SEO, Website Content Optimization
& Software Development

China and the U..S increased their war of words this week, locking horns over the Internet,  24th January. The Chinese Communist Party’s main newspaper, The People’s Daily, commented that America is allegedly seeking “control” of the Internet.

Comments made previously by Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, had pulled no punches. She alleged that governments use Internet and communications technologies to “repress people, naturally with China inferred in this comment. As a result of Google threatening to pull out of China in the previous week claiming that sophisticated hacking attacks targeting Google mail accounts had originated in the People’s Republic of China, Clinton stated further that “Chinese authorities need to provide an explanation for the cyberattacks originating on Chinese soil that led Google to this decision”. As she criticized states such as China for continued censorship of internet content, the article in the People’s Daily is seen to be a direct rebuttal of these remarks.

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Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt recently gave an interview at Gartner’s Expo in Orlando, USA. In front of thousands of IT Directors Schmidt outlined his vision of exactly how he thinks the internet will look in 5 years time.

To most people, 5 years may not seem like a very long time but in technology terms it is an eon. In 5 years time computers (and other technology devices) will likely be much more powerful with more than quadruple the power of today, according to Moore’s Law.

Moore’s Law describes long-term trends in computer power and (so far accurately) predicts that the number of transistors  that can be placed on an intergrated circuit board will double every 2 years. This means that processor power, memory and even digital camera capability doubles every 2 years. (more…)

Starting your own blog is a pretty straightforward process. However, before rushing in and making mistakes you might regret later on, it’s worth considering the following:

Blogging Platform

There are lots of different blog software (CMS) systems out there; some better than others. Take the time to find a secure, feature-rich CMS. Wordpress is a popular choice with first-time and experienced bloggers – not only is it user-friendly (it’s easy to install and use), flexible and good for SEO, as it is Open Source it’s also free.

Many of the big names out there, such as Google’s Blogger platform, are purely hosted solutions - meaning you can’t place your blog on your own website…

Image credit: Chelsea Smile

Domains, Sub-Domains and Hosting

Ideally, you should host your blog in a folder on your main website or as a sub-domain. If necessary, hosting your blog on a unique domain is an option, though it will mean your main site doesn’t get the full benefit of any links / search engine trust your blog builds up.

Never place your new company blog on a third-party hosted domain (i.e. myblog.wordpress.com or myblog.blogger.com). Not only will you lose any search engine benefit, you are also losing control of your brand. (more…)

There are plenty of blogs out there, but the truth is that most of them lack direction. For every successful blog (see Copyblogger or Marketing Pilgrim) there are a thousand more that never got past that first “Hello World!” post.

New blogs are started all the time, but without any clear purpose many fizzle out after only a few weeks. Abandoned, empty blogs lie strewn across the web.

Image credit: Johan Jönsson

If your company blog is one of them, or worse, never even managed to get off the drawing board, it might be time to take another look. Done properly, blogs can be amongst the most valuable assets available to a business.

5 Reasons Your Business Should be Blogging

Despite having been around for years and being used by some of the biggest, most respected brands in the world, blogs, in some quarters at least, still have a lingering reputation for being casual or unprofessional.

This outdated view should be dispelled by the explosion in the number of businesses using blogs to promote themselves and communicate with their most important stakeholders. If you think the humble blog is a casual, unprofessional medium that isn’t suitable for your company, consider these advantages: (more…)