Buzz

Buzz: Alive Directory for Blogs – great categories, good editorial!

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I have been known to be skeptical of directories of blogs, and was churlish enough to criticize a blogger for espousing such a policy. But you know, I have recently been adding InvestorBlogger to a number of blog directories as a way to boost traffic and for SEO reasons. So far, some have generated a lot of traffic and others none!

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Highly Promoted Blog DirectoryAnd so, I’m giving Alive Blog Directory a little buzz… In fact, I was quite impressed with the Alive Directory’s Blog Post which examined factors for determing quality web directories, including an important but underrepresented quality in most search engines, automated directories, etc, these days – editorial review. As a website owner, the tips actually could be helpful in eliminating the vast majority of useless directories and focusing on those directories that have value, either in terms of SEO or traffic (or BOTH!).

A cursory look at the directory itself shows a wide range of categories, no more lumping your personal diet blog or your favorite movies blog in the very explanatory ‘Other’ category, or ‘Misc’, or even just ‘Blogs’! Though this directory is not free, perhaps that fee will help to discourage the ‘adult’ websites, junk directories and numerous spam filled websites from spamming their categories and turning them into ‘bad neighborhoods’.

A suggestion, though: create a page or set of pages, highlighting the benefits of using your service and portraying the results of websites that did so. Perhaps an interview or two would be sufficient to generate a good testimonial page! That would definitely add kudos.

Buzz: Have you checked your credit report?

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Following up on this week’s theme of Financial Issues, we’ve looked at Mortgages, Credit Cards, Loans, as well as making a little extra money , it seems fitting that we review Obares.com, a website that aims to provide “…the best way to sell your home or buy your dream home the FSBO ( For Sale By Owner ) way.”

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In fact, the unique sales point of this website is quite simple: you will find the right tools including calculators (much simpler than opening Excel!), legal forms, mortgage information to help you buy and sell your home, and it includes (their words) a FREE FSBO Listing.

(updated information) When I went back today to visit the website today, I noted a new tab at the top for Forums and indeed there are: one for every state in the US. This is a very smart move on the part of Obares.com to include forums. VERY few Real Estate sites that I have reviewed in this blog have any kind of community feeling. In fact, it has been one of my leading criticisms of most of them. Creating a kind of community in your website allows you the opportunity to market your products to an obvious marketplace (don’t oversell!), increase traffic to your website overall, and build a relationship with clients that could last years.

It will take a while to bring traffic to the forums: I’d suggest the website owner create the states as child-boards, rather than simply mark 50-odd boards. It’s quite daunting for newbies to look through all of the boards. You could use a conventional approach: North, South, etc. Break the boards into about 8-10 major forums. Then add the states as children of the major forums. VB is quite capable of this. If you are interested in running good forums, TheAdminZone is well worth visiting both for information and as an example of how to run forums well.

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Now, underpinning many of the financial issues that individuals and families face is the Credit Rating, which is an assessment of a person’s creditworthiness or ability to pay back any loan that is made. These days, Credit Reports are provided by agencies to lenders who then assess the applicant by referring to their FICO score.

For example, you have decided to buy a new house in Houston at $350,000. You walked into your local bank, picked up an application form for a mortgage, and filled it out. Once the application is complete, the bank will then refer to the credit bureaus for your score. It’s that score that can help you get the mortgage loan or have you turned down!

There is a lot you can do to reduce the risk of having lending applications rejected. The first is quite simple: know your own credit history and FICO score. You can apply to a company like Equifax to get your Equifax Credit Report, or Experian or Transunion so you can know what problems lie within your credit history. In fact, clicking through to the website will allow you to see some information on:

  • contacting the bureaus
  • how FICO scores are calculated
  • some tips on managing your credit cards
  • and guidelines on what FICO scores mean.

There are significant benefits for knowing your FICO score. You’ll be able to tidy it up, correct any errors, check for fraudulent activity and improve your score, by knowing what to look for. Once that is done, you’ll find that you should get better offers on your loans, credit cards and mortgages, thereby SAVING yourself money! What could be better than that?

(Ed. I’ve extended the content since version 1.0 and tightened some wording and a picture).

Digi-Cameras: Pictures of the North Coast of Taiwan

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My wife and I have always enjoyed taking pictures with our assorted cameras, though I would hardly consider myself decent as a photographer. In fact, as we speak, she is sorting through our thousands of photographs and adding them to some photo frames that we never used…

It reminded me of the hundreds of photos, negatives, and digi-images that I have taken over the years. And I’ve gone through a range of cameras including…

  • A Kodak 35mm camera;
  • A Practika SLR;
  • A Kodak Digital Camera C360 (my second).

There are three others that I can’t remember right now… including one Russian camera with a dual lens that I could never get to work properly.

Recently, we’ve spent a lot of time travelling around the North Coast of Taiwan exploring the bays, harbors, beaches and scenery. I’m attaching a few of my favorite images for you to enjoy.

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View of the Baishwan Bay Area North East Coast, Taiwan.

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Fuji Harbor – North East Coast Taiwan.

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Local seafood merchant at Fuji Harbor.

These pictures capture some of the spirit of the fishing areas of the North East Coast. Taken with a not too modest Kodak C360 Camera, the quality is great for blogging and web albums. It produces good quality pictures for home use, though I’m kind of hankering something with 7 or more megapixels, and a much larger LCD screen. So, thanks for sharing. Hope you enjoy the post. And quit drooling over the keyboard!

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