June Campbell : Writing from Vancouver

• Looking at this recipe for sesame cheese bread. http://tinyurl.com/3c88sc #

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DupeFreePro is a free software tool that helps you avoid using duplicate content when you’re posting articles here and there on the Internet.

 As you may know, Google ignores duplicate content with it does its magic to decide your SEO ranking.   If you post the same article (containing a link to your web site) in more than one location,  when Google calculates your web site’s rankings, it uses what it considers to be the first posting or the earliest article and ignores the others.

For optimal results, you want to rewrite the article enough so that Google perceives it as original content. This can be tricky, since it’s difficult to know when you have modified an article enough to rate as new content. 

DupeFreePro solves this tricky problem for you, and a few others as well. DupeFreePro will tell you if the two articles are sufficiently different to be considered unique. It will also give you a keyword density rating so you can be sure your keyword or keyword phrase appears the “right” number of times. Additionally, it suggests other related words that Google expects to find in an article that contains your keyword phrase. For example, if you are writing articles optimised for the keyword phrase “how to make a diaper cake”, DupeFreePro suggests you incorporate related words such as nappy, baby, baby shower, etc.

You can use DupeFreePro to be sure your rewritten PLR articles are sufficiently different from the originals; you can use the software to prevent accusations of plagiarism if you are using material you have researched online; and lastly, you can use it to optimize your articles’ keyword density for the search engines.

I find DupeFreePro a good program, although the number of times it expected to see my keywords appear did seem a little excessive. Perhaps that is because I had been underusing keywords before. 

DupeFreePro is freeware and its a good product. I have no idea why the publisher is giving away an application that he could obviously sell, but no doubt he has his reasons. The sales page — quite unnecessary for a free product — suggests that the software will be sold at some point.

It’s a good help to anyone who uses article marketing, PLR articles, Squidoo lenses, HubPages, blogs or similar. I suggest you get a copy if you’re interested in avoiding duplicate content on the Web.

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It’s every Internet marketers dream of getting live links from blog comments. As we all know, Google rewards blogs and web sites that have legitimate live links pointing towards them. Blog commenting would be such a wonderful way to create these links, if it were not for the pesky No Follow Attribute.

For those who don’t know, the No Follow attribute is a piece of coding that blogs and web sites may use on their links. When Google sees the No Follow coding in a link, it does not credit the link when it calculates its page ranking for the search results. (Site visitors can still click on the link).

If you want to know if a particular blog or web site is using the No Follow attribute, go to the page in question, then click on the View Menu at the top of your browser (Or right click on the page if you are using IE. Undoubtedly there is a similar function in FireFox and the AOL browser as well. So you click on the View button, then a menu will show up containing a few items. Select the one called Source.

Now you see a file of source code. At the top of this file, click the Edit button then click Find. A window appears with a Find Now slot. Enter rel=”nofollow” and click Find. If the Finder locates the code, the blog or web site is using the No Follow Attribute.

Try to see if this code is around the Comment field. Some bloggers allow live links in the Comment field but not in the body of the post.

Okay, now back on topic. I have discovered a wonderful little software program that finds blogs that do not use the No Follow attribute. Its Fast Blog Finder

You enter your keyword term or keyword phrase in  Fast Blog Finder and the program locates a listing of blogs using that term. It will show you which ones use the No Follow Attribute and which do not. The free version of Good Blog Finder locates up to fifty blogs matchingt your term. The paid version locates many more.

When you have found a blog that matches your criteria, you can make your comment even more powerful by incorporating your keyword phrase in the anchor text that includes your name. For example, suppose my keyword phrase is “Logitch Web Cams.” I would make a relevant post, then in my signature, I would put, June Campbell writing about Logitech Web Cams.”

I wish I knew how to turn no follow off on this blog. Does anyone know how to do this in WordPress? If so, leave a comment and I’ll make it live as soon as you tell me how to do so!

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• Discovered five ways that EFT tapping aids weight loss. http://hubpages.com/hub/eftforweightloss #
• Learning more about using EFT to lose weight http://hubpages.com/hub/loseweightwitheft #
• Discovered a sinfully rich chocolate dessert recipe. http://tinyurl.com/2jfs34 #
• Checking out bagel recipes at http://tinyurl.com/34drz6 #

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Am I crazy to enter the competitive weight loss industry?  We’ll see.

I’ve just started a new blog to accompany my web site How to Lose Weight Quickly.  I’m advocating a spiritual/energy based approach to accompany the obligatory diet and exercise plan that is a component of any weight management scheme.

 I’ve been told by a gazillion people that the weight loss industry is too big and too competitive and that I should stay out of that field. Perhaps they are right, these people. As the Zen master story goes “We’ll see.”

 Variations of the “We’ll see” story show up everywhere. One of the more recent happens in the movie Charley Wilson’s War.

 Tom Hanks’ character Charley Wilson, tells the story of a young boy receiving a horse as a gift. When everyone celebrates this great luck, the Zen master simply says,”We’ll see.”

Later, the boys breaks his leg while horseback riding. Everyone says this is a tragedy. The Zen master simply says, “We’ll see.”

Then there is war and the boy can’t be conscripted because of his leg injury.

 Everyone says what a fortunate thing it was that he fell off the horse.

 You can guess what the Zen master had to say about it.

So bringing this back to my weight loss web site and blog, am I nuts to enter this field that’s practically OWNED by companies with deep pockets — companies like Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Nutrisystem, etc.

We’ll see.

 In the meantime, visit my blog at How to Lose Weight Quickly Blog

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• June says Diets DO Work. http://www.thinkyourweightaway.com/blog/ #

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• Checking out fudge brownies with ganache topping http://tinyurl.com/33878u #

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Okay, all you people who ordered your Valentine flowers at the last minute, or slunk in to Victoria’s Secret just before they closed, I know something about you. You respond to negative marketing messages and you shop to avoid getting in trouble with That Special Someone.

 On the other hand, those savvy shoppers who picked up their gifts well in advance march to a different drummer. They respond to happy, positive marketing messages and they shop with the intention of making the recipient happy.

The reason I know these things about you  is because a research team from the University of California at Berkeley has outted you.  They studied last minute shoppers versus early shoppers and discovered the shocking truth.

The guy or gal buying the last minute Valentine’s gift is only shopping to avoid the pain that would surely follow should they buy no gift. They respond to marketing messages like the ones that ProFlowers put out:  “Last minute lovers that send overpriced flowers end up in the doghouse.”  

Early shoppers, on the other hand, respond to positive messages like, “Make her feel special with this whatever it is.”

 Not only do last minute shoppers respond better to negative messages, they’re willing to pay more money for a product with a negative message than they would for a similar product with a positive message.

When examining consumer behavior around buying a summer vacation, for example, the researchers found that last minute “bookers” would pay $672 for an airline ticket with a negative message such as “Book now or you’ll be stuck at home”. They would pay only $493 for a ticket with a positive message.

This has implications for anyone doing Internet marketing, or any other kind of marketing for that matter.  However, there is another side to this coin. Although last minute shoppers do respond better to negative, fear based messages, its a short term response. In the long run, the researchers found that marketers build lasting relationships by basing their messages around positive attributes like hope, joy and optimism.

This study is being published in this month’s Journal of Consumer Research.

 One thing’s missing from the study. What about those people who didn’t give any gift at all for Valentine’s Day? 

You know who you are, but names will be withheld to protect the guilty.

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• I’ve uploaded Weight Loss videos at YouTube http://tinyurl.com/39wlsu #

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CIBC (the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce) rocks.  Okay, I know its not fashionable to praise a bank these days. Most of the time, what you hear and see are complaints about high service charges, poor customer service, low interest rates, yadda yadda yadda.

 I’m not joining that bandwagon. Here’s my story. On Sunday, I tried using my ATM card to pay for a movie ticket. The card was rejected. I made a mental note to look into it on Monday, figuring I’d forgotten to transfer funds into that particular account. Before I remembered to check, however, I received a phone call from their call center in Regina.

They had reason to believe my card had been duplicated and had cut off access for my protection. The man on the phone apologized profusely for this inconvenience — even though it was clear the bank had operated in my best interests. I was told to go to my local branch, change my four letter pin number and check the activity in my accounts to see if anything was amiss.

At the bank, a wonderfully helpful employee assisted me. We discovered that at some time over the weekend, $500 had been withdrawn from an account from which I never make withdrawals.   The bank’s security technology determined that this was unusual activity and automatically changed my daily withdrawal limits to zero.

I signed a voucher stipulating that the account had been violated and that the withdrawal was not mine. They reimbursed me for the stolen money, gave me a new card with a new access code, and treated me with the utmost respect and consideration.

As for how the criminals managed to get my information, who knows?  I always protect my pin number when I’m using a machine, and I never leave paper receipts lying around.

The bank employees explained that the criminals have been able to switch some gizmo from the card swiping technology in stores and vendors. The switched “gizmo” records the pin numbers and information from all the cards that get swiped. After a couple of weeks, the crooks come back and remove this gizmo, replacing it with the original. They then have the info they need to create duplicate cards.

Short of using cash only, there seems little we can do to protect ourselves from this sort of activity. I’m planning to reduce my daily ATM withdrawl limit to $100. That way, if the card is ever duplicated again, the loss will be reduced substantially.

And, a great thanks to the folks at CIBC for their competence and kindness in this situation.  

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