x.

Blogs also rank highly in the search engines for a number of reasons, most notably for their current and relevant content. There are, however, several key elements to creating a successful blog about your band or music as outlined below. You are competing with thousands of other bloggers within your subject area of music so you need to be different and follow each of the key steps as outlined.

Do your research! You must know what is already out there in terms of competition. You can do this by typing in your blog subject matter into the search engines and seeing what appears in terms of blogs. Also, search the many blog directories to see who is already writing about your topic of interest. Use the Google keyword search tool to see what people are searching for each month in relation to your topic. For example, you would be best suited to focus on a topic that people are searching for and attracts more than 50,000 searches a month. When it comes to music, you could write about band promotion which has over 70,000 searches for these keywords each month. Or maybe write about how to sell your music online or a related topic that people want information about.

Find Your Niche! As already mentioned there are thousands of blogs out there on the internet about music, bands etc. They key is writing about a niche topic and then you will be more likely to attract a targeted audience. To try and compete with an already established blog that has high page rankings, a strong viewer base, and lots of existing content is going to just get you frustrated. Focus on one key area of music or playing in a band and you will create your own loyal fan base who will crave informative articles.

Think about your blog title, domain name, description and content. Take your time in thinking about a catchy but relative domain name. It is very difficult to find the domain name you want as most one, two and three word top level domain names have already been registered. You can buy one of these top level domain names from the owner but often the requested purchase price is unrealistic and just too costly. Also, try to get a .com domain name.  Try to get the keywords in your domain name and blog title. This will help in the search engine rankings.

If you already have your own website then create a blog using your own domain name. Why? If you create a blog from your own band or music website then you will provide readers with the opportunity to explore and navigate to other pages on your website. This will also help in branding, brand exposure and providing one link for fans to find you.

If you don’t your own website and are not keen to start your own blog then try starting a blog on one of the top music network sites such as MySpace or My Band Mate. Both provide tools for musicians to promote their music in many ways for free and one is in the form of a blog. This way you will already have an established audience to read your blog. I would recommend doing this even if you do go ahead with your own independent blog. The more exposure for your band then the more band promotion you will achieve.

With your own independent blog it is important to develop keyword rich content with the keywords appearing in the title, description, first paragraph without going overboard. You will be penalised if you just “overload” your pages and articles with too many of the targeted keywords. You just don’t need to do it and Google is aware of all the tricks webmasters try to use when it comes to achieving high page rankings.

It’s all about the content! Readers will return to your blog if you provide them with informative and valuable content about the subject you are promoting. You are reading this article most likely because you want to start your own blog or are looking for ways to promote your music. As a result, if you gain some valuable information from this article then there is a good chance that you would return again to my blog to read other articles.

The content needs to be informative and relative. You will lose your reader just as quickly as you got them if you have nothing to offer. There is just too much competition out there so you must add top quality content. If you are not sure what to write about then read other blogs, not to copy their articles but to get ideas. There is nothing wrong with seeking out ideas and then writing your own article with a different twist or adding new material. If your readers like your blog they are likely to refer it to their friends which will increase your subscriber base.

Provide some incentive to get your reader to join your blog newsletter or RSS feed. One of the trends in recent times is to give away eBooks when someone signs up. You can create a 5 or 10 page eBook about your niche topic. It has to be catchy enough to get the reader to give up their name and email for it.

Promote your site via bookmarking. Some of the most popular sites include Digg, Technorati, Reddit, Jumptags, stumbleupon and many more but these are the top ones. You will be accused of spamming if you constantly promote and add your own content or site so get some of your friends to help you out with this. These sites will track your IP address and can permanently shut down your account so you will need to respect their terms of use. You can find that these “bookmarks” will give you some promotion on the first few pages of the search engines for your keywords.

Use RSS feeds. RSS feeds provide the reader with an option to receive updates when you add new content to your blog. Once again you will need to submit regular articles or news to your site and it needs to be worth reading to keep the reader subscribing to your blog.  I have subscribed to blogs, newsletters and sites before only to be bombarded with emails selling products. I quickly went to the “Unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the email.

Encourage readers to submit comments about the various blog entries to submit. Your readers are there because they have an interest in your topic so try to create a bond with them in making them feel a part of your blog. If they leave a comment be sure to respond otherwise you will find that they are less likely to write a comment again.

You will need to market your blog. This can be done by submitting your blog to the various blog directories or by writing articles and submitting them  to article directories with an active link back to your blog. Submit a free press release about your blog, get into related forums and include an active link. Be sure not to spam or just sell your blog as you will be expelled from the forum, be discrete in promoting your blog in these forums.

Form joint ventures with fellow bloggers or websites. Invite other bloggers to submit content to your site and in return you can submit content to their blogs and therefore cross promote. Most bloggers will follow up on a lead that will increase their exposure. As long as you are not in direct competition and only complement another blog then this can be a valuable option. You will also gain more content for your blog.

Make your blog stand out! Add other forms of media to the site. Add MP3s, videos, photos or even an audio interview. There are plenty of cheap ways to add this rich media content to your site. Make sure that they provide relative content that your readers are craving.

Fresh Content! I can’t state enough how much your blog needs to contain fresh, informative and related content. It will take some work to maintain a dynamic and successful blog so devote at least an hour a week to working on your blog. Improve the appearance, promote it, add new content or pursue partnerships.

You can make money from your blog by adding Google Adsense, affiliate links or generating income from advertising on your blog. You will only gain interest from advertisers if you generate a significant number of hits each day. If your goal is to promote your music or blog then don’t lose focus of this by distracting your readers. Good luck in promoting your music or band. 

Personally peopled, potentially public rather.

More rantings/ravings to continue as the days count down and then start all over again. Two weeks from tomorrow. Eeep.

Feel free to read along, comment, critique, suggest, and pass it along.

I've had a bit of experience at this whole blog thing. Been pecking away at one since I was 16. Those old entries from 2001 are a bit more frivolous than what I hope to capture here. That blog is hiding away in one of the many many hidey holes on the interwebs, where only a few are aware of it, biding its time, chronicling the past and present me.

This one. This one is for travel. For delicious food, delicious photos. For lessons taught and lessons learned in the classroom. For awkward cultural fumblings and ecstatic unknown revelations.

Lets begin.

I definitely like a few subjects , but the way things are being taught in this country is making  studies terribly boring and meaningless.  Now that I'm in final year there are lots of options lying before me! I'm terribly confused whether doing to higher studies or taking up a job would be a better choice.

The problem is, I hate doing the same thing continuously, especially if its going to be 'forever' ! I'm definitely not for MS , because the same things are going to be repeated there.  However MBA sounds like a better option to me, mainly because all the things I like doing are similar to things that might occur in business days. The Magazine, Newsletter , TAGS, TWIGS , et al..  In all of the above there was a need for us to interact with small and big people- Most important of all the rude people, the liars and people who fool around and waste my time ( A dose of real world ) , convince people , sketch a dozen  plan A and Plan B, conduct a dozen meetings, Guide and get guidance,  Satisfy the people who adopt( Customer Satisfaction) , listen to lot of opinions and make decisions and most important of all- I stopped depending on others(always) for help, I can do things alone too! These have also taught me patience.  All needed for Business! But not enough!

Basically,  I feel a MBA degree alone cannot produce a business whiz. There is a real need for real life experience and a meet with rude and haughty people and learn how to deal with them.  So I guess doing MBA would do justice to me and my dreams. But , I'm really not going to sit in front of a green board or black board for two more years after this year. My final decision is to take up job for exactly two years, get work experience and then if my interest in Business still persists, I'll do MBA.

Phew! Thanks to Kavin who gave me some idea regarding future studies and I'm sure he will murder me if I ask him again, because I already asked him the same thing two to three times for which he gave the same answer! ROFL !

Here are some videos from Tuesday. To see the videos in high quality, click the YouTube logo while the video is playing, then click “watch in high quality” right below the video.

An interview with Centerville (Iowa) HS head baseball coach Bill Huisman following an 11-1 victory over Charles City at the state baseball tournament at Principal Park in Des Moines on July 22, 2008.

An interview with Centerville (Iowa) HS pitcher Patrick Harshman following an 11-1 victory over Charles City at the state baseball tournament on July 22, 2008.

An interview with Centerville (Iowa) HS shortstop Michael Kauzlarich following an 11-1 win over Charles City on July 22, 2008. Kauzlarich was 4-for-4 during the victory.

The Centerville (Iowa) HS baseball team prepares for the quarterfinal matchup against Charles City on July 22, 2008 at Principal Park in Des Moines. Centerville defeated Charles City 11-1.

Greetings from INDIANAPOLIS

I'll be back.

Na mindegy, szal' nem leszek elérhető úgy 2 hétig. Ha valaki hiányolna, az most csúnyán rábaszott. XD

Ráadásul holnap (azaz ma) megyek le vidékre. Márk barátomat autóbaleset érte. Nem kicsit csavarodott fel egy oszlopra. Ha nincs a légzsák, akkor max. a temetőbe mehetnék ki most, de "szerencsére" csak pár varrással az arcán (!!!) megúszta. Vagyis én ennyit tudok. Szal' friss jogsisok tessenek vigyázni, és bekötni magatokat (én is azt teszem). 

De így most már biztos megtartom a fogadalmam. Már kiskoromban elhatároztam, hogy sose fogok megtanulni vezetni. Nemtom miért, de egyszerűen nem vonz a vezetés, ráadásul apám (aki a tipikus magyar izomember tuningverdával típusba tatozik, csak X

x5), akinek a "szolid" vezetési stílusát SSY is megtapasztalhatta, na szóval apám is rádob még egy lapáttal. Karamboloztam már vele (anyámmal is, bár az télen volt, csúszós úton), amikor még anno a Mitsubishi Eclipse volt meg. A nyújtott orrú verzsön. Jó kis autó volt addig az S kanyarig. XD Na mindegy, sza'l sose fogok megtanulni vezetni. Valaki erre született, én nem. És persze a szülők tudják a legnehezebben feldolgozni, pedig már a pénzt is odaadnák, finanszíroznának mindent. Ráadásul jövőre jóval nehezebb is lesz megszerezni (most nem tudom, hogy örüljek, vagy ne)... Nah mindegy, megint sikerült jól kipanaszkodni magamat. XD Szokásom.

Micah 6:6 starts of with a question asking “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings? Will He be pleased with thousands of rams?”

It goes on to say that God has told us what is good and what is required of us, which is to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly before God.

Proverbs 29:7 says that the righteous care about justice for the poor.

Proverbs 14:31 says that when you are generous to the needy, you honor God. Read through the life of Jesus in the gospels and you’ll find that He always had time for people in need.

The Bible is filled with verses talking about God’s heart for justice. Loving and giving to those in need is a huge thing in God’s heart. We don’t want to just worship God inside the church with our songs, but we want to go out and worship in the streets through our giving. We believe that the Church and communities of believers should be at the forefront of acts of justice and kindness, doing all it can to be an extension of God’s love to the community and making a difference in the lives of people.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

1...2...3 more days to COLLIDE!! Keep praying, keep inviting your friends, and pray some more!! and please dont forget to bring towels, stationeries, baby milk powder and toothbrushes/shower products to bless the community!!!! Very important that you bring! :D cya soon guys!!!!

I miss you.  Might as well start there, cause that's where my heart and mind are these days.  I dunno how to do this exactly, so I'm gonna bullet point it.  :)

This weekend went better than I had hoped.  I felt like my head was in the right place, and that was something that was always a challenge for us before.  I was well able to get into the mindset of 'what I want is all that really matters', and at the same time not go overboard with it.  It felt like a really, really good beginning to me.

I'm struggling with ways to keep things going during the week.  The task list is a good start, but we need more.  I want to get some time to go through some of the books we have lying around and get some ideas.  I'm also trying to take advantage of my time in SR to do some research.

I think that your mindset will come around in time, and I think there's a part of you that almost enjoys being stubborn and making me make you do what I want.  I could be wrong, but it doesn't really matter.  That's exactly what I'm gonna do anyway.  This really feels like the right path for me, for the first time.  It's just working, and I'm way excited.

I need more work and preparation for planning a weekend, a day, or a month.  I want to get better at gauging what we'll be able to accomplish and what we won't.  There are plenty of things I'd love to fit in, but we're limited by time.  I need to prioritize better and get the things done that are most important.

I miss you so much.  I dunno how that's possible.  I mean, we get a four day workweek, right?  but the thing is... I miss you bad on Monday.  So it's not that I miss you because we go so long without seeing each other.  I miss you that bad just whenever we're not together.  It doesn't take any more than that.

I'm craving a date, something fierce.  A dinner out, a movie, some time alone... yes please.  I wish C was more tolerant of the boys.

I want to find more toys that we can use on the sly in our room.  Those new clamps were delicious, and we need more things like that.  I wanna do some toy shopping with you.

I wonder if there's any way in hell we could get to Folsom Street this year.  Heh.  That would be so cool... prolly next year at the earliest though.

I miss you, and I wish there was a way I could be home every night.  I wanna keep this going, and the times together at night were WORKIN for that this past weekend... which I guess just means I can't wait for this upcoming weekend.

I miss you.  I love you.  I wish we were together so much.

James Taylor - James and I are partners at St. Arbucks. James is a photographer. I've talked about him before, but you should check out his work again.

Jewels Harrell - Jewels is great. Her pictures tell wonderful stories and capture beautiful moments.

Josh Durias - Josh is another partner that I've talked about. He is doing really cool things with his photography. Really rich and deep colors. I am a fan.

Josh Longbrake - Joshua Longbrake is a student at Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. His pictures contain a lot of imagination.

Seriously, Check all of these people out. Comment and tell them that the Brown Kid sent you. Maybe they'll take my picture...hmmm?

Đầu tiên là chuyện xe Vespa. Mình đúng là ngu, đang yên đang lành thì đem xe xuống cho đứa em rể nó chạy. Chạy thì không biết vào đâu nhưng xe đang chắc nịch côn số thì bị phá tàn phá hại đến mức mình không thể tin vào mắt mình nữa. Côn lỏng, số lỏng, máy kêu như công nông, .v.v.v Ra hiệu sửa xe ở chỗ cuối Lương Thế Vinh, tưởng nó sửa qua loa không ngờ nó lại bổ máy, thay côn, thay phanh , hầm bà lằng. Tổng thiệt hại là gần 500k. Lại 1 lần nữa bị shock và không thể tin vào tai mình nữa. Tin không trả gần 500k rồi mà xe vẫn bị cong càng, và kêu xoạch xoạch, tổ bà nó chứ nó cứ coi mình như là GÀ ý. MK Cạch mặt lần sau không bao giờ bén bảng đến đó nữa.

Thứ 2 là chuyện host, tự nhiên phải bù tiền ra cho 2 cái host. Mà có ít tiền đâu gần 3 triệu lận. May mà cũng có cái này bù cái kia nên tóm lại là tháng này không âm cũng chẳng dương. Xót hết cả ruột.

Nếu không có 2 cái vụ dở hơi trên thì ít nhất mình cũng đã dành được vài triệu để đón 2 mẹ con mèo ú về. Thôi đành tự an ủi là cuộc sống có lúc này lúc nọ. Hy vọng sang tháng mọi chuyện sẽ sáng sủa hơn.

PS: Mấy ngày hôm nay không có bài viết nào ra hồn nên blog chỉ đạt số người truy cập trung bình là 50 người /ngày. Một con số thật khiêm tốn.

You can check and read my other blog post like How to Block Adult Sites, NeedBang , Microsoft Office and Xtube.

Well I don't know yet what to do and I just created another blog named PUTEK and another WIKI spaces i hope this two can help.

Lisa Cheng a.k.a “Hong Kong Spider Woman”, bodybuilding and rock climbing champion is our next Hong Kong Hero. Listen how her passion for sport has transformed a troubled teenager into an ambitious and focus young woman. Don’t miss that episode of Hong Kong Heroes!

今集香港之光將會訪問人稱蜘蛛女的鄭麗莎, 由沒有人生目標的暴風少女到事事專注投入的運動健將, 這過程是怎走過來的, SO-U.TV將會為你一一剖開, 千萬別錯過

Price Tags For Rescue Plans

(NPR) Keeping Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac afloat could set taxpayers back as much as $25 billion, a congressional budget analyst said today.But if history is any indicator, that estimate might turn out to be chump change. Initial projections by the General Accounting Office in 1988 of the savings and loan bailout were in the same ballpark - $26 billion to $30 billion. The final cost to taxpayers, according to the GAO: $132 billion. And the S&L industry chipped in another $40 billion. Analysts pointed out that the price tag was actually even higher because of the interest paid on the cleanup money.

History

To save the day, Congress established the Resolution Trust Corporation. It:

• Shut down or merged 747 savings & loan associations

• Provided safe harbor to 25 million depositor accounts

• Sold more than $465 billion in assets, including 120,000 pieces of real estate

• Took six years to get the job done

AKU BENGANG!

Preface to the Introduction

I decided to write this post because I didn't know what else to write and I felt I should write something. It's these voices next to my head.

Introduction

This Beach Called Life - The aka_lol's Blog was imported from Blogger into Wordpress just over one year ago and I think it was a good year for the blog compared to a bad year. It was a good year, and not just for visits, but for poor grammar, disjointed paragraphs, and nonsensical post. As you may not have realized there is no theme for this blog other what goes on in my mind and keyboard. I am not nuts but some say insanity becomes me. Despite my self-proclaimed sanity, sometimes this blog goes crazy and attracts many visitors who become speechless on entry. Nevertheless, it's nice when the visits go up on my stat counter and I am always curious to know what brought visitors here.

The Actual Superficial Content

This blog has been visited 27,826 times since July 16^th, 2007. The most amount of visitors in one day occurred on February 7^th, 2007 with 641 visits because of Carnival. More recently, the peak of 428 on the 17^th July was due to the Trinidad Storm entry, Halle Berry and The Happening. Carla Bruni has been some help in keeping the stats above 100 per day and Everything You Wanted to Know About Aka has become popular and I think I figured out the glitch that made it so. Bikini Carnival continues to plod along but barely.

Friends of this Blog

I would like to thank those who commented and I would also like to thank those who commented more even more.  You know who you are. The Blogroll on the side bar has a list of good bloggers who may have commented and some who are the silent type. Don't be afraid to say what's on your mind but just remember I offend easily.

The Future

One day I hope to sell the movie rights to this blog and finally make aka_lol a pronounceable household word.

The End

There is no end in sight.

• amsterdamize.com and
• video.amsterdamize.com

The first will show a new design, but the same familiar content, text, photos and videos. I created the second (Amsterdamize : Bicycle TV) for your convenience, so you can browse through all of the videos in one place. Much better, I think.

Things left to do, which will probably take a few days:

• Automatically redirecting you and other visitors from the 'old' blog to the new one
• Transferring the rest of the extensive blogroll and other info
• Tweaking quite a few posts for optimal performance

Things for further consideration:

• If you're subscribed through this feed, you don't have to worry about changing it for the new blog, it's still the same one
• You can now also opt to just subscribe exclusively to the videos through the Bicycle TV RSS feed, iTunes or Miro.

Special note: I'd like to thank NunoXEI for creating that amazingly fitting logo for the new blog. I owe you one, my friend!

Let me know what you think of it all! I appreciate suggestions and ideas!