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New AV Electronics Blog

We just created a new blog called Audio Video Electronics featuring videos and articles about audio video equipment.

3 Reasons To Like Google Docs

We've just started using Google Docs for collaborating on the writing of articles, blog posts, audio and video scripts, reports, etc. - anything that requires team work.

After about a week with the system I am very impressed. I suspect there will be many more reasons to like Docs, but here are the first three...

1. Sharing documents is very easy. Just add someone else's Google login email address and it is done. You can optionally send an email to your collaborators telling them the file is shared.

2. Folder organization works nicely. You can save your text documents in your own folders, then share them with others who can then organize them as they see fit. This accommodates people who have a difficult time with file and folder organization. Believe it or not, everybody does not like the abstract file and folder model used and taken for granted by computer geeks everywhere. With Google Docs you share the specific document, not the document-in-a-particular-location, so Collaborator B does not have to buy into Collaborator A's folder structure.

3. The default formatting used in the basic text "documents" translates nicely into most article submission and blog entry forms. MS Word notoriously adds characters that article and blog entry forms do not like.

More High PR Links

I constantly get asked how to get links from high PR sites. There are somewhat conflicting views on how important the Page Rank of the sites linking to you are, but I don't think there is any question that higher Page Rank sites get crawled more often, and they are considered more "authoritative" than those with little or no Page Rank.

Both of these factors should make it worth the effort to try to get your content on high PR sites. But the question is "How"?

One very useful approach is to leave comments or feedbak on interactive sites such as blogs or social networking sites. These links will usually be in the form of comments left in response to posts, stories, videos, etc.

Unless you are happy just leaving meaningless spam comments, leaving legitimate (or even semi-legitimate) comments on blogs takes time and effort. You have to actually go to the blog, read the posts, do a little bit of thinking, and then write a comment.

I don't know what the average time would be for doing this, but I'm pretty sure if you were to try to create an efficient "system" for commenting, it would be difficult to get the process down to less than 5 minutes per comment.

Yes, I know there is software that will find blogs, isolate posts according to keywords, and then let you create comments right from within the software shell. I've looked at this sort of thing and have not been convinced it would make the actual commenting time shorter.

The three most important criteria (from the "link value" perspective) for taking the time to create comments (either manually or semi-automatically) are:

1. The "authority" of the blog (measured in Page Rank)
2. The "relevance" of the blog to your own niche, and
3. The "do follow" or "no follow" status of comment links

I have already briefly commented on the "authority" question. I know that PR is not the be all and end all when it comes to ranking in the SERPs (results pages), but it does indicate potential link value, at least in my experience.

From the perspective of link value "relevance" is probably not as important as most people think. See my previous link relevancy post for more on this. But from the "I-actually-know-what-I'm-talking-about" point of view it makes quite a bit of difference. If you're taking the time to read the posts you're commenting on, you might as well read something you're interested in and are likely to learn something from. You will also be able to create comments more quickly because you'll have something intelligent to say.

On the "do follow" question, you have to know a bit of history to understand the significance of this. A couple years ago Google tried to clamp down on comment spam by encouraging bloggers to add the "no follow" tag to links embedded in comments. The "no follow" tag tells the Google bot not to follow these links - making them much less desirable from the link juice point of view.

Many bloggers obediently fell into line because they were intimidated by Google threats. But some resisted either silently or openly and left their comment links intact. These are usually referred to as "Do Follow" blogs.

If you can find a "Do Follow" blog that still has Page Rank, leaving comments on sites like that is generally considered worth the effort.

If you'd like to take a stab at building links this way, check out "How to Get a Free PR10 link". This will take you to a free report from Angela Edwards. Angela also has a subscription service where she sends you 30 new high PR blogs every month where you can get "do follow" links.

SBO-Linknet.com is the home of the Linknet Publishing Network. This is a growing network of active websites covering various areas of interest from Online Marketing to Golf to Personal Health and Real Estate.

Tips for Instructing Website Designers and Developers
May 29, 2006 - Linknet Business News

Tips for Instructing Website Designers and Developers May 29, 2006 - Linknet Business and Marketing

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Tips for Instructing Website Designers and Developers

by Pete Arkwright

A reputable designer should have a set of standard terms and you should check they are fair and contain some basic provisions:

Check that you are getting a fixed-price fee deal unless you want to be signing an opened ended cheque;

If you have a fixed price contract with a specification of what you will get for your money, also make sure you agree how the designer will charge for extras. Agreeing on a specification sets boundaries and makes sure that you do not pay too much and yet the designer can fairly get paid for extra work not agreed at the outset;

A specification of what will be done for you should be agreed in simple lay terms (e.g. "the ecommerce facility will operate so that it rejects orders when the goods are out of stock"). A specification in technical jargon or involving a complex site should otherwise be reviewed by someone with the technical knowledge to be able to check the resultant site will appear and function in the way it should. With larger projects it is sensible to have the specification prepared for you by a suitably qualified and experienced IT consultant;

Agree what service standards you should reasonably expect - how often you will get updates, when the project milestones will each be completed, whether time really is of the essence (leaving you entitled to withdraw if milestones are not achieved (not to be used unless it is absolutely necessary and if used, build in reasonable time margins to be fair to the designer)), etc.;

You may well also want to agree on-going support and maintenance for after the site is up and running, including response times and so on. If so, you should negotiate detailed written terms for this service;

The designer should warrant that the site will function on the main browsers (e.g. Microsoft Explorer Version 4.0 upwards and Netscape Version 4.0 upwards) although you have to accept that designers cannot guarantee "functionality" on all browsers nor things like visual appearance being consistent on all systems;
Bearing in mind that unless you agree to the contrary copyright in all material produced by the designer will remain his/her copyright and that you might want to be free to upgrade the site (either yourself or using another company in future), you should consider agreeing that you will get copyright. Expect to pay a little more for this (not a lot) but it is well worth it. Get the designer to waive his/her moral rights (the right to be credited with the work and not to have it subjected to derogatory treatment). Ideally, agree that copyright and all relevant intellectual property rights will pass to you automatically as the work is created. The designer may say that it will only pass when all money due under the contract has been paid. Whilst that is a sensible thing from a designer's point of view and may appear fair, too often you and the designer may fall out leaving you unhappy and wanting to withhold a little money to cover genuine losses and if you do so, no matter how fairly, you never acquire copyright;

For substantial projects where it is likely that you will be paying in instalments by reference to milestones, make sure that all rights in material produced up to the relevant milestone pass to your company when the invoice for that particular instalment has been paid. This way, if you later fall out on subsequent problems over the web site, you can at least salvage a significant part of the site and have someone else work on it if necessary.

Also get a warranty that the designer own the copyright in all material he/she produces and that you will have a perpetual royalty-free licence to use any material which may not be own by the designer and that all material may be used by you for any purpose whatsoever. The warranty should also confirm that the material is free of all third party intellectual property rights. It is not unheard of for a disreputable designer to simply copy element of other sites or even the entire look and feel of a site including software. Again, for substantial projects, specify what third party software will be used, when it will be included in the development (within particular milestones) so that the licence applies effective from payment of the invoice for the particular milestone.

Another desired warranty is that the site will function in accordance with the specification (subject to agreed qualifications regarding different "platforms" used);

All warranties should all be backed up by an indemnity in your favour (stated to be "on a full indemnity basis") against any costs claims and liabilities arising from any breach of warranty;

Make sure the designer has to supply you with written consent from any company to which he/she creates a link before linking to another site.

Last but not least, you need to weigh up the ability of the designer to compensate you for breaches of contract. As a general rule, you should insist on insurance, for substantial projects, you should inspect the insurance to make sure it covers what you need it to cover to protect your interests in the event of a problem occurring.

Most designers are decent people trying to earn a living but it is important that both parties understand what is expected of them. Each case differs and there may be good reason why some of these terms cannot be agreed by the designer but you should take advice at that stage. As this article is general by its nature it should not be taken as advice and is not an exhaustive list of issues to consider, so you must not rely on it without taking independent advice.

Kaltons Solicitors

Article Source: http://www.click-partners.com

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