Android Number One in China: 90% of Chinese Market Now Using Android Devices

Outside of North America and Europe, China represents the next frontier for profits where smartphones are concerned. The competition is fierce and just like here in the West, it seems to be an all-out slug fest.

The two biggest players are of course Android and Apple’s iOS but the clear winner so far—and by a wide margin—is Android. A new report into mobile OS composition in China has shed some light on just how fast Google has managed to embed Android into the smartphone-consciousness of the Chinese. In 2011 Google had just 58.2% of the Chinese smartphone market—by the 3^rd quarter of 2012 that figure had jumped to 83% of the market.

Now, according to data released by Analysys International, Android’s total share of the Chinese mobile market is now a staggering 90.1%–an almost complete lockout of anyone else.

Android winning the zero sum game

If Android has 90.1% of the market then it means companies like Apple are fighting over a meager 9.9% market share. The data showed that iOS saw a slight drop in its share from 6% to 4.2%. Nokia had the biggest decline, falling from 6% to a very paltry 2.4% of the overall market share. Analysts have lamented Nokia position especially given that just a few years ago, the Chinese mobile market was dominated by Nokia. But such is the changing tide and right now, companies like Nokia and Apple can only watch as the little green robot charms its way into the hearts and minds of people in China.

A lot of people might be wondering why Android is so dominant but the quick and easy answer is that its dominance is tied to its ubiquity on a broader range of devices. Anyone in China who wants to own an iOS powered device can only go to Apple; Android enthusiast can chose between HTC, Samsung—even knockoff phones, which by many accounts are all powered by Android. But it’s not just smartphones that give Android the edge, the OS is also present on tablet and this has largely helped to push use of Android devices in the last 6 months in China.

When Apple does get the iPhone 5 to go on sale over there, it might have some success in clawing back market share but it won’t be by much. If many people in the U.S. and Europe are struggling to buy the iPhone 5, then the struggle will be an even greater one in China.

For now Google is winning—even if its services are heavily filtered by the Chinese government, its hardware is still the platform upon which local mobile device sales are built. Could this a leverage point for Google in getting more access to China? Quite possibly, but so far the search giant has been reluctant to try its luck in this regard.

One thing is certain and that is the fact that at this rate of growth, Google’s Android will be the only player in the Chinese marketplace in the coming couple of years.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/16/android-number-one-in-china-90-of-chinese-market-now-using-android-devices/

Apple iOS 6 Causing Massive Overages: Downloading Content Multiple Times

Oh boy, Apple is having problems again. Fresh off its recovery from iOS 6 failing terribly with its native maps application, there are reports surfacing that users are experiencing overages due to a glitch in iOS 6 and its management of downloads and content streaming.

The report which was released by Public Radio Exchange labs, cites the frequent re-firing of download and streaming sessions for a number of apps including iTunes Match, various podcasts and other apps that use some sort of streaming capability.

According to some users, each download develops a perpetual loop in which content is downloaded over and over again. This of course is terrible for people who are concerned about maxing their data limits. So far Apple hasn’t come forward to either confirm or deny the claims made by Public Radio Exchange but various patches to iOS 6 have been released—one of which was sent out just last week. But it’s not just iOS 6 users who are having problem; one report suggests that those running iOS 5 may also be affected.

Public Radio Exchange explained one instance in which an iOS 5 user experienced overages: “Because the ranges of these requests seem to overlap and the requests themselves each carry some overhead, this causes a single download of an MP3 to use significantly more bandwidth than in iOS 5. In one case, the playback of a single 30MB episode caused the transfer of over 100MB of data.”

Could this spell further stock troubles?

Apple’s stock fell to a 5-month low recently, and although that decline was based largely on sales of the iPad mini, this latest fiasco could send the stock tumbling folder. The bug seems to be eating way at iOS 6 and this of course is the latest operating system powering the iPhone 5. Considering that the iPhone 5 has been dogged with assembly and delivery problems, the last thing Apple can afford to happen is for customers to end up paying more than they should for data they use. To say that this needs to be fixed ASAP is perhaps an understatement.

In the meantime, Public Radio Exchange and some users in Apple forums have been reporting success by updating to the very latest version of iOS 6 which is 6.0.1. Not doing so with the continued streaming of podcasts could result in overages headaches.

Some users have also reported success with contacting their carriers and requesting adjustments to their data use; presumably if you can show that the overage is directly connected with the bug, carriers will honor such requests.

Apple’s silence on the matter is of course very conspicuous, not least because right now customers aren’t happy across a range of its products. The recent high profile dismal of one of its executives also does not augur well for the company growing forward. The Christmas shopping season has been taking shape in the last few weeks and Apple can ill-afford to not be ready for hungry buyers.

Do you think Apple is finally feeling the effects of losing Steve Jobs? Share your thoughts below.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/16/apple-ios-6-causing-massive-overages-downloading-content-multiple-times/

Mozilla Made $163 Million Last Year – From Google!

Mozilla is doing pretty well for a non-profit; in fact, things have got better for Mozilla since 2010 and much of that has been tied largely to the fortunes of Google. This is hard to believe that one of Mozilla’s creations, Firefox, is a direct competitor for Google Chrome. But such are the strange relationships and symbioses in tech that it’s hardly surprising.

In terms of actual numbers, Mozilla saw revenues in 2011 of $163 million—a 33% increase on the $123 million it made in 2010. Google continues to power much of that revenue growth with a 85% contribution to overall earnings.

Search contracts are lucrative

Mozilla and Google have had their differences, but the one thing that Mozilla has kept sight of is Google’s importance to the non-profit. The lucrative deal that sees Google being the default search engine in Firefox has helped Mozilla stay afloat for years and renewal of that contract last year is only proof that without Google, Firefox, may not even exist.

Since Mozilla has no direct way of charging people to use its products, these partnerships are important. The non-profit has similar search deals with Microsoft’s Bing, but the largest chunks of its users prefer Google. Other areas of the Mozilla operation rely heavily on Google too; many of the Foundation’s products are tied heavily into search and the “powered by Google” tag is very much present.

Mozilla helping to shape the free web

The fact that the Mozilla Foundation makes money at all will be seen with scepticism but that would be unfair. The level of programming and development that goes into all of the free products pushed out by the company has to be funded in some way. What perhaps should be lauded is Mozilla’s commitment to the free and open web. The partnership with Google is perhaps necessary act on Mozilla’s part.

There are few products and services on the web that are as unfettered as Firefox and Thunderbird; throw in the fact that both compete with heavily commercialized products and you can see just how effective and productive Mozilla has been in promoting its philosophy.

Mozilla Chair, Mitchell Baker believed that the Foundation will continue to be a big part of the free web moving forward: “after 20 years of developing the Web, we can now see how the Web can make yet another leap in its usefulness, fun, business opportunities and social benefit.”

Mozilla detractors should focus on helping the foundation stay relevant. The last few years has seen a massive erosion of use of Mozilla’s products and Firefox now sits behind Internet Explorer and Google Chrome—both are built to make money and the more and more they erode Firefox’s market share, the less free the web will be. If Bakers’ vision is to hold fast, it is going to take a lot of effort from users and anyone who has a vested interest in keeping a place on the web for non-commercial endeavors.

Do you think it cynical that Mozilla make as profit each year from its non-profit work? Share your thoughts below.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/16/mozilla-made-163-million-last-year-%E2%80%93-from-google/

Top 5 Tips to Write Persuasive Articles

Add a Persuasive Edge to Your Articles

Persuasion drives action and growth. To be persuasive is to have the ability to persuade or convince someone to do or believe something through reasoning or temptation. To write persuasively, the author convinces the reader to perform an action by presenting evidence that supports an opinion.

Why You Should Be Persuasive

Readers come to your articles in search of facts, tips, and solutions to help them reach their goals - but they still expect to be entertained, engaged, motivated, and informed. Essentially, you want your reader to finish your article and arrive at your Resource Box thinking: "Okay, you've convinced me. So, what's next?"

Top 5 Tips to Writing Persuasive Articles

Use these tips to give your articles and your calls-to-action a persuasive and engaging edge to convince readers!

1. Don't Keep Readers Waiting

Teasers (i.e., the reader has to click away to gain the full benefit they were promised) are not persuasive; they're irritating and untrustworthy. Be up front in your article's title, summary, and introduction. In the article, deliver on everything you promised elsewhere and treat your Resource Box's call-to-action and links as the next logical step in your reader's search.

2. Provide Evidence That Supports Your Topic

What is true and valid is often the most persuasive. Back up your claims by showing your readers facts, data, etc. you've gathered in your niche. Should you quote other sources to support your topic, limit quotations to no more than 5 lines (total) of properly cited content.

3. Lead With Originality Every Time

Readers crave new, top-of-the-line information that gives them value. Whoever delivers fresh, unrepeated information has a competitive edge because of this value. Be the leading expert known for value: Provide 100% original information 100% of the time.

4. Be Personal Without Giving Away TMI

Find the perfect balance between formal and informal writing by avoiding stuffy formalities where it counts, but know when a personal anecdote is and isn't appropriate. The key is to be relatable by placing yourself in the piece and providing information that doesn't convey TMI (Too Much Information).

5. Edit to Be Specific, Direct, and Persuasive

Write using active voice (subject performs action) to be direct and concise. Rigorously edit your articles to remove any signs of verbiage; check for the following:

• Remove needless words (e.g., "the reason for this is" = "because")
• Use emphatic words at the end of a sentence to drive the point home
• Add emotive language (e.g., health, anger, joy, frustration, passion, urgency, etc.)
• Stress nouns and verbs which are more powerful than adjectives and adverbs

Use these tips to add a persuasive edge to your articles and convince readers to act!

Publishers CTR: More clicks from Opera and Safari Users

Your browsing habits say so much about you, but the browser that you use also gives some powerful insights into who you are a person. Firefox users for instance, are heavy customizers and like to make things their own; Internet Explorer users are very parochial and stuck in their ways; Chrome users are lovers of simplicity—I could go on but I am sure you get the point.

Advertisers tap into these idiosyncrasies in order to make money and the latest findings into how much the different browser user clicks on ads will some fuel to the debate over browser CTR and ad-efficiency. Online advertising network, Chitika compiled some handy which gave some surmising insights into which browser gives advertisers the most clicks for their buck when targeting both mobile and regular users.

The big surprise

If you had to guess which browser was most efficient at delivering clicks, you’d probably go with Internet Explorer or Google Chrome on the strength of their tremendous market share. But you’d be wrong—very wrong. According to the data compiled by Chitika, the most efficient browser for delivering ad-clicks is Opera.

According to Chitika, hundreds of millions of impressions were looked at for US and Canadian users and from every perspective, Opera led the field with a 2.12% CTR. It was followed closely by Safari mobile with a CTR of 1.54%. Third was Internet Explorer (1.14%); followed by Android browser in fourth place with 0.81%. Safari figured twice in the compilation and showed up again in fifth position with a CTR of 0.80%. Perhaps the biggest surprises on the list were Firefox and Chrome which took 6^th and 7^th position respectively with CTRs of 0.68% and 0.54%.

Safari browser users have a penchant for the complex

I say ‘complex’ because Chitika also took a look at the average query length—i.e. the number of keywords that made up a search. On average Safari users typed in 5.08 words per query WPQ); this number went up even further for Safari mobile with an average query length of 5.17. Safari’s closest competitor in this regard was Firefox with an average query length of 5.05 WPQ; it was followed closely by Chrome on iOS with a query length of 4.84.

The larger question here I suppose is why despite having such a small share of the browser market, does Opera have such high CTRs? The answer is not straightforward or scientific, but one suggestion is that the fact that Opera has fewer integrated ad-blockers, more and more advertising is able to get through. One other possible explanation being bandied about is screen size; some people believe that users are more likely to ‘accidentally’ click on a banner or text ad on their smartphone as opposed to their desktop computer.

Whatever the explanation, the Chitika study will almost certainly anchor the efforts of advertisers and web developers. Opera and Safari are in a way, niche browsers but more and more they are becoming mainstream. Developers and advertisers therefore will ride the wave of use until they become too cluttered and inefficient—much like the large mainstream browsers.

Do you click on ads depending on the browser you are using at the time? Share your thoughts on the Chitika findings using the comments below.

http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/12/chitika-more-clicks-opera-safari-ctr-publisher/

Bringing the World of Web Closer to You with PositiveProjections

Every company needs web presence. Whether you are selling a service, a product, or are an avid blogger, your website is your vehicle for “getting out there.” This means not only does your site need good content, visual appeal, and have ease of use, but it should remain meaningful to you while distinguishing you from your competitor. In a day and age where nearly everyone turns to the Internet to find out more, you do not want to remain obscure or hidden from your viewers.

For over 17 years, PositiveProjections.com has been helping people—individuals, small business owners, not for profit organizations—establish their web identity using successful web design. There are a several elements of Positive Projections’ approach to web design that clients have come to appreciate. For example, by “matching” the site to the industry or type of business, visitors can more easily relate. A restauranteur’s website will have a different look and feel to that for a hardware store. An entrepreneur will require a different approach than a charitable foundation. Making it personable is an important part of the design process.

Websites created by Positive Projections are also self-manageable, empowering the site owners to update the text and images easily. To ensure this ease of use, the company includes training screencasts with an optional support follow-up service.

It is also essential to design the sites to be user friendly. Visitors to a Positive Projections’ website find the site easily through the company’s strategic “ranking” method with search engines. Once there, navigation is simple and sensible. For the smartphone users, the sites feature a mobile web function. To remain sociable, Facebook and Twitter sharing is established, and to further engage visitors, site owners can also consider YouTube.com or Vimeo.com additions.

What if you already have a website, but it’s time for a facelift? Change is good. Change can inspire not only the site owner, but visitors too. This is why Positive Projections assess websites to determine possible improvements. It could be one or two minor areas, or perhaps an entire overhaul. Areas of considerations include:

• how attractive is the site?
• is it easy for visitors to use?
• is the site organized efficiently?
• has the site’s outcome(s) met its purpose(s)?

Positive Projections also evaluates the site’s SEO techniques to asses whether or not optimal ranking is achieved.

Website remodeling also considers the speed of the web host. Inefficiency here can drive visitors away. To ensure reliable and efficient web hosting, Positive Projections also established its own web hosting service. For more than a decade, the company’s own websites, along with clients’, run off a server of optimal performance. The reliability is something clients have come to depend on. A server hosting 300 sites as compared to the same server hosting 2,000 means not only do the sites maintain expected operation, but security benefits are in place.

Bringing personalized service and dependable results has allowed Positive Projections to build an impressive portfolio of web design and web remodeling projects. For this company success is about helping you find your place in the world of web

http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/13/web-hosting-positive-projections-news/

Twitter hacked? Prevent twitter, facebook, gmail accounts being hacked

The hacking of accounts, whether it be Paypal, Twitter, Gmail, Hotmail, Pinterest or practically any online application, is nothing new. Today it is thought that Twitter may have been hacked. Big names like TechCrunch and several other users who were possibly hacked would have received the following message from the company:

“Twitter believes that your account may have been compromised by a website or service not associated with Twitter. We’ve reset your password to prevent others from accessing your account,”

Why hackers consider Twitter worthy of their attention?

In the Obama campaign, Google plus has had less support than Romney in the election, now that is pretty low percentage wise! So Twitter is “the in thing” and has enjoyed tremendous publicity. People charge money, known as “pay per tweet” in order to send messages to followers – hence when hackers control popular accounts even for as little as 2 hours, they can profit by using it as a marketing tool, without the permission of it’s lawful owner.

How to avoid getting hacked on Twitter:

1. Change of passwords: Consider changing your password after logging in from a public computer or any device that is not your own. People can run key loggers in the background, meaning that every character being typed, is effectively recorded and stored, without the user realising it, this is how passwords are captured.
2. Hackers have other methods of accessing your computer via the internet and can also record keywords – hence it is a good idea in principle to change passwords frequently even if using the same device.
3. Big companies like Twitter, Google, Microsoft for example may have excellent security measures in place, however they are not infallible: That is what hackers do – they find ways of breaching internet security and can target the best of the best.
4. It is advisable to always make sure that the correct site is on display in the title bar when entering passwords. Hackers are smart, they may create domains which appear to be very similar to that of the target. If the target is “twitter.com” they would create a domain, for example, called “twiter.com” or “twitters1.com” or in the case of “gmail.com” they could use names such as “gma1l.com”. They would effectively create something rather similar to the target – and when user fatigue set’s in, amongst frequent users – they can collect the details of our passwords.

The same principles that are used to hack Twitter and others, can also be used to gather credit card details. The popularity of Twitter will be a great publicity stunt for governments who’d like to accelerate global governance and a new world order: They will not insist on it – it will be us, the people, who’d cry out for the protection of the governments and they will conveniently “save us” with an enhanced ID solution, watch this space!

4 Million Windows 8 Licenses Sold in 3 Days – Could Steve Ballmer Be Right?

Microsoft’s CEO, Steve Ballmer has made a bold prediction about the sales projections for Windows 8: “400 million Windows 8 installations by the end of 2013”.

The thing is, before you reach 400 million, you at least have to pass 4 million and by the looks of things, Windows 8 might just meet Ballmer’s perdition. So far the numbers look healthy. Speaking at Microsoft’s BUILD 2012 conference, the spirited CEO revealed that in the first 3 days alone, the company has sold more than 4 million licenses of Windows 8.

Three day metrics very important

Selling 4 million copies in 3 days is significant because if Ballmer’s prediction is to hold up, Microsoft will need to keep shifting licenses at the same daily rate. With just 2 months left in 2012 and a full complement in 2013, Microsoft can easily meets its 400 million target if things stay at the same rate.

Microsoft of course is competing with Apple who released OS X Mountain Lion back in July. During its early launch Apple sold only 3 million in 4 days—those numbers weren’t as strong as Microsoft but Apple still reported healthy projections. By that standard then, Microsoft is certainly on the right track.

Analysts believe that Microsoft overall base being larger than Apple’s, puts the company in good stead to at least ramp up sales in the coming weeks.

OEM will give Windows 8 a push

Microsoft naturally cannot rely on just upgrades alone if it is to meet its target–new computers will have to do some of the heavy lifting. In this regard Ballmer was happy to reveal that so far “tens of millions” of the new operating system has 

been snapped up by the company’s OEM partners. Big-name PC makers like Dell and HP have already unveiled their new line of windows 8 computers. With the holiday shopping season almost here, both manufactures (and others) should see strong sales of new PCs. “We are excited about what we are seeing from initial sales and it looks to be good,” said John Solomon, senior VP of HP’s Printing and Personal Systems.

The one thing that might irk would-be buyers of machines with Windows 8 installed is the fact that new laptops which take full advantage of Windows 8’s touch features will be pricey. HP plans to sell a range of devices and its offerings have been reported to start at $700. Considering that the average laptop buyer operates at the low end price points, OEMs might struggle to shift many licenses built into these systems. And that of course will present a pricing dilemma.

Windows 8 and its quirks

Microsoft has over 600 million people running Windows 7 and a large chunk of the 4 million licenses sold would have been people taking advantage of their $39.99 and $14.99 offer. That’s a lot of people and pretty soon the feedback on the operating system will be gathering momentum. Already there is talk among some users that Windows 8 is not suited for a desktop environment and many people are struggling to get to grips with it. On top of that many of their old programs don’t work. All these quirks means that Microsoft had better hope that the feedback doesn’t dent future sales.

It’s early days and perhaps too soon to predict whether Ballmer is wrong about the sales of Windows 8. Perhaps in another few weeks the projected numbers can take on better clarity.

Have you tried the new Windows? Let us know how you are fining the new metro interface by using the comments below.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/01/4-million-windows-8-licenses-sold-in-3-days-%E2%80%93-could-steve-ballmer-be-right/

Google Earns $100 Million a Day from Selling Ads

No matter how you slice it, Google is still the one to beat online when it comes to how you divvy up online ad spending. The search giant’s early technical investment in simplicity has ensured that million of users trust it, and it alone to find what they want online. The result has been an all-conquering assault on the online ad spending pie.

A new report from WordStream, the popular search marketing software provider has helped to shed some light on just how much money Google makes per day from online ads. According to WordStream, Google makes an head-scratching $100 million each and every day from online ads. It does this via a whopping 5.6 billion daily impressions through its search network and an even more impressive 24.2 billion impressions through its Google Display Network.

237.9 million people click on Google ads every day

For all this talk about social media being the new leader in town, search and display advertising still continues to be the preference for advertisers looking to attract customers online. Google’s 63% share of the online search market means that it can attract a very large pool of users. Whilst many will not click on ads, the sheer volume of people searching means that on any given day more than 237 million people click on at least ad.

This means that even in a slow economy (where advertisers still press on for sales), Google can still add to its bottom line. The search giant made $14.10 billion from its ad-selling business in Q3 this year.

What on earth are people clicking on?

Finance and Travel are number one and two in terms of overall share of impressions and clicks. The finance category sees a whopping 617 million daily impressions in search and 5.32 billion impressions on the display network. People in this vertical it seems have strong motivations because the daily click through rate (CTR) is a solid 3.67% in search; it’s considerably lower on the display network where the daily CTR is just 0.10%. Still, these visitors convert well into buyers and the finance vertical sees a staggering 1.39 million sales a day. One can just imagine what these people make, although it is important to note that the finance vertical also has the highest cost per click (CPC).

The third and fourth verticals with the highest number of impressions and clicks are shopping and jobs & education. The latter interestingly has the most daily ad impressions with a whopping 660 million. The biggest advertiser in this vertical is the University of Phoenix and if you’ve done any browsing at all in the last year or so you would most certainly have come across one of their banners.

Google’s ever expanding sphere of influence

The influx of tablets and smartphones and Google’s strategic placement of Android means that the search giant will also dominate the mobile ads space in the coming years. Although companies like Apple and Microsoft have made some inroads, Google continues to be the online opiate of the masses and 2013 will no doubt read much the same as it did this year—a Google whitewash.

Do you think Google’s dominance of online advertising is good for the marketplace? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: http://www.sitetrail.com/2012/11/01/google-earns-100-million-a-day-from-selling-ads/

How to Make Your Content Perform Again and Again

If you’ve been in the blogging world for more than a nanosecond, you’ll no doubt have heard that content is some sort of royalty. You may even have come across Seth Godin’s message that content marketing is the only kind of marketing left. Does that mean you should be furiously tapping away at your keyboard writing new content until repetitive strain injury brings you to a complete standstill? Not necessarily. There are several things you can be doing to maximize the performance of your existing content.

1. Past Posts
A good headline/catchy title is a must when you want to get visitors clicking on your latest content, but what happens when that latest content becomes yesterday’s news - when those catchy titles aren’t visible on your home page anymore? Any blogger worth their salt will be able to tell which of their legacy posts are still driving heaps of traffic, so why not dig out that info from whatever analytical program you’re using and build on the popularity of your most visited past posts? Optimizing the titles of your past posts for SEO (as opposed to user clicks) can result in huge spikes of traffic to your site. While you’re checking your stats you might notice a few blog posts that have been particularly popular with your visitors. Could it be time for a bit of a makeover where the nuts and bolts of the text is concerned?

2. Speed it up
Taken a look at your bounce rate lately? The good old days when a site had to load within the golden two seconds are well and truly behind us. These days if your site takes more than a blink of an eye to load up and be ready to go your visitors will be someone else’s visitors fairly sharpish. It means that you should be placing great importance on getting your site to load extremely quickly. This can be as simple as optimizing images, but there are plenty of other things to consider. The best practices for web page optimization provided by the Yahoo Developer Network is a great place to start if you want to speed up the pace at which your site loads.

3. Waste Not, Want Not
Think that blog post was, well um, just a blog post? Think again. There are tons of ways in which you can repurpose your existing content. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every time you need to feed your Facebook fans or throw some juicy titbit out to your followers on Twitter. Want something quick and easy to send out to your subscriber list? How about that past post you just spent ten minutes revamping? If you’ve spent time blogging about a solution to a particular problem, make sure your sales team all know about it, so they can impart that info to their leads. It could just help them close that sale.

While there’s no getting away from the fact that adding fresh content to your blog on a regular basis is an absolute must - if writer’s block strikes, you’re in need of a quick fix, or your fingers start to bleed, take some time to look at how your existing content can work for you the second time round.

Predict Quality Keywords to Become a Trailblazer

Become a Trailblazer

Forerunners of their niche, a trailblazer is a pioneer or an innovator who precedes the development of someone or something.

How can you become a trailblazer? Nurture your foresight by predicting the next big keyword event in your niche!

Predicting Keyword Events

A keyword event can be loosely described as a spike in a particular keyword search. This is largely due to seasons, holidays, current events, or evolving trends.

Predicting a keyword event means you choose the keywords before they become popular to get ahead of your competition and get a running start in search engine rankings.

By carefully selecting keywords before they become popular and organically integrating those keywords into your articles, you can rank higher because there is little or no competition. After the trend hits the mainstream, those keywords will become popular and your ranking will stay high because you've established yourself as the leading authority - a trailblazer. Your article has been out there for weeks or months before your competitors even get started.

How to Predict Keywords

Predicting keyword events is more than staring into a crystal ball. First, you have to stay on top of trends in your niche to keep afloat. You can't lead if you can't keep up. Next, carefully consider and select new keywords and keyword phrases based on evolving trends in your niche as well as your audience's interests.

Here's how to strategically predict keyword events:

1. Empty the Toolbox: When predicting keywords, avoid keyword selection tools (like Google AdWords). If these keywords are being provided to you, they're being provided to others as well. Try to get in when there is a dip (before a keyword is in demand) by using Google Trends to gauge popularity of a keyword over time.
    
2. Stay on Top of the News: Subscribe to a wide variety of news outlets. Wherever your audience goes, you should go too. For instance, how does the economy, finance, etc., impact your niche? Should your audience be concerned about trends in other countries? What's the latest international news in your niche? Ask questions. Find answers.
    
3. Tune in to Your Audience: If your audience wants something (e.g., answers, solutions, products, services, etc.), someone is going to eventually deliver it. What is your audience asking? Pull keywords from their questions and provide answers.
    
4. Spot Buzzwords: Buzzwords are words or phrases that tend to become trendy or fashionable in a specific niche. If you can spot buzzwords and use them before they're hot (i.e., either amplify a buzzword you've seen or create a term that's buzz-worthy), you'll capitalize on the traffic wave as they start to become more widely used.
    
5. Capture a Wide Audience: Target both long and short-tail keywords for the trend. As the trend begins, search users may not know exactly what they're looking for yet and benefit from short-tail keywords. As the trend heats up, your audience will branch out to more specific queries and your long-tail keywords will garner more interest.

Ensure you have done your research and your keyword predictions have potential to trend. It may take trial and error to see which of your predictions hit or miss, but you can hone your keyword prediction skills over time. In doing so, you can become a trailblazer.

Have a question or comment about predicting keywords? Click here to visit this post online and join the discussion!

http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2012/10/predict-quality-keywords-to-become-a-trailblazer.html

55+ Get Paid To Write Websites

Get paid to write websites are becoming increasingly popular as they provide an easy way for almost anyone to make money writing online. There are a few different types of paid to write websites such as paid to blog, pay per post, paid to review and more.

But, no matter which type you choose, getting paid to write articles online comes down to 3 categories; Revenue sharing- Ads are placed along side the content to generate revenue and the money earned from those ads are shared with the writers. Pay Per Post- The writer gets paid for each individual article he or she writes. Performance based- The writer earns money based on the performance of the article determined by factors like the number of page views and etc. With that said, here are 55+ paid to write sites where you can make money writing:

LinkFromBlog.com
Earn with your blog, write legitimate reviews, survey or opinions of advertisers products and services. You can also earn money by referring other bloggers to the site.

BlogPostsForSale.com
Get paid for blogging. You can get paid to write about web sites, products, services, and companies.

LoudLaunch.com
Earn more with your blog. They work with a lot of big companies that are willing to pay bloggers to write quality posts to use for their online advertising campaigns.

BlogToProfit.com
A great site that guarantees money for posting to your blog! They match you with advertisers that are interested in sponsoring your blog. Then all you have to do is post and get paid.

PayPerPost.com
PayPerPost is unique in a sense that it lets bloggers pick advertisers they want to work with. Pick your advertiser and start negotiating a price. They have advertisers in so many different fields. So, you can get paid to blog about almost any subject.

SocialSpark.com
You can make money in two ways; place ads on your blog or write reviews for their advertisers.

Sponzai.com
This one is little different. You don’t write the content, but the advertisers or sponsors (as they are called on sponzai) do. Sponsors write a guest post about whatever they want, you publish it on your blog and get paid.

SponsoredReviews.com
You can earn money by writing honest reviews about their advertiser’s products and services. Simple as that!

ReviewMe.com
Another paid to review site. You get paid to write reviews about different products and services. The good thing is you choose what products and services you want to write about. You can get paid $20 to up to $200 per review published on your blog.

Smorty.com
You can make money in two ways. You can get paid to publish pay-per-click advertising on your blog to generate, you can also earn money writing about different products and services. You can earn any where from $6 to up to $100 for each published post.

BlogAdvertisingStore.com
Make money writing reviews about their advertiser’s products and services.

BuyBlogReviews.com
BBR allows you to write reviews about other websites and get paid for it. You get paid per post whcih means the more you post, the more you money you make.

BloggingAds.com
Another site where you don’t have to write the post yourself. Their advertisers write the content and you just have to publish on your blog and get paid for it. However, you can also earn money by writing posts yourself.

PayU2Blog.com
A fast growing paid to blog site with lots of different advertisers. You are paid for each review you write and publish on your blog.

LinkWorth.com
Most people think of LinkWorth as an advertising network like ad sense, whcih is true. However, they also have a program where bloggers can make money writing reviews about their advertisers.

BloggerWave.com
Another fast growing network with lots of advertisers that pays you to write reviews about their products and services.

Blogitive.com
A bit hard to get your blog approved. But, once your blog is approved you can earn money blogging about their advertisers. They pay weekly through PayPal which is a plus.

Shvoong.com
With Shvoong you don’t really have to create original content. You write reviews or summaries about previously published stuff. You can write about books, websites and blogs, articles, newspapers, movies and anything that is out there already. Each post must be less than 900 words. You can also earn extra money by referring other writers to Shvoong.

451Press.com
451 Press is basically a network of blogs. they have blogs on about almost any subject you can imagine. You can write about any subject you wish and the will publish it in the appropriate blog and you get paid.

About.com
About.com is very hard to get into, but if do, you can make real good money. Plus, its a great way to build your portfolio since its a reputable site. They also cover any topics you can imagine.

BlogBurner.com
You can create a blog which will be shown on their site (like a separate page). They place ad sense ad on these pages and share the revues earned from it with you. The good thing is, you just have to write, they do all the promotions and driving traffic to it. The more you write the more money you earn.

BlogsVertise.com
They have a lot of advertisers which you can write about their product, service, website, blog, event and anything they like to promote. Once approved, publish the post on your blog and get paid for it. You get paid per post or task as they call it. Pays via PayPal.

DayTipper.com
This is a fun way to make money with your writings. they pay you $3 for posting original and helpful tips on their site. You can give tips about anything. A normal tip is only a few sentences. So if you are knowledgeable about a subject, it only takes you a few minutes to write a quick tip about it.

CreativeWeblogging.com
Founded in 2004 by Torsten Jacobi, CW has grown to be a big blog network with have over 135 blogs in 5 different languages. You can earn cash writing about any topic you like.

DigitalJournal.com
Get paid to post blogs, embed videos, upload images, discuss and debate about the news and more. Basically you earn money to report news as a Digital Journalist!

Helium.com
One of my favorite sites for making money as a writer. It is one of the fastest growing paid to write sites. You can write about whatever topic you like. There is a real potential for making a living writing on helium. The more you write and the better you write, the more money you can make.

WiseBread.com
WB is a personal finance blog whcih means you can only write about post related to personal finance. It could be anything from Savvy shopping tips, Frugal living suggestions, Financial advice, Career and money-making ideas. They earn money trough ads displayed along side the posts. The best thing is that they allow bloggers to keep 100% of the advertising revenue earned on their blog posts.

Squidoo.com
Squidoo is perhaps the most famous paid to write site. You create whats called a “lens”, whcih is basically a decorated blog post with lots of cool features and options. You have a few options to monetize your lenses like placing Google ad sense or amazon ads. You can earn money writing about any topic you like. the good thing is its much easier to drive traffic to your squidoo lens than other sites since Google really loves squidoo.

Bukisa.com
Another favorite of mine whcih I have been using for a while. You can make money writing about anything you like. You can also earn money by referring other people to write for Bukisa.

AssociatedContent.com
One of the most trusted content based sites whcih allows you to write reviews, opinion, news, guides and anything else you want to write about. The good thing is you can publish posts that you have published elsewhere (your blog or other sites) and still get paid for it. However, exclusive posts (posts that has never been published) qualify for upfront payment. Already published posts earn money based on page views, which isn’t that hard to earn a lot because AssociatedContent receives a lot of traffic. So, you don’t really have to do much to promote your content.

Xomba.com
You can write about anything but a few subjects including adult and violence. They have a Google Ad sense share revenue program, whcih means you earn money from ads displayed along side your posts. Another way you can earn money is through bookmarking. yes, they also show ad sense ads along side your bookmarks. The more intersecting sites you bookmark, the more traffic you get to it, allowing you to earn more money.

HubPages.com
Another big paid to write site like Squidoo whcih you can earn money by placing ads from Google Ad sense, ebay, Amazon and many more along side your hubs. You get paid to write reviews, share useful advice, share your opinions, write guides and more.

FortitudeMagazine.com
Fortitude is a magazine style website that accepts literary material on any topic and in any format. You can expect to get paid from $10 to up to $100 per article.

Qondio.com
Get paid to write about anything you are passionate about. You get 100% of the advertising revenue generated by your article page. Yes, 100%! If you are a blogger, there is a plus to posting content to Qondio; you get to link back to your site in the article and the link is dofollow, which helps your site rank better.

Triond.com
Triond is an online publishing service that lets you publish original content about any topic. They accept content in any format from written articles and e-books to pictures, audio and video. Their minimum requirement for cashing out is only $0.5 whcih is very low and easy to reach. they pay via pay pal.

eHow.com
eHow is one of the most popular how-to guides sites where you can earn money writing step by step instruction showing people how to do anything.

Tutorial9.net
As the name suggest T9 is a site where you can publish tutorial. However, they only accept tutorials about Photoshop, Photography and Blogging. You can expect to get paid anywhere from $50 to $300 depending on the quality of your tutorial.

InfoBarrel.com
InfoBarrel pays you to publish articles, videos, reviews and how to guides on variety of topics. You get 75% of the revenues generated by ad sense ads displayed next to your published work. Earn money by referring your friends and family.

Flixya.com
Flixya is a publishing platform where you can earn money to publish blog posts and share your favorite videos and photos. You keep 100% of the revenue generated through ads on your pages.

Epinions.com
They have a huge selection of products that you can earn money writing reviews about. Each review has to be minimum of 20 words.

DemandStudios.com
Get paid to write about any subject you are knowledgeable about. Good thong about DS is that they pay twice a week.

DeveloperShed.com
They have a huge networks of sites that allows you to publish posts related to coding, tech tips, hardware reviews, SEO how-to’s, and many other topics. Its a great way to build up your portfolio while earning decent money for your articles.

Gather.com
Get paid to write about anything you like. The more quality content you publish, the more money you earn. You can increase your earning by interacting with other members.

RateItAll.com
RateItAll is a website where you can find reviews on juts about anything. You can earn cash by writing reviews about any product you like. They share the revenue generated by Google ad sense with you.

Examiner.com
Examiner is the fastest-growing local content network in the U.S. You can earn money by writing about anything especially subject concerning your local area.

ReviewParty.com
Make money by writing reviews about any thing you like. You earn money in two ways; Google ad sense and Amazon Associates whcih are placed on your content pages.

SharedReviews.com
You can write articles and reviews in over 500 different categories. They have a huge community whcih you can use to better your experience. They pay via paypal as well.

SoftwareJudge.com
As the name suggests, its a site about softwares. You can earn cash by writing honest reviews no matter positive or negative about any kind of software. You can get paid up to $50 per review.

TheNewsRoom.com
You get paid to publish content (written and submitted by their members) which is accompanied by advertising, on your blog. You earn money based on CPM (cost per thousand impression), which means every time the content on your site gets viewed by your visitors, you earn a guaranteed CPM

BloggerParty.com
Blogger Party is a blog hosting website whcih allows you to build a blog whcih will be displayed on the front page of the site. You can blog about any topic you like. They display adsense ads on your blog, 50% of the time using their own ad sense id and 50% using your ad sense id.

Senserely.com
Make money writing articles, reviews, and stories about your knowledge and experience with any topic you wish especially about Google ad sense itself.

SoulCast.com
SC is basically a blogging platform that allows you to build free blogs whcih allows you to earn money by showing ad sense ads on it.

Meshplex.org
A tutorials based website whcih allows you to publish tutorials on any topic. You can display adsense ads on your page and the best part is you get to keep 100% of the generated revenue.

WikiNut.com
Write about anything you like. 50% of the revenue generated by ads on your article pages are shared with you. You can also earn money as a moderator reviewing other articles and also for referring other writers.

RedGage.com
You can make cash by posting quality articles. To increase your earnings, you can also submit pictures, videos, documents and links.

SheToldMe.com
SheToldMe is a Digg-like site that you can earn money by simply social bookmarking your favorite content. Yes you don’t even have to write article to earn money, you get paid for bookmarking other peoples articles, videos, and images that you find interesting. Each time you submit a bookmark, a page is created for that link whcih also displays ad sense ads. You get to keep 100% of the revenue generated from your pages.

ConstantContent.com
You can post and sell your content. You can also browse requested content to see if you can write about any of them. Lots of great opportunities to make money with your writing skills.

Suite 101
Suite101 is one of the moist popular online magazines whcih started in 1996 and that makes it one of the oldest article sites on the Internet. The pay is based on revenue-sharing, which means they share the revenue earned from the ads published on the article page with the writer.

Most of these paid to write websites and blogs pay with PayPal. So, if you want to get paid fast, I would recommend signing up with PayPal if you haven’t already done so. Its free and it makes it easy and quick to get paid. Sign up for free with these sites and start to make money writing. Some of these sites, allow you to write and publish posts on your own blog, others will ask you to publish only on their site. Either way, you get paid to write.