SEO Hosting Blog

Google Voice is a very useful service that allows users to sign up and acquire a free telephone number that includes unlimited voicemail, unlimited SMS messaging, and voicemail transcriptions. Needless to say, Google Voice is totally hot, and I am surprised that there isn’t more buzz being generated about the service. Ironically though, it wasn’t until yesterday when I realized that my Google Voice account has some value to it. Watch the video below to discover how you can use Google voice to get free unique and keyword rich content for your blog or website without having to write it yourself.

It all started back early in 2007 when I created a free account on a site called GrandCentral. I used my account as a way to communicate with my blog readers. I posted my telephone number and readers were able to call and leave me voicemail. This in return gave me ideas for things to write about in future articles. A few months later, I stopped using GrandCentral and it seems that Google also purchased them later that year in July.

My account remained inactive since then and it was just recently when I logged back in due to receiving an email notification of a voicemail received. At that point I realized the value my account held. I soon discovered that Google Voice is available by invite only and that my GrandCentral account was migrated automatically. Naturally, I took more interest in Google Voice once it registered in my mind and I discovered that I had something that wasn’t available to the general public.

Google recently announced that they are starting to load accounts up with invites. I haven’t received any invites loaded into my account as of yet. However, when I do, I’ll be more than happy to share them with you. In the mean time, if you’re really eager about getting a Google Voice account, you can look on eBay, as many people are selling their invites there. This isn’t uncommon. Gmail invites as well as the more recent Google Wave invites both have seen the auction block on eBay. At any rate, share your thoughts about Google Voice, we’d like to learn more about what you think.

If you’re interested in learning how to increase your AdSense earnings, then on November 5th the Content Revenue Strategies team will be available to help you get the most from AdSense, and ultimately help you increase your earnings. The event will be held in New York at the Javits Convention Center during the ad:tech New York conference. The full ad:tech conference will be from the 4th thru the 6th; however, CRS will be held on the 5th.

It’s claimed that CRS is the first and only conference and expo dedicated strictly to AdSense and contextual advertising. It’s geared for small to mid-sized publishers who want insider tips on how to maximize AdSense earnings and increase revenue opportunities. Equally, CRS caters to advertisers who want to learn more about buying advertising across Google’s network and how to maximize targeting of advertisements to get the most of out campaigns.

Early registration price is $395 and includes a full day of education for bloggers, individual publishers, social media publishers, video publishers, advertising networks, search advertisers, search engine marketing agencies, search engine marketing service providers, and search technology vendors.

Of course, if you want to attend the full ad:tech conference, the price is $1195. You’ll be kept real busy with the full schedule of events and exhibiting companies. A few that may interest you include: FaceBook, Google, and Website Magazine. At a minimum, if you’re looking to really make the most of the AdSense program and increase your earnings, then I recommend attending the CRS. It’s affordable, far enough in advanced to make plans, and you’ll be aligned with some amazing and knowledgeable people.

As a blogger, there’s many times when I need to create online video tutorials to share with my readers. Adding videos to your blog posts can help capture people’s attention, add different incoming traffic ports, increase the number of people who read and subscribe to your blog, and boost your organic ranking in search engines. The question is, where is the best place to upload videos to?

I can say that determining the best place to upload your videos to is up to you. The reason is because there are advantages and disadvantages with using different services. Below, I have included a copy of the same video that I uploaded into multiple online video sharing sites and also included are my opinions about each. You can review each video and read my opinions about each and determine which online video sharing site is best for you.

YouTube.com

YouTube.com is the most popular online video sharing site online. I would recommend using YouTube because of the added SEO value and traffic you can pipe back into your web site and pages. The disadvantages of using YouTube is that your videos will degrade in quality, and they can NOT exceed ten minutes in length. Because of the time limit, I was not able to upload my video to YouTube.com. Another thing that bothers me is that YouTube.com doesn’t inform me that the video isn’t going to process.

Yahoo! Video

I was actually quite impressed with Yahoo! Video. It has similiar qualities to YouTube.com, but doesn’t have the time restriction. The quality seems to be the same as YouTube.com. The disadvantages, in my opinion, is the lack of traffic, and SEO value. Uploading and processing the video didn’t take long at all, about 15 minutes.

MotionBox Formally AOL Video

AOL Video has been discontinued and traffic is being redirected to a service called MotionBox.com. I decided to give MotionBox.com a try and I am pleased with their service. The process of uploading a video was very clunky and not very systematic. The end result was a video higher in quality compared to YouTube.com and Yahoo! Video. The audio didn’t render quite as well. The disadvantages of using MotionBox.com is the clunky interface, lack of traffic, and I am sure lack of SEO value.

Vimeo Video

I enjoy using Vimeo a lot. It’s one of my favorite places to upload videos to. The interface is very user friendly and the uploading process is conducive to productivity. The problem I have with Vimeo is that it can take up to 30 minutes to batch videos if you have a free account. While this is annoying, I do understand and appreciate their business model. A premium account can be had for under $60 / year, which is very fair. The video and audio quality is amazing. The sharing features are brilliant. One of the things I enjoy most about the sharing features is that Vimeo will do the math for you when you’re customizing proper sizing.

Viddler Video

Viddler reminds me a lot of Vimeo but slightly lesser in quality, but much better than MotionBox, YouTube, and Yahoo. Viddler doesn’t quite match the quality that Vimeo can produce, nor do they offer the robust sharing features. A neat feature about Viddler is the fact that you can record videos on the fly, meaning you don’t have to use desktop software, such as Camtasia, to create the video. With Viddler, you can use record directly on their site.

Where Is The Best Video Sharing Site?

My vote goes to Vimeo. I would recommend upgrading to a premium account simply because it’s affordable, gives you a ton of more features, and it supports their efforts and helps keep them online. In my opinion, even the free account is superior to the other services.

After publishing this article, my strategy will be to use YouTube.com for it’s natural resource of traffic and SEO value. From there I’ll use Vimeo to actually display the videos direct on my pages so that readers can experience the best quality and ease of sharing with others.

Today marks Blogger’s 10th year being online and to commemorate the moment,  birthday presents are being released  as a way to show gratitude to the number of people who have used Blogger. Back when Google acquired Blogger in 2003, the site had around 250,000 visitors per month. Today that number has jumped to over 300 million. You can check Blogger Buzz for the full list of Birthday Presents. I’ll talk more about my favorite Birthday Present below.

Of all birthday presents available, the gift that interests me the most is the new and free Blogger App for the iPhone called BlogPress Lite. The full version of BlogPress has been around for some time, but it isn’t free. Not that I am opposed to spending money on an iPhone App, it’s just nice to see free things for the iPhone. BlogPress Lite was created to celebrate Blogger’s 10th Birthday. (more…)

Opera version 10 is available free for download. This is a brand new web browser that comes packed full of innovative features and is skinned with an elegant new design. If you’ve never tried the Opera web browser in the past, doing so today might not be a bad idea. Check out their very attractive video trailer below.

There are three elements that make Opera stand out above Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome. First element is the new Opera Turbo. Simply put, Opera Turbo is a new compression technology that offers some excellent solutions for users with slow connections. Watch the video below to discover exactly how Opera Turbo technology works. (more…)