Subscribe to Internet Hunger and get a free SEO evaluation for your website.

Want to get a free search engine optimization consultation for your website? An SEO consultation can provide valuable copy for your website, advice on your web site's architecture, and improve ranking in search engines; enabling your website to receive more - and higher quality - traffic.

Through an SEO consultation your website could potentially become more popular, and any consultation is an opportunity to grow and expand your website or blog in positive ways.

And Internet Hunger is offering you the opportunity to get a complete SEO consultation for your website... for free.

All you have to do is subscribe to Internet Hunger by Email and that's it!

Everyone who is currently subscribed via e-mail is automatically entered into the contest, and anyone who subscribes to Internet Hunger by e-mail from now until January 29th, 2008 will be entered to win.

To better increase everyone's chances of winner, Internet Hunger is not only offering one consultation... three lucky subscribers will get a complete consultation for their website or blog!

So what are you waiting for? subscribe to Internet Hunger by Email right now by clicking on the link, or by entering your e-mail address in the form on the right side of this page.

*No purchase is necessary, all e-mail addresses will be kept completely private and will not be sold or given away to anyone. You will not be spammed, and will only receive blog entries from Internet Hunger as new updates become available. Three winner will be selected at random and announced on January 30th, 2008. Unlimited entries per person, per e-mail address only.

Any questions should be forwarded using this online contact form.

"Give your visitors an extraordinary, lasting impression of your website."

The holiday break is about over for most of us, and you know what that means: the usual flow of traffic will begin to return to your website. But eventually visitors to your website are going to leave again, and you'll have to ask yourself: what lasting impression are your web visitors leaving with?

The last impression visitors have of your website is the only thing that will help them decide whether or not to visit again. That's why it's your job to give your visitors an extraordinary, lasting impression of your website; one that will make them want to come back for more well after they leave.

But how, exactly, do you make sure your website is giving your visitors an extraordinary, lasting impression? There are a few simple ways you can do it.

What do you provide for your visitors?

The very first thing any website worth visiting again and again should have is something valuable for the visitor. It doesn't have to be much, but it should provide some use to your visitors and it should be blatantly clear from the moment a visitor visits your website.

Using big, bold headlines and clear, brief descriptions of what your website is for are great ways to show visitors what valuable content you can offer them.

If your visitors leave your website feeling like there is some valuable content there - something they can use, whether it's some sort of calculator, image editor, or just knowledge - they will come back again in the future, guaranteed. And make sure that it's completely obvious what you're offering your visitors, as well as how it can benefit them.

Does your website have a simple design?

If you have something valuable for your website visitors, you're already well on your way to creating an extraordinary impression with them, but offering valuable content isn't the only key to convincing your visitors to visit your website again. If your website is not as simple as can be - void of all unnecessary content - some of your visitors are going to find it unnecessary to visit again.

There are multiple ways you can clean up your website's design, and doing so means that your visitors have easy access to valuable content, without junk getting in their way.

The last thing any of your website visitors want is to be searching for something specific, only to be bombarded with useless crap in their search.

Keep it simple.

Can visitors get what they want instantly?

Give your visitors what they are looking for, and make it easy for them to get it.

If your website is a business that sells something, each of your webpages needs to have a big button that links directly to a place for visitors to buy that something. If your website provides useful information on cooking, you should have that information available on practically every single page.

Make it easy to give your visitors what they want - that unique, valuable thing you're offering - instantly.

Don't make visitors have to click through a million pages to access what they want, and - like previously stated - don't bombard them with useless crap. Give them what they want, and do it immediatley.

It's that simple.

Giving your visitors what they want instantly, keeping your website design extremely simple, and providing some type of valuable content are great ways to create an extraordinary, lasting impression that will keep people coming back to your website over and over again.

Don't wait to evaluate your website's impression, do it now. Make sure that each and every visitor to your website is going to come back again.

"The top five Internet Hunger articles that you would regret not reading."

As the holidays rapidly approach and the weekend is practically already here, now is a great time to sit back, relax, and enjoy some quality blog articles. What better way to start than by reading the top five Internet Hunger articles that you would regret not reading?

First, "Break out of the blogging mold and make your blog one of the best on the web." is a great article on what it takes to make your blog a great one. If you're a blogger - whether a beginner or a veteran - you need to read this article and improve your blogging now.

Next up, "Google Action Figures Limited Edition Matt Cutts" is a good laugh for anyone who is a fan - or mortal enemy - of Google's very own Matt Cutts. Take a look and find out what everyone has been talking about.

Another great post for bloggers is "The all time top 40 blog posts to help you become a better blogger." After you read the article and browse over the resources, bookmark the post, put it in your favorites, Stumble it, Digg it, or whatever else you need to do to remember it. The Top 40 Posts is a great resource for any blogger.

If you're not a blogger - or even if you are - then "You don't need to be a professional to start optimizing your website for search engines. All it takes is five minutes." is one of the most popular posts on Internet Hunger. You can learn a few optimization strategies to help get your website ranking well in the search engines.

Finally, a shout out to "12 of the most inspiring, helpful, and incredible blogs that you have never heard of, but probably should have." These aren't blogs that you should just read once or twice, these are really great blogs that you need to visit every day - or subscribe to right now!

So there you have it, five of the top Internet Hunger articles you can't afford to miss. And if you don't want to miss any future Internet Hunger articles, take a minute to subscribe to Internet Hunger!

"It may not end world hunger, but including these things in your website will make your website better."

How would you like to feel like an idiot, and at the same time stop world hunger?

FreeRice will allow you to do just that. And, while the idea is nothing new - do something simple, promote a great cause - the method behind FreeRice is.

When you visit FreeRice.com you'll be presented with a word, ranging from "horseplay" to "somnambulate", and then asked to select another word from a list that best describes the first. Each time you get a word right, FreeRice will donate 20 grains of rice though the United Nations to help end world hunger.

FreeRice has done something interesting here: not only do visitors to the website feel like they're making a difference in the world and helping to end world hunger, but they are also learning new words as they go along.

It's a win-win situation for visitors.

It's even more of a win situation for webmasters.

FreeRice is the perfect example of what any website should be. On any website, there should be: a call to action, something visitors to the website can benefit - or learn - from, and results that visitors can see.

Regardless of the original purpose of your website, everything FreeRice has, your website should have... not literally, of course.

Your website needs to have a call to action. If you're trying to sell your design services, tell your visitors that they NEED to get a new design right now. If you're trying to educate visitors, make it clear that your visitors need to read and learn from what you have to say.

Your website needs to offer something that all visitors can benefit or learn from. Whether it's new knowledge, services, or just something useful that you're selling. Don't have a website just for the sake of having a website - unless you don't care whether or not nobody ever sees it - give it purpose by offering something to all of your visitors.

And lastly, your website needs to show results of what you're offering to visitors. Whether it's how great your design services are, personal experience, or how many people are subscribed to your blog feed, you need some type of results for whatever you're giving your visitors.

It may not end world hunger, but including these things in your website will make your website better. Just like FreeRice.

"Debunking the myth of not being able to make a big blog through platforms like Blogger."

It has been said that free blogging platforms like Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, cannot be used to create a professional blog; meaning: anyone who blogs through Blogger or similar platforms are not real bloggers, and they could never create a big enough blog to make a living from that blog.

Let's address why anyone who believes blogs on Blogger or similar platforms are wrong, and why you shouldn't think any less of blogs that use free platforms. Today, we're debunking the myth of not being able to make a big blog through platforms like Blogger.

Regardless of platforms, a blog is a blog.

Some people feel that blogs being hosted on platforms like Blogger are void of some of the features of other blogging software.

While there may be some disadvantages to blogging with free blogging platforms, all of the basics necessities are there, and all of them work exactly the same as with any other blogging platform. It doesn't matter if the blog is being hosted for free, or on a private domain: a blog is still a blog.

There is still a way to add custom content - including images, articles, videos, etc., commenting is still there, customization of the blog's layout is there, and anything else you can think of being in blogging software is available for free through Blogger and WordPress and other free blogging platforms.

Ultimately it doesn't matter where or how a blog is being hosted: it is still a blog and can still be extremely useful.

Don't be a blogging "racist".

If you have ever heard the saying: "Don't judge a book by a cover", you'll know that you cannot accurately judge a person based on their appearance. Similarly, you should not judge a blog based on where - or how - it's being hosted.

The value of any blog should ultimately be determined by the quality of the content that blog provides. Who cares if the blogger has invested hundreds of dollars in hosting the blog, or none? If the blog is providing great, valuable content, it shouldn't matter.

Blogs like Fake Steve Jobs and 24 Boxes at Blogger, and Strange Maps over at WordPress, are proving that blogs on free blogging platforms can be just as big and just as professional as non-free hosted blogs.

So the next time you're looking at a blog, don't judge it based on what software it's using or how it's being hosted. Read around the content, read what other people are saying about it, and then make your decision.

And who knows, maybe if you have a free hosted blog you, too, could turn it into a professional blog.

Speaking of free hosted blogs, this blog is being hosted by Blogger for free, and still providing unique, valuable content almost daily. You can click here to suscribe to Internet Hunger and experience free-hosted blog greatness almost every single day!

"Three indisputable ways to create valuable content for your website or blog."

Matt Linderman of 37signals recently talked about marketing and what some of the best practices are for getting quality attention. His advice can be incorporated into an online marketing strategy for your website or blog, specifically this tidbit on marketing:

". . . Marketing is asking for someone else’s time and attention. You need to provide something worthy of those valuable commodities. . . When you educate or entertain other people, they’ll pay attention. If you bore them, they won’t."

Matt makes a great point that all webmasters need to take note of, and never forget: provide valuable content and you will get valuable web traffic.

But how exactly do you generate valuable content for your website? Here are three indisputable ways to create valuable content for your website or blog.

1. Don't repeat content, make it unique.

If you have ever written down, or tried saying a word, over and over again, you know that the word begins to not make much sense, or appears wrong. Go ahead and try it right now if you have a minute: either type, or say aloud, the word "blogging". After a few minutes, the word will start to look funny, or sound completely wrong.

Web content is the same way: if your visitors read or view the same content over and over again, it starts to look wrong or sound funny, which is the last thing you should want for your website or blog content.

Repeating something that has already been said, or doing something again and again, is wasting your visitors time, as well as yours. Don't repeat content, make it unique by adding your own personal opinion to it, writing something new, or thinking up a new way to present something old.

2. Educate, educate, educate.

Repeating things that have already been said is not only boring, it's also useless to your visitors. You can avoid useless content by creating unique content, and also by educating your visitors.

Educating your visitors doesn't have to take a lot of time and resources, simply stating something new with statistics, providing personal insight, or being unique - as stated in the previous point - will mean your visitors can learn something new and be educated.

Your providing valuable information that your visitors can learn from, rather than wasting their time and attention on useless crap.

3. Stay up-to-date on buzz.

Other than avoiding repeated content and educating your visitors, another way to create valuable content for your website or blog is to write a unique or educational article on the latest buzz.

Whatever is currently featured in the news, or whatever people are obsessing over online, is practically guaranteed to become valuable for your visitors; as long as you remember not to repeat what has already been said on the topic, and as long as you educate your visitors on some aspect of the topic.

As you can see, creating valuable content for your web visitors can be easy. By avoiding duplicate content, educating your visitors, and staying up-to-date on the latest buzz, you can create content that your visitors will be happy to view.

But if you find yourself wanting more insight into creating valuable content, you can subscribe to Internet Hunger and get valuable insight almost daily.

"By groveling on social networks, you risk your image, your worth, and your future. Don't do it."

Fellow writer, and assumingly great guy, Jonathan Crossfield recently got a taste of social networking groveling, something everyone who dabbles in social networking of any type has - or will have - experienced at least once.

That's right: Mr. Crossfield got on his knees and begged an online community to give him some attention.

And, to no one's surprise, it worked. Members gathered together and supported Mr. Crossfield by giving his blog and his incredible writing talent a little bit of attention.

But was it worth it? Is a little online social attention worth groveling? Believe it or not: by groveling on social networks, you risk your image, your worth, and your future. Don't do it.

Say goodbye to your image Mr. Crossfield.

Mr. Crossfield got a bit of attention, his name - and incredible writing ability - is now known, but at what cost? If Mr. Crossfield had not looked to groveling for attention and had, instead, broken out of the blogging mold, he would have received more positive attention for quality work, rather than having to beg for it.

As he sits now, Mr. Crossfield is now - and most likely forever - "the guy who writes great content, but has to beg for it to become popular."

A victim of the social networking stigmata.

Despite how negative the title sounds, it's not as bad as you probably think. We all want to beg from time to time, and we all want to be popular on top of the online world, but that's no excuse to lower your self to begging for online votes. Sadly, it's just not.

Don't beg, just work harder.

An alternative to begging - and a strategy that will build your image, rather than destroy it - is just to work harder. Write more (and better, if possible) content on your blog. Submit more stories, one after another. Work at reaching the top. At least that way you can be viewed as "the guy (or girl) who worked his or her way to the top."

Again: there is nothing wrong with a little begging, but there are alternative methods you can use. Why not start with months of hard work, and then try begging a little? Or get smart with your begging and make it look like a challenge.

It's tough, and a lot of webmasters and bloggers were not built for it, but internet marketing can payoff over time. Just be patient, and put all of your effort into it.

Groveling = worthless.

Now, after begging for attention on his blog, Mr. Crossfield will have to work hard on rebuilding his online worth. New visitors to his blog will discover that he had to beg for attention, and his blog's value might decrease.

It may seem far fetched, but it's the reality of begging online.

When it comes down to it: there is no real reason to beg or grovel online. Anyone can reach the top, all it takes is time and hard work. If you're not dedicated to working that hard, then perhaps you don't deserve to be on top?

Don't take this the wrong way, Mr. Crossfield has a great blog. If you haven't checked it out yet, head over there and read a few of his posts - they are all of really great quality. He knows how to write, and write well. He writes interesting insights, and he knows how to get attention. Unfortunately his online social networking abilities are slightly lacking.

Live and learn.

And if you want to learn even more helpful information on social networking, search engine optimization, web design, and more internet related topics, go ahead and subscribe to Internet Hunger to get updates on an almost daily basis. You won't regret it.

"How to make your current website design better, if you don't want to start from scratch."

You know what makes up a good website design, but do you know how to make your current website design better, if you don't want to start from scratch?

Luckily for you, making your current website - or blog - design better is extremely easy. All it takes is removing unnecessary elements, re-evaluating your website's goals, and getting feedback from users who have never visited your website before. It's that easy.

Remove everything that isn't necessary.

The first step to making your current web design great is to evaluate what is necessary and what's not, then removing everything that is not necessary.

Sure, a flashy, animated picture can look really cool - but mostly annoying - but is it necessary for your website? Chances are, you don't need to have flashy animations, photoshoped backgrounds, or a page about your pet cat (unless that is the purpose of your website).

All of these unnecessary elements not only detract from the overall purpose of your website, they make your website look less professional and extremely... crappy.

Remove anything that absolutely doesn't need to be on your website (including special effects), and you'll find your website design looks a lot better without all of the clutter.

Re-evaluate your website's goals.

Removing clutter from your website is a great start to re-discovering and re-evaluating the purpose of your website. A lot of the time designers or webmasters will get overwhelmed with all of the latest craze happening on websites, they forget the purpose of their website and start to cover it up with useless junk.

Take some time to sit down and write out what your website's goals were when you first created it, and what your goals for the website are now. They should be the same, but even if they're not: the design of the website should fit with those goals.

If your original intentions for your website was to sell hats for pets, but you have become overwhelmed with images of LOLcats, your design needs to change, and chances are it's to get rid of those cat images.

If your website's goals were to share your opinion with readers, but you somehow become obsessed with other people's opinions, time to re-evaluate your design.

You may find that your original goals for your website are being overlapped with useless clutter, you can make your design better by focusing on your original goals again - and getting rid of everything that is unnecessary in the design.

You may also find out that your goals have completely changed for the website, which means it might be time for a new website design.

Put it all on your visitor's shoulders.

Getting rid of clutter and re-evaluating your website's goals can help you make your website design better, but the ultimate test is with people who are new to your website.

Invite some friends or online acquaintances to visit your website if they never have before. Ask them what they thought the website was for, if anything was confusing, what they liked and what they didn't like, and what they would change.

The best advice any webmaster can receive on his/her website is from people who are just discovering the website. If they can figure out what your website is for, and can navigate through the pages without any trouble, and if they would visit the site again and again, your design is great.

But don't fret if you find problems with your website design. No website design is perfect. Not one.

"Not exactly perfect, but darn close. Sphinn has a brighter future."

About a month ago it was said that Sphinn, the social network focused around internet marketing, was a complete wreck.

In the original post Sphinn was deemed as "pathetic, practically useless," and "extremely worthless." Because of observations made about the community and the efforts of that community to become a popularity contest, the points made about Sphinn were true. Or so some thought.

As it turns out, the original observations are now completely inaccurate; Not exactly perfect, but darn close. Sphinn has a brighter future. Thanks to it's users.

The rise and fall of Sphinn.

When Sphinn first opened to the public - merely five months ago - it faced an uncertain future as a Digg clone, or another popularity contest online; which, assumingly, defeats the purpose of such a site.

A few months in and the big names were already taking over the network. To a new user it would seem that Sphinn is falling apart, the community is a mess, and the network is practically useless.

Spend a few minutes there, submit some content, and poke around some, you will discover that Sphinn not only is nothing like Digg, it's quickly turning into what it should be: a community.

This creates the illusion of the rise and fall in popularity of the network. The reality is that it's only been a few months, and the transformation of Sphinn from it's first day in existence until today is beautiful.

Above all: Sphinn a community.

Read the responses to this Sphinn article and you can get a feel for what people are there for: they are there for Sphinn. They are there for the community.

They are not there to scam the network - although there are those who do - they are there to benefit the community in the best ways they can.

The comment made by Sphinn user Baiduyou backs up this claim of community benefits when he said: "If you're that bothered [by what Sphinn has become] then take the lead in making it better; call out the people who are voting for crap and asking for rubbish articles to be Sphunn - we've all got opinions on what we think Sphinn should be about - let's hear them."

No longer are Sphinn users obsessed with Sphinns or befriending big names, they are focused on building and strengthening the Sphinn community and making it into - what will be proclaimed as - the best social networking community of our time.

Not only are the users focusing more on the community, they are also realizing that some content doesn't need to be voted up. Other than one article from Matt Cutts, the homepage as of the time of this writing is chock full of extremely useful articles that - in one person's opinion - deserve to be seen.

Articles like: "Deep Links, Longtail Keywords, and Why you Should Love Them Both", "The Top 5 SEO Client Questions...Answered", and "Push Link Marketing: Pushing the Right Spots" are beginning to clutter the homepage, offering great news, tips, and advice for all internet marketers.

The future of Sphinn...

So, it comes down to the line an Sphinn users are focused on building a great internet marketing community, but it will take time to overcome the obstacles Sphinn is currently facing. Don't fret, the ways things are going now Sphinn is going to be exactly what it needs to be.

Did you find this article to be an interesting follow-up? Subscribe to Internet Hunger and get more interesting articles on an almost daily basis. You will not be disappointed.

"How do you create a great design for your website? You follow this simple advice."

The question has been asked, "What makes up a good website design?"

While the question is a complicated one, the answer is simple.

Unfortunately, not many people know about the simple answer to "what makes up a good website design?" There are a lot of people who will tell you that flashy effects make a good website design. And there are a few people will who tell you that only extremely simple designs can make for good websites. There are even some people who will tell you that a good website design can only be created through a certain type of programming.

They're all wrong.

While flashy effects can definitely add - but sometimes take away - from a good website design, they are not what makes a website's design good. Similarly, extremely simple designs for websites can be useful for some occasions, but generally being as simple as possible is not the best way to create a good website design. And no matter what anyone tells you: any type of web programming can make a good website design, depending on the purpose of the website.

So, how do you create a great design for your website? You follow this simple advice:

A good website design should not be confusing, it should completely engage visitors, and it should invoke visitors to take some sort of action.

Keep it simple, but not too simple.

One of the biggest aspects of a good website design is how easy it is to understand. Can your visitors immediately identify where the website navigation is? If someone was visiting your website for the first time would they instantly know what it was about?

You want your visitors to understand what they are doing on your website, how they got there, and what they can do from there on out. A good website design shouldn't be confusing. There shouldn't be too many effects and too many things that might confuse your visitors.

Acknowledge and engage visitors.

Keeping things simple ensures a high-quality website, but making things too simple might make your website seem boring and uninteresting. So how do you avoid being too simple? You actively acknowledge and then engage your visitors through classic design elements.

Big fonts that say "welcome", or having a space for visitors to log-in, etc. are great ways to acknowledge your visitors. Make them feel like they need to be on your website and they will stay - or come back time and time again.

Give visitors a reason to be there.

Sure, having a fairly simple website design that acknowledges visitors is the perfect start to creating a good website design, but it's not all you can do.

The best thing any web design can do is create purpose, or invoke action, for visitors. Whether you're trying to sell something, explaining something new, or just trying to get attention, make your visitors click on something.

And get creative with action too. Instead of showing your visitors a gallery of large pictures, make them click through to see different ones. Or, better yet, make your visitors adapt to not being able to click at all.

These tips are some great starting point for creating a good website design. Follow the advice you've been given here and you are guaranteed to have a better looking - and functioning - website.

If all else fails, just design your website to be like a man. And if you really need advice for your website, why not subscribe to Internet Hunger and get great information almost daily? Go on, do it.

"Believe it or not, you can use your blogging software's features to instantly increase your ranking on search engines."

You want your blog to be successful. After-all, running a blog that doesn't get much traffic and has nobody subscribed to it's feed can be stressful and feel like a complete waste of time. New bloggers especially have to struggle with reaching for success.

Regardless of whether you're a new blogger or a veteran blogger, there are some ways you can achieve greater success almost instantly. How? Through search engine optimization, of course.

What a lot of bloggers don't realize is that blogs are built practically to rank high in search engines; to gain a lot of exposure online almost instantly. Blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress are designed to maximize search engine features, and already have practically everything any blogger would need to optimize their webiste.

For whatever reasons, bloggers are not taking advantage of their blogging software's ability to increase ranking on search engines. Believe it or not, you can use your blogging software's features to instantly increase your ranking on search engines, and get more traffic and feed subscribers by doing it. Here's how:

Make an "about" section.

Probably the biggest mistake most bloggers make is not filling out an "about" page or section on their blog. An "about the author" or "about this blog" section is one of the first things a smart search engine would look for, and not having that section - or worse: having that section blank on your blog - is going to hurt your search engine ranking.

Your "about" section should be short and stick to keywords that are related to your blog. If you need a great example, just look over to the right of this page and read Internet Hunger's "about" paragraph.

Not only will having an informative, short "about" section on your blog affect your ranking on search engines, but it will also help new readers to your blog figure out where they are and why they should read what you have to say. Your blog's success depends on having an "about" section, believe it or not.

Use a detailed description.

Another mistake most bloggers make that really affects their success is forgetting to fill out a description for their blog. A description is similar to an "about" section, but much more concise and straight to the point.

Having a description also allows you to easily incorporate your keywords into your blog again without looking like you're trying to spam your readers or overwhelm search engines. Those keywords are what will make your blog appear higher on search engines, and having those keywords listed as many times as possible on your blog means your more likely to appear higher for them.

But don't get carried away. The description of your blog should be detailed, but extremely concise, void of all unnecessary words. As an example, the description for Internet Hunger is in the title as well: "Internet Hunger. Internet marketing - SEO - web design - blog."

What does that description tell you?

What you interpret that description as, and what new readers to the blog interpret the description as, is exactly how search engines will interpret the description of the blog. So keep it simple and use your keywords, but don't overdo it. Save anything extra you have to say for the "about" section of your blog.

Ping feed aggregators.

While incorporating keywords into your blog's template is extremely important to your search engine ranking, incorporating those same keywords into your posts is vital to any high ranking in search engines. But you have to remember that search engines aren't going to know that you've made a new post unless you "ping" them, or tell the search engine networks to check your website.

Not only is it useful for search engines, but also for feed aggregators like FeedBurner and for networks like Technorati.

What a lot of bloggers don't realize is that there is software that allows them to ping automatically with each update. If you're using Blogger, FeedBurner is the way to go. If you're using WordPress, you can have your blog automatically ping services by going to your settings and then Optinions > Writing.

Keep writing.

The biggest way to increase your blog's search engine ranking and overall success is to just keep writing. Everyday, or more than once a day, if you have enough ideas. But don't give up. The more content you provide, the more likely search engines are to think you are important, and the more interesting your blog will become.

But don't just write anything that comes to mind. Write interesting blog content.

While making an "about" section on your blog, writing a detailed description, pinging services, and constantly writing, will increase your ranking in search engines and help build your blog's traffic, they are not the only things you can do to optimize your blog using your blogging software.

If you're interested in learning more, read Thomas Silkjær's incredible post on WordPress and SEO. And if you want to receive helpful tips and insights almost everyday straight to you, you can subscribe to Internet Hunger directly, or in your e-mail by filling out the "subscribe by e-mail" form on the right of this page.

"Find the time and energy to run a blog and manage a stable life at the same time."

Managing your life and a blog - or more than one blog, if you're crazy - can be difficult. If you don't use your blog to make a living, you most likely have a day job that takes up the majority of your time. And if you have a family then all of your time is practically taken. Plus if you live on your own you have bills to pay, chores to do, shopping, and more.

So how can bloggers like yourself find the time and energy to run a blog and manage a stable life at the same time? Believe it or not, there are a few ways to consider managing both your blog(s) and your life. Here are a few that are strongly recommended:

Live first, blog second.

Blogging should be - first and foremost - fun. If you wake up one morning and aren't feeling well enough to post, you don't have to, and you don't need to apologize to your readers for not posting afterwards either. It's YOUR blog that should be filled with YOUR thoughts. So if you aren't up for it, don't do it.

Similarly to not feeling up to posting everyday on your blog, if you find yourself extremely busy on a day and can't sit down to write up a post, don't worry. You don't need to post every single day. It's great if you try to, but nobody will hold you accountable for missing a day because you were too busy with your real life.

If you're really dedicated to your blog readers and subscribers, you could take some advice and plan ahead for those days when you're too sick or too busy to write something new.

But under no circumstances should you ever feel guilty about not posting, or disappointed in yourself for being too busy to manage your blog everyday.

Blogs come and go, life is a one-shot deal.

Write about your life.

Sometimes you may be too sick or down to write a new post for your blog, or you may have some personal issues that are preventing you from writing really great content. Fortunately you don't have to let life stand in your way of blogging all the time. You can turn things around and write about what's going on in your life.

There are obvious drawbacks to writing about your life on your blog, but there are more benefits to doing so; as long as you don't get too personal.

First you should make whatever you are writing about relate to your niche. Whatever it is that's going on in your life, try to find a way to relate it to your niche, and then present it to your readers.

If you allow comments on your blog, your readers could provide you with quality feedback that will help you take care of your problem, while at the same time creating a great topic for your readers and subscribers to learn from. You're writing from personal experience, and that's what makes the best content for blogs. It's a win-win situation.

Take a break from blogging (or life).

Feeling sick and not wanting to write is horrible, but feeling overwhelmed is even worse.

One of the most tried and true methods for dealing for stress and a feeling of being overwhelmed is to take a break. Like the previous points: life comes first, then blogging. So if life is stressing you out, go ahead and take a break. It's a good idea to let your readers know that you will be doing so (and if you can, it would be a great idea to setup someone to guest blog while you're gone).

If, however, life is becoming a bit too overwhelming, nothing is wrong with taking a few days off of work - with giving notice to your boss, of course - and just writing. You may find blogging to be extremely therapeutic and it will help you organize your thoughts and feelings.

We are all human, and we all get overwhelmed from time to time. Nothing is wrong with walking away for a bit. Nobody will blame you.

Don't stress the little things.

These points about finding the time and energy to run a blog while managing a stable life are all focused on one main principle: don't stress the little things.

Blogging - unless it is how you make a living - is a little thing. In twenty years from now your blog may be huge, or it may be non-existent, but letting your blog overwhelm your life is definitely a mistake you will regret.

Managing a blog can be difficult to do while living an average life, but by focusing on your life before blogging, by bringing your life into your blog and vice-versa, and by taking a break when necessary, managing both your blog(s) and life can be fun and rewarding.

If you enjoyed today's post, why not give a link to a friend? Or better yet, go ahead and subscribe to Internet Hunger to get all of the greatest internet-related articles, news, tips, and information almost daily.

"Write something that is unbelievably great for your blog, something nobody will ever forget."

Running a blog is harder than it sounds at first. The biggest problem with maintaining a blog use to be finding something to write about on a regular basis.

That's why there are hundreds of articles about finding content to write about, writing different content, and

With all of these resources that are available to you, finding something to write about on your blog shouldn't be that hard. But the main problem with maintaining a blog isn't about finding something to write about anymore; the problem new bloggers - and probably you - are facing is about writing something unbelievably great.

To write something that is absolutely great for your blog, something nobody will ever forget, you have to know the process of writing incredible content. Fortunately, just like finding something to write about, there are ways.

Draw the line.

The first step to writing an unbelievably great article for your blog is to draw the line that separates "regular" content from "great" content. In order to draw the line between average, bland articles and unbelievably great articles, you have to first determine what your intended audience has already read, and what they would take time out of their day to read.

One way you can do this is to find other blogs in your niche and dig through their archives. Find out what has been covered and what hasn't. Or, if digging through thousands of articles for topics doesn't interest you, doing a quick search on Google for a topic can return great results.

As an example, when I was thinking of writing this post I originally was going to write about "how to find something to write about on your blog" but, as I found a ton of articles already about the subject on a Google search, I changed topics before I started writing.

It's not hard to find out what resources are already available for your readers, and what sources aren't. All you have to do is do a little searching. Then, when you've discovered what topics have already been covered and which ones haven't, you can have an idea of what to write about that would be classified as "great."

Write from your own experience.

One of the major problems most bloggers face with writing great articles is that they
write about things that they have never experienced or tried. If you're going to write a post about "how to write great blog article" you have better have tried the techniques for your own blog.

Your readers will, firstly, be able to tell if you're writing really great content based on your own experience, or if you're just writing an article to get attention. The best articles in the blog world are articles written by authors who experienced something that their readers could benefit from learning.

Learn from their example - and experiences - and write from your own experience about a topic that is over the line and great.

Don't write about things you don't care about.

Writing from your own experiences will benefit your readers, but the real key to writing great articles for your blog is to try.

Too many bloggers go through the motions of writing content without actually putting any heart into what they're writing. Typing words, putting in tags, publishing posts and marketing what they have published is how 85% of all bloggers blog.

Does it work? Sure it does. But those bloggers aren't the ones on the top of blog lists and search engines.

The bloggers who determine what is average content and what is great content, who write from their own experiences about topics that have yet to be covered, and who put heart and a lot of effort into their posts, are creating unbelievably great content.

And you can too.

Don't waste any time starting on writing great content either, get started right now. You'll notice a change to your writing, as well as your blogs traffic, almost immediately.

If you thought this article was great, wait until you read what I have in store for the future. You can keep on top of the latest Internet Hunger articles by subscribing to Internet Hunger right now.

"Turn your website into one of the most influential, prominent websites on the internet."

What if I told you that you could turn your website into one of the most influential, prominent websites on the internet?

Now, what if I told you all it takes to turn your website into one of the most important websites on the web is a little bit of effort and time?

It's true.

One of the most incredible aspects of the internet is that it's static, always changing. The static information that makes up the internet is controlled and manipulated by humans, but only by active internet users.

"Active internet users" comprises mostly of internet marketers, teenagers, and internet-bases businesses. Which means internet marketers, teenagers, and internet-based businesses are the main types of people controlling information on the internet.

That doesn't mean, however, that you have to be an internet marketer, or a teenager, or from an internet-based business to dramatically alter information on the internet about your website.

All it takes is a little bit of effort and some spare time to make sure the information about your website online is exactly what you want it to be.

Exactly how do you do it?

You simply participate in online forums related to your website's niche, you communicate actively with big names in your niche, and maintain a blog - if possible. You become an active entity for your website.

Participate in forums.

By participating in online forums you are exposing your website to people who would have - most likely - otherwise never heard of it. And if your participation on forums is surrounded with a positive, helpful attitude, your website will get the same positive aura. You'll also be pleasantly surprised with the amount of traffic that can come from forums; traffic that will be coming with a positive mind frame already.

Make friends.

Forums can take up a lot of time, but they are well worth any effort put into them and can result in big chances in the future. But if you don't have a lot of time to dedicate to participating in forums, communicating with big names in your niche is a great, time-sensitive way to influence your website's appearance online.

If you are actively communicating - dare I say: befriending - big names in your niche, chances are those big names are going to talk about you. If someone who is already popular and prominent is saying things about you, that practically makes you important and popular immediately.

And all it takes is a simple e-mail to get the conversation started. Avoid talking about your website though, and don't sound needy. Simply talk about how much you like what they are doing, or what you thought about their latest venture, praise them and they will quickly turn to your side and help you in your efforts to make your website big.

Be-friending big named people in your niche and participating on forums are great ways to influence the appearance of your website, but there is one way to alter the information online about your website that is much better and more influential.

Blog.

Through a blog you can direct articles and posts to information about your website already on the internet, and you can write accurate - more friendly - information to strengthen your websites presence.

Blogs have been a meeting point for websites and their communities for years, and the bonds are only growing stronger.

Maintaining a blog about you and your website is a perfect, easy way to control the appearance of your website online.

Be active.

Remember that internet-marketers, people who are paid to be online 95% of the time, are some of the most influential people online. Teenagers, who spend 95% of their time online anyway, also influence the way information is handled online. So become someone who influences the web, take a little bit of your time everyday to participate in forums, communicate with big names in your niche, and blog.

Take a little bit of time out of your day to influence how your website is perceived and you quickly turn your website into an influential, important website.

Did you find this article interesting? You should subscribe to Internet Hunger to get interesting articles almost daily. You'll never be spammed and there are only enough updates to help you grow, not to drive you insane.

"Determine whether or not your search engine optimization campaign is working."

Is your search engine campaign working, or is it time to hire somebody else to do your optimization?

Whether you're trying to bump your website to a higher ranking in search engines, or simply trying to gain more exposure from them, a successful search engine optimization campaign can lead to big rewards. However, if you're not a search engine marketing expert, it can be hard to determine how well your campaign is working for you.

Luckily for you non-search engine marketing experts, I've put together this post with ideas on how to discover the value of your search engine campaign results.

So if you're having trouble deciphering your campaign's results, here are a few great ways to determine whether or not your search engine optimization campaign is working.

Change in SERPs ranking.

Almost all search engine optimization campaigns are simply to gain a boost in ranking on a search engine. Translated to English, this means: a typical search engine optimization campaign is focused on having a specific website appear on a lower page for a specific keyword on a search engine - in the search engine results page (or SERP). Ideally, you want your website to rank as the number one search result for a keyword.

The easiest - and often best - way to determine how well your SEO campaign is doing is by tracking your website's ranking in a search engine.

It's best to start tracking your website's progression in the search engine results pages at the beginning of your SEO campaign, but if you've already started your campaign you can still track it's effectiveness by watching how it ranks in search engines.

Using a tool like SERPs Finder, track your website's ranking on a specific search engine for a specific keyword.

To get accurate results, track only a few keywords on one search engine for a set amount of time (a good time frame to monitor search engine fluctuation is about one month to four months).

You could also manually monitor your website's rank in search engines by going to the search engine and doing a search for your keyword, then browsing all of the results by hand to find your website.

If, over a period of time, your website appears on lower numbered pages, your campaign is working and you should continue on your current route; however, if your website seems to be placed in higher pages, or disappears completely, you could be in serious trouble and should stop with your SEO campaign briefly.

I say briefly because often search engines will fluctuate results when new pages begin ranking higher. If your website is fluctuating, wait until things calm down to continue your campaign. If your website is completely gone from the SERPs, you may have been banned from the search engine.

Greater amount of conversions.

A conversion is when someone comes to your website and, instead of leaving or simply reading, they buy something or subscribe to a product or service you provide.

Typically, the more successful your SEO campaign, the greater amount of conversions you will get.

But to determine if your conversions are coming from a SEO campaign, or something else, you first need to monitor where your website traffic is coming from. There are a lot of great tools to do this for you, I personally recommend setting up a free Crazy Egg account and monitoring your visitors that way.

The best thing about signing up with Crazy Egg for your SEO campaign is that it will not only tell you where visitors are coming from (search engines or other websites), it will also tell you where those specific visitors are clicking (or not clicking) and more.

If your website is seeing a larger - or faster - amount of conversions from visitors that find your website through search engines, your SEO campaign is working. At which point I would want you to e-mail me and tell me your secret (joking).

If, however, your website is seeing a drop in conversions, you should start to rethink your SEO campaign and begin to market it towards your potential buyers.

Increase in search engine visitors.

Another easy way to see how successful your SEO campaign is doing is to simply look for an increase in visitors to your website from search engines. Again, using a service like Crazy Egg (mentioned in the previous point), you can monitor how many of your website's visitors are coming from search engines.

If you begin your SEO campaign and then start to see more traffic through search engines like Google or Yahoo, your campaign seems to be working and you can continue to monitor your site's stats through the other methods mentioned above.

If, however, you see a decrease in traffic from search engines, you might want to start reconsidering your SEO strategies.

Of course, this method only works if your SEO campaign is focused on mainstream keywords. For example, there are a lot of people who search for the keyword "internet", which would be a great keyword to monitor the stats for Internet Hunger. However, hardly anyone is searching for "Matt Cutts action figure", so it would be hard to monitor search engine traffic from that keyword.

While these strategies may not be enough to really propel your SEO campaign, they are a great start for anyone who needs help in monitoring the success of their campaign. And, while there are many other ways to monitor a search engine campaign, these strategies are a perfect way to begin.

If you enjoyed this post, and if you might need more search engine optimization help or insight in the future, go ahead and subscribe to Internet Hunger through FeedBurner, or by e-mail on the right side of this page.

"Break out of the blogging mold and make your blog one of the best on the web."

Have you ever discovered a blog that looked interesting, only later to find out that all of it's articles and content were extremely boring or just a clone of another blog?

There are millions upon millions of different blogs out there on the internet, but the majority of them are boring or just copy content from other blogs. And, even though you may be trying your hardest to avoid being like those blogs, your blog is probably no different.

But there is something you can try to break out of the blogging mold and make your blog one of the best on the web.

You can stop thinking so hard when blogging, and just write. The purpose of blogging was, initially, to keep a record of your thoughts and opinions. And that purpose is what made blogging such a huge phenomenon around the world.

So stay true to the purpose of blogging, quit worrying about how many people are visiting your blog, or how much money you can make from advertising, or how popular your blog is on social networking websites.

Be daring and adventurous, just write whatever you want to say, and you'll create something people will really want to read everyday.

There are literally millions of blogs about cats, and food, and cars, and gadgets, and cartoons, and news headlines. But there are absolutely NO other blogs on the internet about your opinion.

Sure, the things you write about may be covered by thousands of other blogs, but none of those blogs will have your unique, daring opinion attached to them.

When you stop writing for your own sake and start focusing on revenue or traffic you're losing the unique touch that would make - or break - your blog.

Your blog doesn't have to be a clone of other blogs. Your content doesn't have to be boring. Stop thinking so hard, and just write. Do it.

And if you find yourself needing more inspiration when it comes to blogging, go ahead and subscribe to Internet Hunger to receive blogging insight, help, news, and more almost every day!

"You don't need to be a professional to start optimizing your website for search engines. All it takes is five minutes."

"A decade after registering its domain name, Google's name has become a verb for the service it offers. Seven years after it started to sell ads based on those searches, it's on track to top $15 billion in revenue for 2007. Riding on those big coattails is the industry of search-engine optimization, which has gone from an oddball curiosity for small businesses to something no organization with a Web presence can afford to ignore." (source: The Wall Street Journal online).

Simply put: if you've got a website, you need to optimize it for search engines. Doing so will dramatically increase your conversion rate - the amount of online visitors who buy or use what you offer - as well as help you and your website gain exposure.

But search engine optimization isn't something every household person can do. It requires knowledge, experience, and weeks - sometimes months - of planning and executing strategies.

That doesn't mean, however, that you can't start the optimization process without any knowledge of search engine optimization. You don't need to be a professional to start optimizing your website for search engines. All it takes is five minutes.

Well, five minutes and a bit of direction, which is why you are most likely reading this. So, without further ado, here are some extremely easy ways to optimize your website for a quick boost in search engines.


Evaluate the purpose of your website.

The very first thing to do before optimizing your website is evaluating it's purpose. This should be an easy first step, because it is you website afterall.

Ask yourself: "What do I want my website to do?"

Whether it's share your personal opinions with friends and family, selling a product or service, or providing useful information for readers, your website has a purpose; and once you've found that purpose you can begin your evaluation.

In evaluating your website, you need to identify keywords for your website. Identifying keywords is essential to improving your website's ranking in the search engines; you have to remember: search engines run on people searching for keywords.

For example: if the purpose of your website is to share your personal opinion, some keywords to use would be your name, and some generic keywords for things you are going to share your opinion on.

Or, if the purpose of your website is to sell a specific product or service you would want to focus on the name of the product or service, the type or product/service, etc. as keywords.

Make a list of any keywords you can think of, but try to keep the amount of keywords to a maximum of ten - focusing on a lot of keywords can spread your website too wide on search engines, and greatly decrease your options of ranking high for a specific keyword.


Find out how much work you need to do.

Before you do any optimizing, it's a great idea to find out how you are currently ranking on search engines.

Using a tool like SERPs Finder (Windows only) to find your current rank is a perfect, straight-forward way to find out how much work you have ahead of you.

Use the keywords you thought up previously and find out what page of a search engine's results your website lands on.

If you are in one of the top 10 pages you don't have very much work to do, your website is already fairly popular for that keyword; however, if your website isn't found within the first 1000 results, you've got a bit of work ahead of you.

But don't fret: you can increase your ranking in just five minutes, remember that.


Focus on keywords in your website's content.

Once you have determined how your website is currently ranking for your keywords, you need to incorporate those keywords into as much of your website's content as possible to improve your ranking.

Filling your page with useless garbage and keywords won't increase your ranking in search engines, however.

Search engines are smart systems, they can tell what is spam and what is quality content, so try to include your keywords in places where it makes logical sense to have them.

If you're selling a product, repeating the product name over and over in paragraphs about the product makes sense and is not a spam-like technique. If you're sharing your personal opinion on your website you can state your name in almost every paragraph and still have them make sense.

Including keywords in as much as your website as possible is a great start to making your website completely friendly with search engines - think "best friend forever" friendly - and begin the process of increasing your rank.


Gain exposure through links.

Once you've included your keywords in your website, you're going to need other people to use those same keywords to link to your website. This task is the hardest to do when optimizing your website, but can still be done easily thanks to social networking and online directories.

If you have any friends with websites, ask them if they would kindly link to your website using one of your keywords (an example of using a keyword as a link would be this: "internet related", where the keyword is what makes up the link.

Gaining links is currently the best method to increase your website's rank in search engines. Getting a lot of links to your website is greatly beneficial to the optimization of your website, and getting just a few, high quality links from popular websites is even better.

But don't believe everything you read about linking. It is just as beneficial to get thousands of little links to your website as it is getting hundreds of links from big websites.

Search on search engines for free link directories and start adding your website to as many of them as you can, but avoid ones that look like they are only listing websites so that they can make money - that may decrease, or even obliterate your website's ranking.

Search engine marketing and optimization is something all website's need to do. It's rapidly becoming the only way to market a website for a pinpoint audience. If you have a website, you can't afford not to optimize your website.

With this advice you now can get started on the optimization process without paying for a professional and without much knowledge of how the system works. And, if you need more help with optimizing your website in the future, you can subscribe to Internet Hunger and get the latest search engine marketing, blogging, web design, and everything internet-related headlines daily.

"Are online video websites about to be over shadowed?"

What's the deal with high definition video? It seems that no matter where you go there is always something going on about HD. The thing with HD is that it's misunderstood. You never really understand the quality until you see it for yourself.

Take, for example, this YouTube video and compare it with this video on Vimeo.

After comparing those videos, high definition suddenly seems interesting, doesn't it?

Video sharing websites like YouTube and Google Video have been the face for online videos for a while now, allowing people to share and view videos. But YouTube and similar video websites have been ignoring high definition video capabilities, making their websites below what could be modern standards.

Popular video websites that do not offer high definition quality video begs the question to be asked: are online video websites about to be over shadowed? According to websites like Vimeo - which offers videos in HD - YouTube and Google Video are on the way out.

Vimeo is doing it, why can't everyone else?

Vimeo has been allowing users to share high definition videos for months now, YouTube and similar websites have not (yet).

Why hasn't YouTube, one of the most groundbreaking websites of our time gotten with the times and allowed high definition to be shared on their website?

They have the technology and funds to do so, but they haven't yet. Vimeo, on the other hand, was created by a small agency in New York. With a limited budget (I'm sure). Just a bunch of college students (or dropouts) who figured out how to get it done.

The fact that a small, standards friendly, website is well on its way to overshadowing a corporate giant like YouTube means that the web is still in a stage of rapid growth.

Video websites that we have known for the past year are already on their way out, and they are just the beginning. Blogging websites, content management software, photo sharing websites, and who knows whatever else, could be next.

You can see the changes for yourself, through high definition video online.

No Internet Hunger updates until next week.

For those in the United States - or from the U.S. - today is Thanksgiving, a holiday about being thankful, food, and turkeys. Strange, I know, but it's a great time to get away from the computer and spend some quality time with the family.

I'll be doing just that. Right now, as you read this, I am somewhere far away from my computer enjoying some great food with some of the best people in the world!

Which means: no Internet Hunger updates until next week. Until then: happy Thanksgiving!

"The all time top 40 blog posts to help you become a better blogger."

There are over 170 million blogs on the internet, with about 120,000 blogs being created everyday. It doesn't matter what planet you're from: you can't count that using your hands.

What makes your blog unique?

In order to make a unique, successful blog, you'll need a lot of information on how to get the most from blogging. Tracking down blogging tutorials and resources can be painful; afterall, there are literally millions and millions of places you could look.

The truth is that I want you to be successful. I want your blog to rise up and be seen by the world - just don't forget who helped you get there. So, I've researched, collected, and listed the all time top 40 blog posts to help you become a better blogger.

If you ever need a resource, if you ever need a question answered, or if you just want to improve your blog, this list is for you. I suggest skimming through the entire list first, and then backtracking to find articles that will help you personally.

Go ahead, take a look:

The List.

40. An Introduction to Reading and Writing a Weblog at Anton Zuiker.

39. How to Effectively Brand Yourself through Blogs at Quick Sprout.

38. How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs at ProBlogger.

37. How to Make Money Blogging: 7 Strategies to Make Money Online at DoshDosh.

36. Search Engine Optimization Tips for Bloggers at ProBlogger.

35. 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog at Online Marketing Blog.

34. The 120 Day Wonder: How to Evangelize a Blog at Guy Kawasaki.

33. Blogging is Harder than You Think at The Wrong Advices.

32. Writing for Google at Daring Fireball.

31. Leveraging the Power of Blogs in an Overcrowded Market at ProBlogger.

30. 21 Tactics to Increase Blog Traffic at SEOmoz.

29. 5 Ways to Build Blog Reader Participation at Conversation Marketing.

28. How to Deal with Bad Blog Comments at Blah, Blah! Technology.

27. Bloggers Often Have Real Lives Too at Pronet Advertising.

26. 101 Blog Tips I Learned in 2006 at DailyBlogTips.

25. Blogging Tips for Beginners at ProBlogger.

24. How to Choose the Right Blog Niche: A Simple Three-Step Method at DoshDosh.

23. The 5 Deadly Sins of Blogging at Pronet Advertising.

22. 15 Good Blog Posting Habits at Build a Better Blog.

21. The Top 77 Mistakes New Bloggers Make at Time for Blogging.

20. The Secret to Building a Popular Blog at DoshDosh.

19. Declaring War on Blogger Apathy at ProBlogger.

18. 10 Quick Blogging Tips at Blog About Your Blog.

17. Blogger's Depression at Lorelle on WordPress.

16. How to Write a Better Weblog at A List Apart.

15. How a Best Post Page will Increase Your Blog Subscribers at Stuntdubl.

14. How to Write Great Blog Content at ProBlogger.

13. 5 Simple Ways to Open Your Blog Post with a Bang at Copyblogger.

12. Gentle Reader, Stay Awhile; I will Be Faithful at A List Apart.

11. 30 Ways to Increase Readability Online at Pro Blog Design.

10. 27 Tips for Building a Kickass Blog at Performancing.

9. How to Beat Writer's Block at Successful Blog.

8. Attack of the Zombie Copy at A List Apart.

7. Know Your Audience and Establish a Voice - Blogging 101 at Stuntdubl.

6. Personalise [sic] Messages and Stand Out at Pro Blog Design.

5. Do You Make These Mistakes When You Write? at Copyblogger.

4. 10 Sure Fire Headline Formulas that Work at Copyblogger.

3. Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for your Blog at Lorelle on WordPress.

2. Why You Should Use Full Feeds at Pronet Advertising.

1. Making Your Blog Popular Through Content at Pronet Advertising.

"Believe it or not, you are using online bookmarking services incorrectly. Use these techniques to change that."

How many times have you found something online - whether a cool website, a great video, or a funny picture - and later found yourself forgetting where you found it?

It's happened to all of us, guaranteed. The internet is full of new and useful information, interesting articles and videos, and websites that make all of us say "Wow" from time to time, but keeping track of that information and all of those incredible websites can be a struggle, right?

Bookmarks built into browsers are convenient, but only if you are always using the same computer - and chances are that you're not.

That's why online bookmarking services such as del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Reddit were created. But even using online bookmarking sites can make tracking online content a struggle.

Not only is keeping track of all of your favorite websites and online content a struggle, it can often be messy. Chances are, believe it or not, you are using online bookmarking services incorrectly. Use these techniques to change that.

Only bookmark websites and content that you really are interested in.

There is so much content on the web that it is literally impossible to explore it all. The easiest way to lose track of your favorite websites and online content is to bookmark everything and anything that looks interesting.

You can save yourself a lot of trouble in the future by not bookmarking anything that you might be interested in later.

Instead, setup two separate accounts on your favorite online bookmarking service and use one account for your absolute favorites, and another account for things you might be interested in later down the road (statistics show you most likely will want to delete it after a while if you're not greatly intrigued by it instantly).

Use more than one bookmarking website.

Using two accounts on one bookmarking website is a great idea, but the best way to track all of the content you are coming across daily is to use several different bookmarking websites for different categories of content.

For example: I use del.icio.us to bookmark everything related to design, whether it's resources or really great designs. I use Digg and Reddit for quirky, fun, and gaming-related content, such as funny news articles, game reviews, etc. And I use StumbleUpon for design and internet marketing content, like blogs I like and great search engine marketing articles.

This way, if you recall a category for something you are trying to find online again, you can go to the bookmarking service you use for that category and find what you're looking for much easier than if you were to browse through one bookmarking account with hundreds of bookmarked websites.

Add tags to all of the content you bookmark.

All online bookmarking services allow you to add "tags" or "labels" to content when you bookmark it. Doing so sounds like an obvious good idea, but a lot of people - and most likely yourself - don't add tags to their bookmarks.

One of the main reasons people don't add tags or labels to their bookmarks is because they don't know what to put there. That's why you need to remember: they are YOU'RE bookmarks, so put whatever you want as a tag or label. If the website is clearly about milkshakes, putting "milkshakes" as a tag wouldn't be a bad idea.

Tags can dramatically increase your ability to easily, and efficiently track online content that you bookmark. Not adding tags to bookmarked content is a critical error that can lead to a lot of headaches in the future.

Do your best to follow these techniques when bookmarking your favorite content online and you'll be well on your way to successful online bookmarking. And, hopefully, a lot of the content you want to find in the future will be easily accessible to you.

Speaking of content you may want to find in the future, why not bookmark Internet Hunger right now so you always have quick access to great internet-related articles?

"Sphinn.com is now a pathetic, practically useless, extremely worthless popularity contest."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Sphinn.com (the search and internet marketing social website) is now a pathetic, practically useless, extremely worthless popularity contest.*

Now, before all of you Sphinn-faithful start thinking "Tanner is just looking for attention," or "What a load of crock.": read this entire article before you start making assumptions about my thesis on the state of Sphinn.

For everyone else, I'll warn you: this is a rant on the state of social networking websites. It's fairly lengthy and will require at least two coffee breaks.

When Sphinn first opened to the public back in July it seemed like one of the best online communities for search engine marketers, optimizers, and anyone else who deals with online branding or internet optimization; but quickly, the negative side of Sphinn started to show.

Only popular, prominent members of the internet marketing community where being displayed on the front page of the website. It seemed as though the only "useful" and "worthwhile" stories were the ones submitted by familiar names and faces. So I cried out a warning: if the members of Sphinn don't pull together and start Sphinning, submitting and commenting on ALL useful stories, the value of Sphinn would quickly fade.

The community of Sphinn quickly took note and a lot of people began stating their opinion on the "popularity contest" that Sphinn was to become.

And then they proved me wrong.

Well, they mostly proved me wrong about Sphinn turning into a popularity contest. New members to Sphinn (even new internet marketers) began gaining popularity on Sphinn. New website's began gaining tons of popularity and new faces began to mix with the popular, already-well-known/big faces.

The quality of comments and interaction made on Sphinn became incredible. You could submit your own article to the website and within a few minutes you could have a number of Sphinn votes for your article and a lot of valuable comments (even helpful criticisms).

But the high-value of Sphinn, and the great interaction of the community was short lived.

It was bound to happen.

A lot of responses to my original article about Sphinn becoming a popularity contest brought up some great points, most notably: websites worth being noticed will become popular.

While Miss Hoffman's article is the exact truth (only websites that are worth a damn will gain attention on the internet), it defeats the ultimate purpose of an online community, such as Sphinn.

The purpose of a social community such as Sphinn - as defined by my own, personal observations - is to share knowledge and breaking news. According to a lot of the feedback I have received: even pointless articles and news stories, ones where no value or knowledge what-so-ever is passed on, can become popular.

That's great, but it's not what Sphinn was meant to be about, right? Wrong.

Sphinn was designed to be a Digg clone. A website where people can submit anything they want in hopes of getting attention or becoming popular. The evidence is in the design of the website. The evidence today, can be found on the home page; where the new popular faces can be seen almost everyday.

Does that mean these new "known" people are only submitting crap? No, of course not. A lot of the articles that hit the Sphinn homepage are valuable and full of insight on the latest happenings. But even more articles that are hitting the homepage are crap - completely useless.

If that's not enough to make you sick...

These popular faces aren't the only people doing Sphinn an injustice, the popularity of "gaming" Sphinn has risen off the charts. I get e-mails and messages at least 25 times everyday with people asking me to Sphinn their completely dull, and useless, and worthless, and pathetic articles (nobody cares that you know how to make money online, a quick search on Google can show me what you have to say AND MORE).

Sphinn is a wreck. A pathetic state that could have been avoided if the community had only not gotten so wrapped up in it's self.

For example: what about all of the great community interaction that once happened? It's as if a bunch of trolls, and greedy marketers (aren't we all in some way or another?) have taken over Sphinn and they're not going to give it back.

Don't submit your own material, even though it is recommended in the guidelines. If you do submit your own material (even if it's the most helpful, ground breaking information) you can expect a lot of negative comments saying something along the lines of: "Sphinn-bait, don't Sphinn."

Can Sphinn ever be something more?

I had high hopes for Sphinn when it was brand new. I was excited to share the experience of sharing and gaining new knowledge and opinions with some of the best people in the industry: the new people, like myself. But lately I have avoided Sphinn.

The community is now practically worthless: focused on their own popularity and nothing else.

I still have hope, despite all of the horrible things happening over at Sphinn. If people begin to Sphinn articles, regardless of the name and face attached to the article, and providing quality feedback to everything they sphinn, things will turn around quickly.

If the Sphinn community begins to realize that not EVERYBODY is trying to game Sphinn (which doesn't provide that much traffic anyway) the discussions could become that much more enriched with valuable feedback and criticism.

Sphinn is in need of help; because it can be MUCH more than a Digg.com clone. Sphinn can be THE FUTURE of social networking websites. It really can. There can be a whole new level to online communities and interaction, but it has to start with you.

*DISCLAIMER: This is nothing more than my personal opinion. If you do not agree, great, move along. If you agree, thank you for your opinion. If you could care less about Sphinn: why did you read this article? If you liked this rant, go ahead and subscribe to Internet Hunger. But no matter what your opinion is: this is MY personal, unprofessional opinion, and is to be taken as nothing more.

"The top six unbelievably addicting flash games to help you waste your day."

It's Thursday morning, you're sitting at work or home reading through the latest headlines, just one more day and then it's the weekend. But you need a little fun now, not in two days. That's why you've come to Internet Hunger.

You deserve to take a little break, why not? And because you deserve a break, I've gone ahead and rounded up the top six unbelievably addicting flash games to help you waste your day.

Sit back, relax, make sure nobody is around to bother you, turn your speakers down a bit, and take a look at these unbelievably addicting flash games:

6. Shuffle - A full screen, drag-and-release game that pits you against the computer. Great if you only have a few minutes to take a break. Your goal is to hit your balls into your opponents balls and have them get knocked off the board - without getting all of yours knocked off of the board.

5. Boomshine - A simpler, calming game than most, it's your responsibility to set off a chain reaction to get a high score. There's not really much more too it. You click, things explode.

4. The Last Stand - What's better than fighting off a massive army of flesh eating zombies? Doing it online. At first The Last Stand is difficult to get use to, but once you do you'll be coming back for more and more.

3. Line Rider - Before you even start to play with Line Rider, make sure you have plenty of time to waste. This game has been known to cause employees to miss deadlines and students to forget about final exams. In Line Rider you draw a 2D path using a pencil, then you click a "play" button and watch as a tiny animated man rides the path you have drawn on his sled.

2. Desktop Tower Defense - Warning: Desktop Tower Defense is extremely addicting. It's basically a game where you "protect your desktop from invaders by spending money on attacking pieces and building a maze for them to follow." It's one you have to try.

1. Bloxors - By using the arrow keys on your keyboard, make a block fall through a hole. It's not nearly as easy as it sounds, and that's what makes Bloxors addicting. I guarantee you will be going at this for hours.

What are you waiting for? Start wasting your time by indulging yourself in these addicting games!

"I have to warn you, this is an exclusive Search Marketing Expo deal that you can not get anywhere else."

What will you be doing February 26th through 28th in the upcoming year?

If you're a search engine optimizer, marketer or just someone who wants to learn more about online interactions and technology - or if you want to be honored by listening to big names like Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman - you better mark your calendar for the Search Marketing Expo West.

Search Marketing Expo West is guaranteed to be the marketing event of the year on the West Coast. If you miss it, you're missing a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I don't want you to miss this opportunity. I want you to experience SMX West first hand, and so I am offering an exclusive deal for all Internet Hunger readers. If you register for an All Access Pass through this link I will give you a $60 rebate.

Not interested in the All Access Pass? Then register for a 1 Day All Access Pass and I will give you a $20 rebate.

No strings attached. You register using my affiliate link posted above - or just click on the image at the beginning of this post - and then contact me letting me know that you have registered, I'll pay you.

I have to warn you, this is an exclusive Search Marketing Expo deal that you can not get anywhere else, so take advantage of this opportunity.

If you are a marketer, brand manager, search advertiser or planner, web technology specialist, search engine optimizer, or if you want to learn all about the future of search marketing and how it can affect your business and/or website, SMX West is for you.

And with the exclusive Internet Hunger rebate offer, you can save money and get the experience of the year.

"It's time to stop with the complaints about Google's PageRank."

Most search engine optimizers and marketers have been moaning about the same thing for a while now. What exactly have these search engine enthusiasts been complaining about? PageRank, of course.

It's time to stop with the complaints about Google's PageRank. The truth is an obvious one, and it's a shame that it has yet to be accepted. Search engine enthusiasts need to quick stating that PageRank is a load of crap, because it's simply not true.

The truth is that PageRank is useful. PageRank does matter when it comes to SEO and SEM. PageRank motivates webmasters and marketers. And most of all: PageRank creates a level - whether real/accurate or not - that marketers can work with.

One of the biggest misconceptions about Google's PageRank is that it was designed to somehow lead the industry. It was never meant to be anything more than a tool for webmasters and marketers, as well as Google, to use.

That's why, when a SEO or SEM says that PageRank is pointless, they are partially right, but they are mostly wrong. Google created PageRank to help webmasters have a way to measure their work.

There currently is no other tool to measure a website's "authority" with a search engine like Google's PageRank - on any search engine in the world. That alone makes it important to marketers.

You have to stop believing that PageRank is some mystical technology designed to alter search engine results. It's not.

Once you realize that PageRank is simply a tool for visualizing a website's place with Google, it's existence becomes that much more important. And when you realize that you can actually use PageRank to monitor what Google thinks of your marketing strategies, it becomes extremely useful.

Even though it is useful, if you are not using it in the proper way you are wasting your time. You shouldn't focus on PageRank with all of your marketing efforts. The recent PageRank flux should be a big sign to those who do devote all of their efforts to the little green bar.

But remember that PageRank is a great tool, for new marketers and veteran alike. It's currently the only way to visually see where your website stands with the major leading search engine. And it's not useless, or baloney, or stupid, or whatever else you have read it being called.

PageRank is useful. It is helpful. And it is here to stay.