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Archive for June, 2008

Because keywords help determine the ranking of your website, and therefore how visible your pages are to Internet traffic, it is important to use keywords properly in the creation of your site.

In today’s world of Internet lingo, you may frequently hear the terms “keywords,” “search engine rankings,” and “keyword search results” bandied about. However, not everyone knows what keywords are, and how important they are to the success of a website.

Keywords are essentially words or phrases that summarize the topic of a site. When a Web surfer types a word or phrase into the blank field of a search engine such as MSN or Google, the search engine returns a list of related sites. Each site on this list is determined by the presence of the search terms, or keywords, in the site’s meta tags, image tags, and content.

Keywords and Meta Tags

Meta tags are like a site’s “dog tags.” They identify the site’s title, description, and keywords. Meta tags are invisible to Web surfers, but they are instrumental in a search engine’s recognition of the site’s content.

Title Tags

A title tag gives the title of the Web page. A title should only be around six words long, and the primary keyword &ndash the word or phrase that the site is primarily identified with &ndash should be in this title tag. The closer to the beginning of the title the primary keyword is, the stronger the association with that keyword will be.

Description Tags

A Web page’s description tag provides the search engines with a summary of the content contained on the page. Once again, the primary keywords for this page should be contained in the description, as close to the beginning as possible. Description tags only allow 200 characters of text.

Keyword Tags

The keyword tag lists all of the keywords that can be associated with the Web page. The primary keyword used in the title and description tags should be first, followed by other keywords in order of importance and relevance. Although keywords can be separated by commas, they don’t have to be; however, keywords should not be repeated more than three times, lest the Web page be rejected by the search engines as spam. Between 800 and 1,000 characters are allowed for keyword text.

Keywords and Image Tags

Image tags are the text that shows up in place of an image, if the image fails to load for any reason. However, image tags serve a more important function: they allow the search engines to “read” your images. Without image tags, search engines have no way of interpreting your images. Therefore, image tags can also help boost the visibility and relevancy of your site to search engines.

Keywords and Web Page Content

The tags that you use on a Web page are important identifiers for search engines. However, in order to maintain a respectable search engine ranking, your Web page must establish relevancy. In other words, the keywords in your tags must pertain to the actual content on the page. Therefore, the same keywords you list in your tags must be used within the text your page displays.

The most important part of the content is the opening paragraph. The primary keyword &ndash the keyword that was used in the title and description, and listed first in the keyword text &ndash should be used several times in the first paragraph, and then occasionally throughout the rest of the page. Other, less important keywords can be used occasionally throughout the content, as well. This will indicate to the search engines that your page really is relevant to the keywords listed in your tags.

Another way to judge keywords is via a concept called “keyword density.” Keyword density shows the frequency at which a keyword is used. The density is calculated by taking the total number of words and dividing it into the number of times keywords appear in the text. The resulting number is multiplied by 100 to create a percentage. Keyword density can be a tricky business, however. Too low a density will fail to be noticed by the search engines, whereas too high a density can cause a Web page to be rejected as spam. Typically, a keyword density of around 5% is sufficient.

The Importance of Keywords

Keywords are a vital part of the creation of Web pages because they directly affect how visible the page will be to search engine traffic. The presence of keywords needs to be a consideration in every aspect of designing a Web page: designing the tags as well as writing the content. Because of the impact keywords can have on the success of your site, it’s important to know how to use them properly.



How Industrial Suppliers can promote their website off the Internet to increase traffic and sales opportunities

By Conrad Bailey

According to a survey conducted by IndustrialLeaders.com, most buyers today of industrial products use the Web to source for supplies, equipment and machinery. However, the same survey has showed that over 92% of industrial and technical buyers that log on-line to source for products or services have no particular supplier in mind.

Experienced online marketers understand how to reach these people when they go online via pay-per-click, targeted banner ads, relevant link building and other Web marketing methods. But the smartest marketers realize the best time to actually reach these buyers is offline. This gives them a significant advantage over their competitors that are in constant battle with one another for keywords, page rank, link popularity, etc. This article was written to give you the same competitive advantage.

Make Your Website The First Place They’ll Visit

Few internet marketers realize or will admit that promoting a website offline is just as important - and sometimes even more important than online. How you decide to promote your site off the Internet depends on your budget, needs, target market, industry and other criteria.

Nevertheless, the first important part of any offline promotion campaign is to take an inventory of the things in your office that can display and promote your website address, including:

• Media releases

• Brochures and catalogs

• Stationary (business cards, envelopes, letterheads, shipping labels, boxes, etc.)

• Ad specialties (calendars, pens, caps, t-shirts, mugs, etc).

• Newsletters, reports and white papers

• Every other marketing document or item you use to connect with prospects & customers.

Once you take that inventory, you need to keep in mind that no matter how many tools or resources you employ to promote your website, just presenting your web address is not going to do much. That’s because, not many people will visit a website without a convincing reason to do so. Thus, every time you advertise or display your website on anything, make sure it always carries a message that persuades people to visit your site.

I cannot overemphasize this importance. Look at it this way. If I say to you visit us at MyDomain.com. Are you going to take the time out of your busy schedule to visit? Not likely. With so many websites and the abundance of information available on the Web, you are probably not going to visit a site just because someone mentioned their URL address, at least not without some kind of incentive that’s part of the offer or message.

Promoting A Website Using Media Releases

I’m sure you’re smart enough to never send out a press releases without including your URL address. But again, even press releases must carry a message of ‘why’ the reader should visit your site. This requires some creative thinking because editors almost never publish press releases that sound like a sales offer. One way around that is to write a release that is solely intended to promote something new about your site or product line.

For example, your media release can be about a new product you’re now offering on your site, newly designed e-catalog, employee of the month featured, or even recent improvements made to your site. Or perhaps, a new segment on your website that benefits your customers with timely information, useful tools or environmental friendly resources. Indeed, press releases of such nature, mailed or faxed to local media sources, are more likely to get published. And when they do, better results can be expected because your web address will now include a compelling reason to visit your site.

Brochures & Catalogs

With the rising costs of paper and postage, traditional brochures and catalogs are getting more expensive to use as marketing documents. Because of this, many suppliers are moving their entire catalog to the Internet where distribution and production costs are minimal compared to the expense of printing and mailing a catalog.

Although going totally electronic is a wise decision for cost-cutting purposes, it’s still important that you continue to offer your brochure and/or catalog in both print and electronic versions. There will always be prospects that prefer good old ink and paper catalogs, and that’s a nice advantage to have over competitors that no longer offer them.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when promoting your website via traditional catalogs.

• Your web address should be on every page (top & bottom areas), not just on the cover like most catalogs;

• Give different reasons (real incentives) throughout the catalog to visit your website (e.g. Visit Here To See Today’s Specials; Go Here To Get A Free Gift; etc.);

• The back of your catalog should include your website’s ‘Main Menu’ or ‘Site Map’ describing the most important pages of your site along with its url address;

• In addition your phone number, the inner-back or inner-front cover of your catalog should include the email addresses of your customer service and sales departments. Why? Because some people prefer sending RFQ’s via email rather than dealing with the possibility of a pushy salesperson.

• Your catalog can even have a ‘Bargain Page’ that ties into your website. Just provide the url address on the cover, where it will get the most exposure, so prospects and customers can get instant information about the latest bargains you are offering.

Promoting Your Website Via Catalogs Does Not Have To Be Expensive

As you know, cost is a major issue when it comes to printing and mailing catalogs and brochures.

You can cut costs by using fewer colors and lighter paper, but the cost can still add up even if you take the cheapest route.

If you already have a good number of catalogs or brochures in stock, you can affix ‘promotional labels’ on the front and back covers that carry your marketing message, along with your website’s address. Labels are extremely versatile because they can be used to promote different specials you are offering at anytime. It’s a great way to test different offers with prospects… without the high cost of printing additional pieces. The right labels, if designed fittingly, can really stand out and make the reader take notice.

Use Stationary To Promote Your Website

Do you have business stationary? Business cards? Letterhead? Envelopes? Shipping labels? Is your URL address presented on these items? Does your website address include a benefit or incentive for visiting? If not, why not? However you slice it, every item you use to connect with your prospect that does not carry your web address, and a reason for visiting, is wasting some fraction of your money.

When it comes to promoting your site using stationary, due to lack of space, your message should focus on the biggest benefit your company offers. This is especially true on your letterhead and envelopes where there is limited space.

One exception is your business card where you have the space to promote your website in much more client-centered detail. Indeed, business cards integrated with your website are like mini-billboards advertising your company and products all year long.

One of the best business cards I have ever seen was from a Steel & Iron Company. The front of the card had the standard black ink on white stock design and a basic layout. But at the bottom of the card, in bold text, it read, “Flip over to visit us.” There, on the back of the card the company listed the web address to its Home Page, Catalog, Rebate Section, About Us and Company Profile page.

The card was so well done, I just had to call the company to ask them about it. To shorten the story, I was forwarded to the sales manager, and according to him, the card was designed by a marketing consultant agency in California. And it receives a lot of good feedback from customers and prospects praising how clever and useful the card was. Need I said more?

Advertising Specialties

A lot of industrial suppliers at one time or another have used promotional items to advertise their company logo. Now, shrewdly I may add, more of them are using these pens, calendars, t-shirts, mugs, caps and other items to also promote their website.

Most ad specialties however still have nothing on it but a company logo. I suppose the advertiser is hoping it will increase awareness or generate some publicity when the items are giving away as premiums. But unfortunately, other than spawning some goodwill with the ones that received these gifts, it’s difficult to accurately measure the results in terms of actual sales.

Now I ask you, if you saw a baseball cap with a company’s logo imprinted on it, what would you think? What would you do? What would you remember? The answer to all three of these questions, 9 out of 10 times would be, Nothing!

In contrast, if the same baseball cap also included the company’s web address along with an incentive for you to visit the site. Well, now you will probably be interested, and you just might at least want to remember that address to visit later. Especially if the site was relevant to something you or your company needs.

The best advertising specialties to purchase and giveaway are wearables such as hats, t-shirts, caps, jackets, golf shirts, etc. That’s because of the exposure they generate since they are “mobile advertisements.” Wearables that display your web address can increase traffic to your site, generate sales leads, publicity, word-of-mouth and build awareness of company’s capabilities..

Newsletters, Reports and White Papers

If you publish a traditional ink and paper newsletter, white paper or report, whether it be weekly, monthly or annually, be sure to dedicate a portion of each issue to promote your website. That can be done in a number of ways and through various formats. Newsletters, reports and white papers are premier tools to promote your website. They allow you to keep each prospect and customer informed, and remind them to stop by your site and see the latest client-centered benefits.

Last Words About Promoting Your Website Outside The Internet

Every manufacturer and supplier has to invest money, sometime lots of money to promote their products, whether it be online, offline or both. Unfortunately, much of what is spent often does nothing to recoup the investment in terms of increased sales, profit and company growth. That is why you must integrate your website with multiple mediums to increase your company’s exposure on the Internet, and improve effectiveness through the power of unity.

You see, the Internet, although will be much different ten years from now, it is undeniably here to stay and it’s only going to spread wider, impact more people and become increasingly important to employ. Make sure you position your website to grow for the long haul. Following the advice in this article, and using the resources it provides, is a great start - but it’s just the beginning until you put the actual ideas into action. I hope you do that.

About The Author :

Conrad Bailey is co-founder and vice president of .IndustrialLeaders.com,

an Industrial Supply Trade Portal for engineers and other industrial & technical buyers.



Well-written, informative and well -designed press release is one of the most important and efficient marketing tools in your marketing strategy. It is one of the most efficient and one of the most cost-effective tools as well. Moreover it allows you to provide more information than a usual advertisement.

However, newsworthy is what defines it. Few of the representatives of the mass media will be impressed by the press release that just advertise your company and is not related to any event or important developments in your company. So, you should consider several developments that can serve as the reason for the issuing of the press release: some new events (such as meeting, press conference or just party); new products or services or new program in the developing of them; your annual or quarter results. The topic of your press release and the reasons for its issuing is one of the most important steps in order to create the press release.

First stick to the topic of your press release. Second, the press release should be succinct and informative. Third, one should accustom oneself to the main format of the press release- one should follow all requirements set by the organization which intends to publish it. Try to create appealing, attracting and intriguing headline which can in several words tell the essence of your press release and grasp the attention of your reader immediately from the first minutes or even seconds of the reading of the press release.

First paragraph of your press release is one of the most important ones. It should inform your reader what your company is, why your press release is issued and what information you would like to provide. All other paragraphs should be well-structured, logically written and coherent; the reader should be intrigued by them and induced by the content of your press release to read it further. To make this type of body of the press release is one of the most important steps in the process of the writing press release.



Using the right shopping cart program can have a drastic effect on the success of your e-business. If you have a poorly designed shopping cart system, you will lose customers regardless of how great your website is. Consider the factors below when choosing your ideal shopping cart.

How many items do you have to sell?

Many people make the mistake of using shopping carts when there are only a couple of products being sold on the website. In this instance, it is much easier to just setup an online order form. Don’t overdo it with shopping carts unless you will have more products in the near future. Shopping carts, just like the physical tool, are designed for purchasing a large number of products. You wouldn’t haul around a shopping cart in a grocery store just to buy a pack of gum, and neither should you in the online world.

Software or Service Provider

For most small businesses, I recommend using an ASP, which means the shopping cart service is hosted by a third party company. For ASP shopping carts, setup was designed to require no programming skills and very user friendly. Some ASPs also offer packages that include a merchant account and a payment gateway. This takes care of the painstaking process of setting them up separately.

The downsides to an ASP system are the limitations of the control you have over your shopping cart system. For instance, there is only so much you can do to the appearance to your shopping carts. Other features, such as customer tracking, may not be available at all.

ASP Shopping Cart Suggestions

SecureNetShop.com

&ndashUses HTML pages for setup

&ndashOffers many options such as customer tracking

GoEmerchant.com

&ndashIncludes merchant account in package

&ndashPainless setup

Popular Software Options

Miva

&ndash Can be hosted on your server or a remote server

&ndash Browser based admin

&ndash Wizard setup

&ndash Preconfigured payment processing

&ndash Easily expandable

QuikStore

&ndash Low price

&ndash Must be hosted on own server

&ndash Wizard setup

&ndash Configuration editor

&ndash Catalog Wizard

These are just the basics of what the companies above offer. For more information please visit their website.



Ever wondered what people think when they visit your blog? If you’re like most bloggers, you get a few comments but not enough to know whether most people like your blog or not. Maybe they read it, love it, and you never know about it. Or maybe they see something they don’t like and are off browsing before you have time to shout “hey, there’s good stuff here!”

To make matters a little worse, what turns people away is often a small thing. It might be a bad color scheme or the lack of a clear title so people know what they’re reading about. It might be too much text and not enough pictures. Whatever it is, you can lose readers fast.

How do you solve this problem? Simple &ndash just test your blog. And there’s an easy way and a free way to do it. Just visit the BlogExplosion site (.blogexplosion), sign up for a free account, and add your blog. Then visit a feature of the site called “Battle of the Blogs.” It’s a free game where your blog competes against someone else’s. Just choose a challenger and click on “Accept Challenge.” Now, the fun part starts.

Members will visit your blog and the blog of the challenger. Then they’ll vote on their favorite blog. The battle normally only takes 15 minutes or so to be completed. As soon as it’s over, you have a clear idea of how many people like your blog. If 15 out of 15 vote for yours, don’t change a thing. If 10 out of 15 vote for yours, make some improvements. If 0 out of 15 vote for yours, make some big changes.

Then go back and enter a few battles after you’ve made changes. That’s a good way to constantly improve. And there’s nothing better than improving your blog and being able to see the results in less than 15 minutes. That’s got to be better than waiting days to see a difference in your visitor statistics.

And while you’re waiting the 15 minutes to see the results, review the other blogs battling and vote for your favorite. As you do, think about what makes you like a blog instantly or dislike a blog instantly. What catches your attention? What is it that makes one blog likeable and another one boring? Take note and you’ll figure out even more ways to improve your own blog.



Pick Directory is an easy way to bid on links. Pick Directory is a highly promoted bidding web directory. Our link directory displays links alphabetically, and lets you bid your way to the top of the list. With a starting bid of $1, you are guaranteed a spot in our directory!

Increase your bid to take a top position, and not only will your link list higher in the directory, but you could join our Top 10 Link Leaders on the homepage.

Why Buy Links?

Links get results. Link popularity is one of the most important factors in search engine performance.

Increasing the number of links to your Web site can get your site listed higher in search engine results, bring more visitors to your site, increase your Google PageRank and improve your site’s overall strength.

For only $1 you can buy a link and get listed now. Your site will thank you!



The author gives a candid description of how he started his writing venture since his early age which eventually led him to write about Internet online marketing business. He explains in simple English the importance and power of article writing in this new business venture and how he has done it and how it has helped built his Internet business.

If your doctor advised you to run, jog or walk for the sake of your health, I’d advise you to write for the sake of your wealth from Internet business!

Since I ventured into this very interesting and exciting Internet marketing business, I’ve been writing for some time, something I happen to be enjoying doing. Since the day I learnt to construct the first complete and grammatically correct sentence in English, writing to covey to others my thought, ideas and opinions has been a very fascinating process for me.

For many years friends and business associates have been seeking my input to assess, correct and improve their own writings. Before I knew it, strangers from the Internet have also approached me to help them in copy writing their sales letters and web content. These “clients” of mine include those whose mother tongue is English!

Having been immersed in the intriguing English language for about 4 decades and after writings articles pertaining to Polymer Technology with occasional feature articles, the Internet business now “demands” that I should start to delve into the possibility of writing about Internet-online-home-based-businesses. What a refreshing and welcoming prospect!

Despite my“advanced”age (to some at least), Internet online business is relatively new and foreign to me compared to Polymer Technology. A considerable amount of effort in the form of research work has to be put in through both primary (mainly interviews) and secondary market research (Library and the Web). The part I enjoyed most was the interviews I held with the so-called Internet“gurus”most of whom are young enough to be my children!

It has therefore been a very challenging, interesting and rewarding experience. Equally, the“gurus”found the interviews utterly amusing, sometimes jaw-dropping, having to answer questions on matters that are so basic and simple (to them but definitely not to me!) which they have taken for granted for so long!

You must be agonizing yourself with questions in your mind at this juncture wanting to know what writing has got to do with Internet business, if you happen to belong to the uninitiated-soon-to-be-obsolete group of individuals. Relax, I’d put you out of your agony this every instant!

You see, I’ve found to my pleasant surprise that one of the best ways to drive traffic to your website is by writing articles. Of course, by “driving traffic”, I’m not for a moment suggesting that you rev your car aggressively towards some one! “Driving traffic” simply means directing the traffic flow of visitors to your websites. Needless to say, visitors are your potential customers.

Getting your own articles written, distributed and published on the Internet is one of the very best Internet marketing techniques in existence.

Once you have become an author of an article with quality content, you become an instant authority. When visitors locate and read your article they would obtain some useful information from it. As a result they would most probably appreciate you. When appreciation turns into trust, it is very likely that they would click the link in your article resource box to visit your website to get more information. The“resource box”is a special space at the end of your article allocated for a short description of the author and the all important URLs of his websites.

Chances of them signing up with you in one of your recommended business opportunities or buy one of your recommended products would be greatly boosted.

You get the idea? Of course you do!

The question is how to write the relevant articles which might demand some of your effort and time?

If you have a flare in writing and enjoy doing it, you might decide to write your own articles. Follow the steps I mentioned above. Otherwise you could join some article cooperatives to get access to private label articles (meaning using others’articles) or hire someone to write articles for you.

Of course you know now that I’ve chosen to do my own writing as it gives me a sense of achievement and satisfaction knowing that my own articles are touching and benefiting many people across the globe!

The following e-mail is one of the many which I have been very delightfully receiving:

Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:37:53 -0800 (PST)

From: ArticleSubmissionlinkgrinder.com Add to Address Book

To: Woonsungliang*********

Subject: YOUR ARTICLE SUBMISSION - LinkGrinder.com

Dear Woon Sung Liang,

Thank you for submitting your article titled ‘Come Blog with Me and Ride the Crest of The Blogging Wave of Internet Business’ to Linkgrinder.com. Your article has been approved and is now in the process of being indexed by the search engines. You should be able to find your article on our website within the next couple days.

Thank you Again!

.linkgrinder.com

Note the e-mail says “…….is now in the process of being indexed by the search engines…..”

Once my article is indexed by the search engines, it means that they (the search engines) love it! The ranking of my website would be enhanced and this in turn would lead to an increase in the popularity of my website.

By virtue of the Internet etiquette, authors quite often allow others to re-print their articles for further publication in other ezines, newsletters, websites etc on condition that the content of the“resource box”be left untouched. This allows the new groups of readers to still be able to click on the authors’URLs.

Hence, through this simple process, your website could be spread like a virus. Many Internet marketers refer this as to“VIRAL MARKETING”. This is by and large my main objective of writing. The joy I obtain in doing so is incidental but definitely a welcome bonus!

The next question is how can you ensure that your articles will reach the maximum amount of potential web visitors? You submit your articles to Web version of publishers.

I normally submit my articles to Article Directories, Article list/Newsletters and Ezine Directories. This could be done either manually by yourself or get some organizations to do it on your behalf by paying them a monthly fee. It is tedious to do it yourself manually because there are at least hundreds of directories in the Net. However the biggest benefit of submitting your article by hand is that it’s absolutely free.

Organizations who charge a fee for doing this are using software that allows them to submit articles to hundreds, if not thousands of interested parties in an instant just by the click of the mouse.

I hope you now realize the power of writing in creating wealth in your Internet business. If you’re in Internet business but have not written a single article, it’s high time you did.

If you’re one of those who’re still groping in the dark not knowing whether or when to start your Internet business, please remember Bill Gates’ wise words: “There’ll be two types of business in the years 2000’s : those online… and those out of business”



Traffic is the key right? The more targeted the traffic the better right? And how do you get traffic? Well the simple answer is that you need to have high search engine rankings but that is such a general and unhelpful answer. So I am going to try and give you a better idea of the inner workings of a search engine ranking including the most fundamental and obvious and therefore most underestimated factors, namely keywords.

Keywords are just that key words that people type into the blank for the search engine that describe what they are interested in finding out about. Basically the search engine tries to match the keyword with the content of millions of different web pages that it crawls through and ranks in order from most applicable to least the pages whose content has any thing to do with the keyword.

Now the search engine has different criteria that it weights in its evaluation of the relatedness of a web page to specific keywords. Unfortunately for those interested in high rankings these criteria are for the search engines to know and for us in the internet marketing field to find out. In other words they are unspoken. That isn’t to say however that we don’t know anything about them but it is to say that we have only found out about them through trial and error testing–we find out what works and stick with it.

There is another problem with this though. That is that the search engine, in order to give all pages a chance and to keep the content on the internet fresh are always changing their criteria and trying to improve their search results as far as relevancy is concerned. So the testing is always going on and those who are good at seeing the trends and predicting changes are able to stay successful in their field. One must remember though that despite all of these changes, there is nothing changing the way a customer searches for his interests on the internet.

So before you worry about all the complicated criteria you must target your content to the appropriate keywords. There are many tools that help you to research keywords, and many are free. Basically you are looking for keywords that are searched for the most that describe your product or the market your product is included in well enough that people who come to your page through that search will agree that you have what they were looking for. This is the essence of “targeted” traffic. Think about it for a minute, you can have all the traffic in the world come to your page but you will only get sales from those that are in need of what you have to offer. It only makes sense then to bring those people to your site.



If you want to experience live poker action at the gambling Mecca of the world, here is a guide to the top poker rooms in Las Vegas. You can read here updated info on each of the recommended Las Vegas poker rooms including their game variety, limits and tournaments.

1) Bellagio Casino and Hotel

If you want to experience Las Vegas poker action and hang out with pros, the Bellagio is the casino for you. It is one of the classiest poker rooms available in Las Vegas. It is so popular that you might find yourself spending over an hour at the waiting list and then find yourself stuck with a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs.

The games offered are Texas Holdem, Omaha and stud games, and you can also join one of the tournaments, but note that this involves playing No Limit Holdem. As for the table limits for the regular games, these are as follows:

a) Limit Holdem: 4/8, 8/16, 15/30, 30/60, 60/120, 75/150 dollars and up.

b) No Limit Holdem: 200 dollars buy ins with 2/5 dollars blinds.

c) Omaha: 6/12, 15/30, 20/40, 30/60, 50/100 dollars and up.

d) Stud Poker: 1/5, 4/8, 8/16, 30/60, 75/150 dollars and up.

2) Mirage Las Vegas

If you are tired of waiting for a table at Bellagio, the poker rooms at the Mirage can be an acceptable alternative. It resembles Bellagio’s with its luxurious atmosphere, variety of games and its huge popularity among pros as well as tourists.

The games offered are Texas Holdem and Omaha, Stud and as the Bellagio, playing in a tournament means getting involved with No Limit Texas Holdem. As for the limits of each table in a regular game, they are:

a) Limit Holdem: 3/6, 6/12, 10/20, 20/40, 40/80 dollars.

b) No Limit Holdem: between 100 and 500 dollars buy ins with 2/5 dollars blinds.

c) Omaha: 5/10 dollars.

d) Stud Poker: 1/5, 5/10.

3) Excalibur Las Vegas

If you want to play in a less stressful environment, check out the poker room at the Excalibur casino. You can play spread limit Holdem with the lowest limits available on the Strip and enjoy beginners friendly rules such as limitation on three raises. The room has been renovated recently and the poker tables and seats are very comfortable.

At the Excalibur, you can play Texas Holdem or 7 Card Stud, and the limits are slightly lower:

a) Limit Holdem: 1/3, 2/6 dollars.

b) No Limit Holdem: 100 dollars buy ins with 1/3 dollars blinds.

c) 7 Card Stud: 1/5 dollars and up.

4) Binions’ Horseshoe Hotel and Casino

If you want to play at the same room where the first WSOP took place, you must visit Binions’ poker room. Although the casino has been renovated and went through many changes since the days of Nick the Greek, the ghosts of the past still haunt the place, but in a good way.

Here too you can play Texas Holdem, No Limit Holdem in their own tournament, Omaha and Stud games for the following limits:

a) Limit Holdem: 2/4, 4/8, 10/20 dollars.

b) No Limit Holdem: 100 dollars minimum buy ins with 1/2 dollars blinds.

c) Omaha: 4/8 dollars.

d) Stud Poker: 1/5.

5) Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino

If you want to follow in the steps of the 2006 WSOP champions, check out the Rio poker room. You might be surprised from the size and the small variety of games, but the thought of sharing the same location with contemporary gaming legends adds a certain appeal to it.

Other than taking part in the tournament where you can participate in some No Limit Holdem, you can pick from Texas Holdem, 7 Card Stud, Omaha or a few other variations according to what players request. The limits are as follows:

a) Limit Holdem: 2/4, 3/6, 4/8 dollars.

b) No Limit Holdem: 100 dollars minimum buy ins with 2/5 dollars blinds.



The lady on the phone insisted for the third time: “You will get a real good position and only for this price.” After several calls, dozens of e-mails and talks she had with her manager for us, she offered ‘her’ reduction to me. All this service without being asked. She was selling ‘positions’ for a big search engine. For the good order: the positions are related to keywords, which people use when searching on the internet and which can be called the ‘core’ of the whole internet marketing.

“Well, let me see my position then” I said. Following the instructions given by her I typed in the keywords. And there I was. Having not been on this search engine for a long time, I was surprised.

Almost every part, every space of the result page was filled with links, banners, sponsored sites and ‘hikis and fikis’ or whatever it might be called. The results, for which a search engine is actually used for, looked like a land of borders: on the top, middle and bottom of the results were three sponsored links placed. I don’t know why, but suddenly this chaos on the screen reminded me of the metropolitan suburbs of developing countries.

Only buildings next to each other; one higher or uglier than the other one. No matter if you have rented a room on the top, middle or on the first floor you easily get the feeling of suffocating only by watching. You would rather leave and never come back.

How come, I am having the same feeling now? How fast did this happen?

It was not long ago; maybe six or seven years, when the internet got integrated in daily life and I also started to use it. Without being disrupted I could go through to the tenth page of the results. While searching the feeling of being surprised by the expected results arose. It was like the results were your own, only yours. The cleanness of the pages surely supported such feelings.

Later, surfing on the internet diminished to five or six pages. And by now I do not surf more than two pages of the results. This is amazing! Although meanwhile the amount of sites that have been created by people and the data of search engines have been growing in high speed, people are now not going further than the second page. Why? Is it because the search engines give better results within the first two pages? Or is it because of the tiredness that afflicts you while searching? I suppose it is more the second option.

I would call this the effect of the ‘urbanization of internet’. Like the cities, the internet has grown fast, uncoordinated and hungry. As a result web-buildings don’t really differ from city-buildings in developing countries. You would like to leave as soon as possible.

Billions of keyword combinations are offered for sale. The more popular the keywords, or lets say the more commercial the keywords, the faster a result page grows and the more expensive a place is getting there.

Now she was offering me the possibility of renting a good position in one of these “suburbs” of the internet. And this for a good price for the next 12 months!

The words, by themselves, flew out of my mouth: ‘I would rather go back to the village,’ I said. ‘The country side, you know?’, I repeated slowly.

Probably, she couldn’t place my comments. She thought a bit and said: ‘Yes, yes. That is what all of us want to do in the end. But till then think about the usage of the keyword position I offered to you.”

Well, what can I say: let’s think then about the keywords and positions that are so determined in our businesses and in our developments either as a company or as a daily user of this immense machine going on.

Before the end, well to remember!

(This article is written in the serial of ‘The urbanization of internet’ at .tobook.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp)