Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Restaurant Style Chicken Salad Recipe

Ooops...ERROR ERROR..lol
I posted to this blog in error. Sorry!

Monday, May 30, 2011

Best Christmas Gifts For 2011

Tired of giving the same old, same old year after year? Looking for a unique, creative, fresh Christmas Gift Idea for 2011? It can be very difficult to come up with a some fresh and unique Christmas Gift Ideas. So, although it is still June, we have been racking our brains (or is it wracking our brains? I never get that one right) to come up with some really unique and fresh Christmas Gift Ideas. So, without further ado, please check out our selection of the 10 Best Christmas Gifts 2011.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Summer music workshops at the PicknBow folkmusic retreat in Durham NC June 24-26, 2011

Shared Visions retreat center on Murphey School Road in Durham NCJane Peppler, Bob Vasile, and Danny Gotham will be holding a folkmusic weekend in Durham, NC June 24-26, 2011. That's coming up soon! It's Danny's idea, and you can read more about it here: PICKNBOW FOLKMUSIC RETREAT WEEKEND.

Bob Vasile teaches guitar and bouzouki (cittern) at PicknBow summer school for singers and instrumentalistsFriday evening there'll be a meet-and-greet, choosing classes, and an impromptu singing, picking, jam session, concert for all.

Danny Gotham, guitar instructor at PicknBow summer folkmusic weekendSaturday we'll start early with classes, a shared lunch, more classes, and a concert - session at night.


Jane Peppler vocal instructor and fiddle teacher at PicknBow folk music weekSunday we start at noon and wrap up by 6 pm.

It's inexpensive and we welcome participants at all skill levels! You can download the whole brochure (with our bios and details): PicknBow folkmusic weekend brochure. To register or for more information call Danny at (919)967.4934 or e-mail him at steelstringer@gmail.com Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Best Article Directory?

You have built a website and are looking for places to give it links. You search the internet for suggestions and what do you see? Virtually every list of article directories place Ezines at the top of the list. Common logic is to write an article and place it in Ezines. Why? Ezines gets alot of traffic and has high Google rankings (PR 6) Sounds like a good idea? I am not so sure.

I have placed several articles in Ezines and this is what I do not like about it:

* The Ezine rules and regulations are amazingly strict. 400 word minimum, under 2% of your words can be keywords, 1 week approval time, links to your website ONLY in the resource box at the end of your article. Break any of their rules and your article is rejected. WOW! You are sending Ezines free content and have to jump through very high hurdles just to get them to publish it. But rules are good right? It means that if your article is "selected" for publication that it will be some value to you, right? Not necessarily.

* I have placed some articles into Ezines that were not indexed by google. If they are not indexed by Google, that means that Google does not even know about it. The articles that are not indexded, and their links, are of no value to me.

* The ezine URL of the articles is not a standard URL ending in a suffix like .html, rather it is long and messy. I am not certain if this plays a role in the indexing process, but it is hard to link to. I have had some sites, for example SheToldMe.com where I often link to help articles get indexed, refuse to accept it. At shetoldme, I get the error message "Story's URL: The URL is not functioning!". No wonder, the URL is a mess.


* Almost every article that I have placed has been reproduced on other website. The copied articles almost NEVER include my links to my website. In fact many of the "stolen" copies of my articles include links to other websites. Why do I say stolen? If they have not included the link to my website, this is against the terms of use of Ezines. Problem is that Ezines does nothing to inforce the terms of use. They leave this battle to you the author to fight.

* The copied articles often rank higher in the search engines than my original article in Ezines. How do I know that? Just do a search on the tile of the article. See how many copies come up and see where the Ezines copy ranks.

* So, if google is seeing, for example, 5 versions of your article and the only version of your article with your links in it are at the bottom. How valuable is that article for your website? It will probably not send you any traffic. If Google is ranking other articles, it is possible that the links of those articles have higher value.

* Yes, I see the arguement, "Ezines has Google PR 6, so if I get an article published there, I am passing lots of value to my website. I am not convinced that Google PR is the be all and end all of value of a link. If the link is not indexed, I believe it has no value. If other copies of the article are published which do not have your links in it, I believe that it decreases the value of your article. You will probably get no traffic and since it will be seen as duplicate content, you may get little value from the links.

What do I prefer instead of Ezines? An article published on Squidoo has MUCH higher value in my opinion than an article on Ezines. Why is Squidoo a better place to publish than Ezines?

* Squidoo has little or no review process.
* Squidoo publishes immediately
* YOU have control about where to place your links as well as the number of links
* Your article will give you traffic, links AND money.
* Squidoo articles have short, clean URLs
* My Squidoo articles generally achieve PR 2-4

So, if you are only going to place one article, I think it is clear that you should place it in Squidoo rather than in Ezines. But what if you are going to place many articles? I still think that Ezines is not best place for a unique article. The time you spend meeting all of their requirements has little value when your article is going to end up all over the internet with links to websites other than your own. I would rather suggest to place your article in other article directories where you can place your links in the body of the article rather than in the resource box at the bottom which the copyright right thief will simply leave out. A recent article I submitted to Amazines Why Do So Many People Wear Adult Footie Pajamas? was approved in 1 day. I was able to include as many links as I like and in this article, I have four links. There is no requirement for the links to be placed at the bottom in the resource box, I am able to place my links in the body of the article. This seems better to me.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

New Footie Pajamas Website Launched

As of today, I am the proud owner of a new website which features adult footie pajamas.

What is unique about this site is that it will focus on adult footie pajamas. In addition to the usual adult footie pajamas, it has a section for plus size footie pajamas and matching footie pajamas for those adults who want to dress for bed in the same footie pajamas that their children wear.

Please come by and visit the Footie Pajamas website and feel free to give your comments and suggestions for improvement.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Tankini Website: Dedicated To Tankinis

Are you familiar with tankinis? The tankini is a two piece swim wear that has only been around for just over a decade. But tankini sales aready account for over 30% of US women's swimwear. So, if you are not familiar with the tankini, you might be surprised that many of your friends and family members are already dedicated fans of the tankini. While the original tankini featured a tank top and a bikini bottom, current styles offer an almost unlimited combination of top bottom styles, giving new combinations such as skirtinis, halterkinis, bandauinis, etc.

The Tankini Website is a brand new website which features ONLY tankinis. Currently the Tankini Website offers:

* Sexy Tankinis
* Plus Size Tankinis
* Halter Tankinis
* Skirtinis

There will be no other swimwear other than tankinis on the Tankini Website. So, if you are a tankini fan, or if you just want to find out more about tankinis, visit the Tankini Website.