The Colors of AJ Tyne

Freelance Writing

2011-10-30T16:27:00.000-04:00

Here's a site I just discovered that may be helpful to those who are beginning freelance writing careers, as well as those who are seasoned freelancers. If you just like to write on your own sites for yourself only, you may still find useful nuggets here. I linked to their "Getting Started" guide, but there is much on the site for all levels and all styles.

Getting Started |FreelanceFolder.com

Dianna Agron: Get the Look of the Day

2011-10-29T00:53:00.000-04:00

Very pretty, simple and feminine.

Dianna Agron: Get the Look of the Day:

'via Blog this'

DIY Halloween Tricks & Treats for Procrastinators

2011-10-28T02:34:00.000-04:00

Here are some easy ideas that don't look at all "last minute" for those of us who just aren't quite ready for Halloween yet.
You know, procrastinators, like me.
DIY Halloween Tricks & Treats for Procrastinators

Refresh an Old Pair of Shoes (or Marty strikes again!)

2011-10-27T16:51:00.001-04:00

My friend, Marty, has done it again! Her curiosity leads to so many amazing discoveries. Marty, some may know her better as FlyingPuppy on the old eHow, has a fantastic DIY website, Do It Yourself & Save.
Check it out when you have plenty of time to browse, because it is addictive! Learn everything from Latex Halloween Masks to safely cutting glass to bringing new life to old leather shoes.
I can't wait to get some porcelaine to try out on some shoes!

Home and Hearth Basics: Very Easy Way to Cut Glass

2011-10-13T14:01:00.000-04:00

Check out the latest on Down Home Basics!
Home and Hearth Basics: Very Easy Way to Cut Glass: Did you ever have an idea to make something splendid, but didn't because glass cutting would be involved? I have. Glass cutting always scare...

How to get your old news feed back on Facebook

2011-10-12T03:58:00.001-04:00

Look what I found!
I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it looks like a lot of squid have! Leave a comment below -- are you going to try changing back? Did you try already? Did it work? What do you think of the new Facebook?

How to get your old news feed back on Facebook,

Health Risks of Irene Flood Waters

2011-09-01T00:06:00.002-04:00

I remember growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, and going out to play in the aftermath of a "mild" hurricane. The street wasn't flooded exactly, but there were plenty of much better than average puddles to splash in. It was great fun. The cool air that had been so hot a few days before, and the peacefulness that sometimes settles after a near miss hurricane are fond memories for me now. I only remember near misses. If some of them caused other considerable damage at the time, I was too young to know. The sweet bliss of childhood, when all is right with the world as long as your little piece of the world is right!
Ignorance is bliss, and the world in general was more full of that bliss than it's been for a very long time now. Then I was playing in the aftermath of hurricanes. Now, I'm warning people of the dangers of playing in flood waters.
Actually, even then, we weren't playing or swimming in flood waters, even though we gleefully called it a flood. It was really "flooding" from the super heavy rains of the almost hurricanes. After Irene, however, I'm seeing videos of kids and grown adults, diving into the flood waters, which aren't the same thing as rain.
The flood waters from a storm like Irene are dangerous, harboring all manner of germs and hiding all kinds of dangerous items. This was a serious storm, and it caused massive flooding, carrying sewage overflow, contaminants from basements and garages, machines, automobiles, and possibly even dead animals and excrement from South Carolina to New Hampshire! Look at the video below, where a reporter is battered by sea foam, which we were later told contained raw sewage! Did I say ignorance is bliss?
Part 1

Part 2

Diving into Who Knows What

Earthquake: Why Didn't Cellphones Work?

2011-08-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

Why Didn't Cellphones Work?
When the 5.9 magnitude earthquake shook the east coast on August 23, many people found that their cellphones were not working. Landlines were working, firefighters and police were able to communicate, but a lot of cellphones were out. Why didn't cellphones work? Wireless carriers are being asked the question by the FCC.

Missing Diamonds in Georgia

2011-08-24T18:14:00.007-04:00

The missing diamonds in Georgia only took a day to find. Jeweler Chuck Roberts had an idea who took them, and he turned out to be right.

The scoundrel was Honey Bun, the store's Pomeranian mascot. Roberts had jumped up quickly to see to a customer and left the diamonds in small plastic packets on the desk. In his haste to get to the customer, he left the chair out so that Honey Bun could get up to the desk. When he returned, one of the packets was missing. He immediately suspected the little canine criminal, and sure enough, found the empty plastic bag on the floor.

Since Honey Bun refused to cooperate, the jeweler resorted to desperate measures -- after all the missing diamonds were worth $10K! Honey Bun was carried to the veterinarian to receive an X-Ray. Although diamonds won't show on an X-Ray, there were two blank spots which strongly suggested that Honey Bun had indeed made a snack of the valuable diamonds. "All's well that ends well," and Roberts did get his diamonds back in the end, the next day when the pooch passed them with no ill effects.

Roberts said "I haven't scolded him to this day and I won't." When asked why not, he replied, "It's my fault for leaving the chair there, that's why."

And with that, Roberts expressed so clearly the lesson dog trainers have been trying to get across for a hundred years at least: Most "bad" behavior in dogs is the fault of the humans. Adult dogs don't typically eat inedible objects, however, all it takes is the odor from your hands -- a trace of the roast beef you had for lunch -- and the dog smells food. Dogs have a sense of smell that humans cannot begin to relate to, and so it's the humans' responsibility to prevent delinquency in canines by practicing some good behavior of their own: blocking access to tables, counters and stoves, putting belongings away immediately after use, and providing a variety of playthings for their pets. And that is the moral of the missing diamonds in Georgia tale.

Join WebNuggetz.com | WebNuggetz.com

2011-08-08T00:58:00.000-04:00

WebNuggetz.com is a community for writers to socialize and profit share -- everyone keeps their own google adsense, 100%

The people there are from Squidoo.

Join WebNuggetz.com | WebNuggetz.com

Are Male Contraceptives on the Way?

2011-07-26T21:28:00.000-04:00

Scientific advances and surveys showing men may be interested has spurred researchers to seriously pursue a safe, reliable male birth control solution. There are many types under development. Which will be first? And will men welcome their own birth control?
Men's Reactions Vary on Male Birth Control

Your Pet's Perspective: How to Read Your Puppy's Body Language

2011-07-21T12:55:00.000-04:00

Your Pet's Perspective: How to Read Your Puppy's Body Language

Why Should Music Be Taught in Schools

2011-07-11T00:06:00.003-04:00

I found this in a google search and thought it was worthwhile, but linking to it didn't work, so I have pasted it here in full, with the original link. http://www4.nau.edu/hornstudio/Caitlin's%20Paper.doc
Visit here for more on teaching music in schools.

Caitlin Leech

ENG 205

Kopp

Argument Paper

Music Programs: The Newest Endangered Species

Recently, music programs have begun to be cut from school districts all across the country due to budget cuts made by the government, which results in insufficient funding for schools. These programs are the ones that are chosen to be let go from the schools because teachers and administrators feel academics are more important. Perhaps music is not more important than other academics, but it is at least equally important. As I will prove later on in this paper through research done by myself and other credible sources, music programs promote leadership, responsibility, time management, friendship and a drive to do better not only in the music classes, but in school in general. There are also many other immeasurable benefits that are provided by music programs, and they will be shown through personal accounts and essays written by the music students themselves. Music programs are an asset to any school and cutting these programs in junior high and high schools deprives and adversely affects those students who missed out on the chance to participate in the programs.

Many students who participate in music programs do better in school. “It is accurately reported that music students, as a group, have higher than average I.Q. and S.A.T. scores” (Stewart 4). It has also been discovered that “students in high-quality music education programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs” as shown in a study done in 2007 by Christopher Johnson, a member of the National Association for Music Education and a professor of music education (Test Scores). On the elementary school level, this study found that “students in top quality music programs scored 22% better in English and 20% better in mathematics than students in deficient music programs” (Test Scores). Another part of the study that focused on middle school students found that those students “in top quality instrumental programs scored 17% higher in mathematics than children who did not participate in music” (Test Scores). This study proves that there is a positive correlation between quality music instruction and academic performance. Another study that was conducted in 2006, showed that there is also a relationship between students in music programs and graduation and attendance rates. “Students that have music programs have significantly higher graduation rates than do those without programs (90.2% as compared to 72.9%). Schools that have music programs have significantly higher attendance rates that do those without programs (93.3% as compared to 84.9%)” (Graduation). These different relationships show the positive effects that music programs have on the students that attend the schools lucky enough to still retain and offer these programs.

There are other advantages to music programs than just the test scores. A study published in 2007 focused on students, who were and were not enrolled in music programs, and their “views on the role of music in identity formation, the musical and nonmusical benefits for adolescents of their engagement with music, the curricular content of secondary music programs, and the qualities of music teachers in facilitating music-learning experiences in middle and high school classes” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). The students were asked to write essays, reflections and statements, and these were used to determine the results of this study. With regards to music-specific benefits, students who responded said that music benefited them in everything from learning the basics so they could perform better in the future, “a means of understand civilizations and societies” and some “expressed their sense of music as a culture, and as a means of knowing their own and other cultural history and beliefs” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). One student used this reasoning to protest the elimination of music from the schools; “If you look at history, music has been used in every generation. How could anyone take away something that has been a part of our country for so long?” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). The researchers found that almost two out of every three responses had some reference to how music affected their lives in an emotional way. Some students found music to be a “therapeutic tool”, “a release from the academic and social pressures of middle and high school life”, and a way “to control negative emotions, in particular anger” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). In another part of the study, “music was frequently described as a force for building one’s character, and many students expressed their belief that music was capable of directing them in shaping their broader sense of self, who they were becoming, and how they might succeed in the world. The respondents highlighted confidence, responsibility, compassion, pride, patience, and respect as aspects of their character they feel they owe, at least in part, to music” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). The final aspect of music that was heavily mentioned in the responses was that of the social benefits the students received. There were references to how music classes created new friendships and a way to meet new people. “Quite often, the imagery of the family was chosen to illustrate the feelings of belonging and security they had experienced as a result of participating in musical groups at their school” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). In a much darker way, “students spoke of music’s social benefits in relation to its function as a distraction from involvement in spurious activity such as drugs, alcohol, smoking (cigarettes), gang life, and promiscuous sex- in their own lives or in the lives of adolescents in general. Some reference was also made to music’s capacity to dissuade individuals from suicidal behaviors, if only by giving singers and players purpose in their young lives” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007). These effects that music have, both meaningful and fleeting all play important roles in determining the behaviors, activities and outlooks that students have on the world in general and towards themselves. As found by this study, “music is a common need, a constant presence, and a universal behavior to engage as performers, listeners, composers and songwriters” (Campbell, Connell, Beegle, 2007).

There have already been incidents of schools cutting music programs, such as in Fresno Unified School District in Fresno, California. “The district proposed cutting elementary music”, but was met with a lot of opposition from the students and parents (Music Education Cuts). People are going to great lengths to ensure that music remains in the schools, for example, “in mid-February 2,000 students, teachers and parents traveled by bus to the Missouri state capital, Jefferson City, to tell lawmakers to make school funding a top priority” (Music Education Cuts). Some schools are proposing different ways to deal with the budget cuts, such as the Salem-Keizer School Board in Salem, Oregon, who “proposed that the schools make concerts and competitions optional and charge students who wanted to perform” (Music Education Cuts). This was met by protests by teachers, students and the students’ parents. “Mary Lou Boderman, band director at South Salem High School, said parents and the community pay for about 70 percent of the band program” (Music Education Cuts). If this is what is already asked of the students who just want to participate in music programs, how much further will it go before the programs are paid for in full by only those who want them? In the meantime, other activities, such as the sports in schools, are still paid for mostly by the school and district budgets.

There are not very many solutions to this growing problem. To ask schools to rewrite their budgets to keep music programs in their schools may not be entirely possible, and as seen earlier, proposing more fees to participate in music programs is not well-received by either parents or students. This issue cannot be resolved just with the separate school districts all across the country, but this must be addressed nationally. As a peace offering in the meantime, perhaps the schools can create fundraising events to help those students who must pay a fee to participate in music programs, but this would only sever as a temporary measure.

As individuals, or even as districts, there is very little that can be done to fix this prominent problem. The government that created these insufficient budgets, as with the No Child Left Behind Act, must be held responsible for the effects that their actions have caused. They are the ones with the authority to right their wrongs, but it is only with the persuasion and ambition of the people that they will be forced to act, and action is needed before music programs everywhere are removed from the schools where they are desired by the teachers, parents and, most importantly, the students.

Works Cited

Battling Music Education Cuts. Teaching Music. Vol. 11, Issue 5. April 2004.

Beegle, Amy; Campbell, Patricia Shehan; Connell, Claire. “Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music In and Out of School.” Journal of Research in Music Education. Vol. 55, Issue 3. Fall 2007.

Principals Say Music Programs Affect Graduation. Teaching Music. Vol. 14, Issue 2. October 2006.

Stewart, Paul. The True Intrinsic Value of Music. American Music Teacher. Vol. 56, Issue 5. April/May 2007. p 4-5.

Study Finds Link Between Quality Music Programs, Test Scores. Teaching Music. Vol. 15, Issue 5. October 2007.

Annotated Bibliography

Battling Music Education Cuts

This source is focusing on the budget cuts that are affecting schools all across the nation. The program that was going to be cut in this school was the music program, and was met with a lot of antagonism, because the parents believe that music is important to their children.

I’ll use this to show that the cutting of music programs is not just offending to the music community, but to the entire community. It will also show that this problem is present now and cannot be ignored or pushed under the rug.

“Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music In and Out of School.”

This source is useful because it talks about the importance of music to the students, which are the main focus of my paper. It takes personal accounts, such as essays, statements and reflections, and combines them into one study which will be used in order to determine how music affects students in (a) identity formation in and through music, (b) emotional benefits, (c) music’s life benefits, including character –building and life skills, (d) social benefits, and (e) positive and negative impressions of the school music programs and their teachers.

I’ll use this source to support my argument from an emotional and immeasurable standpoint, seeing as how I have statistics already.

Principals Say Music Programs Affect Graduation

A study performed by MENC, NAMM and AMCHI members. This shows the measurable effect that music programs have on students with regard to their graduation and attendance rates when compared to schools without those programs.

I’ll use this to prove that music has a significant effect upon the students who attend and participate in the programs.

The True Intrinsic Value of Music

This source will be used to show the non-musical effects that music and music programs have, such as music students having higher I.Q. and S.A.T. scores than students who are not involved in music. He says that although it may not be music itself that cause this trend, but that music is still essential to everyone.

I’ll use this to show that although some people disagree with the statistical benefits that music is reported to have, they still believe that music has other worthwhile intrinsic values for everyone.

Study Finds Link Between Quality Music Programs, Test Scores

A study performed by MENC members. This shows the measurable effect that music programs have on students with regard to standardized test scores when to compared to students who do not participate in music programs, or are in deficient music programs. This again will show the importance of music in a quantifiable way.

http://www.squidoo.com/why-music-be-taught-all-schools

Your Pet's Perspective: How to Read Your Puppy's Body Language

2011-06-18T12:06:00.000-04:00

Your Pet's Perspective: How to Read Your Puppy's Body Language

Arsenic & Chicken Feed: Poultry Drug 3-Nitro Removed from Market

2011-06-14T00:24:00.001-04:00

One more reason to buy locally produced, naturally raised, real food.

Poultry Drug 3-Nitro Removed from Market
Healthy Eating the Easy Way

Removing those backlinks from your eHow articles

2011-06-03T19:35:00.001-04:00

What to do about the backlinks going to your eHow articles?

Well, eHow is gone now, and whether you sold your articles or removed them you're left with one big question: what to do about those backlinks.

There's nothing you can do that doesn't require some work and time, but you can try to remove them, one by one. First you have to find them.

First I used the SEOBook toolbar for FireFox, locating backlinks by clicking the Y! button for the Yahoo! page links. There are two of the Y! buttons, so you have to be sure you have the right one:

Click the screenshots to get a big image. From the left, you'll see PageRank and right next to it is Y! If you hover over the Y! it will say Yahoo! Page Links. This one shows the links to your particular page you're on. The second Y!, which is down a little more to the right, shows you the links to the domain. So if you were trying to find links to my eHow article How to Be Truly Tolerant, you'd want to click the first Y! -- the second Y! will give you all the links to the domain eHow.com.

Click the first Y!, and then you'll get a page like this, below:

In the upper right corner, there is a small drop-down box that is labeled "Show Inlinks" -- make sure that is set on "Except from this domain". This will show you the links to your page from other sites. Now for this particular article, I found a bunch of junk -- they are weird links to eHow.com. But you can see number 3 is a legitimate link -- thanks Vallain!

If you click any of the links, you can go to the site and see what it's about. Occasionally, I get to a site and can't locate the link to my article, but usually, it's somewhere on the page. If it's a good link -- say a cooking site has linked to one of your recipes -- you can try emailing them with a link to your article's new home, and ask if they would mind updating their site for you. If it's a useless, bad neighborhood link, just forget it.

Now, if you go back to the little drop-down box in the upper right, you can choose "all links", and you'll see all the ones you just saw, plus the ones eHow has linked to your article -- just interesting. It may give you some ideas of how to do your links on your websites.

OK, that's just Yahoo!'s links. I also used LinkDiagnosis.com. The other icons on the SEOBook toolbar aren't so helpful for checking backlinks. You'll have to register at LinkDomain, and download the FireFox add-on. Even tho you download the add-on, you still actually go to LinkDiagnosis.com to check your URL. This works great, because it lets you save your reports, and you can even make a project, such as eHow articles, and save all the eHow article reports in one project. It's easy to use, but note one thing: there is a tiny link called "Filters" just under the left side of the box where you put in your URL. Click that and there is a PageRank button and a Yahoo! button at the far left. Then a drop down box labeled "Site Settings", which you should click and select "single page" -- if you don't do this you will end up making a huge, lengthy report for all of eHow.com. You can leave all the other filters as they are:

Click start, and here are the results:

One puny link from squidoo (thanks again to Vallain!) -- I wasn't doing a great job of backlinking as you can see. Most of my eHow articles were written well before I learned how important backlinks are, and once I did learn, eHow was already on decline. Still -- I maybe could have added some links and made more money for this past year.

Now, click Save, and it will give you the choice of saving the report, saving it to a project already set up, or making a new project to save it in.

I did get some backlinks on here that I didn't get on Y! Links Pages.

Now, whatever backlink checker you use, if you get a huge number of links, double check whether it is giving you all the links inbound and outbound, all the links to the entire eHow.com domain, or all of the links to your article, including those that eHow has placed.

In most cases, you'll probably have a pretty good shot at getting back a number of your links.

Let me know if you have some better backlink checkers. I found one accidentally about a month ago that looked fantastic, but I have not been able to find it again to save my life.

2010-06-27T13:15:00.003-04:00

Weather Underground: World View

June 27, 2010
Amazing pictures!

RIP eHow?

2010-04-15T03:23:00.002-04:00

Re: Which eHow features are still worthy of our time??
posted at 4/14/2010 4:39 PM PDT

AJ Tyne

Posts: 1746
First: 8/6/2008
Last: 4/14/2010
In Response to Re: Which eHow features are still worthy of our time??

:
We're going to be making some updates in the near future and we hope the community will stick around to see what will be coming. eHow.com is an amazing way to get to know real people sharing their knowledge and experience of how they've done things. We've made it into this social experience where if you need to consult with someone that has done a project, you are able to interact with them and get more advice. I'm sure many folks have connected with other members based on similar interests and projects you've worked on. -Rich
Posted by Rich - eHow Community Manager

Rich, Thanks for stopping by to reply, but I have to correct your statement: eHow USED to be an amazing place to get to know REAL people sharing their REAL knowledge and experiences. People can't consult with someone that has done a project unless the people who've done the project are still around to get the PM == doubtful that will happen, unless there is a handful of new people who stumble on the site now and don't know anything of its past, do the I Did This, then stick around to see if anyone wants to chat about it.

Do the powers that be at eHow EVER pay attention to what's really going on out here? you're turning the site into a decidely UNEXCITING place where writers who need money desperately will speed write** 10-15 articles a day about whatever seemed easiest to them to write and then eHow will slap it on the site. There's no "experience" there and there are no REAL people there. It's been heading that way for some time now and now it's at the end. There will be no more realness to ehow -- just another generic, scrubbed down, bare bones site with NO SOUL. WE were the heart and soul of eHow == didn't they know that? Surely you know it, Rich, but the higher ups should be smart enough to know it. At DS we aren't even allowed to put real pics of the steps to our articles?! they've killed the whole idea of ehow!

The only DS writers in this forum were those who were already here for WCP and happen to also be DS writers. You're hoping for all these fabulous I DID THIS articles for free to replace that heart and soul. That's the reason for pushing I DID THIS when you already had all the articles from a writer's real experience. But what reason does anyone have to put their heart and soul and time into taking wonderful pics of each step and writing a story about what they did -- and then hanging around to answer questions about it that might come later? No one -- well, few, have that kind of time for NO PAY.
But eHow had the best of both worlds == we got paid reasonably well and we had the social aspects when we wanted it and had time, and we could share our real -- and valuable -- experiences. If we don't get paid tho, we have plenty of unpaid options to do the rest.

ehow (not you, Rich, but the company) just got greedy. They couldn't see how much it mattered because all they saw was dollar signs. They could only think how much "better" it would be if most of the articles only got paid $15 and they owned the copyright and could resuse them -- they thought of the pile of more money they could make. Now they are maybe starting to see that they have removed the soul of the site. They hope to regain that soul by throwing us what? promises of new changes to come? Not even a hint of what that might be? But remember the last weHow was not that many months ago, and everyone came home talking about the good changes to come? Remember? You 'member! And the weHow before that was a year before, and they all came back from that one promising we would LOVE the big changes to come and we would be a part of something wonderful from the start and something we'd regret if we didn't stick around for it.
But Rich, since about last january/February, maybe a little later, there have been a lot of changes, but I can't think of a single one that was good for us! Now that they have dismantled the eHow that we loved and that many depended on for income, they want us to wait around for yet more "fantastic" changes? Any takers? Yeah, I thought not.

On the other hand, ehow has a bunch of scrubbed, generic sites where they control everything. Why was it that they couldn't just leave one open and fresh place for people to share every day real experiences. The best thing you could have done was increase the pay a bit and give us more an idea of how we earn, and police the site like crazy for specific problems: clones that are really clones (like how to buy a car in every state of the union), incorrect advice, profanity and porn, and the poorly written generic articles from the old DS or from wherever they were purchased in the beginning, and the articles that are not about real life. And keep the DS articles as part of the group, NOT showcased. If you did that, eHow would be the bright and shining star among a pile of internet slime. Instead, you are making it just more of the same stuff, and you really hurt and betrayed a LOT of people in the process.

** For the record, let's do the math. Say a person who has been "displaced" (DS keeps saying they are helping lots of displaced writers make a decent living), needs to make enough to live on -- pay their mortgage, insurances, kid's needs, food, etc. All right, for a conservative -- extremely conservative monthly income needed, let's go with $1800 == hey that is BEFORE taxes, too. They need to write 6 articles a day, EVERY day for 30 days out of EVERY month, just to bring in $1800 pretax dollars. In some locations that might work, and in some locations that would not even begin to cover the monthly expenses for a family on a very modest budget. Think about it, 180 articles minimum, based not on your experiences, but on the topics presented for your to choose from. yeah, that's some quality. The writing will be high quality no doubt, and some of the info will be when it happens that a person with experience gets to choose a title within their experience range. But will they ever come close to my article on getting the diagnosis of autism for your child? that article may not be the cream of the crop for writing quality and it sure never made a lot of money, but it was written by a real mother of a real autistic child, from the heart. several people have written me to get permission to use that article in their newsletters or their handouts for parents of newly diagnosed children. That article has helped people. Or consider veryirie's craft articles == with great pictures, written by someone who really made the item and whose heart is in it. Who is better able to warn me of places I might run into trouble -- veryirie, or someone who read the instructions somewhere and rewrote them for their $15? Rich, they, with our help, built a special place. Now they have killed it. Dead. It's gone. Very sad.

The Big Picture: Keywords Matter in Ways You Never Think

2010-02-23T14:26:00.000-05:00

Choose Your Keywords Carefully

Search engines are not human, and cannot understand all the nuances of the English language. That's another reason it's important to select your keywords carefully -- if you hope to have anyone find your blog so they can read it. And if you're trying to make money from your blog, your choice of keywords will affect the ads that are displayed on your blog, and how meaningful they might be to your readers.

Here's an interesting article that illustrates the effects your keyword choices have on your SEO and ad placement.

The Big Picture: Keywords Matter in Ways You Never Think

eHow Lies, Promises, Theft: Just the Facts

2010-02-14T16:22:00.000-05:00

The eHow Fiasco: A Concise History

There was a lot that I wanted to talk about today, regarding getting more backlinks from eHow, and other writing tips. However, at this point I think there is nothing more important than this post on crunchydata.

eHow Lies, Promises, Theft

Read it carefully. Think it over. I lived it, and can attest to its truthfulness.

http://crunchydata.com/ehow-lies-promises-theft-resources/

Who are you writing for? Keyword and writing tips to maximize earnings

2010-02-12T22:00:00.002-05:00

Guest blogger, CWilliams

Pleasant surprise today! A guest post from CWilliams, whom you may know from eHow.com, InfoBarrel, or other sites around the web. She's got some great, easy tips to help you tweak your articles for maximum earning power.These tips apply whether you write for eHow.com, or a similar site, or for yourself.

Who are you writing for?

When you write, who are you writing for? Do you write topics that you want to read or do you write what people are searching for. There are a few known tricks that can make the difference between buying a coke with your eHow earnings or something more.

First, every writer needs to make an effort to write what readers want to read. The simplest way to do this is to search for a keyword in Google. When you begin typing on a Google search page Google will try to fill in the words.

They derive this information from what users search for. When doing a search for the word Twilight you can see what the top five searched terms are in Google. (relevant to any word)

Second you need to narrow down your search term. Over 109 million sites exist for Twilight. If you write an article on eHow or anywhere for that specific keyword you are likely to get sand boxed and no one wants to go play in the sand. Use Google Wonder Wheel to narrow down the topic.

Third you need to know that Google bots like bold text. Just as when your eyes are drawn to bold text on a page, so is Google bot. Google bot LOVES bold text, it tells him something is important Here. While you cannot fill up a full page with bold text (will earn you a penalty) you can write like this. “I saw the Twilight New Moon movie this weekend and I liked it.” The bold text indicates to Google that they should be looking at that part of the page for relevance. When writing for eHow or anywhere a write can use this information to their advantage.

A writer who does keyword research needs to pay more attention to how many sites exist than what a keyword pays. If you narrow your niche down far enough this may not be a problem, however, you need to be aware of it. You will use the Google Wonder Wheel for this too. Twilight, as I said before, has 109 million sites displaying. (you can see this on the right near results)

Twilight Lexicon Thottbot has 32,200 sites.

It would be easier to write an article and rank for that keyword term. The same can be said when you are using the Google Adwords Keyword tool to pick a topic. You want to write topics that are searched for, but that do not have a lot of exposure on sites. The Adsense professionals are all looking for the latest and greatest. The little guy should be focused on concise topics, that have a following, that the big guys won't be interested in.

For more tips, check out How to use Google Tools when creating content.

2010-01-26T17:35:00.002-05:00

What is censorship?

It seems some on the eHow forums, including community manager Rich, need a bit of a refresher course, so from Wikipedia:

Censorship is the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations as determined by a censor. (emphasis is mine)

Corporate censorship is the process by which editors in corporate media outlets intervene to halt the publishing of information that portrays their business or business partners in a negative light. (emphasis is mine)

I've lost count as to how many posts have been deleted, but it is a LOT. Some of the posts were republished on a new blog, Post Toast, and some I was able to see before they were deleted. Some are lost forever, perhaps. One thing is certain, many of the ones I saw did NOT call out or attack any member, or even eHow. They were not abusive, either. They simply asked hard questions of eHow -- questions all of us have a right to ask, and a right to expect an answer for.

As always, eHow seems to prefer the silent approach. Don't answer the hard questions at all. If it gets too intense, too close to the mark, or too hard to ignore, just delete it.

Rich, the community manager, sadly has to bear the brunt of the anger. I feel for him, since it seems clear eHow chooses to give him precious little leeway as to what he can tell angry members. Nevertheless, Rich is not completely without power, and has shown, in the deletions of posts and threatened banning of members, that he needs public relations training along with his bosses.

Here are a few starters, if you happen to stop by, Rich:

Establish rules, post the rules clearly, and administer them CONSISTENTLY -- you have been saying for as long as I've been a member (2 years) that anyone can speak freely on the forums and we can always have a reasonable debate and difference of opinion. In fact, you said that not long ago, during this UK mess, when I made a rather lengthy (I know, what's new) post in which I criticized eHow's actions with regard to the UK site. Someone posted behind me that he expected my post would be deleted. But you left it, and said that as long as we are polite and reasonable we can have any discussion. Unfortunately, now, people are having their posts deleted for simply asking a hard question, while others call people out (with or without giving the name) and their posts remain.
When members are arguing with each other, and you feel the need to step in, it is usually prudent, in the wise traditions of the US military and US elementary schools, to punish BOTH or ALL members, not just the ones you aren't friends with. I can appreciate that it's hard to read every single little post and sometimes even if you do, it goes on for a while, and you can't remember who started it. It doesn't matter, Rich. Just delete both, or ban both. BOTH get the same, exact punishment.
Personally I don't agree with permanent punishment for arguing, such as being banned from eHow or banned from forums, as some (always the same ones, who are on the friends side and very much want you to ban certain people for good) have suggested. That is especially harsh in such an emotional and extremely important situation as the UK problems. But my suggestion would be to block both from the forums for a day or two (which is a long time of the forum during heated discussions). BOTH parties are banned, though.
Be honest. If you have no choice (orders from above) but to delete posts about certain topics, at least come up with a creative, round about way to say so -- and then again, delete ALL posts on that topic, not just some.
Remind your bosses that eHow has long been known for one great thing: the ability of the members to say anything on the forums, no matter how detrimental to eHow, and though certain members would attack viciously, eHow would not. Perhaps this is just not the best time to change that policy.

It seems clear that the only way eHow will have any chance to come out of this with any of their reputation in tact is to simply come clean and own their own problems. I'd much rather hear, yes, we set the UK site up to steal traffic and pay no writers. Would it make me mad? You bet. I'm already mad. But I'm a whole lot madder when I see eHow saying flat out, "We did nothing wrong. You better watch what you say about us." Of course, owning your problems also implies correcting your problems. I don't think I'd be far out of line in saying up til now most, if not all, members would have been willing to work with you on the best way to make such corrections as are needed. At this point, I can't be sure, but it seems like that is no longer true since eHow taken bullying to even lower levels than before. I dare say, eHow may be seeing far more of many members than they would like. Hiding behind those TOS seems to be yet another false move for eHow.

eHow doesn't play fair

eHow a public relations disaster

New linking challenge/experiment at the Keyword Academy

2010-01-21T17:36:00.001-05:00

Court, at the Keyword Academy, announced that there is a new challenge/experiment starting today. This one is 5 links a day for thirty days. Just in time for many eHowers who are trying to build as many new backlinks as possible to their articles as well as their blogs. As you know, my suggestion to build links to your blogs, not directly to your eHow articles, but your eHow articles can still benefit.

This is an excellent challenge to motivate us to build links to our work, and also a great experiment to prove to ourselves the power of good, anchored backlinks.

You may remember the last two challenges:

Make Money Online With 100 Blog Posts in 30 Days

Make Money With 100 Hub in 30 Days

These challenges are real challenges, but they help you move forward. Even if you don't manage to get 5 links every day for 30 days, you will still improve your standing in SERPs.

By the way, the Keyword Academy is the best place I've found, after months of searching and studying, to really learn all you need to know to make money online. They really teach you, step by step, and do not leave gaping holes in your education like many others do. It's excellent for beginners, but if you are more advanced (or when you become more advanced) you will still be able to continue learning and progressing, through their advanced lessons, forums, and more. They give you a full access 30 day trial for only $1. It's easy to cancel through PayPal or the Keyword Academy customer service, so there is little risk unless you plan to sign up and just forget about it. Honestly, that 30 day trial is enough to really get you started.

If you decide to accept the challenge, you'll want to keep track of your backlinks and this article gives you some tips for doing just that with spreadsheets.

I think you are fine to get backlinks that you cannot necessarily control -- I wouldn't turn down a backlink, but I would not send them to eHow articles or a similar site at this point.

Tips for getting backlinks on eHow

2010-01-20T03:41:00.002-05:00

Here are some tips for getting "followed" backlinks from eHow -- yes, I said eHow. Most of the links on eHow's site are "no follow". But there are a few places on the site where you can put well placed links and they will be "do follow". Here they are:

In your profile, ONLY the part of the profile where you are allowed to use HTML, all links will be "do follow".
In the forums, anchored backlinks are "do follow". All URLs are "no follow", so you're not helping yourself if you just put the URL.

Take advantage while you can, especially on the forums, because the website you put in the comments on the eHow blog were "do follow" a few weeks ago, but now are "no follow". So it changes.

Quick Glossary: backlinks, no follow, etc

2010-01-20T03:01:00.004-05:00

Not sure what all these terms mean?

Here's a quick glossary. If I leave any out, just let me know.

SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Pages, the results you get when you enter a search term at google or any other search engine.

Backlinks are simply links to your article, site, or blog from another article, site, or blog

External links are the links from your site or blog to another site or blog

Internal links are the links within a site that link to other parts of the site, such as from one page of this blog to another

Do follow is notice put into the source code of a site telling search engines to follow, or "count" that link -- so the search engine will send its spiders to that link to see what that site is all about -- you can't see this unless you have a program to see them, or if the site tells you what kind of links it gives

Do follow is the kind of backlink you want.

No follow is notice put into the source code of a site telling search engines not to follow, or "count" that link -- so the search engine theoretically does not send spiders to that site to see what it's about -- again you can't see it without a program to see them or the site telling you

A lot of people say that some search engines have already changed this and follow all links, regardless if the site says no follow, and that google is planning to change and start following all links, but that is not for sure. At any rate, it seems a no follow link is better than no link at all, but get the do follow links if you want your site to be found.

What should eHow members do for the short term?

2010-01-20T00:12:00.005-05:00

Many at eHow (most?) are sickened with the knowledge of how they were betrayed. But most are a bit scattered it seems, and wondering what they should do now, at least for the next few weeks or months, while this scene works its way to its end result.

I don't pretend to have a crystal ball, but of course, I must put in my two cents. These suggestions are designed to prevent the loss of more earnings during the time eHow is fixing the problem and to minimize losses if you prefer to remove all articles and cut ties with eHow.

The first thing all eHow WCP members should do immediately is STOP publishing articles. Of course, this might feel good as a protest, but the real reason is because everything you publish is still being loaded onto the UK site, and the UK versions of many of the articles are still outranking or even completely crowding out, the USA version of the articles in the search engine results. That means you will earn less, if anything. Once these articles are loaded onto the UK site, and indexed by the search engines your links to them are locked in, until eHow removes them all from the UK site AND they drop off the search engine listings. Consider this, from Rich himself:

Logically, if you remove your content and the search engines re-index the site, then your eHow article that you've removed will not show up on the search engines anymore. Plus, if you do decide to re-post those articles after removing them, you're just going to have to wait again to have those articles re-indexed, pending until they show up on the search engines again-- and I think many of us know how well those articles are ranked on the search results as of today.

Thanks,
Rich

There is more involved, a few more little reasons you shouldn't remove articles from eHow just yet. Interested? Check out the forum. Now, if you understand all that is happening, and you aren't in need of money and don't mind eHow using your articles without compensating you, then by all means go ahead and continue publishing there. Everyone else take heed.

The second thing eHow WCP members should do, in my opinion, is to stop giving backlinks to your articles on eHow, unless you will be able to change those backlinks if needed. Every backlink to an eHow article is a backlink to eHow, and eHow UK, effectively helping them to make more money, which they aren't sharing with you. Moreover, if you cannot change the backlinks yourself, then if you do remove the article, eHow keeps those backlinks, and you article cannot benefit from that backlink when you publish it anywhere else.

The last thing eHow WCP members should do now is to use this time to build your blogs, article libraries on other sites, and build good, solid, anchored backlinks to them all. Try to get "do follow" links whenever you can, and I suggest you write new articles that are related to your eHow articles (at least your best earning articles), and use slightly different but still strong keywords in the anchored backlinks. This will help you to build up your authority and beat or match eHow in the search engines for your article title, once you remove your article from eHow. You won't be actually trying to compete head to head against the huge eHow; you're going to be aiming yourself just slightly off that keyword onto one that is still very strong, and building your links and new articles around that. When you feel you have enough to rank on search results on the site you've chosen to put your article, then you can remove your eHow article, adjust it slightly for the keyword changes and publish. If you don't feel you can change your keywords and still earn as well, you can do the same thing, keeping the keywords the same, but it will take you longer to be ready to move the article off eHow.

What's an anchored backlink?

2010-01-19T20:01:00.007-05:00

Most people recommend getting "anchored" backlinks, as much as possible. I think this is best, too.
What's an anchored backlink? That's when you put the link to your article or webpage on words that describe your article, rather than just on "click here" or just putting in your URL. Here are a couple of examples:

I just found a good site for getting backlinks to your articles and blogs: SheToldMe. You can even put your adsense number there and earn and get links.
(Note that I could have put the link on the words SheToldMe -- not bad, but better that I put them on "earn and get links". Now the backlink is considered a vote of confidence in that site or article. But the way this was linked it gives a vote of confidence for those words AND that website. That helps the search engines not just notice your site but strengthens the idea of what your site is about.)

You get followed backlinks from this social bookmarking site, and earn at the same time! You can't beat that, can you? The only other place I can think of that gives followed links and allows you to earn is Hubpages. (another example, using an anchored backlink instead of just linking the site's name.) Both are good sites for disgruntled or displaced eHowers to consider, as well as anyone else who wants to earn money by writing online.

So you could consider it sort of a hierarchy. A link is a link, and most all links help, but some help more than others:

anchored backlink on a related site **BEST**
anchored backlink on a not so related sitelink on the name of the site (or article), related site
link on the name of the site (or article), not so related site
link on the words "click here" or similar, related site or not

Not everyone will list them in exactly the same order I did, but you get the idea, and most will agree this is roughly the best order.
But the best way for the average person to get some traffic and rank in the search engines, after building a good, legitimate site or blog, is to get backlinks. Lots of them. Never stop getting backlinks from legitimate places. Many people even think the so called "no follow" links are somewhat helpful. I figure it can't hurt as long as it's not on a disreputable site.

Getting backlinks

2010-01-16T19:25:00.007-05:00

In the good ol' days of eHow, WCP writers could just about choose good keywords, and write a quality article and nothing more. That's often all that was needed to get ranked in the search engines because eHow had such good SEO and ranked so high on most topics.

Around last summer, it began to get tougher to get your articles ranked. Even some articles that had long since been ranked on the first page of google search results, began to slip, and in some cases, simply disappeared in the search results. Most people responded in one of three ways. Either they lamented the fact on the forums, asking others what was going on, or they suffered in silence. The third reaction was to go out and get more backlinks to their articles. This last reaction is the right one. Not that there is anything wrong with complaining or questioning on the forums -- that's a good idea because it brings problems out into the open and helps people learn. But in terms of getting articles ranked in search results, the ones who got more backlinks will always do better. In some cases, it helped and their ranking returned -- and with it their earnings. In some cases, it didn't help for very long (because another problem crept up: the UK site). Soon nothing seemed to help. And why were the search results for eHow articles changing so much anyway? Good question. It seems apparent now that eHow was tinkering with its own SEO in a way that left WCP writers floundering and scrambling. They had been blindsided by eHow's changes, which favored different parts of the site over individual articles. Then suddenly the whole thing came to light when WCP writers began finding their articles ranking in search results on the first page again -- but for the eHow UK site. And the rest is still history in the making.

One lesson learned (hopefully) is that backlinks are very important to any writer, no matter what the writer's site. Good, anchored backlinks are one of the most important ways to get ranked in search results. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start linking! But I wouldn't work on backlinks to your eHow articles just yet. You might end up having to go back and redo them all (the ones you can redo) later, if things are not resolved to your satisfaction. So work on getting good backlinks to your blogs, sites, and articles that are elsewhere, not on eHow, for the time being.

Make sure, as much as possible, that you give yourself anchored backlinks.

Looking for new places to write?

2010-01-16T05:38:00.008-05:00

In the wake of the eHow fiasco many people are reevaluating their options and considering branching out to try new writing venues. You can find some information about some of the lesser known sites, such as Seed.com and much more information about writing online at Write Fierce, a new blog with some excellent content.

Another good place to find information about the eHow fiasco as well as lots of information about writing online for residual income is Crunchy Data.

If you like to write and earn money, and socialize at the same time consider this list of writing sites with great forums or other social aspects.

And one that I consider top of the list is Hubpages. At hubpages you can certainly earn money writing what interests you and socialize a little as well. Anyone signing up for hubpages here can contact me for any help with hubpages you might need. You can write in any format, use your adsense account and your amazon account, as well as eBay.

Finally, consider InfoBarrel. This is a fairly new site with a great revenue sharing program, and it is gaining in traffic and popularity by the week. You can write in several different formats, and you keep the rights to all your work, but you cannot publish the same article on InfoBarrel and somewhere else on the web at the same time.

The eHow Fiasco

2010-01-16T02:53:00.002-05:00

Well the buzz the last couple of weeks has been all about eHow and how they stole traffic from their own site and sent it to their cloned version where they didn't pay the content providers anything.

What can you expect from a site that has repeatedly done similar things on a smaller scale for most of 2009? We Writers Compensation Program (WCP) writers watched all year as eHow regularly tweaked its site, with the results pretty much always favoring articles that eHow bought outright and did not have to pay residuals on, as they pay on our WCP articles.

With the ongoing "sweeps" came more interesting changes: many WCP writers complained that their highest earning articles were deleted (for somehow not meeting the site guidelines) AND the links to those articles now went directly to a bought article on the same topic. Most deleted articles were linked to generic "content" pages -- pages with lists of articles on similar topics -- to avoid having dead links. We could understand the need to avoid dead links. We WCP writers certainly understand the need to clean up the site and get rid of poor quality content. But there were a couple of things many of us couldn't understand. First, why some deleted articles linked to a generic page, and others (always the high paying articles it seems) linked to a specific article of the same or very similar title that eHow had payed for up front, no residuals due. The other problem is we kept noticing content that wasn't that bad was leaving the site while content that was horrible and some even bordering on pornographic remained on the site. Hmmm. Never have understood the way they decided what should stay and what should go.

Questions are often not answered at all, ever. Other times the questions are answered months after they are asked, and in the vaguest terms possible. If you think for a moment and piece everything together you start to see a pattern of misleading writers, ignoring writers, playing favorites with writers, and possibly lying to writers. You see a pattern of maximizing eHow earnings at the expense of the WCP writers who helped build the site. Understand that eHow WCP writers are supremely loyal for the most part. We loved eHow, beyond the usual (usual?) love for a site you write at and work with. These people would have gone to bat for eHow over almost anything. But it seems we were duped.

So the word of the day? Disillusioned.

The Colors of AJ Tyne

Freelance Writing

Related articles

Dianna Agron: Get the Look of the Day

DIY Halloween Tricks & Treats for Procrastinators

Refresh an Old Pair of Shoes (or Marty strikes again!)

Home and Hearth Basics: Very Easy Way to Cut Glass

How to get your old news feed back on Facebook

Health Risks of Irene Flood Waters

Earthquake: Why Didn't Cellphones Work?

Missing Diamonds in Georgia

Join WebNuggetz.com | WebNuggetz.com

Are Male Contraceptives on the Way?

Your Pet's Perspective: How to Read Your Puppy's Body Language

Why Should Music Be Taught in Schools

Your Pet's Perspective: How to Read Your Puppy's Body Language

Arsenic & Chicken Feed: Poultry Drug 3-Nitro Removed from Market

Removing those backlinks from your eHow articles

RIP eHow?

The Big Picture: Keywords Matter in Ways You Never Think

eHow Lies, Promises, Theft: Just the Facts

Who are you writing for? Keyword and writing tips to maximize earnings

New linking challenge/experiment at the Keyword Academy

Tips for getting backlinks on eHow

Quick Glossary: backlinks, no follow, etc

What should eHow members do for the short term?

What's an anchored backlink?

Getting backlinks

Looking for new places to write?

The eHow Fiasco