables

About Video Tutorials

Often when I want help with something, Google often refers me to About. Their tutorials are pretty comprehensive. A while back I wanted to learn how to add a log in page for a website I was developing and it had a nice, easy to read and follow tutorial. They have many more tutorials at a more beginner’s level, such as how to use Skype.

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1:50 AM

Dr STUD

PS3 sure is one of the most coveted consoles of our times, and there is a very good reason for that. Most people prefer the PS3 or PS3 Slim to play games, and it is the most universally used console in the whole wide world.

Since so many millions of people use the PS3, you may not want your PS3 to look the same. In that case, you will have to go ahead and mod it to suit your taste and needs. Here are some really cool and weird PS3 mods that would jazz up the mundane PS3 into something else.

Damnation Steampunk PS3 Mod

What could be better than turning the PS3 into a sort of Steampunk device? If you always had that wish, you could take a look at this cool Damnation Steampunk Mod that is not only attractive but also quite interesting.

Real Alien PS3 Mod

If you always liked the Alien vs Predator series, you would certainly love this macabre Alien PS3 Mod that is almost mangled. It was created using various Alien inspired parts and it is really very convincing!

Alien Chestbuster Cyborg PS3 Mod

Here is another Alien Cyborg PS3 Mod that completely blows your mind away. However, it is not as scary as the previous one, but is still not fit for children who like to play video games.

Extreme PS3 Slim Portable Gaming with an Epson Projector

If you wanted to take geeky behavior to the next step, try the PS3 Slim Epson Projector Gaming. It is a wearable system that would make you a walking talking gaming console. You could have everything placed within your body and view the scene on a projected screen.

Portable PS3 Mod

If you thought the PS3 can never be taken from one place to another, think again. Here is a PS3 Portable Mod that would completely change the way we play video games.

PS3 Slim Laptop

The PS3 Slim Laptop has been created by Benheck, the acclaimed hacker. This laptop can be used to play video games in the most convenient manner possible. If you would like one, you could contact Benheck.

Far Cry 2 PS3 Mod

Far Cry 2 is one of the best action and violence oriented games, and it is hugely popular across Asia and South America. This Far Cry 2 PS3 Mod would appeal to all the fans of the game, who have been trying desperately to customize their favorite console to resemble their favorite game.

Microwaved PS3

For those who have a lot of cash and do not know what to do with it, you could go ahead and buy a PS3 and microwave it! If you would like to know what happens when you cook your PS3, take a look at this picture!

Homicide PS3 Mod

Those who are always obsessed with blood and gore would love the Homicide PS3 Mod which would make anyone assume that a murder had taken place nearby.

PS3 Mod with Xbox 360

Though most PS3 fans would hate to talk about Xbox 360, and talking about other consoles is almost a taboo, getting a console that has the PS3 cover and an Xbox inside is something that I would say is outrageously cool. This is a daring and fun concept.

Wood Themed PS3 Mod

The many Sony fans who wished for a stylish PS3 but were tired of the same old look, try out and get the Wood Themed PS3 Mod, which actually looks quite stylish. It is one of the best designs that I have come across so far.

PS3 LED Mod

If you are the kind of person who likes LEDs a lot, here is how you could Mod Your PS3 with LEDs. The mod looks absolutely fantastic and glows the night away!

PS3 Console Concepts

Now apart from the mods, there are also some serious concepts being designed, which almost make you want to mod your real PS3 slim or PS3 into one of these concepts.

Sony Playstation Nano Blue Sky Project

The Sony Playstation Nano Blue Sky Project is a realistic concept that aims to create a gaming atmosphere that is almost realistic. It is a great design and comes with several options.

PS3 Slim Concept

Before the PS3 Slim was born, many people desperately needed something that worked just as good as the PS3 but something that was smaller and slimmer. This concept here is one of those ideas and concepts.

Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Mod

This may not be a concept but it almost is like one, for it is difficult to do the same thing in real life. This designer has created a great Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Mod.

Sony Playstation Enso Concept

The Enso Concept is a conceptual PlayStation console that can be stuck to the ceiling. It comes with advanced graphics and motion sensing capabilities.

Flat Body PS3

Now that the PS3 Slim is here, not many people worry about its slimness. However, the PS3 Flat Body was one of the concepts that were unveiled hoping for a slimmer and better PS3. It has a novel shape and design and was created by Miguel Duarte.

PS4 Concepts

Now we all know that there has to be a PS4 sometime in future. PS3 Slim is getting pretty old too. So how would a PS4 look? These are two of the cooler PS4 Concepts.

PS4 Touchscreen Glass Concept

This PS4 Concept comes with a touchscreen glass panel which makes it really chic and ultra-modern.

PS4 Controller Handle: Project Cobra

Project Cobra is a futuristic design that is so impeccable that I suspect it would ever become reality. Read more about it, and stay inspired!

PS3 Skins

For the many fans who desired a different look for their PS3 but didn’t dare to try much, you could just get a skin to cover your Playstation.

Assassin’s Creed II PS3 Slim Skin

The Assassin’s Creed II PS3 Slim Skin is a great way to show your personality, and what you like amidst the sea of games.

Final Fantasy XIII PS3 Slim Edition

Though this is not exactly a skin, it is dedicated to the fans of Final Fantasy XIII and it sure looks delicate and chic, unlike gaudy skins that look terrible usually.

Custom Color PS3 Slim Mod

If you have always been wanting to get yourself a rather cool mod, you could try the Custom Color PS3 Slim Mod which would make your console different from the rest of the gamers’ consoles. It surely makes things really customized!

Tekken PS3 Skins

Tekken fans would sure love this Tekken PS3 Skins, which were used by Namco Bandai for the purpose of marketing. Unfortunately they are not available easily.

Shadow the Hedgehog PS3 Mod

Shadow the Hedgehog is one of the most popular characters and he is not only cute but incredibly fun. This Shadow the Hedgehog PS3 Mod is a great gift to anyone who loves this character.

These concepts, mods and hacks prove that PlayStation consoles are among the best and there is a great future for these consoles. It is only a matter of time before we see who is the successor to PS3 Slim.

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1:49 AM

Dr STUD

Women's Health - May 2010 (US)
English | 150 pages | PDF | 58.00 Mb

Women's Health Magazine: A lifestyle magazine rooted in health and fitness. Women's Health is filled with actionable and practical advice that you can use today. For women who want to do more, have more, and be more.

Hotfile.com

http://hotfile.com/dl/39815630/2a2671a/Wom0H020100050US.rar.html

Uploading.com

http://uploading.com/files/cm4feec2/Wom0H020100050US.rar/

1:47 AM

Dr STUD

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that President Obama is a "thinker" unlike "other people." The Russian president seemed to be referring to President George W. Bush.

"I won't name anyone by name," he said.

In a rambling fashion, Medvedev also talks in vague terms about an "agreement" reached between President Barack Obama and his own country over reducing the number of active missiles in their respective arsenals.

"We agreed upon and we spoke about with President Obama and talked about with American representatives that we should cooperate in the creation of global missile defense systems," he added. "But if that process will go eventually on such a scenario which, according to our impression, will lead to the quantity changes, then such a question could be posed by our side. And this is the principle of that reasoning, and understanding as well about that oral statement yesterday."

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1:44 AM

Dr STUD

A bright 21-year-old killed herself after more than 200 unsuccessful job applications.

Vicky Harrison had dreamed of a career as a teacher or a television producer, but gave up hope for the future, her family said yesterday.

A day after her latest rejection, and on the eve of her fortnightly trip to sign on, she wrote heartbreaking notes to her parents and boyfriend saying 'I don't want to be me any more' and took a huge drug overdose.

Vicky Harrison died after taking a a massive drug overdose. Her mother said: 'Vicky found it humiliating that she had been out of work for so long and couldn't take it any more'

Her death last month tragically highlights the human cost of the highest level of joblessness since the mid-1990s. Rising youth unemployment has led to warnings about a 'lost generation'.

Miss Harrison's devastated parents called yesterday for more help for young jobseekers, telling how the never-ending search for work had driven their daughter to despair.

Her father Tony, 53, said: 'I lost track of the different types of jobs she applied for. It was really hard seeing her confidence suffer after each rejection. She just wanted to work and earn some cash. I didn't realise how hard it would be to get a job.'

Miss Harrison grew up in Darwen, Lancashire, and passed ten good GCSEs at Moorland High School before gaining A-levels in film and media studies and English language at Runshaw College, Leyland.

She won a place at South Bank University in London to study film and media studies, but quit after a year because she was not enjoying the course.

Back home, she set her sights on teaching, applying for secretarial or dinner lady jobs at local schools in the hope of becoming a teaching assistant.

Vicky with boyfriend Nathan Howarth: He and Vicky's family are calling for more support for unemployed young people

Miss Harrison, who was on £51-a-week Jobseeker's Allowance, finally lowered her sights in a bid to simply earn some money, but even applications for waitressing jobs got nowhere.

She asked supermarkets, including Tesco, for work stacking shelves or at check-ins and visited shops such as WH Smith and McDonald's inquiring in vain about sales positions.

Over the two years after she left college her family estimate she applied for more than 200 jobs.

'In the end it obviously got her down to such a point that she felt she had no future,' said her father, a former joiner.

On March 30 Miss Harrison received yet another rejection, from a nursery, and the next day her father found her dead in the lounge, surrounded by empty pill packets and bottles.

She left three suicide notes - one each for her parents, and one for her boyfriend, Nathan Haworth, 22.

They read: 'It's just that I don't want to be me any more.

Bright future: Vicky at age five

'Please don't be sad. It's not your fault. I want everybody in life to be HAPPY.'

Her mother Louise, 43, added: 'Vicky was a bright, bubbly and clever girl but she became depressed at not being able to find a job. Vicky found it humiliating that she had been out of work for so long and couldn't take it any more. We are struggling to come to terms with it. Vicky is and always was special.'

Mr Harrison said: 'She was such a gorgeous girl and had a stunning smile. She was clever too. There was no reason why she shouldn't have been able to find a job.

'I am sure that the latest rejection letter combined with the fact that she had to go and sign on the next day was too much for her.

'She had decided university was not for her but she never expected to struggle so much to find a job. The timing was unlucky because of the recession.'

Mr Harrison added: 'I think she was upset that she had no money and she felt she was losing touch with her friends because she couldn't go out. She never wanted any charity and that is why she was so desperate for work.

'What upsets us so much is that there are obviously so many other people in a similar position.'

Miss Harrison's family and boyfriend hope to set up a foundation in her memory to help young people struggling to find work.

'It needs to be a place where people can talk and understand that this is not the end of the world,' said Mr Haworth. 'Some good needs to come from Vicky's death.'

Figures published this week showed that 4,045 18-to-24 year olds in East Lancashire were claiming Jobseeker's Allowance last month, compared to 2,730 in July 2008, before the recession.

Nationally, youth unemployment rose to 929,000 for the December to February period, up 4,000 on the previous three months, with the overall total hitting 2.5million.

Critics say Labour policies are creating a 'lost generation' of school leavers unable to find employment.

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1:43 AM

Dr STUD

Free Lifehacker - 88 Tech Tricks To Turbocharge Your Day
English | 2009 | PDF | 7.05 MB

This book is a self-help guide for the over-wired and the overwhelmed. Any-one from the technically savvy to the attention-challenged will find something useful in its pages.

Seasoned Web surfers, knowledge workers, freelancers,
early adopters, aspiring and accomplished geeks, programmers, tweakers,
modders, and do-it-yourselfers will want to read this book. Anyone who has
inadvertently burned three hours surfing the Web for no discernable reason,
anyone who’s been buried under a stack of unread email messages, anyone
who’s frustrated by disorder and wants to apply systematic structure in his life
will find this book useful.

Download from Hotfile
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1:40 AM

Dr STUD

As a snarky response to Muslim bloggers who "warned" Comedy Central about an episode of South Park showing the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bear suit, one Seattle cartoonist, who calls laughter her form of "prayer," is asking artists all over the world to create depictions of Mohammed on May 20, then submit the images to a Facebook page she set up.

Speaking on a Seattle radio show on Friday, cartoonist Molly Norris said she announced her idea as a way of countering the fear exhibited by Comedy Central in censoring episode 201 of South Park.

At the South Park Studios website, a message was posted that notes, "After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show."

The New York-based Revolution Muslim group's Web site was largely unavailable Wednesday but a CNN report said the statement was posted alongside a graphic photo of slain Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was murdered by a Muslim extremist in Amsterdam in 2004.

"In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind," outh Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone wrote on their Web site. "We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it."

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