Google Search Engine Optimization

Owning a website is a cool thing in itself, but it's even greater if you're able to welcome a lot of visitors to it. One of the most effective ways to accomplish this, is by making sure your site is easily found through search engines like Google.

In contrary to what the SPAM flooding our inbox is promising ("submit to 500 search engines!", "Guaranteed Top Rankings!", "Free beer included!"), there is no quick and dirty way to accomplish this. On the other hand, the secrecy and vague terminology used by dedicated SearchEngineOptimization bureaus are mostly a means to mask there's nothing secret or difficult about optimizing your website for search engines. Let's give it a quick start...

About search engines

The two biggest search engines worldwide are Google (used by Google / AOL) and Overture (used by MSN / Yahoo). Google fills it's database mainly by letting robots automatically crawl and index the web. The Overture database is mainly filled through affiliate programs. That will cost you, so let's focus on Google for now. Google is the cooler one anyway...


A bot visit

You can request a Google robot visit at www.google.com/addurl. The robot will browse your site and index it's contents. Expect to have to wait for a couple of weeks before this will happen. Also, always list your site at www.dmoz.org. This is Google's webdirectory and, next to the google robot, an important source of the google search API. Dutch sites can be listed at www.dmoz.nl (used by google.nl).

Get your keywords

Your website is not ranked as a whole. Keywords are used to determine the relevancy of your website for particular subjects. So, before buiding your site, make sure you have a relevant set of keywords. Check competing websites for keywords / search terms and use the good ones for yourself. You can get an indication on the frequency people search for a certain keyword (and alternatives to it) at inventory.overture.com. You can find synonyms for certain keywords at www.thesaurus.com.

Place your keywords

The most important elements to insert keywords into are the URL (domain name + path + filename) and title of your web page. Also, a low-level URL (www.mysite.com/page.htm) is considered more important than a higher level URL (www.mysite.com/subdir/anothersubdir/page.htm). Check out the Dutch website Nu.nl for a good example. Notice how every newsitem has it's own title in the titlebar and how every item's html file is named after its title. These tricks make you score!

It's also important to use your keywords in the body of your site, frequency (a lot) and proximity (close to each other) are important. The higher in a page, the more important a keyword is considered to be. Text in headline (h1 or h2), bold or caps is considered more important than regular text.

Check your keywords

Once you think you have found the right keywords and you've written your text so that these keywords appear all over the page, it's time to check out how your site is doing. At googlerankings.com you can check your position in Google for the keywords you have chosen. Top of the ranks? Great! Not even close to it? Don't worry, here are some tips to improve your rankings.

Tech and formatting tips

First, make sure your site, especially your homepage, is frequently updated. Google seems to like frequently changing websites, this might be why weblogs tend to score very well at Google.

Second, make sure to have a lot of incoming and outgoing links (especially to and from big, relevant, high-quality websites). If something can be a link, make it a link! By doing so, Google will rank you pages higher as others who are not that embedded. This link relevancy system is called Google Pagerank. You can check out your pagerank at pagerank.net. Pagerank works on a scale from 1 to 10. If you have a rank of 1 or 2, you're likely to be way down the search results. If you have a higher rank, your site will appear at the top of the search results, even if there are a lot of competitors for your specific keywords or business.

Third, make sure your site is clean and correctly formatted, preferably in web standards / xhtml. Avoid certain technologies the Google robot doesn't understand. Don't use a frameset for your website. Robots may skip frames or only index the upper one (refering will be a mess anyway). Avoid javascript or Flash menus, only a.href links are followed by a robot. Additionally, all javascript and comments are skipped by search robots.

For the same reason, full-flash websites should be avoided if search accessibility is important (actually, if ANY accessibility is important). If you do feel the strong need to use Flash, all you can do is to make sure you have a keyword descriptive URL and page title.

Some last remarks

Google simply puts a 30 days block upon sites that use trivial keyword tricks (hidden text/div or text in the same color as a background), so don't bother trying this kind of stuff. Detecting and catching a robot with javascript or IP cloacing or using linkfarms to boost your Pagerank are considered even more illegal. They could get you put out of the ranking for good.

Just remember that a robot will be optimized over and over to be able to judge webpages the way a human does. In the end, if you make sure your site is clean and accessible and your content is good and relevant, websurfers will find you and bytes will flow.

Of course this article only covers the rough basics of search engine optimization. If you feel like I have missed out on something, or you've got an excellent hint to share, please feel free to post them in the forum! The diagnostics guide from GoogleRankings.com is a great resource for more information (there's a list of issues at the left side).

Keywords

Here's a scenario. You get an occasional click from Google for a certain keyword. You go to find out why you aren’t getting more clicks, and you find out that you’re ranked in the 30's, 50's, or heaven forbid, the 300's. “Great”, you think, “I finally get ranked for a good keyword and it’s a worthless ranking”.

Not necessarily. If you got ranked for a keyword in Google that you wanted At All, the game’s not over yet. If your site’s content is geared towards that subject, you can get your ranking in Google's search engine increased, at no cost. How? The first thing you want to do is find out how well you are ranked for this keyword.

Find Your Google Keyword Ranking
For Google in particular, this used to be a difficult chore. In the old days of 2003, you’d spend your valuable time doing a search on your desired keyword, then a sub-search for your site, and crawling through pages of listings to find out exactly where you stood. Now there is hope in the form of the following website. Direct your browser to:Google Rankings.

You can use this site to find out what number you come up for in the Google listings, which can be very powerful information if used correctly. If you’re ranked in the top 1000, you have a shot at raising your listing for that page by tweaking the page to be a little more relevant.

So, secondly, you have to know how good a shot you have at getting a better listing. Go to:Search Term Difficulty Checker. This tool tells you how hard it is to rank well for certain keywords in Google. You’ll need a free Google API key to use it.
Estimate Search Traffic

Now that you know your chances, the third piece of information you need to know is how much traffic you can expect. Digital Point has a free tool that gives an approximation of how many hits per day a good ranking gets. Access it here:Keyword Suggestion Tool.

This article about how to improve your Google rankings is continued from page one.
Optimize Your Keywords for Google Search

Okay, let’s say everything checks out so far. You rank in the top 1000 in Google's search listings. The term you want to optimize for won’t be that hard to get, and will get you enough traffic per month to justify your efforts. Our fourth step is to take the term you chose and optimize your page. GoRank.com does periodic reports on the search engines, and as a free bonus, it will also tell you what Yahoo wants, as well as Google.
Calculate Keyword Density For Your Website

Now that you know what to shoot for, you need to know how the page you want will measure up in Google- you need to calculate your keyword density. You can also do the fifth step at GoRank.com - it has a free tool that will calculate it for you. Prepare your page with that in mind, re-upload, and you’re almost done.
Google Site Submission - Maybe

Great, you’re all set. Now you should submit your site to Google, right? Not necessarily. Let Google find you. HOW Google finds you can affect your page rank. I don’t mean that there is a standard penalty for submitting to Google. There’s been speculation on that for a while but I have yet to prove it matters.

What I DO know from personal experience and testing on my members' sites, is that getting the Googlebot search engine spider to happen upon your site naturally shaves up to 6 weeks off the standard time it takes for indexing. You can get spidered within 24 hours if you know where to get your link picked up, and then end up in Google's index in as little as 4 days.
Google Page Rank

Which site links to you can also affect your Google Page Rank. While this is not as important as it once was, it still carries significant weight– my site didn’t start getting spidered on a daily basis until my Google Page Rank increased to 5. So even if the Google spider comes to your site on a monthly basis, you’re better off waiting for the spider to come back by. That’s the sixth step: let your page be re-discovered by Google with its great new changes.

Here are some articles that can help you get started optimizing your site for searchers and search engines:

* Ten Steps to a Well Optimized Site: Want increased website traffic, higher search engine ranking, and increased customer satisfaction? Read these Ten Steps to a Well-Optimized Site and you'll be well on your way to accomplishing these goals.
* Top 5 Mistakes in Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the practice of making your site search-friendly both to search engines and searchers. There are five common mistakes that people tend to make when beginning to optimize their sites for search engines.
* Ten Search Engine Optimization Myths - Debunked!: If you're just getting started in search engine optimization for your Web site, you might (unfortunately) have been subjected to a few SEO whoppers. Before you start throwing away your time and money on search engine optimization wild goose chases, read these ten myths of search engine optimization.

READ MORE - Google Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is an acronym for "search engine optimization" or "search engine optimizer." Deciding to hire an SEO is a big decision that can potentially improve your site and save time, but you can also risk damage to your site and reputation. Make sure to research the potential advantages as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:

* Review of your site content or structure
* Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
* Content development
* Management of online business development campaigns
* Keyword research
* SEO training
* Expertise in specific markets and geographies. Keep in mind that the Google search results page often includes paid advertising and free organic search results. Keep in mind that the Google search results page includes organic search results and often paid advertisement (denoted by the heading "Sponsored Links") as well. Advertising with Google won't have any effect on your site's presence in our search results. Google never accepts money to include or rank sites in our search results, and it costs nothing to appear in our organic search results. Free resources such as Webmaster Tools, the official Webmaster Central blog, and our discussion group can provide you with a great deal of information about how to optimize your site for organic search. Many of these free sources, as well as information on paid search, can be found on Google Webmaster Central.

Before beginning your search for an SEO, it's a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend starting here:

* Google Webmaster Guidelines
* Google 101: How Google crawls, indexes and serves the web.

If you're thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you're considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO can also help improve an existing site.

Some useful questions to ask an SEO include:

* Can you show me examples of your previous work and share some success stories?
* Do you follow the Google Webmaster Guidelines?
* Do you offer any online marketing services or advice to complement your organic search business?
* What kind of results do you expect to see, and in what timeframe? How do you measure your success?
* What's your experience in my industry?
* What's your experience in my country/city?
* What's your experience developing international sites?
* What are your most important SEO techniques?
* How long have you been in business?
* How can I expect to communicate with you? Will you share with me all the changes you make to my site, and provide detailed information about your recommendations and the reasoning behind them?

While SEOs can provide clients with valuable services, some unethical SEOs have given the industry a black eye through their overly aggressive marketing efforts and their attempts to manipulate search engine results in unfair ways. Practices that violate our guidelines may result in a negative adjustment of your site's presence in Google, or even the removal of your site from our index. Here are some things to consider:

* Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.

Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:

"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and directories..."

Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night" diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators.
* No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.

Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google, or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. In fact, the only way to submit a site to Google directly is through our Add URL page or by submitting a Sitemap and you can do this yourself at no cost whatsoever.
* Be careful if a company is secretive or won't clearly explain what they intend to do.

Ask for explanations if something is unclear. If an SEO creates deceptive or misleading content on your behalf, such as doorway pages or "throwaway" domains, your site could be removed entirely from Google's index. Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it's best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to "help" you.
* You should never have to link to an SEO.

Avoid SEOs that talk about the power of "free-for-all" links, link popularity schemes, or submitting your site to thousands of search engines. These are typically useless exercises that don't affect your ranking in the results of the major search engines -- at least, not in a way you would likely consider to be positive.
* Choose wisely.

While you consider whether to go with an SEO, you may want to do some research on the industry. Google is one way to do that, of course. You might also seek out a few of the cautionary tales that have appeared in the press, including this article on one particularly aggressive SEO: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002002970_nwbizbriefs12.html. While Google doesn't comment on specific companies, we've encountered firms calling themselves SEOs who follow practices that are clearly beyond the pale of accepted business behavior. Be careful.
* Be sure to understand where the money goes.

While Google never sells better ranking in our search results, several other search engines combine pay-per-click or pay-for-inclusion results with their regular web search results. Some SEOs will promise to rank you highly in search engines, but place you in the advertising section rather than in the search results. A few SEOs will even change their bid prices in real time to create the illusion that they "control" other search engines and can place themselves in the slot of their choice. This scam doesn't work with Google because our advertising is clearly labeled and separated from our search results, but be sure to ask any SEO you're considering which fees go toward permanent inclusion and which apply toward temporary advertising.
* What are the most common abuses a website owner is likely to encounter?

One common scam is the creation of "shadow" domains that funnel users to a site by using deceptive redirects. These shadow domains often will be owned by the SEO who claims to be working on a client's behalf. However, if the relationship sours, the SEO may point the domain to a different site, or even to a competitor's domain. If that happens, the client has paid to develop a competing site owned entirely by the SEO.

Another illicit practice is to place "doorway" pages loaded with keywords on the client's site somewhere. The SEO promises this will make the page more relevant for more queries. This is inherently false since individual pages are rarely relevant for a wide range of keywords. More insidious, however, is that these doorway pages often contain hidden links to the SEO's other clients as well. Such doorway pages drain away the link popularity of a site and route it to the SEO and its other clients, which may include sites with unsavory or illegal content.
* What are some other things to look out for?

There are a few warning signs that you may be dealing with a rogue SEO. It's far from a comprehensive list, so if you have any doubts, you should trust your instincts. By all means, feel free to walk away if the SEO:
o owns shadow domains
o puts links to their other clients on doorway pages
o offers to sell keywords in the address bar
o doesn't distinguish between actual search results and ads that appear on search results pages
o guarantees ranking, but only on obscure, long keyword phrases you would get anyway
o operates with multiple aliases or falsified WHOIS info
o gets traffic from "fake" search engines, spyware, or scumware
o has had domains removed from Google's index or is not itself listed in Google
o requests your FTP account information or root access to your server

If you feel that you were deceived by an SEO in some way, you may want to report it.

In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) handles complaints about deceptive or unfair business practices. To file a complaint, visit: http://www.ftc.gov/ and click on "File a Complaint Online," call 1-877-FTC-HELP, or write to:

Federal Trade Commission
CRC-240
Washington, D.C. 20580

If your complaint is against a company in a country other than the United States, please file it at http://www.econsumer.gov/.

Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your blog and ensuring that this ranks your blog highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your blog along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process. The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask Jeeves.

Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine.

New blogs need not be “submitted” to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established blog will get the search engines to visit the new blog and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new blog.

If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.

Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your blog and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and blog traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your blog and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your blog traffic flow and your search engine ranking high.

READ MORE - Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

How Obama Got Elected

"Promote then as an object of primary importance, Institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

George Washington, Farewell Address, September 19, 1796

On November 4th, 2008 millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama's limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States. For many of these Americans, the explanation was rather simple... the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job.

On Election day twelve Obama voters were interviewed extensively right after they voted to learn how the news media impacted their knowledge of what occurred during the campaign. These voters were chosen for their apparent intelligence/verbal abilities and willingness to express their opinions to a large audience. The rather shocking video below seeks to provide some insight into which information broke through the news media clutter and which did not. All of this was conducted for a forthcoming documentary on how the news media impacted the 2008 election. Please get on our mailing list and return to this website in the coming months for more information on the film, "Media Malpractice... How Obama Got Elected>
.
Video Obama Got Elected available at here"

READ MORE - How Obama Got Elected

President-Elect Obama’s First News Confrerence

Following is the transcript of Barack Obama's news conference Friday in Chicago, as provided by CQ Transcriptions, Inc.

Mr. OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.

This morning we woke up to more sobering news about the state of our economy. The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we've lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. Their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it.

Now, the United States has only one government and one president at a time, and until January 20th of next year, that government is the current administration. I have spoken to President Bush. I appreciate his commitment to ensuring that his economic policy team keeps us fully informed as developments unfold. And I'm also thankful for his invitation to the White House.

Immediately after I become president, I'm going to confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity.

This morning I met with members of my Transition Economic Advisory Board, who are standing behind me, alongside my vice president-elect, Joe Biden. They will help to guide the work of my transition team, working with Rahm Emanuel, my chief of staff, in developing a strong set of policies to respond to this crisis. We discussed in the earlier meeting several of the most immediate challenges facing our economy and key priorities on which to focus on in the days and weeks ahead. Mr. OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very much.

This morning we woke up to more sobering news about the state of our economy. The 240,000 jobs lost in October marks the 10th consecutive month that our economy has shed jobs. In total, we've lost nearly 1.2 million jobs this year, and more than 10 million Americans are now unemployed. Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes. Their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it.

Now, the United States has only one government and one president at a time, and until January 20th of next year, that government is the current administration. I have spoken to President Bush. I appreciate his commitment to ensuring that his economic policy team keeps us fully informed as developments unfold. And I'm also thankful for his invitation to the White House.

Immediately after I become president, I'm going to confront this economic crisis head-on by taking all necessary steps to ease the credit crisis, help hardworking families, and restore growth and prosperity.

This morning I met with members of my Transition Economic Advisory Board, who are standing behind me, alongside my vice president-elect, Joe Biden. They will help to guide the work of my transition team, working with Rahm Emanuel, my chief of staff, in developing a strong set of policies to respond to this crisis. We discussed in the earlier meeting several of the most immediate challenges facing our economy and key priorities on which to focus on in the days and weeks ahead.

First of all, we need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provide relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear. A particularly urgent priority is a further extension of unemployment insurance benefits for workers who cannot find work in the increasingly weak economy. A fiscal stimulus plan that will jump-start economic growth is long overdue. I've talked about it throughout this -- the last few months of the campaign. We should get it done.

Second, we have to address the spreading impact of the financial crisis on the other sectors of our economy -- small businesses that are struggling to meet their payrolls and finance their holiday inventories, and state and municipal governments facing devastating budget cuts and tax increases. We must also remember that the financial crisis is increasingly global and requires a global response.

The news coming out of the auto industry this week reminds us of the hardship it faces -- hardship that goes far beyond individual auto companies to the countless suppliers, small businesses and communities throughout our nation who depend on a vibrant American auto industry. The auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

I would like to see the administration do everything it can to accelerate the retooling assistance that Congress has already enacted. In addition, I have made it a high priority for my transition team to work on additional policy options to help the auto industry adjust, weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars here in the United States of America. And I was glad to be joined today by Governor Jennifer Granholm, who obviously has great knowledge and great interest on this issue. I've asked my team to explore what we can do under current law and whether additional legislation will be needed for this purpose.

Third, we will review the implementation of this administration's financial program to ensure that the government's efforts are achieving their central goal of stabilizing financial markets while protecting taxpayers, helping homeowners and not unduly rewarding the management of financial firms that are receiving government assistance.
It is absolutely critical that the Treasury work closely with the FDIC, HUD and other government agencies to use the substantial authority that they already have to help families avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.
Finally, as we monitor and address these immediate economic challenges, we will be moving forward in laying out a set of policies that will grow our middle class and strengthen our economy in the long term. We cannot afford to wait on moving forward on the key priorities that I identified during the campaign, including clean energy, health care, education and tax relief for middle-class families.

My transition team will be working on each of these priorities in the weeks ahead, and I intend to reconvene this advisory board to discuss the best ideas for responding to these immediate problems.

Let me close by saying this: I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead. We have taken some major action to date, and we will need further action during this transition and subsequent months. Some of the choices that we make are going to be difficult. And I have said before and I will repeat again: It is not going to be quick and it is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in, but America is a strong and resilient country. And I know we will succeed if we put aside partisanship and politics and work together as one nation. That's what I intend to do.

With that, let me open it up for some questions. And I'm going to start right here with you, Nedra.

Q Thanks, Mr. President-elect. I wonder what you think any president can accomplish during their first hundred days in office to turn the economy around. How far can you go? And what will be your priorities on day one?

Well, I think that a new president can do an enormous amount to restore confidence, to move an agenda forward that speaks to the needs of the economy and the needs of middle-class families all across the country. I've outlined during the course of the campaign some critical issues that I intend to work on.

We have a current financial crisis that is spilling out into the rest of the economy. And we have taken some action so far. More action is undoubtedly going to be needed. My transition team is going to be monitoring very closely what happens over the course of the next several months.

The one thing I can say with certainty is that we are going to need to see a stimulus package passed either before or after inauguration. We are going to have to focus on jobs, because the hemorrhaging of jobs has an impact obviously on consumer confidence and the ability of people to -- to buy goods and services and can have enormous spill-over effects.

And I think it's going to be very important for us to provide the kinds of assistance, to state and local governments, to make sure that they don't compound some of the problems that are already out there, by having to initiate major layoffs or initiate tax increases.

So there are some things that we know we're going to have to do. But I'm confident that a new president can have an enormous impact. That's why I ran for president.

All right.

Lee.

Q Sir, there's been some suggestion from House Democrats that the stimulus package may be in trouble, that it's going to be a hard time getting it out of a lame-duck session.

Are you still confident that you would be able to get something done before you actually take office?

Mr. OBAMA: I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States.

Jake.

Q Senator, for the first time since the Iranian Revolution, a president of Iran sent a congratulations note to a new U.S. president.

I'm wondering, first of all, if you responded to President Ahmadinejad's note of congratulations. And second of all and more importantly, how soon do you plan on sending low-level envoys to countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, to see if a presidential-level talk would be productive?

Mr. OBAMA: I am aware that the letter was sent. Let me state -- repeat what I stated during the course of the campaign.
Iran's development of a nuclear weapon, I believe, is unacceptable. And we have to mount a international effort to prevent that from happening. Iran's support of terrorist organizations, I think, is something that has to cease.
I will be reviewing the letter from President Ahmadinejad. And we will respond appropriately. It's only been three days since the election. Obviously how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a knee-jerk fashion.

I think we've got to think it through. But I have to reiterate once again that we only have one president at a time. And I want to be very careful that we are sending the right signals, to the world as a whole, that I am not the president and I won't be until January 20th.

Let's see.

Chip.

Q Picking up what you were just talking about, your meeting with President Bush on Monday, when he is still the decider obviously, stating the obvious, when you disagree with decisions he makes, will you defer? Will you challenge? Will you confront? And if it becomes confrontational, could that rattle the markets even more?

Mr. OBAMA: Well, President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to meet with him and First Lady Laura Bush. We are gratified by the invitation.

I'm sure that in addition to taking a tour of the White House, there is going to be a substantive conversation between myself and the president.

I'm not going to anticipate problems. I'm going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done. And you know, undoubtedly there may end up being differences between not just members of different parties, but between people within the same party.

The -- the critical point and the -- I think the critical tone that has to be struck by all of us involved right now is the American people need help. This economy is in bad shape, and we have just completed one of the longest election cycles in recorded history. Now is a good time for us to set politics aside for a while and think practically about what will actually work to move the economy forward. And it's in that spirit that I'll have the conversation with the president.

Let's see. How about Karen.

Q Mr. President-elect, with the country facing two wars and a financial crisis, do you think it's important for you to move especially quickly to fill key Cabinet posts, such as Treasury secretary and secretary of State?

Mr. OBAMA: When we have an announcement about Cabinet appointments, we will make it. There is no doubt that I think people want to know who's going to make up our team, and I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize deliberate as well as haste. I'm proud of the choice I made of vice president, partly because we did it right. I'm proud of the choice of chief of staff because we thought it through. And I think it's very important in all these key positions, both in the economic team and the national security team, to -- to get it right and -- and not to be so rushed that you end up making mistakes. I'm confident that we're going to have an outstanding team, and we will be rolling that out in subsequent weeks.

Let's see. Where's John McCormick? Give -- give a local, hometown guy a little bit of -- a little bit of time.

Q Thank you, sir.

To what extent -- (comes on mike) -- to what extent are you planning to use your probably pretty great influence in determining the successor for your Senate seat? And what sort of criteria should the governor be looking at in filling that position?

Mr. OBAMA: This is the governor's decision. It is not my decision. And I think that the criteria that I would have for my successor would be the same criteria that I'd have if I were a voter: somebody who is capable, somebody who is passionate about helping working families in Illinois meet their -- meet their dreams. And I think there are going to be a lot of good choices out there. But it is the governor's decision to make, not mine.

Lynn Sweet. What happened to your arm, Lynn?

Q I cracked my shoulder running to your speech on Election Night. (Laughter.)

Mr. OBAMA: Oh, no.

Q (Off mike.)

Mr. OBAMA: I think that was the only major incident during the entire Grant Park celebration.

Q Thank you for asking.
Here's my question. I'm wondering what you're doing to get ready. Have you spoke to any living ex-presidents? What books you might be reading? Everyone wants to know what kind of dog are you going to buy for your girls. Have you decided on a private or public school for your daughters?
Mr. OBAMA: Let me list those off. In terms of speaking to former presidents, I have spoken to all of them that are living. Obviously, President Clinton. I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances. (Laughter.)

I have reread some of Lincoln's writings, who's always an extraordinary inspiration.

And by the way, President Carter, President Bush Senior, as well as the current president have all been very gracious and offered to provide any help that they can in this transition process.

With respect to the dog, this is a major issue. I think it's generated more interest on our website than just about anything. We have -- we have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypo-allergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypo-allergenic. On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog. But obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts, like me. So the -- so, whether we're going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household.

And with respect to schools, Michelle will be scouting out some schools. We'll be making a decision about that in the future.

O.K. Candy? Down here.

Q You are now privy to a lot of intelligence that you haven't had access to before; in fact, much of what the president sees, I'm sure, all of it. First of all, do you -- what do you think about the state of U.S. intelligence, whether you think it needs beefing up, whether you think there's enough interaction between the various agencies?

And second of all, has anything that you've heard given you pause about anything you've talked about on the campaign trail?

Mr. OBAMA: Well, Candy, as you know, if there was something I'd heard, I couldn't tell you. But --

Q (?) (Off mike.)

Mr. OBAMA: (Chuckles.) The -- I have received intelligence briefings. And I will make just a general statement. Our intelligence process can always improve. I think it has gotten better. And, you know, beyond that I don't think I should comment on the nature of the intelligence briefings.

That was a two-parter? Was there another aspect to that?

Q Well, just whether, you know, absent what you've heard --

Mr. OBAMA: Okay, I get it.

Q -- whether anything's given you pause.

PRESIDENT-ELECT OBAMA: I -- I'm going to -- I'm going to skip that.

Jeff.

Q Mr. President-elect, do you still intend to seek income tax increases for upper-income Americans? And if so, should these Americans expect to pay higher taxes in 2009?

Mr. OBAMA: The -- my tax plan represented a net tax cut. It provided for substantial middle-class tax cuts. Ninety-five percent of working Americans would receive them. It also provided for cuts in capital gains for small businesses, additional tax credits. All of it is designed for job growth.

My priority is going to be, how do we grow the economy? How do we create more jobs?

I think that the plan that we've put forward is the right one. But obviously over the next several weeks and months, we are going to be continuing to take a look at the data and see what's taking place in the economy as a whole. But understand the goal of my plan is to provide tax relief to families that are struggling, but also to boost the capacity of the economy to grow from the bottom up.

All right? Thank you very much, guys.

Q ("Bonjour," ?) Mr. President.

Mr. OBAMA: "Bonjour." (Laughter.)

READ MORE - President-Elect Obama’s First News Confrerence

How To Add Google Talk To Your Blog

Google has made the Google Talk accessible to all who want to use it by making it available through the new Google Talk gadget which can be added to your Google Personalized hompage or even to your blogs or websites.

The Google Talk Gadget is (according to the Google TalkAbout) is a web-based module that you can add to your Google Personalized Homepage, letting you see your friends and chat with them — all on your homepage. With this gadget, we can now use the Google Talk (just like what we did in Gmail) without downloading and installing the software into our PC and it works what ever OS you are using, whether Mac, Windows, Linux … whatever.

If you are interested to put this gadget into your blogs or websites so that your visitors can freely chat with you, then here’s the instruction:

1. Visit this page to get the Google Talk Gadget code.
2. Customize the Google Talk looks by setting it through the options as shown below.
3. Push the “Get The Code” Button.
4. Highlight and copy the code (click the code, press ctl-a, press ctl-c).
5. Go to your blog theme and paste the code.
6. Preview your blog and examine the Google Talk if it fits your preference. If not then do some changes on the looks (step 2) or change the location of the Google Talk on your blog (step 5).

If you successfully set the code of Google Talk into your blog, then probably you will enjoy chatting your blog’s visitors for they can immediately sign in and start the chat with you.

Tip: Make sure that your Google Talk username is noticeable by your users so that they can immediately add you to their Google Talk contacts.

READ MORE - How To Add Google Talk To Your Blog

Make Money From Affiliate Marketing Online

Affiliate business works like this: Companies and individuals pay other people to advertise their programs, products and services on websites, in ezines, on pay-per-click advertising, in forums, in directories and anywhere else they can, whether on internet or offline. Affiliate marketing online is about getting the kind of traffic that is targeted at your products.

Another part of internet business is to write articles that show the importance or benefits of your products and include them on the website as an additional page. Online Business is one of the best work at home opportunities around. It is a great way to make income that can be used or invested back into your business.

Internet marketing is an excellent way to create income, and with the right attitude, you can earn affiliate commissions on autopilot. When you have mastered the basics of affiliate b either through an internet marketing course or get tutorial under a marketing guru on the internet, you can literally earn money online on automated or almost no updating needed. If you apply yourself and learn what affiliate marketing online is really all about a whole new world will open up for you.Online business is the best way to make easy money.

The best thing about internet business is that there is so little overhead and very negligible start up cost. With affiliate marketing you don’t have to go door to door canvassing, calling prospective or potential customers and harassing people or even actually talk face to face with people. All you need is the internet connection and some online marketing tools and you are on your way to earn money online.

Online business allows for an advertiser to advertise products from another website and the publishers will get paid a commission for sales or leads. Affiliate programs have become one of the easiest ways to advertise the products in the market. With affiliate products, advertisers can get maximum exposure to their website and products at minimum cost as oppose to traditional advertising methods which could cost up to thousands of dollars.

READ MORE - Make Money From Affiliate Marketing Online

Make a Paypal Donate Button

Like other people, I had some trouble finding a simple Paypal donate button to put on my blog. After some searching around, I found an easy way to do it myself.

The easiest, safest, and best way to put a Paypal donate button on your Wordpress blog or website is through the Paypal website. Don’t download plugins or widgets with who knows what kind of code in them, when you’re dealing with yours and other’s money.




Short guide:
Go to the Paypal Donations Factory. Add the name of your website, pick the button style you want, and click “create button now.” Copy and paste the code given into your blog post or a text widget on your wordpress sidebar.

Long guide:
1. Login to your Paypal account.

2. Click on the Merchant Services tab.

3. Click on the Donate link. It’s under the Create Buttons category.

4. Enter the required information. Donation name/service can be whatever you want, but make it accurate. What they’re asking for is the name of your website or business. You can set a required dollar Amount for your donors to give if you want, but leave it blank if you want to let them set their own amount.

5. Select what you want your button to look like (you can make your image if you want later.)

6. I highly recommend you keep the encryption setting on. This will keep your Paypal information (like your email address) hidden from other people.

7. When you’re done click “Create button now.”

8. The code will be generated and given to you in the first box.

8. Copy all the code in that box and paste it into the html code of your blog or website. If you’re using Wordpress, then you have to click on the “code” tab of the post you’re writing.

9. Click the button on your site to make sure you don’t get any errors.
If you get a “We were unable to decrypt the certificate id” error, your code may have gotten a little messed up after you pasted it. The most likely case is that your blog software or page editor is putting line breaks where they’re not supposed to be. This happened to me. Go back to your button code and look at the very bottom, where it says this:

Now try it again and see if it takes you to the donation page. Wordpress has a weird way of processing html code. If you already saved your post, you might have to re-paste the code and follow step 9 again.

That’s it! If you want to put this on your Wordpress sidebar, just create a new Text widget, and copy and paste this code into the widget. And boom, there’s your donate button!

Oh and if you appreciate this little guide:

READ MORE - Make a Paypal Donate Button