The 7 Best FREE Places to Submit your Website for Improved Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
July 10, 2009 by Jason Montero · 41 Comments
About once a month follow the links below and submit the URLs for your Websites. Manually submitting your site to the major search engines will cause your site to be re-indexed so that new text and information will be recognized and cataloged. Although most major search engines have ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’ that roam the web cataloging sites, the frequency with which they visit your site is based on many factors: how established it is, how often it is updated, how many pertinent incoming links you have, etc…
It is significant to note that there are many search utilities on the web that are ‘powered’ by one of the major search engines, and are therefore essentially extensions of those engines. This means if you are registered with the main engine, you will likely also be included in the additional directories it is powering.
To learn more than you ever wanted to know about Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing consult Search Engine Marketing 101 by the good people at Search Engine Watch.
The 7 best FREE Places to Submit your Website for Increased Traffic
1. Google (also powers AOL Search & Netscape Search) – The King of Search Engines, the 600 Lbs. Gorilla, Google has the largest market share of U.S. based web searches at 67% of all searches as of April 2008. Google’s stated mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google is now widely recognized as the world’s largest search engine — an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.
Free Submit: http://www.google.com/addurl/
2. Yahoo! Search (also powers AltaVista & Alltheweb) – The #2 seed with a market share of 20%. The stated goal of Yahoo! Search is to discover and index all of the content available on the web to provide the best possible search experience to users. The Yahoo! Search index, which contains several billion web pages, is more than 99% populated through the free crawl process.
Free Submit: http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
Easy Audio Blogging on the iPhone with AudioBoo
July 2, 2009 by Phil Montero · 2 Comments
Listen above as my 2 year old son Spencer and I take AudioBoo for a spin on my Ipod Touch.
Posting audio to the web just got a whole lot easier thanks to a great service and iPhone app called AudioBoo. AudioBoo allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to record and playback digital recordings up to 5 minutes long which can then be posted on the AudioBoo website where users have their own pages or channels similar to Twitter or YouTube.
I love to test out new technology (in fact I’m kind of addicted to it) so when I heard about AudioBoo I just had to give it a spin. I have an iPod Touch – not an iPhone and despite it not having a built in mic I have an external add-on mic (more about that below) so I am able to use any of the recording apps for the iPhone.
I figured to make the test a bit more fun I would ask my 2 year old son Spencer to test it with me. He was having a ball with this and occasionally put the mic too close to his mouth so you will have to forgive some of the audio spikes.
He definitely follows in his Dads footsteps and seems to love technology as much as I do (he’s a born button pusher . . .). In fact he quickly mastered my iPod Touch almost instantly when I got it last Christmas. He knows how to turn it on – swipe through the pages to find the games and programs he likes and play them all without any help from me. And if you think that is crazy – you should see him wield a mouse on the Noggin website – lookout!
The iPod Touch is an amazing device and I will be writing (and shooting a lot of video) about it in the near future to let you know how it has replaced my laptop for many of my mobile work tasks – but back to AudioBoo.
Portable Audio Blogging Made Easy
It couldn’t be easier. I setup a free account on their website and then downloaded the program (also free) to my iPod Touch. One quick touch of the account button to plug in my account info and we were ready to record. We plugged in the Phillips Mic – tapped the START button on the record screen and after a 3 second countdown we were recording. When you are all done you hit the pause button and then the publish button. It allows you to type in a short message, add a photo, and even post the location you are publishing from. Within minutes it uploaded our audio over our wifi connection and we were able to listen to it. Read more
Smartphones and Work Life Balance
June 29, 2009 by Phil Montero · 35 Comments
A couple of days ago in the Making Flexibility Work group on LinkedIn a question was asked
about the positives and negatives of smartphones on work/life balance.
In my experience when it comes to smartphones and work/life balance I think a lot of the pros/cons are about how a person uses a tool such as this. Like any technology you have to know when to turn it off and setup personal guidelines for how to use it.
These communication guidelines should be clearly explained to others you work with as well. Sometimes people think because you have a smartphone that gives you almost instant access to email you should be replying to every message within minutes regardless of what time of day it is.
I am a proponent of “work/life integration” as I believe balance can be difficult to achieve at times – but tools such as smartphones and other new communication tools make it easier to integrate work into your life. So if that means you have to do a bit of work on your vacation – but instead you get to take vacations you couldn’t take before – in my opinion that is a win.
That being said I still think it’s important to block out dedicated time away from work where you can focus on family, friends, relaxation, and personal development without the distractions.
I often joke about our company website being YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com NOT “You Should Work From Everywhere”. That’s how I weigh in on this issue. Please share your comments below as I am eager to see your thoughts on this topic.
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-06-27
June 27, 2009 by Phil Montero · Leave a Comment
- Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there! Wishing you all a wonderful and relaxing day. #
- My little boy Spencer woke me up this morning with a home made card, we made corn muffins for breakfast and will be playing and then BBQ … #
- Raising a glass to our fathers for teaching us through their actions and their words! #
- RT @safetelework: “Why do you care if he walks his dog” if performance objectives are being met, do the details matter? http://bit.ly/puZd3 #
- RT @ManagementTip: Take Responsibility for Your Own Professional Development http://bit.ly/Yx86C << Have you learned anything new lately? #
- Build team-manship, even with a virtual team – by featuring one teammate a week in your team call. (via @DaveChurchville) << Great advice! # Read more
Virtual Workforce: Managing Remote Employees – BusinessWeek
June 25, 2009 by Jason Montero · Leave a Comment
Virtual Workforce: Managing Remote Employees – BusinessWeek.
I came across this collection of special reports on Businessweek.com all relating to aspects of ‘Managing the Virtual Workforce’. Here is a brief description of the reports included:
- Is There a Virtual Worker Personality?
It turns out it’s the gregarious types who thrive in virtual work set-ups, since they connect nonetheless. It’s the shy types who feel isolated - Managing Virtually: First, Get Dressed
An Ernst & Young executive who has been managing teams virtually for a decade shares her tips and caveats - A Smart Balance of Staff and Contractors
How the fast-growing food company integrates its small permanent staff with a sizable contractor workforce - How to Create E-Mails That Generate Action
When face-to-face communication isn’t an option, it’s critical that your e-mails get read and are the impetus for getting things done - Video: Managing in a Wired World
Technology has made it possible for teams across the globe to collaborate, but it’s still critical to make communication as human and authentic as possible, advises Lorenca Rosal - Slide Show: Top 10 Tips for Sending E-Mail
How to write e-mails that grab attention and motivate people to respond and take action
