Leftover Stuff from Airports Security - How to Buy!
Posted by reviews on Nov 1, 2007
Looking for a great way to find inventory to resell or just some nice gifts for yourself or others? Here’s some great possibilities!
Since 9/11, the TSA has collected tons of items at airport security checkpoints. What happens to all that stuff? Here’s how to buy TSA contraband.
Since 9/11, the Transportation Security Administration has collected tons of items at security checkpoints; in 2006 alone, screeners took in more than 13 million items. What happens to all that stuff? The TSA turns it over to state surplus property agencies, which tend to sell it online or at retail stores. (Sometimes the contraband is sold in bulk.)The agencies say they’ll reunite you with your prized pocketknife, if they can locate it. But they would much prefer that travelers figure out the rules and abide by them. “Our goal is for passengers not to bring this stuff on anymore, so we won’t have to deal with it,” says Steve Ekin, Georgia’s surplus property division director. Here’s where to look, and what you might find.
Quote from Yahoo! News
Here’s some contact info:
Alabama
Airports: 14 in Florida and Alabama, including Miami, Orlando, Huntsville, and Birmingham
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: alstatesurplus)
Typical deal: Golf driver $100
Craziest items? “There are always lots of plastic fake swords that people buy at Walt Disney World, so there are probably lots of mad kids.”
Info: adeca.state.al.us/surplus%20property
Georgia
Airports: Atlanta, Savannah/Hilton Head
Where to buy: Stores in Tucker (Atlanta Surplus Center, 770/414-6468); Swainsboro (Swainsboro Surplus Center, 478/289-2623); and Americus (Americus Surplus Center, 229/931-2407)
Typical deal: Hammers $3, cordless drills $10
Craziest items? “We get flatware and kitchen knives stolen from restaurants, and we’ve received a bowling pin, a chain saw, and a few circular saws.”
Info: surplusproperty.doas.georgia.gov
Illinois
Airports: Chicago O’Hare, Chicago Midway, and occasionally four more in Illinois and Michigan
Where to buy: Auctions held at ibid.illinois.gov
Typical deal: 25 pounds of Swiss Army knives for $250
Craziest items? “On occasion, we’ll see big bowie knives and ninja swords. And nunchucks–a lot of those come through.”
Kentucky
Airports: Eight in various states, including Orlando and Miami (Alabama shares the loot), and Louisville
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: kysurplus)
Typical deal: 50 Swiss Army knives for $250
Craziest items? “We’ve collected about 500 mini Louisville Slugger bats bought at the Louisville Slugger Museum.”
Info: finance.ky.gov/internal/surplus
Oregon
Airports: Portland and Eugene
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: oregontrail2000)
Typical deal: 10 Leatherman multitools for $75
Craziest items? “Golf clubs and machetes.”
Info: oregonsurplus.com
Pennsylvania
Airports: 13 from various states, including New York JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, and Cleveland
Where to buy: eBay (seller ID: pastatesurplus)
Typical deal: Deer-hunting kit (gut-slitting knife, multitool, pocketknife, large safety pins, rope, flashlight) for $50
Craziest items? “We’ve received hundreds of pairs of fuzzy handcuffs and other … paraphernalia–I wanted to create funny Valentine’s Day kits, but folks here thought taxpayers wouldn’t like it.”
Info: dgs.state.pa.us/surp_prop
Texas
Airports: Seven across the state, including Dallas/Fort Worth and Austin
Where to buy: Austin Storefront in Austin, 512/463-1990
Typical deal: Scissors and corkscrews 25¢, knives 50¢, multitools $2.50
Craziest items? “Brass knuckles, crutches, and piñata sticks. And we once got a cane with a knife inside it.”
Info: tfc.state.tx.us/communities/supportserv/prog/statesurplus
Washington State
Airports: Seattle-Tacoma, Spokane, and Tri-Cities
Where to buy: Auburn Retail Store in Auburn, 253/333-4912
Typical deal: Corkscrews for 25¢
Craziest items? “Lots of ulus–round Eskimo chopping blades. Also, a Sit’n Putt. It’s a short-handled putter designed to be used while you’re on the potty.”
Info: ga.wa.gov/surplus
The Power of Google
Posted by reviews on Oct 12, 2007
Google seems to be growing exponentially. During the month of August alone they were reported to have had 31 billion queries throughout the world. In total more than 37 billion searches were carried out across all Google sites. Second on the list was Yahoo!, which had a paltry 8.5 billion searches recorded during the month. Yahoo!, Ask, and MSN Search do not come anywhere near being as used or have the level of usage. Although there was a poll conducted recently showing that Yahoo! had a slight lead for users in terms of being a favored search engine. These users still seem to be using Google anyway.
The Asia-Pacific region, including China, Japan and India, contained the greatest number of unique searchers, with 258 million conducting over 20 billion searches during the month.
Since Google has such dominance, as far as search engines are go, they also can greatly influence the way websites are designed, how people market their sites, and to that end, which websites people visit. They can also pretty much dictate the cost of advertising as well. This level of control over something so pervasive, being the internet itself, makes one think that they have more influence now than Microsoft ever had during its hayday.
I believe they are bordering on monopoly control of the internet. I wonder if they will be eventually targeted for regulation or some sort of government instituted penalties, such as being broken up.
Improving Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Rank
Posted by reviews on Oct 1, 2007
Wikopedia describes the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) as “the listing of web pages returned by a search engine in response to a keyword query. The results normally include a list of web pages with titles, a link to the page, and a short description showing where the keywords have matched content within the page. A SERP may refer to a single page of links returned, or to the set of all links returned for a search query.”
The SERPs are the single most important thing with respect to search engines and optimizing your website, and in particular, the individual pages. The SERPs are the “free” way of getting targetted traffic to your site. The usual alternative is paid advertising, which is anything but free. Search Engine Optimization is the science (or art) of optimizing a website for the best SERP results possible for range of potential search terms that the webmaster is trying to improve upon for the SERPs. The higher the position on the page, preferably the first page, of the SERP the better. Most search engine users only look at the top choices on the first page.
Each search term, such as “reviewer” or “reviewer of sites“, will have different results for the respective search engine. You will even notice that the results may change from day to day for the exact same search term on the specific search engine. There are many variables to consider when optimizing your site and pages, including how and what your competition is doing on their end for the given search terms. In my opinion, the best methods for improving your SERPs for the specific search terms is to do the following:
- Use the Firefox plugins SEOQuake and Niche Watch to analyze your (and your competition’s) keyword density for a specific page, determine the amount of backlinks (preferably from pages with related content), number of indexed pages, keyword occurrences on the page, page rank, all in anchor, all in title and all in text rank for both domain and webpage information.
- Continue to add original content on your site, especially articles relating to the specific keywords.
- Give descriptive titles to the content and web pages relating to the keywords.
- If possible, use search engine friendly url’s, such as “http://www.example.com/seo/all-about-seo.html”.
It does take time to work your way toward the top of the SERPs, especially if the keywords have a lot of competition, so you will need to be patient. The important thing is to not do anything that could get you penalized by Google, since it is usually the SERPs for your site that takes the hit.
Yahoo! Search Marketing $199 Credit Toward Advertising
Posted by reviews on Sep 13, 2007
This is great news for those new to Yahoo! Search Marketing. That is a ton of credit! This applies to the Self Service option only (where you do the setup yourself).
- Select your keywords.
- Write your ads.
- Set your budget and bid amount.
Click here for the link
The Best Free SEO, Marketing, PPC Tools
Posted by reviews on Sep 6, 2007
Below is a list of the best tools on the internet for SEO, internet marketing, PPC (pay-per-click) and webmaster related needs.
Backlinks (who is linking to you):
Domain Pop Backlink Checker - This is probably the best backlink tool out there. It sorts by site, so if you have sitewide backlinks, you won’t have to look at pages and pages of backlinks from the same site. Fantastic!
Key Words (helpful for PPC - Adsense, YPN, etc):
Google Key Word Tool - You can’t beat Google’s own keyword tool!
Assortment of Web-based Tools
SEOChat - On left side
Browser based tools:
–Firefox Plugins–
Smart Pages plugin - Very handy tool!
SEOQuake - shows nofollow links, along with much more
Niche Watch Tool - Excellent tool for studying keywords. As it states, “This wonderful SEO extension provides you the technical information required to beat your competitor websites in serps.”
SearchStatus - Also shows nofollow links, plus much more
Alexa Sparky - Official tool for Alexa. Displays a nice graph along your bottom task bar. Also, helps to boost your Alexa rank (not very relevant unless you sell blog posts)
F Shaped Reading Pattern of Web Content
Posted by reviews on Sep 3, 2007
A study recently conducted by Jakob Nielsen and Kara Pernice showed a startling reading pattern of web users. Instead of being the assumed line by line, left to right pattern, readers often glance through the content in an F shaped pattern. This is of particular importance to website designers that are concerned about the readers clicking on ads or reading specific information on a page.
Using special eye tracking equipment (as seen below), they studied the reading patterns of 238 web users. The equipment includes cameras and infrared emitters, which are hidden behind the dark areas above and below the screen. In addition, they had a webcam mounted on the side to capture the users facial expressions.
As the web user reads the page, they often read the first, and sometimes second, paragraph, but then glance along the left side and down, thus making an F shape. A heat map is displayed in the images below. The red, indicating the most heavily viewed area, while yellow indicates the even less, and blue displaying the least viewed area. You will then notice the pattern of the letter “F”.
In the next image, which is an About Us page, you will notice that the reader did not read further than two paragraphs before beginning to skim. Unless the very beginning of the next paragraphs grab their attention or they find the first two particularly intriguing, you will probably lose them on this page.
In the next image you will see how they viewed a common shopping cart design.
Notice how the reader fixated on the numbers? They also just glanced over the imagery on the page. This may be something to consider in your websites, particularly if is an ecommerce site.
You may also notice that the users only glanced at the cross-selling offers. Any attempts to cross-sell would have to be eye catching and immediately obvious of its value to the user. This study could be very pertinent to all webmasters and marketers trying to sell a product or an idea.
Press Coverage:
USA Today
‘Sneak Peek’ Into Net Surfers’ Brains
Poynter Institute
What Makes Web Images Attractive
If you wish to order their new book, you may use the following link: Eyetracking Web Usability (Voices That Matter)
Also, you should check out their other highly regarded book Prioritizing Web Usability (VOICES)
Eight Tips to Effective Email Marketing
Posted by reviews on Sep 2, 2007
The signs of a successful relationship with your email readers are high open rates, click-throughs that convert into actions, low unsubscribe and complaint rates, and active feedback from your readers. Take the time to read through these tips and, if you apply them, you will find success in your email marketing campaign or newsletter writing ventures.
Tip 1: Test the design of the email in multiple email clients (ie Hotmail, MS Outlook Express, etc)
You may spend hours writing the content and designing the layout, only to have it show up in the Inbox of your customer looking very bad. The email clients can, and often do, automatically disable images, and ruin the code you’ve included.
Microsoft recently announced that Outlook 2007 will use the Word HTML rendering engine. The more advanced CSS and HTML is now limited, leaving you with the need to use more basic designs and tables. Try to limit your use of images and stick with simplicity of design. Focus more on the content.
Once you have written the email or newsletter, test, test, test. Try viewing your creation in as many email clients as you can, especially the most common ones.
Here is a list:
Internet Based
Gmail
Yahoo!
AOL
Hotmail
Desktop Email Clients
Outlook 2003
Outlook 2007
Outlook Express
Apple Mail
Thunderbird
Eudora
Lotus Note
You can also use tools, such as Site Vista, can make the task of testing new designs easier.
Tip 2: Check Your Email or Newsletter for Spam-like Indicators
Messages containing very high ratios of images or HTML will often trigger spam filtersr. The use of too many capital letters and excessive punctuation (!!!). Certain keywords can also trigger spam filters-words such as free, trial, money, as seen on tv, viagra, and a growing list of other words.
Services such as SpamCheck can be used to quickly score your emails, and can help to guide you towards better word selection.
Tip 3: Unsubscribing
You are legally required to give the recipient the ability to unsubscribe, however you can make it ‘less than easy’ to do so.
If you’re concerned about losing members of your reading audience, here are some simple suggestions:
Give them the ability to opt for a different ratio or type of newsletter. Maybe they do not want to hear about special offers, but would be happy to read interesting articles.
Offer them an option of changing the email address.
Perhaps they no longer want to receive emails, but would like an RSS feed or option to bookmark your site.
Tip 4: Maintain the list of email addresses of your customers
There are a variety of email marketing campaign programs and sites available, such as:
These email delivery or email broadcast systems usually would detect soft and hard bounces and will deal with these addresses automatically. (Hard bounces are categorically invalid addresses, such as a closed mailbox, while soft bounces may respond with the, “Mailbox over size limit” or “Mailbox currently unavailable”, types of messages).
Although email addresses that are no longer functioning will not affect your customers, the list should be maintained for your own benefit. By keeping an accurate list of email addresses you are providing yourself with information as to how many recipients you have receiving your newsletter. If there are only a handful of people actually receiving and reading your newsletter, then perhaps you need to work on getting more readers into the mix, or, sad to say, consider abandoning the campaign for now.
Also, if you are sending emails to large numbers of recipients, it is important to stager the emails, especially if many are going to the same domain, such as AOL. Otherwise, your recipient Internet Service Providers could blacklist you for sending to too many invalid addresses or for sending too many emails in general.
Tip 5: Notify your ISP about your email marketing campaign
Make sure you notify your ISP or web host before beginning an email marketing campaign. The last thing you would want is for your own ISP or web host to block your emails, especially if they are time sensitive.
Tip 6: Send interesting, relevant content
Make sure you are satisfied with the content of the email or newsletter. Feel free to ask your readers what they would like to read. After all, they are the ones that matter.
You should ask yourself before sending:
Is the design interesting and fresh?
Will the information in the newsletter attract them to the site?
Does the newsletter accurately reflect the quality of the site?
Should I include coupons or other offers?
Did I spell-check the content of the newsletter?
Tip 7: When should I send it?
The basic rule of thumb:
* If your newsletter is of vocational interest and read at work, send it on Wednesday or Thursday.
* If your newsletter is primarily read at home and focuses on spare-time activities, send it on Sunday.
Tip 8: Always have permission before sending emails
Make sure you do not sink to the level of a spammer. There is no quicker way to turn off your customer than to ’spam’ their inbox.
All in all, writing newsletters and conducting an email marketing campaign is a learning process. There is no sure-fire way of doing it, since every situation is different. You concern should be toward your readers. If they are happy, you should be happy.