Washington DC web designer http://blog.inqbation.com dc web designer Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:56:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 en eBay buys BillMeLater from Amazon http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/10/06/ebay-buys-billmelater-from-amazon/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/10/06/ebay-buys-billmelater-from-amazon/#comments Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:56:18 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/10/06/ebay-buys-billmelater-from-amazon/ Just to show that there are opportunities even in times of recessions and economic downturns, eBay buys BillMeLater from Amazon, First Data Corp, and half a dozen other major investors.

The concept of BillMeLater, as the name implies, is that you can purchase and enjoy a product now and then not receive a payment for up to 90 days. As the world observed, we experienced a major credit crisis in New York City and Washington DC in the last week of September 2008.

One of the significant issues of the credit crisis is that businesses operate on credit in order to buys the goods and services they need now in order to conduct business now or in the future. Typically, businesses will perform services and then collect money afterwards. Consequently, they are always trying to play catch up with their cash flow. This is why a strong credit market is vital to conducting business.

BillMeLater is a secondary credit market that allows people and businesses to procure goods and services now and then pay later. BillMeLater offers short-term, 90 day liquidity in an otherwise credit and cash strapped economy.

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/10/06/ebay-buys-billmelater-from-amazon/feed/ Google’s new iPhone, er G1 phone by T-Mobile http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/23/googles-new-iphone-er-g1-phone-by-t-mobile/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/23/googles-new-iphone-er-g1-phone-by-t-mobile/#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 01:31:21 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/23/googles-new-iphone-er-g1-phone-by-t-mobile/ The T-Mobile G1 with Google is the first commercially available phone to run on the ‘Android’ operating system, the first operating system built by Google Inc, empowers developers with tools to create and offer consumers applications.  Look out Apple, AT&T, and Verizon … the Google G1 may be a force to reckon with.  Google is opening their system, something that Apple resisted, which may be the thing that makes this iPhone competitor give Apple some serious competition.

Google G1 iPhone t-mobile

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/23/googles-new-iphone-er-g1-phone-by-t-mobile/feed/ Social networking for business http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/social-networking-for-business/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/social-networking-for-business/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:07:50 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/social-networking-for-business/ How businesses can benefit from social networking

Professional networking is nothing new to business, its been happening for as long as business has been around. From hanging out at the Pantheon to the Turkish baths to the pubs to the golf course and now to the online social networks. It’s the same thing but across a different medium.

A couple things to keep in mind…

For one, nothing can replace a real face-to-face handshake, smile, and quality time … especially if it is invested over quality moment in a quality environment. For example, a team bonding experience at a leadership camp, or a wine tasting event or beer tasting event or at a conference where you both experience a moving and charismatic speaker get up and motivate an entire audience.

Secondly, networking is very much just staying in touch to reinforce a friendship or relationship that you have already built. Social networking across the internet in an online community saves time, money, and resources in that you can stay in touch with people simply by writing on their wall at Facebook or recommending them on LinkedIn or making a thoughtful and positive comment on their article at BizNik.

Other ways to support your networking partners would be to Digg their blog posts or embed their YouTube video into your own blog or adding them to your WordPress blogroll, thereby linking to their site and boosting their PageRank on Google or writing a comment as you gracefully decline an invitation on Evite.

Online social networking comes in many forms. The important thing is that you are proactive, that you are consistent, that you are positive and genuine, and that you really try to support your networking partners and work to foster that professional relationship.

Social networking for reptuation management

I’ve written a couple times about owning the entire first page of Google for your brand or company name.  Creating and actively using social networking profiles and optimizing them for your brand name or company name also keeps you on the home page of Google when people Google your name.  This way, if and when you get those disgruntled customers (and every business has them, not matter how hard they try to please clients) then you can at least be somewhat proactive in suppressing the bad guys and the bad comments from ranking on the first page when people Google you.

Social networking for SEO

I’ve also written about the important of inbound links to your SEO campaign.  Creating social networking profiles and listing your company websites will also help to create high-powered inbound links from high PR sites.  In addition, commenting on other blogs can also help create inbound links to your site.  Although, some websites don’t like to share the Google juice and will add a nofollow to their site or disable HTML links or even comments, so this method does not always work to your favor.

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/social-networking-for-business/feed/ Building social networks using WordPress MU platform http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/building-social-networks-using-wordpress-mu-platform/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/building-social-networks-using-wordpress-mu-platform/#comments Mon, 22 Sep 2008 18:36:00 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/building-social-networks-using-wordpress-mu-platform/ WordPress MU (the Multi-User version of WordPress), a free, open-source, GNU Public Licensed software used primarily for blogs but is also a phenomenal content management system. I say phenomenal in that it’s easy, easy to install, easy to modify, easy to deliver content, and easy to use.

Check out www.chickspeak.com, a prime example of a niche targeted social networking and content delivery website powered by WordPress MU. Another example is LetsEat.at, which is a free online website builder for restaurants, also powered by WordPress MU.

See TechCrunch for more details:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/22/letseatat-makes-it-easy-for-restaurants-to-serve-up-their-own-websites/#comment-2477686

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/04/wordpress-the-social-network/

inQbation is a software and website development firm that specializes in WordPress templates, WordPress plugins, and WordPress extensions. If you need a website, blog, or social networking site and would like to use WordPress as its engine and development platform, then please contact the experts at inQbation.

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/22/building-social-networks-using-wordpress-mu-platform/feed/ It pays to obsess over Google (80%) and Yahoo (20%) http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/it-pays-to-obsess-over-google-80-and-yahoo-20/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/it-pays-to-obsess-over-google-80-and-yahoo-20/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 15:55:39 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/it-pays-to-obsess-over-google-80-and-yahoo-20/ According to eMarketer, search is one of the most dynamic, rapidly evolving markets on the Web.  Annual spending on sponsored ads is predicted to exceed $11 billion in 2010, making it critical for search marketers and media planners to have an accurate and comprehensive view of search. comScore Online Search Solutions, including qSearch, offers extensive analytics of the search industry.

If your business relies on search queries from website visitors, then you need to know how search works and which search vehicles are the dominant source of delivering search engine results.  According to qSearch by comScore, this is the current (August 2008) breakdown of monthly U.S. search results by the leading search providers (search engines):

Google Yahoo search rankings

Google – 63%
Yahoo – 20%
MSN – 8%
ASK – 5%
AOL – 4%
Total – 100%

So, if you are a search marketer or your company website relies on search marketing as a significant source of its brand development, lead development, or business development, then you need to know which search engines you need to focus on for your optimization.

Clearly, Google dominates the search industry and you should put 80% of your effort into optimizing exclusively for Google and 20% of your effort into optimizing for Yahoo. Forget about MSN, Ask, and AOL. It’s not worth your time.

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/it-pays-to-obsess-over-google-80-and-yahoo-20/feed/ DC Blogs - rich directory of DC based blogs http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/dc-blogs-rich-directory-of-dc-based-blogs/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/dc-blogs-rich-directory-of-dc-based-blogs/#comments Fri, 19 Sep 2008 13:48:43 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/dc-blogs-rich-directory-of-dc-based-blogs/ If you are looking for a taste of DC blog style, check out DC Blogs, an incredibly rich website featuring hundreds of DC based blogs.  Their blog directory includes blogs under the following categories:

  • DC Dating and relationships
  • DC Politics
  • DC Neighborhood blogs
  • DC Lives
  • DC News and citywide professionals
  • DC Environment and health issues
  • DC Activism
  • DC Food blogs
  • DC Group blogs
  • DC Social and Nightlife
  • DC Serving the Middle East
  • DC Transportation
  • DC Real Estate and Law
  • DC Arts & Entertainment and Literature
  • DC Theater and Dance
  • DC Issues, Politics, and Culture
  • DC Blogs about blogs in DC
  • DC Sports and physical training
  • DC Religion and spirituality
  • DC Birding
  • DC Tech entertainment
  • DC Worldwide
  • DC Photography
]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/19/dc-blogs-rich-directory-of-dc-based-blogs/feed/ Hackers break into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! account http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/18/hackers-break-into-sarah-palin%e2%80%99s-yahoo-account/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/18/hackers-break-into-sarah-palin%e2%80%99s-yahoo-account/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:26:00 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/18/hackers-break-into-sarah-palin%e2%80%99s-yahoo-account/ According to the Associated Press (AP), hackers broke into the Yahoo! e-mail account that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin used for official business as Alaska’s governor. The reveals a general mistake that most of us make on a regular basis.

Electronic mail, or email, is something that we very often take for granted. These are some of the common e-mail mistakes that most of us make on a daily basis with regard to managing our e-mail activities:

  1. Emotional emails. We write things that we should not be writing, because we are emotionally venting. Often, we use e-mail as a method of therapy to get things off of our mind, but we should never send these e-mails because they can get circulated and manipulated in that circulation process. How many times have you written an e-mail that has come back to bite your or haunt you? In general, we need to slow down, reread our emails, and think three times before clicking that send button.
  2. Carbon copy (cc). Too often, we copy too many people on an e-mail message. Consequently, too many people get involved in subject they should not. Or, you clog up everybody else’s emails with trivial e-mail so the important ones slip through the cracks. Moreover, like the paragraph above, we copy somebody on an e-mail that we later regret. Finally, when we copy or blind copy too many people on an e-mail, it often gets tagged or labeled as SPAM and never reaches its intended target audience. In general, we should minimize the number of people that we copy on an e-mail.
  3. Password insecurity. We tend to use the same easy to crack password over and over and over on all user accounts. It becomes almost predictable what our userid and password may be. Unfortunately, we tend to use these same passwords for our banking accounts and credit card accounts and other very sensitive personal and financial accounts. If somebody can crack out e-mail account then it becomes very easy to crack our bank account because all you have to do is ask the bank to resend your password to your e-mail account and boom, bank account is cracked.
  4. Unsecure e-mail accounts. Instead of using secure, encrypted, private e-mail accounts which sometimes cost money, are more difficult to set-up, and require a tiny bit of technical skill to manage, we become lazy and use social networking e-mail accounts through venues like AOL, Yahoo (ymail), and Google (gmail). The problem is 3 fold; (1) They are easier to crack and hack into, (2) These venues actually read the words within our e-mail and deliver context-sensitive advertising, (3) They tend to lack the fundamental security standards necessary in the conduct of proprietary business practices.

So, lets take a lesson from Governor Sarah Palin’s e-mail malpractice and take better control of our own e-mail discipline.

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/18/hackers-break-into-sarah-palin%e2%80%99s-yahoo-account/feed/ BOTW to acquire DMOZ from AOL? http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/17/botw-to-acquire-dmoz-from-aol/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/17/botw-to-acquire-dmoz-from-aol/#comments Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:56:34 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/17/botw-to-acquire-dmoz-from-aol/ DMOZ - the Open Directory Project - was one of the first web directories to arrive on the scene. Initially, it was self-managed and allowed website owners to submit their sites to the directory. Back in the mid to late 90s, I remember that it was rather easy to get your site included into the directory and it carried quite a bit of search ranking power. But then the site started to get abused by spammers and DMOZ needed an army of volunteers to help govern the site.

As part of Google’s complex algorithm for determining which sites should rank in a particular priority given a set of keywords, Google relied heavily on DMOZ as part of that algorithm. The rationale was that since link submissions were not paid for and because it was self-governed then it was a more democratic and trustworthy. Getting listed in DMOZ went a long way towards ranking well on Google.

As a side note, one of the most powerful ways to get ranked on Google is through inbound links. Moreover, if the website that provides an inbound link to your site is a high ranking site itself then that particular inbound link carries more weight.

Things started to change at DMOZ. It was purchased by AOL Search (which happens to be “enhanced by Google) and it became extraordinarily difficult for legitimate website owners to get listed. Many people started to claim that the site was managed corruptly. Then, AOL went through it’s own internal challenges and perhaps now, Time Warner (*owner of AOL) is trying to shed some weight and break up pieces of AOL by selling components like DMOZ.

Actually, back in 2000, when AOL was king, it announced that AOL was buying Time Warner.  At the time, AOL appeared to be dominant to Time Warner.  As it turns out, AOL was a meteor that has long since lost most of its burst of energy and Time Warner is now the dominant factor in the merger.

Meanwhile, Best of the Web (BOTW),  another human-edited paid inclusion directory site, similar to that of Yahoo directories, where you pay for somebody to review and consider your site for inclusion, enters the scene. Although there is no guarantee that your site will be included, the fact that you had to pay a couple hundred dollars to get reviewed ensured that fly-by-night scammers were less likely to inundate the governors of the directory.

So, in many ways, BOTW should carry a bit more legitimacy as a directory in that the barriers to entry are a bit higher and because you pay for service, you have a better chance that human eyes will at least look at and consider your submission.

But, the big question now is with Google. If BOTW does buy DMOZ will Google continue to put so much weight on sites that are listed in it? The second major question is how and whether BOTW will integrate DMOZ into their infrastructure?

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/17/botw-to-acquire-dmoz-from-aol/feed/ BizNik vs LinkedIn: Unique approaches to networking http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/14/biznik-a-unique-approach-to-professional-networking/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/14/biznik-a-unique-approach-to-professional-networking/#comments Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:23:22 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/14/biznik-a-unique-approach-to-professional-networking/ I recently came across a professional networking site that really stands out.  As opposed to LinkedIn, which is kind of like an online resume, BizNik encourages business professionals to write useful articles.  

LinkedIn’s primary incentive is for people is to compete to see how many connections you can build.  Having 500+ connections to your name in LinkedIn in is kind of a badge of honor.  The other nice thing about LinkedIn is that you can document and preserve recommendations from people you have worked with.  So, if you are in the job market and get to the point where prospective employers ask for recommendations, you can point them to your LinkedIn account.  In some cases, employers will be LinkedIn enthusiasts and take the online recommendation at its word with no follow-up.  This can certainly expedite the hiring process, especially if your old contacts are hard to find and/or have moved on from their previous jobs. The final cool think about LinkedIn is that is has a pretty active jobs board for decent job opportunities.  Many of the employers who post on LinkedIn ask that you have a LinkedIn profile.

Okay, enough about LinkedIn.  Let’s talk about BizNik.

biznik professional networking for entrepreneurs

The coolest thing about BizNik is that it encourages you to network.  When I network, I try to offer something of value right off the bat.  Kind of like how Starbuck’s offers little samples of their coffee cake or their new coffee drink, I like to offer a free piece of advice on online marketing or web design.  For one, it helps to establish my credibility as a web design professional.  Moreover, it gives the people I network with a sample of what it’s like to work with me.  It is something they can take home with them and put to use.

BizNik applies this to the online environment by allowing professionals to:

  • Establish their profile and thereby introduce themselves to the community
  • Post their online business card with references to their website
  • Offer little tidbits and words of advice regarding their industry
  • Comment on other professionals’ articles
  • Post current needs and business requirements

What is particularly interesting about BizNik is that when you post articles, the community votes on how useful is the article.  The more useful the article, the more visibility you have and the more credibility you earn.  So, there is this built-in incentive to write useful articles and pieces of advice that entrepreneurs can put to use immediately.

When you post an article on BizNik, it gets instant visibility.  Unlike a blog where sometimes you wonder if anybody is looking, but with BizNik you can see dozens of views of your article in the first few days.  I’m amazed at how loyal and active the community is at BizNik.

In exchange, BizNik gets tons and tons of valueable content written by subject matter experts and active entrepreneurs.  In addition, BizNik earns great PageRank with Google and Alexa traffic ranking.  Hats off to the folks at BizNik, it’s a win-win for everybody.

Linkedin blake newman

]]> http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/14/biznik-a-unique-approach-to-professional-networking/feed/ Top 100 Most popular sites on the internet http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/10/top-100-most-popular-sites-on-the-internet/ http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/10/top-100-most-popular-sites-on-the-internet/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:40:58 +0000 Blake http://blog.inqbation.com/2008/09/10/top-100-most-popular-sites-on-the-internet/ Today’s top Internet countdown … the most popular website in the world, according to Alexa.com, an Amazon owned company. To see where your site ranks, visit www.Alexa.com.

  1. www.yahoo.com
  2. www.google.com - Google
  3. www.youtube.com - owned by Google
  4. www.live.com - owned by Microsoft
  5. www.msn.com - owned by Microsoft
  6. www.myspace.com - owned by News Corp
  7. www.facebook.com
  8. www.blogger.com - owned by Google
  9. www.orkut.com - owned by Google
  10. www.rapidshare.com
  11. www.microsoft.com - Microsoft
  12. www.google.co.in - owned by Google
  13. www.ebay.com
  14. www.hi5.com
  15. www.aol.com - owned by Time Warner
  16. www.google.co.uk - owned by Google
  17. www.photobucket.com - owned by News Corp
  18. www.amazon.com
  19. www.imdb.com - owned by Amazon
  20. www.imageshack.us
  21. www.youporn.com
  22. www.wordpress.com
  23. www.flickr.com
  24. www.friendster.com
  25. www.adultfriendfinder.com
  26. www.go.com
  27. www.bbc.co.uk
  28. www.craigslist.org
  29. www.dailymotion.com
  30. www.redtube.com
  31. www.cnn.com
  32. www.mininova.org
  33. www.google.ca
  34. www.fotolog.net
  35. www.imagevenue.com
  36. www.espn.go.com
  37. www.rediff.com
  38. www.adobe.com
  39. www.apple.com
  40. www.yourfilehost.com
  41. www.veoh.com
  42. www.perfspot.com
  43. www.deviantart.com
  44. www.about.com
  45. www.megaupload.com
  46. www.metroflog.com
  47. www.fastclick.com
  48. www.clicksor.com
  49. www.geocities.com
  50. www.google.co.id
  51. www.ebay.co.uk
  52. www.mediafire.com
  53. www.partypoker.com
  54. www.gamespot.com
  55. www.download.com
  56. www.nytimes.com
  57. www.google.com.au
  58. www.weather.com
  59. www.thepiratebay.org
  60. www.ign.com
  61. www.bebo.com
  62. www.depositfiles.com
  63. www.adultadworld.com
  64. www.nba.com
  65. www.zshare.net
  66. www.digg.com
  67. www.4shared.com
  68. www.aim.com
  69. www.netlog.com
  70. www.studiverzeichnis.com
  71. www.isohunt.com
  72. www.comcast.net
  73. www.doubleclick.com
  74. www.sourceforge.net
  75. www.usercash.com
  76. www.badongo.com
  77. www.cnet.com
  78. www.google.co.th
  79. www.easy-share.com
  80. www.pornhub.com
  81. www.megarotic.com
  82. www.imeem.com
  83. www.gmx.net
  84. www.metacafe.com
  85. www.reference.com
  86. www.information.com
  87. www.multiply.com
  88. www.888.com
  89. www.livejasmin.com
  90. www.realitykings.com
  91. www.torrentz.com
  92. www.google.co.za
  93. www.soso.com
  94. www.mozilla.com
  95. www.filefactory.com
  96. www.icq.com
  97. www.brazzers.com
  98. www.tinypic.com
  99. www.vnexpress.net
  100. www.hp.com
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