Saturday, May 29, 2010

The EyeSeeCam recorded what your eyes see

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iLog

iLog

iLog
By Judson Beaumont's Straight Line Designs. Made from an alder log and an iPod dock.
Source
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Protect 486 Scooter Armor


Protect 486 Scooter Armor


Protect 486 is an anti-theft armor with burglar alarm, and also protecting your scooter from sunshine and rainwater. It was inspired by natural defense mechanisms of animals like the armadillo, which looks like your portable private garage for your scooter. Designed by Marc Graells.
Source
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Friday, May 28, 2010

Knight XV

Knight XV

Knight XV
Car  |  Suv
Conquest Vehicles' Knight XV luxury bulletproof SUV, Cool, it will be only made 100 vehicles.
"Conquest Vehicle Inc's flagship vehicle, the KNIGHT XV defines the future of the ultra-luxurious, handcrafted fully armoured SUV. This one-of-a-kind, V10, 6.8-litre, Bio-fuel powered SUV was inspired by military vehicle designs and features security appointments that are unrivaled in today's SUV marketplace. The KNIGHT XV(TM) is priced at $295,000 USD. Only 100 will be made available as a limited first run. Each vehicle takes 1,500 hours to build by hand. The KNIGHT-XV(TM) is built using ballistic hardened steel making it fully armoured including ballistic fiberglass fenders, bumper and up to 64 mm. (2.5 inches) transparent armor (glass)."












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This is the only watch that you wanna wear


This is the only watch that you wanna wear.
It’s a bracelet, it’s a watch, yet it’s a computer. Sounds too familiar? Well you haven’t seen it all yet. It’s made of OLED touchscreen, features a miniature holographic projector, has a build-in flexible keyboard, and even let us accesses our social websites. This baby designed by Hiromi Kiriki is due on 2020. Ten years isn’t that far actually.
This is the only watch that you wanna wear.
This is the only watch that you wanna wear.
This is the only watch that you wanna wear.
This is the only watch that you wanna wear.
This is the only watch that you wanna wear.
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BeBionic unveils world’s most advance myo-electric bionic hand


BeBionic unveils world’s most advance myo-electric bionic hand
BeBionic, the company behind this incredibly designed hand, said that “a range of naturally compliant grip patterns that provide repeatable accuracy.” It comes with a silicone skin that can be customized with 19 different skin tones, allowing it to blend in with anybody’s body color.
However, the company did not state how human can control it. Weird isn’t it? But I guess Skynet would be very pleased right now.
“It’s able to be wrapped in a silicone skin that comes in 19 different skin tones, allowing it to blend in seamlessly with the rest of your body. And it’s set to be available for people next month.”
[via Engadget]
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USB Flash Drive Cufflinks


USB Flash Drive Cufflinks
These USB Flash Drive Cufflinks is designed by Ravi Ratan. It comes in 2GB storage, which means you got 4GB in a pair. The USB drive can be engraved with up to 8 characters, available in gunmental and gold finishes at $195 per pair.
USB Flash Drive Cufflinks

USB Flash Drive Cufflinks
[via LikeCool]
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Project Natal in stores October, to cost $149 alone.


Project Natal in stores October, to cost $149 alone..
Edge, the global gaming network, has something important to whisper to everyone. Project Natal has an actual pricing and timeframe. Apparently their trusted source told them that the Natal is hitting stores this coming 26th of October.
The standalone unit will cost $100 while bundled with the Xbox 360 Arcade console will be $299. Prices outside of the states will be slightly different than this SRP in the states, due to some factors, like currency exchange rates, taxes, and many others.
“Microsoft expects to sell millions and millions of Natal units in its first year on the market so you can expect the software launch line-up to target non-traditional gamers,” our source said. “A major marketing campaign will also play a key role in attracting and educating the expanded audience about Xbox 360’s controller-free revolution.”
Another interesting rumor is that the Project Natal won’t be called Natal after all, and the final retail name would only be announced on the upcoming E3. So, stay tuned folks!
[via Edge]
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Watch 2010 FIFA World Cup with this HANNSsoccer 28 TV


Watch 2010 FIFA World Cup with this HANNSsoccer 28 TV
Watch the 2010 FIFA World Cup with this HANNSsoccer 28 TV from Hannspree. This football-shaped TV is 27.5-inch 1080p Full HDTV (1920 x 1200) that comes with an integrated Freeview tuner, a 10.000:1 of contrast ratio and a 170° / 160° of viewing angle. The HANNSsoccer 28 TV also features a couple of 10 Watts speakers, two HDMI ports, Composite, VGA and a sleep timer. It is available at $600 each. What you gonna do with this when football fever is over?
[via TechFresh]
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NVIDIA announces GTX480M, frying eggs on notebook now possible.


NVIDIA announces GTX480M, frying eggs on notebook now possible.
Ever since AMD announced that their chips will be on 100+ models of notebooks beginning end of this year, Nvidia is having nightmares every night. The woodscrew Fermi was trashed around, delayed, and getting nicknamed by its friends and schoolmates and haters. AMD’s 5000-series had a great leap ahead of Nvidia in the DirectX 11 market, and was blasting away enjoying its runaway success. Nvidia finally go live with their Fermi around March, but 6 months late isn’t the main thing concern here anymore. The Fermi was huge, hot, and power-hungry. It barely won over the 5000-series.
Now, Nvidia has announced that the Fermi based GTX480M is going to notebooks next month. Of cause, the main issue that everyone ponders would be the power consumption. Nvidia stated that the total graphics power draw (GPU + RAM) is 100W, which is higher than the current high-end GTX285M.
Expected features are like CUDA, PhysX, OpenCL, PureVideo, and obviously DX11. Although Optimus is ready, it is unlikely any vendors would put such a powerful cheap with budget processors. The GTX480M will also be part of the Verde Driver Program. Hard specs wise, it has 352 “CUDA” Cores, core clock of 425MHz, shader clock of 850MHz, 256-bit of memory, and 600MHz GDDR5 memory (effectively 2400MHz). SLI is also possible on this chip, though its likely any vendors will release SLI-Ready notebooks that soon.
So, anybody gonna buy 1 of these beasts, and fry some eggs while gaming?
[via Anandtech]
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Sony introduces super-thin OLED display.


Sony has announced their latest technology, which is a super-flexible 80μm OTFT (Organic thin-film transistor) driven full color OLED display. This new technology is so thin that you can wrap it around pencil, scroll in-and-out, and it will still display images on-the-go.
Sony introduces super-thin OLED display.
“To create the display, Sony developed OTFTs with an original organic semiconductor material (a PXX derivative) with eight times*2 the current modulation of conventional OTFTs. This was achieved due to the development of integration technologies of OTFTs and OLEDs on an ultra-thin 20 μm thick flexible substrate (a flexible on-panel gate-driver circuit with OTFTs which is able to get rid of conventional rigid driver IC chips interfering roll-up of a display) and soft organic insulators for all the insulators in the integration circuit. By combining these technologies, Sony successfully demonstrated the world’s first OLED panel*3 which is capable of reproducing moving images while being repeatedly rolled-up – around a cylinder with a radius of 4 mm – and stretched. – Akihabaranews.com”
However, this technology is still on its development phase, therefore you see a lot of dead pixels, and low resolutions video. Sony will continue to improve the performance and reliability of its flexible organic displays because the application of these developments are expected to yield thin, light-weight, durable and mobile devices with enhanced form-factor.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Environment: The dark side of digital waste



As if there wasn’t enough litter in the world to trouble us, now we are threatened by specific forms of waste; one being e-waste or electronic waste. 

So, what is e-waste? E-waste can best be described as “all electrical or electronic devices such as computers, entertainment devices, mobile phones, television sets and refrigerators or their components, which are sold, obsolete, broken or discarded by their original owners.”

Repair and reuse of computers and televisions is a thing of the past in developed countries; today they prefer replacement over repair. Therefore according to estimates, between 20-50 million tons of e-waste is produced every year.

All this e-waste has to be either recycled or properly disposed off. For recycling, the equipment is usually dismantled, and various parts (metal frames, power supplies, circuit boards, plastics) separated; this is often done by hand in order to save working and repairable parts. The unusable parts are sent to incinerators or ends up in landfills.

As recycling and disposal of e-waste involves significant risk to workers and the environment, health and environmental problems are caused because electronic equipment contains toxic and carcinogenic substances like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) such as copper, lead, zinc, gold, iron, thallium etc. which are persistent organic pollutants and can cause birth defects. The Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) present in computer monitors and TV contains lead. Other toxic metals include cadmium, a known carcinogen and mercury, a toxic substance that can lead to neurological disorders. Many of the plastics used also contain flame retardants.

Due to risks to human health and environmental concerns, disposal and recycling of e-waste is governed by strict regulations in developed countries. They also often import their e-waste to developing countries where environmental laws neither exist nor followed. For many western countries, it is cheaper to ship waste than pay for its environmentally friendly disposal and e-waste finds its way to poor African or Asian countries such as Kenya, China and India.

Due to unsafe processing practices, in developing countries e-waste causes serious health and environmental problems. Computers and other electronic items are routinely dismantled without any protective measures. A common method is to simply toss the equipment onto open fire, in order to melt plastics and to burn away inexpensive metals. This pollutes the atmosphere by releasing various carcinogens and neurotoxins, contributing to an acrid, lingering smog. This leads to allergic manifestation and various skin and respiratory tract disorders. The refuse is then disposed off into drainage ditches or waterways feeding the ocean or local water supplies. 

Sometimes the whole equipment is simply tossed in landfills but it too is a bad solution because over time, heavy metals like lead, copper and mercury contained in them can leech into the ground and contaminate the soil and groundwater causing serious illnesses.

Pakistan, too, is increasingly becoming a dumping ground for a host of obsolete computers and its accessories which are shipped to the country under the pretext of ‘second-hand machinery’. The traders who are a party to this unethical practice use the pretext of facilitating computer literacy in the country and make millions through these deals. But as a major percentage of the imported consignment is obsolete or beyond repair, after removing usable parts the bulk is sent to the recycling industry or just discarded. 

Few laws appear to be in place to check this dangerous practice. Pakistan is a signatory to the Basel Convention, which monitors the movement of hazardous waste. However, the importers and exporters take advantage of the lacuna — the convention becomes flexible when goods are to be used for the same purpose, i.e. old computers are to be used as second-hand machines.
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Myth buster: Tick tock five


A survey conducted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2003 found that 70 per cent of women and 56 per cent of men had knowledge of the five second rule. For those of you who do not know what it is — it is the idea that food picked off the floor within five seconds of its falling is safe to eat. It is sometimes said to have been given origin by Genghis Khan, who is held to have called it the 20 or so hour rule. Of course this is mainly speculation and there is no proof. 

Julia Child, a famous American chef whose popularity has been revitalised by a recent movie adaptation of her memoirs Julie and Julia might also have been responsible in all her cheerful clumsiness. Eating food off the floor, believe it or not, did not become taboo until the 19th century with the formulation of the modern germ theory. 

This rule is very pliable with the time being adjusted to how long it took to realise that food was no longer on our plates or in our hands and then the time involved in picking it up and popping it back into our mouths. The more we prize the treat that we had a few seconds ago, the more likely we are to retrieve it while no one is looking. We would want to bend the rules if it is the last candy in the bag more than we would for the first. The ‘forbidden fruit’ that it is lying there right in front of us after we may have perhaps sweated while in a queue and spent our entire pocket money on treating ourselves too, serves to amplify our cravings. 

In 2003 a high school student, Jillian Clarke initiated the rule to the test exposing gummy bears and cookies to contaminated surfaces. With assistance from the University of Illinois she discovered, quite surprisingly, that public floors did not contain that many disease causing germs. Another study conducted in 2006 by Dr Paul Dawson which appeared in the Journal of Applied Microbiology, revealed that certain organisms can survive for a long time on the floor. Using bologna sandwiches he found that 99 per cent germs are transferred to food within five seconds of exposure time from tiles, this was followed by wood and finally carpet. The bologna dropped on carpet contracted only 0.5 per cent of the microscopic bugs on the surface, the greater concern in this context being carpet fuzz. 

The factors which determine the number of microbes that hold fast to the dropped food include the type and texture of food. Ice cream is likely to get more contaminated than candy. The cleanliness and type of surface are also vital. And the longer food remains on the floor, more will be the number of bacteria who come to party like it is an open bar. 

Though scientifically the demise of the five second rule might have happened only a few years ago, I think our belief in it has been more of ‘naïve optimism’ and a kind of denial all along.
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Laser invented: Fifty years and beaming


Like all modern inventions that have revolutionised the world of entertainment, science, technology and medicine, the birth of laser is of great consequences. The invention celebrated its half century on May 16 this year, for it was exactly 50 years ago when Theodore Maiman demonstrated the first functional laser by switching on a gadget at Hughes Research Laboratories and watched as pulses of pink hued light sprang from ruby crystals. 

Although it seems straight out of a comic book—since we mostly see lasers in them or in science fiction movies—the laser has become a very important part of our lives. For example, the internet, which we all rely on for communication, depends on lasers which help carry data across—countries and continents—on fibre optic cables. At the supermarket, it helps cashiers process our shopping faster, and in our living rooms it helps play our CDs and DVDs. Cancer patients owe the laser their lives since it helps in treating the disease and other ailments. 

The story of the laser is similar to the one of the integrated circuit. It began with Albert Einstein’s theory of stimulated emission, in which basically a photon interacts and excites an atom which then emits or projects an identical photon. This theory was put to the test in 1953 by US Physicist Charles Townes who developed a ‘Maser’ (Microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). This used microwaves to excite atoms, although it wasn’t exactly the laser. Townes then used visible light instead of microwaves and the acronym of Laser was born (light replaced microwave). 

When the invention was announced, newspapers excitedly displayed headlines bearing that ‘death ray’ from science fiction movies was here. One couldn’t blame them; it was after all the height of the Cold War where the Soviets were constantly defeating the US on many technological platforms. But the first laser mean was developed at Bell Laborites in 1960 and, since then, more than 10 Nobel Prizes have been awarded for its research and development. The world owes this technology a great deal, so much so, that in fact when man went to the moon in 1969 he placed a mirror on its surface so that lasers from the Earth could be shot on it so that time could be measured. Laser also helps us to track and measure the distance and orbit of the moon.

But perhaps the laser’s biggest contribution lies in its use in computer technology. The top-of-the-line laser research revolves around ‘femtosecond’ lasers which are used to provide denser storage on computer hard drives. In fact, prototypes and initial lasers of these kinds have increased hard disk performances by up to 100,000 times. 

From science fiction to reality, we continue to discover the true potential of lasers that will help us progress further. Fortunately—and hopefully—the laser weapons that we see in comics and geeky movies are still years away.
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Chemicals: Killers in your bathroom


Before picking up a shampoo, face-wash or hand soap, have you ever looked at what ingredients it contains? If you haven’t, then it is strongly advised that you do so. And while you are skimming, be on the lookout for a chemical called ‘Sodium Lauryl Sulphate’ (SLS). If you spot it, or its cousin ‘Ammonium Lauryl Sulphate’ (ALS) then proceed to use the product at your own risk.

Here’s why. 

SLS and ALS are cleaning agents which are found in products which we expect to ‘foam up’. This includes, in addition to the products listed above, bubble-baths, tooth pastes, washing-up liquids/dish soaps, laundry detergents, children’s soaps/shampoos, stain removers, carpet cleaners, body washes, shaving creams, mascaras, mouthwashes, skin cleansers or make up removers, moisturisers and sun screens. In short, if you want to stay clean using an off the counter product, the chances are that you will be bringing an SLS-rich item into your home. 

The problem arises when we read what many scientists and researchers are saying about this ester. The American College of Toxicology published a report in 1983 which deemed this substance as a skin irritant and recommended that products containing this cleansing agent be used only for a brief, discontinuous time followed by a thorough rinse. For products which were meant for daily use, SLS and ALS were proclaimed unsafe and even carcinogenic in the long run.

Now here lies the problem. Shampoos are used at least thrice a week. We brush our teeth every day, multiple times a day. We use soap all the time. Our clothes are washed with detergents that contain SLS on a daily basis. We are walking, talking infusions of this substance that is meant to be used very sparingly. 

Skin specialists are the first to note the increased instance of skin problems in men and women. The main reason for this increase might not just be the polluted times we live in. Take, for example, the shampoo that you use. The SLS in that shampoo acts as a de-greasing agent, binding to the dirt on the hair and scalp and removing it when you rinse your hair. Yet, even after a thorough wash, SLS residue remains lodged in your scalp. Over a course of time, more and more of this residue is absorbed by your skin and acts as a drying agent, which causes hair loss and fall. It also causes acne as your hair comes in contact with your face, as does the foam of the shampoo. 

Most shampoos and cleansers contain 20 per cent of SLS and ALS, while research has indicated that a mere five per cent concentration of the substance used over a period of time can do significant damage.

However, the damage is not just limited to skin conditions. Baby shampoos contain SLS and the foam goes into your child’s eyes. Animal studies showed that 10 per cent SLS was enough to cause acute corneal damage. Moreover, many researchers have theorised, but not proved, that gradual absorption of this substance through the skin causes hormonal imbalances. SLS is also a mutagen i.e. it contains the ability to corrode genetic material in every cell in our body and therefore has been accused of being a carcinogenic substance.

Armed with this knowledge, what do we do? Do we stop washing ourselves and throw away all soaps? Well, no. One can keep clean and toxin free. Ever since big supermarkets have started mushrooming all over the country, it is not difficult getting your hands on a variety of herbal products, but the trick is that you have to search for the right one, for they are not all that easily available and are quite expensive.

However, if you’re not up for herb searching, you can go back and see what your elders used when all these ‘fancy products’ were not in vogue: gram flour was used with milk and lemon as a face wash. Miswak was used to clean one’s teeth. Many people still make their own shampoos from herbs. In a nutshell, if ever there was a time to go natural and replace chemicals with home ingredients, it is now.

But that is not all. The availability of safe products is determined by the demand you create for them. If you as a consumer can raise your voice and ask for a safe, toxin free product, the store catering to your needs will be made aware for the demand for this product. If enough consumers raise their voice against unsafe products and refrain from buying them, manufacturers and suppliers will be forced to cater to a more informed and conscious market and provide SLS and other toxin free goods. It all comes down to simple economics. 

So go ahead and make a more informed choice. It will pay off in the long run.
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21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic


A considerable portion of my consulting time has recently revolved around the optimization of corporate blogs (or the addition of blogs to revamped sites). As usual, I find a pattern emerging in the strategies that need attention and the pitfalls that must be avoided. So, rather than charging $400 an hour to give advice on the subject, I thought it would be valuable to share many of the most common pieces of advice here on the blog (business part of Rand fights with open source Rand, but loses, as usual).
  1. Choose the Right Blog Software (or Custom Build) 
    The right blog CMS makes a big difference. If you want to set yourself apart, I recommend creating a custom blog solution - one that can be completely customized to your users. In most cases,WordPressBloggerMovableType or Typepad will suffice, but building from scratch allows you to be very creative with functionality and formatting. The best CMS is something that's easy for the writer(s) to use and brings together the features that allow the blog to flourish. Think about how you want comments, archiving, sub-pages, categorization, multiple feeds and user accounts to operate in order to narrow down your choices. OpenSourceCMS is a very good tool to help you select a software if you go that route.
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  2. Host Your Blog Directly on Your Domain
    Hosting your blog on a different domain from your primary site is one of the worst mistakes you can make. A blog on your domain can attract links, attention, publicity, trust and search rankings - by keeping the blog on a separate domain, you shoot yourself in the foot. From worst to best, your options are - Hosted (on a solution like Blogspot or Wordpress), on a unique domain (at least you can 301 it in the future), on a subdomain (these can be treated as unique from the primary domain by the engines) and as a sub-section of the primary domain (in a subfolder or page - this is the best solution).
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  3. Write Title Tags with Two Audiences in Mind
    First and foremost, you're writing a title tag for the people who will visit your site or have a subscription to your feed. Title tags that are short, snappy, on-topic and catchy are imperative. You also want to think about search engines when you title your posts, since the engines can help to drive traffic to your blog. A great way to do this is to write the post and the title first, then run a few searches at OvertureWordTracker & KeywordDiscovery to see if there is a phrasing or ordering that can better help you to target "searched for" terms.
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  4. Participate at Related Forums & BlogsWhatever industry or niche you're in, there are bloggers, forums and an online community that's already active. Depending on the specificity of your focus, you may need to think one or two levels broader than your own content to find a large community, but with the size of the participatory web today, even the highly specialized content areas receive attention. A great way to find out who these people are is to use Technorati to conduct searches, then sort by number of links (authority).Del.icio.us tags are also very useful in this process, as are straight searches at the engines (Ask.com's blog search in particular is of very good quality).
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  5. Tag Your Content
    Technorati is the first place that you should be tagging posts. I actually recommend having the tags right on your page, pointing to the Technorati searches that you're targeting. There are other good places to ping - del.icio.us and Flickr being the two most obvious (the only other one is Blogmarks, which is much smaller). Tagging content can also be valuable to help give you a "bump" towards getting traffic from big sites like RedditDigg & StumbleUpon (which requires that you download the toolbar, but trust me - it's worth it). You DO NOT want to submit every post to these sites, but that one out of twenty (see tactic #18) is worth your while.
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  6. Launch Without Comments (and Add Them Later)There's something sad about a blog with 0 comments on every post. It feels dead, empty and unpopular. Luckily, there's an easy solution - don't offer the ability to post comments on the blog and no one will know that you only get 20 uniques a day. Once you're upwards of 100 RSS subscribers and/or 750 unique visitors per day, you can open up the comments and see light activity. Comments are often how tech-savvy new visitors judge the popularity of a site (and thus, its worth), so play to your strengths and keep your obscurity private.
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  7. Don't Jump on the Bandwagon
    Some memes are worthy of being talked about by every blogger in the space, but most aren't. Just because there's huge news in your industry or niche DOES NOT mean you need to be covering it, or even mentioning it (though it can be valuable to link to it as an aside, just to integrate a shared experience into your unique content). Many of the best blogs online DO talk about the big trends - this is because they're already popular, established and are counted on to be a source of news for the community. If you're launching a new blog, you need to show people in your space that you can offer something unique, different and valuable - not just the same story from your point of view. This is less important in spaces where there are very few bloggers and little online coverage and much more in spaces that are overwhelmed with blogs (like search, or anything else tech-related).
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  8. Link Intelligently
    When you link out in your blog posts, use convention where applicable and creativity when warranted, but be aware of how the links you serve are part of the content you provide. Not every issue you discuss or site you mention needs a link, but there's a fine line between overlinking and underlinking. The best advice I can give is to think of the post from the standpoint of a relatively uninformed reader. If you mention Wikipedia, everyone is familiar and no link is required. If you mention a specific page at Wikipedia, a link is necessary and important. Also, be aware that quoting other bloggers or online sources (or even discussing their ideas) without linking to them is considered bad etiquette and can earn you scorn that could cost you links from those sources in the future. It's almost always better to be over-generous with links than under-generous. And link condoms? Only use them when you're linking to something you find truly distasteful or have serious apprehension about.
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  9. Invite Guest Bloggers
    Asking a well known personality in your niche to contribute a short blog on their subject of expertise is a great way to grow the value and reach of your blog. You not only flatter the person by acknowledging their celebrity, you nearly guarantee yourself a link or at least an association with a brand that can earn you readers. Just be sure that you really are getting a quality post from someone that's as close to universally popular and admired as possible (unless you want to start playing the drama linkbait game, which I personally abhor). If you're already somewhat popular, it can often be valuable to look outside your space and bring in guest authors who have a very unique angle or subject matter to help spice up your focus. One note about guest bloggers - make sure they agree to have their work edited by you before it's posted. A disagreement on this subject after the fact can have negative ramifications.
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  10. Eschew Advertising (Until You're Popular)
    I hate AdSense on blogs. Usually, I ignore it, but I also cast a sharp eye towards the quality of the posts and professionalism of the content when I see AdSense. That's not to say that contextual advertising can't work well in some blogs, but it needs to be well integrated into the design and layout to help defer criticism. Don't get me wrong - it's unfair to judge a blog by its cover (or, in this case, its ads), but spend a lot of time surfing blogs and you'll have the same impression - low quality blogs run AdSense and many high quality ones don't. I always recommend that whether personal or professional, you wait until your blog has achieved a level of success before you start advertising. Ads, whether they're sponsorships, banners, contextual or other, tend to have a direct, negative impact on the number of readers who subscribe, add to favorites and link - you definitely don't want that limitation while you're still trying to get established.
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  11. Go Beyond Text in Your Posts
    Blogs that contain nothing but line after line of text are more difficult to read and less consistently interesting than those that offer images, interactive elements, the occasional multimedia content and some clever charts & graphs. Even if you're having a tough time with non-text content, think about how you can format the text using blockquotes, indentation, bullet points, etc. to create a more visually appealing and digestible block of content.
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  12. Cover Topics that Need Attention
    In every niche, there are certain topics and questions that are frequently asked or pondered, but rarely have definitive answers. While this recommendation applies to nearly every content-based site, it's particularly easy to leverage with a blog. If everyone in the online Nascar forums is wondering about the components and cost of an average Nascar vehicle - give it to them. If the online stock trading industry is rife with questions about the best performing stocks after a terrorist threat, your path is clear. Spend the time and effort to research, document and deliver and you're virtually guaranteed link-worthy content that will attract new visitors and subscribers.
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  13. Pay Attention to Your Analytics
    Visitor tracking software can tell you which posts your audience likes best, which ones don't get viewed and how the search engines are delivering traffic. Use these clues to react and improve your strategies. Feedburner is great for RSS and I'm a personal fan of Indextools. Consider adding action tracking to your blog, so you can see what sources of traffic are bringing the best quality visitors (in terms of time spent on the site, # of page views, etc). I particularly like having the "register" link tagged for analytics so I can see what percentage of visitors from each source is interested enough to want to leave a comment or create an account.
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  14. Use a Human Voice
    Charisma is a valuable quality, both online and off. Through a blog, it's most often judged by the voice you present to your users. People like empathy, compassion, authority and honesty. Keep these in the forefront of your mind when writing and you'll be in a good position to succeed. It's also critical that you maintain a level of humility in your blogging and stick to your roots. When users start to feel that a blog is taking itself too seriously or losing the characteristics that made it unique, they start to seek new places for content. We've certainly made mistakes (even recently) that have cost us some fans - be cautious to control not only what you say, but how you say it. Lastly - if there's a hot button issue that has you posting emotionally, temper it by letting the post sit in draft mode for an hour or two, re-reading it and considering any revisions. With the advent of feeds, once you publish, there's no going back.
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  15. Archive Effectively
    The best archives are carefully organized into subjects and date ranges. For search traffic (particularly long tail terms), it can be best to offer the full content of every post in a category on the archive pages, but from a usability standpoint, just linking to each post is far better (possibly with a very short snippet). Balance these two issues and make the decision based on your goals. A last note on archiving - pagination in blogging can be harmful to search traffic, rather than beneficial (as you provide constantly changing, duplicate content pages). Pagination is great for users who scroll to the bottom and want to see more, though, so consider putting a "noindex" in the meta tag or in the robots.txt file to keep spiders where they belong - in the well-organized archive system.
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  16. Implement Smart URLs
    The best URL structure for blogs is, in my opinion, as short as possible while still containing enough information to make an educated guess about the content you'll find on the page. I don't like the 10 hyphen, lengthy blog titles that are the byproduct of many CMS plugins, but they are certainly better than any dynamic parameters in the URL. Yes - I know I'm not walking the talk here, and hopefully it's something we can fix in the near future. To those who say that one dynamic parameter in the URL doesn't hurt, I'd take issue - just re-writing a ?ID=450 to /450 has improved search traffic considerably on several blogs we've worked with.
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  17. Reveal as Much as Possible
    The blogosphere is in love with the idea of an open source world on the web. Sharing vast stores of what might ordinarily be considered private information is the rule, rather than the exception. If you can offer content that's usually private - trade secrets, pricing, contract issues, and even the occasional harmless rumor, your blog can benefit. Make a decision about what's off-limits and how far you can go and then push right up to that limit in order to see the best possible effects. Your community will reward you with links and traffic.
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  18. Only One Post in Twenty Can Be Linkbait
    Not every post is worthy of making it to the top of Digg, Del.icio.us/popular or even a mention at some other blogs in your space. Trying to over-market every post you write will result in pushback and ultimately lead to negative opinions about your efforts. The less popular your blog is, the harder it will be to build excitement around a post, but the process of linkbait has always been trial and error - build, test, refine and re-build. Keep creating great ideas and bolstering them with lots of solid, everyday content and you'll eventually be big enough to where one out of every 20-40 posts really does become linkbait.
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  19. Make Effective Use of High Traffic DaysIf you do have linkbait, whether by design or by accident, make sure to capitalize. When you hit the front page of Digg, Reddit, Boing Boing, or, on a smaller scale, attract a couple hundred visitors from a bigger blog or site in your space, you need to put your best foot forward. Make sure to follow up on a high traffic time period with 2-3 high quality posts that show off your skills as a writer, your depth of understanding and let visitors know that this is content they should be sticking around to see more of. Nothing kills the potential linkbait "bump" faster than a blog whose content doesn't update for 48 hours after they've received a huge influx of visitors.
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  20. Create Expectations and Fulfill Them
    When you're writing for your audience, your content focus, post timing and areas of interest will all become associated with your personal style. If you vary widely from that style, you risk alienating folks who've come to know you and rely on you for specific data. Thus, if you build a blog around the idea of being an analytical expert in your field, don't ignore the latest release of industry figures only to chat about an emotional issue - deliver what your readers expect of you and crunch the numbers. This applies equally well to post frequency - if your blog regularly churns out 2 posts a day, having two weeks with only 4 posts is going to have an adverse impact on traffic. That's not to say you can't take a vacation, but you need to schedule it wisely and be prepared to lose RSS subscribers and regulars. It's not fair, but it's the truth. We lose visitors every time I attend an SES conference and drop to one post every two days (note - guest bloggers and time-release posts can help here, too).
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  21. Build a Brand
    Possibly one of the most important aspects of all in blogging is brand-building. As Zefrank noted, to be a great brand, you need to be a brand that people want to associate themselves with and a brand that people feel they derive value from being a member. Exclusivity, insider jokes, emails with regulars, the occasional cat post and references to your previous experiences can be off putting for new readers, but they're solid gold for keeping your loyal base feeling good about their brand experience with you. Be careful to stick to your brand - once you have a definition that people like and are comfortable with, it's very hard to break that mold without severe repercussions. If you're building a new blog, or building a low-traffic one, I highly recommend writing down the goals of your brand and the attributes of its identity to help remind you as you write.


via[seomoz.org]

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