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<title>Latest Articles by workmedia</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/</link>
<description>Articles at Populate.NET</description>
<language>en-us</language>
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<title>Advertise Your Law Firm Online for Free with the SEO Content Cycle</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/advertise-your-law-firm-online-for-free-with-the-seo-content-cycle.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/advertise-your-law-firm-online-for-free-with-the-seo-content-cycle.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ If you want to promote your law firm online, you need to forget about Flash and expensive multimedia presentations - online, content still rules. Advertising for law firms can be extremely expensive, especially in the area of paid search. This article presents a natural search engine optimization strategy (meaning the traffic is FREE) that you can begin to implement immediately that will add some real power to your law firm internet marketing campaign. The only cost is time. I call this process the SEO content cycle.

I refer to this content distribution technique as a cycle because your goal should be to use your blog posts to create articles and articles to create books and other material.

The first step is to get into the habit of writing on a regular basis. Force yourself to be systematic and stick to a regular writing schedule. For the content cycle to work, you must create good content on an ongoing basis. It does take time, but consider it a 90 minute to two hour weekly investment in building your firm's online brand. 

My suggestion is to publish a blog because it can easily become your default writing mechanism. Blog posts do not need to be lengthy. They just have to be written on a regular basis, and they should focus on subjects related to your firm's activities. My recommendation starting out is to blog three times per week. This will get you into the habit of writing consistently and will begin the process of generating content that you will recycle for other purposes.

Once you have a few weeks' worth of blog posts published, you will have enough material to start creating articles and other more lengthy content from it. Assuming you have actually blogged about legal issues (highly recommended since that is the whole point of this exercise), then some of the blog posts should fit together in terms of content and context. Begin combining related blog posts into articles of around 500 words in length.

If it works better for your writing style, you can even reverse this process, writing longer pieces first and then breaking them down into smaller pieces for blogging. The problem with that approach is that it moves you away from the act of writing on a consistent basis. But if that is how you prefer to write, then go for it.

Once you convert a few blog posts into an article, the article should be distributed via article directories. Article directories allow anyone looking for content to easily find your articles for use in their own publications, web sites, newsletters, etc. The benefit to you from a search engine optimization perspective is that users of article content are required to include the author's bio, which in turn will contain a keyword link back to your site. For the greatest leverage on your time, use an article distribution service or software that will let you distribute your article to many directories at once.

The next step in the content cycle is to merge articles into books or other types of extended content. If you sell the resulting product, you have the opportunity to generate additional revenue, although in most cases the best option is to use it for giveaway/promotional purposes. Use it to build a mailing list by requiring an email address to download.

Earlier we discussed reversing this process. If you are a heavy writer who writes in very large blocks, then you can even start the process farther up the chain, at the book level. You can write a book, then cull articles from it, and then write blog posts from the articles. Whatever you do, just find a content creation and distribution strategy that works for you and your writing style. The content distribution cycle described here will do wonders for your firm if you are patient enough to see it through. ]]></description>
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<title>Seven Strategies for Marketing a Law Firm Online with Squidoo</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/seven-strategies-for-marketing-a-law-firm-online-with-squidoo.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/seven-strategies-for-marketing-a-law-firm-online-with-squidoo.html</guid>
<pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ If your law firm is not using Squidoo as part of your web site marketing strategy, then you are missing out on a real opportunity to add some muscle to your campaign. In Squidoo, you create "lenses," which are dynamic web pages devoted to a single topic. Users are encouraged to create multiple lenses on many different subjects, which makes it an excellent tool for marketing a law firm web site.

Following are some tips for making the most of your Squidoo lenses. As you become familiar with the Squidoo system and gain experience dealing with lenses, you will come up with your own strategies to compliment those listed here.

1. Don't guess about what keywords for which to promote your firm. Rather, use keyword research to make that determination. Use the keyword tool of your choice (I recommend Google's external tool) to pick strong keywords related to your practice.

For example, if your keyword tool indicates that a good keyword for your firm is "Jacksonville car accident lawyer" (assuming your firm is based in Jacksonville), then you could build a Squidoo lens called "Jacksonville-car-accident-lawyer.squidoo.com," which would likely rank very well for that keyword.

2. Make sure your lenses are attractive and high quality. Lenses in their default state are junky and not useful. Each one of your lenses needs to be well put-together and aesthetically pleasing. Using Squidoo modules, it is easy to set up a page that looks good and updates itself.

3. Add keyword tags to your lenses. Tagging your lenses with keywords makes it more likely that your lenses will show up in Squidoo searches and in search engine results. There is also a strong SEO-related reason for this. Basically, PageRank can be passed from a Squidoo tags page to your lenses and then onto your main site.

4. Use keywords in links from your Squidoo pages to your main site. This is the most basic SEO use of your Squidoo lenses. If you build a good lens, it only makes sense to place a prominent keyword link on the page that links to your site for the SEO boost (via the passing of PageRank in Google, as mentioned above).

5. Create a series of Squidoo lenses related to your firm's practice areas that link to each other. For every keyword that your research shows is being used to search for your practice, create a Squidoo lens for it. Placing links in your Squidoo lenses to your other lenses makes it easier for both people and search engines to find them.

6. Give your lenses some visibility by submitting them to social bookmarking web sites and other social media sites. If you're lucky, some people will like your lenses enough to bookmark them themselves, which can have a snowball effect. Even if no one else bookmarks your lenses, they will get a little exposure and they will get some free inbound links. Taking it a step further, you could also build pages on other social networking sites such as HubPages and extend your campaign beyond the walls of Squidoo. 

7. Communicate with other Squidoo lens owners. Contact people who have built Squidoo lenses on a topic relevant to your own lenses and offer to swap links. Squidoo encourages users to link to one another, and this can also improve your visibility within the Squidoo system.

Follow these tips and you will be on your way to leveraging Squidoo to give some power to your law firm's search engine marketing campaign. Is this a lot of work? Yes. But search engine marketing isn't easy, especially in competitive markets. So you can either get left behind, do the work, or hire a company to do the work for you. ]]></description>
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<title>Five Very Good Reasons to Move to Spain</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Culture_and_Society/five-very-good-reasons-to-move-to-spain.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Culture_and_Society/five-very-good-reasons-to-move-to-spain.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Spain is a beautiful country that offers a fantastic lifestyle to those who are willing to make the move. Yes, you will eventually need to learn the Spanish language (or find a way to quickly translate English to Spanish), and yes, there will be some difficulties making the transition from the U.S. But it will all be worth it once you let yourself be enveloped in the Spanish life style. 

1. Perhaps the number one feature of Spain that makes it a wonderful place to live is the people. Spain is still dotted with small towns where the people are very friendly and the pace of life if much slower than that of the typical American. Whereas we Americans are almost always rushing around, trying to be as efficient as possible, Spanish people have a much more relaxed way of doing things.

2. If you are the type of person who loves hanging out at the beach, then you are in luck, because Spain offers some of the cleanest beaches in the world. If you prefer the mountain life style, Spain also has plenty of mountains and public parks. Most of Spain is surrounded by ocean or rock, and the country gets nearly year-round sunshine.

3. Homes in Spain tend to be more reasonably priced than other countries. It is actually possible to buy beach side properties in the range of a quarter-million dollars, a fraction of what a typical beachside property would cost in the U.S. Considering the highly desirable nature of Spanish beaches, this is truly remarkable.

4. Spain provides outstanding medical care, with its healthcare system being rated the fourth best in the world, according to Financial Times. Spain has a public health system, which means healthcare is free or low cost for any person's family who contributes to the Spanish social security systems. Many aspects of Spanish healthcare are rated higher than most other EU countries.

5. Living in Spain, and living like the Spanish, can also extend your life. Spain has among the world's highest life expectancies, with women living on average to the age of 80, and men living to the age of 74. It is believed that this is due at least in part to the Mediterranean diet eaten by the Spanish, which keeps incidences of heart disease very low. Also, sufferers of ailments like arthritis and rheumatism often note a dramatic decrease in pain due to the Spanish climate.

None of this is meant to imply that Spain is not without its problems. Currently, the country is experiencing unemployment above 10%, and inflation of 5%. But these problems are tied heavily to global economic difficulties. For example, Ford and General Motors both recently announced job cuts at Spanish automobile manufacturing plants. Once the global economy improves, Spain should be well-positioned to once again resume economic strength. ]]></description>
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<title>Nine Things You Must Know about Florida Workers Compensation Laws</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Business/nine-things-you-must-know-about-florida-workers-compensation-laws.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Business/nine-things-you-must-know-about-florida-workers-compensation-laws.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ If you are an employee in the state of Florida, then you should be aware of your state's workers' compensation laws so that you don't get caught off-guard and unprepared if something happens and you find yourself in need of workers' compensation. What follows are nine of the most important things you need to know.

1. You only have 30 days to file a claim. If you get hurt, get to a doctor and get your claim filed. It is possible that you may be able to receive workers' compensation benefits if you file past 30 days, but you have a much better chance of receiving benefits if you file within the 30 day window. So don't delay. See your doctor immediately if you get hurt.

2 .Your employer's insurance company is responsible for ALL of your medical bills. This should ease any concerns you have about ending up with medical bills if you go see a doctor. So, again, do not delay in seeing your doctor if you are hurt on the job.

3. Your employer should report your injury no more than seven days after it becomes aware of the injury. After your employer reports the accident, your workers' compensation insurance company will send you a brochure explaining your rights and responsibilities.

4. If you are hurt, you can still be paid after seven days. If you are out of work for more than 21 days, then you will also be paid for your first seven days. Otherwise, your pay will resume after being out of work for seven days. Also, your first check will be sent within 21 days after the injury is reported.

5 The benefit pay you receive while hurt will be 66 2/3 percent of your average weekly pay. Your average weekly pay will be calculated based on your earnings for the 13 weeks prior to your injury, not counting the week your injury occurred. Workers' compensation checks are paid bi-weekly, regardless of your normal pay schedule.

6. You have the right to report your injury to your employer's workers' compensation insurance company even if your employer does not. Employer neglect does not eliminate your right to get paid if you are hurt on the job.

7. You do not have to pay income tax on your workers' compensation checks. This helps mitigate the lesser pay you will earn while hurt. However, any income you earn from other means will be subject to taxation.

8. Your employer cannot fire you for missing work because of an injury. However, there is also no requirement that your job be held open until you return. So filing workers' compensation and missing work is definitely not something to take lightly because it could impact your future with your company once you are able to work again.

9. If you find yourself without work once you are healthy, reemployment services will be provided to you at no cost. These include job-seeking skills, on-the-job training, job placement and vocational counseling.

So there you have it. Nine things you need to know about Florida workers' compensation law. Try to stay healthy. But if you do get hurt, the state of Florida will do everything it can to help you get back on your feet. ]]></description>
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<title>Link Building: Bouncing Google PageRank Back to Your Web Site with Squidoo</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/link-building-bouncing-google-pagerank-back-to-your-web-site-with-squidoo.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/link-building-bouncing-google-pagerank-back-to-your-web-site-with-squidoo.html</guid>
<pubDate>Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Here is one powerful way you can incorporate Squidoo and similar types of web sites into your search engine optimization and promotion campaign. This concept, which I'm referring to as "bouncing," is sound for any of the major search engines because they all take links into account when ranking web sites.

In a nutshell, this is the process of linking to a high PageRank web site that also links back to your web site. The purpose is to help Google or another search engine spider find the site, so that it can then find the link back to your site. It probably seems much like link swapping, but we are mainly concerned with certain types of web sites where we control the process of placing a link back to our web site.

This strategy works with social bookmarking sites like Delicious and Digg, as well as sites like Squidoo that allow you to post HTML content. Social bookmarking has incredible power if you systematically bookmark high quality content on your web site. If your content is good enough, you can grow your links exponentially.

The remainder of this article will deal with Squidoo. It lets you create pages (called "lenses" in Squidoo terminology) with links to anything you want, and you have complete control of the content on those pages. Google indexes and ranks Squidoo pages with much enthusiasm, and the site's home page has a very high PageRank. Certain other pages in Squidoo, such as lists of tags, also tend to have high PageRank.

Remember, PageRank is spread from site to site via links (unless the links are "nofollow" links). Squidoo tags pages, which are pages that list keywords people have used to categorize their Squidoo lenses, can have high PageRank values. The tags pages link to a list of pages that use those tags, with those pages in turn linking to the Squidoo lenses that use those tags. So PageRank can be passed from the tags page, to a list of sites, to your Squidoo lens. You can then place a link on your Squidoo lens to your web site. Your Squidoo lenses will also have a list of tags which link to the tags pages.

So the "bouncing" referred to above refers to the process of placing a link from your web site or blog to your Squidoo lens (or another Squidoo page), so that search engine spiders can make their way from your web site to Squidoo and back to your web site, at which point you hopefully pick up some PageRank passed back from Squidoo.  

If your main site is not indexed in Google or in another particular search engine, then this strategy does not work. The search engine needs to find your site to begin with, unless it finds your Squidoo lens first and finds your site that way, which would be great but not really a "bounce."  Your Google rankings will improve as you bounce search engine spiders to other web sites, only to have them bounce right back, passing PageRank along with them. ]]></description>
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<title>Seven Essential Strategies for a Successful Link Building Campaign</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/seven-essential-strategies-for-a-successful-link-building-campaign.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/seven-essential-strategies-for-a-successful-link-building-campaign.html</guid>
<pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Link building is hard work. And after optimizing your web pages for specific keywords, it's also the number one thing you can do to help your search engine rankings.  So if you're serious about improving your search engine rankings, you will engage in a linking campaign. 

I suggest that you use many different linking strategies in order to get links from lots of different types of web sites. The process can be very time consuming, but is essential. Use all seven of these strategies listed here and you will build a very strong catalog of links to your site. 

1. Link swapping. This is a classic technique that still works. No, two way links are not as valuable as one way links. But this is a good way to get the process started, and you can still end up with some nice quality links. Regardless, you will help improve your search rankings.

2. Directories. Go ahead and pay for a directory submission service. Probably half of the submissions will be denied for any number of reasons, but you'll still end up with a bunch of directory links to your site. Any single link from a typical directory isn't worth much, but it's still a quick, cheap technique to get a bunch of links.

3. Articles. This is my personal favorite technique. Right now you are reading an article that I wrote and optimized to help the search engine rankings of one of the pages on my company's web site. At the same time, I am getting my name spread around by providing free information about the strategies that my company uses to promote our clients' sites.

4. Press releases. There is some expense involved with this strategy if you use PRWeb, which I recommend. PRWeb gives you the widest distribution of your press release and the most links as a result. Press releases also result in a nice short-term spike in traffic.

5. Social bookmarking sites. This strategy works very well if you post a lot of high quality, original content on your site. Publicly bookmarking your pages in a bunch of the most popular social bookmarking sites can give you some very nice exposure and, if people really love your content, many new fans.

6. Squidoo and other public content sites. Any site that allows you to post original content with keyword links back to your site can be a powerful tool. For example, Google loves Squidoo pages. If you own a well-produced Squidoo page with a popular keyword in its URL, you could find that page ranked very highly in Google even if your own web site is not. So a link from your Squidoo page to your main web site help your main site's rankings.

7. Blog comments. This strategy is not as effective as it used to be because blogs that allow links that search engine spiders can follow are becoming rare. But if you can find those blogs, a well-written (but concise) comment with a keyword link back to your site can be quite valuable.

Is it a lot of work to use all of these strategies? Absolutely. Is link building worth the effort? Definitely. Just remember to be very specific in your promotion. Do your keyword research first, and seek links that have your keywords in the link text. 

There are tools that can automate certain parts of the above strategies. Experiment with some different tools and find ones you like that can increase your efficiency. Over time, you will get much faster, and your web site's link count will explode. ]]></description>
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<title>Hiring Language Translators Appropriate for Your Target Dialect</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Business/hiring-language-translators-appropriate-for-your-target-dialect.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Business/hiring-language-translators-appropriate-for-your-target-dialect.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The term "dialect" is generally defined as a language variety spoken in a specific geographic region. The Spanish language has many variations, or dialects, which can be quite different from one another. This is an important consideration when dealing with live or document translation situations involving the Spanish language.

Possibly the widest gap in Spanish dialects exist between European Spanish and Latin American Spanish.  The Spanish language originated in the Castile region of Spain. During the reign of King Alfonso X in the 1200's, Spanish became the official language of the region and it became mandatory for all government documents to be written in Spanish. From the 1400's to the 1800's, the Spanish language was passed through the Canary Islands to places like Cuba and Santa Domingo via sailors.

Through the years, the Spanish spoken in the Latin American countries diverged from that spoken by the European countries. One of the main areas of difference is in the use of pronouns. For example, in Spain the word "tu" is used for "you", whereas in some Latin American countries, at least in some instances, the word for "you" is "vos". This can lead to some interesting differences in second person expressions. 

A translator interpreting a document or conversation should be careful to use language elements appropriate to the specific region. For example, "vos," which is used often in Latin America, may be considered an uneducated way of speaking in some other countries - certainly not the kind of impression you want to make for your business.

The Spanish language also diverged between countries within Latin America. The mingling of languages, both local and that spoken by explorers, along with spontaneous or unexplained changes, drove the evolution of numerous Latin American dialects. Much study is required to develop an understanding of the proper way to speak for specific Spanish language countries.

All formal Spanish dialects use the same written standard for grammar. However, informally, and in speech, differences can be pronounced. In addition to grammatical differences such as pronouns, there are also regional word differences that relate to food products, clothing, and other everyday items. Latin American Spanish also tends to display influence from Native American languages.

The term "dialect" does not apply to other regional languages spoken in Spain such as Catalan and Basque. Those are distinctive languages requiring an entirely different language skill set. 

When hiring a translator, be very specific about the country and language with which you will be dealing. It is too vague to just look for a "Spanish" translator. And at all costs, avoid any kind of automated or mechanical translator. You absolutely will not receive as high quality a translation as you will if you employ a live human being who is comfortable speaking and writing in the language and dialect of your prospective customer.

In business, you need to speak the language of your customers - literally. When dealing with prospects who speak Spanish or any other language other than your own, hire a professional language translator. Do not risk insulting your potential clients by mangling their language. ]]></description>
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<title>Combining Direct Marketing Strategies with Web Copywriting For Maximum Impact</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/combining-direct-marketing-strategies-with-web-copywriting-for-maximum-impact.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Search_Engine_Optimization/combining-direct-marketing-strategies-with-web-copywriting-for-maximum-impact.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ There is often a disconnect between what a business says in its marketing material and what a person understands the business to say. This is a result of several issues, including:

1. The business owner or marketing personnel using language or buzz words related to their industry that an outsider may not understand;

2. The business not taking time to carefully think through its marketing copy; and/or

3. The business overestimating the intelligence of its customers.

Assuming the least common denominator when writing your web copy (or copy for any other marketing piece) does not insult anyone. It simply means that you care enough about your customers or prospects to provide them with clear, understandable explanations. You do a service to the world if you write about your business in such a way that anyone can understand what you do or what you sell. Connect the dots.

The Web is a medium built for short bursts of communication for several reasons:

1. It is difficult to read on-screen. Staring at a computer screen is hard on the eyes and it is often difficult to follow long lines of text or passages. Breaking your copy into smaller chunks makes it a much easier reading experience.

2. People have different levels of bandwidth available to them. Some people surf the Web at the office on high speed networks, some surf from home on high-speed cable connections. Some people use DSL, which is much slower. Some people use satellite Internet connections, which are much slower than cable-based connections. Some people are still on dial-up. Short bursts of information do better at accommodating the different speeds at which your customer can access information.

3. This is the digital age. People expect information to be generated quickly and get to the point. Chunks of information better accommodate peoples' short attention span.

As far as the content of the actual copy, assuming you keep the above points in mind, that is where you can go old school. With regards to commerce, the Web is simply a digital direct marketing platform. For years, companies have compiled mailing lists of potential prospects and used sales letters to close business. It's a tried and true method, and for businesses that hire strong copywriters, very prosperous.

The Web takes direct marketing to a new level by giving the advertiser much greater ability to target his message, and the ability to deliver that message almost instantly. Web marketers can do things classic direct marketers could only dream about.

Web site owners must go through the pain of fine-tuning copy. Although it is still a laborious process, the Web makes it much easier to generate the data you need to create profitable copy. Classic direct marketers would take a mailing list and divide it into two or three or more groupings, and then send a different letter or offer to each grouping. The orders generated from each group would then be tallied, with the letter or offer that generated the most sales considered the winner. On the Web, you can do the exact same thing by split-testing ads and landing page copy in a paid search campaign.

Combining direct marketing strategies with the advantages the Web offers makes it much easier for business owners to write compelling, profitable copy. It is still work, but the businesses that are serious about maximizing the profitability of their online marketing will do whatever it takes to see results. ]]></description>
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<title>Turn Your Paid Search Campaign Into a Laser Guided Missile with Negative Keywords</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Pay-Per-Click/turn-your-paid-search-campaign-into-a-laser-guided-missile-with-negative-keywords.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Internet_Marketing/Pay-Per-Click/turn-your-paid-search-campaign-into-a-laser-guided-missile-with-negative-keywords.html</guid>
<pubDate>Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ The best way to guarantee that you receive high quality, targeted traffic from your pay per click campaigns is to use only exact match keywords. This works fine if you are competing in an industry in which there is excess available keyword inventory, or when your budget is very limited. Often, however, due to strong competition for the top keywords or limited keyword inventory, you will need to use a more broad strategy. This opens you up to the possibility of having your ads displayed for non-relevant searches. The way around this problem is to use negative keywords to fine-tune you campaigns.

Negative keywords are keywords you specify that should not be included in search queries that trigger your ad. For example, if you provide services in one particular city but not another, you could use negative keywords to exclude your ad from being displayed from searches that contain the city where you do not do business.

Another example would be if you offer language translation services. If you run ads for the broad match keyword "Chinese symbols", chances are very good that you will generate a lot of traffic from people looking to have words translated into Chinese symbols for decorative purposes such as tattoos. So a good negative keyword in this instance would be "tattoo" because it would filter out people looking for Chinese symbols for tattoos, as opposed to more serious business matters.

As you run your campaign, it really helps to know what keywords people are actually using that trigger your ad at inappropriate times. In Google, you can generate a search query report that will provide this information. Run the report and then examine it for search phrases that triggered your ad that should not have. Then add those negative keywords to your account. Google lets you add negative keywords at the account or campaign level. If the keywords are ones for which you NEVER want your ad to display under any circumstance, then you should add it at the account level.

Use negative keywords to fine-tune the traffic that your web site receives via paid search. It will allow you to operate under a more broad strategy, but still limit your traffic to that that is the most appropriate. It is a power strategy that will help you improve your paid search return on ad spend by better focusing your marketing dollars.

Focus is the key to success in any type of marketing. If you broadcast your marketing message to the whole world, via mass distribution channels (or the Internet), you are going to be paying for a lot of set of eyes and ears that have no interest in your product or service. That is the advantage that search engine marketing has over traditional marketing to start with. When negative keywords are added to the equation, it increases the focusing process even further, turning your marketing message into a laser guided missile that only attacks the very best, most targeted prospects. It's a technique you should start using today. ]]></description>
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<title>Luxury Watches - An Introduction for Collectors</title>
<link>http://www.populate.net/Beauty/Fashion/jewelry/luxury-watches-an-introduction-for-collectors.html</link>
<guid>http://www.populate.net/Beauty/Fashion/jewelry/luxury-watches-an-introduction-for-collectors.html</guid>
<pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[ Luxury watches today are as functional as they are stylish and beautiful. They are valued as collectibles, status symbols, and art. Some luxury watch brands like Rolex are household names but some of the most luxurious are all but unknown to the average person. And there are dozens of fine luxury watchmakers, in Switzerland, France and elsewhere, all of whom make watches worth the investment.

A luxury watch is a work of art and a masterpiece of craftsmanship. Some luxury watches have 800 or more components and are still hand-assembled. At the low end, luxury watches sell for about $1,000. Many luxury watches have a price tag of 30 times that amount or more, a few sell for close to a million dollars.

Collecting Luxury Watches

A beginning collector drawn to luxury watches may be overwhelmed by the variety of choices from the simply elegant to the stunningly beautiful and multi-faceted functions available in fine timepieces made by dozens of reputable makers.

A sound bit of advice to anyone interested in adding a luxury watch to one's collection is to study the watches and the companies before buying one on impulse. There are several factors to consider when purchasing a luxury watch, especially if it is being purchased, in part, as an investment.

The reputation of the brand is important. Rather than relying solely on a salesperson, talk to people who own luxury watches, study information available about the watchmakers and their watches, and find out what dealers and collectors are saying about watches on Internet forum sites.

Luxury Watches with Added Value

Many watch connoisseurs place high value on the number of complications a watch has. Complications are mechanical functions other than basic time telling like perpetual calendars, second time zone, or lunar phases. Generally speaking the more complications a watch has, the more valuable it is.

Other watch enthusiasts are interested in the beauty or style of the device. These watch buyers look for sleek elegant designs and ornamentation like diamonds or other gemstones.

Other details to consider when purchasing a luxury watch that can increase its value over time are its rareness, whether it is a limited or special edition, its warranty, and, in the case of previously owned watches, if its provenance can be traced.

Subtle Differences Between Luxury Watch Brands

With those basic tips in mind, here are a few things to know about some luxury watch brands. Rolex and Cartier are the two best-known brands and both make fine watches in a wide range of prices. The best-known brands are not always the most desired by collectors. In terms of status and overall quality, there are several luxury watches valuable to connoisseurs and aficionados.

Luxury Watches for Yachtsman, Contact Sports, and Other Special Interests

Two of the top Swiss-made watches are Patek Philippe and Bregeut. Both companies make exquisite watches with multiple complications and jewels. Patek Philippe holds the record in number of complications. In 1989, they created a pocket watch in honor of their 150th anniversary with 33 complications including a celestial chart with 2,800 stars. Other luxury watchmakers with solid reputations include Piaget and Bulgari of Italy.

Some watches are designed for special interest markets. Breitling is favored by pilots for their aeronautic designs. Glycine's Airman 7 watches can display up to four time zones, perfect for travelers. Corum's Admirals' Cup Tide 44 measures the force of the tide and currents based on the moon's phase making it perfect for yachtsmen. And for those who play contact sports, Jaeger's Reverso watches are made so that the face can be flipped over. ]]></description>
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