' WEBSITE101: READING LIST
Reaching Great Minds Online
September 17, 2001 Issue #109
Mike Valentine, Editor, learn@website101.com
¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦¼¦
By subscription only Welcome to the September 17, 2001 issue
WEBSITE101: READING LIST
You are receiving this issue because you subscribed.
Unsubscribe by using the address at the bottom of page.
This issue online at http://website101.com/arch/current/
------------------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE:
------------------------------------------------------------
==> Sponsor Ad: CoachMaria.com and ListChannel List Host
==> Feature Article: Osama Bin Laden Outranks Britney!
==> Guest Article: Where Were You at 5:48 PST Tuesday?
==> Classifieds:
==> Subscribe/Unsubscribe information
------------------------------------------------------------
SPONSOR AD
------------------------------------------------------------
Then Host your ezine with ListChannel
http://WebSite101.com/listchannel.html
Tune into your email so your subscribers tune into you!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Editor's Corner:
WebSite101 is announcing a contest with top prize FREE
participation in CoachMaria's Ezine Course for the current
subscriber that refers just three friends or acquaintances
to the WebSite101 Reading List by forwarding your copy of
this issue. Easy right? Tell them to use the subscription
form on the WebSite101 front page right below the
testimonials, (Blush!) or visit http://WebSite101.com/arch
Enter by simply adding the following address to those you
forward the newsletter to to verify that you've done it:
mailto:ezinecontest@website101.com
I also want to recommend highly this course offered by our
sponsor this issue, Coach Maria. She is offering a seminar
to teach the basics of ezine production and editing. Then
we encourage you to consider hosting your new ezine with
the secondary sponsor, ListChannel. Website101 uses and
highly recommends that sponsor as well. Tried and true
resources for our valued subscribers.
Mike Banks Valentine
------------------------------------------------------------
FEATURE ARTICLE
------------------------------------------------------------
Osama Bin Laden Outranks Britney Spears!
by Mike Banks Valentine
First, I'll state emphatically, I join those mourning lost
loved ones in the terrorist attack on the US last Tuesday.
Nothing could have been more shocking than seeing the news
footage we've all endured this week and I'm still struggling
to make sense of it all. In taking the oft repeated advice
that we seek a return to business as usual I've found no
escape from terrorism in returning to my work. I do Search
Engine Optimization for small business web sites. Terrorism
ranks at position #48 on the most frequently searched list.
As a search engine optimization and marketing specialist, I
monitor and measure the most frequently searched terms at all
the top search engines across the web. It is clear, to those of
us who make a living tweaking and maximizing search terms on
our clients' web sites, which interests on the web dominate
based on what people are searching for. We attempt to find
terms relevant to our clients to maximize their web traffic.
Osama Bin Laden now ranks as the most searched term on the
search engines and displaces Britney Spears and Pamela Anderson
as the most sought after name on the web. Nostradamus is running
a close second after rumors circulated that he predicted the
attack on America as the beginning of the end of the world.
I couldn't resist visiting the number one search result at
Google for Osama Bin Laden from results returned by Google for
a category at the Open Directory Project where Bin Laden has his
own section labled: (Visit < http://dmoz.org > for the ODP site)
Society > Issues > Terrorism > International Terrorists >
USA Designees > Al-Qaida > Usama Bin-Laden
The top link in that category leads to the following page:
http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/utaustin/course/oilcourse/mail/
saudi/0007.html
This link is a "University of Texas Middle East Information
Center" page from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the
University of Texas in Austin. It provides a 1993 interview with
Bin Laden by Robert Fisk of the "Independent". With Bin Laden
being the most searched person on and off the web, this page
must be experiencing heavy traffic as the number one search
result this week. I'll wager that list of links grows larger.
It is not always so obvious why top terms are being searched
as it is this week. This demonstrates strongly that the web is
a valuable tool for research and reference when important and
dramatic issues arise in our society.
Next come searches for "American flag" and the words, "World
Trade Center", displacing "jokes" and "MP3" from their usual
high ranking in number of searches. Jokes only dropped from
a steady place in top 10 searches to position 41 on the list.
People clearly still need something to smile about.
New York City and Afghanistan now rank as the top searched
locations pushing "Toronto" and "Canada" off the list of the
top 500 search terms. Folks are still interested in "Maps"
but now it is "World Map" and "Afghanistan Map" that have
replaced "Weather" and "Driving Directions" as top 50 search
terms.
"American Red Cross" has displaced "dictionary" as a top 20
search term and dictionary has dropped to 40th position. I'm
sure lots of folks are looking up "Afghansitan" and of course
"Nostradamus" so "dictionary" still ranks as a top search term.
Misspellings of words are very often found highly ranked in
the most frequently searched terms and this week that is still
apparent as the list contains 18 spelling variations on the
name of Nostradamus.
News sites are very frequently sought by searchers but are
usually found near the bottom of the 500 most frequently
searched terms. This week all major US television networks
jumped into the top 250 where only CNN manages to be found
routinely that high on the list. This week CNN jumped to
the top 10 with three positions. Position number 7 with
"CNN news", position 8 with "CNN" and position 10 with
"CNN.com".
The BBC made it to the top 500 the first time this week.
Maybe we need to hear what Britain thinks after a steady
diet of US Networks? I must admit that I spent more of
my time in front of television than I did in front of my
computer this week and tuned in to PBS to see a BBC report
myself after two days of non-stop commercial network news.
Speaking of commercial, did you notice there weren't any?
While the commercial phrase "airline tickets" maintains a
position around the 50th most frequently searched terms in
a normal week, it is nowhere to be found on the list this
week above position 500. Neither are there many searches
for products as there have been in recent weeks.
We often seek comfort and enjoyment from animals and the terms
"dogs", "cats" and "horses" usually find their way onto the
most frequently searched terms list. Only "dogs" remain this
week. Does that suggest they remain our best friend in difficult
times too?
Our society can be viewed through this odd lens on a regular
basis every week and you can see a side-by-side list of the top
300 search terms for the week of 9/15/01 and 9/8/01 here:
http://SEOptimism.com/top300terms.html
I hope to see the term "World Peace" in that most frequently
searched phrases, if not some day soon, at least some day.
--------------------------------------------------------
Mike Valentine does Search Engine Placement for the Small
Business http://SEOptimism.com/
WebSite101 "Reading List" Weekly Netrepreneur Tip Sheet
Weekly Ezine emphasizing small business on the Internet
http://website101.com/arch/
--------------------------------------------------------
Where Were You at 5:48am PST Tuesday, September 11, 2001?
by Mike Banks Valentine
I travel alot and have been on hundreds of airplanes and in
dozens of airports over the last 20 years. Recently a relative
offered to go inside the airport with me to wait for my flight,
I declined saying, "I've gotten very used to this, it's almost
as routine as sitting in traffic at rush hour to me now."
That changed Tuesday as I stood, bleary eyed, in line for a cup
of coffee at a concession stand in the Oakland Airport after
just 3 hours of sleep and a two hour bus ride from my home in
Northern California, waiting to catch a Southwest Airlines flight
to San Diego for the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Internet 2001 show
and conference at 6:30am California time. I'd gone over to the
nearest coffee stand to buy a "wake-cup" of coffee a few minutes
after I'd checked in for my flight.
I was quite annoyed at the clerk when instead of taking my money,
she stood staring wide-eyed at a television mounted above and
behind me in the concession area repeating, "Oh my God! Oh my God!"
Finally I turned around to see that searing image of the second
passenger jet ploughing into the second of the World Trade Center
twin towers, re-broadcast from the Early Show in New York! It had
happened about ten minutes ago and Bryant Gumbel was still trying
to digest what had happened, saying that it must be purposeful
terrorism.
None of us will ever forget that scene. Oddly, though still not
fully aware of what I had seen, I still expected to board my
scheduled flight and go to San Diego. The enormity of what I had
seen had not sunken in to my tired mind yet. It's odd how we all
expect to continue along with our plans when it should be obvious
in retrospect that it would not happen. Every other passenger
waiting for their flight in terminal 2 of the Oakland airport
with me also stayed, expecting to board their own plane.
We all chattered to family, co-workers and clients by cell phone
discussing the lurid pictures we'd seen on television moments ago.
Nobody waiting in that terminal turned home until the planes that
had already loaded began emptying of passengers and the flight
attendants came off the planes to serve coffee to those waiting
in the boarding area. It took me about 15 more minutes to realize
that I might as well go home for the day. "I'll just go to San
Diego tomorrow," I thought. Still not aware of the ramifications.
Denial is strong and comprehension slow when we've seen some-
thing we can't understand. When I finally caught the bus home
two hours later, minus my checked baggage, I realized it would
never be routine again to travel by air to any destination.
The bus driver turned on news radio at the request of passengers
going back to hotels and homes 30 to 50 miles north of Oakland.
New York is still 3000 or so miles away from here. I'd left home
at 3:15am to catch the bus to the airport, returned home eight
hours later.
When I arrived at the bus stop I found there were no connecting
buses that could get me back home. My ride had gone to work.
I sat down at the county airport bus stop and called a couple
of numbers to find a ride home. Finally I learned that if I
went back to the south a few blocks that I could transfer to
another local bus going north the last few miles toward my
home in Windsor.
A police officer approached me as I sat at the bus stop with
my carry-on luggage and a briefcase. He asked if I were waiting
for a ride. Now on a normal day, I would have scowled at him
and snarled back, "Of Course!". But by now I had realized that
this was not a normal day. I simply said, "Yes, I'm waiting for
Sonoma County Transit bus." Then he asked for my I.D.
We're at a regional airport in Sonoma County California and the
passenger terminal is closed and I'm the only person sitting in
a covered bus stop. The passenger drop-off area is closed by
traffic cones and he had been greeting anyone approaching by
car to notify them the airport was closed. This was not a
normal day.
I said, "Sure" and handed him my driver license. He asked,
"Where were you traveling to?" Although I did a double take at
the continued questioning, I realized he was only doing his job.
I said, "San Diego, from the Oakland airport. We never got off
the ground. I took the bus back here and just arrived." He said,
"Thank you sir. Have a good day," as he handed my driver license
back to me.
The bus came and I rode to the necessary stop, crossed the road
and walked a block to the stop going the other way at the bus
driver's direction. The other bus came and I boarded, asking
how near to my home street I could get. When he told me I would
be getting off the bus at a shopping center that was twenty
minutes walk from my house, I realized how tired my shoulders
were from carrying my bag and briefcase already.
I walked a couple of blocks and into a business I frequent
and asked to leave my bags there. They agreed and I walked
home. In twenty minutes I returned with a car to pick up my
bags from the business. The lobby was full of customers dazed
by the mornings events, discussing how they'd heard of the
shocking news. The business owner stopped when she saw me
come in for my bags and said, ". . . And this poor guy was
just at the airport trying to get on a plane."
On a normal day I would have been glad to tell my story to
the group of patrons in that store. But it was not a normal
day. I went home and turned on television news, still dazed.
It was not a normal day.
------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2001 Mike Valentine
------------------------------------------------------------
Please feel free to forward this issue to anyone who
might be interested. Please keep copyright intact and
forward only complete issues if you spread the word!
All previous issues are in our permanent archives at
http://www.website101.com/arch/
If you are a newsletter editor or e-zine publisher
WebSite101 offers a list of articles to use as
FREE CONTENT for your ezine, ebook or website!
Get a cuurent list of available articles
visit http://website101.com/freecontent.html
Rate Card
To Advertise in the WebSite101 Reading List
mailto:readinglistads@getresponse.com to reach
great minds online at WebSite101 Reading List
To subscribe to the Website101 Reading list
visit http://WebSite101.com/arch
-------------------WebSite101: Reading List-------------------
ISSN: 1527-5094
Mike Valentine
WebSite 101
learn@website101.com
|
