Kingdom Keys Bookmarking Blog

Ever came across a website and had a fishy feeling it was not up-to-date?

Check the copyright year. If the webmaster can't be bothered to update that, then chances are the content on display is stale.

Is a forum overrun by spam postings? If the moderator is asleep at the mouse the Russians are having a field day... Check out Tipd...

Sort a forum members page by joining date or number of posts and you will quickly find out whether it is worth joining a community of real active people or just ghosts...

What about original content? How can you spot if they are recycling someone else's material? Article marketing was in vogue to spread copies of the same text as long as the author's signature and extra links in the resource box remained intact. The net result is that you might read in good faith something published yesterday when it fact the original was written 6 months ago! You can get to the bottom of this practice with copyscape

Often the article you are trying to read is split in half across a batch of advertisements. For a start it is annoying to say the least but it also tells you the webmaster cares more about advertising revenue than give you some content you can make sense of and use. By then you have clicked the back button already...

Interesting blogs would release a new post at least once a week and advertise it on twitter also. You can subscribe to their RSS feed - saving you having to poll their page just in case something new showed up there. Or you can subscribe to receive new posts via email.

Some sites offer software to download but as you go about to bring the file to your computer you find out the option to obtain a license has been disabled. What a waste of your time.

Ever downloaded an e-book only to find out it was written seven years ago? It happened to me and fortunately I got my money back through PayPal.

There are more obsolete websites out there than you can click your mouse at. It's like webmasters are too ashamed to admit the site was a flop and are reluctant to take it down (the hosting companies don't mind as long as your keep paying). Better still, they could redirect the traffic to what we are really looking for - but they don't care...

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Bad links are bad but good links are good sometimes exceedingly so.

Bad links come from bad neighbourhoods like gambling, porn sites or link farms where people somehow pile hundreds of unrelated links hoping that this will tally to the credit of somebody.

Good links come from thematically related sites to yours. There is a congeniality of interest between people operating within the same market niche or interest group. Exchanging links with those people isn't just a brilliant idea - it's a must for your site to gain prominence with people (traffic) and search engines (page rank).

Some have concerns about doing reciprocal links but why should you expect to benefit from the SEO charity of others? Search engines won't penalise you as long as you are sharing some common keywords. Link building is free but it is not cheap. It takes time to gain exposure in cyberspace but in doing so you force yourself to come out of your shell to meet folks and show some interest in what they do.

Some put all their budget into advertising but it is difficult to get value for money when every keyword has become an auction and you have to bid higher and higher for evasive clicks.

Some are scared of sending traffic to a competitor. Consumers are smarter than you give them credit for. They already know who your competitors are. They have read reviews on blogs. As a buyer, the internet is the perfect place to do your research. And guess what? If people will click away from your site after a few seconds they might still bookmark you for being well connected and come back later. But if you don't exchange links with others in your field you won't get any traffic from them either. It's like in every capital city. All furniture stores, all car dealerships tend to congregate in the same street. The reason is obvious. People drive there because they like to compare. If your business is incomparable - in cyberspace it is noted by having lots of inbound links. They are the vote of confidence of those who are happy to send people to you because they trust and value what you do and what you are standing for. So let's put the shoe on the other foot. Who do you vote for? Who do you patronize? Who do you appreciate? It's worth telling others about it by carrying a link on your site.

If you are serious about promoting your site to the level it deserves or just replacing your existing links you are bound to lose someday - responding to link exchange requests is a good habit to develop.

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Mobile phones and other wireless equipments are spewing daily copious amounts of electromagnetic radiation. Are we seeing a repeat of the love affair people had with X rays at the dawn of the 20th century? People were fascinated with an X ray photograph of their hand wearing a wedding ring. Fashionable shoe stores had an X ray machine to show you what a good fit it was for your foot!

Eventually after the death of Clarence Dally, Thomas Edison assistant, people realised that seeing through matter had its cost. Today people are fascinated with microwaves. I used to be a ham radio operator and there was anecdotal evidence that engineers who worked on radar equipment never fathered sons - only daughters...

The human body is extremely resilient but when is it too much? What we know is that the effect of radiation is cumulative - a tiny bit each day has the same detrimental effect as a larger dose in a short period of time. So just like passive smoking you might be irradiated whether you use a mobile phone or not. WiFi and other wireless networks are transmitting data literally through your body and maybe one day we might get a bionic antenna to pick up on all that information that passes across our head...

That might be a great script for a Dr Who episode but right now people are up in arms if a mobile phone tower is erected next to a pre-school.

If you are bored at home one afternoon why not experiment with a microwave oven. Have you tried to microwave eggs in there and see them explode? Have you microwaved a DVD-R to see the effects of electrical discharge through its metal film? Have you microwaved some potatoes wrapped in foil? (Turn off the lights in the kitchen and watch the show...)

These are some of the innocent pranks people can get up to but without being facetious the bottom line is that we do not have a clue what the long term effect of radiation will be on the next generation.

You would be considered a dork if you refused to use a mobile phone today. Everybody has one. It is a piece a jewellery and a toy you can enjoy all day. It is a great wife retriever to check-up on what your darling is up to. It can keep your children quiet at church while the sermon drags on. Clearly the advantages outweigh the scare mongering.

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Instead of adding the letter e in front of a word to instantly create their own product name for instant recognition Apple chose the letter i instead. We offer here some extra ideas...

adipiscing Aenean Aliquam aliquam aliquet amet ante Apple bibendum blandit iBurp condimentum congue consectetur consequat convallis iCraze dapibus diam dictum dictumst dolor Duis egestas eget elit enim est euismod Facebook iFad iFart iFind fringilla Google habitasse hac hendrerit imperdiet interdum ipsum justo laoreet lectus leo libero iLife ligula lobortis Lorem lorem iMac iMania massa mauris metus Microsoft mollis neque nisi nisl non Nullam nunc odio orci iPad pellentesque Pellentesque iPhone placerat platea iPod porttitor posuere Praesent iPuke pulvinar purus quis Quisque iRon sapien scelerisque sed Sed semper seo sit iSneeze Suspendisse tempus iThink therefore iAm tortor iTunes Twitter ultrices urna varius vel venenatis Vestibulum vitae Vivamus volutpat Yahoo iZombie

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Are we witnessing the death of investigative journalism? Can you really trust news that you didn't pay for? How can newspapers re-invent themselves in cyberspace?

If you are a journo, your job is at risk. Even before the stoush between Rupert Murdoch and Google the issue of who pays for news is open for debate. Consumers expect to find things for free on the net and there is no shortage of smart operators who gain exposure by recycling someone else's material.

The net has definitively blown out a cosy arrangement between advertisers, journalists, mass-media and consumers.

Blogs have been sprouting everywhere and whoever has an axe to grind or a passion to share can find their audience instantly! Journalists spend as much time searching the net than seeing their sources face to face.

The infamous media leak has now a website of its own where anonymous people can embarrass governments, political parties and corporations.

Another issue is how much people really read from a computer screen? Some are banking on the release of tablet type devices which supposedly reduce eye strain to make us switch from paper.

In a world where everybody does as they see fit freedom of information takes on a new meaning. The propaganda machine is running overtime to blast its message unaware that mass-media is dead and that people have developed a blindness to ads (on TV, on the net, etc...)

What is even more worrisome is the lack of debate where new ideologies are being pushed to the masses without any obvious sign of resistance. For example: How come the feminist lobby does not castigate muslins about the stereotype of women in their civilisation?

Elections have become a popularity contest and far reaching issues are not being addressed. How come nobody is lifting up a banner to address the housing crisis?

How come nobody exposes the hidden interests fighting hard against the worldwide release of the electric car?

How come we never hear much about Chinese foreign policy activities? A regime that stands by North Korea, spies on its people overseas, has an appalling track record in human rights and hides behind heavy censorship?

How come nobody questions whether Australia needs 3 layers of government - federal, state and local?

Where are the true leaders in politics? People who had fire in their belly and a vision for their country? Would people who enter public office be reported on fairly and be applauded for their achievements? Has political life become a mud-slinging match where more is done to pull down your opponent rather than gaining support for a brilliant idea?

Unless we find ways to sponsor a journalist we will remain ill-informed and the consequences do not abide well for a democratic society.

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