Data charmer's new slide

Slides from my presentation in Paris: "Testing early @mysql versions in a sandbox" http://t.co/fpTwwNV6 -- Giuseppe Maxia (@datacharmer)

MariaDB 5.3 is now GA-- Use it test it

This is another, in-case-you-missed-it, but it is definitely worth mentioning again:
MariaDB 5.3 is now GA
So, if you’re using MariaDB 5.1 or 5.2, I’d definitely recommend upgrading to the new MariaDB 5.3.
Also, if you’re a Windows user using MySQL 5.1, I’d highly consider making the switch to MariaDB 5.3 due to all of the Windows-specific improvements in it.
MariaDB 5.3 Enhancements:

• Subquery optimizations
• Semi-join subquery optimizations
• Non-semi-join optimizations
• Subquery Cache
• Subquery Optimizations Map
• Optimizations for derived tables and views
• Disk access optimization
• Join optimizations
• Index Merge improvements
• Optimizer control
• NoSQL-style interfaces
• Group commit for the binary log
• Replication and binary logging enhancements
• Microsecond support for NOW() and timestamp, time, and datetime columns
• Windows performance improvements
• And a number of other general improvements

MariaDB 5.3 Windows-Specific Performance improvements include:

• Backported Windows performance patches from MySQL 5.5
• Asynchronous IO in XtraDB is redesigned and is now faster, due to the use of IO completion ports
• Additional durability option for XtraDB : innodb_flush_method can now be O_DSYNC, like on Unixes. (The effect of using this option is that the log file is opened with FILE_FLAG_WRITETHROUGH, and FlushFileBuffers() is not done. This may improve speed in write-heavy scenarios.)
• A new Windows MSI installer
• Includes a GUI-tool, HeidiSQL

All of the above, and more are documented in further detail here:
http://kb.askmonty.org/en/what-is-mariadb-53
You can download it here:
http://downloads.askmonty.org/mariadb/5.3/
(And just for reference, if running MariaDB you should probably keep your eye on the new MariaDB 5.5 too (5.5.20 was alpha, 5.5.21 is now beta), benchmarks here).
Hope this helps.

Why You Need a Part-Time Remote MySQL Expert

This is post by

Jonathan Levin

 

 Why You Need a Part-Time Remote MySQL Expert

When I thought to start to write this post, I was thinking about all the logical reasons why you would consider hiring a part-time remote MySQL database administrator or MySQL expert.
It then occurred to me that most of the readers, who are reading this post now, already know or can imagine the benefits of hiring a DBA to take care of their system.

So what I want to offer is a case based on the emotional benefits and value a part-time DBA can offer you and your business.

1) Peace of Mind

A DBA can offer you peace of mind that one of your core business components is being taken care of. It is like maintaining your house gas boiler or car every now to keep it running in good working order and preventing it from blowing up. Except that in this example, if it does break, you can't use the entire house or car until they are fixed.
What is important to remember here is that there is no immediate justification for spending money on maintenance. There is even a sense of loss when you do spend the money without seeing any value from it. You are left in a mental tug-of-war between the possibility of downtime and loss of profits to the immediate hit to your cash flow.

What usually helps here is to calculate the cost of downtime with the estimated time and effort to recover from it divided by the chance that it will happen.

In the event that your main database servers breaks down:

• How much money are you losing from sales?
• How much money are you losing from possible future sales? (For example, sales people and marketeers cannot send people to the website or loss of reputation)
• How much money will it cost to get people (even at the dead of night) to resolve the problem? (people multiplied by hours or overtime hours)
• How much disruption will it cause later on? (For example, sales people need to speak with clients to assure them everything is OK for two days instead of finding new clients)

Divided by - the chance that your database servers will break down.

• Are we expecting any seasonal bursts of traffic and will the database servers handle it?
• Will the hardware that the database server sits on hold up in the next 6 months?
• How many single-points-of-failure are there in the environment where the database servers are?
• How many people have DROP TABLE access to your servers and how often to people run "heavy" reporting queries on them?
• How high is your developers skill level when it comes to writing efficient queries that prevent high database usage? (When releasing a new product or feature)

Once you answered all (or some) of those questions and jotted down some numbers, you will then have a figure of how much money you should spend to prevent downtime. This is a very basic risk management formula for managers and will allow you to get some perspective.
The mental tug-of-war can take a break as you are now allocating resources for something you planned a head of time.

2) Preventing loss of confidence

More often then not, I see a lot of small companies have people maintain their databases who do not have a lot of expertise to do it. Typically, if you have some developers, you ask one of them to do it. If you have a system administrator then that usually falls under that responsibility.

What happens then is that those people (usually, but not always) not fully understand their databases and just "keep them running". If something comes up that is a bit out of the ordinary then things start to get stressful.

I've even seen the database becomes the "don't touch it or it will break" system in the company.
At that point, you lose confidence in your system and prefer to not have to deal with it as much as possible.


3) Energy, Focus and Flow

When you have people with database expertise on hand, you can solve database related problems very quickly. Problems that were once difficult and complicated suddenly become straight forward.
For example, instead of having meetings discussing how to implement a very data intensive operation in the best way, you now have someone that can provide a quick answer or at least a direction to help implement it based on best practice and experience.
Your team can become more cross-functional as the expertise gets shared and solutions come more quickly.
You feel more in a "flow" - that things are moving in the right direction. You can focus on things which you would rather focus on you feel more energetic because of it.


4) Trust, Knowledge and Speed

Having an expert in your business and part of your team is very comforting. The more this expert is involved your business, the more this expert knows, understands and appreciate how your business runs and solves theirs problems. There is a cost benefit of having someone you trust and is knowledgeable about your business when you compare it to:

1. Finding a new expert (Possible additional fees for system or agent that found the expert).
2. Evaluating the person is in fact, an expert in their field.
3. Explaining what the business problem is
4. Double-checking if their solution does work or fully solves your problem.
5. If you are not happy with them, go to step 1.
6. If there was a misunderstanding in communication, go to step 3
7. Implement solution

Put a price on each step and compare it to writing an email to your expert saying "we have a problem with that thing we spoke about a while back. Can you please take a look at it?"

In fact, I would go one step further. If your expert is part of your team and they "own" and are responsible for your database system, there is a good chance that they would have come to you after finding the problem themselves and with a possible solution.

I never fully appreciated outsourcing a lot of core parts of a business to one-time development shops. I believe there is valuable business-knowledge that gets lost and that the additional overhead to manage everything becomes very high.

Conclusion

I truly hope that this post may benefit people by giving them peace of mind, confidence and a clear direction that will help them with their business and make it more enjoyable.

Performance schema in MySQL 5.5 and 5.6

Configure, configure and configure

The performance schema is affected by three distinct set of configuration parameters, that take effect at compile time, server startup, or runtime.

Compile time options

When building from the source code, make sure the cmake flag 'WITH_PERFSCHEMA_STORAGE_ENGINE' is set to 'ON' (it is by default).

For packages built by Oracle, the performance schema is included by default.

Server startup options

Simply add the 'performance_schema' option to your my.cnf configuration file.

The effect of this option seems mis understood, leading people to think that the performance schema can only be enabled or disabled at server startup time, which is not the case.

The role of this startup option, with the related sizing parameters, is to initialize the performance schema internal memory buffers, and hook the performance schema instrumentation to the server and or plugins, so that everything is 'ready to go'. Note that 'ready to go' does not means 'enabled', it just means that things can be enabled or disabled later at runtime.

Runtime configuration

When the performance schema component is active in the server, it is listening to all events. Performance schema 'consumers' will decide, based on the content of the various setup tables in the performance_schema database, what to do with the event that just happened in the server code.

A table, performance_schema.setup_consumers, shows all the consumers available. This table has a ENABLED column that can be updated, giving the DBA full control on the internal performance schema execution flow.

There is a consumer which effectively controls globally all the data collection, so by turning this consumer ON or OFF, the entire performance schema instrumentation can be turned on or off, dynamically.

In 5.5, this consumer is named 'events_waits_current'. Note that this consumer in fact has two roles, as it controls both the overall data collection, and also the output table performance_schema.events_waits_current. This is a limitation, as there is no way to collect performance schema data independently of table events_waits_current.

In 5.6, this limitation has been lifted, so that the consumer which effectively control data collection is 'global_instrumentation', while the consumer named 'events_waits_current' controls only the table of the same name. The new consumer 'global_instrumentation' in 5.6 is the result of significant performance optimizations implemented in the code, made possible by decoupling the overall data collection from table events_waits_current.

Cheat sheet for mysql-5.5

To enable the performance schema at runtime (5.5), use the following query:

mysql> update performance_schema.setup_consumers set enabled='YES' where name='events_waits_current'; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec) Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0  mysql> select * from performance_schema.setup_consumers; +----------------------------------------------+---------+ | NAME                                         | ENABLED | +----------------------------------------------+---------+ | events_waits_current                         | YES     | | ...                                            ...     | +----------------------------------------------+---------+ 8 rows in set (0.01 sec) 

To disable the performance schema at runtime (5.5), use the following query:

mysql> update performance_schema.setup_consumers set enabled='NO' where name='events_waits_current'; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec) Rows matched: 1  Changed: 1  Warnings: 0  mysql> select * from performance_schema.setup_consumers; +----------------------------------------------+---------+ | NAME                                         | ENABLED | +----------------------------------------------+---------+ | events_waits_current                         | NO      | | ...                                            ...     | +----------------------------------------------+---------+ 8 rows in set (0.01 sec) 

Cheat sheet for mysql-5.6

To disable the performance schema at runtime (5.6), use the following query:

update performance_schema.setup_consumers set enabled='NO' where name='global_instrumentation'; 

To enable the performance schema at runtime (5.6), use the following query:

mysql> update performance_schema.setup_consumers set enabled='YES' where name='global_instrumentation';

Microsoft Launches New Open Source CodePlex Foundation

Microsoft’s strategy with open source has evolved over the past several years as we strive to make Windows the platform of choice for customers. My team has participated in that process first hand, we’ve worked hard with the PHP community to ensure PHP runs great on Windows, integrated PHP installation into the Microsoft Web Platform Installer, and engaged some of the most popular PHP applications like WordPress, Drupal, and SugarCRM to ensure customers have a great experience running these applications on Windows and IIS. We’ve also worked closely with the jQuery project to make it a natural part of building applications with ASP.NET.

Today I am happy to be a part of the announcement that Microsoft is sponsoring an open source foundation aptly named CodePlex Foundation, whose mission is to “enable the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities”. I believe the foundation will make it easier for Microsoft and other commercial software companies to participate in open source. You can read more about the announcement in my interview with Peter Galli on Port25 and learn more about the foundation at http://codeplex.org.

The CodePlex Foundation is a completely separate organization from Microsoft. To help form the foundation, we have formed an interim board of directors comprised of three Microsoft employees and three non-Microsoft employees, and elected Sam Ramji as the President of the Board. Microsoft has also donated $1 million US dollars to help the foundation get started and is transferring the use rights to the “CodePlex” term, along with the codeplex.org domain name to the CodePlex Foundation.

I feel lucky to be a part of the interim board of directors as we spend the next 100 days working together with the board of advisors, partners and you to structure how the foundation will work. We don’t have all of the answers and need your help to make it a success. You can read more about how to participate here: http://codeplex.org/participate.aspx

As always, I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions about the new foundation.

DEVELOPER

Hi all
Now i am a developer . Now I am working on ASP.net . But I have still interesest in SEO so i am updating this.

SMO BLOGS to read

http://social-media-optimization.com/2007/07/social-media-questions-for-lee-odden-part-2/

http://www.leemccoy.co.uk/index.php // a cool blog

http://www.watblog.com/?content=detail&id=932

http://www.blogopreneur.com/

http://www.inaminuteago.com/mindtracks

http://ypnblog.com/blog/2007/07/09/optimizing-for-social-media/

http://blog.arhg.net/2007/06/yahoo-try-again-to-define-smo.html

http://www.creeper-seo.com/

http://ray963.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!8ECAFEC9BD4D5C45!212.entry

http://www.seoscribe.com/?p=21

http://www.socialmediablog.co.uk/

http://newmediaetc.blogspot.com/2007/07/social-media-optimization-tips.html

http://www.dailyblogtips.com/101-blog-tips-i-learned-in-2006/

http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/2006/08/5_rules_of_soci.html

101 Blog Tips

1. if you are not, start blogging today
2. write about something that you love
3. if you are serious about blogging buy your own domain
4. make sure your domain name is equal to your blog name
5. use a short and easy to remember name
6. use Wordpress
7. use Wordpress plugins
8. blog with consistency
9. write at least 5 posts a week
10. proofread
11. proofread one more time
12. interact with other bloggers
13. leave meaningful comments
14. leave funny comments
15. leave the first comment
16. backup your blog
17. get rid of the sidebar calendar
18. choose your niche wisely, not too big and not too small
19. participate in online forums
20. put a link on your signature
21. use blog carnivals
22. content is king
23. customize your blog template
24. use trackbacks
25. simplicity is the way to go
26. leverage social bookmarks
27. join a blog network
28. write “Top 10″ lists
29. use tags
30. use pings
31. write “How to” articles
32. make your posts scannable
33. list your blog on directories
34. ask questions to your readers
35. use Feedburner
36. use sense of humor
37. be generous
38. encourage readers to subscribe
39. have some spare posts for emergencies
40. encourage readers to digg your posts
41. put an RSS subscription icon on every single page
42. use “series” of posts
43. return comments
44. return links
45. use readable fonts
46. gather .edu and .gov backlinks
47. break long posts in more parts
48. experiment with different revenue sources
49. write “pillar articles”
50. use Google Analytics
51. study those numbers
52. use email interviews
53. be yourself
54. avoid duplicate content
55. use an RSS reader
56. read as much blogs as possible
57. focus on timeless content
58. have an “About” page
59. have a picture of yourself on the “About” page
60. crate your own “Advertise Here” page
61. use meta tags wisely
62. learn the basics of SEO
63. use pictures whenever possible
64. create value for your readers
65. place ads wisely
66. be patient
67. consider getting a co-blogger
68. submit your articles to directories
69. share what has worked for you
70. share what has not worked for you
71. read Problogger.net
72. do not clutter your sidebar with icons
73. get rid of looooong blogrolls
74. experiment with Google Adsense
75. experiment with Text-Link-Ads
76. link to other blogs as often as possible
77. make it easy for visitors to contact you
78. use titles effectively
79. offer email subscriptions
80. always answer to questions
81. always answer to comments
82. use Technorati
83. enable subscription to comments
84. offer useful tools or resources
85. write with a personal touch
86. become an expert on your niche
87. do not rely on “linking posts”
88. always give your opinion
89. use simple colors
90. participate in blogging projects
91. get to know other bloggers personally
92. list your best articles
93. have a voice
94. organize your categories
95. talk directly to your readers
96. make your URL structure efficient
97. put functional links on your footer
98. mention your sources or references
99. do monthly roundups
100. consider adding podcasts
101. create a “101 list”

Social Media Optimization (SMO) vs. Social Media Marketing (SMM)

SMO refers to the process of refining a website (optimizing it) so that it’s awareness and content are easily spread through social mediums and online communities by users and visitors of the website. This can include anything done “on-page” such as improving the design and usability of the website so that it becomes more compelling to users, in an effort to help them spread it through social media sites. The simplest example of SMO is represented by all the “digg this” and “add to delicious” icons and links that are all over the web today.

SMM on the other hand plays more of an active role in relation to social media by referring to the creation and distribution of content and other messages through the social web by some form of viral marketing. This can be anything from creating compelling content that gets bookmarked and even hits digg’s homepage to spreading a viral video by putting it on YouTube and other social media websites. It’s about the things that are done off-site, for example, participating in online communities where your customers hang out would be an active role that falls under SMM.

SMO - Social Media Optimisation - Introduction

The Basics:

• Backlinks (Websites that link to your site)
• Traffic (Visitors to your site, for this post, we will exclude search engines from this term)
• Branding (Basically a service, product or even a concept that you can distinguish from the many others)
• Community Interaction (Interact with other users online throughout the globe, gathering feedback, ideas, responses)

Ever heard the terms SMO or Social Media mentioned? Where does it fit into the grand scheme of things? How do I benefit from using it? What does it exactly do? How do I start?

Tagging

This is done once you submit “content” to any community site, such as YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, etc. The “content” may be anything from a video clip, audio, Podcast, article or a small review of something. Once you have almost completed the process of submitting your “content”, you are able to add Tags (labels) that are meant to be related to the “content you have submitted. These help to identify the “content” you have submitted, and make it searchable to other users within the site. This can be done anonymously, or by creating yourself a profile within the site, preferably create a profile when you are looking at this from a SMO point.The profile will allow you to interact with other members within these sites. Higher “ranked” profiles within these sites will hold more weight on the “content” they submit, meaning it will be more accessible to other members, even “rank” slightly higher. To sum up, tagging, is basically labelling your “content”.

Digging

Not the best word to describe this, but possible the easiest way to understand (South Africans, even surfers will possibly understand easier, with the word being used as slang for “like”). Sites such as Digg, Technorati, etc. The basic idea of this, is that you submit your “content” where other community members may “Digg” your “content”, i.e., vote for it. The more votes your receive the higher the rank for the “content” and the chances of it appearing within the front page of the site, in a featured section, which will allow almost everyone visiting to see your “content” and view it, which in theory provides you with more traffic. Users are also able to make comments about the “content” submitted.

Blogs

Possibly the easiest way to enter into the online social community, allowing you to have your own “online diary” as I would describe, where you can literally write about anything you want. Blog about new industry happenings, release news about new company services, etc. Readers are also allowed to post comments about each post, providing feedback = community interaction. For the average website owner, a Blog is a means in which to add content online that you would normally not on your business website, a small rant about services within the industry, personal reviews on certain things, etc. which in the SEO field would provide a link back to your website, helping it within the search engines, even as another source for visitor referrals.

Social Networking/Community Sites

There are a fair number of these sites out there such as YouTube, MySpace, Flickr just to name a few, each with there own little unique twist appealing to certain people. YouTube is more your online video sharing site, MySpace providing you with your own online profile about yourself, allowing you to add friends and post messages to them within your friends list. Flickr, more of a photo sharing site. Within all these sites you are able to create your own unique profile, with a nickname, and communicate with people all over the world. Sharing news, ideas, chatting and getting feedback on certain ideas, etc. With a MySpace profile you are able to create bulletins, which when posted are seen on all your friends bulletin boards for them to click, read, follow, visit, and send replies = Community Interaction, time consuming for some. There are many of these sites available, with no limit to how many you can join, and they are absolutely free to join and use, just trend lightly according to the Terms of Conditions, when you have the sudden urge to start “spamming”.

Conclusion

If you are indeed interested in making use of Social Media, having a website is not enough. You will need to ensure that the content on your site is easily accessible and distributable on the web. Providing the 3rd party scripting to create links that allow others to “Digg” or even Blog about the “content” within a few clicks is a start.

Provide “content” that will appeal to users; be ready for the negative feedback. Users are fickle, what they like as “hot and happening” now, could be hated within a matter of hours. Social Media communities are also not a perfect system, as the can be misused by others, even scammers. It also allows you to gain feedback from community members to products, services to pro’s even con’s. Ultimately offering you a chance to increase brand awareness, previously only for those companies with vast amounts of money to spend on advertising, etc.

P.S.

Remember that SMO compliments your online marketing strategy, SEO, the same as the way PPC and SEO compliment each other. Using all of these will provide you with an all round online marketing solution. The online world changes each day, so I’ve tried to keep the above as down to basics as possible with regards to SMO, there are so many other opportunities available when it comes to Social Media, that covering them all would be extensive, and they change so quickly, it would be old within a matter of days, the basics are usually a stepping stone for greater things.

Social Media Optimization

Social Media Optimization
Social media optimization refers to making a web site or blog more adaptable to social media. It involves adding compelling, dynamic and fresh content on a regular basis—stuff like tip sheets, how-to’s, white papers, podcasts or videos can be especially sticky, can get more links to and help drive better ranking among search engines and specialty sites such as Technorati or Blogpulse. Other examples of SMO include the implementation of links to social media web sites to make tagging, sharing book marks (del.icio.us, Add to MyYahoo!), and voting for content (Digg, Reddit, Netscape) by visitors easier.

Top 25 SEO Blogs

I love rankings, what can I say. After I published the “Top 25 Blogs About Blogging” list I thought that someone would replicate it for the SEO sphere. But no one did, so here we go again.

This list was made using pretty much the same algorithm (only small modifications were made, mainly due to the fact that SEO blogs are more popular). Once again the list should be useful because it is based on objective factors. There are many “Top SEO Blogs” lists around the web, but most of them are based on the preferences of the author.

The Top 25 SEO Blogs list, instead, ranks the blogs according to their Google Pagerank, Alexa rank, number of Bloglines subscribers and Technorati authority. Each factor has a score from 0 to 10, and the maximum score for each blog is 40. Details about the algorithm can be found below the table.

#1	Search Engine Land	7	10	9	10	36
#2	SEOBook	6	10	10	10	36
#3	SEO Moz	5	10	10	10	35
#4	Matt Cutts	7	10	8	10	35
#5	Search Engine Watch	7	10	10	7	34
#6	Search Engine Roundtable	7	10	8	8	33
#7	Search Engine Journal	7	8	9	8	32
#8	Online Marketing Blog	6	7	7	10	30
#9	Pronet Advertising	7	7	5	10	29
#10	Marketing Pilgrim	7	8	6	8	29
#11	SEO Chat	6	10	4	6	26
#12	Search Engine Guide	7	8	4	6	25
#13	SEO Blackhat	6	8	6	5	25
#14	Stuntdubl	6	6	6	6	24
#15	Graywolf’s SEO	6	7	4	7	24
#16	SEO by the SEA	6	4	5	5	20
#17	Link Building Blog	5	5	5	4	19
#18	Jim Boykin	5	6	4	4	19
#19	SEOpedia	6	5	4	4	19
#20	DaveN	6	5	4	4	19
#21	Bruce Clay	5	7	3	3	18
#22	Blue Hat SEO	4	6	3	4	17
#23	Tropical SEO	5	5	3	4	17
#24	SEO Refugee	5	6	1	3	15
#25	Small Business SEM	5	4	3	3	15

Blogs considered: the list considers only blogs that have a high percentage of SEO-related content. Topics might range from SEO news coverage to general SEO discussion and link building.

Google Pagerank (0 to 10): the actual Pagerank was used on the algorithm.

Alexa Rank (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on the Alexa Rank (i.e., 100k and up, 80k-100k, 60k-80k, 40k-60k) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Bloglines Subscribers (0 to 10): Subscriber ranges were determined (i.e., 1-50, 50-100, 100-150, 150-300) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

Technorati Authority (0 to 10): Ranges were determined based on Technorati’s Authority rank (i.e., 1-125, 125-250, 500-750,750-1000) and each range was assigned a number (1 to 10).

SEO Donts - Things NOT to do for SEO

1. Don't take the SEO spam seriously which you see in classifieds or get in your email. There's no need to submit to 5,000 search engines or 5000 directories. It's unlikely you can buy 2,000 quality
links for $30. No serious SEO can guarantee a number one position
on any search engine for relevant keywords. A trusty and serious SEO does not need to send out SPAM-mails and does not rely on fantasy-promises to get potential customers.

2. Don't wait too long with SEO implementation . Whether you just
launched a new site or whether you're upgrading your current web site, SEO
considerations should be made in advance. This also includes keyword research to plan your site around certain keywords. And not tweaking it afterwards.

3. Take your time deciding to hire a SEO. Hiring a SEO is something which should take time since you dont want the first best SEO coming along your way. Remember: It's your business!. Online marketing can make or break a company, chosing a service should need lots of research. And: Feel free to ask questions before you consider a SEO firm.

4. No content-spreading across several domains. There are
times when sub-domains or an extra domain will make sense. But always know
the pros and cons of using sub-domains and additional domains.

5. Submitting your URL to search engines is a waste of time. The bots and crawlers, Google, Yahoo, MSN et al. will find your web site anyway as soon as your links are established. Search Engine submission is overrated and basically really not needed.

6. Never have your web site uncrawlable. A wrong robots.txt file, having session IDs or too many variables
in your URLs, an incorrect and non-followable navigation menu, having your web site all in Flash, all graphics etc. are defintly big NOs when it comes to search engine optimization.

7. Dont use too general keywords. I see it way too often that people target keywords like "myspace", "shoes", "hosting" or similiar highly searched and general keywords. No way on earth is there even a remote chance for those sites to rank great for those terms. Use three- or four-letter words, do keyword research and target specialized keywords with some ok-to-good search volume and low competition. The "best" keyword is NOT the most searched for on the web, but the one giving you a realistic chance of rankings.
keyword stuffing - this one is tasty tho

8. No keyword stuffing. Stuffing keywords in META tags, Image-ALT Tags etc. This should be
obvious. Google is not easily fooled. Putting "Microsoft Windows" fifty
times in your tags does not make you rank higher than Bill for a search
on "Microsoft Windows".

9. No keywords in the page footer which blind-in with the background and no hidden text. Again, together wth keyword-stuffing this is just as pathetic and wont bring you anything. As a bonus you will get a nice Google penalty - if you're unlucky it might even get your site banned.

10. No same title element on every page. Avoid repetitions as good as you can. This is especially important for page-titles. Google has an eye on page-titles. So your unique content should also have unique page titles across your web site.

12. Don't let www.example.com and example.com resolve to one home page. To a search engine those are two separate addresses -meaning you
would have the same, duplicate content at two seperate addresses.

12. Poor Usability. Proper and logical site navigation and descriptive texts are important. Not only for your users - also for the search engine spiders. Write and design your site with the human in mind - not the google spiders. Again: Google is not easily fooled and a site which is good for your people will also suit the spiders and therefore your SEO.

13. Never give up creating content because you think
that you don't need it for your site or your customers would not be not interested in it. There's always room for great and new content. People in particular love TOP-Lists and similiar where they can bookmark and always come back to. Don't get lazy. Content is still king.

14. Don't go for low-quality links with unrelated sites just "to have links". Some immediately start trading links with every site they can find. For the sake of quality link you can forego low-quality link-trading with sites which have nothing to do with your product or service. You might get a huge number of links, yes, but in the long run this will rather hurt you. Focus on related sites and high quality. Be patient. Be choosy !

15. Not alway the same anchor text on all links to your web site. That's what is called "unnatural link building". The best way to build links is with varying anchor-texts and not automated by directory-submission to 1000s of directories using the same text. Every dummy can do this from certain web pages or using certain tools in a matter of minutes. Google, again, is not that stupid. Go it slow and build quality links and rather do a few manual high quality ones with different descriptions. No high volume repetive automated submitted links.

16. No links all over forums, blog comments To a certain amount this is spamming. There's nothing wrong to do this in moderation. But there are better ways to just leave your links all over the net. Example: Article writing and submission.

17. Obsession with keyword density. We all know we need our keywords in the page title, meta tags, body text etc....but obsessing over keyword density and trying to "tweak" it to perfection is pointless. If there is an "exact formula" we all would use it. There is none.

18. No Obsession over Google PageRank. Page Rank does not really have any real life value except telling you whether a
page is stored in the main or supplemental index and giving

The Top 10 Things You Should Know Before You Blog

It's been widely covered that weblogs are a viable way to build brand awareness and establish an individual's expertise in a particular area. "For a small business, [a weblog] is a perfect low-cost positioning-yourself-as-an-expert tool," notes Debbie Weil, the publisher of WordBizReport and Debbie's Blog, as well as author of an upcoming book on corporate blogging for Penguin Portfolio (2006). But what hasn't been covered is how to actually take the leap?

In essence, when you begin to blog, you're publishing your own work. You're making a statement to an enormous audience that will shine a spotlight on your company and your credibility as an expert. With so much at stake, building a weblog into your marketing arsenal can seem intimidating.

To help lessen the anxiety you might feel about blogging, we went out to three experts in the field to uncover the top 10 things you should know before you blog. These tips should help better prepare you for writing and maintaining a weblog for your business.

1. A weblog is a two-way conversation, not a top-down communication medium.
   As a boss, you're in a natural leadership role -- generally, you talk and people associated with your company listen. When you're blogging, the dynamic is different. Your audience is infinitely larger, and the conversation you start will take on a life of its own. "You need to ask yourself, 'Am I willing to engage people without controlling the conversation in a top-down kind of way?'" says Paul Chaney, president of Radiant Marketing Group, a business blog consulting firm. Readers will build on your thoughts, and, gasp, may even criticize them. You need to be able to accept feedback in stride. Besides, a little criticism might lead to a topic you might want to discuss in a future posting. Even better, it could lead to such tangible outcomes as better solutions, products, and strategies for your business.


2. It takes time to blog, maybe more than you're willing to devote.
   Consistency and frequency are the keys to building an audience on the Web. If you're using a weblog to build brand recognition or establish yourself as an expert, you need to be sure that you're blogging frequently. "I advise business owners to blog at least twice a week," says Anita Campbell, a former CEO and editor of the daily blog Small Business Trends. "If you don't do it at least twice a week, the blog can quickly look stale," she adds. This is not to say you have to sit down to write 500-word posts two or three times a week. "Better a couple of sentences three times a week than one blog a week," suggests Weil.


3. Find out what others are saying about you and your business.
   Get a head start on your weblog by first discovering what others, maybe even competitors, are saying about your industry, your business, even you. "Get the pulse of what is being said to determine whether you can speak to that particular issue or put forth a message that can set you apart," suggest Chaney. "If you're in a competitive space where other companies are blogging, you can monitor that and then come up with a strategy that's more intelligent than just throwing stuff out there," he adds. Chaney suggests using blogpulse to search the most up-to-date listings of weblog postings about your company and industry.


4. Yes, you do need to be able to write.
   But you don't have to be Ernest Hemingway. "If you can write a coherent e-mail, you can write a blog entry," Weil says. Pay attention to proper grammar -- you don't want to sound illiterate, and try to have fun with it. "The writing style should be informal, as if you're speaking to someone in an e-mail," Weil suggests. And if you don't feel like you have a distinctive voice, just give it some time. It will emerge eventually.


5. Practice can make perfect. Or, at least make you more comfortable with blogging.
   Some owners might shudder at the thought of writing so publicly. But it doesn't have to be "show time" right out of the gate. You can experiment before you go public. Put comments on others' weblogs or do a weblog behind the scenes. "Open up a Typepad account, use it for free, and don't make it public," suggests Weil. Keep it private for a while or put it behind a firewall. "Get at least ten entries in there and have colleagues comment on them," she adds. Feedback from people you trust can help build your confidence. Likewise, the exercise could reveal you just don't like doing it. Better to learn this now rather than after you've made your blog intentions public.


6. Some topics are verboten.
   Remember, you're blogging for your business, so stay away from anything that could throw prospective and current customers into a tirade. Campbell generally advises against blogging about the following topics: sex, race/ethnic bias, religion, politics, and too much patriotism. The patriotism one is especially sensitive because of the global nature of the Internet, according to Campbell. "Anyone can come to your website from any country," reminds Campbell. "While you can be patriotic, you don't want to do it at the expense of someone else's nationality."


7. Be sure to know your keywords.
   Blogs can help customers find your business when they are searching on Google or other sites. Therefore, it's important to know: What words do customers most often use to find you via the search engines? What words show up in competitor or industry blogs on a regular basis that help place them high in Google's index? Knowing which words to drop into your posts on a regular basis will help boost your search rankings. "Small businesses get more search engine benefit from blogs than larger businesses," Campbell says. After all, your marketing budget probably is a fraction of what GE will spend this year. Writing frequently and dropping keywords into your posts to help boost your search standings can go a long way for a business owner on a tight marketing budget. But don't overdo it. Readers will see right through any obvious attempts at self-promotion.


8. It will take longer than you think to build awareness -- and a following.
   Don't expect your weblog to be an instant hit. Traffic to it and building a following will take a while to develop. "You will find you need to give at least a three- to six-month commitment, updating routinely [to get noticed]," Chaney says. And Weil suggests at least one year. Whether its three months or a year, you need to be committed for the long haul, regardless of feedback, or lack thereof, from readers. "You're not going to be found after a couple of weeks," says Weil. It will take at least several months before the major search engines and other bloggers and websites find you.


9. Know your confidentiality limits. "Don't write anything you don't want your competition to know about," Campbell says. When you're blogging, it's easy to get caught in the moment and share your coolest ideas and best strategies. But you need to think of your weblog as any other writing communication you do for your business. Before you write, ask yourself whether your topic will compromise your position in the market, or compromise your position as leader of your company. If an employee or competitor shouldn't hear it, then it shouldn't be in your weblog.


10. Know why you're blogging.
    Sounds like common sense, but stating why you've decided to start a weblog can quickly put into perspective what you expect to get from it. "You shouldn't be doing it just because it's the latest trend," Chaney says. You need to determine how the weblog will serve your organization: Will its primary purpose be to build brand awareness? Do you want to establish yourself as an expert in a field to better highlight your company's expertise? Will it be used to simply alert people to company news and information? Are you more interested in using it as an internal vehicle for updating employees? Knowing what you're setting out to do with your weblog will help define what you'll write about -- and keep you focused on your primary effort.

Once you know the ropes, blogging is easy -- and fun. It's an opportunity for you to establish meaningful conversations with potential and existing customers. And it offers you a instant platform to share your knowledge and expertise with the world at large.

Training a New SEO

One of the interesting challenges in managing an SEO company is training new people to be top notch SEOs. I find that this is the easiest way to expand the size of the business. After all, SEOs are in scarce supply, and many of the best have their own SEO companies already. Here are 8 aspects of training an SEO generalist to consider when taking on this training task:

1. A good SEO has both business / marketing skills and technical skills. SEO inherently involves an understanding of the technical details of a site's implementation, but it's also a marketing activity. Quality SEOs know that they are only a component of the marketing picture for a web site, and they understand that there are compromises that will be made from time to time due to other aspects of the client's needs.
2. Make sure your SEO in training has an entrepreneurial personality. SEOs are always going to be ask to deal with a wide variety of different problems, and need to be flexible and adaptable.
3. Pick an initial area of focus. There are hundreds of things to learn in the SEO field. Don't bury the person at the start. Let them focus on and master a specific area.
4. Start slow. Don't give them 5 clients to work on at once. Get them going on a single client, and help them to be successful with that client.
5. Realize that your workload on that first client will go up. Training people is hard work, and you still need to make sure that the work gets done correctly for the client (first priority!). So in addition to doing almost the same amount of work, you will also be spending time educating your SEO in training. It might be the 3rd client or so before you get a net gain.
6. Have all their work on the first 2 or 3 clients go through you. The client comes first. This will also give you the most visibility into what they have learned so far, and that they haven't
7. Be patient. It's easy to under-appreciate the complexity of SEO. No single aspect of SEO is hard. What makes it hard is that the search engines keep their algorithms secret so knowledge is experience based, there are so many different details to learn, and the nature of search is constantly evolving.
8. Lastly, in contrast to the title of this post, don't think about creating SEOs, think about creating web marketers. The mission is to increase site traffic for your client, and there is more than one way to do that these days (consider social media for example).

Other Cool SEO SITE

www.seoglossary.com
http://www.webconfs.com/15-minute-seo.php // All abou SEo
http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Choosing-Keywords-Help/How-to-Effectively-Choose-Your-Web-Sites-Keywords/ // A cool forum to read
http://www.regimages.com/showlink.asp?PageIndex=3&Category_id=88&Ordertype=0 // Site to submit article
http://www.seo2020.com/seo-articles/article-sites.html // Web site where u can submit aricle
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=315153 // To submit directory
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=63771 // To Submit article
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/On_the_Web/Weblogs/Directories/ // to submit blog dir
http://www.seobook.com/glossary/ // A cool forum to SEO
http://onlinemusicdownload.blogspot.com/ // My music Blog

SEO SITES TO READ

Hi
These are SEO sites To read.

http://info.vilesilencer.com/main.php?rock=seo-friendly.php
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=64841
http://www.seomoz.org/article/beginners-guide-to-search-engine-optimization

Here you can Find all Information SEO.

About me

Hello all
My name is Anil Yadav. I am currently working as a SEO in Comet conversion Noida. I am a postgraduate(MCA).


I belongs to Shikohabad, near Firozabad(A famous City for Its glass work .)

HELLO

Hi
This is my Personal Blog. I start this to share all my reading and Searching material from Internet.